Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog

Encouragingly, the government says “the number of people killed in crashes connected to driver distraction fell last year but still remain an epidemic.” (K. Thomas, AP, 9/20).
The Transportation Department released information showing that 5,474 people were killed in crashes reportedly due to distracted driving in 2009. This figure represents a 6 percent decline from the 2008 figure of more than 5,800 distracted driving deaths.

However, although the number of distracted driving deaths declined, so did traffic fatalities overall, and distracted driving fatalities represented 16 percent of al traffic fatalities in both 2009 and 2008.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says “the problem is still an epidemic and the data could be the ‘tip of the iceberg.’ He says many police reports don't document whether distraction was a factor in vehicle crashes.” This informational release comes just before Transportation Secretary LaHood kicks off a second summit on distracted driving this Tuesday.

As a personal injury attorney, I urge all drivers to overcome the temptation to use distracting devices. All is takes is a split second to change your life, and lives of others on the road. Attentive driving is critical to the safety of our roads.

As a Chicago personal injury attorney, I strongly encourage all parents to act quickly and remove hazardous toys from their housholds as “more than 1.2 million Chuck E. Cheese light-up rings and toy eyeglasses are being recalled over concerns that children might swallow the small battery inside the toys.” (Washington AP, 9/15).

The Consumer Product Safety Commission stated the hazard exists when the plastic on the toys breaks, which can ultimately exposing the “button-type batteries” inside. Ingestion of these batteries could potentially cause stomach, esophagus or intentional problems.

The commission did not link the toys to any reported injuries, but the CPSC says, “two children were able to get to the battery in the light-up rings. One child swallowed it; the other child put the battery up his nose.”

As a personal injury attorney, I am saddened by the following story, but support adding rails to bunk beds at all universities and colleges, as bed rails are an important safety mechanism.

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill is considering installing railings “on bunk beds in its dorms after a woman fell to her death in her daughter's room last month.” (AP for Findlaw 9/10). The 49 year old mother, who was visiting her 19-year-old daughter last month, suffered a fatal injury to her head when she fell from the top bunk in her daughter’s room.

Housing director, Larry Hicks, confirmed that he had received nearly 70 requests for fails prior to the fatality, and requests have increased in its aftermath.

U.S. Agriculture Department employees “worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers say they didn't respond to complaints about conditions at one site.” (Des Moines, Iowa, AP, 8/3).

Two former employees at “Wright County Egg facilities, Robert and Deanna Arnold, say they reported problems such as leaking manure and dead chickens to USDA employees but were ignored and told to return to work.” An industry spokesman says, “the USDA employee in charge of the site never received any complaints but that the investigation is continuing.”

As a personal injury attorney in Chicago, I am disappointed that company officials ignored signs of trouble, and in doing so caused many to suffer needlessly. The current recall has escalated to a total of about 550 million eggs.