Tag Archives: Chicago personal injury lawyers

Chicago To Launch Camera Technology To Promote Traffic Safety

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Cities Today reported recently that Chicago will be launching a traffic safety program called Smart Streets Pilot, which will focus on enforcing parking violations in bus and bike lanes.

Cameras will be placed on buses and and city vehicles looking to enforce traffic lane violations. An initial 30-day warning will precede a ticket, but after this initial timeframe drivers will be fined for repeated violations. It is unclear what the fine amount will be after receiving the initial warning.

The two-year pilot program will operate in downtown Chicago with eight city enforcement vehicles equipped with cameras to monitor the streets, while the Chicago Transit Authority (“CTA”) will install cameras on up to six buses by 2025. According to the city’s Transport Commissioner Tom Carney: “By keeping bus and bike lanes clear of illegal parking, we can improve safety and reduce delays for commuters.”

The pilot’s results will be reported to the city council, assessing the impact on traffic flow, safety, and transit operations.

This is welcome news to Chicago bicyclists and pedestrians who commute downtown. Too often drivers park their vehicles blocking dedicated bike and bus lanes. This is incredibly dangerous for bicyclists, especially when it happens in densly populated areas like the Chicago loop. Let’s hope this pilot program motivates drivers to park their vehicles properly and eventually make Chicago’s streets safer.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a Chicago traffic crash or Chicago truck accident, then call the Chicago personal injury lawyers at the Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076 or go to the firm’s website by clicking on www.blgchicago.com.

Multiple Closures Will Tie Up Traffic In Chicago This Week

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According to multiple news outlets like ABC 7 and Blockclub, there will be multiple lane closures around Chicago this week.

The resurfacing of Dusable Lakeshore Drive continues this week as all but 2 southbound lanes will be closed from Irving Park Road and the LaSalle Street exit on Monday and Tuesday between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. Also, the shouthbound lanes will be limited to 3 between Hollywood Boulevard and Lawrence.

On top of this, the northbound Kennedy exit at Ohio Street will be closed all week.

These are 2 major closures that will disrupt commute times. This may be good week to take the CTA (bus or train) or the Metra, if you are someone to prefers to drive to work. This could definitely limit your commute time and be less of a headache getting too or from work.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in Chicago traffic accident or Chicago truck accident, then call Chicago personal injury lawyers at The Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076 or go directly to our website at www.blgchicago.com.

Illinois Announces New Driver Safety Program

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Illinois Secretary of State, Alexi Giannoulias, announced this week that his office is launching a driver safety program focused on young drivers and distracted driving. This new program is part of National Teen Driver Safety Week.

The program, call “One Road, One Focus” will call for safety zones in areas where lots of crashes have happened. It will also ask lawmakers to fund new grants for local departments to start their own enforcement programs and remind prosecutors to get accused distracted drivers’ license suspended in the event of serious injury or death. Also included is a mandatory video teens will have to watch before they get a learner’s permit, which will start in 2025.

Giannoulias had this to say about the safety iniciateve: “No text or email is ever that important and certainly not as important as a child’s life. There is nothing that is more important than paying attention to the road.”

I applaud this new program as I believe many new drivers don’t understand, or at least forget, how dangerous it is to pick up your phone while driving. It only takes a second or two of looking away from the road before a car crash can occur.

If you have been injured in a Chicago traffic accident or a Chicago truck accident, the call the Chicago personal injury lawyers at the Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076 or click on the firm’s website a www.blgchicago.com to learn more.

Chicago City Council Considering Lower Speed Limit For City Streets

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According to WGN News, the Chicago city council’s Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety could be taking up a vote this week that would recommend lowering the speed limit on city streets to 25 mph (down from 30 mph).

The new speed limit has the support of traffic and bicycle safety advocates. According to the committee, proposed change is purely a safety measure which would help protect pedestrians and bicyclists. According to the city’s data, a person struck by a vehicle traveling 30 MPH has a 60 percent chance of survival. That chance of survival increases to about 95 percent if the person is struck by a vehicle traveling 20 MPH.

“If you think about it from a logic standpoint, when a car is going faster it takes longer to stop. So when a car is going 30 miles an hour it takes about 120 feet to stop and just a 5 mile reduction it can stop at 85 feet. It gives cars a chance to stop,” said Audrey Wennink, the senior director of the Metropolitan Planning Council, which supports the change.

The commitee is also considering a new law that would permit Chicago residents to submit photos of parking violations. This new law would allow citizens to submit photos of vehicles illegally parked in bike and bus lines to the city through 311. The city’s Department of Finance would then issue citations to the vehicle’s registered owners after two warnings.

I will be watching the results of this committee hearing closely and will update the results. It will be interesting to see if this is eventually passed by the entire city council and signed by the mayor.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in Chicago pedestrian accident or Chicago bike accident, then call Chicago personal injury lawyers at The Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076. Or go to the firm’s 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.

GMC Recalls SUV And Pick Up Trucks For Brake Fluid Defect

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) announced this week that GMC will be recalling approximately 450,000 SUVs and Trucks due to an electronic brake control module software that could fail to display a warning light when a loss of brake fluid takes place.

The recall includes 2023-2024 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESVs, 2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, 2023-2024 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban 1500, 2023 GMC Sierra 1500, 2023-2024 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL,

GMC stated that the recall will include a free software update, which will hopefully eliminate the defect.

The NHTSA stated th a vehicle may be driven with low brake fluid if they aren’t provided the warning, which can reduce braking performance and increase the risk of a crash.

If you or a loved one have been injured in a Chicago car accident or an Illinois traffic accident involving a auto defect, then call the Chicago personal injury lawyers at the Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076.

U.S. Traffic Deaths Continue to Rise In 2022

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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), 9,650 people died in motor vehicle accidents in the first 3 months of this year. This is a 7% increase over the year before. It is also the highest first quarter since 2002.

No doubt the ending of covid restrictions has contributed to these rising numbers as more people are out on the roads. People drove about 40 billion more miles in the first quarter than a year earlier, a 5.6% increase, the NHTSA said. But the rate of traffic deaths per 100 million miles traveled also increased during the quarter from 1.25 deaths to 1.27, according to the agency.

The question is why do these numbers continue to increase, and how do we help reduce these numbers. According to the NHTSA, a significant protion of the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill will be dedicated to making the roads safer and accident prevention.

started running ads urging people to slow down and not to drive while impaired. On Wednesday, it announced the annual “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement campaign for Labor Day weekend, which focuses on preventing impaired driving and improving safety on the roads with local police for the weeks around the end-of-summer holiday.

The NHTSA has also launched a public education campaign to address speeding, which is called “one of America’s most dangerous driving behaviors.” The “Speeding Wrecks Lives” campaign, which aims to change general attitudes toward speeding and remind drivers of the deadly consequences.

I’m a little dubious of these Ad campaigns as they have been running these for years, yet the numbers continue to increase. I would like to see more resources and focus on distracted driving as well as impaired driving. Let’s hope the investment from the infrastructure bill works as we need to see these numbers turn around.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in Chicago car crash or Chicago truck accident, then call the Chicago personal injury lawyers at the Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076.

NHTSA: 2020 Saw Increase Hit And Run Traffic Fatalities

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The National HighwaysTraffic Safety Association (“NHTSA”) released its’ data last month on 2020 traffic deaths. US roads saw the largest increase on record in deaths per mile traveled in 2020, including a 26% increase in hit-and-run fatalities that outpaced the increase in overall deaths.

Hit-and-run deaths have grown steadily in the last 15 years as a share of traffic deaths. Victims of hit-and-runs are also increasingly pedestrians and cyclists. In 2020, 69.6% of hit-and-run deaths were either pedestrians or cyclists, compared with 61.1% in 2006. Roughly one in four pedestrian deaths in 2020 was a hit-and-run.

Early analysis shows that pedestrian deaths did not decline in 2021, indicating that 2020 wasn’t a fluke. Overall traffic deaths per mile in the first nine months of 2021 increased marginally from 2020.

The NHTSA and other traffic experts could not provide the reasoning behind the gradual increase, but there were some suggestions as to the problem. Some believe that the decline in public transportation ridership in 2020 could have led to the increase in pedestrian deaths and hit and runs. Others have pointed out that alcohol and impaired driving fatalities grew 14% in 2020, outpacing the 7.2% increase in overall traffic deaths when compared with 2019.

What is the plan going forward and what can the government do to help curb the increase in pedestrian traffic deaths? The NHTSA plans to propose changes to the new car assessment program that may emphasize safety features that protect people both inside and outside vehicles. In 2020, 34% of traffic deaths occurred outside vehicles, a rate that’s increased steadily since hitting a low of 20% in 1997. The agency has also said it’ll develop rules for requiring automatic emergency braking for pedestrians on new passenger vehicles, but not heavy trucks.

The Department of Transportation plans to feature a “safe system” approach, which emphasizes the responsibility of all actors in a system, including roadway engineers. US road design has long prioritized moving vehicles at high speeds rather than protecting all road users.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in Chicago pedestrian accident or a Chicago truck accident, then call the Chicago personal injury lawyers at the Bryant Law Group, LLC. for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076.

December Is National Impaired Driving Awareness Month

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I have written in recent weeks that traffic deaths in Illinois and around the country are far exceeding previous years. According to the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, more than 20,000 people died in car crashes during the first six months of 2021, a nearly 20% rise from the year prior. According to his advocacy group, a large portion of these traffic deaths are due to impaired driving.

“What we’re seeing in Illinois is similar to what’s happening throughout the country in that approximately 30% of people who are being killed are in alcohol-related crashes,” said Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “That’s really a terrifying number when you consider most people know that it’s not OK to drive while impaired, and yet people are still doing it.”

With traffic deaths up and traffic crashes due to impaired driving, the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety are pushing for stricter laws to curb this trend. First, the group recommends that all states require ignition interlock devices for all convicted drunk driving offenders. Currently 34 states (including Illinois) already have this law in place.

The organization also is pushing for new technology that could help preven car accidents. Specifically features like automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning systems, and forward-collision warnings.

Finally, the organization also is pushing states to lower the legal blood alcohol level to .05%. Currenty, the legal minimum is .08 in most states.

As I wrote earlier this week, multiple Chicago police and sheriff agencies are increasing patrols for the holiday season to hopefully remind people to buckle up and to avoid driving if they have been drinking. This recent trend is not encouraging, but these type of accident are easily preventable. Order an uber or lyft or designate a driver for your holiday party. It’s that easy.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a Chicago traffic accident or Chicago truck accident, then call Chicago personal injury lawyers at the Bryant Law Group for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076,.

IDOT Offering Free Child Car Seat Safety Check This Saturday

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The Illinois Department of Transportation (“IDOT”) is offering a free child seat safety check throughout the state this Saturday September 25. If you have a child car seat that needs to be installed or if you want IDOT installation experts to check the safety of your seat, you can go to one of various locations this Saturday.

During Seat Check Saturday, technicians will provide instruction on how to install and use car seats correctly and help determine if your children are in the right seat for their age, height and weight. In Illinois and across the United States, an estimated four out of five car seats are installed incorrectly, contributing to traffic crashes as a leading cause of death of children. The latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration research shows that more than one-third of children 12 and younger who died in car crashes were not properly restrained. 

State law requires children to ride in a child safety seat until age 8 and rear-facing until age 2.

You can go to  buckleupSaturdayillinois.org and search the map for a location near you.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a Chicago traffic accident or a Chicago truck crash, please call Chicago personal injury lawyers at The Bryant Law Group, LLC. for a free legal consultation at 312-514-1076.