Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Knowing how to handle aggressive drivers can prevent you or another motorist from becoming the victim of road rage of being involved in a Chicago car accident.

As our Chicago personal injury lawyers have reported, both here and on our Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog, that road rage typically involves a criminal offense, such as assault, while aggressive driving includes many of the more mundane activities of which we are all unfortunately guilty of from time to time, including speeding, tailgating and changing lanes without signaling.Just last month we reported on our Personal Injury Lawyer Blog when a Chicago road rage incident led to the shooting of a pedestrian.

Yahoo News reports that a study sponsored by AAA found more than 10,000 crashes were caused by violent driver aggression between 1990 and 1996. The accidents killed more than 200 people and injured more than 12,000.

A new Road and Travel Magazine survey found half of all drivers respond with aggression when they get the finger or are cut off in traffic.

The report on aggressive-driving reactions found:

-34 percent honk their horn at the aggressor.

-27 percent yell.

-19 percent give the finger.

-17 percent flash their lights.

-7 percent mimic the aggressive behavior of the other driver.

-2 percent admit to trying to run the aggressive driver of the road.

“Road rage is a two-way street,” noted Ray Palermo, of Response Insurance. “It takes two people to fight. So, if you are subjected to aggressive driving, often the best way to ensure it does not get any worse is to just ignore it.”

The report found men were more likely to respond with aggression than men, but not by much (54 percent to 46 percent). Young drivers were much more likely to become aggressive than older drivers (67 percent to 30 percent). Perhaps surprisingly, drivers with children were more likely to be become aggressive (59 percent) than drivers without (45 percent).
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Spring is a particularly deadly time for Illinois traffic accidents involving teenagers as prom, spring break and graduation follow one after the other. In order to combat the dangers, a number of safety organizations are sponsoring safe-driving contests and other events aimed at warning teenagers about the dangers of distracted driving, speeding and drunk driving.

Recently, our Chicago car accident lawyers reported that Ford was expanding its teen driving safety program, which began in Chicago.Now the Itasca, Illinois-based National Safety Council is raising awareness through its “On the Road, Off the Phone” PSA contest. Sponsored by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the contest is seeking entries of less than 3 minutes, which discuss the dangers of cell phone use by drivers.

“Goodyear is a strong advocate of safety, particularly on the road. We expect our associates to set good examples, and that includes how cell devices are used while driving,” said Rich Kramer, CEO, president & chairman of Goodyear. “By sponsoring the On the Road, Off the Phone PSA Contest, Goodyear is taking our responsibility a step further and encouraging all drivers around the country to think about safety and put down their cell phones while driving.”

Official contest rules are available here. Contestants are encouraged to use the organization’s white paper on distracted driving. As we reported last June on our Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog, the organization’s research contends hands-free cell phones may be no safer than hand-held devices.

The contest is designed to put the emphasis on all cell-phone use by drivers, not just text messaging. While only about 1 percent of drivers are manipulating a hand-held device at any given time, about 10 percent are talking on the phone while driving. The NSC also reports that texting is involved in only about 2 percent of all crashes, while talking on the phone has been linked to 21 percent of crashes.
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Planning a road trip? There may soon be an app for that!

Our Chicago personal injury lawyers note a recent report by USAToday that motorists looking for the safest highway routes are more frequently turning to their smart phones and computers.While often cited as among the major contributors to distracted driving car crashes in Chicago and elsewhere, smartphones are not without opportunities to help improve safety. Previously, we reported on cell phone apps capable of disabling a phone while driving and of monitoring a teen’s driving behavior.

Now the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is working with eight states on a pilot program to map the safest roads. That information will be collected on a website, and a cell phone app will surely follow.

The idea is that a family traveling from Chicago to Disney World in Florida would be able to log on and incorporate accident data and other safety information when planning their route. “You could get in a car, turn on the in-vehicle navigation and request not only the quickest way from point A to point B, but the safest way,” said Peter Kissinger, CEO of the AAA Foundation.

A survey in 2009 confirmed demand for such a service, when it found nearly three-quarters of all drivers said they would consider such information when traveling in unfamiliar areas. SafeRoadsMaps.org was founded in 2008 and has received more than 10 million hits in its first two years. “You can analyze where traffic deaths have occurred over the last several years anywhere in the country,” said Lee Munnich, of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety.

States included in the pilot program are Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, Utah, Florida, Iowa, Michigan and New Jersey.
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A national report is highlighting a point often lost when it comes to talking about teen driving safety: many of the victims of Chicago car accidents involving teenagers are not teens and are not passengers in a teen’s vehicle.

They are victims of all sorts of poor driving decisions made by teenagers, including drunk driving, speeding, aggressive driving and distracted driving. Our Chicago personal injury lawyers frequently report, both here and on our sister site, Chicago Car Accident Lawyers Blog, regarding the dangers teens face behind the wheel.Car accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers. And when it comes to being involved in a serious or fatal accident, teens are at the highest risk of all motorists except those over the age of 75.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 164 motorists were killed in Illinois car accidents involving teenagers in 2008. Of those, 80 were teen drivers and 39 were passengers in a teen’s vehicle. But 37 other motorists were killed, as were eight non-occupants, including bicyclists and pedestrians.

Those statistics agree with the results of the study published in Health News Digest. According to research by State Farm Insurance and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, about 30 percent of those killed in accidents involving teenagers were not in the teen’s vehicle.

Nationwide, nearly 700,000 people are involved in a crash with a teenager each year and more than 40,000 are injured.

“When most people think about those affected by teen driver crashes, they think of the teens behind the wheel. We must also consider the significant impact of these crashes on other members of our communities: occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and other road-users,” said Dennis Durbin, a co-author of the report. “Whether or not we have a teen driver in our family, we should all care about this issue. This report provides a concrete way to measure the effectiveness of laws, education, and other programs in reducing teen crashes and their impact on communities.”

The report cites reducing speeding and alcohol use as critical to stemming the tide of teen car accidents. Eliminating distracted driving and increasing seat-belt use were also cited.
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