Articles Posted in Auto Accidents

Between 1994 to 2008 there have been close to 6,000 traffic fatalities in Cook County according to an analysis done by Scripps Howard News Service. Of these 6,000 fatalities, nearly one-third were linked to drinking.

The same study found that the Cook County portion of I-94, which runs mostly through Chicago, is the 11th most dangerous road in the nation for fatal auto accidents with 304 fatalities between 1994 and 2008.

The law firm of Zneimer & Zneimer agreed to represent an injured bicyclist who was rear-ended on Western Ave. near Lane Tech High School in Chicago. The driver who struck the bicyclist was a student at Lane Tech High School who told police that he was retrieving his cell phone from the floor of his car when he rear-ended the bicyclist. Fortunately, the bicyclist was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

This bicycle accident shows that even if the bicyclist is very careful, the bicyclist is still at the mercy of drivers who are not paying attention. That is why it is so important to wear protective clothing. A bicycle helmet is a must if one plans to ride on busy roads like Western Ave. in Chicago.

A Pontiac mini van blew a tire on the Dan Ryan in Chicago on Saturday, causing the the vehicle to spin and then crash into the side of a truck. Two children and one adult were ejected from the van. None of the persons who were ejected were wearing seat belts and all three were injured and are now in critical condition at University of Chicago Hospital.

The law firm of Zneimer and Zneimer urges everyone to wear seat belts at all times and to make children in the vehicle wear theirs. Anything can happen while driving.

Luis Valdivia-Segoviano of Chicago Heights, Illinois was struck by a car and killed while he was standing outside his vehicle on IL-394 near Lynwood, Illinois. The motorist who stopped in front of him and to whom he was talking was also stuck and injured by the same vehicle and is in critical condition at Good Samaritan Hospital.

This is the second fatality in less than a week of someone standing outside their car on the highway in the the near Chicago area when they were struck and killed, emphasizing how dangerous it is to exit ones car on the highway.

In the United States during 2008, 968 children ages 14 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and approximately 168,000 were injured. A CDC study published in the May 3, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that 64% of the children who died in car crashes were riding in the vehicle with a drinking driver. The drinking driver was typically old enough to be the age of the child’s parent or caregiver. The study also found that as the blood alcohol concentration of the child’s driver increased, child restraint use decreased. The statistics is grim:

• Fifteen percent of occupant deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years involved a drinking driver.
• More than two-thirds of fatally injured children were killed while riding with a drinking driver.

Drivers who do not take the time to completely defrost their windows drive with a dramatically reduced field of vision. As Sargent Scott Kristiansen of the Buffalo Grove Police Department in suburban Chicago pointed out in a USA Today article: “Reasonable people who would never think of leaving their driveway with worn tires or bad brakes will routinely drive their children to school after scraping just a small peephole with which to see out of the vehicle.” In Illinois a driver can be cited for anything an officer deems to “materially obstruct” a driver’s vision.