A pregnant woman was among two people critically injured in a Chicago car accident on Thursday. News Radio 780 reported one person may have died in the rollover accident, which involved multiple vehicles on the city’s Northwest Side.
The crash happened about 5:30 a.m. at West Devon and North Nagle avenues, according to CBS2 Chicago.
A white delivery van, which is registered to Michele Baking Co., on Mannheim Road in Franklin Park, remained on its side hours after the wreck.
The Chicago personal injury lawyers at Abels & Annes remind motorists that over 400,000 children head back to the city’s 666 schools over the next month.
The Chicago Public School’s first day of classes for most students is September 8th, and Track E students already started this week. Most of the suburban schools start in the coming weeks of August.
The start of the school year puts school buses back on the road, kids at bus stops and crosswalks, school zones where children are likely to be in the roadway and kids walking or bicycling to school.
The New Year will bring with it a new ban on text messaging for Illinois motorists after Gov Pat Quinn signed a ban this week in an effort to reduce car accidents caused by distracted drivers.
The Chicago car accident attorneys at Abels & Annes have been following this issue for months. Earlier this month we blogged about the fact that the Illinois law was one of only about 10 laws passed to combat distracted driving this year. Nationwide, about 170 laws were introduced, according to a study by The New York Times.
Federal statistics suggest more than 4,000 people a day are involved in a car accident because of distracted driving.
“It’s really bad that we have to legislate logic,” said Secretary of State Jesse White, who pushed the measure. “Common sense would tell you that when your eyes are off the road, who’s driving?”
A companion law also makes it illegal to use a cell phone in a school or construction zone unless it is equipped with a hands-free device.
The laws take effect Jan. 1. The Chicago Tribune published the following tips for complying with texting ban come New Year’s Day.
You cannot do the following:
Cannot send a text message, read a text message, send e-mail, use the internet, download ringtones, and/or send an instant message.
You can do the following:
Can continue to use your GPS device, continue to use your cell phone’s GPS device, text if traffic is stopped and your car is in park or neutral, can text if you pull over onto shoulder, and can text if you’re reporting an accident or emergency.
Violators face a fine of $75 and three or more violations in a year could lead to a license suspension.
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In the past week the Chicago bike accident lawyers at Abels & Annes have agreed to represent three bicyclists that were injured recently in three separate bike vs. car accidents.
One case involves a 29 year old Chicago woman who was riding her bicycle eastbound on Lawrence Avenue in a designated bike lane. As she entered the intersection of Lawrence & Washtenaw an eastbound vehicle turned right and failed to notice the plaintiff. Our client was knocked to the ground, landing on her left side.
She was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Swedish Covenant Hospital where she was diagnosed with a fracture in her left foot, and left knee and shoulder injuries. She has since followed up with a medical doctor and has been scheduled for surgery to repair the fracture.
A Chicago, Illinois car accident that was caused by a wrong-way driver on I-55 has left one person dead and another injured, according to the Chicago Tribune. The woman killed was a 38 year old North Side resident.
The car crash happened in the northbound lanes of the Stevenson early Saturday morning near South Halsted Street. The female victim was a passenger in a northbound Toyota that was struck by a driver of an Audi headed the wrong direction, according to the Illinois State Police.
The Chicago Fire Department had to remove her from the car and transport her to Northwester Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead a short time later. The driver of the Toyota was also taken to Northwestern.
In the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois eight people were injured early this morning in a hit-and-run car crash, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The auto accident took place in the 3600 block of West Augusta Boulevard just after 4 a.m. when a Chrysler Voyager struck a Lincoln Navigator. After the accident the people inside the Vovager reportedly fled the scene.
A Chicago Fire Department spokesperson has stated that 8 people were transported to area hospitals in critical condition. Three went to Mount Sinai Hospital, three to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, one to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and one to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.
Chicago Police Department Harrison Area detectives are investigating the accident.
In Seaside Heights, New Jersey, a well known American Idol contestant, Alexis Cohen, was killed over the weekend in a pedestrian vs. car accident, according to MSNBC. The man who hit her fled the scene and was later caught by police. Cohen’s body was found in the street after the collision.
CBS News is reporting that Cohen, age 24, sustained abdomen, chest and head injuries after she was struck by the car early Saturday.
The person who allegedly hit her, Daniel Bark, age 23, has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving. He was arrested on Sunday in New Jersey and is being held on $35,000 bail. If found guilty, he could receive up to 15 years in prison.
A man had his arm severed in a Chicago car accident that critically injured four people and sent two cars crashing into a building early Sunday morning, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago Breaking News Center reported the man was ejected from the vehicle as a result of the car accident, which was reported at about 4:30 a.m. The accident occurred in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood on the Southwest Side near the intersection of Nagle and Archer Avenues, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak.
The Breaking News Center said five people were injured and two were ejected during the accident, which remained under investigation on Sunday morning.Two people were taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood in critical condition. Two others were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis, who said two cars went into a building.
The issue of red-light cameras and their ability to reduce car accidents at Chicago-area intersections continues to make news. The Daily Herald is investigating whether the cameras are going up throughout suburbia as an effort to reduce traffic accidents or to raise the most money from unsuspecting drivers.
The Chicago car accident attorneys at Abels & Annes looked at the issue last month, writing on our sister blog, www.chicagocaraccidentlawyersblog.com, that 143 accident-prone Chicago intersections are already equipped with the cameras, with 330 expected to be in place by 2012.
Abels & Annes continues to monitor the issues as more and more accident attorneys seek to use the tapes in court as evidence against negligent driver.
Traffic violations at intersections are one of the leading causes of traffic deaths in this country. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 6,024 fatalities at stop signs or traffic signals in 2007 and more than 600,000 injuries.
But the Daily Herald investigation is raising more questions about the motivation of placing the cameras throughout suburbia, where at least 84 cameras are now up in 28 North, West and Norhwest suburbs.Among the Daily Herald findings:
• Most of the $100 red-light tickets are issued for turning right without coming to a complete stop. Traffic experts question the value of making this such a high priority, since it results in few serious accidents.
• A number of towns want to put cameras at intersections that don’t appear to have a problem with red-light related crashes. In some cases, cameras are now at intersections that have only one or two crashes a year linked to red-light violations.
• The appeals process used across the suburbs is so varied, the Daily Herald found some towns have never thrown out a ticket while others reverse up to a quarter of all those contested.
• The focus on right-turn violations and low-crash sites not only calls into question the motive for placing cameras, but also undermines efforts to determine if they are actually working to improve safety.
Meanwhile, Marcie Schatz, Naperville’s transportation, engineering and development director, wrote in the Naperville Sun that the cameras in that community are being installed with the sole purpose of reducing accidents at problem intersections.
Schatz acknowledged some of the controversy stems from the fact that 1 in 3 motorists are against the use of cameras to enforce traffic laws.Naperville currently has one red-light camera and is considering the installation of two additional camera systems. City officials contend the locations are being selected based on crash statistics and the goal of the program is simply to reduce crashes at accident-prone intersections.
“We have designed our program around reducing the chances that you and your loved ones will end up in the hospital because of an injury-causing crash,” Schatz wrote. “Red-light cameras are making a difference in Naperville. They are helping to reduce the number of crashes on city streets, and the data proves it.”
Citing the effectiveness of the cameras, Schatz wrote:
• Total crashes are down 13.7 percent from 24.3 to 21
• Angle and turning crashes are down 80 percent from 5 to 1
• Injury crashes are down 46 percent from 3.7 to 2
• Red-light violations are down slightly from a high of 32.61 per day in February to 28.20 in April
• Rear-end collisions are up slightly, from an average of 15.3 to 16 for a four-month period
Meanwhile, in Chicago last month City Council Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke proposed increasing the fine from $100 to $125 and using the extra money to require offenders to complete a “Red Light Education Program.”
“Clearly, when you’re talking about 27 percent of the six million accidents that occur on U.S. roadways every year occurring at intersections, it would seem to be a move in the right direction,” Burke told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago red-light cameras are already installed at 143 accident-prone intersections in the city – with 39 more expected to go up later this year and 330 intersections expected to have cameras by 2012.
The Sun-Times notes that while changing driver behavior is the ultimate goal, the cameras have become a giant cash cow for the city — generating $44.8 million last year. And earlier this year council was pitched a proposal that claimed $200 million a year could be made by using the cameras with a program that referenced insurance data to hunt down uninsured motorists.
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Six people were injured in an accident on Sunday night involving a motorcycle and a car, Chicago Breaking News reported.
The Chicago traffic accident in the Humbolt Park neighborhood occurred at Mozart and Division Streets at about 11 p.m., Chicago Police spokesman David Banks told CBS2.
Media reports indicate four people were critically injured in the crash involving a motorcycle and a car.
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