Articles Posted in Car Accidents

We can’t rely on drivers to keep their eyes on the road, so officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are turning to auto manufacturers for help.

In a recent announcement from Ray LaHood, Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation, new guidelines have been released to help to minimize the possible in-car, electronic distractions for drivers. Included in these distractions are navigation, communication and entertainment devices.

“Distracted driving is a deadly epidemic that has devastating consequences on our nation’s roadways,” said Secretary LaHood.

Our Quincy car accident lawyers understand that the gadgets make the vehicle. Consumers are looking for vehicles with all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately, those bells and whistles come with some serious risks for car accidents. Today, newer vehicles come equipped with in-car phones, text messaging devices, email checking services, web browsing devices and even interactive navigation units. While that might make a vehicle more appealing to drive, it also makes it more dangerous. That’s why NHTSA officials are proposing voluntary guidelines for car manufacturers to put an end to these devices — or to at least disable them while the vehicle is in motion.

Falling under these new guidelines are the devices that require a driver to take their eyes off the road of their hands off the wheel.

As it stands now, only drivers under the age of 18 in the state of Massachusetts are prohibited from using a hand-held cell phone in the driver’s seat. All drivers in the state have been banned from text messaging at the wheel, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The Safe Driving Law signed by Governor Patrick became effective on September 30, 2010. Among other provisions, the law bans sending, typing or reading electronic messages to or from handheld devices while operating a motor vehicle. This includes use of the internet and text messaging. While that may be the law, drivers are still engaging in these activities because the services are so readily available in their vehicle.

It’s a serious problem and we need to do something about it now. According to Distraction.gov, there were close to 3,500 people killed in car accidents in the U.S. because of someone’s distracted driving habits. That’s an increase from the year before — proving the problem is only getting worse. In addition to these fatalities, there were also more than 385,000 injuries recorded throughout the year because of these same irresponsible driving habits. As a matter of fact, close to 20 percent of injury crashes in 2010 were reported as distraction-affected crashes.

While these devices may be here to stay in our vehicles, it doesn’t mean we have to use them — especially when driving. There’s a time and a place for everything, and behind the wheel is no time to make calls, check texts or deal with email. Make sure that you’ve come to a complete stop and your vehicle is in “park” before attending to these activities — lives depend on it.
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This summer, lots of kids will be attending camps and church functions. Often, these children are transported on field trips as part of their summer experience. Older Americans may also choose to use the summer months to go on site seeing tours or outings.

In many situations, 15-passenger vans are used by tour groups, camps, church groups and other small organizations. Unfortunately, our Boston accident lawyers know that these 15-passenger vans can be very dangerous because there is a high roll-over risk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released an advisory reminding drivers of the potential rollover dangers of these vehicles.

Preventing Rollover Accidents in 15 Passenger Vehicles

According to the NHTSA’s recent consumer advisory notice, 15-passenger vans are prone to becoming involved in tragic rollover accidents. A rollover crash occurs in top-heavy vehicles and often happens when drivers go around a curve too fast or when the car is involved in a crash. The vehicle rolls over onto its top with the wheels in the air, often causing passengers to suffer serious injury in the process. Other nearby cars can also be severely damaged if a large vehicle rolls on top of them.

Rollovers can happen in any car, but 15-passenger vans are especially susceptible to the risk. NHTSA indicates that 15-passenger vans present a unique rollover risk because they are particularly sensitive to overloading. An already top-heavy 15 passenger van will become much more dangerous if the vehicle is overloaded with passengers and luggage or other materials. This means when a whole church group or summer camp of kids piles in with suitcases and backpacks, the van becomes a riskier place to be and the chances of a rollover crash increase.

The increased length and increased width of 15 passenger vans also increase the chances that a rollover accident will happen, according to NHTSA.

How to Avoid Rollover Accidents

To help everyone stay safe this upcoming season, NHTSA has some key tips for drivers of 15-passenger vehicles. NHTSA reminds drivers:

• To refrain from overloading the vehicle.
• To make sure that the vehicle undergoes regular maintenance.
• To ensure that all tires are properly inflated. NHTSA surveys have indicated that 30 percent of 15-passenger vans have at least one tire that is not properly inflated. This can up the chances of a rollover occurring.
• Inspect and maintain the steering and suspension of the van in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.

NHTSA also reiterates the importance of wearing seat belts. Some passengers in 15-passenger vans will treat these vehicles more like buses and may forget to put on a seatbelt. When this happens, the chances of an accident go way up. In fact, NHTSA indicates that a total of 88 percent of those who die in 15-passenger van accidents have no seat belt on at the time of the accident.

If passengers buckle up and if drivers follow basic safety tips, hopefully rollover accidents and other 15-passenger van wrecks can be avoided this summer even as people pile into the vans to head off and enjoy warm weather activities.
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The plight of the elderly when it comes to safe transportation has been very well documented by experts. It is clear that most elderly Americans will reach a point at some time in their lives when they are no longer able to drive safely. Unfortunately, walking often becomes out of the question at some point as well due to mental or physical infirmity. This can leave elderly individuals with no option but public transportation if they want to get around and don’t have family to rely on.

Aging in Place, Stuck Without Options, revealed that there will be 15.5 million adults ages 65 and up living in U.S. communities where there is no public transportation option available. Our Boston car accident lawyers know that the lack of public transportation, coupled with the inability to walk or to drive safely, puts many older seniors in a very bad situation. Often, these seniors will choose to take on risks when they need to get somewhere. This is inherently dangerous, but a new recent study shows just how dangerous it is for the elderly.

Elderly at Great Risk of Dying in a Car Wreck
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducts studies on many important pressing issues. One such issue recently tackled was the dangers that elderly Americans face as a result of their mobility.

As reported by USA Today, car accident fatalities from 2001 to 2010 were studied by the CDC in order to get more answers about the dangers that elderly adults face as pedestrians.

By analyzing the crash data from 2001 to 2010, experts were able to determine that:

• Pedestrians account for 4,000 of the approximately 34,000 traffic related deaths in the U.S. annually.
• Those ages 75 and up had more than twice the traffic-related death rate in pedestrian accidents than those who were aged 34 and under. Both older men and older women are more susceptible to traffic fatalities than younger men and younger women.

Older adults, therefore, are at greater risk of car accident deaths as pedestrians. These older adults are not just in danger of getting hurt if they drive past their prime but are also in danger if they decide to walk somewhere since they have no other way to get around.

Why Are Elderly Pedestrians More Likely to Die in a Wreck?

In general, older adults and senior citizens in the U.S. have been shown to take fewer walks than those who are younger. Unfortunately, when the elderly do walk and are involved in a car wreck, they are far more likely to die than younger adults.

There are many reasons why the death rate for older adults in car wrecks is twice the death rate for younger people. Age-related physical and mental disabilities may make the elderly more likely to become involved in a crash. When they are involved in a wreck, their physical infirmities may increase the chances of death.

Unfortunately, with few options, the elderly may continue to take dangerous risks both when walking and when trying to drive after they are no longer capable. Those with older relatives should be aware of the higher risk of car accident deaths among those ages 75 and older and should try to do everything possible to make sure elderly family members have safe transportation to take them where they need to go.
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Getting involved in a motor vehicle accident with a tractor-trailer is always very dangerous. There is a strong chance that those in a motorcar will be injured when there is a crash with a semi truck. While those involved in a truck crash can be hurt in many different ways, one of the most dangerous types of accident is underride accident.

Our Boston trucking accident lawyers know that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is not doing enough to protect the public from underride injuries. A new publication from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) indicates that the risk of underride accidents may be even worse than previously believed.

NHTSA Needs to Work to Curb Underride Accidents

An underride accident happens when a car goes underneath the body of a large truck. For obvious reasons, these accidents can be extremely deadly. The car can become trapped underneath the truck; the top of the car can be badly crushed; and drivers and occupants can sustain injuries to the head or neck.

Because of the inherent risk of a car sliding under a truck, there are regulations in place designed to prevent exactly these types of accidents. The regulations require the majority of semitrailers in the United States to have special steel bars attached to the back underside of the rear trailer. If a car is pushed forward, the idea is that the car will be stopped by these bars before it slides underneath the truck and gets into an underride accident. While hitting a steel bar is going to be dangerous, it is far less risky than sliding underneath a truck. As such, these underride bars can save lives.

Unfortunately, when the bars on the semi-truck meet only the minimum guidelines set by NHSTA, there is a good chance that they won’t do their jobs very well. IIHS has pointed out some problems to NHTSA, including the fact that the bars may not be strong enough and may not be large enough. IIHS has urged that NHTSA strengthen the requirements for the bars and that NHTSA also expand the reach of the regulations so that other large trucks (including dump trucks) would be required to have underride guards.

NHTSA has not yet done this. Fortunately, however, many trucks are still up-to-par anyway despite the lack of NHTSA action because Canada has had stricter guidelines in place since 2007. Since the manufacturers who are making the trucks and underride bars have to follow Canada’s guidelines for trailers in use in North America, the guidelines are usually followed on all vehicles including those destined for the United States.

This is good news since it means lots of trucks meet higher standards than the minimum safety requirements by NHTSA . Many lives may be saved as a result. However, the fact that manufacturers just happen to make tractors with better underride protection is not enough to truly protect drivers. A new IIHS crash test has revealed that cars hitting the side rear of a truck are more likely to experience an underride accident. These cars can slide right under the truck at an angle.

In light of the new crash test findings, IIHS now believes NHTSA should both adopt the stronger Canadian standard for underride guards and should go further to institute requirements that can protect against these side angle underride incidents.
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Until recently, the idea of a driverless car may have sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie. With the many advances in computers and technology in recent years, however, a driverless car is not just within the realm of possibility. In fact, our Boston car accident lawyers know that driverless cars actually exist today and people (albeit testers) have been inside of them.

While many people may not have heard of these technological wonders since they won’t be available for a decade or more and since they cost around $100,000, driverless cars got national attention when Jeb Bush talked about them at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). PolitiFact took a look at the truth of his statement and the information they found can help to shed some light on whether driverless cars are coming soon to a road near you.

Driverless Cars as a Safe Alternative
When Jeb Bush brought up the driverless car at CPAC, he indicated that such a car had already driven more than 300,000 miles on the crowded streets in California. In all of these hundreds of thousands of miles, the car had not been involved in an accident. PolitiFact looked into this claim and found that it was mostly true and that there really has been a safe and effective driverless vehicle zipping around the streets of California.

PolitiFact also reported on other driverless cars currently being developed, including one made with Google that had been successful on a reported test drive. Google’s wireless car had been able to detect cars when merging and to detect and respond appropriately to a tailgating vehicle, among other accomplishments. The Google car can’t drive in heavy rain, but this is a small drawback for a car that can effectively drive itself around and act as your personal chauffeur.

Driverless cars may attract attention because of the convenience and cool factor, but Jeb Bush brought up other important points about these vehicles when discussing them. Bush indicated that not only had the California car not been in an accident but also that driverless cars in general could essentially eliminate accidents and eliminate getting lost.

Of course, even a driverless car cannot possibly make all auto accidents in the U.S. stop. Still, the claim wasn’t that outlandish because a driverless car can resolve a lot of the inherent flaws that human drivers have. For example:

• A driverless car has more monitors processing data and can view more angles and locations at once when compared with an individual driving himself.
• A driverless car doesn’t react with emotion when making a driving choice. All decisions are made based on what is the most logical course of action given the visual the car is getting. A driverless car, for example, won’t have a conscious or unconscious tendency to speed when you’ve been late to work.
• A driverless car isn’t going to be drunk, fatigued and falling asleep, daydreaming or otherwise distracted, unlike a real driver who could be one or more of those things and whose driving could be compromised as a result.

Driverless cars, in other words, take the human error out of driving and remove the risk that a driver will cause a crash through his negligence or intentionally wrongful and misguided acts.
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With news that 660,000 people may be on an electronic device while driving at any given daylight moment, you might think that things cannot get any worse when it comes to the dangers of distracted driving. Unfortunately, as two recent stories show… you’d be wrong. The dangers of distracted driving go well beyond the fact that there are hundreds-of-thousands of people on the phone or texting at any given moment because there are people who are willing to take unreasonable and perhaps even crazy risks just to use their phones.

Our Boston distracted driving accident lawyers know that every driver who uses a cell phone or sends a text is significantly increasing the chances of hurting himself or someone else. This is why the National Safety Council (NSC) has declared April to be Distracted Driving Month and has organized activities and enforcement efforts to help educate the public about the risks of driving while distracted. Some people, however, are likely well beyond hope and distracted driving month activities would have been unlikely to change their egregious behavior.

Texting Drivers Show The Extremes of Distracted Driving
One of the two drivers who took distracted driving to an extreme paid with his life because of it. According to Boston.com, this driver wasn’t in a car at all- he was flying a medical helicopter. The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident since it was a commercial airline cash and NTSB found that texting had played a role.

This accident prompted federal accident investigators to approve a safety alert that should really be classified as common sense. The safety alert cautioned all pilots of aircrafts against using cell phones or other distracting devices during critical operations. Tragically, this obvious warning came too late to save the lives of the texting pilot or the four people who died in the crash through no fault of their own.

While nothing could be worse than a helicopter pilot who decides to texting while flying, an Alabama man recently came a close second in terms of bad distracted-driving decisions. According to NBC News, the man was “double texting” as he drove. This is just as risky as it sounds: he was driving the vehicle with his knees as he used both of his hands to send text messages. The man did not seem to grasp the extent of concern for his behavior, as he reportedly told deputies that he had been “double texting,” since age fifteen.

This man, like the helicopter pilot and like all other distracted drivers, put his passengers at risk. In the case of the Alabama man, these passengers included a 3-year-old child in the backseat. He put his own life and the life of everyone else on the road in danger as well, all to send a text message.

Drivers need to remember that their actions have consequences and that no distracted driving is good distracted driving, even if some types of distracted driving are worse than others. Take the NSC pledge to drive cell free this April’s distracted driving month.
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Distracted driving has been a hot button issue for a long time, with lawmakers in the majority of states passing bans or restrictions on the use of electronic devices behind the wheel and with numerous public health campaigns warning the public about the risks. With so many laws and with so much news coverage, it may seem like common sense that drivers would simply refrain from doing something that significantly increases their chance of getting into a car wreck.

Unfortunately, our Boston distracted driving accident lawyers know that many people simply disregard the dangers of using electronic devices as they drive. In fact, studies have shown that people are aware of the risks but choose to talk, text or otherwise use their cell phones anyway. Recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), however, indicates that this problem may be far more widespread than one might believe.

There are Thousands of Distracted Drivers Right Now

According to the new NHTSA data, which includes statistics from the 2012 Distracted Driving Attitudes and Behaviors Study as well as other studies and reports from 2011, distracted driving remains a major public health problem.

In fact, the 2011 National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) demonstrated that at any given daylight minute, there are 660,000 drivers manipulating an electronic device as they are driving. These 660,000 drivers are across the entire United States, talking, texting, using an app, entering data into a GPS or otherwise playing with a device instead of focusing on the road.

The number of drivers manipulating an electronic device has not changed since 2010, despite efforts to educate the public and to encourage law enforcement to crack down on distracted, texting or taking drivers. In fact, the number has not changed even as:

• 39 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, Washington D.C. and the US Virgin Islands have a complete ban on texting and driving for every driver in the state adult or teen.
• 10 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, Washington D.C. and the US Virgin Islands also ban the use of a handheld cellular telephone while operating a vehicle.
• 74 percent of drivers surveyed in the 2012 National Survey on Distracted Driving Attitudes and Behaviors said that they supported a ban on the use of hand-held cell phones. On average, drivers who supported a ban indicated a belief that the fines should be at least $200 for an offense.
• 94 percent of drivers responding to the same 2012 survey expressed support for texting and driving with a fine of at least $200 for violators of the law.

With almost 100 percent of the population supporting a texting ban and almost ¾ of the population supporting a cell phone ban, it is shocking that there are so many thousands of people manipulating electronic devices as they drive. Yet, almost half of all drivers said they would answer a cell phone call while driving and ¼ said they’d place a call. These drivers, along with the drivers willing to text behind the wheel, make up that list of 660,000 drivers currently putting every single person on the road at risk.
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For many people, driving comes as second nature and they don’t actually stop to think about their actions. If you are one of those drivers, you may find your mind wandering as you commute to work or drive somewhere in your vehicle. In fact, your mind may take you to another place entirely as you get lost in your daydreams.

It may seem like harmless fun to spend your commuting hours daydreaming but the sad fact is that this isn’t the case. Our Boston injury attorneys know that a daydreaming driver may not be giving the road the attention that it deserves. A new study has confirmed this, showing just how many accidents each year can be attributed to dreaming drivers.

Daydreaming The Most Dangerous Distracted Driving Behavior?
According to a recent Yahoo News article, an Erie Insurance Group Survey has indicated that daydreaming while driving may be the single most dangerous behavior of all distracted driving behaviors.

The Erie Insurance Group conducted its study by looking through data on more than 65,000 car accidents that took place in 2011 and 2012. The researchers found that around 10 percent of fatal car accidents involved distracted driving. The Erie Insurance Group then looked further to try to ascertain exactly what type of distraction was keeping the driver unfocused.

The results were very surprising. While texting and driving or using a cell phone behind the wheel is widely viewed as the most dangerous of all distracted driving behaviors, the Erie Insurance Group actually suggested that something else was FIVE TIMES as dangerous as talking or texting. That something was daydreaming.

Based on the information reviewed, the researchers thus concluded that daydreaming was the cause of 62 percent of all distracted driving accidents in the U.S. as compared with just 12 percent of fatalities that occurred as a result of a driver using a cell phone.

If this is true and daydreaming is really the top cause of distracted driving accidents, this could have a serious impact on the ability to legislate these types of issues. Lawmakers can ban cell phones but they have no way to set and enforce a ban on daydreaming as they cannot read your mind. Thus, preventing distracted driving crashes could be hard since there’d be no clear way to make drivers stop dreaming.

It is worth noting, however, that the data that this study was based on centers around reports from law enforcement that were reached either based on their own observations and/or based on what they were told.

Someone who got into an accident might not want to admit he was using his cell phone, especially when cell phone use is illegal in the state where the driver was operating his vehicle. Thus, knowing that he was obviously not paying attention to the road, the driver might try to claim to the police that he was just daydreaming and try to get away with hiding the fact that he was actually chatting away at the time.

Although it is not clear exactly how many distracted driving cases may have involved a texter/talker who went unreported, the basic fact is that any distracted driving accident no matter what the cause can be devastating. Drivers should thus make sure to commit to not doing anything- from daydreaming to driving on the phone- that would make the risks of an accident increase.
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It’s that time of year when we see a plethora of teenagers behind the wheel. Many of them are out enjoying what can be considered the best part of their lives — prom, graduation and summer break.

What parents need to keep in mind is that traffic accidents continue to be the number one cause of death for teenagers across the country. Their first year behind the wheel is the most dangerous of them all. Luckily, you’re one of the biggest influences in their driving habits and can help to shape their skills for a lifetime of safe driving.

According to the Governors Highway Safety Administration (GHSA), teenage drivers tend to emulate their parents driving habits. Our Boston car accident attorneys are urging you to be on your best behavior behind the wheel when your teen is in the car with you. You’re not going to go at it alone though. Officials with the Ford Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) program will be flooding the country with safe driving materials for teens in 2013.

“By setting a good example behind the wheel, parents can increase the chances their children will adopt safe driving practices,” said Jim Vella, the President for Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services.

Don’t believe us? Consider this: about three quarters of teenagers surveyed in a DSFL poll say that they rely heavily on their parents’ advice when they first get their driver’s license.

Luckily, officials with the DSFL are here to offer you some safe driving tips to help to make sure you’re setting the example that your young driver needs. Read the following and review these rules with the teen in your home.

Safe Driving Rules to Help Teens:

-Drive together and drive often. Make sure you offer your teenager a lot of supervised driving time. This is going to help you to make sure that they’re displaying all of the proper driving habits needed to keep them safe out there.

-Buckle up. Parents who wear a seat belt are likely to have teenagers who will wear theirs. Make sure that everyone in the vehicle is buckled in during each and every car ride.

-Obey speed limit. Speed is a factor in about a third of all traffic accidents. Make sure that you’re obeying the posted speed limit and that you’re driving to accommodate the current weather and traffic conditions.

-Halt the distractions. Make sure there’s a “no distraction” rule for the drivers in your home. Distractions include cell phones, music, GPS devices, passengers, eating and smoking. Say no to all of it.

-Scan the roads. Make sure that whoever is behind the wheel knows what’s going on around them at all times. You want to be one step ahead of the traffic around you so that you can better avoid collisions.

-Limit passengers. Under state law, during the first 6 months of a driver’s license, drivers are not allowed to have passengers younger than 18. Although this law is secondary enforcement, you should make it primary enforcement within your household.
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