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Local drivers spend five percent of driving time using their phones each day

April 19, 2017 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

It’s probably no surprise that despite horrific tales of distracted driving, Illinois continues to figure prominently on the graph of unflattering statistics.

A new study conducted by Zendrive discovered that among 3.1 million drivers and over 5.6 billion miles of driving, nearly 88 percent of those trips included at least some use of a smartphone. When extrapolated for the entire driving population of the U.S., that equals out to roughly 600 million distracted trips per day, and on average, phone use was 3.5-minutes per hour of driving.

Placing firmly on the list of offending states is Illinois, whose drivers spend more than 5 percent of driving time on the phone. That’s just below the 7.5 percent high, which belongs to Vermont. But surprisingly, Illinois is one of six states among the top 25 that enforces a ban on cell use while driving, making it one of the few in which the law doesn’t appear to discourage people from doing so. At the local level, Chicago is one of two major cities that ban cell use while driving, yet the city places in the top five of municipalities with the “most distracted” drivers.

That’s in stark contrast with six of the top ten states where people spend the least percentage of time on their phones, including Oregon and California, all of which have also passed laws imposing restrictions on phone use while driving.

Other notable stats and context from Zendrive:

Taking your eyes off the road for two seconds increases your chance of collision 20-fold

At 55 mph, two seconds is enough time to travel the length of two basketball courts

Drivers’ phone use is extremely difficult for crash investigators and traffic safety experts to measure

In 2015, 91percent of Americans owned mobile phones and drove over 3 trillion miles

In 2015, 35,092 people died in traffic, and NHTSA reported just 476 mobile phone related deaths

After a steady 40 year decline, U.S. traffic deaths shot up in 2015 and 2016, exceeding 40,000 for the first time in a decade

Illinois set to unveil smart road tech this spring

April 18, 2017 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Will traffic soon be a thing of the past?

If you’ve been driving northbound on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, you’ve likely seen construction crews erecting long medal archways that stretch the length of the expressway. Turns out, those archways are soon-to-be giant, scoreboard-looking signs designed to reduce traffic and keep people safe.

You can be forgiven for thinking it’s an elaborate game of tic tac toe. But it’s no game. Rather, it’s the byproduct of the Illinois Tollway’s new safety initiative called “smart road,” a series of dynamic signs that alert drivers of subpar road conditions that lurk in the miles ahead.

Part of a $2.5 billion development project to “replace, expand, and update the entire tollway” for the first time since its original construction in 1958, the signs use a series of brightly colored arrows and Xs to indicate blocked lanes and point drivers to safe zones, effectively limiting traffic congestion and keeping people safe while crews deal with accidents or heavy construction zones.

Expected to go live this spring, the signs will reportedly be controlled and updated remotely by tollway engineers, who will make changes based the conditions they routinely monitor.

WBEZ’s Curious City got the scoop, thanks to an inquiry from a listener. What follows is an expansive look at ways in which other cities are using smart roads to improve conditions on the road, and why Illinois is taking progressive steps to seamlessly integrate the new tech into our lives for the better.

The broadcast is worth listening to, if only for the fact that you’ll learn how smart roads are being used in other cities around the country. Despite Illinois’s foray into the new tech, others states have been using it for years. Seattle first began using smart road technology in 2010, which reduced weekday collisions by seven percent. Weekend collision were reduced by more than 20 percent.

While safety tops the list of reasons why smart roads have begun to capture popular attention, one of its goals is to reduce traffic congestion. That may be hoping for too much, but we can at least remain optimistic.

Listen to the complete episode here

Support HB3377 – Seat belts in school buses

March 20, 2017 by Jay Stefani Leave a Comment

As a parent, my job is to protect my kids. My wife and I recently had to tell our second-grade daughter that she couldn’t go on an upcoming field trip, which included a short but significant ride on a stretch of highway. Our decision caused more than a few tears. The problem: The buses in our school district don’t have seatbelts, and that was a non-starter.

When our daughter started public school last year, we knew that the buses lacked seatbelts. We felt better when school officials described the daily bus route: 25-35 mph roads, roughly five miles round-trip. They also described the bus seats as “specially designed,” and the drivers as well-trained. My daughter has been riding the bus to and from school for nearly two years, without incident. But the highway changed that.

We often hear that school buses are safe and that crashes are rare. Without doubt, school buses are designed to minimize injury—padded seats, raised passenger compartment, and other non-restraint safety measures. School buses are also quite visible and immediately recognizable. The drivers are, in fact, highly trained, and most school bus-related injuries/deaths occur when kids are waiting for, boarding, or exiting the bus.

Still, thousands of children suffer injuries every year while riding the bus, and it stands to reason just how many of those injuries could have been prevented with a simple, common sense requirement that state legislators have been debating for years. Detractors cite that implementing seats belts in school buses is too costly. They also cite the fact that injuries related to bus accidents are rare. But just because it’s rare doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Consider school fires: they are more rare than school bus crashes. They result in fewer injuries and deaths. And yet, no one would argue that school fire drills waste money. Same goes for sprinklers and smoke alarms.

In Illinois, House Bill 3377 would require three-point seat belts to be installed on all school buses made after the effective date of the bill. It’s a step in the right direction, though it could take a decade for the state to implement the new law (school districts typically replace 10% of their bus fleet each year). But the bill makes sense, protects our kids, and deserves to become the law.

Please contact your Illinois representative and voice your support for HB3377.

Report: Majority of Americans still skeptical of self-driving cars

March 9, 2017 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

For the second year in a row, three-fourths of American drivers are afraid to ride in self-driving cars, according to a new survey published by AAA.

The statistics come at a time when companies like Google and Uber vie for industry dominance, both by way of manufacturing and advances in technology. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to wrestle with regulatory standards for the fledgling industry.

But talk of competition or regulation may be premature. The bigger issue may be whether the public feels comfortable riding in fully autonomous vehicles at all. Only one in five Americans say they trust an autonomous vehicle to drive itself, an indication that the technology is still far from comprehensible, and the skepticism seems to be a matter of safety. More than half of U.S. drivers (54 percent) feel less safe when considering the prospect of sharing the road with autonomous cars, while only 10 percent of respondents say that they would feel safer.

Vehicles with semi-autonomous features fair better among the public. Sixty-one percent of survey participants indicate that they prefer at least one of several automated technologies to be available in their next car: automatic emergency breaking, adaptive cruise control, self-parking technology or lane-keeping assist. Still, most Americans trust their driving skills above all else, and 81 percent of those who took the survey believe that the fully automated vehicle features should work universally across all systems.

Other notable statistics from the survey include:

Baby Boomers are more likely to cite safety as a reason they want semi-autonomous features on their next vehicle (89 percent) than Millennials (78 percent)
Millennials are more likely to cite convenience (75 percent) and wanting the latest technology (36 percent) compared to older generations
Women are more likely to cite reducing stress as a reason for wanting the technology (50 percent) than men (42 percent)

Proponents of self-driving cars believe they can reduce, or even eradicate, accidents altogether. Jill Ingrassia, AAA’s managing director of Government Relations and Traffic Safety, noted that 35,000 people die each year because of human-related errors, but that further research is necessary to “ensure that these new vehicles are safely tested and deployed.” Based on the stats, it appears the public requires it.

You hit a pothole and now you’re injured. Is the city liable?

February 28, 2017 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Soon, anxious cyclists will dust off their bicycles and zip around various city and state maintained paths and trails to usher in the new spring. However, both experienced and new riders may fall victim to dangerous conditions leftover from the last year’s biking season or even new dangers created by the thawing out of winter’s freeze.

Imagine, you’re riding your bike when suddenly you’re propelled through the air after your front tire comes in contact with a severe buckle on one of these “city” bike paths/trails. You are seriously injured. Who is liable?

Illinois recognizes that many adventurists love to engage in recreational activities, located “in a truly natural setting.” Corbett v. County of Lake, 64 N.E.3d 90, 95 (Ill. App. 2d Dist. 2016). In addition, it recognizes that requiring a governmental entity to maintain these types of property would not only be burdensome in both time and money, but “would defeat the very purpose of these types of recreational areas.” Id. Therefore, it created an absolute immunity for injuries sustained on these types of properties.

Section 3-107 of the “Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act” declares that:

Neither a local public entity nor a public employee is liable for an injury caused by a condition of: (a) Any road which provides access to fishing, hunting, or primitive camping, recreational, or scenic areas and which is not a (1) city, town or village street, (2) county, state or federal highway or (3) a township or other road district highway. (b) Any hiking, riding, fishing or hunting trail. 745 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. 10/3-107.

However, this Immunity Act is not a complete bulwark to all injuries sustained on government sponsored bike paths. In Corbett v. County of Lake, the court makes clear that not all bike trails are protected by Section 3-107. In short, the court wants the plaintiff to take a good assessment of the landscape around the path.

The bike trail in Corbett was a city-made path that snaked through commercial and residential areas of the city. Although trees, shrubs, and bunnies could be seen while cruising the path, the court held that the presence of industrial and residential development all around a path negates any conclusion that it is located within a “natural and scenic wooded area.” Corbett, 64 N.E.3d at 97 (explaining that a forest preserve is a “forest,” even with a moderate degree of improvement within and without. An industrial/commercial/residential area is not a forest because it contains narrow strips of green space on which a few trees stand).

The court held in favor of Corbett, thus putting the County of Lake on the hook for her injuries and on notice to take better care of certain trails that it maintains.

Report: Insurers keep penalizing drivers for not-at-fault accidents

February 15, 2017 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

No-fault liability would seemingly mean just that: no fault. But a new report from the Consumer Federation of America (released yesterday) found that annual premiums continue to rise in most major cities, some as much $400, and that insurance companies are doling out penalties for not-at-fault crashes.

In other words, insurers are jacking up your premiums or instituting a surcharge for something that was never your fault. The research group took a look at premium quotes form 10 different cities, including Chicago, from five of the country’s top auto insurance providers. The premiums that came under the most scrutiny belonged to Progressive, Farmers and GEICO insurance.

From the Associated Press: “The researchers found that Progressive aggressively used a not-at-fault penalty, surcharging drivers in eight of the 10 selected cities. Rates in Oklahoma City and Los Angeles did not change. Oklahoma and California prohibit not-at-fault penalties.

The group said GEICO and Farmers raised rates in some states by 10 percent or more. Allstate had occasional penalties.”

The lone insurer that isn’t penalizing for not-at-fault crashes? Illinois-based State Farm.

The report from the CFA underscores how insurers consistently look to mitigate and/or recoup as much money as is reasonably possible after someone files a claim. There are several methods to do so, including the highly suspect practice of “surcharging” not-at-fault drivers for simply being involved in a crash. They assess, re-assess and, in many cases, look for excuses to raise your rate by pinning circumstantial evidence on you.

Just as insurers analyze a crash for their own benefit, it’s important for an attorney to analyze the crash for your benefit. We help root out the technicalities and ensure that your rights (and your finances) are being protected.