Her name was Angela Nguyen and she was just 3 years old.
She was in the Sears parking lot on Somersville Road when she was hit by a car. An eyewitness told KPIX 5 that “the vehicle barreled through the parking lot at a high speed when the child and her parent were coming out of the Sears store”.
The driver remained on the scene, and apparently no drugs or alcohol were involved.
This deserves a deep pause here.
I think about these kinds of cases every day. In my work as a personal injury attorney, I see the damage, the injuries, and the death human recklessness causes, and I work to make sure it never happens again.
I also work to make sure the innocent victim gets the compensation they deserve for their injuries.
Personal Injury Legal Cases and “Fault”
Personal injury cases turn on the question of “who is at fault?”, and while the one who directly caused the harm (such a person barreling through a parking lot) is the most obvious answer, it may not be the only one. This is important because a victim may need much more restitution than what one person’s individual insurance policy can provide.
It’s also important that all at fault are held responsible so that they are more inclined to take steps to prevent more devastating accidents in the future.
And so personal injury attorneys look beyond the obvious. They also look at where an accident happened and what else may have been going on at the time. For example, if a machine was involved such as a car, gun, or electrical device, the lawyer inspects that specific device for any issue that might have contributed to the incident.
Years ago I handled a gun shooting case involving two children in which one child accidentally pulled the trigger and the bullet released penetrated the skull of my client. Other personal injury lawyers might have declined the case if the homeowner’s insurance coverage wasn’t large enough to cover the costs, but thru my research, I learned there was a known flaw in the gun’s safety mechanism. Based on that flaw, I won restitution for my clients and forced the manufacturer to take responsibility for their failure.
No Amount of Money Will Make Up for the Damage Done
No amount of money will make up for the damage done to that child, but what my clients received in compensation certainly helped get them through this trying time. (It’s important to recognize that, on top of medical bills, emotional anguish, stress, and loss of income all add to the mounting expense that an injury can incur.)
The same could happen with the accident that took little Angela’s life. What starts with a reckless driver, upon investigating, might turn out to involve a flaw with the vehicle, or issues with the parking lot where the accident happened—unmarked crossing lines, missing warning signs, potholes, insufficient lighting, and more in that vein.
Police are investigating this accident and there is still much we don’t know. It may be that the driver was solely at fault, but there may be more. It is our hope that whatever contributed to this accident will be corrected and future tragedies prevented so no family has to suffer like this again.
My heart goes out to the Nguyen family in this most trying time.
If you have information about the Antioch accident, contact (925) 779-6900, ext. 84265, or email ejohnsen@ci.antioch.ca.us.
Learn more about my pedestrian accident attorney services.
If you have been injured in an East Bay accident, please call me at (925) 399-6211. Together we can hold the careless responsible and get you the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
