Monthly Archives: October 2024

Illinois State Police & Governor Announce New Traffic Accident Notification System

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The Illinois State Police (“ISP”) and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced this week that the state will be using a new emergency notification system when there are car accidents that involve emergency personnel.

Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology and ISP partnered with Google Public Sector to develop a real-time, GPS-based alert system to tell drivers about upcoming ISP traffic activity.

The process begins when ISP sends their GPS coordinates to the Google Cloud. Waze transforms the information into an alert message that’s distributed to approaching drivers. A police crash or disabled vehicle icon will appear on their map screen and an alert to slow down and move over. Google maps will show similar icons in the coming weeks.

Brad Hoffman, the director, State & Local Government and Education, at Google Public Sector, had this to say about the partnership with the state of Illinois: “By routing incident information through Google Cloud to populate in Waze and Google Maps, we can help ensure drivers are better informed and attentive when approaching road incidents. We applaud the Illinois State Police and Gov. Pritzker for taking a proactive approach to preventing ‘Move Over’ crashes and safeguarding the lives of those who serve and protect communities across the state.”

This is a positive sign that shows the type of public private synergy that improves traffic safety for everyone. This is helpful to oncoming drivers where a car accident already occurred but also protects the always vulnerable emergency response workers. This included state troopers, police, EMS workers and firefighters.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a Chicago car crash or Illinois truck accident, please call the Chicago injury attorneys at the Bryant Law Group, LLC for a free legal consultation or go to our firm’s website at www.blgchicago.com.

Tesla Cybertrucks Recalled For The 5th Time This Year

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The much maligned and often teased (for their rediculous look), Tesla Cybertruck was recalled for the 5th time this year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) announced along with Tesla that 27,000 Cybertrucks due to a delay in rear-view camera images that could impair driver visibility and increase crash risks.

Tesla is is issuing a software update to address the latest issue. This is the largest of the five recalls made on the Cybertruck. Back in April a recall was made to fix a loose accelerator pedal pad and another in Juneover issues with windshield wipers and exterior trim.

All of these recalls are made to help prevent future traffic crashes. I have not seen any reports that th faulty rear-view images have caused any car accidents.

If you own a Cybertruck, be sure to contact your Tesla dealer to ensure that the software in your vehicle has been updated.

If you have been seriously injured in a Chicago car accident or Chicago truck accident then call The Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076 or go to our website at www.blgchicago.com.

GM Fined $1.5 Million For Failure To Disclose Cruise Vehicle Accident

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General Motors’ autonomous vehicle division, Cruise, was fined $1.5 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) for their failure to fully report a vehicle-pedestrian accident.

According to ABC News, back on October 2, 2023 once of GM’s driverless Cruse vehicles struck a pedestrian in California. Following that accident, GM suspended all of their driverless vehicle operations after California’s department of motor vehicles deemed that  cars posed a danger to public safety. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the license for Cruise, which was transporting passengers without human drivers throughout San Francisco.

The NHTSA said on Monday that as part of a consent order, Cruise will also have to submit a corrective action plan on how it will improve its compliance with the standing general order, which is for crashes involving automated driving systems.

It’s unclear in any of the news articles did not provide any details on how GM did not “fully report” the pedestrian accident according to the NHTSA’s standards.

Cruise will meet quarterly with the NHTSA to talk about the state of its operations, and to review the periodic reporting and progress on the requirements of the consent order. Cruise will also submit a final report detailing its compliance with the consent order and state of operations 90 days before the end of the base term.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a Chicago rideshare accident or a Chicago pedestrian accident, then call the Chicago personal injury lawers at The Bryant Law Group at 312-614-1076 or go to our website at www.blgchicago.com.