Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog

A new report issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) researchers found that in a one year period, the costs associated with personal injuries from car crashes exceeded $99 billion. The cost of direct medical care accounts for $17 billion. The total annual cost amounts to almost $500 for every licensed driver in the United States. The yearly costs of fatal and non-fatal crash related personal injuries totaled $70 billion for people riding in motor vehicles. Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States is treated in an emergency department for car accident-related injuries. Plus, almost 40,000 people die from these personal injuries each year. The director of CDC’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention announced that this study highlights the magnitude from the problem of crash-related injuries from a cost perspective and the results are staggering. The CDC researchers used 2005 data to compile the report.

In Chicago, we unfortunately hear news weekly of car accidents where personal injuries or wrongful deaths result. Just this weekend, police were questioning a female driver involved in a Chicago car accident that killed a 39-year old Chicago man. Another fatal crash occurred in the south suburb of Frankfort over the weekend. A man was killed Thursday night when the Kawasaki motorcycle he was driving slid under a truck. A preliminary autopsy showed that the Illinois man died of multiple personal injuries in the accident. Illinois state police said that the injury victim failed to stop at the intersection and yield the right of way to the truck driven by another man.

Visit the Chicago Tribune online to learn more about the CDC car accident cost study.

As most of the readers of our Illinois personal injury lawyer blog know, texting in Illinois while driving can get you pulled over and ticketed by police in Illinois. And, Chicago drivers have known that talking and driving on the cell phone can similarly result in such penalties. Now, our south suburban readers need to know that chatting on your cell phone in Midlothian or Park Forest can get you curbed as well.

The Southtown Star has reported that officials in those villages have recently barred driving and using a cell phone without a hands-free device within their borders. Like Chicago, Midlothian and Park Forest are “hands free” communities. Its an effort centered on avoiding Illinois car accidents that officials said are more likely to happen while drivers are using their cell phones. Enforcement of the hands-free laws in Midlothian and Park Forest are just the beginning. Pulling over drivers for using cell phones is now considered a primary offense. In other words, you do not have to be committing some other traffic offense to be pulled over for using a hand-held device.

Recent statistics have shown that talking on a cell phone causes nearly 25% of all Illinois car accidents. Four out of every five accidents are attributed to distracted drivers whereas one out of every three accidents are attributed to drunk drivers. In 2002, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis calculated that 2,600 people die every year as a result of using cell phones while driving and another 330,000 receive personal injuries. Drivers talking on cell phones were 18% slower to react to brake lights.

To read more about the south suburban texting bans, read the article at the Southtown Star.

Over the past few days, several individuals received personal injuries and some unfortunately passed away after several individual Illinois motor vehicle accidents in the south suburban areas of Chicago. A teenager from a south suburb of Chicago died after he lost control of a sports utility vehicle that he was driving near the Illinois city of Country Club Hills. In addition to the Orland Park seventeen year old who passed away in the SUV accident, three other youths received personal injuries. The teenager was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the vehicle; there was no indication that alcohol or any other drugs were involved in the deadly motor vehicle accident.

Further, on Sunday night, a speeding vehicle struck and killed a teen bicyclist in Dolton, Illinois. The Dolton driver that caused the Illinois wrongful death has continued to elude police and was eluding police when he was speeding and struck the teenager.

Another individual received serious personal injuries after a south side motor vehicle accident on Monday. The injuries occurred after the motorcycle accident victim crashed his motorcycle on outbound interstate 57 at 127th Street in Illinois. Around the same time in another South Side suburban neighborhood, Country Club Hills, a Mexican restaurant was hit by a car and received extensive property damage.

Additionally, an Orland Park man who was involved in a motor vehicle accident a year ago died over the weekend from his personal injuries. He was involved in a motorcycle accident last August on I-355 at Interstate 88; an autopsy revealed that the motorcycle victim died of cerebral injuries.

More information about the serious Illinois motor vehicle accidents is available at The Southtown Star.

Local authorities in California reported that eight people were killed and ten people received personal injuries after a driver racing in a motor vehicle race lost control of his off-roader vehicle. The vehicle went airborne in the motor vehicle accident and landed on top of spectators. The agency investigating the deadly car accident stated that bystanders did not have much of an opportunity to escape the out-of-control vehicle. Online videos of the race from former years show that spectators stand dangerously close to the speeding off-road vehicles. Additionally, no concrete or other barriers exist to separate spectators from the cars. The race was held in a desolate area in California on federal desert land just east of the mountains – off-roaders were racing the loop reaching speeds of over 60 miles per hour.

The driver has not been arrested; alcohol was not a factor in the crash. A different off-roader commented that he did not think the racer did anything stupid, he just hit it too hard. One eyewitness said that she could tell that several people were trapped under the vehicle. She personally saw one woman with a major head wound bleeding and another individual crushed beneath the car. The investigators on scene were searching the vehicle for mechanical defects and to attempt recreating the collision scene.

A video of the off-roader race accident scene where 8 people were killed and ten people were injured is available at Chicago Tribune.

A rail crossing that is infamous for Chicago railroad car crashes is set to be rebuilt this month in order to improve safety before high school classes resume for students who cross the path over the railroad to get to school. Additionally, the Illinois Commerce Commission has urged that the city of Chicago increase traffic enforcement to reduce Chicago train-vehicle crashes at the congested Nagle Avenue crossing on the Union Pacific Railroad corridor.

According to a Chicago Tribune report, vehicles can be stopped on the tracks at Nagle and many other dangerous Chicago railroad crossings on a daily basis, which is seriously dangerous. Drivers routinely take those risks and despite knowledge of the consistent law breaking, most of the hundreds of tickets issued to drivers at the Chicago railroad crossing for failing to yield to trains or for stopping on the tracks were issued by Union Pacific police, not Chicago police officers. Planned changes to increase safety are planned for between August 23 and September 3 and include new signs, better pavement markings, and new concrete crossing panels. City of Chicago traffic engineers are also evaluating whether changes in the timing of signals would keep the rail crossing clear of vehicles when the traffic lights change from green to red.

More information about the fixes for the dangerous Chicago railroad crossing is available at the Chicago Tribune.

In the latest news of vehicle safety concerns, the Los Angeles Times reported that Toyota announced the recall of 412,000 Avalon and Lexus vehicles for steering problems. This means that since October, nearly 9 million cars have been subject to product recalls around the world. This is almost as many vehicles as were sold by all manufacturers in the United States last year. Because of the product recalls and product safety violations, Toyota faces hundreds of product liability lawsuits arising from its problems with sudden acceleration and sticking gas pedals. Additionally, it has been the target of extreme scrutiny by federal safety regulators and the United States Congress.

The 373,000 recalled Avalons, dating from between 2000 and 2004, have improperly cast steering lock bars. These steering lock bars have been a factor in three accidents reported to the Toyota company. The problem occurs like this: a minute crack can develop on the surface, which in turn, can break the bar and lock the steering wheel, increasing the risk of an automobile accident. As opposed to the several hundred thousand Avalons, a smaller number of Lexus model vehicles from 2003 through 2007 have a different steering shaft problem. Luckily, no personal injuries have been reported related to the Lexus issue. Additionally, Toyota says it will recall 80,000 Land Cruisers for another problem involving faulty steering shafts. Toyota plans to replace the steering column bracket on the recalled vehicles, a product procedure that takes nearly two hours to complete. Toyota has announced that it would notify owners by first class mail beginning in late this month to take their vehicles to a dealer to have the work done at no charge.

More information on the Toyota recall is available at Los Angeles Times.

The numbers are shocking and eye-opening. Nearly 300,000 Chicago traffic accidents occur yearly and a Chicago deadly accident takes place every 21.5 hours. However, one study shows that some measures have resulted in about 200 lives being saved each year in Chicago. The rates of deadly Chicago traffic accidents and serious Illinois personal injuries have decreased significantly since the early 1990’s due in large part to safety enhancements on Illinois roads in addition to newer motor vehicles that offer a better change of surviving Chicago car accidents. The annual number of deaths and injuries from vehicle accidents in the Chicago area fell 12.5 percent from 2002 to 2005 and fatalities alone decreased 30.5 percent from 2005 to 2008, from 629 deaths annually to 437. The statistics are based on data collected by the Illinois Department of Transportation. DuPage County recorded the lowest fatality rates over the entire period studied and suburban Cook County and Lake County had the second lowest fatality rates. Illinois’s tougher seat belt laws as well as roadside checks aimed at catching drunk or otherwise impaired motorists are also helping to cut the rate of deadly crashes.

Nonetheless, there is still a lot of improvement to be made in Illinois road safety. In the city of Chicago, one of the biggest challenges will be decreasing vehicle-pedestrian accidents. Further, despite the greatest decline between 2002 and 2008, the crash rates are still highest in the city – three times the rate of some rural areas. Almost 25 percent of fatal crashes in Chicago involve pedestrians. Additionally, fatal Chicago vehicle accidents occur across the Chicago metropolitan area late at night. Traffic fatalities occurring at night accounted for more than a third of all vehicle-related deaths in the Chicago region in 2008.

You can read the full Chicago traffic deaths and injuries report by clicking the link.

An Illinois man, only twenty-five years of age, was pronounced dead early yesterday morning after the motorcycle he was driving crashed this morning in Park Forest, a suburb of Chicago. Officials say that the victim of the Illinois motorcycle crash was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m.

Another young Illinois man, only twenty-eight, was pronounced dead yesterday morning at 4:00 a.m. after an Illinois car crash on the westbound Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago. The 28 year-old man was a passenger in a car and the driver got in a race with another car on the Expressway. The Illinois car crash victim was sitting in the front passenger’s seat when he was partially ejected and killed when the car left the road, overturned on the right embankment, and hit a tree. The Illinois driver of the vehicle was also ejected and taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital of Cook County. A backseat passenger was also taken to Stroger with non-life-threatening injuries. No individual in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt.

Remember, in Illinois, the law states that each driver and front seat passenger of a motor vehicle must wear a safety belt. Each year in Illinois, lives are needlessly lost in Chicago car crashes simply because individuals were not buckled in. As for motorcycles, more individuals in Chicago hit the road on their motorcycles when the weather is nice in the summer. Please practice safety – wear protective gear, especially a helmet, and try to pick a bright color for the helmet. Please remember to obey the rules of the road.

Click the following web links to read more about the Illinois motorcycle crash or Chicago car crash.

Early yesterday morning, three individuals received personal injuries in a Chicago car accident on the Dan Ryan expressway (“The Ryan”), which is Interstate Highway 90/94. Chicago Breaking News Center reported that the three Chicago car accident victims were all taken to area John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County (“Stroger”). Stroger Hospital is located on the near west side at 1900 W. Polk Street. Initially, all were thought to be in critical condition, but one state trooper speaking at 3:00 a.m. reported that one was in critical condition. The car crash was a single-vehicle rollover crash and happened at about 1:00 in the morning on the northbound Dan Ryan at 63rd street.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the crash occurred when the vehicle apparently “tried to take the exit ramp too quickly.” Two of the injured individuals were ejected from the vehicle and one had to be extricated from the vehicle. An Illinois state police accident reconstruction specialist responded to the Chicago car accident scene. All of the northbound lanes of the Ryan were closed to traffic for nearly an hour following the crash, but traffic was moving as of 3:00 in the morning.

The deadliest risk facing occupants of SUVs, minivans, and trucks is a rollover car accident. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 280,000 rollover accidents are reported yearly, claiming more than 10,000 lives annually. According to HowStuffWorks.com, rollover car accidents are directly related to a vehicle’s stability in turns, influenced by the relationship between the center of gravity and the track width. A vehicle is more likely to become unstable in fast turns or sharp changes of direction, which may have happened in the Chicago car accident.

More information about the Chicago car accident and the individuals' personal injuries is available by clicking the hyperlinks.

One individual received serious personal injuries in a pin-in car accident in the Loop on Tuesday afternoon. The accident happened during the lunchhour, shortly after noon near 10 West Jackson Boulevard. The individual who received personal injuries was taken from the scene in serious to critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Stay appraised of this Chicago automobile accident by clicking the link.

Pin-in accidents, like many car accidents, can be fatal. The Chicago injury lawyers at Levin & Perconti hope this victim recuperates fully from Tuesday’s accident. Just late last month, five Chicago people received serious personal injuries after a multi-vehicle pin-in accident that occurred on the Northwest Side of Chicago. That accident resulted in an “EMS Plan 1,” which automatically sends five ambulances to the scene of the accident. All of the victims were taken in serious to critical condition to two area hospitals, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.

USFRA.org showcased this video demonstrating what the Chicago Fire Department does to extricate victims in pin-in automobile accidents. Our readers can watch the video below.

A personal injury lawsuit settlement has been reached in one of the hundreds of personal injury lawsuits filed against Yamaha and its Rhino utility-terrain vehicle (UTV) for saety problems and product liability concerns. This is the first successful case against Yahama in connection to the UTV product liability problems. The injury victim in the settlement filed the injury lawsuit after sustaining a crushed left leg during a low-speed rollover event. The UTV was being operated at a low speed on a relatively flat and grassy area. The vehicle tipped during a right turn, falling onto the driver’s side, trapping the victim’s leg under the UTV. The injuries sustained were severe and permanent.

ATVs are all-terrain vehicles, vehicles that travel on low pressure tires with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control. They were first introduced in the early 1970s and almost immediately resulted in alarming personal injury rates for adolescents and children. Statistics released by the Consumer Product Safety Commission show that in 2005, there were an estimated 136,700 personal injuries associated with ATVs treated in United States hospital emergency rooms. In 2004, 767 people died in ATV-associated incidents.

A UTV, on the other hand, is a “side by side” where 2 or 4 people can drive off-road. The majority of UTVs come with a roll over protection system. Many may also come equipped with hard tops, windshields, and even cab enclosures. However, the Consumer Product Safety Commission stated that the vehicle may exhibit inadequate lateral stability, undesirable steering characteristics, and inadequate occupant protection during a rollover crash. Between 2003 and 2009, 116 deaths occurred in UTV accidents.

A trucking company has filed an Illinois brain injury lawsuit against the Illinois manufacturer of a truck they used in their business. The Illinois product liability lawsuit alleges that multiple defects in the truck caused toxic fumes to enter the truck’s cabin part and cause brain damage to one of the truck company owners. The owners state that they purchased a 2008 truck for nearly $150,000 from a defendant Illinois trucking company and financed through a company that also designed and manufactured the vehicle. The truck in question contained a diesel particulate filter regeneration system known as a Regan system designed by one of the defendants.

The Illinois product liability lawsuit further contends that the owners have been forced to submit the truck to the defendants’ service facilities several times since purchasing the vehicle because of various defects and malfunctioning component parts. The defendants were unable to fix the defects and deficiencies.

The Illinois brain injury lawsuit states that the defective truck caused one of the owners to become overcome by toxic and poisonous fumes. The owner has sustained serious and permanent brain damage. She now suffers from memory loss, changes in her personality and behavior, loss of income, and a permanent diminution in her future employability.

The owners blame the Illinois trucking company for their part in the problem, alleging that the company was negligent in delivering a dangerous and defective truck and failed to warn the purchasers of the hazardous condition with the exhaust system an failed to deliver sufficient dealer preparation and inspection. The Illinois negligence complaint seeks a judgment of greater than $450,000.

More information about the Illinois product liability lawsuit is available at The Madison St. Clair Record.

A 39 year-old man was ticketed for failure to stop at a stop sign after his vehicle struck a Chicago school bus in a Chicago bus accident at 3:26pm last Friday. Police began investigating the Chicago car accident and reported to find a weapon inside the vehicle that the 39 year-old man was reportedly driving. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office has now charged the motorist, an alleged gang member, for reportedly having a weapon inside the vehicle he crashed. He has been charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon and unlawful possession of a firearm in a vehicle by a street gang member.

Luckily, nobody on the school bus was injured, but the 39 year-old motorist and the driver of the other vehicle were hospitalized in serious but “stable” condition. The accident – and the unlawful weapon – are still under investigation.

In this car accident luckily nobody was injured – with a school bus involved, the damage could have been catastrophic. Unfortunately, the Chicago auto accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti have worked with clients who were seriously injured from car accidents. Every time a driver gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, he or she is accepting responsibility for the safety of everyone else on the road. While accidents do happen, if a driver’s negligent behavior or careless actions lead to the injury or death of another party, that driver must be held accountable.

To read the Chicago Sun Times article on the Chicago school bus crash.

The family of a South Side Chicago wrongful death victim has filed an Illinois wrongful death lawsuit against the man who has been charged in connection with the death. The Cook County wrongful death lawsuit was filed last week in Cook County Circuit Court and accuses the charged driver with negligence in the February death of the wrongful death victim, a 59 year-old Chicago woman.

In the criminal case, Cook County prosecutors allege that the driver was operating a late model Dodge that struck and killed the 59 year-old Chicago wrongful death victim as she was crossing the intersection of 69th Street and Halsted Street. Chicago police say that video surveillance footage from the area, including red light camera footage, led them to the alleged driver. The driver, who is from Chicago, has been charged with felony reckless homicide and failure to report an accident resulting in the death of another person. The driver remains in Cook County jail on $350,000 bail. The Chicago wrongful death lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the driver.

Legally, wrongful death means a death that has been caused by the fault of another person. In addition to the hit-and-run described above, other examples of wrongful deaths may be deaths caused by the manufacture of a defective or dangerous product, the construction of an unsound structure or building, or failing to diagnose a fatal disease. Wrongful death lawsuits, like the Cook County wrongful death lawsuit described above, are usually filed by family members or beneficiaries of the decedent.

More information about the Illinois hit-and-run lawsuit is available here.

An Illinois negligence lawsuit against an Illinois strip club can proceed after a decision issued by the Illinois Supreme Court. Chicagobreakingnews.com reported that the Illinois Supreme Court decided that DuPage County Diamond’s Gentlemen’s Club near West Chicago had a duty to prevent two intoxicated patrons from driving away. The Illinois Supreme Court ruling has made way for an Illinois negligence lawsuit filed by the families of one of the patrons and a woman who were killed in a subsequent alcohol-related accident. The drunk driver was convicted in 2007 of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide and is serving a 12-year prison sentence; however, the negligence lawsuit against him and the operating company of Diamonds Gentlemen’s Club is still pending.

While the DuPage County strip club does not have a liquor license, strip club patrons are allowed to bring their own liquor and the club sells them mixers. The drunk driver and his passenger had been drinking heavily at the club and were ordered to leave after the drunk driver was witnessed vomiting in the bathroom. In its opinion, the Illinois Supreme Court stated that the operating company “knew that the [drunk driver] was intoxicated and clearly knew he was driving from the premises.” Of the premises liability lawsuit, the victim’s attorney stated that it was a perfect storm of bad conduct.

The St. Charles Sun also reported that the owners of Diamonds Gentlemen’s Club could be held liable. The drunk driving accident involved an SUV traveling on Route 25 when it crossed the center line and slammed head-on into an SUV driven by a 27 year-old Yorkville woman who was two weeks away from giving birth.

The Chicagobreakingnews.com article about the premises liability lawsuit is available here.

A recent editorial again highlighted the need for the U.S. legal system. Despite what proponents of tort reform and damages caps want you to believe, the United States personal injury lawsuit system works. The need for our system was recently reinforced by the Toyota product liability recall. The author of the editorial told the story of a man whose Toyota Camry started speeding wildly on a scenic cliff-side drive in California when it plunged into the ocean 70 feet below. While the driver survived, his wife who was a passenger in the car did not survive. Only a year later, a woman was crushed in her Camry when it became suddenly unstoppable, airborne, and hit a tree. Again, last summer, four members of a family were killed after the gas pedal on their Lexus was stuck.

Despite reports of dangerous Toyota errors, the company was quiet and blamed driver error or faulty floor mats. Similarly, federal regulators did not press the company. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration opened and closed half a dozen investigations without any significant action on the product liability.

The writer of the editorial addressed that United States court system and the role that injury attorneys play in it provides an early warning system, alerting regulators and news organizations to product hazards that the public would likely not be aware of. Courts also get responses from manufacturers who might have been able to fend off federal investigators if they decided to investigate product concerns. The writer of the article summed it up when he said it’s time to recognize once more that litigation over dangerous products and services can avert countless wrongful deaths and personal injuries.

To read the full editorial, click here.

The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that a young Chicago-area couple has filed a car accident lawsuit after a violent crash killed their 13-month old son. The recent Chicago-area crash also killed two of the couple’s friends. The Chicago couple is now seeking justice and has filed a car accident lawsuit against the driver who is alleged to have slammed into their Honda Civic, resulting in the wrongful death of all three backseat passengers. The alleged driver is reported to have been fleeing another car crash he was involved in also in Chicago. The car accident lawsuit alleges that the defendant engaged in reckless conduct, which is defined as a conscious disregard for the safety of other people. The personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits seek at least $50,000 in damages.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, led by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, has reported that it is also reviewing the car crash, but no criminal charges have been filed against the driver yet. Witness accounts state that the driver was traveling between 80 to 90 miles per hour, hitting the Honda so hard that it knocked the car accident toddler victim out of the car seat he was fastened into and into a rear window. The friends were also ejected from the vehicle. The parents of the wrongful death victim are trying to cope for the time being. Levin & Perconti is keeping the parents and those coping with this horrific loss in our thoughts.

Click here to read more about the car accident lawsuit.

According to CNNMoney.com, the latest Toyota recall will affect 5.3 million vehicles. Toyota has stopped production of vehicles on the list, but many Toyota owners are confused about what steps they should take if their car is on the list of recalled vehicles. Some of the vehicles involved in the recall include: Toyota’s RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Avalon, Tundra and Sequoia models. Click on the link to view the full list of recalled Toyota vehicles.

The product recall is happening because Toyota found that over time, some cars’ gas pedals become sticky. When a driver tries to ease up on the gas to slow down the car, the pedal sticks and the car continues to accelerate. According to the report, Toyota is working on a new design, but in the meantime, they issued the recall to warn Toyota owners about the danger. Once they find a way to fix the problem, they will ask owners to come into dealerships to fix the gas pedals.

In the meantime, owners must be vigilant and they should not drive their car if they notice that the gas pedal is sticky. They warn owners to pull over and call a Toyota dealership for assistance if they feel stickiness in the gas pedal. If you believe that you have been injured in an accident as a result of Toyota’s defective gas pedals, contact a Chicago product liability attorney to discuss your case.

To read the full report on what to do during the Toyota product recall, follow the hyperlink.

After the recent Toyota gas pedal recall affecting millions of vehicles, the attorneys at Levin & Perconti wanted to highlight an especially important teleseminar that the American Association for Justice is offering to car accident attorneys. The teleseminar is entitled Dangerous Defects in Automobiles – Hot Topics in Crashworthiness Cases. The package includes audio CDs to use in the car, a multimedia CD including reference materials, and MP3 and iPod audio files to use on your iPod.

Click here for more information on the auto defects AAJ teleseminar.

A Los Angeles Times investigation recently showed that Toyota has delayed product recalls and attempted to blame human error in product liability cases where owners claimed vehicle defects. Toyota is the world’s largest automaker, so this finding could potentially affect many individuals. Toyotas are seen all over Chicago. One example that the article cited was Toyota’s test of its Sienna minivan in 2003. During a routine test, engineers found a product defect – that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick. This was hazardous because it potentially make the vehicle accelerate out of control. While Toyota redesigned that part, Toyota did not notify the tens of thousands of people who had already bought vans with the old panel. It was not until U.S. safety officials opened an investigation last year that Toyota acknowledged in a letter to regulators that the part could come loose and lead to unwanted or sudden acceleration. Nearly six years after discovering the potential hazard, in January 2009, the automaker recalled over 25,000 vans with the old panel.

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