Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

The city’s budget crunch is putting the brakes on the metro area’s planned network of 330 red-light cameras aimed at reducing Chicago car accidents.

Many car accidents occur at intersections or are caused by drivers violating traffic laws. The Chicago injury lawyers and wrongful death attorneys at Abels & Annes have been following this issue as more and more cases nationwide attempt to introduce camera evidence in courtroom proceedings.

Earlier this summer we posted a report by the Daily Herald questioning whether some of the cameras were going up to reduce accidents or maximize ticket revenue.

The city collected almost $38 million and issued more than half a million tickets for traffic infractions caught on the intersection cameras in the first eight months of the year, according to The Sun-Times.

Annual tickets and revenue increased from $4.7 million and 109,441 tickets during the first year of the program in 2004 to $44.8 million and 579,560 tickets last year.

But Mayor Daley’s 2010 budget includes no additional money for cameras after adding 50 cameras to intersections this year, which brings the citywide total to 189.

Instead, the Chicago Department of Transportation plans to take 20 existing cameras from their current locations and move them to other intersections, where they believe the cameras would positively impact traffic safety, according to The Sun-Times report.

The 50 cameras installed this year cost $2.8 million and $50,000 each per year to maintain and support, according to city budget figures.

“It’s a cost-saving measure. We’re reducing our capital outlay,” said Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Budget and Management.

Scales said the city is comfortable with moving cameras from identified intersections, citing a 60 percent drop in red-light violations since the cameras were installed.

Cost of a ticket for running a light caught on camera is $100, though some city officials have suggested increasing that to $125. Motorists caught on camera get the ticket in the mail, along with a digital photograph of the violation. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court shot down the “innocent owner’s defense,” an argument that an owner was held responsible for the violation of someone else who might have been driving the car.
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A new federal report concerning the use of hand-held devices behind the wheel found a 25 to 50 percent increase in fatal accidents caused by distracted drivers over the last five years, even as the number of fatal traffic accidents has declined nationwide.

The Chicago car accident lawyers and the personal injury attorneys at Abels & Annes often represent clients who have been injured by distracted drivers.

In 2008, the federal government estimates 1 in every 6 fatal accidents was caused by a distracted driver — 5,870 people were killed and more than half a million injured.

A major push in the fight against distracted driving has been to ban the use of cell phones and text messaging by drivers. Earlier this month, Abels & Annes’ Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog reported President Obama announced a ban on text messaging by all federal employees.

This summer, Illinois passed a law that takes effect Jan. 1, making it illegal for drivers to text message and prohibiting the use of cell phones in school and construction zones.

“Every single time someone takes their eyes or their focus off the road – even for just a few seconds – they put their lives and the lives of others in danger,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “Distracted driving is unsafe, irresponsible and in a split second, its consequences can be devastating.”

On any given day in 2008, the federal government estimates more than 800,000 vehicles are driven by someone using a hand-held cell phone.

Other driving behaviors that lead to distracted driving accidents include eating, drinking, talking to passengers, radios and the use of other in-car technologies and portable devices, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Researchers noted the actual number of serious and fatal accidents caused by distracted driving could be much higher because of the lack of uniform reporting and the challenges associated with identifying distracted driving as a cause of an accident.

But the report concluded instances of crashes caused by distracted driving are on the rise even as the overall traffic fatality rate has declined in recent years. In 2004, 4,409 of the 38,444 fatal crashes were attributed to distracted drivers (11 percent) while 2008 figures show 5,331 distracted-driving fatalities of the nation’s 34,017 fatal crashes (16 percent).

Those figures represent a 50 percent increase in the overall percentage of fatal distracted-driving accidents and an increase of roughly 25 percent in overall number of distracted driving accidents.

Among the other findings of the study:

-Distracted driving was reported as a cause in 16 percent of all fatal accidents.

-1 in 5 injury accidents was caused by a distracted driver.

-Drivers under age 20 has the greatest proportion of distracted drivers.
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The outcome of a two-day distracted-driving summit in the nation’s capital included an executive order signed by President Obama late last week that forbids all federal employees from text messaging while driving on the job in a government-owned vehicle.

The Chicago car accident lawyers and the personal injury and wrongful death attorneys at Abels & Annes continue to monitor new laws banning distractions behind the wheel. Illinois became one of the latest states to ban text messaging (as well as the use of cell phones in school zones and road construction sites) with a new law passed this summer, which takes effect Jan. 1. Violators face fines and repeated violations can lead to license suspensions.

The City of Chicago already has a law in place prohibiting drivers from using cell phones.

Drivers violating the law can also be held responsible in civil court for the damage and injuries they cause in a Chicago car accident. The increasing number of laws banning text messaging and the use of cell phones by drivers is aimed at reducing the more than 4,000 car accidents a day the federal government estimates are caused by distracted driving.

“Driving while distracted should just feel wrong — just as driving without a seat belt or driving while intoxicated seems wrong to most Americans,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at the summit, attended by more than 300 lawmakers, safety experts and industry representatives.

The Obama administration also said it would consider new restrictions on cellphone use by rail, truck and bus drivers as part of the initiative to reduce accidents caused by distracted driving.

A recent study by the University of Utah reported that distracted driving reduces reaction time as much as drunk driving. Incidents are most common among young, inexperienced drivers, according to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis.

LaHood said the administration would push states to pass laws against distracted driving, especially for school bus drivers. The department will also seek a new rule to revoke commercial drivers’ licenses for school bus drivers convicted of texting while driving.

As reported earlier this summer on Ables & Annes’ Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog, the summit follows a recent report in The New York Times, which found that Illinois passed one of just 10 new distracted driving laws nationwide, of the more than 170 that were introduced last year.

Driving while talking on cellphones has been banned in seven states, and texting while driving has been banned in 18 states, according to the Los Angeles Times. Seventeen states have made it illegal for school bus drivers to use cellphones while driving.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged the administration to endorse a proposed law he is sponsoring, which would require all states to ban texting or e-mailing by drivers or risk losing 25% of their annual highway funds.

“The fact is, the federal government cannot, by itself, outlaw texting while driving,” Schumer said, noting that states have the authority to make such laws. “But the federal government can make it hard for those states that don’t go along.”
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