The Athlete's Lawyer

The Landaus get inspiration at the Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades, California

Running in the hills above Malibu and Santa Monica, you can see the islands off the Pacific Coast, the smoggy City of Los Angeles and the polo grounds of the Will Rogers Park.  Having been introduced to this pristine park by USA Maccabiah team member and ironman distance triathlete Gary Bub, who lives in Pacific Palisades, I wanted to share it with my eldest daughter, who has become a long distance runner.  While she is not a competitive racer like her father, she runs “effortless 10-minute miles” with a smile on her face !  We ran, hiked, took pictures and gaped at the views for an hour.  It was wonderful.  If you find yourself in South California, near the Pacific Coast Highway (“PCH”), I highly recommend visiting the Park.  There is a fee for parking, but you can run up the hill if you like.

Hiking with family in Malibu, California, Doug Landau above the Pacific Coast Highway

No, sometimes he walks and hikes.  Really.  Here is the Triathlon Trial Lawyer hiking in Malibu Canyon.  His cousin, an Antelope Valley Emergency Room doctor, his wife and daughter all went on a wonderful hike into the hills above the Pacific Coast Highway.  Landau spotted a large lizard sunning herself as well as many animal tracks.  He and his family have hiked here before, and the vicinity of Pepperdine University and Topanga Canyon present some magnificent vistas.  After hiking, they enjoyed some wonderful fare and recipes at the famous Malibu Seafood Patio, where they could watch the waves, surfers and the Pacific Ocean.

Articles in the local Northern Virginia and Fairfax County newspapers about students in the Herndon Middle School who take used and discarded bicycles and repair them so that local children can discover the joys of getting around on 2 wheels caught my attention.  About 20 Herndon Middle School students stay after school once a week to help refurbish donated bikes for community children who do not have or cannot afford them.

According to the news reports, under the direction of three Herndon Middle teachers, the students are currently fixing 13 bicycles, which will be donated to 10 children participating in the Neighborhood Resource Center. The center has partnered with the Town of Herndon and Fairfax County to provide aid to residents who are facing social or physical challenges, and submits a list that includes the names, ages and genders of children who need bikes. The students then know what size and style bikes they need to repair.  In its third year, the Herndon Middle School Bike Shop has repaired and donated about 30 bicycles to area children. Many of the bikes are completed before the holiday season.  The bicycles are donated from all over the county, said teacher Robert Dim, who helps oversee the school’s bike shop.

“The kids have been passing out fliers,” he said. “It seems like finding used bikes isn’t hard to do once the word gets out. We can’t fix every bike that comes in, but we can salvage the parts.”  Along with teaching students the benefits of giving back to their community, the program educates them on basic repairs.  “We like to salvage as much as possible while teaching the kids about their bikes,” said teacher Cass Hersh, pointing to stacks of bike parts that had been divided into piles by type. “I’ll feel successful if we can get maybe 40 bikes turned around this year.”  According to the newspapers, students who frequent the after-school bike repair shop can earn a bicycle of their own at the end of the school year, teachers said.  Many of the children involved in the bike repair program said they enjoyed learning about bicycle maintenance and getting a chance to work hands-on.

Bicycle donations may be dropped off at the Herndon Middle School main office, 901 Locust St. in Herndon, between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.  For additional information about the Herndon Middle School Bike Shop, contact Robert Dim at 703-904-4800 or rmdim@fcps.edu.

Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau admits that his ice bath regimen, toe spreaders and reading upside down may be unique, but what some elite athletes do is just plain weird.  For example, shortly before the 2003 London Marathon, champion road runner Paula Radcliffe collided with a 13-year-old cyclist and suffered a dislocated jaw, whiplash and cuts and bruises.  To hasten the healing, she used an old aboriginal treatment: a balm extracted from the fat of an emu, a speedy, three-toed Australian bird.  A month later Radcliffe defended her title at the London Marathon in world-record time, according to the November 30, 2009 Sports Illustrated “Scorecard” column relating some of sports most ridiculous remedies ,

Paula Radcliffe should not be dismissed as some nut case or fad follower.  The British racer is a serious athlete and an accomplished competitor.  Radcliffe shattered expectations in London with “the most stunning endurance performance in history, male or female,” Read the rest of this entry »

Doug Landau and his Nimble aero racing wheel

Injured athletes who have come to see Doug Landau in Court often note that he is in “constant motion” and quite “nimble” in the court room, with exhibits, computers and documents at his fingertips. Just as is the case in his race preparation, Ashburn injury lawyer Landau and his staff invest a lot of time and effort in making sure that their cases proceed smoothly.

One of the ways Doug Landau makes sure his racing goes without an injury causing crash is by racing with Nimble three-spoke wheels. These state-of-the-art bicycle wheels, unlike solid discs he has used in the past, do not cause the TriathlonTrialLawyer to be buffeted and blown all over the road during windy conditions. The nimble bicycle wheels have excellent aerodynamics so that the TriathlonTrialLawyer can attain maximum speed. Furthermore, Landau has seen athletes injured by bladed 4-spoke “aero” wheels that broke and caused serious lacerations and permanent scarring. Landau has also witness other bike racers who have crashed when Read the rest of this entry »

The parents of cyclist struck and killed by drunken driver have settled their lawsuit against the driver and the bar that served her for $1 million one day before the trial was to begin. The driver was sentenced to 10.5 years in jail after a jury convicted her of negligent homicide and aggravated driving under the influence (“DUI”). The victim was riding his Schwinn bike in the 5 foot wide bike lane at 8:40 PM when the Defendant swerved off the road, struck the bicyclist and continued for 800 feet before stopping. The blood test taken three hours later revealed a BAC of 0.156%, nearly double the DUI level. A witness testified that the drunk Defendant swerved off the road twice before the crash. The Defendant was also driving on a suspended license, for a prior DUI. The parents filed the lawsuit to remind everyone that they need to continue “working tirelessly to do away with drinking and driving and to over-serving at bars.”

What makes this particular case particularly egregious is the post-crash comments by the drunk Defendant. A recorded jail conversation in which a she made light of the bicyclist she had killed led to her getting a longer sentence. Melissa Arrington, 27, was convicted of negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence in connection with the December 2006, death of Paul L’Ecuyer. She could have received as few as four years in prison, but the Judge sentenced her to 10.5 years, one year shy of the maximum. The judge said he found a telephone conversation between Arrington and an unknown male friend a week after L’Ecuyer was killed “breath-taking in its inhumanity.” In a call from the jail, the man told Arrington an acquaintance of theirs believed she should get “a medal and a (expletive) parade because she had taken out “a (expletive) tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot.”

Arrington laughed. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded “No, it’s not.” Instead of laughing, the judge said, Arrington should have been rendered silent by such shocking and disgusting sentiments. Arrington’s testimony showed she has yet to take responsibility for her actions. Arrington testified that she had only three drinks, when her blood-alcohol level clearly shows she had more, and she claimed she hit L’Ecuyer while reaching for hand sanitizer but the evidence shows that’s not true. To read the rest of the Arizona Daily Star article

Concerned team mates let me know that our dear friend, training and racing partner Rob Colburn was in a bad bike crash today.  Apparently, his bike “disappeared out from under him,” according to eye witnesses.  Hitting the pavement hard, this toughened masters triathlete and hockey player broke his ribs, arm and punctured his lung during this group winter training ride.  Even the fittest multipart athletes can run into trouble when suddenly confronted by sheets of ice or Read the rest of this entry »

A civil jury found two fraternity brothers liable for the death of a pledge who drowned while trying to swim across a lake on the campus in Coral Gables, Florida. The Defendants must pay $12.6 million to the parents of an 18-year-old pledge they watched drown in a University of Miami lake during rush week. The Miami Herald reported that Chad Meredith, a freshman from Indiana, tried to swim across Lake Osceola with Kappa Sigma fraternity president Travis Montgomery and David May, a fraternity officer. The three had been drinking before they stripped to their boxer shorts and entered the chilly waters before dawn on November 5, 2001. Police concluded that Meredith’s death wasn’t an instance of hazing. May and Montgomery testified that the swim wasn’t a planned fraternity event and that Meredith wasn’t pressured into joining them.

But after a week-long trial and three hours of deliberation, a Miami-Dade jury decided Montgomery and May were acting as fraternity members when they pressured Meredith, exposed him to danger and then abandoned him as he flailed in the wind-whipped water and screamed for help. As Circuit Judge Ronald Friedman read the verdict, Read the rest of this entry »

Can you guess why bike crash lawyer Doug Landau likes this picture and why he always wears his helmet ?

Bike helmets prevent concussions, closed head injury and traumatic brain damage. As indicated by the picture in this helmet company’s advertisement, bicycle helmets also prevent broken bones.

As the Lazer company points out on its web site, “the main goal of wearing a helmet is to avoid getting injured.  The fitting of a helmet is therefore very important and pays big safety and comfort dividends.” Lazer is always looking for innovation for the most advanced fitting system to optimize comfort.  The Lazer Rollsys® system was developed for safety and comfort.  For more information about Lazer products.

The parents of a 7-year-old boy who died on an amusement park ride have tentatively settled their lawsuit against a New York county for $1.25 million.  According to the NBC news report, the Defendant County also agreed to set up a scholarship in the boy’s name.  The settlement was announced in the state Supreme Court in White Plains.  The boy’s parents, from Norwalk, Connecticut, had accused Westchester County of negligence in their son’s August 2005 death as the county owns the amusement park.  The boy was on Playland’s Ye Old Mill, an indoor boat ride.  He got out of his boat soon after the ride started and somehow ended up in its channel of water, dead from a blunt head injury.  Officials acknowledged that the ride was understaffed.

Town of Herndon and Leesburg injury lawyer Doug Landau has represented the families, workers and children who have been injured at playgrounds, amusement parks, fairs and circuses.  If you or someone you know has been injured or involved in a fatal accident at an amusement park, fair, circus or playground and has questions about the laws governing claims for restitution, e-mail us at ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd., or call 703-796-9555 today.