Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Tagged with car accident

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BeforeAndAfterMINICooperSHalf a million people suffered personal injury and 1,700 died in more than 1.7 million rear-end vehicle accidents in 2012 in the US. Many of these accidents could have been avoided or at least mitigated if vehicles were equipped with collision warning systems paired with active braking systems according to a new Special Investigation Report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) entitled “The Use of Forward Collision Avoidance Systems to Prevent and Mitigate Rear-End Crashes“.  In the report the NTSB demonstrates the efficiency of such systems and criticizes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for not doing enough and being to slow in implementing performance standards for these technologies. The  report also notes that manufacturers have too little incentive to add these technologies to their new vehicles.

Picture: before and after a rear-end crash courtesy of Wikipedia

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Teen drivingParents can play a big role in helping their children become safe drivers and avoid being injured or killed in a car accident. Thursday April 28th at 1:00 PM CST, the National Safety Council is organizing a webinar during which Jessica Mirman, PhD, a behavioral scientist and researcher on the Center for Injury Research and Prevention HOP’s Teen Driver Safety Research team, will share her recent research on the effectiveness of TeenDrivingPlan, a prototype interactive web-based application to help parents more effectively supervise driving practice. Another speaker Kathy Bernstein, senior manager of Teen Driving Initiatives for the National Safety Council, will talk about DriveitHome– a new resource from the National Safety Council designed to support parents of newly licensed teens. Read more here

 

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The salt used to melt ice and snow on the roads can corrode old car’s brake pipes which may result in dangerous car accidents. People who own a model older than 2007 should get their brakes checked and thoroughly clean their vehicle including the undercarriage warned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in a recent press release.  The NHTSA found that seven to eight years of exposure to winter road salts could result in brake pipe corrosion as the agency was conducting an investigation of brake pipe failure due to corrosion on 2 million 1999 through 2003 models of GM trucks and SUV’s. The investigation determined that the brake pipe failure was the result of end-of-life wear out and the NHTSA decied not to recall the vehicles. However the agency is asking vehicle owners that drive cars older than 2007 to check their brakes if they live in the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Brake corrosion can lead to traffic accidents

Picture source: NHTSA

 

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NSC35,400 people died and 4.3 million people suffered personal injury that required medical attention last year on American roads according to preliminary statistics from the National Safety Council (NSC). The number of crash fatalities is 0.5% higher than in 2013 however because 2014 was a year of economical expansion during which the estimated mileage on US roads increased 1.4%, the estimated annual mileage death rate was 1.18 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, a decrease of 1% from the 2013 rate. It is also the lowest NSC preliminary estimate ever recorded. The number of personal injuries that occurred during a crash in 2014 was unchanged.  Read more in Automotive Fleeet

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When a car accident occurs, some cars are safer than others and will  protect occupants from severe personal injury or death more effectively. The Buick encore and its cheaper version, the Chevrolet Trax just earned the Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. To qualify for Top Safety Pick a car  must earn a “good” or “acceptable” rating for small overlap protection and a “good” rating in the institute’s moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint crash tests. The 2015 Encore received the highest score (“good”) in the small overlap crash test compared to the 2014 model which was rated “poor” in the same test a year before. The small overlap test replicates a collision during which the front corner of a car hits another car or an object such as a light pole or a tree. Read more in the IIHS press release

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speed%20cameras.jpgToo many children in New York City died or suffered personal injury because a speeding car hit them on their way to or from their school.

To prevent these types of accidents and as part of the Vision Zero initiative, the NYC Department of Transportation started to install speed-cameras in school zones. 19 cameras have been installed so far in the city.

Last September the speed-cameras indicated that on average 3,539 drivers in a day drove at least 10 mph over the limit. As word spread about the cameras, drivers became more careful and in December he average number of drivers speeding at least 10 mph over the speed limit went down to 1461.

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Winter%20Weather%20Driving.jpgWinter weather conditions make the roads more dangerous and increase the risk of a car accident that could result in severe personal injury or death. Before you take a trip make sure to check the weather forecast and the road conditions and also verify if you need tire chains. Safe driving is key to prevent car accidents during the winter. Here are a few basic safety tips that can make a big difference when driving on wintry roads:

– Brush the snow and the ice from your car before driving – Buckle up. Seat belts are the most effective way to prevent death or severe injuries in a crash – Check the weather forecast and plan ahead what you will do if conditions are getting worse – Allow yourself a lot of extra time to your destination – Keep your headlights on all the time so you are more visible to others
– Drive smoothly, abrupt driving maneuvers such as sudden braking can be fatal – Lower your speed and allow extra space between you and the car in front of you

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Drowsy%20driving.jpgDrowsy driving plays a role in 21 % of fatal car accidents, in 13% of the crashes resulting in hospitalization and in 7% of the accidents requiring treatment for personal injuries according to a new report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The report based on a representative sample of 14,268 crashes demonstrate that drowsy driving is a serious traffic safety issue and that official statistics from the NHTSA do not provide an accurate picture of the prevalence of the probleme

Download the complete Prevalence of Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Drowsy Drivers report

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Texting%20and%20driving%20in%202012.pngVehicle Accidents caused by texting and driving are injuring and killing people every day but sadly the percentage of drivers who are texting or manipulating electronic devices while driving continued to increase in 2012 according to the latest National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2012, the rate of drivers texting while driving was of 1.5% compared to 1.3% in 2011.

The rate of people using a hand held cell phone has been steady at 5% since 2009 with a significant higher rate of usage among female drivers (6% compared to 4% for male drivers).

0.6% of drivers used headset cell phone while driving in 2013.
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In order to prevent teen car crashes and personal injury, an innovative online program focuses on improving frontal lobe execution functions such as self-regulation or impulse control so that young drivers can achieve insight about driving risks and improve their driving skills.

The frontal lobe of the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25 and young drivers need specific help. With this concept in mind, Dr Robert Isler, PhD, an associate professor of Psychology at The University of Waikato in New Zealand, created eDrive, an online interactive driver training program that takes drivers on a trip through New Zealand while teaching them specific driving skills.

Read more about it in this interesting blog from Flaura Koplin Winston, MD, PhD from the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.