Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Under traditional tort theory, the operator of a vehicle is the primary person responsible for the accident (unless he can overcome the presumption by implicating another party, such as a negligent mechanic). Driverless cars challenge this fundamental aspect of American tort theory and leaves this crucial question, if you are hit who is liable? How do you recover for your injuries? Are you left in legal limbo? This post will go over the answers to those questions.

The Department of Transportation recently passed regulations that holds that the computer is the “operator” of the car. That means, even if there is a human operator in a driverless car, the computer is the nominal driver. But does that mean you sue the computer? Is that even possible? No, there is no basis in law for holding a computer responsible for its actions. But it is likely that the court will apply long-standing products liability laws to driverless cars.

Essentially, the manufacturer or designer of the computer would become liable for your injuries. In this scenario, multiple parties are liable for your injuries from the software designers, to the hardware manufacturer and even retailers. While this may sound like a boon to plaintiffs, it also imposes steep challenges. Products liability cases are far more difficult to prove than standard car accident negligence cases.

Drowsiness is something many might associate with nighttime. So, some might assume that being at risk of drowsy driving is something that mainly happens at night. However, a recent study, by SleepJunkie, indicates that it is actually the morning that sees the most fatalities related to drowsy driving here in the United States.

The study reviewed federal data on drowsy driving crash fatalities to look into what time of day saw the most such deaths. It found that the hour of the day in which drowsy-driving-related fatalities were at their highest levels was the 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. hour. The hours that held the No. 2 and No. 3 spots were also morning hours. In fact, they were the hours on both sides of the 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. hour.

Why do you think the morning sees so many drowsy-driving-related deaths? What do you think are the best ways to stay away from drowsy driving in the morning?

Given how dangerous drunk driving is, it can be important to look into what groups are engaging in this behavior the most. Understanding what groups drunk driving is most common among can yield important insights regarding what kinds of prevention efforts might be effective.

A recent survey suggests that, among the different age groups, drunk driving is most common among gen-Xers. The survey asked 2,000 Americans various questions about alcohol, including whether they had ever gotten behind the wheel when drunk.

The answers given were broken down in various different ways, including by generation. Gen-Xers (respondents 35 to 51) had the highest rate of admitting to drunk driving, with 43.31 percent of such respondents doing so. Meanwhile, the lowest rate belonged to individuals 70 and over, with only 27.27 percent of individuals in this age group saying they had driven drunk. Baby boomers (respondents 52 to 69) and millennials (respondents under 35) landed in the middle with 39.3 percent and 33.93 percent admitting to drunk driving, respectively.

There are certain things that can turn an everyday drive into a life-changing traumatic event for an individual. One is encountering a drunk driver out on the roads. The actions of drunk drivers sometimes trigger catastrophic crashes. Skilled personal injury attorneys understand the major impacts an accident caused by a drunk driver can have on a person’s life, and can help victims of such crashes fight for compensation to put towards tackling the challenges these impacts pose.

One of the things that can lead to drunk driving is a person guessing wrong on how intoxicated they are when deciding to get behind the wheel. Most people rely mainly on their own judgment when deciding whether they are sober enough to drive. This judgment can sometimes be quite a ways off.

A new technology might provide a more reliable way for people to gauge whether they are sober enough to drive safely. The recently developed technology is a biosensor patch. The patch, which reportedly looks like a temporary tattoo, is a wearable that measures the alcohol level in the wearer’s sweat. Reportedly, it takes about eight minutes to measure this level. The device is designed to send the alcohol level information to the wearer’s cellphone, with the idea being that an alert could be generated for the wearer when the levels reach a point where driving wouldn’t be safe.

There are a variety of things the states and the federal government do to try to keep the nation’s roads safe. One is to issue various regulations aimed at crash prevention. Another is to issue traffic safety goals, and to initiate campaigns directed toward the achievement of such goals. Recently, the federal government set a goal that is quite large and ambitious.

This goal is to bring traffic deaths down to zero in the next 30 years. This joint goal of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the safety advocacy group the National Safety Council was announced last week.

There would be quite a long ways to go for this goal to be achieved. Traffic deaths are currently very far away from zero. In 2015, there were over 35,000 fatalities out on America’s roads. And recently, motor vehicle accident deaths have been trending up, not down.

Despite its dangers, many people continue to go to their phones when driving. This is the case here in New York and throughout the country. Now, most states ban at least some types of cellphone use while driving, like texting. Additionally, some states, like New York, prohibit all types of handheld phone use behind the wheel. However, there are things that can make enforcing such laws difficult.

One big one is that this dangerous conduct can be hard for law enforcement officials to spot. There are various things distracted drivers might try to do to conceal their cellphone use. This includes holding their cellphone down low or putting their cellphone away the second they spot anything that looks like law enforcement.

These challenges have led some police departments to go to out-of-the-box methods for trying to catch distracted drivers. Examples include:

It’s that time of year again, school is about to start. There are all kinds of things that could be on a kid’s mind and on their plate as the school year begins, especially if they are at a new school. One thing one would hope a student would never have to deal with during this eventful time of the year or any other point in the year is getting struck by a car and the injuries that come out of such accidents. Unfortunately, that is exactly what students here in the Syracuse area and the rest of New York state could be subjected to if the state’s drivers aren’t acting properly as the school year begins.

During the school year, there can be a particularly high number of child pedestrians out and about around the time of day school starts up and the time of day school lets out. For one, there can be lots of students walking to and from locations where school buses pick up and let off passengers, such as school bus stops, school zones and school parking lots. Also, student pedestrian traffic is not limited to just these areas, as there are still a fair number of students in the U.S., around 13 percent, who bike or walk to school.

So, with the school year starting up, it is important for drivers to remember to watch out for students when driving, particularly during the times of the day when kids are arriving at or leaving school. It is also critical for drivers to avoid conduct which could endanger student pedestrians, such as using a cellphone or doing other distracting activities behind the wheel, speeding, not fully obeying stop signs or being careless when backing up. When students are harmed by driver negligence, their parents may want a skilled lawyer’s guidance on what legal steps to take in response to the incident.

Staying safe on the road extends beyond being a conscientious driver behind the wheel. There are many things that go into maintaining your vehicle and keeping it in the best condition for safe driving. Keeping your tires properly inflated at the their optimum pressure is one way to decrease risk of tire failure and other problems that can result in a car accident.

Contrary to popular belief, the maximum PSI (pound of pressure per square inch) listed on the sidewall of your tire is not necessarily the best pressure to inflate it to. This number actually refers to the maximum cold pressure that the tire is rated for. Cold pressure is indicated because it is ideal to fill your tires when they are cold. Inflating your tires to the maximum PSI listed will change how they handle — a vehicle with tires which are overinflated is at greater risk of fishtailing the back end in a sharp turn, for instance. Over inflated tires are also more likely to exhibit balding at the very center of the tire tread, which increases the risk of an unexpected blowout while driving.

The optimum pressure for your tires can usually be located in your owner’s manual or on a sticker that is usually placed in the doorjamb, inside the gas tank door or on the trunk lid. Usually, ideal tire pressure is somewhere between 30 and 35 PSI. Keeping the tires properly inflated not only improves your fuel economy, but also improves handling, which may make the difference between a close call and a costly car accident.

In our last couple posts, we looked at a recent spate of pedestrian and cyclist deaths in New York City, noting that three of the four accidents were hit-and-run incidents. As we pointed out, pedestrians and cyclists have rights and should not assume that they have no possibility of recovering damages after an accident, despite the occasional bias they may encounter with law enforcement.

That being said, pedestrians and cyclists should be aware that, in seeking compensation for damages caused by a negligent motorist, they may themselves be subjected to allegations of negligence. This can occur when the pedestrian or cyclist may have taken some sort of unsafe action that ended up contributing to the accident. This is known as the doctrine of comparative negligence. 

A fair number of states recognize some form of comparative negligence. The basic idea is that a plaintiff may have his or her damages reduced in proportion to his or her degree of fault for the injuries. Under New York’s comparative negligence law, an injured party may recover damages in cases where he or she is deemed to have been negligent, even if the individual is 99 percent at fault. This is known as pure comparative fault. In other states, a plaintiff may only have the ability to recover damages if he or he is less than 50 percent of 51 percent at fault.

Last time, we mentioned a spate of pedestrian and cyclist accident in New York City, pointing out that three of the four accidents were hit-and-run incidents. As we noted last time, pedestrians and cyclists sometimes face challenges with the criminal justice system in having accidents fairly investigated.

In some cases, law enforcement officers have been known to make incorrect assumptions about fault when investigating an accident. When offices are afflicted with bias against cyclists, and sometimes pedestrians, to it can translate into a failure to cite an at-fault party for a violation or failure to take more widespread action to address unsafe driving practices that put pedestrians and cyclists at risk. 

Cyclists, in particular, face a fair amount of mistreatment and bias from motorists and law enforcement. Part of the problem, of course, is that some cyclists habitually and blatantly violate basic traffic laws. Running red lights and stop signs, failing to move to the shoulder of the road when it is safe and possible to do so, failing to alert motorists about turns, and so on. When a cyclist violates traffic rules, it is fairly obvious and has a way of generating anger among motorists.