Chicago Accident Lawyer Blog

February 24, 2018

Sleepy Truckers Pose Threat On Our Highways

A company’s thirst for profits with little regard for the employee’s welfare has always been problematic. Scores of extremely fatigued employees work daily for companies that only care for their bottom lines. This poses a danger not only to the employees’ well-being but to the general populace, as well. Trucking companies, for one, are notorious for dispatching drivers to work unreasonable hours without enough sleep. The result: hundreds of impaired drivers on the streets and senseless deaths.

Personal injury attorney, Peter Zneimer finds it alarming that despite federal safety regulations in place to prohibit trucking companies from pushing drivers to work without adequate sleep, a significant number of accidents still occur because of this foul practice. USA Today conducted an investigation on several trucking companies and the investigation unearthed dreadful data proving just how much trucking companies take advantage of their employees for their own gains. Their research showed that 470 trucks serving the ports in the Los Angeles and Long Beach areas operated nonstop without the requisite and federally-mandated full 10-hour break. The harmful effects of sleep deprivation go beyond bleary-eyed days and irritability—it costs lives. One such incident that occurred in August 2013 cost the life of a teenager and injured seven people.

A Mr. Jose Juan Rodriguez who used to work for Morgan Southern for five years would be on the road for 16-hour shifts, with a bucket of ice by his seat to splash on his face whenever he felt himself slipping away behind the wheel. Extreme cases of sleep deprivation cause cognitive impairments, affecting the memory, performance and alertness. It is crippling when you have to commute to work but to be the operator of a vehicle working 15 hours straight is reckless. The reality is most of these truck drivers are under pressure to meet deadlines and/or to pay their debts to their own employers under their lease-to-own programs. Many of them are trapped and are forced to work unforgiving shifts. The lawyers of Zneimer and Zneimer, P.C. applaud the fact that Electronic log devices are now required to be installed in commercial trucks to prevent violations of federal rules but it is uncertain how many trucking companies have complied since the enforcement in December 2017.

January 26, 2018

Textalyzer Proposed To Hold Distracted Drivers Accountable

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

Smartphones are almost indispensable in one’s day-to-day; you can see adult hands holding them and eyes as young as five years old affixed to them. Waiting rooms all over the world are filled with the motionless, hunched figures of people in the secure company of their phones. The extent to which the general population depends on the phone is dramatic; some would go so far as to say, their whole lives are IN their phone. What we may overlook in our obsession with it, are the actual lives at stake when we abuse the phone. It is a personal injury matter when innocent acts of texting, mindless scrolling or calling endanger lives and kill people.

Using your phone while driving is one of the many common forms of distracted driving and it is lethal. Many tragedies have resulted from distracted driving and it has been outlawed in many states including Illinois. Personal injury attorney Peter Zneimer is more than aware of the dangers distracted driving poses to the safety of motorists and pedestrians alike. One way to curb this type of distracted driving is through the adoption of a new technology called “Textalyzer”, developed by Israeli mobile forensics company, Cellebrite. A grieving New York father, Ben Lieberman, has urged Chicago’s City Counsel’s Public Safety Committee to consider this technology so as to prevent senseless accidents from happening. He has lost his 19 year old son himself from a distracted driver who was never prosecuted. The Textalyzer acts the way a Breathalyzer acts for intoxicated drivers. The idea is for law enforcers to determine if a driver was swiping, scrolling etc. with his phone minutes before a crash, with the use of Textalyzer.

It is relatively new and will have hurdles to jump through due to privacy concerns but past that, the Textalyzer has serious potential to save lives and give more accountability to motorists.

December 30, 2017

Distracted walking? How about distracted putting on makeup while driving?

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

Cook County’s attempts to mitigate the black hole debt it is in has at times, taken dark turns, such as the 321 layoffs announced last month, to somewhat comical, as in the new proposal to fine pedestrians for “distracted walking”. Aldermen Ed Burke (14^th ward) and Anthony Beale (9^th ward) justify this proposed ordinance on deficient grounds by citing 27 pedestrian deaths in the first half of 2017. While these figures are tragic, there is scant data to prove that distracted walking caused these deaths. Mimicking the successful passing of a similar law in Honolulu, this proposal came guised as concern for general public safety, but ultimately, fails to see the bigger picture.

Chicago personal injury attorney, Peter Zneimer, knows that distracted pedestrians, though problematic, are the least of this city’s worries and fining them is not the answer. All focus should be directed instead to promoting street safety for everyone on the street – motorists, bikers and pedestrians alike. Sustainable initiatives such as Vision Zero are already underway to reduce the occurrence of serious injuries and fatalities. It is a more prudent, long-term approach as compared to issuing fines of up to $500 to a “distracted” pedestrian. The plan is broad in scope and calls on ordinary citizens, law enforcers and the government to act more responsibly. It involves adding more pedestrian islands or refuges and bike paths and the implementation of policies geared towards the creation of safer vehicles and safer professional drivers.

December 28, 2017

Illinois Dog Bite Liability

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

The personal injury lawyers of Zneimer and Zneimer P.C. have handled many dog bite cases and most are governed by the Illinois Animal Control Act. Historically, under common law, a dog was allowed “one free bite;” which meant that a dog owner was not liable for injuries caused by a bite if that dog had never bit anyone else. More recently, the law has evolved so that a dog owner will only be liable if he if his negligence caused the injury. The “one free bite” rule and negligence standard are common in many jurisdictions throughout the country, but not in Illinois. Illinois is one of the few states that have passed laws that apply strict liability to dog owners whose dog bites a victim. The Illinois law is helpful to victims of dog bites and now Illinois ranks second to California, in the number of dog bite claims brought per year.

December 12, 2017

Avoid Death Traps – Used Cars and Driver Fatality

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

Your teenager just got a drivers license and is bugging you for a car. Eventually you agree and begin looking for an old used car, a training vehicle bound to get scratched and bent here and there until your teenager gets more experience. You settle on an old 1994 Chevrolet Camaro for less than two hundred dollars. A car-mechanic friend inspects the Camaro and thinks it’s in good shape and will do as a learning vehicle. You get the key and can’t wait to see the happy face of your teenager.

Chicago personal injury attorney Peter Zneimer warns: you just put your child in a death trap.

According to CDC, “six teens ages 16–19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries.”

When choosing a car for an inexperienced driver, safety should be the primary concern. Budget limitations aside, a newer car usually incorporates updated or newer safety technologies. The best buy would be the newest model that has the best safety features available on the market your money can buy. The most important features include curtain airbags, electronic stability control, forward-collision warning, and automatic emergency braking. Having these key safety features may make a difference between life and death.

Older cars have fewer safety features, and some older cars are just too dangerous to drive. For example, according to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, the Chevrolet Camaro has the highest on-road death, three-times higher than average. The Chevrloet Camaro is not alone. Several other cars are just as dangerous.

November 25, 2017

Red Light Cameras Blamed For Rise Of Rear-End Collisions

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

Red light camera program has been met with hostility from the residents of Cook County. The program has not ceased to be a controversial issue since its inception and implementation in 2003, in many circles, that include ordinary residents and drivers, business owners, law enforcement and government officials. Its objectives and merits are dubious at best when there’s scarcely a published study with persuasive data proving its efficacy in reducing car crashes. Personal injury attorney, Peter A. Zneimer notes that statistics have shown that while side impact accidents have decreased in Chicago, rear end collisions have increased. A Chicago Tribune study found that while side angle “T-bone” crashes were reduced by 15%, rear-end crashes increased by 22% during the same period of time.

The Chicago Tribune has criticized the Illinois Department of Safety for approving red light cameras in intersections considered safe when the whole premise of red light cameras was for the reduction of dangerous crashes in accident-prone areas. A Tribune analysis found that more than half the intersections with cameras did not meet the IDOT’s own threshold and were among the safest in IDOT studies at the time the agency approved the cameras. It bemoaned the installation of red light cameras at Illinois Highway 83 and 22^nd Street and exposed the politics of IDOT’s decision in doing so. In a separate occasion, policemen in West Dundee lauded red light cameras for their usefulness in catching other road-related incidents such as a hit and run, an inebriated man behind the wheel and a road rage accident – however, if the fundamentals apply in this case, it can be legitimately argued, these are not the primary objectives of the red light camera program.

The lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer P.C. understand the concept of red light cameras and how it strives to address immediate problems such as preventing deadly right-angle crashes and in the long run, help facilitate a change in motorists’ behavior while on the road. Drivers in an effort to avoid being recipients to costly citations are induced to be more mindful and slow down once the light turns yellow, instead of speeding ahead to narrowly miss a red light. Studies are inconclusive whether or not this is working. It has yet to be proven that red light cameras are more about saving lives than filling coffers.

November 14, 2017

Fatal Car Crashes on The Rise

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

The National Highway Traffic Administration has recently posted the latest traffic fatality figures and they show deadly car crashes rising to a nine-year high. The statistics show that car accidents accounted for 37,461 fatalities in 2016 which is a rise of 5.6% over 2015. Personal Injury lawyer Peter Zneimer notes that surprisingly, distracted driving deaths actually fell 2.2% from 2015 to 2016. Two categories where fatalities did rise were deaths caused by speeding (4% rise) and deaths caused by not wearing seat belts (4.6% rise). The attorneys of Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C. are concerned that the NHTA recorded a 9% jump in pedestrian deaths. The large jump in pedestrian deaths underscore the need for more focus on making urban areas safer for pedestrians. As discussed in previous Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C. blogs, the city of Chicago has endorsed the Vision Zero initiative which is a movement that seeks to eliminate pedestrian deaths entirely. Cities that are adopting the vision zero philosophy utilize technology, traffic engineering along an emphasis of enforcing traffic safety laws to reach this goal. Pedestrians are the category of people that are most vulnerable to injury from traffic accidents.

November 1, 2017

Dog Bite Injuries Common In Illinois

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

From experience, the dog bite lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer P.C. think it is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that any dog, regardless of breed, has the potential to bite and cause minor to severe injuries, no matter how well-trained it is. Even the most seemingly friendly and gentle canines, at the slightest provocation, can get aggressive and attack. Insurance giant, State Farm, knows this all too well. Last year, State Farm disbursed a total of 13.9 million dollars for 323 reported dog-bite claims in Illinois alone.

Based on that same report from State Farm, the state of Illinois is second only to California when it comes to the number of dog-bite claims. Dog attacks are found to increase when children are out of school and more people are out with their dogs. Lake County Animal Care and Control reports 1,100 dog bites against humans last year though there has been no fatal dog attack in the county. However, officials in the same county are confident in their efforts to reduce these numbers.

There has been a spattering of gravely serious incidents such as the one involving an 8-year old girl from Zion which occurred early October 2015. As chronicled by the Chicago Tribune, the family’s pit bull attacked the girl to her face. When officers arrived at the scene, they found the girl bleeding profusely with a towel pressed to her face. Some cases were so bad it ended with the dog being euthanized.

October 24, 2017

Runners Safer When Running Against Traffic

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

You want to go for a walk or a run along a road that has a shoulder but no sidewalk and you cannot decide whether to walk or run with traffic or against traffic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Transportation Department and the personal injury lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C. recommend walking or running against traffic.

A recent Chicago Tribune article takes note of a study undertook in Finland that looked at data from 2006 to 2010 involving 258 pedestrians being hit by cars. The study concluded that facing traffic when walking is significantly safer than walking with traffic. The study found that pedestrians facing traffic had a 77 percent lower risk of being hit and injured by a car than pedestrians walking with traffic.

The reasons appear to be obvious. When a pedestrian is facing on coming traffic, the pedestrian can see and react to the motorist. If the motorist is distracted by texting or by talking on the phone and is driving near the shoulder, or if the motorist is sleepy and is weaving and drifting near the shoulder, the pedestrian can react by getting farther from the roadway when the car is passing. Attorney, Peter Zneimer has handled an injury case where a runner was hit from behind by a car while running on the shoulder with the victim receiving no warning whatsoever. In that situation, the runner would have been much safer facing traffic when running which would have enabled him to watch for cars driving near the shoulder and to take defensive measures when necessary.

October 14, 2017

City of Chicago Seeks to Implement Vision Zero

by Zneimer & Zneimer, P.C.

As the city of Chicago’s way of advancing its commitment to prioritizing traffic safety, it created a comprehensive plan called Vision Zero. It is spearheaded by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and was modeled after a road traffic safety project that began in Sweden and has since influenced many U.S cities, many of which have adopted it.

According to the Illinois Department of Transportation 2010-2014, someone dies every three days as a result of a traffic crash. Personal injury attorney, Peter Zneimer believes that Vision Zero will help in reducing traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. This city has seen an alarming increase of bicycle crashes by 67% last year, based on data from the Chicago Police Department. Vision Zero seeks to lessen this number, while encouraging more people to walk, bike and take public transit.

Chicago is already the national leader on Complete Streets that largely focuses on pedestrian safety, designing streets that are intended to promote a culture of safety especially for the most vulnerable roadway users. Vision Zero will take it further by studying how the design process can be integrated into determining the correct speed limits for each street in every community. It calls on law enforcement to focus on so-called high-crash areas. The Mayor is seeking funding to carry out these goals.