Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog

Tom Brady claims a minivan ran a red light and caused a Boston car accident in which the star quarterback of the New England Patriots was involved on Thursday morning, the Boston Globe reported.

Brady said he was driving in Back Bay when he entered the intersection at Commonwealth Avenue while traveling on Gloucester shortly after 6:30 a.m. He said the light was green when the minivan entered the intersection from the other direction. He said he swerved to avoid the crash but ended up broadsiding the van. The 21-year-old driver of the van also claimed to have the green light when he was struck by Brady’s Audi.

Police cited the other driver for running a red light, based on information from a witness. The witness said she was walking her dogs and could confirm that Brady had the green light. The Globe reports that the other driver has had his driver’s license suspended five times since first earning the right to drive in 2006.

Brady was uninjured. However, the father of the other driver had to be extracted from the minivan by the Jaws of Life.

Records show the at-fault driver has been cited repeatedly for not wearing a seat belt and failing to properly secure children in his vehicle. His license was suspended in 2008 for having amassed seven traffic citations in three years.

The New York Daily News reports that Brady’s Thursday got better as the day went on. By Thursday night he had signed a contract extension making him the NFL’s highest paid player at $19 million a season.
Continue reading

Despite an aggressive national public service campaign and text messaging bans in 30 states, 9 out of 10 teens admit to distracted driving
Two seconds. Two seconds is the time it takes to turn off, or answer, a cell phone. For teenage drivers in Massachusetts a two-second distraction can mean the difference between life and death, between getting into a Boston car accident or avoiding one.

Despite this simple truth, a recent online survey conducted by Seventeen magazine and auto club AAA found that 86 percent of teens admit to distracted driving – including texting and talking on their cell phones – while behind the wheel, usatoday.com reports. What makes this figure more disturbing, is 84 percent of teens admit they know distracted driving is dangerous.

In an effort to reduce the number of Massachusetts car accidents, after six-years of debate state lawmakers have penned the Safe Driving Act, which goes into effect on Sept. 30. As our Boston car accident attorneys reported earlier on our Boston Car Accident Blog, the agreement, among other things, bans Massachusetts teens from using cell phones, laptops and other hand-held electronic devices while driving.

Of course, chatting or texting aren’t the only ways for teen drivers to be distracted, although according to distraction.gov, drivers using a hand-held electronic device while behind the wheel are four times more likely to be involved in a serious injury car accident. Other common distractions include: eating or drinking, applying makeup or grooming, reading (maps included), watching a video, or changing radio stations/CDs.

For more information, or to participate in the Seventeen magazine’s Two-Second Turnoff Day viral video challenge, go to http://www.seventeen.com/fun/articles/two-second-turnoff.
Continue reading

With 78-million baby boomers edging closer to 70, when and how to address concerns about elderly driving with loved ones is a topic of conversation most families in the United States struggle to address. But having that conversation can boil down to a matter of saving lives, the Washington Post reports.

Older drivers are at increased risk of a Boston car accident, and loved ones, family and friends are increasingly the last line of defense.

One recent MIT AgeLab survey found that as drivers get older, their confidence in their driving improves as their ability to remain safe behind the wheel declines. In fact, drivers over 75 were twice as likely to say they would continue driving at 90 than their 65-74 year old counterparts.

Unfortunately, perception and reality on this issue diverge. In 2007, the Government Accountability Office found that drivers 75 and older were more likely to be involved in a fatal car accident than any other age group, including teens.

While a handful of nationally-publicized, multiple-fatality car accidents involving older drivers has led to some state-by-state tightening of motor vehicle restrictions and driver’s license renewal procedures, the conversation needs to start at home, or with the family physician. And to be effective, hopefully, it must be a carefully crafted discussion. One where respect for the older driver’s sense of freedom and control is taken into consideration and thoughtfully navigated.

In the end, of course, whether or not a driver gives up their license is a matter of ability, not age. The question asked should not be: is dad (or mom) too old to drive, but rather, are they able to drive safely and responsibly?

The Boston car accident lawyers at Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, LLC, have more than 18 years experience handling personal injury and auto accident claims. Our team understands how difficult it can be to deal with the physical, emotional and financial devastation that often accompanies being injured in a Massachusetts car accident.
Continue reading

One of the nation’s most prominent highway safety organizations contends the government has gotten sidetracked by safety issues like texting and driving.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the highway safety arm of the insurance industry, claims the government is waging a high-profile campaign against test messaging and runaway Toyotas while doing too little to force automakers to adapt better safety features. Our Boston personal injury lawyers and wrongful death attorneys have reported extensively on the government’s effort to combat texting and cell phone use while driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 6,000 motorists are killed and more than 500,000 are injured each year in accidents caused by distracted driving, including driver cell phone use.

The IIHS reports about 100 motorists are killed each day in traffic accidents nationwide.

“You’d think from the media coverage, congressional hearings, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s focus in recent months that separating drivers from their phones would all but solve the public-health problem of crash deaths and injuries,” IIHS President Adrian Lund wrote in the agency’s August status report. “It won’t.”

As the Wall Street Journal points out, car accidents are the number one cause of accidental death in the United States. Naturally, the U.S. Department of Transportation takes issue with the notion that it has been sidetracked.

“Safety is the Department of Transportation’s number one priority, which is why we are aggressively and urgently tackling a number of risks to drivers’ safety,” the DOT said in a statement. “We are going to continue taking drunk drivers off the road, getting people to put down their phones and other distractions, making sure cars and trucks are safe to drive, and doing whatever else is necessary to keep Americans safe behind the wheel.”

While that might be true, the uproar over Toyota consumed the agency earlier this summer. And it has yet to release comprehensive accident statistics for 2009, which are typically released sometime in midsummer each year.
Continue reading