Articles Tagged with Car Accidents

It is common knowledge for drivers to yield the right of way or pull over to the side of the road when an emergency vehicle approaches. This is why when police cars, ambulances and fire trucks come down the road, most cars get out of the way.

But should this rationale apply to the drivers of emergency vehicles themselves? Conventional wisdom would suggest that it would. After all, they have to follow the rules of the road just like everyone else, and they must check to see if intersections are clear and safe before passing through them. 

Nevertheless, an accident involving an ambulance and a fire truck in Florida suggests that the driver of one, or both, vehicles were not paying attention. According to an ABC News.com report, the two vehicles were responding to separate emergencies but had to cross paths at an intersection. A traffic camera video showed that the ambulance crashed into a fire truck that had just crossed into the intersection.

In a perfect world, there would be no drunk driving. Unfortunately, the world we live in is far from perfect and drunk driving is something that occurs throughout the country. How common drunk driving is varies from state to state. 

This can be seen in the results of a recent survey. The survey results show estimates of around how many drunk driving incidents different states have per every 1,000 people. Of the states for which the survey yielded data, the state with the highest rate (995 incidents for every 1,000 individuals) was Hawaii and the state with the lowest rate (217 incidents for every 1,000 individuals) was Utah.

What rate did the survey results show for New York state? The results indicate that, in the state, there are 372 drunk driving incidents for every 1,000 individuals. Thus, New York is closer to the lower end of the spectrum than the higher and has a lower rate than quite a few other states.

The next time you are in a traffic jam in downtown Syracuse, are frustrated with metering lights or are waiting for traffic to loosen up, you may wonder if the traffic signal gods simply don’t have your best interests in mind. You may also wonder if the traffic signal was invented yesterday and whether it will ever evolve.

As for when it was invented, the traffic signal is officially 100 years old this month. The very first one was installed at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 105^th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. The signal’s inventor, James Hoge, envisioned a device that would essentially improve his commute. At this time, Cleveland was going through an industrial renaissance, and this led to population growth. With many more people coming in and out of the city for work in cars, bicycles, horses and even streetcars, this inevitably led to traffic snarls. 

The first traffic signal featured four pairs of red and green lights that stood for “stop” and “go.” Of course, this design went through a host of changes before the traditional three color semaphore system that we see today was enacted.

The summer driving season is about to come to a climatic end in a few weeks. The Labor Day holiday weekend is traditionally the last holiday of the summer, so millions of Americans take to the road to get to their favorite destinations; especially if they did not get to do so during Memorial Day weekend or the Fourth of July.

 As we have noted in prior posts, holiday weekend travel can be treacherous. There is a higher volume of traffic, which contributes to the higher incidence of accidents.  Further, heavy traffic can wear on a person’s nerves, so it may lead to road rage incidents.

 While you may not be so concerned with road rage, it is important to understand the factors behind road rage. This post will explore a few.

If you are in the market for a new car, chances are that the salespeople you meet will tout their vehicle’s advance safety warning features. What began a few years ago as a unique perk only seen on luxury models such as Lexus and Mercedes Benz has found its way to mainstream models in Chevrolet, Ford and Honda vehicles.

While these features are growing in popularity, only a small fraction of all cars on the road have them. But this could change as more older cars are replaced by new ones. As a matter of fact, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called for them to become standard equipment on all new cars sold in the U.S. 

The NTSB recently released a 60 page report detailing the safety benefits of advanced warning systems. Essentially, the report focused on how many lives can be saved because of all the accidents that can be avoided (no pun intended) by the alerts provided by these systems. With more than 500,000 people injured in accidents each year across the country, the NTSB proposed that nearly 80 percent of collisions could be prevented.

It appears that if a dangerous epidemic is not in the major news headlines, people tend to forget about it. An example of this could be seen in how distracted driving accidents are treated. Two summers ago, everyone from major celebrities and federal officials were bemoaning the practice of using cell phones while behind the wheel. While the drumbeat of prevention has seemingly died down, the number of distracted driving related accidents have not.

A recent HuffingtonPost.com article highlighted that nearly half of all adults admit to texting and driving, and an investigation into a Tennessee bus accident last winter revealed that it was caused by distracted driving. The driver who caused the fatal crash was later found dead in his home; but authorities have released little information about the death. 

Nevertheless, it is a harsh reminder that distracted driving is still a problem on America’s roads. In fact, there are a number of statistics that speak to this issue. This post will highlight a few.

If you watched the Women’s World Cup Final yesterday, you were obviously in for a treat. The 5-2 final score was the largest margin of victory in such finals, and the first World Cup for the United States since 1999. The U.S. also became the first country to win three World Cups.

Also beneficial for soccer fans, no commercials during play. The clock runs continuously, unlike many other spectator sports in the U.S. (e.g. football, basketball, hockey). So commercials must be played before the game, during the halftime break, and after the game. During these breaks, it is likely that you saw commercials for insurance. Indeed, they are catchy and entertaining, but before you purchase a policy, there are a few things that you should know that the companies may not want you to know.

You may save a little money, but we’ll still make money – Keep in mind that you may save a little money compared to your last policy, but the insurance company is set to make money. You should also beware of low premium, high deductible policies. 

If you have been injured in a car accident, it should be no surprise if the insurance company you are dealing with needs additional information to verify your injuries and the expenses behind them. This part of information gathering is called discovery, and it may be difficult to deal with on your own. This is part of the reason that injury victims hire attorneys.

With that, we offer the following post to give our readers an idea of what discovery is all about. 

For the uninitiated, discovery is important for finding and developing evidence to support the basic elements for a negligence claim. These include the duty to use reasonable care, the breach of said duty, proving that the breach was the proximate cause of the injury, and damages. So through the discovery process, your personal injury attorney will seek information such as:

For many people, today is a travel day so that they can avoid the traffic and chaos that comes with trying to get out of town for a holiday weekend. Among the many headlines ahead of the holiday: gas prices are at a five-year low for this time of year and more than 40 million people across the U.S. are expected to travel at least 50 miles away from home.

With more people on the road, the chances of being in an accident inherently increases. Indeed, people don’t expect to be in a crash, but it is always helpful to be prepared in the event of one. This post will highlight a few things an accident victim should do.

Check on everyone in the accident – If the people you see are conscious, try to move them to a safe place and call to get medical attention. If they are unconscious, be very careful about moving them. The same applies if a person complains of neck or back pain.

With the Fourth of July weekend approaching, it is likely that people across central New York will be travelling to their favorite vacation spots. In fact, with gas prices considerably lower than they were last year, it would not be surprising if more people were on the road this week. With higher traffic volumes comes the greater chance for an accident.

Of course, no one expects to be in an accident, but they inevitably happen. When they do, the possibility of being injured is always a consideration. With that, this post will highlight some of the common injuries suffered.

Back and neck injuries – These are very common injuries in accidents. Depending on the severity, they may manifest themselves differently. For rear end collisions, the likelihood of whiplash is high. Also the violence of a crash can lead to back injuries. So if you experience soreness in your back or neck directly after the crash, or in the days after it, you should inform an experienced personal injury attorney.