Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A rear-end car accident is one of the most common types of collisions that occur in the Chicago area. Often blamed on an inattentive driver or a motorist who travels too fast for conditions, a typical rear-ender may happen at a stop light or a stop sign where one vehicle is at a standstill and the vehicle behind fails to stop in time. But those are far from the only forms that a rear-end accident may take. When traffic turns from expressway speeds to stop-and-go, rear-end accidents are likely. In wintertime when snow and/or ice are present on the roadways, it can lead to countless rear-end crashes. Numerous rear-enders happen in parking lots across Chicago every week.

Yet despite the scenario that leads to and causes a rear-end car accident, the results can be quite similar: injuries can happen and can cause victims to need medical treatment. Some rear-end collisions are extreme enough to cause the death of one or more individuals involved.
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In today’s fast-paced society, many people view a cell phone as a necessity and no longer as a luxury. Depending on an individual’s profession or daily activities, a simple cell phone may not be enough and a smart phone may be mandatory to enable that person to navigate the day. With the impressive advances made in cell phone technology in the last decade, it is not surprising that so many people in Chicago have their phones with them at all times of the day and night, including when they are driving.

While much of the advancement in cell phones has been positive, their ease of use and portability has had some drawbacks at the same time. Far too often, drivers in Illinois are using their cell phones while they are behind the wheel even though studies continue to show the dangers associated with that use. Among the most threatening behaviors is texting while driving which may be as distracting and dangerous as driving while under the influence of alcohol.
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Any type of car accident can be threatening to the safety of those involved. Annually, Chicago sees thousands of collisions that cause injuries and many that even cause death, whether they take the form of a rear-end accident, a head-on collision, a pedestrian crash, a motorcycle accident, a sideswipe, a T-bone impact, or another form. Though any type of impact can cause serious harm, some collisions are more likely than others to leave devastation in their wake. Among them are rollover accidents, a relatively rare type of crash but one that is responsible for a disproportionately large number of injuries and fatalities.

It can be very difficult to fully analyze a rollover accident and determine what caused the crash and whether anyone involved played a role. Police in the Chicago area may try to recreate the incident to determine the factors that contributed to the crash but it can be difficult and many times, victims may not remember the accident itself. Rollover collisions have two primary causes – tripped and untripped – but within those classifications, hundreds of things can lead to an accident. From an initial impact with a secondary vehicle that then leads to a rollover to a simple blown tire that causes a vehicle to roll out of control, these crashes continue to happen and to threaten the safety of Chicago motorists.
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According to U.S. census data, the population of Chicago and of Illinois are growing right now and all age groups have seen a recent increase. In 2010, Chicago boasted a population density of 11,841.8 people per square mile and more than 23 percent of the total population was aged 18 or younger. This helps illustrate why Chicago is seen as a young, highly populated city by those who live in other areas, including other states.

But the young population tells just a portion of the city’s story as many families, single adults, and couples also reside in Chicago. It may surprise some but in 2010, approximately 10.3 percent of the population was aged 65 and older in the city and 12.5 percent of Illinois’ population fit that grouping. Many of these residents own personal vehicles and drive cars on a regular basis and that means that Chicago’s streets are full of motorists who are older in age. Elderly drivers tend to be associated with several stigmas regarding their driving and, among them, that they no longer possess the skills necessary to operate a vehicle safely or to keep up with traffic in the busy urban area.
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Several agencies track speed-related data when it contributes to car accidents in an attempt to understand the nature of those collisions and even how they may be prevented. One federal agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), considers a crash to be speed-related if a driver is issued a ticket for speeding, if a police report reflects that a motorist was driving too fast for conditions, or if a police officer indicates that racing was involved. With these criteria, the NHTSA determined that speeding was a factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes that happened in 2012 and that 10,219 people were killed in those accidents. The NHTSA further estimates that every year, speed-related collisions cost the country $40.2 billion.

Typically, the younger a driver is, the more likely that driver is to speed and male speeders are more common than females. Speed often combines with other factors to make a collision more likely and one of the most common pairings for crashes in Chicago is the interplay between speed and driving under the influence of alcohol. National studies indicate that roughly 50 percent of all drunk drivers speed while they are behind the wheel.
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There is always an added risk of injuries and the worsening of them when a victim of a car accident is unable to escape the vehicle on his or her own. Often, this results when the damage done to a car is too severe for a door to be opened or for any viable means of escape to result, necessitating help by passersby or emergency crews to assist those trapped inside get out. Higher speeds and more forceful impacts tend to lead to the type of damage that may pin a victim inside a car and of all the types of collisions that may cause this damage, rollover car accidents may be responsible for the lion’s share.

Rollover crashes in Chicago account for a small percentage of the overall collisions that take place but they are disproportionately responsible for a large number of injuries and fatalities. Many times, when a rollover happens, the forces that impact the side of a vehicle and potentially the vehicle’s roof can cause the paneling on the car to buckle or cave in, making the passenger compartment smaller and preventing victims from escaping. Victims who cannot escape may be forced to wait longer for medical attention which can lead to a worsening of injuries, especially when the injuries involve internal harm, bleeding, damage to the back or neck, or open or closed head injuries.
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