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Chicago Tribune Deborah L. Shelton reported that experts from the University of Illinois at Chicago issued a scathing report about the dangerous conditions of pediatric and adolescent psychiatric hospital Hargrove. This report is eerily similar to the one released on March 30, 2009, slamming the conditions at Riveredge Hospital and other psychiatric facilities owned or run by Psychiatric Solutions, and to another report released in May 2011 documenting inadequate care in Lakeshore Hospital. Back in 2009 as well as in the current reports, the UIC experts reveal that the most vulnerable patient population, pediatric and adolescent psychiatric patient are subjected to sexual assaults, physical attacks, threats, and unacceptable conditions.

According to the current report between December 2010 and mid-June 2011, there were over 100 cases of children and adolescent psychiatric patients subjected to physical attacks, threatening behavior, and sexual assaults at Hartgrove. The report on psychiatric care in 2009 on Riveredge and Psychiatric Solutions identified a similar longstanding pattern of egregious quality failures, failure to protect patients from sexual abuse, failure to provide patient care in a safe environment, failure to ensure patients are adequately monitored, failure to ensure adequate staffing for patient care, failure to adequately train and supervise staff. The current report on Hartgrove paints a similarly unacceptable picture of vulnerable population placed at unacceptable risk. The reports also reveal that the hospitals are understaffed or are staffed with unqualified personnel. Most of the children in these facilities are there because they are danger to self or others and need specialized care. When the hospitals hire personnel with lack of qualifications the hospitals put the children and staff at risk. Our law firm represents victims of psychiatric and hospital negligence in cases involving sexual assaults or inadequate supervision in psychiatric facilities. Sexual assaults are usually a result of inadequate staffing, improper supervision, or failure to follow physician-ordered precautions and observation levels. Personal injuries that result from inadequate staffing are easily preventable. Keeping psychiatric patients safe should be a priority to any mental health hospital. Patient safety is a prerequisite of any therapeutic environment for a psychiatric patient. Failure to prevent assault and abuse of psychiatric patients represents gross negligence and should not be tolerated.

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A study conducted by Transportation of America based in Washington D.C. from 2000 to 2009 found that although people 65 and older represent 13% of the population, they represented 22% of the pedestrian deaths. Cities like New York and Chicago are taking aim to make cities safer for elderly pedestrians to reduced pedestrian injuries and deaths. The Chicago personal injury attorneys of Zneimer and Zneimer note a high percentage of pedestrian injury clients are elderly and almost all of the crashes that caused the pedestrian injuries occurred in a cross walk.

As a response to studies showing that elderly pedestrians are at risk, cities like Chicago and New York are making changes. These changes include “countdown” signals at intersections, speed bumps, extended curbs and medians in the middle of wide intersections. One of the biggest changes advocated by Transportation for America are for walk signals to be made longer to allow enough time the elderly to cross. The assumption is that a pedestrian can cover 3.5 to 4 feet per second but the elderly typically can cover only 2.5 feet per second.

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Two elderly women were run down in Chicago’s Jefferson Park Neighborhood on Sunday, killing one woman on her 82nd birthday. The second hit-and-run victim remains hospitalized at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The hit-and-run vehicle was described as a dark blue or black Ford-150 with a ladder in the rear.

The Chicago Department of Transportation reports that 41% of vehicle-pedestrian collisions that are fatal involve hit-and-run drivers in Chicago, which is twice the national average. Chicago averages two hit-and run collisions with pedestrians involving injury or death everyday. Even though there is a law on the books in Chicago requiring drivers to stop for pedestrians preparing to cross in the crosswalk, the law appears never to be enforced. Chicago personal injury attorney Peter Zneimer witnessed at least fifteen cars fail to stop at the crosswalk as he attempted to cross Belmont Avenue near Leavitt Street in Chicago on Sunday even though he happened to be standing next to a mother with a baby stroller who was also waiting for the cars to stop at the crosswalk. No car stopped. When a gap in traffic finally presented itself attorney Peter Zneimer and the mother with the stroller practically had to run to avoid the on coming traffic that did not appear to even slow down. This crosswalk is about 3 blocks from the Belmont police station. Until Chicago police start enforcing the crosswalk laws in Chicago and start obeying the crosswalk law themselves when they are driving, Chicago will remain one of the most dangerous cities in the country for pedestrians and will continue to have more pedestrian injuries than the national average.

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An 87 year old Chicago man was struck by a hit-and-run driver and was left in critical condition the Chicago Tribune reported. Chicago police report that the accident happened at 3:50 p.m. near 4400 West Fullerton in Chicago. The hit-and-run driver drove a green Jeep Cherokee that then drove to a gas station near North Kostner Avenue and jumped out of the vehicle and fled on foot. The critically injured pedestrian was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital.

A recent study by the Chicago Department of Transportation found that there there are an average of two hit-and-run pedestrian accidents that cause injury or death to the victim occurring every day in Chicago. Hit-and-run crashes account for 33% of all vehicle-pedestrian crashes that occur in Chicago. Additionally, hit-and run crashes account for 41% of the fatal vehicle-pedestrian crashes in Chicago which is twice the national average.

Chicago Transportation Commissioner expressed his concern: “I think we have this culture of speeding and reckless driving.” As Chicago personal injury attorneys, the law office of Zneimer & Zneimer handle many such cases. Many times the injured pedestrian has no insurance to cover his or her hospital visits so the victim is not only stuck with a devastating injury but also devastating medical bills.

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A study commissioned by the Chicago of Transportation has found that Chicago averages two hit-and-run crashes that cause injury or death everyday. Hit-and-run vehicle-pedestrian crashes account for 33% of all vehicle-pedestrian crashes according to this study. The Chicago personal injury law firm of Zneimer & Zneimer has seen first hand the damage these hit-and-run drivers do. Many injured pedestrians do not have any insurance coverage so they are not only hurt by the hit-and-run driver but they are also stuck with the medical bills and the consequences of not being able to work while they recover. Hit-and-run drivers are a major problem in Chicago with 5,534 incidents of hit-and-runs over a five year period resulting in 3,683 injuries or deaths according to the study.

Another striking finding was the study found that cabdrivers were involved in 28% of motorist-pedestrian crashes in Chicago, with most of these crashes occurring in downtown Chicago.

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Chicago has recently opened its first protected bicycle lane on a short stretch of Kinzie Street at Clinton Street and Canal Street but unfortunately bicyclists can not as of yet call this short stretch of protected bike lane their own. As Chicago injury lawyer Peter A. Zneimer drove past this short section on Wednesday morning he observed a taxi cab parked squarely in the protected bike lane waiting at the front door on the apartment building located at Clifton Street and Kinzie Street in Chicago impeding all the bicyclists that were headed to work on the bike lane. A couple bicyclists were knocking on the taxi drivers window pointing out that he was blocking the bike lane but he did not appear inclined to move. This individual might have benefited from an instructive traffic ticket at the least. For bicycle lanes and protected bike lanes to work to prevent bicyclist injuries there has to be police enforcement to keep drivers out of the bike lanes otherwise there is no point to bike lanes.

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A new city of Chicago study shows that 80 percent of vehicle-pedestrian crashes occur at intersections and mostly involve pedestrians walking where they are supposed to, in a cross walk. The study also shows the number one cause of pedestrians being hit by cars is drivers failing to yield the right-of-way. Most pedestrians are hit by turning vehicles while the pedestrians are attempting to cross the street in the crosswalk. There are about 3,000 vehicle-pedestrian crashes a year in Chicago. The pedestrian always gets the worst of such an accident and some end up with serious injuries . The Chicago injury law firm of Zneimer & Zneimer handles many cases of pedestrians being injured while in a cross walk. Many of these crashes involve serious injuries such as broken bones. Unfortunately, many drivers are only carry the minimum insurance coverage of $20,000.00 or, even worse, no insurance at all so the injured person is forced to pay his medical bills out of his own pocket if he or she does not have health insurance.

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Chicago’s Active Transportation Alliance has launched The Neighborhood Bikeways Campaign which seeks a 100 mile network of protected bikeways in Chicago by 2015. A small section of protected bike lane has just been opened on W. Kinzie St. near downtown Chicago. Such protected bikeways have shown to decrease bike accidents in other cities such as Portland, Oregon and Quebec, Canada where they have been introduced. On one New York street where a protected bike lane was introduced bike accidents were reduced 30% while bike traffic rose 40%. The Chicago personal injury lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer are aware of how dangerous the streets of Chicago are for bicyclist by the number of bicycle injury cases we handle. If Chicago were to introduce a comprehensive network of protected bike lanes, not only would bike injuries in Chicago be reduced but many more people would use their bikes instead of driving which would relieve congestion on the roads and reduce auto emissions into the air.

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New Chicago Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein has suggested a number of ways to make streets safer for pedestrians in Chicago. He has suggested reducing the number of right on red intersections, giving pedestrians more time to cross the street, narrowing streets and reducing speed limits. Another idea he suggested is to have all directions of motorist traffic stop for 14 seconds every other cycle to allow pedestrians to cross. The goal, of course, is cut down on pedestrian injuries in Chicago and to give as much consideration to pedestrians as is given to motorists. The Chicago personal injury lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer are aware of the fact that many pedestrians are injured after being hit by drivers making a right turn on a red light because of the injured pedestrian cases we handle. The Mayor’s office plans a big pedestrian safety initiative to begin later this summer. The program will include an education outreach and intersection crash analysis to determine which intersections are most dangerous for pedestrians.

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed changes in Chicago ordinances in an effort to make streets safer for pedestrians. Currently the law requires motorists to “yield” to pedestrians in a crosswalk. Mayor Emanuel proposes changing the ordinance language to require drivers to “stop” for pedestrians in the crosswalk. The goal is to make it 100 percent clear what a driver is supposed to do when a pedestrian is in a crosswalk. The Chicago injury lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer have handled numerous cases of persons hit and injured in crosswalks by motorists that did not yield the right-of-way. Anybody living in Chicago probably knows that motorists do not yield to pedestrians in crosswalks and any who assumes that a car will stop for them as they cross in a crosswalk risk serious injury or death. Police vehicles will not even stop for pedestrians. The only way a new ordinance can work to change motorists habits is if police enforce it and to give tickets to drivers who do not stop.

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