Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Initially designed and constructed to protect Massachusetts road department and maintenance workers from slipping from the jobsite and falling onto the heavily trafficked eight-to-ten lane expressway, the Big Dig tunnel handrails have been involved in seven Boston traffic fatalities from 2005 to 2008, the Boston Globe reports.

Our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys and Massachusetts personal injury lawyers have been monitoring an ongoing debate between lawyers, accident reconstruction specialists, engineers and officials from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Each player has produced copious amounts of data regarding the effectiveness, safety, benefits and hazards posed by the six miles of guardrails that sit atop raised walkways that line both sides of the highway.

The debate may rage on, but it is the gristly depiction of how the fatalities are described and remembered that has had the most impact on public opinion. Of the seven drivers or passengers of motor vehicles or motorcycles killed after coming in contact with the guardrails, most experienced either brutal dismemberment or were ensnared in the handrails during impact and pulled from their vehicle.

While in some cases speeding or seat-belt use played some role in the cause of death, accident reconstruction specialists hired by the Boston Globe to review accident reports found three flaws in the barrier design they say significantly impacted survivability.

First, the railings are too widely spaced, leading to possible victim entanglement upon impact. Second, because the height of the guardrails are level with a car window or motorcycle seats they create a snag hazard for passengers or drivers who come into contact with the barrier. Third, instead of using rounded vertical posts to reinforce the horizontal handrails, the Big Dig posts have squared off corners which can act like blades when they come into contact with skin.

Experts on the side of Mass-DOT disagree. They say that not only have the railings passed numerous engineering and construction inspections, they also comply with state and federal safety regulations and industry safety standards. Whatever side prevails, seven families mourn lost loved ones, litigation continues and the original handrails remain intact and in place.
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Driver complaints and stimulus funds are leading to much-needed improvements of one South Brookline roadway, the Boston Globe reports. A well-travelled, meandering curvy road near Faulkner Hospital – Allendale Street – has worried neighbors for years. Signage is poor, road surface conditions are patched and potholed and dividing lines and other road markings are completely faded. Residents complain that the foliage-lined swerving road already offers drivers poor visibility of oncoming traffic. Pair the nature of the roadway with the deteriorating road conditions and it is a recipe for disaster.

As our Boston car accident attorneys have reported in an earlier post to our Boston Personal Injury Attorney blog, this is not the first time neighbors have complained about potentially hazardous road conditions. With that said, a spokesman for the mayor’s office did tell the Boston Globe that and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has planned an upgrade for Allendale Street using stimulus funding from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The project will begin mid-October and should take about three weeks and will include repaving and restriping.

According to a 2009 Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation study, roadway conditions are the single most lethal contributing factor in fatal car accidents nationwide – more so than speeding, impairment and failing to buckle up. In 2009, poor roadway conditions were linked to 52.7 percent of all U.S. fatal car accidents and 38 percent of non-fatal crashes. It is estimated that road-condition crashes cost the U.S. economy more than $217 billion annually in medical expenses, productivity costs, property damage and quality-of-life expenses.

Wet weather and speeding are believed to have both played a role in a mid-morning I-95 Boston car accident last week that claimed the life of 32-year-old Hyde Park man, the Boston Herald reports.

The 1993 Infiniti crashed into a concrete barrier which caused the car to flip before coming to rest between two unoccupied toll booths. Law enforcement indicated the vehicle did not slow before entering the pay lane. The driver was extracted from the vehicle and taken to Exeter Hospital, where he died. There has been speculation that a medical condition may have been a factor in the crash.

Slippery roads, whether wet with rain, snow or ice, can make driving more dangerous than usual. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation offers the below list of tips and precautions for drivers to consider as cooler weather and the winter season arrives, bringing with it less favorable driving conditions.

IN THE EVENT OF SLIPPERY ROAD CONDITIONS:

~ Before you head out, know the current road and weather conditions. Dialing 511 from your cell phone will provide you with the latest updates. With that said, once behind the wheel: pay attention, drive cautiously and defensively, and use your brakes carefully. Leave plenty of room for stopping.

~ Before you back out of your driveway, clear all snow and ice from your vehicle.

~ Remember that bridges and overpass sections freeze before other stretches of roadway and that exit and entrance ramps may be more difficult to navigate than straight-aways.

~ In rain or snow don’t use cruise control and look further ahead and around than when driving in clear conditions. Turn on your lights to enhance visibility.

~ Give snow plows and maintenance vehicles a wide berth and never pass them on the right side.

IN THE EVENT OF A STRANDING:

~ Keep a first-aid kit, some bottled water and non-perishable snacks, and a change of warm clothes in your trunk.

~ Stay in your vehicle and stay calm.

~ Keep a window cracked to ensure access to fresh air and only run the engine intermittently.

~ If you can, call 911.
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It’s no secret that the car you drive can have a big impact on your ability to survive a serious Massachusetts car accident. We’ve all seen the sub-compact cars that look as though they could be totaled in an accident with an alley cat. At the same time, the rollover issue with the Ford Explorer some years ago proved that large is not necessarily safer.

This week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is debuting a new 5-Star Safety Rating System available at www.safecar.gov.

Of good news to motorists is that more expensive also does not necessarily mean safer. The BMW 5 series received a “5.” the highest overall rating, but so did the modestly priced Hyundai Sonata.

Cars are rated from 1 to 5 stars and not all cars have been rated yet under the new system, which also used female test dummies for the first time, and not just dummies simulating men. The new system also provides an Overall Vehicle Score for the first time.

“More stars equal safer cars,” said Secretary LaHood. “With our upgraded Five-Star Safety Ratings System, we’re raising the bar on safety. Through new tests, better crash data, and higher standards, we are making the safety ratings tougher and more meaningful for consumers.”

The new system is tougher than the old and rates cars under three broad areas, frontal crash, side crash and rollover resistance.

“We want consumers to embrace these new safety technologies as a way to make vehicles safer,” said National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland. “We believe electronic stability control, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning offer significant safety benefits and consumers should consider them when buying a new car.”
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The Boston Globe published an opinion piece by Focus Driven President Jennifer Smith that contends a state’s enforcement of its distracted driving laws will have a significant impact on whether the effort leads to a reduction in car accidents caused by distracted driving.

As our Massachusetts injury attorneys reported earlier this month on our Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that its study found the number of distracted driving accidents actually increased in three of four states that ban drivers from text messaging. The organization suggests that drivers may be attempting to hide their activities below the dash, which could result in their eyes leaving the road for a longer period of time.

A law banning Massachusetts drivers from text messaging took effect at the first of the month.

The Institute has been critical of the amount of attention the federal government has put on the dangers of text messaging and distracted driving, saying many other forms of distracted driving and safety issues are worthy of attention.

“They’re focusing on a single manifestation of distracted driving and banning it,” IIHS President Adrian Lund said. “This ignores the endless sources of distraction and relies on banning one source or another to solve the whole problem.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently reported that 5,474 motorists were killed and 448,000 were injured in traffic crashes caused by distracted driving last year.
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Motorists are likely to respond to the state’s new ban on text messaging in one of two ways: By either complying with the law aimed at reducing the number of serious and fatal Massachusetts car accidents caused by distracted driving, or by lowering their phones and hiding their activities in their laps.

It is that scenario of hiding your phone in your lap that has the Highway Loss Data Institute warning that text messaging bans could actually be increasing the risk of distracted driving accidents. The Governor’s Highway Safety Association reports that 30 states have banned text messaging by drivers. Eleven of those states have passed laws this year — Massachusetts’ law went into effect at the first of the month.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has led the charge against text messaging, blaming distracted driving car accidents for about 5,000 deaths and more than 500,000 injuries each year. Only speeding and drunk driving are blamed for more traffic deaths each year.

However the study published by the Highway Loss Data Institute, a division of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, looked at four states with a ban on text messaging and compared them to four states where no such ban is in effect. The conclusion was startling: Not only had the ban not led to a reduction in accidents, three of four states with a ban had actually seen an increase.

“It’s an indication that texting bans might even increase the risk of texting for drivers who continue to do so despite the laws,” says Adrian Lund, president of both HLDI and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

He cautioned that the study’s conclusion has no bearing on whether texting and driving is dangerous — it is. But the study’s conclusion does suggest that texting bans are not having the desired effect.

“If drivers were disregarding the bans, then the crash patterns should have remained steady. So clearly drivers did respond to the bans somehow, and what they might have been doing was moving their phones down and out of sight when they texted, in recognition that what they were doing was illegal. This could exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers’ eyes further from the road and for a longer time.”

An experienced Boston car accident lawyer will carefully review your case and could be able to determine whether distracted driving or a violation of the texting ban played a roll in your accident. A careful review of the causes of your accident is just one aspect of building a personal injury or wrongful death case capable of winning the compensation you deserve.
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The Stoughton Journal is reporting that the state’s new text messaging ban could be tough to enforce.

The new law went into effect at the first of the month as the state joins 29 others that have banned text messaging by drivers in an effort to reduce the number of serious and fatal Massachusetts car accidents caused by distracted driving. As we reported on our Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog, first-time offenders face a fine of up to $135.

Those under the age of 18 are prohibited from using all hand-held devices for any reason; a first-offense will result in a 60-day driver’s license suspension, a $100 fine and participation in a mandatory driver’s education course.

Law enforcement contend the law will be difficult to enforce but voluntary compliance could reduce the risk of accidents caused by distracted drivers.

Nationwide, distracted driving is blamed for nearly 5,000 deaths and 500,000 injuries each year and is the leading cause of serious and fatal accidents after speeding and drunk driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But Wayne Sampson, the executive director of the Massachusetts Chief’s of Police Association, foresees problems with enforcement of the law. For starters, Sampson said the state has issued no guidelines for enforcement, leaving each department to create its own.

And that is not the biggest issue: The challenge of telling the difference between someone who is text messaging and someone who is dialing a phone will be the biggest challenge officers face in enforcing the new law. “There is no way that an officer going down the street is going to be able to tell what somebody is doing when they are looking down in their lap,” he said. “We are going to have a problem in any of the actual prosecutions of these offenses.”

While telephone records will be summoned from phone companies in the event of a serious accident, routine cases will be much more difficult to prove.

Fines for adults caught repeatedly violating the new law will increase to $250 for a second offense and $500 for subsequent offenses. The violation will not count as a moving violation and so should not lead to an increase in insurance premiums.
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The day is finally here for a storyline our Boston car accident lawyers have been following for months on our Boston Car Accident Lawyer blog. As of Sept. 30, the Massachusetts Safe Driving Act – which forbids texting while driving for adult drivers and bans completely the use of cell phones while behind the wheel for 16- and 17-year-old drivers – goes into effect, the Boston Globe reports.

Under the new law, adults caught texting for the first time will face up to $135 in fines. For drivers under the age of 18 caught using a handheld or handless electronic device, first time offenders will earn a 60-day license suspension, a $100 fine and be required to attend a driver education course. For a second offense, young drivers will lose their license for 180 days and face a $250 fine.

But for a generation raised on cell phones, accustomed to sending 50 to 200 texts a day and responsible for logging billions of minutes chatting on their phones each year, are the penalties stiff enough to lead to behavior change? Experts and safe driving advocates simply say, no. Rather, it is how mom and dad adapt to and adopt the new law that will determine how a kid acts behind the wheel.

After tracking the exploding numbers of cell phone and texting-related serious and fatal car accidents nationwide since 2005, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has hosted a series of annual meetings to combat what he calls “an epidemic of distracted driving in America.”

On Sept. 21, his agency sponsored a day-long national Distracted Driving Summit in Washington D.C. with one goal in mind: “With the help of experts, policymakers, and safety advocates we’ve assembled here, we are going to do everything we can to put an end to distracted driving and save lives.”

As Massachusetts becomes the 30th state to implement a law limiting the use of mobile electronic devices while behind the wheel, it appears that many state lawmakers and voters stand behind him in this effort.
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As a Washington D.C. distracted driving day-long summit drew to a close Sept. 21, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration prepared to release a pair of glowing reports tracking ongoing seat-belt usage and minimum age drinking law efforts. But pre-empting the publication of those reports, a controversy erupted over a pair of studies that question the effectiveness of anti-texting laws, much to the ire of the U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Considering Massachusetts is the 30th state to ban texting while driving as of Oct. 1, our Boston car accident lawyers have been monitoring the uproar over two recent distracted driving studies published by the Institute for Highway Safety and its sister organization, the Highway Loss Data Institute.

The IIHS and HLDI reports suggest that the state-by-state adoption of laws banning texting while driving has had, at best, a negligible impact on the number of car accidents nationwide. In response, Secretary LaHood, whose department has been aggressively pursuing a multi-layered, multi-agency approach to curbing the use of handheld electronics while driving, angrily blogged about the findings, calling the IIHS claims “misleading” while saying the HLDI report included “numerous flaws”.

And a handful of national agencies are backing his criticism, from Allstate Insurance to the American Automobile Association to the National Safety Council. Each organization generated their own press release questioning the findings of both studies while expressing support for texting bans while driving as an effective tool for safer driving and saving lives.

With that said, two NHTSA reports released this week addressed those very topics. The dual reports revealed that more than 12,500 lives were saved in 2009 just by passengers and drivers buckling up, and 309 toddlers were spared thanks to proper child restraint use. Statistics further indicate that more than 600 lives were spared in 2009 through the enactment and enforcement of minimum drinking age laws.
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