Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog

The school year is winding down and many students are looking forward to attending prom and graduation. Unfortunately, this is typically the time when alcohol-related traffic accidents spike among teens.

The number of alcohol-related fatal accidents involving drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 years old dropped 37 percent from 2000 to 2009. Even with the decrease, alcohol-fueled road accidents remain the leading cause of death in that age range according to a recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times.Our Chicago car accident lawyers understand that our teenage students are excited during this time of year as they have prom, graduation and summer break approaching. Parents are urged to keep a close eye on their teens as student will be hitting the road in large numbers.

Research shows that 70 percent of high school upperclassmen expect their peers to consume alcohol and drive on prom night. Although schools rely on lockdowns of hotel and school venues, bloody mock DUI scenes, drug-sniffing dogs and random breath alcohol testing to keep students from drinking on prom night, measures oftentimes fail as students can consume alcohol at parties, before and after the chaperon supervised event.

“Most parents do not keep parties dry. More often than not, I’ve run into ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ situations, where parents stay upstairs, out of the fray,” said John G. Duffy, a clinical psychologist who has worked with high schoolers in the Chicago area.

Causing more than 2,300 fatalities in 2009, motor vehicle accidents continue to be the leading cause of death for young drivers between the ages of 15 and 20. In addition to the thousands of deaths, nearly 20,000 teen drivers were injured in the same year.

Here are some teen safe driving tips to discuss with your student prior to their prom, graduation and summer break:

-Keep the number of passengers to a minimum. Passengers can provide a great deal of distraction to your young driver. Limit the number of passengers you teen is allowed in the vehicle.

-Buckle up. Seat belts save lives. Encourage you teen to wear one every time they drive.

-Follow the rules. Explain to your young driver that road signs are posted for a reason and encourage them to follow all stop signs, speed limits and traffic lights.

-Be sure they never drive impaired. Whether intoxicated with street drugs, prescriptions drugs, over the counter medications or alcohol, make sure your teen understands the consequences of driving in an impaired state.

Parents are urged to sit down and talk with their children about the dangers of drinking and driving. Discussing and signing a parent-teen driving contract can also help you to enforce your rules.
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Chicago auto accident attorneys at Abels & Annes have signed on to represent a local resident that was injured in an April, 2011 collision. The accident occurred in the 3500 block of Montrose Avenue. Our client was driving westbound in a 2000 Dodge Neon when she was rear-ended by the driver of a 1995 Subaru that was also moving westbound.

Immediately after the accident the plaintiff started experiencing neck pain and headaches. She was seen shortly there after at the Resurrection Hospital emergency room. There she was examined by emergency room physicians. The ER doctors diagnosed her with acute neck sprain, prescribed pain medication and instructed her to follow-up with a physician.

Since the date of the accident her pain has only increased and she is now treating with orthopedic doctors in Chicago.

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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