Accident Lawyers

ABC 7 News examined the risks that car and truck drivers take every day in the Chicago area while attempting to drive in front of local Metra trains. The problem seems to be growing this year. Train operators note that total train accident deaths in just the first five months of 2010 are almost the total for the entire year in 2009. With a 1,000-ton train traveling down the track at 70 miles per hour, there is almost no such thing as a “minor” train accident. Each incident is extremely costly. Yet, car divers, truck drivers, and pedestrians still often refuse to wait for a train to pass at a crossing—willing to take the risk while trying to dart in front of an oncoming train. The investigation noted that the risk is higher during rush hours and in construction zones. Drivers seem ever more impatient at those times and locations, willing to risk more. At one location on the test ride, investigators noticed the tail end of a semi stopped on the tracks while a train moved toward it. The semi was able to get out of the way with only seconds to spare. Train engineers report that those close calls occur every single day. Our Chicago truck accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand the extreme risk any driver, especially truckers, take when attempting to beat a speeding train. The perception of the driver when on the road and staring down a track is often dangerously skewed. It is impossible to know exactly how fast a train is going, how long it will take to arrive at the crossing, and how long it will take the vehicle to drive across the danger area. This is even truer for semi-trucks, which have long beds to get across the track zone. Under no circumstances is the small time savings worth the risk of damage and death that comes with a train accident .

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Semi-trailers and Cars Attempt to Beat Chicago Trains

Marin Loses Two More Dealers The economy’s deadly recession continues to hurt the motorcycle industry. The most recent example is Marin County, where Harley closed it Corte Madera shop, the BMW dealer closed, and the only dealership left is Hattar Motorsports, the Ducati Triumph dealer. For Harley owners, the nearest warranty work is either Michael’s in Cotati (a long ride), or Dudley Perkins (which moved to a less convenient location closer to the airport than downtown).  BMW riders fare better, as the BMW dealership in San Francisco is located closer to the heart of the City.   For riders, this may mean a big bill for trailering to the dealership, depending on the problem.  For the industry, this means that only the most dedicated riders are staying with the sport.  For all riders, this means diminished choices in every aspect of the sport.   Parenthetically, this makes efforts like the effort to revive the Norton name seem somewhat peculiar.   As a motorcycle accident attorney, I wonder how rider safety is affected.  At some level, the fewer motorcycles on the road, the less awareness car drivers have of the need to keep a lookout for motorcyclists.  Those in the industry have started to focus on the perceived shortage of new riders.  Personally, I think the time is ripe for a return to the Japanese strategy of the 60’s.  Get riders started on small, cheap, two wheelers, and they will naturally move up.  In fact, this is happening with a proliferation of scooters, and growth in the electric two wheel market.  It just isn’t as organized an effort as it could be. Of course, this is a myopic view of the world.  Sales of boats, RV’s, and every other form of recreational transportation are also at all time lows.   In the meantime, I am happy to be one of those still up and riding.  I appreciate my local dealers, and I support them.  Might be something to think about the next time you look at helmets locally, but make the purchase over the internet. 

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Tough Time for Motorcycle Shops

Often in fatal vehicle accidents , the cause of the crash is a blatantly obvious driving mistake that everyone knows should never be made but that occur all the time. For example, the Evansville Courier & Press reported last night on a tragic truck crash in Illinois caused by a young driver’s failure to stop at a stop sign. The accident occurred early on Friday afternoon in rural Clay County. The young driver of an SUV was traveling on a sparsely used country road when he failed to stop at a stop sign. While traveling through the intersection, he was broadsided by a large flatbed semi. The impact of the vehicle caused the SUV to careen off the road, ending up in a cornfield. Shortly after stopping in the cornfield, the vehicle burst into flames. The semi also caught fire after the incident, but its driver and passenger were able to get out of the vehicle with only minor injuries. The truck driver and passenger valiantly attempted to rush to the SUV to help remove the driver before the flames engulfed it. However, there was too little time, and the driver ended up stuck the SUV. He was ultimately burned beyond recognition. Hopefully all drivers know that all traffic signs must be obeyed intimately. Stop signs in particular can never be ignored. At stop signs in rural, unpopulated areas it is often tempting to perform only a partial yield or fail to stop all together, because it is assumed that if a driver does not see any other vehicles around than there must not be any risk to driving through. However, while behind the wheel our perceptions are never flawless. We often glance around the road so quickly and casually that we subconsciously feel that the road is empty, when in reality another vehicle is actually barreling down. Our Chicago truck accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti offer sincere condolences to the victims in this tragedy and urge drivers throughout the state not to take any risk while on the road. The consequences of being on the wrong side of that risk are too great.

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Illinois Man Dies After Vehicle Hit By Semi

Tragedy struck twice yesterday in two separate truck accidents on Interstate 57. As noted in The Herald-News , the first semi-truck accident occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m about 30 miles south of Chicago. A truck was traveling southbound on the highway when it slammed into another truck in front of it. The impact caused the large vehicle to burst into flames. The driver of the engulfed truck was killed in the crash, while the truck driver who was rear-ended was brought to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. That fatal morning truck accident was not the only destruction on I-57 yesterday. About an hour after traffic resumed following the first crash, a second semi accident struck the roadway. About 4:30 p.m. a northbound semi struck the rear of another semi that was slowed on the roadway only a few miles from the morning crash. A third semi then struck the wreckage created by the collision. One of the drivers of this second crash was also killed, though at the time of the report it was unclear which driver had died. Failing to properly stop in time to prevent a collision is an extremely common form of highway accident. This is especially true with large semitrailers. The size and speed of these large machines makes it difficult for them to stop quickly when necessary. It is for that reason that warnings are often posted about not following these vehicles too closely or in blind areas. They simply do not maneuver as well as normal vehicles and therefore are more susceptible to accidents when road conditions require them to stop suddenly. Our Chicago truck accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti have been involved in many forms of semitrailer accidents, including rear-end collisions. We encourage all drivers, including semi drivers, to take extra precaution whenever traveling near big rig vehicles. Many of our highways are currently undergoing construction work, requiring many stop and start construction zones. These locations in particular pose dangerous risks to large vehicles that cannot change speeds as easily as small cars. Please pay particular attention to surrounding vehicles at these locations to best lower the risk of being involved in a tragic truck accident .

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Two Truck Drivers Killed in Separate Accidents on I-57

Vibrant and beautiful eleven year-old Virginia Graeme Baker (goes by Graeme) and her sisters attended a swim party at a friend’s house during the summer of 2002.  During the party, Graeme was found sprawled at the bottom of the hot tub.  Graeme’s mother tried to pull her up from the water with all of her strength, but to no avail.  Two men took over and broke the drain pipe in order to release her body.  Graeme’s body was held down by the spa’s suction drain providing her no release.  Graeme died upon arrival at the hospital.  Graeme was no ordinary girl, she was the granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker III.  Her accidental death lead to the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Safety and Spa Safety Act of 2007.  This Federal Law requires that all public pools/spas be equipped with specific equipment that is intended to prevent pool/spa deaths or injuries caused by entrapment, evisceration or entanglement, i.e. ASME/ANSI A112.19.8 standards. Joann Walker, 15, was held to the bottom of a hot tub by the powerful suction of the drain. Her thin bathing suit strap prevented a full vacuum from forming, and she escaped the encounter scared, but alive. (Janice Walker) Suction drains can hold children down by their hair, body, limb, bathing suits and even jewelry.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission has found numerous swimming pool/spa suction entrapment accidents over the years leading to serious injury and death .  It is unfortunate that it took the death of a beautiful seven-year-old girl to bring the matter to the public and to create safety laws. Unfortunately, there are many public pools/spas that are not in compliance with these new safety standards .  Many of those pools/spas are located in Northern California .  Furthermore, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has recently interpreted the 2007 law to not require back-up anti-entrapment systems in many as 150,000 public and hotel pools/spas.  This has created some outrage by parents with children affected by pool/spa suction accidents. Next time you let your children swim in a pool or a spa (especially one in a hotel or motel), be sure to check the suction drains and make sure they are ASME/ANSI A112.19.8 compliant.  It could be a matter of life or death.

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Pool Drains and the Law

A fiery crash involving several heavy trucks and an SUV on Interstate 64 in southern Illinois left two people injured, one critically . The crash took place near New Baden, at a scene police described as “absolute chaos.” According to Illinois State Trooper Mike Link, the accident happened as traffic slowed down for a construction zone. As a southern Illinois 18 wheeler collision attorney , I have seen many accidents involving semi trucks, like this one, and I am glad that no one was killed in this one. I hope that those who were injured recover quickly and fully. The accident involved an eighteen-wheeler, a pickup truck hauling a trailer, a U-Haul truck pulling a trailer, a flatbed semi truck and a Chevy SUV. According to WJBD radio , the U-Haul and the pickup truck had slowed or stopped because of the construction zone, and the eighteen wheeler crashed into the U-Haul, smashing it into the pickup. The SUV managed to stop, but the flatbed semi truck rear-ended it and pushed it into the crash. Fire spread through the U-Haul, pickup truck, and eighteen-wheeler. The eighteen-wheeler’s driver was extricated from the wreckage by ten people who pulled him out through the moon roof. “We had to pull him out through the moon roof cause the semi was trapped on its side,” said James Sheppard, a driver who was able to stop before the crash and got out to help. “He was kind of a big guy, so he was hard to get out. He was a little beat up. I think he was conscious. We were able to walk him to the stretcher and he left. He was bleeding.” The truck driver was taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Belleville in critical condition, and later moved to St. Louis University Hospital in fair condition. The driver of the flat-bed semi had less severe injuries and was treated and released the same day at St. Elizabeth’s. The westbound lanes of I-64, where the crash occurred, were closed for several hours. As a St. Louis semi trailer crash lawyer , I’m struck by how often preventable accidents like this happen. We don’t know why the eighteen-wheeler and flatbed semi drivers crashed into the traffic ahead of them, but as I discussed last week , studies show that crashes like this are often caused by the same few mistakes, such as driving too fast, following too closely, and failing to pay attention. It’s also worth noting that large trucks need longer distances to stop from highway speeds, which may be why the flatbed semi couldn’t stop when the SUV could. It’s distressing to think of how many people have been injured and killed because of bad judgments that truckers have made on the road. Trucking industry voices often emphasize that drivers of smaller vehicles need to exercise caution around large trucks, but we don’t hear as much commentary from them about their own responsibility to obey the speed limit and avoid tailgating cars ahead of them in traffic.

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Truck Driver’s Failure to Stop Ignites Fiery Five-Vehicle Crash in Southern Illinois

A southern Illinois semi-rig driver was killed on Monday when he lost control of his truck on Interstate 64/Highway 40, near the Taylor Avenue bridge. As explained in Fox 2 Now , the truck accident closed traffic for four hours and forced engineering crews to investigate the structural stability of an overpass bridge. The driver, Thomas Joseph Niemeyer, was traveling along the highway when his truck suddenly swerved left, hitting the nearby Taylor Avenue bridge overpass. Authorities are still investigating and do not know what caused the vehicle to swerve dramatically left leading to the deadly truck accident . As a result of the collision, Mr. Niemeyer was thrown from the semitrailer. He was too badly injured by the time medical crews arrived, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Our Chicago truck accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand that the causes of many deadly accidents are difficult to determine. This is especially true with single vehicle accidents. The list of possible causes are many, from the driver suffering medical problems while behind the wheel to improper manufacturing in components of the vehicle. These accidents occur with too much frequency to avoid looking into their causes. In that way, victims can be properly compensated and other motorists may be saved from injury if the reason for the truck crash is understood and prevented in the future. For those reasons it especially important to look into all of your legal options if someone you know has been hurt in a single vehicle truck accident. Our expert accident attorneys will help investigate the possible causes of the crash to determine if your loved one’s crash should have been prevented.

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Illinois Truck Driver Dies in Fatal Accident

Are you a motorcycle enthusiast and living in the State of California? If yes, you must know the pleasure of riding in the state. If you ride a motorcycle in this state you will get to admire the beauty of Pacific Ocean coastline, acres of wine country vineyards and you can also be pleased with the beauty of the most eye-catching mountains and valley and everything in California. Unluckily, motorcycle accidents are the most common vehicular accidents seen in the State of California. California is a state, which has about one million registered motorcycles and almost 2% of the vehicles are registered in the California State. In a research survey, it is evaluated that 10% of the road accidents involves motorcycle, which means over 10,000 people are being injured due to motorcycle accidents each year and over 500 people are killed due to this type of accident. Actually, accidents are unexpected and one that even happens if the bikers ride the bike safely, obeying all traffic rules. As a matter of fact, almost 75% of the time the motorcycle collides with other vehicles, in which the other driver holds the fault to a certain degree. This fault, by other driver is called as “negligence”. According to California law, if the opposite driver is negligent then you can demand for compensation if you are injured in the accident. In this type of case it is good to call a motorcycle accident lawyer to file a case against the other driver. Statistics of the California state tell us that the most common reason for motorcycle accidents is that the involvement of the driver of other vehicle that is driver of opposite vehicle violated the motorcycle directly. Even though this type of accident can happen anywhere, it usually takes place at a point of an intersection or crossing. Most of the time if you question about the accident, the other driver answers that they never even saw the motorcycle before the accident. This is a typical example of carelessness and in this case the biker can demand compensation if they have injuries. According to the law of California, even if the biker partly has a fault for the accident, he can still recover compensation from the other driver. According to the negligence theory , all vehicle drivers owe a responsibility to care about the other and opposite drivers and riders on the road to avoid this kind of accidents in future. This has been a free educational article from the Motorcycle Lawyer Los Angeles at: Ehline Law Firm 633 West Fifth St., 28th Fl. Los Angeles, CA 90071 213.596.9642 View Larger Map

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Who Has the Responsibility in Your Motorcycle Accidents in California?

Another tragic freeway crash this week proves once again that slowed traffic from one accident often leads additional crashes as on-coming drivers fail to notice the stand-still. As reported by Fox 2 Now , the combined accidents in the latest crash involved several semitrailers and claimed the lives of two individuals. The destruction began early in the morning last week when a big rig that was too tall for the road hit an overpass, tipping over and loosing is seafood cargo all over the highway. The incident did not harm anyone, but it caused traffic to jam behind the accident. As traffic built up, the line of stopped cars grew behind the scene of the first distressed truck. One semitrailer that came upon the stopped traffic was caught off-guard by the stoppage and was unable to slow down in time. As a result, the rig slammed into the back of another semi that was stopped in front of it. This truck crash caused a chain-reaction, with four more cars bouncing off one another. The semi that started the second crash by failing to stop ended up bursting into flames from the impact. The driver of the rig and his passenger were trapped inside the vehicle when it combusted. Both were killed. Witnesses to the accident were incredibly shaken by the drama. One driver who was directly in front of the truck accident explained, “The fire was so hot and the smoke was just rolling out, that you just couldn’t get close to it. I really wanted to do what I could to help the victims inside, but I knew it was too late.” This is the second truck crash that we have posted this week involving a driver’s failure to stop when coming upon slowed traffic on the freeway. Our Chicago truck accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti have been involved in several legal cases where similar accidents have occurred. Slowed freeway traffic spots are some of the most dangerous locations on the road. Please contact our offices if you or someone you know has suffered injury as the result of one of these vehicle accidents. Please click here to read more about this tragic crash.

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Fatal Chain-Reaction Accident Involves Three Semi Trucks

The News Tribune recently wrote about a traffic accident that involved six cars, including several large semitrailers on Illinois interstate 80. Kevin Haeffner was driving a semi truck at about 2:20 in the afternoon when he lost control of the vehicle while traveling eastbound on I-80. While out of control the truck slammed into another semi that was stopped and disabled on the side of the road. The accident caused the semi driven by Haeffner to overturn and spill its meat cargo. The truck crash backed up traffic for several miles around the scene of the accident. Only twenty minutes after the crash, another semi was pulling up to the slowed down traffic area and was unable to stop in time. This semitrailer driven by Rex Davis hit three other vehicles that were stopped in traffic. This second accident caused severe damage to the vehicles hit by the truck. The local fire chief indicated that one of the cars was still stuck underneath the semi when they arrived. Rescue crews were forced to conduct extensive extraction maneuvers to free two passengers trapped in their vehicles. All told the driver of the initial semi, Kevin Haeffner, the driver of a vehicle in the second crash, and his fourteen year old daughter were all injured in the accident and were still in the hospital at the time of the report. As this situation suggests, some of the most dangerous locations on our highways are the areas where high speed traffic is forced to slow down quickly. Our truck accident attorneys at Levin & Perconti are all too familiar with the damage that is caused at these locations, especially by large vehicles like semitrailers. If you have been involved in an accident with one of these machines, please contact our truck crash attorneys today to learn more about your legal rights.

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Two Semi Trailer Accidents in Same Location on Interstate-80