Articles Posted in Car Accident

A Chicago car crash has resulted in injuries to a police sergeant and two others, according to the Chicago Tribune. The collision occurred when a motorist ran a red light, striking a police car that was then knocked into another car.

The crash occurred on the South Side just after 9:40 PM on Tuesday at Stony Island and 83rd Street. The at fault driver was traveling in a 2006 Audi southbound on Stony Island when she failed to stop at a stop light and struck a marked Chicago police car that was moving westbound 83rd St. The squad car was then knocked into a 1992 Mercedes.

The driver of the Audi, a 32-year-old woman, was taken by ambulance to Jackson Park Hospital. The sergeant was taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital and later released. The Mercedes driver was taken to South Shore Hospital. The exact injuries of each motorist were not reported.

Illinois car crash attorneys at Abels & Annes have agreed to represent a woman who was injured in an April, 2011 collision that occurred at 150th St. & Broadway in Harvey, Illinois. The plaintiff was northbound on Broadway, proceeding through the intersection after stopping at a stop sign. At that time, the defendant, who was westbound on150th St., failed to stop at the stop sign and T-boned our client’s vehicle.

The Harvey Police Department investigated the accident. The defendant driver admitted to what happened and was issued a citation for failing to stop at the stop sign.

Shortly after the crash, our client developed neck and back pain, right shoulder pain, and right arm pain. Since then, she has started with an orthopedic physician in the Chicago area.

Single vehicle Illinois auto accidents that took place this month in the southwest suburbs of Chicago illustrate the need to avoid distracted driving. The Beacon News is reporting that one of the accidents occurred in Aurora and the other in Kendall County. Both accidents occurred due to drivers reaching for devices in their cars instead of watching the road.

One crash occurred back on April 6, 2011 in the afternoon near the intersection of Shorline and Baybrook in Aurora. The driver was looking down trying to locate his ipod and struck a tree. The car then rolled over. There were two passengers in the car, but police have not disclosed if anyone was injured. The driver was charged with failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

The second happened several hours later just after 12:00 a.m. on April 7. It was again a single car accident. It occurred in 400 block of North Johnson Street in Newark, Illinois. Two people were hurt in the crash when a 30-year-old driver lost control of her car after reaching for a CD player and driving off the road.

As we previously reported on our Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog, April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Throughout the entire month, the National Safety Council (NSC) and FocusDriven are teaming up to urge drivers to curb distracted driving by putting away their cell phones and other forms of distraction. The NSC estimates that, each year, roughly 30 percent of all motor vehicle accidents — — 1.6 million crashes — involve a distracted driver.

The National Safety Council will be holding webinars throughout the month to help inform the general public about the dangers of distracted driving. They will also be covering ways to decrease your risk of being involved in a distracted driving accident in Chicago or elsewhere in the U.S.Our Chicago car accident lawyers frequently deal with accidents caused by some form of driving distraction. Hand-held cell phones have been illegal for drivers to use inside the city limits of Chicago for years. And all drivers have been prohibited from text messaging since a state law went into effect last January. Still, both are common causes of car accidents.

The first webinar, The Ripple Effect of Distracted Driving Crashes, will be aimed at helping viewers to understand why these new technologies are posing such a threat to the safety of everyone our roadways. This webinar will include stories from families who have been directly affected by these dangerous driving habits. The main focus of this session is to help drivers to better understand how the mind is distracted behind the wheel and what you can do to regain control on the road.

The second of these webinars, Do You Really Know What’s Going on in Your Fleet?, will focus more on the frequency and the main causes of distracted driving accidents. This webinar will bring to light the risk for drivers and employees.

These webinars are made possible by the support of various advocates for safe driving, DriveCam Inc. and FirstGroup. Both companies are proud sponsors or National Distracted Driving Awareness Month 2011.

Distracted Driving research provides us with the following statistics:

-Distracted driving was a factor in nearly 5,500 deaths in car accidents and caused more than 448,000 motor-vehicle accident injuries in 2009.

-Drivers under the age of 20 are most likely to be involved in an accident caused by distracted driving. Nearly 20 percent of all their fatal accidents were caused by a distracted driver.

-The use of a cell phone while driving delays the reaction time of a drive to that equivalent of a drunk driver, testing with a BAC of .08 or higher.

-Roughly 20 percent of all accidents reported in 2009 involved distracted drivers.

-Of the near 5,500 deaths caused by distracted driving, almost 1,000 of them reported the use of a cell phone as the form of distraction.

-Cell phones make drivers four times more likely to be involved in an accident resulting in significant injury.
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An Illinois auto accident in suburban Northfield has claimed the life of a 22-year-old Chicago woman, Winnetka Talk is reporting. Another person was seriously injured in the collision that occurred on Friday.

The accident occurred at 2220 Willow Road. Northfield police are stating that the woman was eastbound on Willow when she crossed the center line for unknown reasons and struck a westbound driver head-on.

The woman was taken by ambulance to Evanston Hospital and pronounced dead hours later. The driver of the other vehicle, a 63 year old Glenview man, was also taken to Evanston Hospital. He was in critical condition.

Illinois officials and federal leaders are joining forces to determined the best way to reduce accidents involving distracted driving, according to the National Safety Council (NSC). Illinois officials will be joined by various leaders from the medical, education, researched and traffic safety communities at a distracted driving summit planned for later this month. The focus will be on tackling the increase in distracted driving accidents in Chicago and the surrounding areas.

“I first met several of the founding members of FocusDriven at our Distracted Driving Summit, and I’m deeply impressed by their commitment to turn these tragic events into positive actions that will help save lives,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Their stories are not just heartbreaking; they’re also a clear and compelling call to action.”Our Chicago car accident lawyers understand the severity of the issue. Few accidents are accidents in the strictest sense of the word; many are caused by a driver who simply fails to pay attention. We urge all motorists to help keep the roads safer for everyone by avoiding distractions behind the wheel.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that, at any given moment, 9 percent of drivers are talking on their cell phone. This type of driving makes drivers four times more likely to be involved in a car crash, according to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.

“FocusDriven is an important organization that puts faces and names to the tragedies caused by cell phone use while driving,” said National Safety Council President Janet Froetscher. “The members of FocusDriven have powerful stories to tell about their loved ones. We hope their stories will help people realize the dangers of using cell phones while driving.”

The Government reports the following distracted driving trends

-Those between the ages of 15 and 20 have the highest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal accident.

-7 percent of drivers were reported to be distracted during the time of the accident in 2005, that number has now increased to 11 percent.

-Nearly 5,500 people were killed in accidents involving a distracted driver in 2009 — 16 percent of fatalities. Another 448,000 were reportedly injured under these conditions.

-Of the 1,517,000 accidents resulting in injury, an estimated 20 percent reportedly involved distracted driving.

The Illinois Distracted Driving summit offers online registration for this free event on the NSC website.
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