Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog

It’s not recognition we would wish for, but our Chicago car accident lawyers were not surprised to see we were ranked as Number One in road congestion.

The Breaking News Center reported the Urban Mobility Report, released by the Texas Transportation Institute found that commuters in Chicago waste an average of 70 hours on the road each year.The congestion alone is enough to increase the risk of a Chicago car crash. It also increases the risk of other dangerous driving behaviors, including aggressive driving, distracted driving, running red lights and even speeding, when and if a motorist can break out of the gridlock.

The report of the traffic issues in Chicago comes even as some other major metropolitan areas are seeing some relief when it comes to heavy rush hour traffic, if only because of high unemployment and the struggling economy.

The 70 extra hours spent behind the wheel each year by Chicago drivers was more than twice the national average of 34 hours. Chicago had ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the past. Chicago motorists spent an extra 64 hours behind the wheel in 2008, compared to 55 hours in 1999 and 18 hours in 1982.

Los Angeles had previously held the top spot.

All that extra time behind the wheel comes with a price. On average, congestion cost each commuter $1,738 last year. In all, the nation spent $115 billion on congestion, wasted an additional 4.8 billion hours behind the wheel and consumed just shy of 4 billion extra gallons of fuel.

The study looked at 439 urban areas and found the issues associated with congestion would have been even more acute without mass transit, which saved 785 million man-hours and 640 million gallons of fuel.

And, unfortunately, all this could amount to the good news. Congestion is expected to get worse as the economy recovers.

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Whether Illinois car crash attorneys will exist years down the road is starting to become a legitimate question. Recent advances in automotive technology are indicating that cars may drive themselves in the not so distant future. While there will still be accidents and injuries, they may occur much less frequently.

Google recently announced that, in an effort to reduce traffic collisions, they have developed the technology necessary for cars to drive themselves. They believe this will also free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions.

Google states that as of October, 2010 its automated cars (occupied by trained drivers) have been in use in various parts of California and have been driven for over 140,000 miles. The vehicles use video cameras, radar sensors and lasers to navigate traffic. The system also uses detailed maps made possible by Google’s data centers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration apparently got the memo because it finally posted safe winter driving information on its website this week as the season shapes up to be one of the toughest in recent memory.The Illinois Department of Transportation reports that snowy conditions were at least partly responsible for 4,289 Chicago car accidents in 2009, injuring more than 900 motorists. Nearly 130 were injured in accidents where sleet, wind and hail were a contributing factor and almost 3,600 motorists suffered injuries in accidents involving rain.

Just last week, the Associated Press reported a woman was found dead a month after wandering into a snowy field following a Chicago car accident.

Our Chicago injury attorneys remind motorists to allow extra time to reach their destination and to practice other safe driving habits to reduce your chances of being involved in a serious or fatal auto accident.

When it comes to talking to your teens about the dangers of being involved in a Chicago car accident, advice cannot come too early or too often.

Our Chicago accident attorneys note the new program being launched by Safe Kids USA, which is aimed at teenagers ages 13 and 14. The Countdown2Drive program aims to arm young teens with safe driving and passenger knowledge so they can protect themselves as they become more independent.”Our goal is to educate young teens, as they begin to transition from passengers to drivers,” said said Safe Kids CEO John Formisano. “Our research shows teen pre-drivers are eager to learn, and they are focused on the freedom a driver’s license and access to a car can provide.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that car accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers, both those ages 15 to 20 who are old enough to drive, and those 13 and 14 who are anxiously awaiting the day they can get behind the wheel. Nationwide, nearly 6,000 teen drivers were involved in fatal crashes in 2008. A total of 516 motorists lost their lives in Illinois car accidents involving young drivers that year.

“By preparing them to be good passengers, Countdown2Drive can help decrease the number of crashes and injuries that occur during their first and most dangerous year of driving,” said Formisano. “Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of teens, with driver inexperience and distractions among the main causes of teen crashes.”

Teens are four times more likely to be involved in a crash than other drivers. Those ages 13 and 14 have twice the risk of dying in a car accident than younger children and that risk continues to grow as a teenager gets older. Teens are at risk for all types of poor driving habits — among the most serious is distracted driving and the high number of teenagers who use cell phones or text message while behind the wheel.

“Texting and talking on cell phones may feel like second nature to a tech-savvy generation, but the truth is, no one can talk or text while driving safely,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Driving distracted is a dangerous and deadly practice, which is why we need to reach teens early on – before they get a permit and a license to drive.”
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As our Chicago car accidents lawyers reported last year, we have come a long way since the debut of the “car phone” in a Chrysler K car at Soldier Field in the 1980s. Gone from marketing efforts are any mentions of “car” and “phone” in the same sentence as companies increasingly distance themselves from the liability of driving while using their products.

An effort to form a lobbying group of cell phone makers to push back against anti-texting laws in Congress even failed last year for lack of participation on the part of the phone companies. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports some 5,000 people are killed each year and another 500,000 are injured in accidents caused by distracted driving. Cell phones and text messaging are high on that list of blame.Text messaging and driving is now illegal in Illinois, as is using a hand-held cell phone in a school zone or construction site. Hand-held cell phone use is illegal everywhere in the City of Chicago. But those laws do not stop thousands of motorists feom endangering themselves and others each day.

At particular risk are teenagers — who are more likely to text message and more likely to drive distracted than any other age group.

AT&T is launching “It Can Wait,” a campaign meant to combat the dangers. The 10-minute documentary features a teen killed the day before her high school graduation and another who killed a bicyclist while texting “lol.”

“This documentary is a raw look at the reality and hazards of texting while driving, and we hope it will make wireless customers think twice before pulling out their cell phones in the driver’s seat,” said AT&T spokeswoman Cathy Coughlin. “As a global telecommunications company, it is our responsibility to bring these risks to light.”

In May, Sprint joined the Oprah Winfrey Show to educate drivers about the risk of distracted driving.

And a Florida company has even developed an app for that. The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports the $29.99 PhoneGuard app uses GPS to prevent a cell phone from texting, e-mailing or surfing the web when traveling more than 10 mph.

The device can also alert parents or employers when a vehicle travels more than 65 mph by sending a text with a locator map of the vehicle’s speed and location.

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A Chicago car crash that occurred early Monday morning has left several people injured, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. The collision involved two vehicles and occurred on the Northwest Side around 1:40 AM on the Kennedy Expressway.

Police reported that several people were hurt and taken by ambulance to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The nature and extent of the injuries has not been reported.

The expressway’s left lane was closed following accident, but reopened around 2:20 AM.