Chicago Car Accident Lawyer Blog

Our Chicago personal injury lawyers encourage riders and other motorists to consider taking a course on what to do in the event of a serious car accident. In particular, a course being offered about dealing with injuries before rescue crews arrive could mean the difference between life and death in the event of a serious or fatal traffic accident.

During Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month in May, we published an article on our Illinois Injury Law Blog detailing some of the steps riders can take to help protect themselves from being involved in a Chicago motorcycle accident.

Now the Sun-Times reports that a trauma nurse is offering a class aimed at teaching riders and motorists about what they can do to assist before emergency crews arrive. The 40-year-old trauma nurse from Loyola Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine has seen it all in 10 years on the job, from bikers with scrapes and bruises to those dead on arrival. As an avid motorcycle rider herself, she was also involved in a motorcycle crash on I-55 in 2006, which dislocated her shoulder, fractured an ankle and left her with road rash. The accident was caused by a passing motorist, who threw a Gatorade bottle out the window.

She was with fellow riders who assisted her for 40 minutes until emergency crews could arrive. The experienced left her well aware of how ill-equipped most riders are for dealing with injuries until emergency personnel can arrive on the scene. Her class, called "A Crash Course for the Motorcyclist," is aimed at bikers, scooter riders, EMS specialists and nurses. Its aim is to educate those at a crash scene about what to do in the minutes following an Illinois motorcycle accident.

Tips on securing the scene, traffic control, when and how to move an injury victim, how to move a motorcycle, and how to properly provide a 911 dispatcher with life-saving information are all part of the course. Nearly half of all motorcycle riders are seriously injured and 98 percent of riders involved in an accident with another vehicle suffer some injuries. She also encourages all riders to take a CPR course and an accident management program. Basic and advanced courses are offered on the following Saturdays: July 24, Sept. 4, Sept. 18, Oct. 2, Oct. 16, Nov. 13 and Nov. 27 at Loyola University Health System in Maywood.

Fort more information visit www.accidentscene.org.

Continue reading " Chicago injury lawyers believe accident response course worthwhile for all motorists " »

The Sun-Times reports that a plan to install red-light cameras at suburban intersections is facing opposition, even as county officials claim the effort will reduce the number of Chicago car accidents.

Cook County is moving ahead with the plan to install cameras at 20 intersections in suburbia but village officials are angered that their input was not sought. Three cameras are planned in Arlington Heights, where officials previously decided not to install cameras out of respect for the public. The intersections are maintained by the Cook County highway department; a county spokesman said the cameras are being installed at intersections with a higher concentration of safety issues. The county would collect any revenue generated from the tickets. County officials estimate the cameras will bring in at least $2 million a year, the Daily Herald reports.

The cameras, which snap photos of red-light violators and send tickets in the mail, have become a hot-button issue, with detractors claiming they are being used to generate revenue and may even increase rear-end collisions at intersections. The Tribune reports that Schaumburg took the cameras down, despite ticketing 10,000 drivers in 2008 and generating more than $1 million in revenue.

Traffic statistics there showed that the cameras hadn't reduced collisions and the politicians acquiesced to irate motorists. Now the county has decided to install 6 cameras at intersections in Schaumburg. Nearly 200 cameras are currently operating at Chicago intersections. However, a recent study by the University of Illinois at Chicago found that crashes have not declined at camera equipped intersections, despite an overall reduction in traffic accidents citywide.

Chicago intersection accidents are a real concern. The Illinois Department of Transportation reports that about one-fourth of all fatal Illinois crashes occurred at signal-equipped intersection in 2008, accounting for 83,000 of the state's 408,000 crashes.

Continue reading " Red-light cameras coming to suburbia; reduction in Chicago car accidents debated " »

A police officer who had been accused of drunk driving will not face charges in connection with a fatal Chicago car accident, the Sun-Times reported.

Of the 1.043 people killed in Illinois traffic accidents in 2008, 42 percent involved alcohol, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

An Illinois personal injury lawsuit remains pending against the officer, who was involved in a Thanksgiving Day 2007 crash that killed two men, ages 21 and 22. The Cook County prosecutor's office dropped the aggravated drunk driving charges against the officer after a judge threw out key evidence in the case during a court hearing in April.

The accident happened shortly after 2:30 a.m. when the victim's Pontiac did not yield at a stop sign. The officer struck their vehicle with his Dodge SUV. Initially charged with misdemeanor DUI, those charges were later upgraded to a felony.

However, a judge ruled there was no evidence that the officer was drunk at the time of the accident. He was off-duty and prosecutors presented a videotape showing him consuming five shots and other drinks at a bar shortly before the crash. The officer wasn't given a breathalyzer until seven hours after the crash. The judge ruled the officer who administered the breathalyzer test lacked probable cause. Key blood-alcohol evidence was also dismissed from the case.

The rulings so enraged three members of the victims' family that they were arrested in a courthouse scuffle with police.

The officer is currently on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

You can watch and read the ABC7 report here.

The NBC report is available here.

Continue reading " DUI charges against officer dismissed in fatal Chicago car accident " »

A 30-year-old man is jailed and charged with felony DUI and reckless homicide in connection with a Chicago pedestrian accident that claimed to life of a 10-year-old boy. The Sun-Times reports the driver also faces other charges, including driving with a suspended license. The Chicago man faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted. He was jailed on Monday, when a Cook County judge set bail at $350,000.

The crash happened just before 6 a.m. Saturday in Rogers Park when a van driven by the defendant slammed into a parked SUV, pushing it into another parked SUV and crushing the child between the two vehicles. The third-grader and his sister had just arrived to visit their aunt so their father could work as a caddy over the Memorial Day weekend.

Prosecutors say the driver tested .109 -- above the limit of .08 for drunk driving in Illinois -- and failed field sobriety tests. Police report finding several empty beer bottles in the van following the collision. Authorities say he ran a red light and lost control of the van before slamming into a Ford Explorer. The Explorer was pushed into a Toyota SR 5, trapping the child, who was walking between the two vehicles. Some media outlets reported that the defendant's van was being followed by a police cruiser at the time of the crash.

Chicago drunk driving accidents continue to be responsible for a significant number of serious and fatal traffic crashes. In 2008 Illinois traffic accidents in which alcohol tests were performed, about half (328 of 655) involved a driver with alcohol in their system, according to statistics from the Illinois Division of Traffic Safety.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for children ages 3 to 14. An average of four children a day were killed and 529 injured in traffic accidents in 2008. Forty-four were killed in Illinois traffic accidents involving children.

Continue reading " Child killed in reported Chicago drunk driving accident " »