Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Missouri auto accident attorney, I was very pleased to see brand-new traffic fatality statistics released by the federal government in October. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the agency that tracks traffic accidents nationwide, released its projected statistics (PDF) for all traffic fatalities in the United States between January 1, 2009 and June 30, 2009. The bad news is that the first half of 2009 saw an estimated 16, 626 deaths in traffic accidents, putting the country on track for more than 33,500 fatalities for the year. The good news is that this number actually represents a decline from 2008 -- and a continuation of the biggest downward trend of the last 30 years.

In fact, the estimated 2009 numbers for January through June show a 7% drop from the same months in 2008. That year saw an impressive 10% decline over 2007, continuing a trend that started in the second quarter of 2006. This is the longest period of successive declines in traffic fatalities since the agency began keeping fatality records in 1975. The NHTSA’s briefs do not speculate about reasons for the decline, but the brief did note that 2008 was a leap year, and saw 95 traffic fatalities during its extra day. Perhaps more importantly, the brief noted that vehicle miles traveled declined overall in the first half of 2009, by about 0.4%, including a 1.7% decline in the first quarter. Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, which is considered a more accurate measure than pure numbers, dropped from 1.23 in the first half of 2008 to 1.15 in the first half of 2009.

As a St. Louis car crash lawyer, I’m pleased to see that we’re maintaining this decline in auto accidents. The decline in overall vehicle miles traveled suggests that the decline in fatalities may stem from people’s choices to simply drive less, possibly because of the price of gasoline. But the accident rate per 100 million VMT shows that even if they did drive less, they got into fewer fatal accidents when they did drive. That’s great news, because car accidents are one of the most common and preventable causes of death in America. The leading cause of accidental death, according to the CDC, and the leading cause of death overall for Americans under 34. That means a prolonged decline in fatal accidents is great news for nearly everyone.

Continue reading "Federal Traffic Safety Estimates Show Fatal Accidents Continue to Decline" »

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Posted In: Traffic Safety

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As a Missouri defective automotive product attorney, I had already heard about Toyota Motor Corp.’s safety recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. This recall, the largest in Toyota’s history, was announced after the automaker and federal regulators found that floor mat problems could cause the accelerator pedal to jam while open. (Toyota and Lexus owners can check Toyota’s press release for information on how to stay safe.) Regulators believe the problem has caused at least five fatal crashes and hundreds of other incidents, including a crash in suburban San Diego that killed an off-duty Highway Patrol officer and three family members. But an Oct. 18 article in the Los Angeles Times said the problem may be exacerbated by problems with electronic systems in the vehicles.

According to the article, in fact, the systems that pose the problems tend to be newer and may even be selling points. For example, most people in an uncontrollable speed situation think first about braking -- but modern vehicles have power-assisted brakes, which draw vacuum power from the engine. When the throttle is open all the way, that vacuum power disappears, and the power brake feature goes with it. Similarly, Toyota suggests that drivers turn off their engines when accelerating out of control. In a key-operated vehicle, drivers can turn the key to off/ACC, but this leaves them without power steering or brakes. And if they take the key out, it will lock the steering wheel. Meanwhile, newer vehicles with push-button starts require the drivers to hold the button down for three seconds to stop the engine (and remove power steering and brakes), which is a long time when your vehicle is out of control. And shifting into neutral, another Toyota solution, can be difficult and confusing in vehicles with “automanual” shifters.

I applaud Toyota for taking action on this issue, rather than actively trying to cover it up or blame after-market use. But as a southern Illinois product defects lawyer, I wonder whether it acted as quickly as it could have. The San Diego crash was at least the fifth fatal crash caused by this issue in two years, according to the Times, and federal agencies have opened nine investigations into sudden accelerations in Toyota vehicles since 2000. And the article noted that some have criticized Toyota’s lack of a fail-safe mechanism in its computerized engine for nearly 10 years. Speeding, even voluntary speeding, has been a safety issue for decades; it’s not hard to predict that involuntary, uncontrolled speeding could be deadly. To save lives, manufacturers have a responsibility to come clean to the public as soon as reasonably possible.

Continue reading "More Than Floor Mats May Underlie Toyota Safety Recall of 3.8 Million Vehicles" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Product Liability

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A recent article on road improvements in St. Charles County caught my eye, as a St. Louis car crash lawyer. According to an Oct. 2 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, residents of a rapidly growing area of the county are pushing for improvements to the area’s Highway DD after a crash claimed the life of a sixteen-year-old girl from Wentzville. Elise Sunderhuse died Sept. 3 after the driver of the car she was riding in veered off the road, overcorrected and smashed into a sign. The accident was the fifth fatality on Highway DD in five years and one of more than 140 crashes during that same period. A town hall meeting is planned for Oct. 22 in New Melle to discuss the problem.

According to the article, rapid growth in this area of St. Charles County has put more traffic on the once-rural highway than originally envisioned by its designers. State officials say the accident rate on Highway DD is twice the state average for highways of the same type, putting it among the most dangerous. Residents cite the highway’s lack of shoulders and steep roadside embankments as safety problems, along with deer, sun-blindness and heavy trucks heading to a nearby quarry. A spokesman for MoDOT added that lanes on the highway are 10 to 11 feet wide, falling short of the 12-foot federal standard and making shoulders important. MoDOT has already lowered the speed limit on the highway from 55 to 50 mph, and plans to add shoulders and turn lanes in certain areas.

I wrote last week about safety improvements to the MLK Bridge into East St. Louis, which also has a disproportionately high rate of accidents. Chief among the safety concerns about the bridge are its lack of shoulders and ten-foot lanes -- problems that Highway DD shares. As with the bridge, the narrowness of Highway DD presents serious problems because motorists have no place to go if, for example, a vehicle in the oncoming lane swerves into their paths. As with the bridge, Highway DD is a major artery for people in the area -- and unlike the bridge, it will have two schools on it by this time next year. As a Missouri auto accident attorney, I hope the efforts to address the problems with the bridge lead to similar efforts on Highway DD before someone else is killed in a preventable accident.

Continue reading "St. Charles County Residents Call for Improvements to Rural Highway After Teenager’s Death" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Traffic Safety

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As a southern Illinois auto accident lawyer and a commuter who maintains officers in St. Louis and southern Illinois, I was pleased to see that the Illinois Department of Transportation has set dates for its work on the Martin Luther King bridge. According to the Belleville News-Democrat, the department plans to close the bridge, which connects St. Louis with East St. Louis, for 12 days starting Oct. 12. The work will add a concrete center barrier and widen the lanes on the bridge by turning four 10-foot-wide lanes into three lanes of 12 feet -- safety measures IDOT and other observers hope will decrease the high number of accidents on the bridge.

In fact, the News-Democrat said, the project was explicitly intended to address the bridge’s unusually high number of fatal accidents. According to an older story, 14 people had died on the MLK bridge between 1998 and summer of this year, almost all in head-on collisions. As I have written here before, this gives motorists a 25 times greater risk of death if they choose the MLK bridge. Safety experts told the newspaper that the bridge’s safety problems include its narrow width, which can pressure drivers traveling alongside a semi truck and leaves no safe place for people to stop if they have car trouble. Other safety problems include the lack of a center barrier to prevent crossover accidents and its connection to a major highway, which encourages speed. Authorities have already reduced the speed limit on the bridge and may install cameras to automatically ticket speeders.

The work is expected to slow commutes for people who routinely cross the river, and that is understandably generating a lot of complaints. But as a St. Louis car crash attorney, I believe the inconvenience will ultimately be worthwhile if it stops the unusually high number of deaths and serious accidents on the bridge. The design of the MLK bridge may have made sense when it was built, when vehicles were smaller, semi trucks weren’t widely used and there was less traffic overall. But these days, when ordinary people drive SUVs and must share the highway with 18-wheelers, 10-foot lanes are simply not safe. It’s not surprising that drivers with literally no room to swerve or stop are involved in an unusually high number of serious accidents -- with that little wiggle room, it takes just one driver to cause a catastrophe.

Continue reading "IDOT to Start Work in October to Widen Lanes and Install Barrier on MLK Bridge" »

Posted by Carey, Danis & Lowe | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Auto Accidents

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