Auto Accident Lawyers Blog

Motorcycle accident lawyers at Pintas & Mullins point to a recent debate in upstate New York surrounding the death of a high school motorcyclist. The teen was killed in a crash after fleeing from a routine police traffic stop.

The Clarence High School senior was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour when he crashed, causing community members to question why officers were pursuing a motorcycle going that fast in the first place. Some highlight a Cattaraugus County crash in 1992 that killed three people, in which a jury decided two state troopers indeed helped cause the crash.

High-speed chases have the potential to end disastrously, with great harm and damage not only to the officers or person being pursued but to innocent bystanders as well. The decision to pursue in the first place depends on a number of factors, such as road conditions, time of day, traffic levels, weather, and the initial reason for pulling that vehicle over.

In other words, there is no blanket rule dictating who pursues and when - it is a decision made in a unique situation by a specific officer. The most recent crash occurred after officers stopped the teen for not having a license plate. The high school senior sped off, traveling about 1.4 miles before crashing into another vehicle. Witnesses told state police that the motorcycle was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour, and that the pursuing patrol car was traveling at a considerable slower speed, arriving at the scene of the crash about 30 seconds after it occurred.

Of course, such pursuits are exceedingly rare, occurring in less than 1 of 1,000 traffic stops. Officers affirm that the key to deciding whether to pursue someone or not depends largely on why the driver is fleeing in the first place. In the case of the high school senior, speculation is that he feared the traffic stop would interfere with his upcoming graduation or admittance into the Marine Corps.

Most police departments require officers to contact a supervisor before pursuing a suspect, who would make the final decision after being quickly briefed on the circumstances. The belief is that supervisors are better able to provide an objective third-party perspective. Additionally, after any kind of pursuit, most departments require an administrative review of the decision to pursue.

According to USA TODAY, innocent bystanders account for one-third of those killed in high-speed police chases. These fatalities have led communities throughout the United States to consider restricting such pursuits only to suspects involved in violent crimes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that about 360 people die each year in police chases, however, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina asserts that the actual number of fatalities is three or four times higher. The NHTSA does not take into account bystander deaths or fatalities occurring in the moments after the initial chase.

Continue reading "New York Motorcycle Death Raises Questions about Police Pursuit " »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins highlight a recent article published by NPR on designated drivers. The article points to recent research which found that over 41% of "designated drivers," when given breath tests, had been drinking.

On top of this, nearly 20% of those designated drivers were drinking enough to be considered impaired drivers. Another U.S. survey found that American drivers think it's completely fine for the designated driver to drink, just so long as their blood alcohol level is below the legal limit.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Florida and involved more than 1,000 leaving bars in Gainesville on a random Saturday night (although it was after a Gator's home football game). Among these bar patrons about 165 people claimed to be the designated driver. As stated, the breath tests proved that 41% of those drivers had been drinking.

About 17% of them had BAC levels of .02% or below, but another 185 had BAC levels higher than .05%. Fortunately, all participants were of legal drinking age (the average age around 30, and about half of them were students. Additionally, the more impaired drivers were more likely to binge drink and engage in dangerous drinking behavior overall. If you would like to read the full study, it was recently published in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Driving with any amount of alcohol in your system, however, is exceedingly dangerous, more so than most people realize. Some studies have found that driving skills are impaired even by a .02 BAC (the legal limit is .08). By the time their BAC gets to .05%, nearly everyone is unable to drive adequately.

Last month the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) voted to lower the BAC limit for drivers .05% nationwide. The measure was decided in attempt to reduce the number of drinking-related road deaths through stricter enforcement. The NTSB does not have the power to change state laws, however, its backing of the lower legal limit could add pressure to legislators and advocacy groups.

Drinking-related deaths account for about 30% of all roadway fatalities in the U.S. every year, and in a 2011 survey the AAA found that about 15% of drivers admitted to driving when they were either close to or knowingly over the legal limit.

In related news in Chicago, a sentencing hearing recently concluded for a drunken boating accident that killed a ten-year-old boy. Last July, the boy and his family were enjoying a day on Petite Lake when David Hatyina - who later pleaded guilty to operating his boat under the influence of cocaine and alcohol - ran over the little boy while his family watched.

The family was inner-tubing on the lake when the little boy asked his sister, 19, for one last ride. She allowed him to, and was forced to watch helplessly as Hatyina's boat plowed over his body. He died instantly. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources officer Christ Winters testified that Hatyina operated a 30-foot boat named Purple Haze, and that three different types of alcoholic beverages were found on the boat. Other officers stated that Hatyina failed field-sobriety tests and admitted to drinking after the incident. He told officers a pontoon boat crossed in front of him causing him to swerve sharply.

Continue reading "Designated Drivers too often Fail to Stay Sober" »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins report of a proposal recently introduced into the New Jersey Senate that would allow officers to confiscate driver's phones after an accident. Officers would return the phone after looking through its recent history.

We know that texting and driving causes a significant amount of crashes in the United States, however, the exact number is exceedingly difficult to pin down. Drivers are unwilling to admit to being distracted so they are not blamed entirely for the crash. Officials are now trying to come up with ways to prove drivers were using their phones.

The New Jersey proposal was drafted to cut down on distracted driving, to warn residents that there are ways of proving their distractedness. Unfortunately, this proposal comes during a time of great social suspicion of government monitoring, as our national sense of privacy and vulnerability is shaken.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), for example, was among the first organizations to speak up against this proposal. A spokesperson for the ACLU told CNN that state and federal constitutions require probable cause before authorizing a search, particularly in areas that contain highly personal information.

Currently, 41 states prohibit texting while driving and 11 states ban talking at all on hand-held devices while driving. These laws, however, may not be strong enough. Officials and the public alike consider using "hands-free" devices in the car as a safe alternative to traditional texting and talking on the phone. This assumption may not be correct, as a recent study by AAA found.

The study was conducted by the AAA's research unit, the Foundation for Traffic Safety, in conjunction with the University of Utah. Researchers focused on the mental distractions posed by using devices, examining brainwaves, eye movements, driving performance, and other indicators in 32 university students. Cameras were mounted inside the car to track eye and head movements while they engaged in a variety of secondary tasks, such as listening to music and sending emails. Drivers were also fitted with a skull cap to record their brain activity and reaction time.

As we know, synthetic voices (see: Siri) can have difficulty understanding human voices, requiring more attention and corrections. Additionally, the systems in vehicles are not nearly as sophisticated as Siri, and make far more mistakes in messages and calls, requiring even more concentration and precision. A simple demand to turn on windshield wipers, of course, would not be that distracting. Drafting an entire email or text, however, could be disastrous.

In recent years automakers have increasingly been implementing "infotainment" systems to allow drivers to use voice commands to do things like turn on windshield wipers, post messages to Facebook and Twitter, and even order food. According to this and multiple other studies, however, hands-free devices that translate speech to text are actually the most distracting of all modes of communication.

Speech-to-text systems are so dangerous because they monopolize the driver's concentration. The act of driving requires not only your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel; it requires your full attention and concentration as well. The greater concentration required to perform another task, such as correcting an automated message, the more likely a driver is to develop tunnel vision or inattentive blindness, meaning they stop scanning the road and ignore side and rearview mirrors. Instead, they look straight ahead but fail to see what is in front of them, such as posted signs, pedestrians, and red lights.

Continue reading "New Jersey Proposal Would Let Police Confiscate Cell Phones after Crash" »

Traumatic head injury lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report on recent statistics compiled by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, which found that cycling accidents caused about 86,000 head injuries in 2009, while football, which dominates most head injury conversations, accounted for about 47,000.

In total in 2009 there were about 447,000 sports-related head injuries treated in emergency rooms in the United States. The third most common sport causing head injuries was baseball, with a little more than 38,000 related head injuries.

It is worth noting that cycling was also the number one cause of sports-related head injuries in children under the age of 14, with more than 40,000. This is nearly double the amount related to football, which totaled almost 22,000.

Of course, there are real people behind these statistics. A 15-year-old boy from Utah recently sustained serious head injuries when he was hit by a truck. He was crossing the street around 3:30 p.m. on an unmarked path when he was hit. He was not wearing a helmet, and was brought by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Witnesses say a car in the inside lane stopped for the boy but a truck towing a trailer, traveling in the outside lane, was not able to see him. Utah has a law requiring helmet use in motorcyclists 17 and younger but has no such law for cyclists.

Part of the reasoning for this is that bicycling, especially in younger children, is so commonplace, more so even than participation in football or other organized sports. Another major contributing factor is the lack of emphasis on consistent helmet use. Also unlike other popular sports, bicycling comes with its own environmental risks, such as the potential to collide with cars, sharp turns, or unmarked hazards.

If a rider is not wearing a helmet and collides unexpectedly with a vehicle the injuries can be catastrophic. For example, in 2009, about 90% of bicyclists killed in the U.S. were not wearing a helmet, and the majority of these fatalities were middle-aged men. In New York City, which recently initiated a bicycle-sharing program, about three quarters of all fatal bike accidents involved a head injury.

NYC's bike-sharing program, Citi Bike, is modeled after similar programs in Minneapolis and Montreal, and is now the largest bike share effort in North America. It includes 6,000 bikes in 300 bike docks throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, with plans for 12,000 more bicycles into Queens.

The importance of marked bike lanes in protecting bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers cannot be overstated. Streets that have designated bike lanes have 40% fewer crashes ending in death or serious injury.

About 20 states currently have laws requiring helmets for bicyclists 17 years and younger. One study published in the Journal of Pediatricians analyzed statistics on American cyclists who were severely injured or killed between 1999 and 2009. Researchers compared injury and death rates among those 17 and younger in states with mandatory helmet laws to those rates in states without helmet laws.

Continue reading "Cycling is Top Sport for Head Injuries" »

Truck and train accident lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report of two recent major activities by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The agency just recently updated its investigation information into the two train derailments in New England, as well as recommended some changes to enhance the safety of large trucks on our roadways.

As we recently outlined, a CSX Transportation train collided with a garbage truck in Rosedale, Maryland on May 28, 2013. The collision led to a derailment and consequent explosion in the Baltimore suburb, which witnesses said they could feel from blocks away, initially believing it was an earthquake. The driver of the truck was critically injured and sent to the hospital, though fortunately he is recovering.

NTSB investigators were immediately sent to the scene, where they still remain, interviewing witnesses, gathering evidence and analyzing records regarding all aspects of the incident. Investigators have plans to interview the truck driver as soon as he is able to communicate effectively, and have already completed inspections into the truck itself, removing several mechanical components for additional testing and analysis.

Fortunately, the crash site was cleared almost immediately and trains are now able to run normally. NTSB successfully scanned the scene with computerize recreation and precise measurements to re-crate the collision and derailment. The agency continues to request any videos of the incident as well as witness statements, and anyone with information can contact the agency at witness@ntsb.gov.

The agency also recently released new recommended safety guidelines for single-unit trucks, which refers to trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds, with non-detachable cargo units and with all axles attached to a single frame. These types of trucks differ from tractor trailers, which pick up and drop of semi-trailers.

According to the agency's Press Release, about 1,800 people died between 2005 and 2009 in roadway crashes involving single-unit trucks, and thousands of others were injured. In response to these fatalities, the NTSB conducted a study researching the severity of injuries and crash characteristics for these truck accidents.

The study found that single-truck units were involved in a disproportionately high number of vehicle deaths in multivehicle crashes, and that they had a considerable impact on society as measured by fatalities, injuries, hospitalizations, and ER visits. The agency also found that these trucks should be subject to the same safety regulations as tractor-trailers (they currently are not), including requiring rear underride guards and technology to improve blind spots.

Additionally, the agency notes that the adverse effects of these crashes have been underestimated due to the frequent truck misclassifications, leading to significant underreporting in federal and state databases.

Continue reading "NTSB Recommends Large Truck Safety Changes, Investigates Train Collisions" »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins highlight a recent lawsuit out of Austin, Texas, centering on dram shop laws, which hold bars and servers liable for drunk-driving crashes should that person be knowingly over served. The family of a man killed in Austin is now suing the bar the driver was drinking at before the crash, Lustre Pearl.

In July 2012, 25-year-old Madeline Rackley drove her car down a boat ramp into Lady Bird Lake, believing it to be an on-ramp to I-35. Her car and everyone inside of it submerged underneath the water's surface. Fortunately, Rackley and the front seat passenger were able to escape in time, however, one back seat passenger, Jarrett Ryan Whittlington, ultimately drowned in the car, unable to escape.

Rackley was legally intoxicated, and was charged with DUI involving manslaughter. Now, Whittlington's family is filing a wrongful death lawsuit, not against Rackley herself, but against the bar that over served her. Both the bar, Lustre Pearl, and several other bartenders are personally named in the suit. The family alleges that the bartenders knowingly over served Rackley, who was already clearly intoxicated.

This is not the first time Lustre's bar owner, Dunlap, has been implicated in a wrongful death suit for over serving. In 2011, Dunlap's Clive Bar was named in a lawsuit filed by the father of a woman who was hit and killed by a drunk driver leaving the bar. The driver admitted to drinking inside Clive Bar during the hours before the fatal incident.

A spokesperson for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission stated that it was going to investigate the issue to determine if responsibility can be assigned. Lustre Pearl's liquor license could potentially be revoked if it is determined that the bar had any role in the crash.

Whittlington's family is seeking upwards of $1 million in damages, however, their ultimate hope is that their case will help raise awareness for the owners and operators of bars and restaurants. They want everyone to realize that selling alcoholic beverages to obviously intoxicated patrons is both illegal and mortally dangerous.

In 2004, the Texas Supreme Court decided that the seller of alcohol is jointly liable (along with the drunk driver) only if it is more than 50% responsible for the crash. Dram shop laws (dram shops are defined as any drinking establishment that sells alcoholic beverages) prevent alcohol sellers from serving customers who are clearly intoxicated. If that person is served and later injures or kills someone due to the intoxication, the seller of the alcohol can be held liable for the damages.

Violations of dram shop laws can be a bit difficult to prove, because the victim suffering the injuries (in this case, Whittlington) shoulders the burden of proving the seller actually over served the person. In one recent case in Texas, however, the case was a bit easier to prove.

A man left a Texas strip club one night with a blood alcohol level of 0.295, which is more than three times the legal limit. He had consumed at least 15 drinks at the club that night, and the establishment made no attempt to ensure he was not driving himself home. He was driving at about 130 miles per hour, with his headlights off, when he rear-ended another vehicle. The driver of that car, a high school student, was killed.

Continue reading "Family Sues Texas Bar after Fatal Drunk Driving Crash" »

Auto recall lawyers at Pintas & Mullins announce that Chrysler is refusing a request by U.S. safety officials to recall more than 2.5 million vehicles. The vehicles have defective fuel tanks that could cause leakage and fires in rear-end collisions.

The recall would affect Jeep Grand Cherokees manufactured from 1993 all the way to 2004, along with Jeep Liberty's made between 2002 and 2007. Chrysler contends that the vehicles are all safe, not defective, and do not need repairs. The agency requesting the recall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), began investigations into these vehicles in 2010 at the request of an advocacy group, Center for Auto Safety.

The advocacy group claimed, as it continues to, that the positioning of the gas tank in these vehicles, located behind the axle, would allow fuel to spill in the event of a collision. Chrysler says this statement and the consequent NHTSA recall request are based on incomplete data, and that it plans to work with the agency to resolve the matter.

According to data through 2010, the NHTSA reports that about 15 deaths (and 46 injuries) have been associated with fuel tank fires in Jeep Grand Cherokees. In the Center For Auto Safety's 2009 petition, the executive director stated that the Grand Cherokee had a fatal crash fire occurrence rate that is four times higher than SUVs manufactured by other automakers.

Should a recall be initiated, about 5.1 million American vehicles would be affected. This seems like a major possibility, as the final NHTSA investigation concluded with a warning, saying that rear-impact-related fuel tank failures, along with vehicle fires, were indeed more prevalent in the Jeep Grand Cherokee than in similar, non-Jeep vehicles.

Meanwhile, Ford has agreed to a recall of about 465,000 vehicles, all model year 2013. The problems are again centering on fuel tanks, the result of more than 600 customer complaints of fuel leakage since March 31, 2013. The models affected by the recall include the Explorer, Fusion, Flex, Interceptor and Interceptor Utility, Sedan, Taurus, and the Lincoln MKZ, MKS, and MKT.

Replacement parts for the fuel tanks are not expected to be available before September. Fortunately, no incidents of crashes or injuries have yet been reported to the NHTSA. This Ford recall comes in the wake of another in December, again affecting 2013 Fusions, which had engine problems causing them to leak.

Some of these Fusions may also have steering gears that do not include internal retaining clips. Despite these two recalls, the Fusion continues to be one of Ford's top-selling vehicles. Ford will notify customer and dealers affected by the recall and will have the new parts installed, free of charge, when they are made available in September.

Continue reading "Chrysler Refuses to Recall Dangerous Vehicles " »

Bicycle accident lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that the north suburban man who fatally hit a bicyclist in the River North neighborhood of Chicago was recently charged with reckless homicide and DUI.

The 28-year-old Park Ridge man was driving south on Larrabee Street on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 when he struck and killed a southbound bicyclist. The cyclist was Robert George Cann, 26, of North Southport Avenue. After the crash he was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, and declared dead just after seven p.m.

Cann worked at Groupon in downtown Chicago and rode his bike to work every single day, no matter the weather. Originally from New Hampshire, he worked in Groupon's editorial department for more than two years.

The driver remained on the scene and was immediately taken into custody. He is now charged with aggravated DUI involving death, misdemeanor DUI and reckless driving, reckless homicide, and failure to stay in the lane. It is not yet clear whether or not Cann's family will seek charges against the driver.

In related news in Illinois, the wife of a recently deceased man filed a lawsuit against the owners of a recreational trail where her husband was fatally struck by a car. The woman, Mary Beltz, claims that her husband William was riding his bike down the Schoolhouse Trail near Illinois Route 111 when a man in a Chevrolet Lumina hit him.

She is alleging that the defective design of the trail and intersecting roads are partially to blame for her husband's death. The lawsuit claims that there were no traffic control signs on the Schoolhouse Trail, which intersects with Route 111 and Horseshoe Lake Road. There is one particular turn on Schoolhouse Trail that requires riders to slow or stop in the middle of the intersection of Route 111 and Horseshoe Lake Road.

Beltz names the Madison County Mass Transit District, which owns and operates Schoolhouse Trail, and the Agency for Community Transit Board, which maintains the trail, in her suit. She claims the entities negligently failed to provide appropriate signs warning trail-goers of the dangerous intersection.

She also names Oates Associates as a defendant, the company that designed the trail. She claims Oates failed to: properly incorporate warning signs in its designs, to place stop signs at intersections, warn of dangerous trail elements, supervise the appropriate placement of signs on the trail, and failed to design a trail that did not have exceedingly dangerous turns. She is seeking upwards of $400,000 for her husband's funeral costs and her loss of his society, companionship, love, and financial support.

Continue reading "Driver Charged with Reckless Homicide in Fatal Bike Crash" »

Train accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins report of two recent train derailments in the New England area, one in Maryland and the other in Connecticut. These collisions come after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that the nation's trains are safer than ever.

The more recent of the two collisions, the Maryland derailment, occurred on Tuesday, May 28, 2013, when a CSX freight train collided with a commercial truck at a private crossing near Baltimore. The truck driver was critically injured and the train ultimately exploded, which witnesses say they could feel from blocks away, similar to an earthquake.

CSX officials affirm that there were no toxic chemicals on the train that could be inhaled by anyone in the surrounding community. Several buildings were, however, damaged in the derailment, and as a precaution, between 60 and 70 local residents were asked to evacuate.

Although the NTSB send teams in to investigate, the cause of the derailment was not initially clear. Videos from CNN show at least five of the freight train's cars off the track and white and black smoking rising from the wreckage. Witnesses said the first thing they saw were two or three train cars overturned on their sides sliding down the track, followed by a deafening explosion.

The second explosion occurred less than a week earlier, on May 23, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Of the 70 injured, five people were brought to the hospital after the collision, one in critical condition. The commuter trains were traveling between New York to New Haven, CT, during rush hour at the time of the crash, which is suspected to have been caused by a broken rail. The stretch of track carries more than 30,000 passengers every day between the two metro areas.

The NTSB arrived at the scene the same day to investigate the wreckage, which involved two Metro-North trains. The investigative group examined photos, witness statements, Metro-North employees, mechanical aspects of the tains, and reports and records, among other data pertaining to the collision.

They found that, in April 2013, there was maintenance work performed on the section of the track where the wreck occurred. Records revealed that a bar used to join two sections of the rail together was cracked and repaired by Metro-North employees. Other sections of the track were taken as samples and shipped to NTSB laboratories for examination.

It seems that the eastbound train derailed, stopped, and was hit about 20 second later by the westbound train. The conductor of the westbound train did apply the emergency breaks in the moments before the collision. Both tracks will need to be repaired before they can be reopened.

Debris from the wreckage littered about 200 yards surrounding the crash site, and much of the insides of the cars were completely shattered. Both trains were traveling at about 70 miles per hour in the moments before the crash.

Despite these high-profile collisions, derailments throughout the country are steadily declining: train accidents fell 43% between 2003 and 2012, and the number of incidents at railroad crossings decreased by 34%. This is the result of new investments by railroads in equipment and track materials, employee training, and technological tools that can detect problems before derailment.

2012 was reportedly the safest year for the railroad industry on record, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Many of the country's major freight railroads are planning to invest about $13 billion in maintenance and upgrades for the network. Such work includes replacing railroad ties and adding new tracks to accommodate heavier freights.

Continue reading "Recent Train Collisions Shock New England " »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins recently reported on the dangers of driving during Memorial Day Weekend. Many are calling the southern California wreck that occurred over this 2013 holiday weekend the worst single-car crash in recent memory; five were killed in the wreck, all students at nearby high schools.

The crash occurred on Jaboree Road in Newport Beach, CA, just down the road from the city's police station. Police state that the driver, a 17-year-old senior at University High School, was speeding in an Infiniti when the car swerved out of control, hitting a tree. The Infiniti split in two in the impact and was engulfed in flames The vehicle was so split, in fact, that emergency responders initially though the crash involved two separate cars.

The driver, along with the four passengers (including two sisters), were all killed. One of the passengers was thrown partway from the Infiniti while the other four were ejected completely from the vehicle. Most of the victims' bodies were so mangled that police had to use their fingerprints as identification.

Police stated that speed was a factor in the crash, which occurred at the bottom of a steep hill. The victims' friends told the LA Times that students should take this wreckage as a wake-up call. Newport Beach and the surrounding area have an illustrious history of high-profile crashes related to speeding.

In 2009, less than a mile from this crash site, the co-founder of an apparel company was killed after his Ferrari was hit by a Porsche, causing the Ferrari to strike a light pole and, similarly to the Infiniti, split completely in two. Newport police later estimated the Porsche was traveling around 100 miles per hour.

Just two years ago, in 2011, three people were killed in a crash associated with speeding on West Coast Highway. That crash also involved the death of a high school student. In 1997, a speeding SUV filled with 10 students from Newport Harbor High School hit a median and flipped, killing one passenger and leaving another in a coma.

In related news, motorists in Illinois convicted of DUI who have an ignition interlock system will now also be subjected to camera surveillance. Starting on July 1, 2013, drivers will have their pictures automatically snapped when they attempt to start their cars.

Ignition interlocks have become quite popular in the United States in recent years, with most states adopting the system even for first-time drunken drivers. The interlocks require drivers to breathe into a breathalyzer device before their car is able to start.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White recently noted that the interlock system has one significant flaw: that there is no way to ensure that the person blowing into the device is the driver of the vehicle. Because of this, White recently approved an amendment to the administrative rules so that a camera is now required in all vehicles to record who is blowing into the interlock.

The Illinois director of Mothers against Drunk Driving affirms that there are many people who try to defeat the interlocks by having sober friends blow into the device. Others are saying the new requirement is an impediment on driver privacy, referring to the cameras as Big Brother.

Continue reading "Five Teens Killed in Southern California Crash" »

Truck accident lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that the recent bridge collapse in Washington State was caused by a trailer tractor truck crash. Several vehicles and their passengers were sent into the frigid Skagit River.

Fortunately, no motorists died in the collapse, although two were fished from the river, which is about 15 feet deep, and two were hospitalized with hypothermia and other non-life-threatening injuries. The highway, Interstate 5, goes between Seattle and Vancouver and the bridge is located about 55 miles north of Seattle.

The State Patrol Chief John Batiste stated that a semi-trailer truck was heading southbound on the bridge when it struck a metal overhead beams in the minutes before it collapsed. It was reported that the size of the load on the truck created the problem, causing the too-tall load to strike the bridge unexpectedly. Investigators with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board spoke the driver, inspected the truck, and are still investigating to determine what the exact events that led to the bridge collapse.

The State Secretary of Transportation told Reuters that the bridge was built in 1955, and was not among the 150 bridges Washington listed as structurally deficient during inspections in 2011. Local television stations filmed onlookers who gathered on the bank of the Skagit River in the hours after the collapse, watching rescue attempts.

The truck made it off the bridge in time before it collapsed, and the driver remained at the scene to cooperate with investigators. Authorities have not yet confirmed what type of cargo the truck was carrying. Drivers are encouraged to avoid the area if possible, especially over the holiday weekend. The I-5 corridor continues to be disrupted, and traffic along the route could remain affected for an indefinite amount of time.

Washington legislators recently debated a $8.4 billion proposal that would fund a transportation package. A major issue surrounding this package is whether or not it should include a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River connecting Portland, Oregon with Vancouver, Washington.

This incident mirrored the tragic accident that took place in the Twin Cities in Minnesota in 2007. One of the state's busiest highways, Interstate 35W, collapsed on August first of that year, killing 13 people and injuring 145 of the survivors.

As the bridge crumbled into the Mississippi river it instantaneously became a symbol of the deteriorating national infrastructure. Barry LePatner, author of a book on America's failing infrastructure, stated that, since 1989, there have been nearly 600 bridge failures, many of which were barely publicized.

According to LePatner, a large number of bridges in every state pose a significant danger to the driving public. What is perhaps most alarming about this most recent collapse is that the bridge was inspected twice in 2012, with repairs made. In the Federal Highway Administration database the bridge is listed as functionally obsolete, which means the design is outdated. It also has a sufficiency rating of 47 out of 100 (the state average is 80).

Continue reading "Washington Bridge Collapse Blamed on Semi Tractor-Trailer " »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins remind the driving public that holidays are the most dangerous times of the year for travel. In fact, Memorial Day consistently ranks among the top five most dangerous days of the year to be on the road.

Although most drivers assume the majority of accidents happen during the winter months, the reality is that the warmer spring months are much more prone to accidents. One news station reported that, in 2012, about 26% of all auto accidents occurred in March through May, and another quarter between September and November. To compare, the winter months accounted for about 23%.

Although these percentages seem relatively minor, it may be helpful to remember while out on the road this spring. Drivers, particularly in the Northern states, understandably drive more defensively in the winter months, when unpredictable weather and poor road conditions seem more threatening. In case you've been out of the country, spring in the United States can be just as unpredictable, with unexpected rain and thunderstorms, wind gusts, and sudden shifts in temperature.

Weekend holidays such as the upcoming Memorial Day also bring a significant surge in roadway crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Memorial Day consistently ranks in the top five most dangerous day for travel every single year (the others are New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, July 4th, and Labor Day).

In 2009, the NHTSA recorded that 473 people died on American roadways during the three-day weekend, and about 42% of those fatalities involved alcohol. It is worth noting that seat belts reduce fatalities by an estimated 45%. Based on this estimation, about 212 people's lives would be saved this Memorial Day weekend if they used their seatbelts.

Due to this known increase in roadway dangers, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) recently announced that roadwork will be suspended wherever possible over this holiday weekend. This is being done to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow throughout the state. IDOT is also providing advanced notice of lane closures that will remain in place this weekend. Illinois drivers will be able to enjoy this construction suspension between 3 p.m. Friday to midnight on Sunday.

In related news, a recent auto incident in Damascus, Virginia injured 60 people and sent nine others to the hospital. During a local parade, a car plowed into both spectators and participants, sending hundreds of people running and screaming.

The incident occurred during the beginning of the Hikers Parade at the annual Appalachian Trail Days Festival in Damascus. Fortunately, none of the 60 injuries appeared to be life-threatening. William H. Nunley, the Damascus police chief, stated that the driver lost control of the vehicle from effects of a medical condition, though the specific ailment was not specified. One news station reported that the driver may have been elderly.

The car was participating in the parade, and was traveling at about 20 to 25 miles per hour when it started drifting into the crowd that afternoon. Nunley estimated that the car drove into about 1,000 people while drifting out of control. Spectators immediately started running, shouting, and yelling for others to get out of the way. Law enforcement and emergency rescue personnel were already on scene and were able to immediately aid the injured.

Continue reading "Memorial Day Weekend among Most Dangerous Holidays for Travel" »

Boat accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins remind the public that this week, May 18-24, 2013, is recognized as National Safe Boating Week. This week the U.S. Coast Guard initiates the "Wear It!" campaign, to spread the message of responsible and safe boating.

Wearing life jackets is mandated by law in all 50 states, no matter what type of body of water you are on. The U.S. Coast Guard, along with partner organizations, is currently working together to create a larger network and a more consistent campaign message throughout the country. They hope that these collaborative efforts will both increase awareness about the importance of life jackets and ultimately lead to a decrease in waterway fatalities.

In 2012, more than 70% of all fatal boating accident victims died from drowning. Of these, about 85% were not wearing a life jacket. A boating incident can happen in the blink of an eye, and even the strongest swimmers and athletes can be rendered unconscious, injured, and exhausted in the water. The Coast Guard affirms that a VHF-FM radio is the best method of communication while on the water, and that although cell phones are a good backup, they should not be solely relied on as they can be unreliable.

The Coast Guard outlines several other useful tips on their website, such as always checking local weather prior to departing and having nautical charts of the area you are boating in. It also recommends boaters obtain a free, no-fault vessel safety check from the Coast Guard Auxiliary, which is a courtesy service that verifies the presence and condition of safety equipment required by federal and state law.

It is worth reminding that boating under the influence is just as dangerous as driving an automobile while impaired. It is illegal in all 50 states to operate a boat while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Penalties for such an act may include hefty fines, license suspension or revocation, and jail time. Indeed, alcohol is the leading contributing factor in all fatal boating crashes.

One such accident recently took place in Cleora, Oklahoma on Duck Creek. Two 21-year-old University of Arkansas students, Rachel Swetnam and Trey Varner, were killed when their Cobalt speed boat crashed into a docked, empty houseboat. In recent years, Duck Creek has been built up enormously to include two restaurants and numerous boat slips just on the arm of the lake the crash occurred.

Neighborhood associations recently petitioned that the area was overcrowded and that the boat slips stuck out too far, making it dangerous for boaters and jetskiers. One person was killed in the summer of 2012 while driving a boat, too fast, into a breakwater barrier.

The crash happened around 5:30 p.m. near Arrowhead Yacht Club on Duck Creek. Investigators said that alcohol and speed of the boat were both major contributing factors in the crash; so far, they have not found anything mechanically wrong with the boat. Eight people were on the ski boat at the time of the accident - Swetnam and Varner were the only two in the front of the boat, and neither was driving it. One passenger jumped overboard in the seconds before impact and was not injured. Two were taken to a local hospital, and three others refused treatment at the scene.

Continue reading "National Safe Boating Week Begins May 18" »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins report that only two compact SUVs - among the most popular vehicles on American roads - passed the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) overlap crash tests. The Subaru Forester (pictured) earned the best marks, while the second, the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, earned an "acceptable" rating.

The IIHS's "small overlap crash test" replicates a crash involving the vehicle and a fixed object, such as a pole, tree, or parked car. In combination with other safety tests, such as the standard frontal, rear, and side crash tests, the Mitsubishi and Subaru models were the only two of 13 models to earn the Top Safety Pick+. Each of these two vehicles was recently redesigned with close attention to crash safety.

The vice president for vehicle research at IIHS stated that Subaru and Mitsubishi represent exactly what the institute hoped manufacturers would do to improve protection for passengers in these types of crashes. An IIHS spokesperson stated that two thirds of all small SUVs involved in the tests were rated poorly for structural integrity, and about half received poor or insignificant scores for passenger restraint (when the test dummies crash into hard interior surfaces).

For example, in testing the Nissan Rogue, the SUV's door frame was pushed so far into the passenger compartment that it nearly collapsed into the driver's seat. In another test, with the Jeep Patriot, the safety belt not only completely failed to restrain the test dummy, but the side curtain airbag failed to deploy as well. The Jeep's steering wheel also moved eight inches up and six inches to the right upon impact, causing the driver dummy's head to slide off the front airbag.

There is, however, a regular Top Safety Pick (minus the +), which includes other tests, such as standard frontal and rollover tests. About ten small SUVs earned this designation: the BMW X1, Buick Encore, Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tuscon, Kia Sportage, Jeep Patriot, Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV-4, and Volkswageon Tiguan.

The Top Safety Picks+ designation, however, includes testing for crashes that account for more than a quarter of all roadway fatalities. In the overlap test (the test only the Subaru and Mitsubishi SUVs passed), vehicles crash going 40 MPH with only 25% of the driver's side front end hitting a five-foot rigid barrier. These tests are supposed to evaluate the crashworthiness of a vehicle's outer edges (which are not as structurally protected) as well as airbags and seatbelts more rigorously than frontal crash tests. Overlap tests are important because these types of impacts contribute to the most fatalities; frontal crashes usually result in minor broken bones.

Small overlap crashes are so dangerous largely because the vehicle tends to spin uncontrollably after the impact, causing occupants to move within the car (even with seat belts on), away from the areas that are most protected by the airbags. As seen in the Jeep Patriot, vehicles can actually contort during the crash, so airbags wind up being in the wrong location altogether.

Continue reading "Only Two SUVs Pass Latest Crash Test " »

Auto accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins point to a new study by the University of Buffalo which revealed that the odds of death in a car were 7.6 times greater than for those in an SUV. Additionally, a separate study found that more than 60% of all distracted driving-related fatalities were caused not by cell phones, but by simple daydreaming.

This second set of data was compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in studying the traffic deaths between 2010 and 2011. According to the federal agency, about ten of every 65,000 roadway fatalities were caused by distracted driving, and the top reason for these crashes was attributed to drivers becoming "lost in thought."

Talking and texting on cell phones was the second-most cited reason for the crashes, accounting for about 12% of all fatalities. Distracted driving is defined by any activity that takes drivers' eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, or mind off the primary task of driving. The most troubling aspect of this phenomenon is that most of the distractions causing these roadway fatalities are somewhat beyond regulation. Drivers habitually and legally engage in various tasks while driving, such as talking to other occupants, listening to music, smoking, eating and drinking, and yes, daydreaming.

In attempt to curb these deaths, ten states and the District of Columbia initiated laws banning all motorists, regardless of age, from using handheld cell phones while operating a motor vehicle. Another 39 states prohibit text messaging specifically, and a few others forbid cell phone use only by minor drivers.

Despite these laws and the national campaigns to accompany them, nearly 70% of all licensed motorists recently surveyed by AAA admitted to using a cell phone while driving within the last month. AAA also found that those drivers engaging in cell phone use while driving were more likely to engage in other types of dangerous behavior, such as speeding, driving while drowsy, and not using a seat belt.

Going back to the first story mentioned by the University of Buffalo may provide some much-needed insight to drivers shopping for the safest car to protect from dangerous drivers. For the study researchers matched cars versus SUVs in crash tests. As stated, in a head-on crash, results showed that the odds of death for car passengers were 7.6 times higher than for the SUV driver. Cars with better front crash-test ratings fared a bit better, but car drivers were still 4.5 times more likely to die than SUV drivers.

Researchers examined data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database, which is managed by the federal government, and stores information from more than 80,000 crashes. They found that, at least in terms of head-on crashes, vehicle type was much more important in terms of survival than the crash-test rating. There is, however, more to choosing a safe vehicle than simply picking the largest model.

SUVs have a higher center of gravity than do cars, making them more prone to rollovers, which are often fatal, particularly for those not using seat belts (most of the 6,800 rollover fatalities in 2010 were not wearing seat belts). For this reason, electronic stability control technology is highly recommended, as it significantly reduces the overall rollover risk. This technology was made mandatory in 2012, though it was widely used in vehicles even before that year.

Continue reading "SUVs Safer than Cars in Front Crashes" »