Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog

The U.S. Department of Transportation has launched a new website that will act as a national clearinghouse for information on distracted driving.

As we reported last month on Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer blog, a patchwork of laws are springing up across the country, which ban cell phones, text messaging, and other poor driving habits, making it incumbent upon the motorist to know the law.

Drivers have been forbidden from using a cell phone in Chicago since 2005. And new laws took effect Jan. 1 in Illinois, outlawing text messaging by drivers or the use of cell phones in school zones and construction sites.

The site, www.distraction.gov, is the centerpiece of the government’s effort to increase public awareness of the dangers of serious and fatal car accident that result from driver distraction, including text messaging and cell phones.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 6,000 people a year die and more than half a million are injured in distracted-driving traffic accidents. Nationwide, 1 in 4 car accidents are blamed on some form of driver distraction.

Forms of distracted driving also include eating, drinking, talking with passengers and using other in-car technologies, like stereos and GPS devices.

Government data shows 11 percent of drivers killed in fatal crashes were distracted — up sharply from the 8 percent reported just 5 years ago.

At particular risk are young drivers under 20 (already at increased risk of a serious or fatal car accident). The government reported that 16 percent of fatal crashes involve young drivers who were distracted; drivers ages 20 to 29 had a rate of 12 percent.

The national campaign also includes television commercials features U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood promoting the new website.
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An end to the historic drop in driving congestion, which began in 2007 and has continued through the Great Recession, will increase the risk of Chicago car accidents and urban accidents nationwide, The USAToday reported.

As reported earlier this year on our Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer blog, Illinois reported the fewest traffic fatalities in almost a century last year. And fatal accidents nationwide have been trending downward since congestion began to wane in 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Rick Schuman, the study’s author, said the economy and traffic congestion are closely linked.

“As the job situation goes, so goes congestion,” Schuman said. “If we have a recovery and we start seeing employment starting to grow, congestion will grow along with it.”

Chicago is the third-most congested metro area in the country, behind Los Angeles and New York. WIth a population of 9.5 million, the study found the Chicago area was 42 percent as congested as Los Angeles and 86 percent as congested as New York.

It’s unclear whether the uptick in congestion will last; pace of the increase remains less than 1 percent a month — a far cry from the 21 percent increase in miles driven between 1995 and 2007.

Findings of the INRIX traffic scorecard include:

-Traffic remains down during the morning commute, a reflection of the high unemployment rate. Traffic was up during the remainder of the day.

-Friday at 5 p.m. remains the busiest commute and the worst day and time of the week to be on the road.
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A 19-year-old motorist was charged with felony reckless conduct on Sunday, after a Chicago car accident in which she is accused of hitting an Illinois State Police trooper who was conducting a traffic stop Saturday night on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

The Chicago Breaking News Center reported that the woman was charged and taken into custody following the accident.

She was expected to appear in court on Monday. The female trooper was transported to Stroger Hospital, where she underwent surgery and remained in the intensive care unit listed in stable condition.

Protesters turned out on Valentine’s day to campaign against Chicago’s red-light cameras.

While authorities contend the cameras are in place to reduce serious and fatal Chicago car accidents, several dozen Chicago motorists turned out for a national day of opposition, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The protest at the southeast corner of Addison Street and Western Avenue, urged motorists to honk their horns against the cameras, which mail photographs and tickets to offenders. A growing opposition movement contends the cameras are being used to generate revenue with little impact on reducing serious or fatal crashes at intersections.

Scott Tucker, the protest organizer and a Republican candidate for the 11th District state House seat, said he supports legislation to get rid of the cameras in Illinois. “It’s taking money out of our pockets and putting it into a wasteful government economy,” Tucker told the Tribune.

A spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Transportation said the cameras are “first and foremost about safety” and have been since the city began installing the cameras several years ago.

Intersection crashes caused by red-light runners continue to be a leading cause of serious and fatal Chicago car accidents.

Earlier this month we reported here at Chicago Car Accident Lawyers blog, that 1 in 4 fatal Illinois traffic accidents occurs at an intersection each year, killing more than 250 Illinois motorists.

Late last year, Chicago Car Accident Lawyers blog reported on an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, which found an increase at half of the 14 suburban Chicago intersections where the cameras had been installed.

In October, Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer blog reported the city issued more than half a million tickets in the first eight months of the year and collected almost $38 million in revenue.

This year’s city budget includes money to add another 50 cameras to Chicago intersections, bringing the citywide total to 189.
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A series of serious and fatal Chicago car accidents on area expressways continues to highlight the dangers of highway speeds and congestion.

Two children and an adult were critically injured after being ejected from a minivan that blew a tire and spun out on the Dan Ryan Expressway Saturday afternoon, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Six people were riding in the Pontiac minivan when it spun out of control and slammed into a semi. The van was in the left lane of the southbound Dan Ryan Expressway at 81st Street when the accident happened about 2 p.m., according to Illinois State Police.

Police are investigating several fatal Chicago car accidents that occurred over the weekend.

An 89-year-old man died early Monday morning after a car accident in northwest suburban Palatine, according to the Chicago Breaking News Center.

The Daily Herald reported that the Chicago resident was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. after being transported to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.

A new study calls into question whether tough new laws banning cell phone use or text messaging by drivers are having any impact in reducing the number of serious and fatal car accidents.

As we reported in the fall on Chicago Car Accident Lawyers blog, it has been illegal for drivers to use cell phones in the city of Chicago since 2005 and Illinois passed a law that took effect Jan. 1, which makes it illegal to text message or use hand-held cell phones in school zones and construction sites.

However, the new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, questions whether the new laws are reducing fatal traffic accidents, the USA Today reported.

The National Highway Traffic Administration reported almost 6,000 people were killed by distracted drivers in 2008, accounting for about 1 in 5 traffic fatalitites. However, the study examined crashes in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C., before and after handheld bans took effect and found no reduction in crashes.

“The key finding is that crashes aren’t going down where handheld phone use has been banned,” Insurance Institute President Adrian Lund said in a statement. “This finding doesn’t augur well for any safety payoff from all the new laws that ban phone use and texting while driving.”

Nationwide, the government reported 5.9 million accidents in 2006, compared to 5.8 million last year. But, by analyzing crash claims, the Insurance Institute found no statistical difference attributable to cell phone bans.

One possibility is that drivers have switched to hands-free models, which research suggests are really not all that much safer than hand-held phones.

The study comes as an increasing number of states move to ban texting while driving; 23 states are considering such restrictions, while such bans are currently in place in 19 states. Earlier this year, the federal government banned hand-held devices from use by all bus drivers and commercial truckers.
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