Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog

Car Accidents are Common on Kennedy Expressway

January 11, 2016 | By Dave Abels

Completed in 1960, the Kennedy Expressway has been a mainstay for most of those who call Chicago home. It can be a convenient means of transit between the West Loop and O’Hare, or a means to get to anywhere between those two locations. With approximately 327,000 vehicles using the Kennedy on any given day, it is clear that the Expressway’s importance and prominence in the Chicago transit landscape cannot be overstated.

Yet while the Kennedy can be a convenient means of moving around town, it can also be an incredibly dangerous one as numerous car accidents happen on the Kennedy each and every year. Some of those collisions are minor and, fortunately, do not cause injuries to the drivers and passengers involved, but others are critical or even fatal and the harm they cause cannot be undone.

Cell Phone Use While Driving is Claiming Lives

December 22, 2015 | By Dave Abels

Most people are so tied to their cell phones that they feel lost if they forget their phone at home for the day. Cell phones are now used for much more than telephone calls – they are the means to consume media, access social networks, and text and email others. Cell phones are so prevalent that a recent study by the Pew Research Foundation found that 24 percent of teens in America access social media “almost constantly,” and that cell phones are making it possible.

Cell phones can be a great tool and even a life saving device when an emergency arises, but like all forms of technology, they have their proper time and place. And as time progresses, experts are chiming in that driving should not be one of those times. Motorists who use a cell phone while behind the wheel are more likely to be distracted, more likely to leave their lane of traffic, and more likely to cause a car accident than those who ditch their phones while driving.

CDC Reports that Illinois Seat Belt Usage is Too Low

December 14, 2015 | By Dave Abels

In today’s modern era, some safety features may seem so commonplace that they are not given a second thought. Often, that is the case with seat belts which have existed for roughly 150 years. Most drivers and passengers get into a car, put on their seat belts, and drive without hesitation. After years of riding in a vehicle, the use of a seat belt becomes automatic.

But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not enough motorists in Illinois are using their seat belts today, and this is leading to increased injuries and fatalities when those people are involved in a car accident.

Distracted Driving: Lurking Danger for Chicago Drivers

December 7, 2015 | By Dave Abels

What kind of driver are you? Are you a passive driver, preferring to stay in the right lane, driving under the speed limit and always allowing others to merge in front of you? Or are you an aggressive driver, pushing the limits by speeding, weaving among slower traffic and trying to dart around any congestion you encounter? Perhaps you are a combination of those two extremes, employing some tactics in certain situations and other approaches when the times call for them. No matter how you believe an ideal driver should act, though, odds are that you divert from the standard at some moments in time.

Any type of driver can become distracted while operating a vehicle, and it seems that the incidents of distraction are rising annually. Once a minor issue that rarely made headlines, distraction-related car accidents are now commonplace in Chicago and in the nation with more than 30,000 fatal crashes being blamed on distraction in 2013 alone.

Winter Weather Blamed for Multiple Chicago Crashes

November 24, 2015 | By Dave Abels

Chicago saw its first snowfall of the season this weekend and it was one for the record books. The city got hit with the second-largest November snowstorm since records began in 1884. Total snowfall at O’Hare Airport was measured at 11.2 inches while northern Illinois saw 16 inches. Northern Lake County may have seen the heaviest total snowfall at 19 inches while Mundelein and Rockford each got about 15 inches.

Snow can be a problem for area motorists but this weekend was made even worse as ice began to blanket city streets, expressways, and interstates. Today, that ice and snow mixture has been blamed for multiple collisions that occurred between Friday and as late as Sunday morning with some of those winter car accidents resulting in injuries.

Chicago Parents Use Wrong Car Seats

November 16, 2015 | By Dave Abels

Every parent wants to do what is best for their child and to ensure their child is safe, secure, and protected from the harms that live in the world. At times, this might mean protecting a child from falling when she stumbles or making sure he always holds an adult’s hand when crossing the street. When it comes to riding in a car, it means selecting a car seat that will keep a child safe in the tragic event that a car accident takes place.

Car seats are a requirement under the laws of Illinois which mandate that all children under eight years old be secured in a car seat. But the laws do not specify which car seat, or even which style, must be used, leaving it up to parents to make those critical decisions. A variety of car seats are on the market and can give parents a range of choices from which to decide but also create the possibility that parents will make the wrong choice, select the wrong seat, or even use it in an improper or faulty manner.

There are numerous places in and around Chicago that offer free safety checks for children’s car seats to ensure that parents are using the right kind of seat and in the right manner to keep their children as safe as possible yet the organizations that offer such checks routinely report that only a small proportion of the city’s parents take advantage of the free car seat review.

Self-Driving Cars and the Future of American Transportation

October 5, 2015 | By Dave Abels

Every year, manufacturers introduce new technology designed to reduce the risk of car accidents and increase the odds that the people involved in collisions will remain injury-free. But no matter what these manufacturers have introduced in the past, they have not been able to adequately address the primary cause of collisions: human error. Though national surveys continue to show that more than 80 percent of drivers consider themselves “better than average,” crashes continue to happen and claim nearly 33,000 lives each year.

Recently, several of world’s leading auto manufacturers and technology companies have taken steps to change the landscape of driving through the creation and planned introduction of autonomous vehicles. Typically called self-driving cars, self-navigating vehicles, or driverless cars, several prototypes are already being tested on public roadways with estimates of consumer availability in the next four to 10 years.
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GM Agrees to Settle Shareholder Suit, Still Facing Hundreds of Claims Related to Faulty Ignition Switches

September 23, 2015 | By Dave Abels

Recently, General Motors has faced significant scrutiny in the face of safety-related concerns stemming from their handling of ignition switch failures in several popular vehicle models. The issue occurred when an ignition would switch from the “run” to “off” position without warning, often while a vehicle took a significant bump in the road. As a result of the ignition turning off, airbags failed to deploy when the cars were involved in some collisions which led to substantial injuries and even several fatalities.

Federal investigators reviewed claims that GM engineers knew of the defect for years prior to the formal recall of these vehicles which occurred in February of 2014. As part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, GM agreed to pay $900 million in resolution of the claims brought against it by the government, but that did not begin to address the claims of consumers who were either injured by a faulty ignition switch or who lost a loved one in a crash, claims that could cost GM billions in additional funds.
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Child Passenger Safety Week is September 13-19

September 9, 2015 | By Dave Abels

Each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, designate one week in September as Child Passenger Safety Week. This year, September 13 through September 19 will bear that designation in an effort to increase public awareness of the issues surrounding the safety of those young people who travel in vehicles.

Issues surrounding the safety of minor passengers in vehicles in Chicago are different than those that apply to adults for a couple of reasons. First, cars are not built with children in mind and that makes children more prone to injuries if a collision occurs. Safety features like air bags can actually do more harm than good to a child and adults should be aware of this prior to placing any small child in a car. Secondly, the safety of a child is dependent upon the actions of an adult. A typical driver can control his or her choices to drive safely, operate without distraction, and to proceed with caution while behind the wheel but a passenger – particularly a young child – does not have that luxury. Not only is a child at the mercy of a driver’s ability to operate a car but that child is also dependent upon an adult to select an appropriate car seat and make sure the child is restrained in it properly.
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Police Looking for Driver in Fatal Hit-and-Run Car Accident

August 31, 2015 | By Dave Abels

After a car accident takes place in Chicago, it may not be immediately apparent why a crash occurred. Investigators and local police may attempt to recreate the conditions prior to an impact to determine what led to the loss of control and whether a driver’s actions played a role. When multiple cars are involved in a collision, things can be more complicated as each motorist’s role must be understood in its entirety for the authorities to properly deduce the cause of a crash.

Victims of these incidents may be left waiting for weeks or even months as all the data is reviewed, and in that time, these victims may need medical help for any injuries they sustained. Fortunately, in Chicago, the rights of a victim are not controlled by the outcome of a police investigation into an accident and rather exist independent of a police review. Those who are hurt in a car crash in Illinois have the right to seek financial compensation for their injuries against an at-fault motorist or another responsible entity, like an insurance company, corporation, city, or even the state. These claims are possible whether or not an at-fault driver is ticketed for his or her role in an accident and regardless of the outcome of any traffic charges. As these claims must be brought in accordance will all local laws and within a time period specified by law, it is a good idea to speak with a personal injury attorney if you have been injured in a collision or if your loved one was hurt or killed.
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