Our car accident lawyers know how dangerous it can be to break traffic laws.  Speeding, running a red light, and failing to yield at a crosswalk are all illegal because each could potentially lead to a major car wreck.

Unfortunately for an Escondido man, a broken law caused his wrongful death.  John Robert Baker was identified on Monday as the man whose wrongful death was caused after he allegedly ran a stop sign and died in a fatal car accident with a pickup truck on West Cedar Street on Saturday night.

According to the police account of the auto accident, Baker was traveling on West Cedar ran a stop sign at an intersection with Front Street at about 10:20 at night and was hit hard by a Chevy truck.  Baker was pronounced dead at the scene, while the truck driver suffered minor personal injuries.

Drivers unfortunately break traffic laws every day on the road, but if these mistakes lead to a fatal car accident, a family is left to pick up the pieces.  If you are traveling at 50 mph and fail to stop when you’re supposed to, you could dangerously broad-side another car in the middle of an intersection.  As a result, car accidents after somebody runs a stop sign have a high chance for catastrophic injury or wrongful death.

There are three distinct ways you can cause an automobile accident by running a stop sign (from least to most dangerous):

1. You fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection after stopping.
2. You do a “rolling stop,” where your car slows but does not come to a complete stop at the intersection.
3. You run a stop sign completely and don’t slow down at all.

As auto accident attorneys, we hope that you learn from this poor man’s mistake and obey the traffic laws.  Too often have we met the relative of someone that was killed in one of these auto accidents where a driver failed to stop at a stop sign or red light.  So please avoid cell phones, video games or any other driver distraction.  They might cause you to do something you will almost certainly regret.

Call us now at 1-800-655-6585 or click here for a free consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer and find out how we can help you.  We speak English and Spanish, and we look forward to providing good advice for your case.  There is no fee if no recovery.

About Michael Pines

Michael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who specializes in car accident injury. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes on how insurance companies work and how they decided to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael's inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents.