Articles Posted in Car Accident

With snowfall snarling traffic in New York and New England, it is unfortunately not too soon for us to start talking about winter driving. When winter comes along and brings its wicked weather, motorists face an increased risk for a serious Chicago car accident. There are a few simple safety tips that every motorist can follow to help prevent a snowy accident on our roadways.Our Chicago car accident attorneys understand that the end of the year brings out a ton of dangers for motorists on our roadways. Kids are getting out of school for winter break, residents are venturing out on holiday vacations, and traffic is reaching a crescendo all while snow and ice return to our roadways. With snowy conditions, drivers struggle to clear foggy windshields and to clear snow and sludge. Some of the snow-clearing clearing techniques can get pretty creative.

Sgt. Jim Jenker with the Illinois State Police says that he’s even seen drivers reach out of their vehicle with an ice scraper to clear their windshield — while they’re driving!

“The worst case was the kids who used a rope tied across the windshield to manually operate the broken wipers,” said Jenkner.

Winter driving tips:

-Make sure your tires are winter weather worthy.

-Make sure your car is equipped with enough windshield wiper fluid.

-Be sure to have a winter fluid in your wiper fluid reservoir with freeze protection of at least -25 F.

-Give your engine time to warm up. This will allow time for the oil pan to heat up to help protect your engine. About 10 minutes is good warm-up time.

-Keep a De-icer on hand. A De-icer can reduce freeze and can be used to melt snow. Ice Scraper, etc.

-Make sure that your vehicle’s heating-defrosting system is working properly and has no blockages.

-Put together an emergency breakdown kit, including food, water, hand-warmers, blankets, road flares, flashlights and colorful sweatshirts to wear when near the road.

-Keep a full tank of gas. You don’t want to run out in the middle of a snowstorm.

“Drive defensively, keep a safe distance from the car in front of you, reduce your speed, make sure you have good visibility,” said John Mitchell of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT).

Driver’s skills are just as important as keeping your vehicle in good working condition during the wicked winter weather.

Safe winter driving habits:

-Slow down. There’s no need for speed when winter conditions leave deteriorating roadways. Stopping is much more difficult on slippery, slick roads that are covered in snow and ice.

-Keep your windshield clear at all times to increase your visibility.

-Stay in your lane. Only change lanes if you absolutely have to.

-Be super careful on ramps and bridges. These roadways ice up quickly.

-Allow snow plows the right-of-way. IDOT will use more than 300 snow removal vehicles on the expressway after snowstorms.

You’re urged to check out the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office‘s forecast for Chicago before heading out during any serious winter weather.
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Illinois is making headlines again when it comes to teen driving safety! Our Chicago car accident attorneys would like to congratulate Illinois resident Judy Webber-Jones for being one of the winners of the National Safety Council‘s (NSC) 3rd Annual Teen Driving Safety Leadership Award.

This award is supported by safe driving advocates around the county, the NSC and the General Motors Foundation. The leadership award was presented to supplement National Teen Driver Safety Week, which takes place every year in October.This award is presented to those who the NSC feels dedicate their time to reducing the risks of teen car accidents in Chicago and elsewhere and to saving lives on our roadways. Car accidents continue to be the number one killer of teens in the U.S. This cause of death takes more lives than the next three top killers combined for that young age group.

The NSC also awarded Kaylen Larson from Minnesota with this prestigious award.

“They have worked in ways that NSC believes have the strongest impact, such as engaging with elected officials and educating teens about the benefits of Graduated Driver Licensing – a method proven to reduce teen driver crashes,” said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council.

Weber-Jones knows much about the dangers that these young drivers face on our roadways. She was a driver’s education teacher for over 25 years. She was recognized for her creation of a safety campaign that helped teens in the area and around the country to learn beneficial and lifesaving driving skills. That’s not all though. Judy was also able to get a bill passed in Illinois that prohibits all drivers from using any kind of cell phone in a construction or in a schools zone.

Judy was able to increase fines for drivers who were busted speeding. For nearly three years she works alongside Rep. Bill Black and Gloria and Chuck Wilhelm to pass Matt’s Law. This is a law that was created for Wilhelm’s son who was killed in a car accident with a distracted driver. Matt’s Law prohibits drivers from text massaging behind the wheel in Illinois. She also conducts seminars and lectures about safe driving habits.

Organizations Judy has worked with to help push safe driving habits:

-Andy Pilgrim Foundation
-Illinois Teen Safe Driving coalition
-Shriners Hospitals for Children
-State Farm Foundation
-The Allstate Foundation
-Illinois Department of Transportation
-Illinois Secretary of State’s office
-Families Against Chronic Excessive Speed
Teen drivers are at serious risks for car accidents because of their driving inexperience. Providing young drivers with a thorough driving education is one of the best tools we can deploy to keep them safe on our roadways.

Both of the winners will be recognized and presented with their awards during the NSC Defensive Driving Awards Banquet. This event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 29th in Philadelphia.
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Red-light cameras may be used for more than just catching drivers who drive through red lights. If Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets his way, the City of Chicago could use these cameras in the sky to bust speeding drivers in school zones, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Administrators believe that this kind of enforcement would help to keep children safe and would help prevent car accidents in Chicago. But critics of the technology say it’s just another way for the cash-strapped city to reel in some dough.Our Chicago car accident attorneys understand that speeding contributes to far too many fatal accidents on our roadways. Speeding is especially dangerous when done through school zones and through residential zones with young pedestrians.

Officials claim that this strategy would help everyone to get the best of both worlds as City Hall, who is already on a tight budget, can earn extra cash while helping to keep pedestrians safe. Not everyone’s buying it.

“The jury is still out on whether the red-light cameras are effective in terms of safety. … So then it really becomes a revenue-raising tool, rather than a public safety tool, and I think there are more honest ways of raising money,” said Ald. Joe Moore, 49th.

The transportation commissioner, Gabe Klein, is backing Emanuel’s request for the cameras. Currently, Chicago has a number of red-light cameras scattered throughout the city, but they’re not able to catch speedy drivers –only those who run red lights.

To allow these cameras able to catch speeding drivers, all officials would have to do is install a strip on the roadway to calibrate a vehicle’s speed as they travel through an intersection. These devices will be able to provide an accurate speed reading that is concrete enough to hold up in court.

Klein says that the idea of the cameras isn’t to bust a lot of speeders, write a bunch of tickets and collect the fees and fines; it’s about getting people to slow down in the areas that are dangerous.

The proposal was recently presented by Michael Madigan of Chicago, the Democratic House Speaker. He says that these cameras would only be used in areas where safety measures need to be heightened, including college and university campuses, park districts and other school zones.

Before these cameras could be installed and used, officials would be required to install cautionary signs to warn drivers about the monitoring of their speed.

Emanuel’s administration is pushing this proposal hard. City officials are armed with a plethora of information to back up their request. Through countless accident reports, the administration concluded that pedestrian accidents in Chicago are most commonly cause by a motorists who fails to yield. A pedestrian’s risks of death increases nearly 10 times when a car is traveling just 10 mph over a 20-mph speed limit.

Back in 2003, red-light cameras hit Chicago after Mayor Richard Daley approved the measure. In 2008, they generated about $45 million in ticket fines. In 2009, nearly 800,000 drivers in the city were ticketed by these cameras.

Ald. Edward Burke questions their deterrent effect however. With so many tickets he wondered, are these cameras really stopping anyone from flying through these intersections?

Klein hasn’t put an exact number on how many cameras the administration would like to see used to catch speedy drivers. But he reiterated that the money collected from these lawbreakers would be used to help fund infrastructure and transportation safety projects.

No one’s sure how Springfield will feel about the proposal. Back in 2010, Springfield lawmakers passed a weak reform package that made it easier for drivers to appeal red-light camera tickets after local government received several complaints about the eyes in the sky.

If this proposal gets signed into law, it would be effective on July 1st of 2012.
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A girl was seriously injured in a recent Illinois teen car accident, according to The Herald-News. A teen driver was in his pickup truck when he slammed into the female pedestrian who was walking along Bell and McEvilly Roads in Minooka where there are no sidewalks. The girl was taken to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and then later to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

“The crash is being investigated and no charges have been filed at this time,” said Police Chief Justin Meyer.Our Chicago car accident attorneys understand the dangers that teens face on our roadways and the dangers they present to other travelers. For this reason, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has released a new study to determine exactly what these dangers are and effective ways to reduce them. The new study determined that teen drivers are roughly 50 percent more likely to get into an accident in the first 30 days of driving than they were after having a year of unsupervised driving experience. And nearly twice as likely as they are after two years behind the wheel.

The recent study looked at teen drivers in North Carolina and noted the three most common driver errors among newly-licensed drivers:

-Failing to reduce speed.

-Driver inattention.

-Failing to yield.

In the first month of a teen’s driving career, these three causes of accidents accounted for nearly 60 percent of traffic accidents in which teen drivers were at least partially responsible.

Researchers also studied various types of accidents in correlation with how long a driver had been licensed. The study concluded that the number of accidents that were experienced at fast-traveling speeds reduced as the driver gained more experience and time behind the wheel.

The study required the installation of in-car cameras to peek in on teen drivers as they were learning to drive with parents and guardians and then for six months without supervision. Researchers concluded that teens who obtained a learner’s permit drove most of their time on routine trips on familiar roads in simple driving conditions. Once a driver could travel without supervision, that’s when the mistakes started happening. The study concluded that these drivers experienced a number of close calls as a result of simple driving mistakes, which they attribute to driver inexperience.

In addition to the inexperience-related mistakes, teens oftentimes committed the following:

-Texting while driving.

-Horseplay and other interactions with passengers.

-Red-light running.

According to Kissinger, this study reiterates the fact that parents need to stay involved in their young driver’s habits behind the wheel.

The AAA study continues to push the following suggestions to parents:

-Allow plenty of driving practice time. More experience behind the wheel may be your child’s best protection against a traffic accident.

-Limit passengers. The risks for teen car accidents multiply when other teen passengers are present in the vehicle. Set limits with your teen driver and enforce them!

-Limit nighttime driving. In these driving conditions, a teen’s risk for an accident increases because of the extreme reduction in visibility.

-Stick to your parent-teen driving contract! Make sure your contract covers driving rules for cities, highways, interstates, weather conditions, curfews and passenger limitations.
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Our Chicago car accident attorneys have recently discussed the unfortunate number of impaired-driving accidents that our area sees every year. Many innocent motorists are killed because of the irresponsible decisions of others.

To help reduce the risks of these accidents, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is working with vehicle manufacturers to create features that can test your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) before you’re able to turn on your car. The NHTSA has partnered up with The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) and the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) to help make this vision a reality, according to Market Watch.This device would not only help to prevent drunk driving-related car accidents in Illinois, but it has the potential to save lives on roadways around the world. To help with production of this device, the NHTSA has awarded TruTouch Technologies and Takata with more than $2 million in funding.

As the end of the year draws near and the holiday season approaches, we can assume from the trends of recent statistics that we will see an increasing number of alcohol-related accidents. Technology like this would be able to prevent these accidents and fatalities.

“As a company solely dedicated to automotive safety, we are excited with the contract from DADSS/ACTS to develop the TruTouch sensors for use in automotive, commercial vehicle and heavy equipment applications,” says Kirk Morris, Vice President of Business Development of TK Holdings Inc.

Morris goes on to say that he wants to see a product that is able to test driver’s BAC level without doing so in an intrusive way.

The TruTouch technology is a system that is able to detect a person’s level of intoxication by just using infrared light. To test your BAC, all you have to do is touch your finger near or on one of the system’s sensors. It’s them able to analyze the alcohol concentration in a person’s body.

This system has been proven to provide an accurate reading within just a few seconds. The feature also has a biometric system built into it so that no one is able to tamper with it. The companies hope that this technology will be accepted by drivers worldwide so that we can all see safer roadways. The product requires no operator assistance and requires no training for users.

In-car technology continues to advance. Drunk driving accidents are 100 percent preventable and if it takes a vehicle-safety feature to help prevent them, then so be it. It’s clear that impaired drivers aren’t going to hand over their keys any time soon.

According to the NHTSA, there were nearly 11,000 people killed in drunk driving car accidents in the U.S. in 2009. These accidents accounted for nearly a third of all traffic fatalities during the year. During this time, Illinois witnessed nearly 400 alcohol-related traffic accidents.
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A recent car accident in Jasper County on Interstate 65 in Indiana surprised a Chicago resident as she sat on the side of the road with her disabled vehicle. The Chicago driver told officers that she pulled the car over because smoke started seeping out from underneath the hood. According to officers, the accident happened when a passing semi-truck struck the disabled vehicle and caught on fire.Our Chicago car accident attorneys understand that sometimes vehicle malfunctions happen and there’s nothing we can do to completely prevent them. There is a way though that we can handle these situations to help keep everyone in the vehicle safe. There are certain safety tips that motorists should remember and exercise if they’re ever stuck on the side of the road with a disabled vehicle.

The accident report stated that the Chicago driver and the 24-year-old passenger got out of the vehicle after they pulled it off to the side of the road. As the two were out examining the engine, a tractor-trailer merged over from the right-hand side of the roadway and hit the disabled car.

Since the two were standing in front of the car when the semi hit, they were injured. One motorist received a number of skull fractures and a gash on his head. The other motorist was thrown into a nearby ditch and suffered from a broken leg.

The driver of the semi told officers that he didn’t see the disabled vehicle because there were no hazard lights activated.

The police report went on to state that the semi struck the vehicle, swerved to the left, flew into the median and struck the barrier cables. The fire started when the semi collided with the cables. The driver was able to escape the truck safely.

Both of the injured motorists were transported to Saint Anthony’s Hospital in Crown Point.

Follow these safety tips provided by Pep Boys if your car breaks down:

-Try to pull the car over as far away from traffic as possible. If there’s an emergency lane, use it. If there’s a grassy area near the lane, use that.

-If you’re stopped because you’ve got a flat tire and there’s no safe place to pull over, drive on the rim until you find a place. Ruining a rim is much less significant than losing a life.

-Make sure you always have warning devices with you, including triangles and flares. These should be placed a good distance from your car. The rule of thumb says that you should have three warning devices, placed at 25, 50 and 100 yards from your vehicle.

-Activate your hazard lights.

-Always travel with a cell phone.

-If your car is not stopped in a safe area, get out of the vehicle and move away from it. Otherwise remain inside with the doors locked and passengers buckled.

-If you have to walk to a phone, make sure all vehicle occupants walk together.

-Open the hood on your car.

-Tie a white cloth to your antenna.

-If someone asks you if you need help, remain in your car with the doors locked and ask them to call for help.

-Keep water, nonperishable food items and warm clothing in your car for scenarios like this one.
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Since the beginning of the economic downturn, authorities are seeing fewer drunk driving accidents in Illinois and elsewhere, according to FOX News. A recently released federal study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), surveyed more than 450,000 people and reported the lowest recorded number of drunk driving incidents since 1993.

The survey reported that we’ve seen a 30 percent drop since 2006, which was the peak period of these incidents.

According to the CDC there were 112 million drunk driving episodes last year. Many experts believe that the economy was a large contributor to this dip. Still 112 million drunk drivers on our roads is a far cry from clear sailing.Our Chicago drunk driving accident attorneys understand that we could potentially see a whole lot more drunk driving accidents in the state with the holiday season approaching. Many residents and visitors head out over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s to visit friends and family members. Unfortunately, a lot of these gatherings involve alcohol. And a lot of these events can turn deadly when it’s time to call it a night and many of these impaired individuals get into their vehicles to drive home.

One important finding in the survey is that there was not a significant drop in the amount of alcohol that Americans were drinking. According to the survey’s results, nearly 2 percent of the country’s population reported to have driven at least once while intoxicated in the last 30 days.

“The four million adults who drink and drive each year put everyone on the road at risk,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, CDC director.

Other findings in the CDC’s survey:

-Men accounted for more than 80 percent of the country’s drinking and driving accidents.

-Men ages 21- to 34-years-old accounted for more than 30 percent of all drinking and driving accidents even though in 2010 these individuals made up approximately 10 percent of the country’s population.

-Binge drinkers are much more likely to drive after drinking.

-In the U.S., residents of the Midwest region were the most likely to drink and drive as they reported the most confessions.

According to the CDC, there were nearly 11,000 people who were killed in alcohol-related traffic accidents in 2009. These incidents accounted for roughly a third of all roadway fatalities during that year.

During the holiday season, we can expect to see more DUI checkpoints and more patrolling officers on our roadways to help combat the problem. We’re asking all residents to celebrate responsibly throughout the rest of the year.

If you think you’ve spotted a drunk driver on our roadways, the Illinois State Police ask that you give the nearest State Police Headquarters a call. Make sure you have the location of the vehicle and the direction it’s traveling, a description of the driver if possible and the make, model and color of the vehicle. Officers would appreciate the license plate number, but ask that you stay away from the vehicle to avoid an accident.
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Bad cab drivers are frequently let off the legal hook — leaving them behind the wheel and increasing your risk for a Chicago taxi cab accident.

Our Chicago personal injury lawyers have watched as the government has waged a number of high-profile campaigns against unsafe commercial drivers this year. Commercial bus drivers and truck drivers have come under increasing fire. Cab drivers are often overlooked, however, despite the risk to passengers and other motorists.The Chicago Tribune reports that Cook County judges have dismissed the vast majority of tickets given to cabbies. In one case, a cabbie was ticketed 34 times since 2008 — violations included driving twice the posted speed limit, blowing through stop signs and causing at least three crashes before striking a pedestrian crossing Michigan Avenue.

But almost all the tickets were wiped from his driving record, permitting him to renew his license to drive a cab, year after year. The Tribune study found that chauffeur’s licenses are routinely renewed — even after a cabbie causes an accident that seriously injures or kills a pedestrian.

The city has a three-ticket-per-year limit for flagging dangerous cabbies. It uses a two-prong process to identify bad cabbies — traffic court and citizen complaints. However, the Tribune review found cabbies faced few consequences for current violations. A review of 28 heavily ticketed drivers found two-thirds of violations were dismissed — or about double the dismissal rate for the average motorist.

“When you have these repeat offenders who are still on the road, that’s creating a lot of danger and a lot of unsafe conditions,” said Ethan Spotts of the Chicago advocacy group Active Transportation Alliance. “People shouldn’t be afraid to walk.”

Safety advocates have a right to be frustrated. We continue to point out efforts to increase bicyclist and pedestrian safety within the city. No driver should be permitted to remain licensed with a deplorable driving record — the fact that it is being permitted among drivers for hire is an outrage.

Meanwhile, the cab industry says drivers are ticketed more frequently because they spend so much more time on the road; and dismissals are likely high because they are more aggressive when it comes to combating the tickets and saving their jobs.
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