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The Chicago premises liability lawyers at Abels & Annes, P.C. recently reached a settlement on behalf of one of their clients who was injured by a falling door.

The victim was an experienced doorman at a Chicago condominium building and was working at his post when a large swinging door began to show signs of distress. The door had been serviced multiple times in the past and employees had previously made complaints about the door. All repairs were done by one company at the request of the building’s owner and manager.

The door in question was large and weighed several hundred pounds. It was a swinging door with an automatic closer that allowed residents to have the door opened remotely; the door would then automatically close after a resident entered the building. As one resident opened the door, the door came off its top hinge and was detached at the top, leaving the full weight of the door resting on the one remaining bottom pivot.

Our client followed protocol by informing the building’s engineer of the door’s condition. The building’s engineer informed our client to put the door back into its normal position to the best of our client’s ability and to wait for further assistance. Our client did as instructed and was contacting the property’s manager when another resident approached the door. Our client attempted to warn the new resident and to prevent the resident from using the door by running to warn the resident but in his effort was unsuccessful. As the resident attempted to use the door, the door came off both hinges and fell forward, striking our client in the upper leg and knee and landing on our client.

Our client suffered a torn meniscus in his knee as well as pain and discomfort in the area after the incident. He received medical treatment that included surgery and also had multiple rounds of physical therapy.

During our representation of the victim, we uncovered numerous service records indicating a long history of problems with the door at issue and many complaints regarding its functionality. We also learned that in a repair shortly before the day the door fell, a spindle of normal size was used in the automatic door closer, which is a type of gripping connector between the closer and the door. Though the use of an expert witness, it was revealed that this was an improper procedure as the door and door closer used required an extended length spindle.
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As October begins to wind to a close, families in Illinois are preparing for Halloween celebrations at schools and in their neighborhoods. Regardless of how you plan to celebrate, Halloween offers the potential of a great night with a lot of fun. Yet with so many people on the streets and with kids excited by the promise of trick-or-treating, some often heeded safety rules may fall by the wayside, leaving children at risk of an accident.

Perhaps the most common threat facing children during Halloween is that presented by cars and vans as trick-or-treating is in full force. Young kids may forget to look both ways before crossing a street and may place themselves in the path of an oncoming vehicle, leaving it up to the driver to avoid an accident. The best thing to do is to prevent an accident before it occurs by reminding your children of how to be safe on Halloween and for adults to remember the inherent dangers present by driving in the dark.

Other safety dangers should be addressed in addition to traffic concerns. For example, the Centers for Disease Control seeks to remind parents that candy should always be inspected by an adult before a child is allowed to eat it so that the adult can verify nothing has been tampered with. Additionally, children should always trick-or-treat in groups to reduce the risk of any child losing his or her way though, of course, adult supervision is always best.

One of the easiest safety concerns to address is to make sure your child’s costume does not pose a danger to them. Costumes should not obstruct a child’s ability to see or to walk safely and it should include reflective material when possible. If your child’s costume is already finished and it is not reflective, you may consider sending your child outside with a flashlight so that your child can see where he or she is going and so that oncoming traffic is aware that a pedestrian is in the area.

A more recent development in Halloween safety has been to discourage kids and adults alike from wearing non-prescription contact lenses with their costumes. Often, these lenses make a normal eye appear blacked out, like a cat’s eye, like a magic 8 ball, or even like the colors of your favorite NFL team. While the popularity of these lenses increases drastically every year, the dangers associated with them often go ignored. Many of these lenses do not meet the quality guidelines required by the FDA and some have been linked with serious and permanent injuries, including blindness. Authorities agree that it is better to skip the decorative lenses altogether and to avoid these risks of injuries.
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Unfortunately auto accidents occur every day in Illinois and are suffered by thousands of residents every year. Many of these accidents are minor and only result in a dent or other damage to a vehicle without causing injuries to any of the drivers. A smaller portion of accidents result in serious injuries or even death, though, forever changing the lives of all those involved in the crash as well as their family members and friends.

Among auto accidents, those involving semi trucks can be some of the most severe because of the large size of the truck compared to the relatively small size of a passenger car. After these crashes, victims may seek help from a Chicago area truck accident lawyer to learn about what rights, if any, they have and whether they are entitled to a financial recovery for their damages.

Usually accident victims of any type can bring a civil claim for their damages against a responsible driver, truck owner, or operator so that they can be compensated for their injuries. This may include payment for medical bills, wages that were not earned because of injury, or even extra transportation costs while a car was not driveable. The facts of each accident can make a big difference in determining what losses are recoverable.

Some Chicago-area residents may now realize this after a collision with a semi on the Dan Ryan left them injured on Saturday morning. According to police, two cars were involved in a collision on the inbound Dan Ryan near 87th Street and the drivers were working out the details when a semi truck approached the scene. The semi reportedly crashed into the two stopped vehicles that had been involved in the earlier crash, causing a second impact that left both drivers of the first crash and the semi truck driver injured. All three were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for examination and treatment though all were expected to survive.

Accidents involving multiple vehicles and multiple impacts can be challenging for victims with multiple insurance companies often denying valid claims or pointing the finger of blame at another driver. These accident victims should realize that they can level the playing field by retaining an injury lawyer of their choice to fight for their rights and to make sure their interests are protected.
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Most adults realize that teen drivers present a greater risk on the roads than their more experienced counterparts because teen lack the knowledge and skill of those who have been driving longer, increasing the odds that teens will be involved in an accident. No one wants to see a young person injured or killed in a crash but statistically, thousands of them will be every year across the nation, leading many to seek a solution to this issue.

Congress recognized the need to increase awareness of teen driving issues and to promote safe driving among the age group in 2007 when it established the National Teen Driver Safety Week, which takes place during the third week of every October.

The facts show that motor vehicle collisions are the biggest cause of teen death across the country with more than 5,000 teens dying every year in a crash. Experts believe that many factors cause teens to be four times more likely than adults to be involved in a collision with inexperience being high on the list. However, teens also fail to perceive some forms of dangerous driving habits, like texting while driving, driving fatigued, or even losing focus on the road. It likely is a combination between inexperience operating a vehicle and a lack of knowledge regarding hazardous actions while driving that leads to so many collisions and so many teen deaths.

By designating a week to focus on safe teen driving, Congress intended communities to begin a discussion with their young drivers regarding the types of behaviors that are and are not acceptable. This can be very beneficial at the local level since many cities and municipalities maintain their own targeted laws for teen driving with behavioral restrictions common for young drivers.

The theme for 2013’s Teen Driver Safety Week is ‘It Takes Two: Shared Expectations for Teens and Parents for Driving’ and is designed to make safe driving a family issue discussed and practiced by both adult and teen drivers. Studies show that when parents take the time to help their teens learn safety techniques, those teens are less likely to be in a serious accident than teens with less parental instruction and guidance.

If you have a teen driver at home, you should consider making Teen Driver Safety Week a part of your family’s week by reminding your teen what your expectations are when he or she is behind the wheel as well as general tips for safe driving. In the end, your time may help your teen avoid a serious or life-threatening collision.
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Many drivers do not realize how common one car collisions are and instead think only of multiple car crashes when thinking of auto accidents. Yet in Illinois, single vehicle collisions occur daily, some of them resulting in injuries.

Single vehicle crashes can result from any number of factors but most commonly are caused by a distracted driver, intoxicated motorist, poor road design, or inclement weather. Speed is often a factor that is combined with another condition and leads to a single vehicle crash, like when a driver is taking a tight turn too quickly, loses control, and leaves the surface of the road.

Failing to maintain proper control of a vehicle can be a violation of state law and can subject a driver to civil penalties and/or fines. But perhaps more significant, failing to properly control your car can lead to a passenger, a pedestrian, or a bicyclist becoming injured and can cause the responsible driver to be legally liable for the damages that result, including medical bills and lost wages faced by a victim.

Chicago car accident lawyers understand that the injuries sustained in an accident can be minor, serious, or even fatal depending on the facts of the particular crash, with some accidents changing a victim’s life forever.

An accident occurred yesterday that did just that when a 32-year-old Aurora man lost his life and a 33-year-old Aurora man was critically injured in a one vehicle crash. Authorities are still investigation but it appears that the 32-year-old driver lost control of his vehicle and left South River Street in Batavia, crashing into a tree and throwing both men from the car.

The men were transported to Presence Mercy Medical Center but the driver died from his injures. At this time, the passenger is expected to survive. It is not yet clear why the driver lost control of the vehicle or whether something happened that caused the collision.
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Too often, Chicago accident lawyers receive calls for assistance from the victims of drunk driving and impaired driving collisions. These accidents are distressing to attorneys and to those in the community because there is never a need for a drunk driving crash to occur, meaning that the victims of these accidents should never have been hurt in the first place. Yet following a crash, the extent of injuries sustained may be only the beginning of a battle as an injury victim can face a tough fight against insurance companies and responsible drivers as they attempt to recover for their losses.

Ideally, no Illinois driver would operate a motor vehicle after consuming an intoxicating substance, including alcohol, and instead would utilize the services of a taxi, a designated driver, or public transportation to get from one point to another. When these individuals ignore the law and drive when they should not, an accident is likely to occur.

When a driver is arrested for drunk or impaired driving, a conviction of the crime can carry many penalties, including the loss of a driver’s license, mandatory fines, community service, or confinement in jail or prison. In some cases, a driver may be required to install an ignition interlock device or a breath alcohol ignition interlock device (IID or BAIID) so that his or her car cannot be started if alcohol is present in a driver’s system.

Despite these significant penalties, statistics continue to show that many drunk drivers continue to drive under the influence even after arrest and conviction. This appears to be the case for former Chicago Bears quarterback Bob Avellini who was arrested last month and charged with felony drunken driving, a sixth arrest for Avellini on DUI-related charges in the last decade. Just this month, Avellini was indicted by a grand jury for the most recent event.

Police records indicate that Avellini was pulled over on September 15, 2013 in the northwest Chicago suburbs shortly after midnight. The police officer at the scene noticed a strong smell of alcohol from Avellini’s breath and described Avellini as appearing under the influence. When Avellini allegedly refused a breathalyzer test, his blood was drawn and reportedly revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.181, or more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 in Illinois. Moreover, the test was performed four hours after Avellini was pulled over which, if proved accurate, would indicate a BAC higher than 0.181 at the time he was driving.
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It is against the law in Illinois to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs yet every year, thousands of drivers in the Chicago area and elsewhere take to the roads and drive while impaired. Often this results in car crashes and injuries to those drivers, passengers in their vehicles, or even others on the road.

Lawyers in Illinois understand that drivers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or greater will be presumed to be under the influence of alcohol but that drivers under the age of 21 are not allowed to have any alcohol in their systems while they are operating a vehicle. This is because the legal drinking age of 21 means that anyone younger that consumes alcohol is violating one law and driving afterwards violates a second.

Despite these very clear laws, it appears that a 20-year-old male driver was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs when he allegedly caused a collision that resulted in the death of one of his passengers, an 18-year-old female, on Sunday morning. Police believe that the man was driving westbound on 63rd Street and Woodlawn Avenue when he ran a red light and caused a collision with another vehicle, injuring himself, a male passenger, and killing a female teen in his car. At this time it appears that neither person in the second car was injured.

After the impact, the 20-year-old lost control of his vehicle which spun and struck a metal utility pole in the area, causing a second impact and significant damage to the vehicle.

Police are still investigating the accident and it is not clear whether the male driver will face charges. However, if it is proved that he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, he may face felony charges related to the crash and the teen’s death that could include a prison sentence of several years.
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A 59-year-old construction worker from Streamwood lost his life on Tuesday in a tragic workplace accident involving a piece of machinery, according to the local McHenry County sheriff’s department. Early reports are not clear as to what caused the accident that left the worker dead but the incident is under investigation by local police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

It appears that the worker was struck by a Bobcat, a brand of machinery most associated with compact size and generalized function, including excavators and front end loaders. Reports indicate that the employee was hit with the machine while on a job site at a pole barn maintenance building in Union, located on Hemmingson Road. The employee died at the scene and an autopsy revealed cause of death to be multiple blunt force traumas to the man’s head, chest, and abdomen.

Workplace accidents can happen in any setting and to any employee but construction workers are at a particularly high risk of injury, or unfortunately in this case, death. The nature of construction work means that a job site may contain heavy machinery, explosives, exposed materials or product, and other safety threats and hazards. As a result, many construction workers suffer on-the-job injuries every year and some sustain permanent damage as a result.

Illinois law provides employees with protection in the event that a work injury occurs in the form of a mandatory employer-funded insurance program known as workers’ compensation. Commonly referred to simply as workers’ comp, a form of this program has been in effect in Illinois since 1912. For over 100 years, injured workers have been entitled to bring a claim for their damages and to receive proper compensation for their losses.

The system is designed to provide injured workers with fair and equitable coverage in an automatic fashion but unfortunately it usually does not work that way. Often, injured employees are denied benefits even though they are entitled to them, leaving these workers without needed medical treatment and with an inability to provide for their families. Additionally, these claims can be very complicated and in some situations nearly impossible for an employee to bring on his or her own, placing the employee at a serious disadvantage when compared with the employee’s company and the company’s staff of lawyers. To make sure an injured employee’s rights are protected, the employee is entitled to retain a lawyer of his or her choosing to bring a claim for benefits.
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Some Chicago-area commuters are facing lengthy delays this morning after two CTA blue line trains collided, temporarily shutting down the tracks and sending dozens of injured victims to area hospitals for treatment.

CTA officials have confirmed that a collision occurred around 8:00 a.m. and that it involved two blue line trains, one of which was in service and carrying passengers near the Harlem stop in Forest Park. Reportedly the other train involved was not in service and had no passengers on board.

At this point, it appears that the in-service train was stopped at Harlem and was picking up and dropping off blue line passengers as part of the morning commute. That train was on the outbound tracks when the conductor noticed another train on the same tracks but traveling in the opposite direction, heading for an immediate impact. The out-of-service inbound train struck the in-service outbound train with enough force to crumple parts of each train and injure dozens, sending 33 people to area hospitals, according to a CTA report.

The Forest Park mayor stated that the conductor of the in-service train reported that there was no one in the front car of the out-of-service train as it traveled towards him, leading many to wonder how many workers were on board and what caused the trains the be on the same track.

After the crash, CTA officials evacuated the train and the Harlem station. All CTA service through Harlem was suspended for approximately two hours and CTA buses were used to shuttle people around the downed tracks. As of approximately 10:00 a.m., train traffic on the blue line had resumed but no trains are stopping at the Harlem station.

The CTA provides millions of rides to Chicago residents, commuters, and visitors every year on its trains and buses around the city and the surrounding areas. Many people board a CTA vehicle with little thought to their personal safety, trusting the CTA and its employees to exercise care and caution through the operation of their trains. Yet unfortunately collisions like the one that happened this morning continue to exist and are often the result of negligence on the part of the CTA, an employee or both.
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The accident lawyers at Abels & Annes, P.C. recently settled a personal injury case on behalf of a client for $125,000.

The claim arose from a bicycle collision last year with our client riding his bicycle eastbound on Diversey Parkway, near the right side of the road as governed by local law. A driver in an oncoming vehicle attempted to make a left turn into a parking lot but failed to look for eastbound traffic before doing so, pulling in front of our client’s lane of travel and causing our client to collide with the front end of the vehicle, get thrown onto the hood and then landing on the ground.

The police were called to the scene of the crash where our client reported shoulder pain. He was taken by ambulance to an area hospital where x-rays were performed and showed a displaced clavicle fracture in our client’s shoulder area. He was placed in a brace and instructed to seek follow up medical care with an orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon recommended and our client underwent a surgical repair of his shoulder and then participated in a course of physical therapy for post-surgical rehabilitation of his shoulder.

Prior to the collision, our client was an active young man who enjoyed playing sports in addition to riding his bicycle. After his injury, he was unable to engage in strenuous physical activities for some time, limiting his ability to lead a normal life. As our client used his bicycle as a means of transportation, his injury also made traveling more of a challenge and more costly than it otherwise would have been.

Through our representation, we were able to bring a claim on behalf of our client against the at-fault driver and the driver’s insurance company for the full value of our client’s injuries, including his medical bills and wages he lost while he was unable to work. Our bicycle accident lawyers were able to negotiate a settlement that our client deserved for his loss and that was a fair payment for the damages caused by the negligent driver.
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