Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog

A Chicago resident that was hit by a vehicle on Monday evening remains in a hospital, according to the Chicago Tribune. The accident happened in the area of Harlem Avenue and Lake Street in River Forest, Illinois.

After the accident, the driver fled the scene. The car was later stopped in Oak Park and the driver, a Chicago resident, was taken into custody.

The severity of the pedestrian's injuries have not been reported, but the fact that she is still hospitalized is not a good sign. Statistically, pedestrians involved in accidents are seriously injured. Click here to read a recent article we posted on pedestrian injuries.

In this case, the victim most likely has a civil case against the driver, however, the chances are good that the driver had no insurance. It has been my experience that most drivers that flee the scene of an accident are uninsured.

If the hit-and-run driver was uninsured, hopefully the victim has her own auto insurance policy with good uninsured motorist coverage. She can make a claim on her own policy and recover for her injuries, medical bills and other damages.

If you have been the victim in a pedestrian accident, or if you have been injured by an uninsured driver or a hit-and-run driver, contact Abels & Annes for a free consultation.

In a relatively rare bit of good news for Detroit, a traffic safety group announced recently that it rated 72 model-year 2009 vehicles as “Top Safety Picks.” The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurance-industry research group, rates brand-new cars each year according to how well they protect passengers in front, side and rear impacts. The press release announcing this year’s picks noted that the 72 models that made the cut this year are more than twice as many as the 2008 crop, and nearly three times the number with the top rating in 2007.

To qualify as a top safety pick, cars, trucks and SUVs must have electronic stability control as a standard or optional feature. Electronic stability control uses computers to automatically detect skids and correct steering by applying brakes in a way that sends the vehicle where the driver is trying to go. Vehicles also must get top scores in IIHS crash tests for front, side and rear impacts, taking into account the availability of safety features like side curtain airbags and correctly designed head restraints. Frontal-impact crash tests are conducted at 40 mph; side crash tests at 31 mph; and rear crash tests measure force on the neck during a 20-mph rear-end accident.

As an Illinois car accident lawyer, I’m interested in vehicle safety ratings in part because not every vehicle deserves an A. Substantial safety defects in new cars (and older ones) are more common than you might think. You may remember the Bridgestone/Firestone tire recall about a decade ago, which affected hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks; those tires are actually blamed for multiple deaths from tire blowouts that caused drivers to lose control at high speeds. Other dangerous flaws in vehicles include improperly attached seatbelts; SUVs and vans prone to rollover accidents; and improperly placed fuel tanks that can burst into flames.

Most accidents are caused by human error -- but even the safest driver in the world isn’t safe when vehicles or their parts have flaws. When a safety flaw in a car causes (or contributes to) a serious auto accident, manufacturers can and should be held legally responsible for the results. A Chicago car accident lawsuit can help victims cover medical bills and other costs of the accident, and compensate them for a serious injury or disability and their pain and suffering. If you’d like to learn more about holding automakers responsible for the safety flaws they leave in their vehicles, please contact Abels & Annes today for a free consultation.

Illinois residents convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol will have a tougher time repeating their mistakes starting in 2009. As the Rockford Register Start reported, a new state law takes effect Jan. 1, 2009, requiring first-time offenders to install a breathalyzer-like device in their vehicles if they wish to continue driving to essential destinations like work during a license suspension. This ignition interlock device requires drivers to breathe into a tube that tests their breath for alcohol before the vehicle will start. Drivers must pay for the installation and lease of their own devices, as well as a monthly monitoring fee; they may also choose to bypass these costs by not driving at all while their licenses are suspended.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Illinois is one of eight states with a law requiring an interlock device for anyone convicted of DUI. Ten others, including Missouri and Kansas, require it for offenders with a high blood-alcohol concentration or for repeat offenders, and Oregon requires one for people whose licenses are reinstated after a DUI license suspension is over. The new Illinois law is close to MADD’s model law, which calls for a device to be installed within about a month of any DUI conviction.

Drunk driving, and driving under the influence of drugs, is an accident risk so well-known that it's almost a cliche. As an Illinois auto accident lawyer, I see the destructive effects of intoxicated driving more often than I’d like -- wrongful deaths, serious burns, head injuries and other very serious injuries. A breathalyzer device on the ignition can cut down on those tragedies by providing an objective test of whether the driver is safe to drive.

At Abels & Annes, we handle all types of auto accident cases, including drunk driving lawsuits. Based in Chicago, we handle legal claims throughout Illinois involving car, truck, SUV and motorcycle accidents. If you or someone you care about was seriously hurt in an accident that you believe was someone else’s fault, we would like to help. To learn more about your legal options and your rights at a free consultation, please contact us today through our Web site or at (312) 399-8988.

A new study weighs in on an ongoing debate: Is talking on a cell phone truly more distracting than talking to someone in the car with you? According to researchers at the University of Utah, the answer seems to be yes. The study, published Dec. 1 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, asked drivers ages 18 to 26 to chat while they used a sophisticated highway driving simulator. They were asked to tell a friend -- either over the phone or in the “car” -- about a life-threatening situation they’d been in. A control group of drivers not talking at all was also included.

The study found that drivers talking on the phone were four times more likely to miss their exit than drivers talking to a live human in the next seat. About half of the subjects talking on a hands-free phone missed their “highway” exit, while just one-eighth of the drivers talking to a traveling companion missed it. Drivers on the phone were also more likely to drift from their lanes and leave too much following distance between them and the vehicles in front of them. Interestingly, the study found no substantial difference in the driving of people talking to passengers and people not talking at all.

The researchers had several possible explanations for their results. One is “inattention blindness,” a phenomenon in which the brain’s ability to process visual information is actually reduced while the person is talking on the phone or distracted by another abstract task. Another explanation is that passengers in the vehicle can help drivers concentrate by steering or changing the conversation in response to events on the road. In fact, the study found that passengers did talk about traffic with the drivers. It also found that drivers on the phone tended to change the complexity of their sentences and talk more when driving tasks became difficult. Researchers speculated that this might be an attempt to control the conversation, so they didn’t have to pay close attention to it.

I found this study especially interesting in light of the city of Chicago’s 2005 law restricting drivers to hands-free talking only while driving. This is not the first study connecting cell phone use to poor driving, but these rules remain controversial. I sympathize with concerns about freedom, but I believe safety should be the most important consideration. As a Chicago car accident lawyer, I frequently see how physically, financially and emotionally devastating a serious car crash can be. Many of our clients come to us after a death in the family or a serious injury and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, all caused by someone else’s careless driving (with or without a phone involved).

If you’ve been hurt or lost someone in a serious Chicago auto accident, please contact us today to learn more about filing an Illinois auto accident lawsuit.

The family of a woman killed in a 2007 drunk-driving accident is pushing for felony DUI charges against the two motorists involved in the accident. According to CBS 7 Chicago, the woman was a passenger on a motorcycle operated by Eugene Bikulcius when a car driven by Carol Miller made an illegal left turn into their path. The two on the motorcycle were coming from a bar, and the pattern of the accident suggested that they were traveling at a high speed. Miller was arrested the night of the accident for misdemeanor DUI, but Bikulcius was not.

The victim’s family suggests that Bikulcius wasn’t charged because he was an off-duty Chicago police officer. In fact, according to the report, Bikulcius wasn’t charged with any crime or breath-tested the night of the accident. It was only after several months of intervention by the victim’s family that the state’s attorney in the case found a hospital blood test showing a blood-alcohol concentration of three times the legal limit, and charged him with misdemeanor DUI. The family believes a felony DUI charge would be more appropriate, since felony charges are usually filed in a DUI case involving a death. But the state’s attorney told the station that an inadequate investigation left them without the evidence they needed for the more serious charge.

Regardless of whether this officer -- who is now on paid leave and relieved of duty -- is truly the beneficiary of police interference, drinking and driving is always a bad idea. As a Chicago car accident lawyer, I am generally sympathetic to motorcyclists in this type of accident. A car turning left in front of a motorcycle is one of the most common car-motorcycle crash patterns, and it’s often caused by the driver’s failure to look carefully for traffic. However, a BAC reading of 0.24 (three times the 0.08 limit in Illinois) makes a DUI charge appropriate in this case.

Whether that BAC caused or contributed to the crash is a different story, and may never be known. I can only imagine how upset this family must feel that the investigation of this deadly accident was deemed “inadequate.” When law enforcement can’t or won’t make a criminal case in an accident like this, families can also choose to pursue justice through the civil courts, with a Chicago auto accident lawsuit. In addition to holding a wrongdoer responsible for his or her actions, a legal claim can help families deal with the practical consequences of their loss -- medical bills, burial costs, loss of an income and compensation for the loss of a beloved sister and daughter. If you or someone you love is in this situation and you’d like to know more, you can contact Abels & Annes for a free consultation about your rights and your case.

A suburban Chicago man recently died in a crash with a school bus full of college students from the University of Wisconsin at Madison on Dec. 6. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the chartered bus was taking 17 students from UW’s German Club home from Chicago’s Chirstkindlmarket, traveling along Interstate 90 just outside Chicago. A sedan entered the highway, immediately veered across traffic lanes and ended up sideways in the path of the bus. The crash killed the driver instantly, the article said. Luckily, no one on the bus was seriously hurt and no other vehicles were involved.

The article doesn’t give a cause for the accident, but given the description of the accident and details in the article, weather looks like an important factor. Unfortunately, Illinois has seen several weather-related traffic deaths in the last few weeks, including one that killed two elderly parishioners from an Edgewater church. Life must go on even when the roads are snowy or icy, but drivers should be aware of the danger. The Illinois Department of Transportation maintains a page with tips for safe winter driving.

As a Chicago bus accident lawyer, I happen to know that bus accidents are statistically rare. According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, buses were involved in just 0.5% of all accidents in 2006; only “other vehicles,” such as motor homes and tractors, have lower accident rates. The numbers for intercity buses are even lower -- 0.1% of fatal crashes. Part of this may be because buses are driven by professionals with special licenses, which means drivers have special training. They are also generally at work when they drive, which gives almost everyone an incentive to behave better than they might when driving on their own time.

However, that’s not to say that bus accidents aren’t very serious. Basic physics means that a bus is likely to seriously hurt a smaller car and its driver in an accident, especially one at highway speeds. Furthermore, the lack of seat belts or other safety technology on most buses may put bus passengers at risk as well. In some cases, this can translate to serious injuries -- head injuries, broken bones, spinal damage or even death. At Abels & Annes, our Illinois auto accident lawyers handle accidents with buses -- school buses, transit and charter -- as well as more the common traffic accidents with cars, trucks, SUVs and motorcycles. If you or someone you love has been hurt in this type of accident and you believe it was caused by someone else’s negligence, please contact Abels & Annes today for a free consultation.

According to new federal statistics, your risk of being involved in a fatal traffic accident just got lower. In November, the federal Department of Transportation reported that traffic fatalities actually went down for most groups between 2006 and 2007. The new numbers come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency responsible for tracking and preventing auto accidents, through its latest collection of Traffic Safety Facts. These factsheets use data compiled from more than 40,000 crashes around the United States in one calendar year to present crash and fatality rates for specific groups. Groups covered include occupants of cars, large trucks and motorcycles, pedestrians, cyclists, older people and children.

The NHTSA’s research has good news for almost all of those groups. Nearly every group has seen a drop in fatal accidents. Between 2006 and 2007, fatal accidents affecting pedestrians dropped by 2.9%; bicyclists and other cyclists, 9.5%; and large commercial trucks, 3.8%. Among children 14 and younger, there was a 6.9% decrease in fatalities in all types of traffic accident; among drivers 65 and older, the decrease was 1.6%. While the factsheet for auto accidents is still on its way, a preliminary report published in August says accidents among passenger cars, trucks and SUVs dropped by 5.7%, which includes a 7.8% drop in fatal accidents involving just cars. Unfortunately, Illinois alone saw a negligible 0.4% drop in fatal accidents.

The major exception was motorcycle riders and their passengers. (The NHTSA includes riders of scooters and mopeds in its motorcycle statistics.) Motorcyclists actually saw a 7% increase in fatalities between 2006 and 2007. In fact, this reflects a steady climb in motorcycle fatalities over the last decade. The factsheet doesn’t say why this might be, but a separate report (PDF) by the NHTSA shows that more motorcycles are being registered, new motorcycles are likely to be larger, and that the rate of brand-new riders over 40 jumped by more than 200% during the past decade. The report doesn’t speculate on how these facts might influence accident rates, but they’re certainly something for older motorcyclists to consider.

Here in Illinois, 2006 statistics show that we’re fairly good drivers, with our overall fatality rates below the national average and below neighboring states’ rates. But even one traffic fatality is a death that could have been avoided if someone involved had taken a little more care. If you’ve been hurt or lost a loved one in a traffic accident that was someone else’s fault, you have the right to hold that person responsible for the results. In an Illinois car accident lawsuit, you can win money to pay medical bills, repair costs and other financial costs of the accident, as well as financial compensation for intangible but very real injuries like a disability that will forever change your life. If you’d like to learn more, Abels & Annes can help at a free consultation. To speak with one of our experienced Chicago car accident lawyers today, please contact us through our Web site or call (312) 399-8988.

A man who hit a college student with his car and kept on going was sentenced to eight years in prison on Dec. 3, according to CBS2 Chicago. Boubacar Bah pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI in the March incident. Bah’s victim, Thomas Dalof, and a friend had just stopped two men from attacking a woman outside the bar. When they were approached by the men’s friends, Dalof and his friend moved toward Dalof’s car to escape. But before Dalof finished crossing the street, Bah ran a stop sign and hit him. Bah, who had nothing to do with the fight, later crashed into a utility pole and abandoned the car. He later told police that he’d had five drinks and smoked marijuana before heading home.

In this case, the driver was charged criminally for the DUI and its results. But when criminal charges aren’t filed, or when they’re not enough, victims may also choose to file a Chicago car accident lawsuit. A lawsuit over a wrongful death -- any death caused by someone else’s careless or illegal actions -- is always a sensitive matter, because no lawsuit can bring back a lost loved one. But a legal claim can help victims deal with the practical effects of a death that came too soon, including medical and funeral bills, loss of an income and other financial costs caused by the death. It can also help compensate victims for their intangible but very real emotional losses.

And perhaps most importantly, it can hold wrongdoers responsible for their actions in cases where charges aren’t filed, or where they just don’t seem like enough. If you have lost someone to drunk driving accident or another fatal crash caused by someone else’s carelessness, you have the right to pursue a Chicago auto accident lawsuit. Contact us at Abels & Annes today for a free consultation on your case.