Escondido Car Accidents Spur Aggressive Traffic Enforcement

Escondido car accident lawyers are aware that the city is plagued with an alarming rise in car accidents. Just last year, an older teen driving a pickup truck led police on a circuitous chase through a residential neighborhood in Escondido. When the driver lost control of his truck on Rose Street near Riva Lane, it rolled over in the middle of the street. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but the teen was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI) and felony evading arrest.

According to car accident injury and fatality statistics released by the California Office of Traffic Safety, Escondido faired poorly in 2007. The city ranked third highest among 52 cities of similar size in alcohol-related accidents per vehicle mile. It ranked number one in deaths and injuries caused by underage drunk drivers, fourth in hit-and-run related injuries, and fourth out of 52 cities for its rate of traffic-injuries. These sobering statistics presented city officials and local traffic enforcement with some immediate challenges.

"There's no doubt that Escondido had a real problem on its hands," observed John Bisnar. "DUIs and hit-and-run motor car accidents were rising at an alarming rate, and people were being killed and seriously injured. Aggressive and immediate action had to be taken."

Statistics culled by the California Highway Patrol's Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) further underscored Escondido's problems. The agency revealed that in 2006, 11 people lost their lives and 911 were injured in the Escondido car collisions. DUI accidents took their toll as well, resulting in five fatalities and 107 injuries. One motorcyclist was killed and 33 were injured in traffic collisions. There were five pedestrian car accident fatalities and 54 traffic injuries.

Escondido acted quickly to stem its growing car accident problem. The city increased its traffic enforcement efforts, including driver's license/DUI checkpoints and increased seat-belt enforcement. The result: injury accidents dropped by more than 20 percent from 2005 to 2008. Escondido's DUI enforcement ranking has also gone up. In 2007, the city arrested 911 drunken-drivers or 1.06 percent of all its licensed drivers (compared to 0.8 percent of licensed drivers for the average city). As a result, the city recently ranked 47 out of 52 cities in DUI enforcement (the higher the ranking, the better the enforcement).

"Faced with high car accident statistics, Escondido took the 'bull by the horns' and acted quickly with stepped-up enforcement efforts," said John Bisnar. "Hopefully, these actions will continue to reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents in the city."

Be on the Hit-and-Run Lookout

BISNAR | CHASE, in conjunction with WeTip, a leading anonymous crime reporting service and law enforcement advocacy non-profit organization, is launching a program intended to wipe out hit-and-runs in the state of California by offering rewards for tips leading to the arrest and felony conviction of hit-and-run drivers. See Hit-and-Run Reward for more details.

BISNAR | CHASE 2006-2010 Super Lawyers names outstanding lawyers from more than 60 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. BISNAR | CHASE has received this award for five consecutive years. Brian Chase was named one of the 2010 Top 50 Orange County Lawyers.