Articles Posted in Car Accidents

When it comes to nationwide roadway safety, Indiana did not fare as well as we would have hoped, according to a recently-released annual report highlighting legislative deficiencies.Our Highland personal injury attorneys aren’t surprised by the findings, though we hope it serves as an eye-opener and a starting point for lawmakers to advocate for change.

The “2013 Roadmap of State Highway Safety Laws,” conducted by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, reveals that 750 of the more than 8,300 traffic fatalities occurring in the last decade happened in 2011. These crashes have an annual economic impact of $4.35 billion to the state of Indiana, including costs of property damage, injury, hospitalization, lost work, law enforcement and emergency resources and disability. (Nationwide, that figure was $300 billion in 2011 – up from $230 billion in 2000.)

While we may never be successful in the complete eradication of inexperienced and irresponsible drivers, there is certainly more we could do. The state has been given an overall “yellow light” rating – a mid-range rank falling between optimal traffic safety measures (green) and abysmal (red).

Specifically, the report outlines the following areas where Indiana can improve:

• Enact an all-rider motorcycle helmet law;
• Enact graduated driver’s license programs that require drivers to be at least 16 years-old for a learner’s permit and strengthen nighttime driving restrictions for those drivers;
• Enact a law requiring ignition interlock devices for everyone convicted of DUI – not just repeat offenders;
• Enact a law that additionally penalizes impaired drivers who have minors in the vehicle with a charge of child endangerment.

There really is no excuse not to move on these actions, particularly considering that Congress passed a multi-billion dollar transportation initiative offering states monetary incentives to do so.

With regard to motorcycle helmet laws, only 19 states and the District of Columbia have them. Indiana is one of those lacking. The study indicates that the lives of nearly 40 motorcycle riders could have been saved last year if we had implemented an all-rider helmet law.

Indiana did earn a “green light” rating for its passage of optimal child booster seat laws, which is important given that traffic crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for children over the age of 5. Booster seats are believed to reduce the injury risk for kids aged 4 through 7 by about 60 percent.

We were also given a “green light” rating for our GDL laws, but it’s noted that we only have five of the recommended seven GDL laws in place. Between 2006 and 2011, some 900 people were killed in crashes involving drivers who were between the ages of 15 and 20. Passage of enhanced GDL laws, which allow novice drivers to gain experience gradually and safely, could serve to reduce that number even more.

For example, states with nighttime driving restrictions for under-18 drivers report teen fatality reductions as high as 60 percent during those hours.

With regard to impaired driving, Indiana gets only a “yellow light” rating. Of the 1,140 children under age 14 killed in traffic accidents in 2011, more than 15 percent were alcohol-related crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that somewhere between 50 million and 100 million drunk driving trips are made each year with children under the age of 15 in the vehicle – illustrating why the implementation of a child endangerment law to enhance criminal penalties for such violations is so critical.

Of course, we have laws to protect our children from abuse, neglect or negligence. And while driving drunk with a child in the car is clearly negligence, it’s not clearly stated as such under state law. Indiana is behind the curve on this, as one of only eight states lacking such a law.
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With only a small swath of northern Indiana bordering Lake Michigan, it’s natural that flooding isn’t as great of a concern here as in low-lying areas of states bordering the Gulf of Mexico.But our Munster injury lawyers know it’s unwise to ignore the potential risks, particularly when we see a combination of widespread rainfall, melting snow and saturated soil – all of which contributes to flooding, particularly in lowland regions of the state.

In fact, the Indiana Department of Transportation recently issued a warning urging motorists who encounter a flooded roadway to immediately turn around. It’s not worth the risk of vehicle damage, injury and even death that can occur when drivers try to take a chance in high water.

IDOT is taking the risk so seriously that it has launched a public awareness campaign titled, “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.”

While state traffic crews have been working around the clock to barricade highways that have seen flooding and remove excess debris from drainage sites, the fact is, flood waters can rise quickly and with little warning.

Sport utility vehicle drivers in particular may be at risk because drivers may have a false sense of security upon encountering flooding. Unless your vehicle doubles as a boat, be warned that six inches of standing water is sufficient to cause passenger cars to stall out. A foot of water is enough to cause you to float away.

The National Weather Service reports that the vast majority of flash flooding deaths occur when people encounter the flood waters in motor vehicles. It’s especially risky when the water is moving rapidly.

Bear in mind that if there are barriers blocking the roadway with warning signs of flooding, you would be taking an enormous risk with your life and those of your passengers by driving around them.

Note too that if you choose to travel flooded roadways and get stranded, emergency crews may not risk their own lives to save you. It’s possible you may not even be able to call for help, particularly if flooding results in downed communication lines. And even if help is on the way, it may take much longer than it normally would, due to the impeding water.

And if you get stuck and think you can simply wade through, consider that exposure to standing flood water has been documented by the Centers for Disease Control to be associated with a high risk of infectious diseases, chemical hazards and injuries.

You should also be cautious of roadways in the immediate wake of a flood. The fact is, flooding can cause damage to both roads and bridges. And just because the damage isn’t visible doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe to proceed.
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The dangers of drowsy driving have become a major topic of conversation in recent years as it has become increasingly clear that fatigued driving presents many of the same risks as driving drunk (impaired reflexes, inability to slow or swerve to avoid a crash, etc.).

Our Hammond injury attorneys encourage you to take the risks seriously, and get medical help for sleep disorders or persistent problems pertaining to sleep.

The New York Times indicated that a CDC study had found drowsy driving to be widespread. One piece of good news, on the other hand, was a study on Money News indicating that more people than ever before aregetting treatment for sleep disorders.New Drowsy Driving Data Shows That Many are Taking Risks
The bad news is that, according to the New York Times, a study conducted by the CDC has revealed that millions are driving even though they are way too tired to actually be safe behind the wheel.

The CDC study involved the collection of data from 19 different states throughout the U.S. as well as from the District of Columbia (D.C.). Researchers asked a total of 147,000 individuals to answer detailed questions on their sleeping patterns, on their driving and on their work.

According to the study:

• Younger drivers ages 18-44 were most likely to drive drowsy. Over 5 percent of survey respondents in this age group reported falling asleep or nodding off while driving at least once in the prior month.
• Older drivers were least likely to drive drowsy. Among the 65+ group of survey respondents, only 1.7 percent said they had fallen asleep as they were driving.
• When taking the average of all drivers, 4.2 percent said that in the month before they were surveyed, they’d fallen asleep while driving. This goes beyond just feeling a little tired- they actually fell asleep.

These numbers may seem surprising, since it is hard to believe that so many people actually fall asleep even for a few seconds behind the wheel. Still, they are reflected in the statistics on drowsy driving deaths. In 2009 alone, 730 people lost their lives in fatal car wrecks as a result of a distracted driver.

The Good News: More Are Getting Help
While hundreds of deaths per year and millions driving drowsy are certainly clear and unequivocal indicators that something has to be done about drowsy driving, the good news is that many people are taking matters into their own hands.

Those who snore or who are sleep deprived are more likely to drive drowsy, the CDC study says, and many of these people are getting help at sleep centers nationwide.

In fact, so many people are seeking assistance with their sleep problems that Money News reports the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has now accredited its 2,500th sleep center. There are now more sleep centers accredited than at any time since the Academy began the accreditation process in 1977 and there are double the number of centers from just a single decade ago.

More sleep centers accommodate more people getting treatment and hopefully those who solve their sleep issues will drop out of the ranks of drowsy drivers and make the roads safer for all.
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This New Years, you could make the same old resolutions you always do: to be nicer to your family, to lose weight, to go to the gym, arrive on time, to stop procrastinating… all of these are top resolutions that many people make and then forget about a few weeks into January. You also have another option though. You could make a very important resolution and one that could potentially save your life or the lives of others.You could resolve to become a better, safer and more cautious driver in 2013. This is a resolution that our personal injury attorneys urge every driver to make.

Why Resolve to Become a Safer Driver?
There are hundreds of reasons why every single driver in Indiana should resolve to do better in 2013. In fact, to be exact, there are 674 reasons why Indiana drivers should resolve to make safer driving decisions. Because there were 674 fatal accidents in Indiana in 2011 according to the 2012 Indiana Traffic Safety Facts.

These 674 fatal Indiana accidents caused 749 deaths in the state. There were also 188,132 traffic accidents in 2011 that caused either injury or property damage. A good portion of these crashes did not have to happen, but they did because people made bad driving choices.

How Can You Become a Safer Driver in 2013?
Resolving to become a safer driver isn’t just an abstract or vague resolution. There are some very specific driving behaviors that you can resolve to put an end to, and some very specific things that you can resolve to do during the New Year. For example, you should resolve:

• Never to speed under any circumstances. 19.4 percent of fatal accidents (131 total) were related to speeding and 9.3 percent of all crashes in the state were attributed to drivers going too fast.
• To always drive sober, every time. In 2011, 133 fatal accidents and 140 deaths in Indiana were attributed to drunk drivers. This means that intoxicated drivers were involved in 20 percent of the fatal accidents in the state.
• To wear your seat belt for every trip, even short trips. Only 48 percent of those who were killed in auto accidents were known to be wearing their seat belt at the time of the crash.
• To talk to your teenager about safe driving if you are a parent. Drivers ages 16-17 had the highest rate of crash involvement.

Yielding at intersections, refraining from tailgating, watching out for bicycle riders and pedestrians, and showing appropriate respect to other drivers on the road are also some things that you can do in 2013 in order to keep your safe driving resolution.

As you resolve to become a better driver in 2013, you should also encourage everyone you know to make the same promise. All drivers have a responsibility to be reasonably careful on the road. Someone else’s failure to follow the driving rules or to exercise the appropriate care could still result in a crash no matter how careful you are behind the wheel. In that case, speaking to an experienced personal injury or wrongful death law firm can help ensure your rights are protected.
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New Years is supposed to be a time to celebrate the end of one year and the coming of another. Tragically, for some, the new year will never come because of a fatal drunk driving crash. For others, the new year may begin in a jail cell after a drunk driving arrest.

These concerns about New Years drunk driving are very real, as the dangers significantly increase around the holiday. In fact, according to Drive On, one of every 10 teens responding to a recent survey admitted to driving drunk on New Years Eve. Last December, Auto Guide also published an article indicating that New Years is the worst day for drunk driving, with almost half of the fatal car accidents on New Years involving a drunk driver.Our Munster accident attorneys urge everyone to make the choice to drive sober on this New Years. We also encourage parents to talk to their teenagers and establish rules and guidelines to ensure that they won’t be one of the large percentage of teens driving drunk.

Curbing Drinking and Driving Over New Years
Because New Years is such a dangerous time for drunk driving, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) has a Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Campaign that works with the individual states throughout the U.S. to both enforce drunk driving laws and to educate the public.

The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over website has indicated that Indiana will have increased law enforcement on the streets over the New Years holiday in order to try to identify and stop drunk drivers. Further, while Indiana ended their statewide Safe Family Travel enforcement blitz on December 2, the Criminal Justice Institute’s Traffic Safety Division is continuing their public service campaign by using sporting events and other media efforts to educate the public on drunk driving dangers.

With MADD reporting a total of 207 drunk driving deaths in Indiana throughout 2011, the hope is that the increased New Years enforcement efforts and the increased driver education will help prevent any deaths during the New Years holiday.

Stay Safe and Sober
Staying safe and sober on New Years is the responsibility of every driver in Indiana, both to comply with drunk driving laws but also to help save lives. Drunk driving is an extremely dangerous practice and if you choose to drive drunk on New Years, you put every driver and pedestrian on the road in danger.

To help ensure that you have a safe holiday:

• Always have a designated driver (DD).
• Make sure your DD doesn’t have a drink.
• Have cab money or a backup plan in case you need help getting home.
• Keep an eye on friends and remember that friends don’t let friends drive drunk.
• Find out where your teen is going to be, who he is going to be with and how he is getting home. If your teen is going to a party, talk to the parents and make sure it will be supervised. If necessary, offer to drive your teen yourself so you know he or she won’t get in the car with a drunk driver.

By following these tips, you make yourself, your kids and every other driver on the road a little safer this New Years holiday.
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Officials with the Indiana Department of Transportation and our Highland car accident lawyers want you to be safe out there during this winter season.

As the temperature drops, the risks for car accidents increase. We’re asking you to review the following tips and to keep this is mind — Ice and Snow, Take it Slow! Be ready for the winter:

-Before you get behind the wheel, you should look into the driving conditions. You should check the weather reports along with the traffic reports. When there’s inclement weather, remember to just take is slow and easy. Rushing only puts you at higher risks for an accident.

-Keep it clean. Before leaving your driveway or your parking spot, you should make sure that the windows, the headlights, the brake lights and your turn signals are cleared off. During the winter, you want to make yourself as visible as possible.

-Be sure to check your windshield wiper blades, the fluids under the hood, the belts, the hoses and the lights are all properly working, A breakdown is dangerous on any day, but especially on a day with bad weather.

-Be on time. Make sure you leave for your destination with plenty of time to spare. By allowing yourself with enough time to get to where you need to be, you can avoid rushing. When drivers start rushing is when accidents happen.

Be careful when it’s wet:

-Whether it’s snow or ice, you want to slow it down. Fortunately, driers zip through these conditions with little regards to the risks. When the roadways are slippery, you want to slow it down and travel under the speed limit.

-Allow yourself with more room when following vehicles in slippery conditions. You need all the time and space to stop when conditions are wet.

-Be on the lookout for black ice. You may never even see black ice. Take it slow when coming up to intersections, bridges, off-ramps and even shady areas. All of these are prime spots for black ice.

-When visibility is reduced, your best bet is to slow down. You want to keep your distance from other vehicles and remain aware of your surroundings.

-It’s important to remember that 4-wheel drive isn’t going to save your life in these kinds of conditions. It might help you to get going faster when accelerating, but it’s not going to do much when braking. Be sure you’re just as cautious in a truck or SUV as you are in a passenger vehicle.

Stay safe around snow plows:

-Make sure you give them plenty of room to work. Don’t pass and don’t tailgate.

-Slow it down around these vehicles. They travel well below the speed limit.

-Remember that these operators can’t always see their entire surroundings as these vehicles have a lot of blind spots. Make sure you can see the driver when traveling near a snow plow.
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Farm equipment is widely used throughout Indiana. This equipment often needs to be transported on public roadways where it shares space with cars and trucks.

Highland injury lawyers know that there are many dangers associated with farm equipment on the road. With its large size, slow speeds and long stopping distance, farm equipment can present a major hazard and accidents involving the equipment can be deadly both for motorists in passenger vehicles and for the equipment operator.Understanding the Risk of Slow Moving Farm Machinery
In February of 2009, the Committee on Agricultural Safety and Health Research and Extension published a report on Agricultural Equipment on Public Roads. According to their information:

• Agricultural vehicles, including slow moving farm equipment, represent .2 percent of the total number of vehicles that are involved in crashes.
• In 2006, there were 87 fatal crashes involving farm equipment.
• There is no available information to provide an accurate picture of the injuries, property loss and death associated with car accidents involving agricultural machinery or with horse drawn buggies.
• Crashes between motor vehicles and farm equipment usually occur in rural areas and typically involve high-speed motor vehicles colliding with slow-moving crashes.
• When a crash involves a farm vehicle, the occupant of the farm vehicle is killed twice as often as occupants in the other vehicle.

These statistics indicate that there is a real danger associated with crashes involving slow moving farm equipment and other vehicles on the roads. Unfortunately, the Committee’s report also indicated that there is little attention paid to the issue of how to safely move agricultural equipment on public roadways.

The Consequences of Accidents Involving Farm Equipment
As in so many accident and injury cases, statistics don’t always tell the whole story. To get a broader picture of the devastation that can occur as a result of an accident involving farm equipment, consider the recent tragic accident in a rural area of Indiana.

The accident, as reported by the New York Daily News, involved a John Deere crashing into a mini-van and decimating the van, which became caught in the blades. Three of the passengers in the mini van were killed and the other three passengers in the van were hurt badly.

The driver of the farm equipment in this case is accused of causing the accident after running a stop sign. He claims he did not see the mini van approaching. He suffered no injury and, although he was tested for alcohol in his blood stream because Indiana law requires such a test after a fatal crash, the Daily News article indicated that there was no reason to suspect that drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.
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During the Thanksgiving weekend, many people travel to visit family members. In fact, according to AAA, an estimated 43.6 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving period.

Whether this involves a short trip or long-distance travel from one state to another, the number of holiday travelers means more people on the road. Those celebrating the holiday and the four-day weekend are also likely to go out shopping or partying over the holidays, which also contributes to more drivers on the road.Unfortunately, an increase in traffic means a potential increase in the risk of accidents. Our Highland injury lawyers are concerned about the dangers presented by Thanksgiving holiday travel and urge all drivers to take extra care to be safe during the long weekend.

Risks of Accidents During Thanksgiving Holiday Travel
The National Safety Counsel (NSC) has released a comprehensive report called Thanksgiving Holiday Period Traffic Fatality Estimate, 2012. This report considered the increased risk of accidents from 6:00 PM Wednesday November 21, 2012 to 11:59 Sunday November 25, 2012. This 4.5 day period is defined by the NSC as the Thanksgiving weekend period.

According to the NSC:

• The estimated number of non-fatal disabling injuries likely to result from car crashes during the holiday period is 48,300. However, this estimate is inexact and the data indicates that the number of non-fatal disabling injuries could range between 41,100 and 56,500.
• When evaluating crash data from 2005 to 2010, the average number of deaths due to traffic accidents over the Thanksgiving weekend was 9.8 percent higher than the average number of traffic deaths during non-holiday weekend periods.
• In 2010, 13.76 percent of the traffic deaths in the month of November took place during the Thanksgiving period.
• From 2005 to 2010, 15.3 percent of traffic fatalities in November occurred over Thanksgiving.

While these statistics are determined without an objective method of measuring how much travel increases over Thanksgiving, they do suggest that there is an increase in the risk of a traffic crash occurring during the holiday weekend.

Protecting Yourself From Traffic Crash Injuries During Holiday Travel
Staying safe while traveling over the holidays should be a top priority. To minimize your risk of being involved in a crash, consider these tips:

• Leave plenty of time to get to your destination so you can drive at a safe speed without worrying about being late. Don’t forget to take into account that you’re likely to encounter more traffic.
• Avoid areas you suspect will be congested, such as shopping malls during Black Friday. Parking lot accidents represent a significant percentage of crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday.
• Refrain from driving when you are tired, distracted or drunk. Drowsy driving, driving while on a cell phone or otherwise distracted, and driving while intoxicated can significantly increase the risk of an auto accident.

By keeping these tips in mind and following safe driving practices, you can hopefully stay safe over the holiday season.
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Texting and driving could cost you. We’re talking about your car insurance.

According to FOX Business, your insurance company is keeping an eye on states that enact texting and driving bans. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), you’re close to 25 times more likely to get into a car accident if you’re texting behind the wheel. Insurance companies are using this scare as a reason to increase premiums.Our Highland injury lawyers have talked about distracted driving a number of times. It’s no different from talking on a phone or texting behind the wheel — both are dangerous. In the state of Alabama, drivers are allowed to talk on their phone while driving, but they’re prohibited from text messaging behind the wheel. The problem with this is that it’s tough for law enforcement officers to determine if a driver was dialing a number to call (legal) or composing a text message (illegal).

To help find solutions to enforcement challenges, officials with the NHTSA recently sponsored a pilot program, dishing out more than $500,000, to push different enforcement efforts on this dangerous driving behavior in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“While it is relatively easier for law enforcement to determine illegal handheld cell phone use by observing the position of the phone at the driver’s ear, the dangerous practice of texting while driving is often not as obvious,” said David Strickland, Administrator for the NHTSA.

Insurance companies are keeping an eye on what drivers are doing behind the wheel. While these companies aren’t typically first in line to help to compensate you after an accident, they sure are first in line to tack on extra charges for your coverage.

There are more than 3,000 people who are killed each year in an accident with a distracted driver. Unfortunately, officials believe that this number is actually much higher as drivers are not likely to admit when they were distracted during an accident.

Insurance companies already use traffic citations as evidence for hiking up a driver’s rates. Consider a drunk driving charge: Insurance companies are likely to double, even triple, your premium if you are convicted of an alcohol-related driving violation.

Point System in Indiana:

-Two-Point Violations: Exceeding the speed limit (less than 15 mph over the speed limit), not using your headlights and not having your turn signals or brake lights work properly.

-Four-Point Violations: Making illegal U-turns, making unsafe lane movements and exceeding the speed limit (between 16 and 25 mph over).

-Six-Point Violations: Speeding (over 26 mph over the speed limit), tailgating and neglecting to yield or stop.

-Eight-Point Violations: Speed contest on road, neglecting to yield to an emergency vehicle or driving on an extended driver’s license.

An at-fault driver’s record behind the wheel may also become an issue when seeking damages in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.
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In just a few days, on November 4th, we’re going to get an extra hour of sleep. Unfortunately, with it will come an increased risk of traffic accidents through the remainder of the year.

Because our mornings are going to start later with the end of Daylight Savings Time, many of us are going to be making our evening commutes in the dark. It’s not just the drivers that are going to be affected. It’s also the evening pedestrians and bicyclists that are at serious risks, too.Our Highland personal injury attorneys understand that accidents during this time of the year are much more likely. The weather is deteriorating and November is also the deadliest month of the year for traffic crashes involving deer.

Risks of Deer Accidents:

-Indiana is ranked the 8th most dangerous state for these kinds of accidents.

-October, November and December are the most dangerous months.

-There are more than 1 million deer-car accidents every year.

-About 200 people are killed, 10,000 are injured and vehicle damage results in close to $1 billion annually.

-About 60 percent of the people who are killed in these accidents are not wearing a seat belt when the accident happens.

Most of the crashes resulting in serious or fatal injuries occur when the driver loses control of the vehicle and drives off the road or into oncoming traffic. Even when dealing with your own car insurance company, talking with an attorney can best help you protect your rights and can help you to gain the compensation that you deserve.

Your chance of hitting a deer in the next 12 months is 1 in 160, according to Wane.com. Another common problem we’re going to have to deal with out there are the risks associated with winter driving.

Winter Weather Safe Driving Tips, from the Indiana Department of Transportation:

-Check weather and traffic reports before heading out.

-Make sure your windshield is clear of snow and ice before starting.

-Be on the lookout for black ice. Be cautious when driving through intersections, bridges, off-ramps and shady areas. These are all hot spots for black ice.

-Leave early and allow yourself plenty of time to get where you need to be to avoid rushing.

-Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel as visibility may be reduced because of weather conditions.

-Go slow, even if you have a vehicle that is 4-wheel drive. With more powerful vehicles, you may be able to take off faster, but you’re more than likely not able to slow down any faster.

-When you know you’re going to brake — brake early and brake slowly!

-Be cautious when traveling near snow plows. Allow them plenty of room when passing.
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