An unlicensed driver suffered a grand mal seizure, causing his car to jump the curb and hit a mother and her four-year-old son on the adjacent sidewalk. An iron fence stopped the car’s momentum, but not before it crushed the stroller and caused the mother and son to fly 20 feet through the air. The boy remains in critical condition with head trauma, and the mother has a broken shoulder. Rescue personnel arrived on the scene to find the mother disoriented and lying face down in the mud. The victim’s names have not been released.
The car was traveling eastbound on East McFadden Ave. along the 1200 block in Santa Ana, California when the accident occurred.
The driver, Eric Christopher Woodward of Santa Ana, was unlicensed because of his medical condition. His mother was in the passenger seat when Woodward suffered what she believed to be a grand mal seizure, so she grabbed the steering wheel in an attempt to control the vehicle. Police say she overcompensated and caused the car to jump the curb and hit the pedestrians.
Neither Woodward nor his mother was injured, and Santa Ana police issued no citations. Police are turning over their investigative findings to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Officials say charges could still be filed against Woodward, depending on what happens to the injured child.
Callahan & Blaine, California’s premier litigation firm, is one of the leading catastrophic injury firms in the state of California. In fact, in the last five years alone our lawyers have obtained over $1.2 billion in verdicts and settlements, including a $7 million settlement for a cyclist who was left with a traumatic brain injury after being struck by a newspaper delivery truck, and a $7.25 million settlement in a case when a man was run over trying to board a city bus in Orange County, California.
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If you or someone you know has suffered a catastrophic injury or died as the result of an accident, please contact our California law firm for expert legal counsel.
