Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Chicago Work Comp Lawyers reach $195,000 settlement

September 10, 2009 | By Dave Abels

Chicago personal injury lawyers from Abels & Annes, working with co-counsel, have reached a $195,000 settlement for a local resident who was injured on the job.

Our client was injured on May 27, 2008 while trying to stop a refrigerator from falling at work. He was employed as a semi-truck driver at a Chicago area company.

After the accident he have severe back pain with tingling in his right leg. Our client starting treating with an orthopaedic physician in Chicago. Due to his complaints, the doctor ordered an MRI which revealed the petitioner sustained a herniated disc in his lumbar spine with radiculopathy. He had to undergo 2 epidural injections to try to relieve the pain.

Schaumburg couple killed in Chicago area motorcycle accident

September 8, 2009 | By Dave Abels

A Schaumburg couple was killed on Labor Day when their motorcycle was hit by a car in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. The deadly motorcycle accident took place in unincorporated Cook County near Palatine, Illinois. The Chicago Sun-Times reported the husband was driving the motorcycle when it was struck by a vehicle exiting a gas station parking lot at Quentin and Dundee roads shortly before noon.

The 65-year-old husband was pronounced dead about 2:30 p.m. on Monday at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, according to the Chicago Tribune. His 54-year-old wife was pronounced dead about an hour later.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Department is handling the crash investigation. The driver of the car that collided with the motorcycle, a 61-year-old Palatine woman, was ticketed for failure to yield from a private driveway, according to the Daily Herald. Whether the charges will be increased due to the fatalities has not been reported.

Illinois car accident injures 5 in Naperville

September 6, 2009 | By Dave Abels

In the Chicago western suburb of Naperville, Illinois 5 people were injured in a car crash on Saturday night, according to the Naperville Sun. The 2 vehicle crash involved a Naperville police car, and a police officer was one of the injured.

The car crash took place at the intersection of Route 59 and 95th Street just before 6:30 p.m. The Naperville Police vehicle was eastbound on 95th when it collided with a motor vehicle that was northbound on 59. Both cars were seriously damaged.

The police officer and the 4 occupants of the other car were all hurt and taken to Edwards Hospital in Naperville, Illinois. The intersection was closed for hours due to the car accident.

Chicago truck accident kills 2

September 4, 2009 | By Dave Abels

In Chicago, Illinois 2 people were killed and 2 were badly injured in a car vs. garbage truck accident in Logan Square, according to the Chicago Breaking News Center. The privately owned garbage truck was knocked on its side in the crash.

The auto accident happened on Wednesday around 3 a.m. in the 3600 block of West Fullerton Avenue. Two people traveling in the car were killed. One man, a 30-year-old Chicago resident was pronounced dead at the scene. The other, a 27-year-old Chicago resident, was taken by ambulance and pronounced dead a short time later at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Of the two seriously injured, one was taken to Illinois Masonic, and the other to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A total of 6 ambulances responded to the crash, and several people had to be extracted from the vehicles.

Illinois fatal work injury accidents increase in 2008 — nationwide, fatalities decrease

September 2, 2009 | By Dave Abels

The federal government reported this week that the smallest number of employees ever recorded died as a result of work injuries in 2008.

But that was not the case in Illinois — where the number of employees killed on the job actually increased. The government acknowledged the numbers could be lower because of a poor economy, record unemployment, a change in record keeping (that records injuries per hours worked rather than per employee) and even delayed or under-recorded fatalities because of lower staffing levels at the various reporting agencies.

Employees are being asked to do more to keep their jobs in the present economy, to make up for laid off workers or eliminated positions. But companies and employers still have an obligation to provide a safe work environment. Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys and work injury lawyers at Abels & Annes offer free appointments to discuss your rights if your or a loved one has been injured on the job.

Illinois joined just 14 states where the the number of workers who died on the job increased, from 185 in 2007 to 193 in 2008:
– Transportation accidents killed 62 employees – 38 died as a result of assault or acts of violence -34 died from contact with objects or equipment -29 died in falls -23 died from exposure to harmful substances or environments -7 died as a result of fires or explosions on the job.

Last year’s skyrocketing nationwide unemployment rate may have played a part in the reduced rate of fatal work accidents–the government reported significant drops in dangerous jobs like construction, which were also hit hard by the economic downturn.

A total of 5,071 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2008, down from a total of 5,657 fatal work injuries reported for 2007. It is the smallest number recorded since current recording began in 1992.

The numbers indicate 3.6 fatal work injuries per 100,000 workers, down from 4.0 in 2007.
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Chicago pedestrian hit and injured by car

August 31, 2009 | By Dave Abels

Chicago personal injury attorneys at Abels & Annes have entered into an agreement to represent a Northwest Side resident who sustained personal injuries after she was hit by a car while crossing a street in a crosswalk. The car vs. pedestrian accident happened on August 15, 2009 just before 5 p.m. at the intersection of Central and Roscoe.

Our client was walking eastbound crossing Central in a crosswalk on the north side of the intersection when a woman driving a 2009 Nissan Murano, who was also eastbound on Roscoe, entered the intersection. She proceeded turn left on to Central and failed to observe the pedestrian in the walkway. She struck our client with the passenger side of her SUV.

The Chicago Police Department came to the scene and issued the defendant a traffic violation. She has a September court date at the Daley Center. The officer noted in his police report that the Nissan had a dent on the hood and broken plastic by the headlight where the vehicle hit the pedestrian.

Chicago injury attorneys reach $74,500 settlement for passenger injured in single vehicle car accident

August 29, 2009 | By Dave Abels

Chicago personal injury lawyers from Abels & Annes resolved a case for a North Side resident who was injured in a single vehicle auto accident in Wisconsin. The plaintiff was riding as a passenger in the back seat of an automobile being driven by the defendant on the evening of November 1, 2007.

They were traveling in a 1995 Chevrolet K1500 Suburban from Madison, Wisconsin to Minnesota. The defendant was driving westbound on Interstate 90 with three passengers. At approximately 8:15 p.m. defendant lost control of her vehicle, veered to the left off the roadway into a ditch, struck a cement culvert and embankment and crashed her vehicle into to cement pylon of an overpass.

Following the collision defendant admitted to the investigating police officers that she had lost control of her vehicle because she was eating food while driving, reached down to grab a napkin and was not looking where she was driving. As a result she lost control of her vehicle and drove off the roadway. She was issued a traffic citation as a result of her actions on the evening of the collision and she later pleaded guilty to inattentive driving.

Work injury accident in Chicago sends two construction workers to hospital after trench collapse

August 27, 2009 | By Dave Abels

In Chicago, Illinois two construction workers were injured on the job Sunday after a trench collapsed.

Fire crews spent four hours digging the two men out of the trench after the sides collapsed, trapping them, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Chicago construction accident trapped the men up to their waist in dirt at the bottom of a six-foot-deep hole in an alley on North Dover Street after the sides collapsed about 2 p.m., according to a fire department spokesman.

Chicago area motorcycle accidents continue to rise

August 25, 2009 | By Dave Abels

Motorcycle accidents continue to rise in the seven-county Chicago area — up 22 percent in just two years, according to the Sun-Times News Group.

That’s more than 7 Chicago-area motorcycle accidents a day — all year long — or more than a dozen a day during the five-month riding season. Most motorcycle accidents result in personal injuries to the rider involved.

The Chicago motorcycle accident lawyers at Abels & Annes urge car drivers to remain vigilant about the dangers to motorcycle riders through the remainder of the summer riding season.

Inexperienced drivers who aren’t used to seeing so many cycles on the road have helped push the number of motorcycle crashes in the seven-county region to 2,663 last year, a Chicago Sun-Times survey has found.

That’s up 22 percent from 2,180 just two years earlier, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Kane, DuPage and Kendall counties are among the few counties that have not seen a steady increase in crashes. Motorcycles in Kane and DuPage counties went up between 2006 and 2007, then down in 2008.

As we reported in a blog last month, fatality statistics are sobering for motorcycle riders across the country.

Nationwide, motorcycle fatalities increased for the 11th straight year and accounted for 14 percent of all traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A total of 5,290 riders were killed in 2008, compared to 5,174 in 2007. The increase came in a year when federal statistics revealed a steep drop in virtually every other category, including a 13 percent decline in motor vehicle fatalities.

Our summer blog on motorcycle safety can be found by clicking here

Click here to read our post on 10 things all drivers should know about motorcycles.
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Chicago pedestrian killed by semi-truck in Wicker Park

August 23, 2009 | By Dave Abels

On the Northwest Side of Chicago a pedestrian was hit and killed by a semi truck while crossing the street, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The pedestrian vs. truck accident happened at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Ashland Avenue around 10:30 p.m. in the Wicker Park neighborhood.

The victim, a 59 year old male Chicago resident, was taken to Cook County Stroger Hospital and pronounced dead a short time later.

The Chicago Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Unit is handling the crash investigation. No tickets had been issued to the truck driver as of this morning, however the investigation is most likely not yet complete. What exactly caused the accident has not been reported. Whether tickets are issued could depend on if there were independent witnesses to the accident.