Does Texas have adequate 21st Century driving safety laws?
The following is a guest blog by Dolan Law Offices of Chicago, IL.
In the 20th Century, seatbelt laws and speed limit laws saved lives. While not everyone wears seatbelts or obeys the speed limit because states require them to do so, these laws educated many people and encouraged safe behavior.
In the 21st Century, Texas and other states are faced with additional driving problems that are making the roads dangerous. The Governor’s Highway Safety Association lists several types of possible laws that could make roads safer. Texas has significant laws banning drunk driving and requiring child safety seats. However, many current Texas laws do not provide as much protection as they could for drivers. For example:
· Aggressive Driving: Texas has no applicable state law;
· Cell Phones and Texting: These are banned only for school bus drivers and new drivers;
· Helmets: The state’s law was repealed in 1997. Helmets are currently only required for motorcyclists under age 21. Helmets are not required for bicyclists;
· Sobriety Checkpoints: These are illegal; and
· Speed and Red Light Cameras: These are not allowed by state law but may be permissible under local ordinance.
Texas Personal Injury Law
Despite the lack of state laws for aggressive driving, cell phone usage, sobriety checkpoints and speed and red light cameras, Texas personal injury victims may recover damages if they are hurt by an aggressive driver, a distracted driver, a drunk driver or a driver who is not complying with speed, right light or other traffic laws.
A Texas personal injury lawyer can represent a victim, or the survivors of a victim, in a negligence action. The lack of statutes regarding these issues does not take away a victim’s right to recover damages, but it may lead to more victims. The data from other states is not yet conclusive as to whether cell phone bans, for example, prevent personal injury accidents. It will be important to analyze the data from other states so that 21st Century driving dangers can be adequately addressed as were 20th century problems.
Dolan Law Offices is located in Chicago, IL. We represent victims of serious Illinois personal injury accidents. We are committed to helping each of our clients recover full and fair compensation for their injuries.
Car accident deaths down, despite rise in distracted driving fatalities
Driving deaths overall are down in America, but could be much lower without one thing: distracted drivers who call or text at the wheel. A new report by the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals the United States had 33,963 traffic fatalities in 2009, a drop of 8.9 per cent from 2008. With driving deaths declining for 15 consecutive quarters, this also was the lowest level since 1954.
But imagine how much better it could be without the onslaught of cell phone addiction. Millions of Americans drive with one hand on the wheel — at best — while calling and texting with the other. And when only a moment’s inattention can cause a lifetime of misery, these driving distractions are among the biggest threats on our roads today.
Indeed, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that distracted drivers are killing 6,000 Americans and injuring another half a million each year. Subtract that 6,000 from the yearly death total and Americans would be making enormous progress in fighting the No. 1 cause of deaths among those 3 to 35 years old: traffic collisions.
Clearly, the job is far from won, which is why Jim S. Adler & Associates urges all drivers at all times to “hang up and drive.” As a public service ads says, no text message is worth losing or taking a life. And how many calls and texts from the road are vital, anyway?
“Our work is far from over,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland says. “We must continue our efforts to ensure seat belts are always used and stay focused on reducing distracted and impaired driving.”
He attributes the overall decline in driving deaths to public service campaigns such as “Click it or ticket” that increase seat belt use, and new state laws to combat drunk and distracted driving (which are almost the same, with studies showing distracted drivers are as bad as drunk drivers). Also helping are safer roads and safer cars (non-Toyota models, anyway) and the fact that, in a down economy, people are driving less.
But when nearly 34,000 persons die on our roads in one year, no progress can be deemed sufficient.
“Texting while driving, like talking on cell phones while driving, is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening practice,” says DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. That’s why the NHTSA has helped produce sample legislation to guide states in writing new laws that ban texting at the wheel.
“Our top priority is safety,” Strickland says. “We are determined to help the states eradicate the dangerous practice of texting while driving.”
If you or a loved one has been injured by a distracted driver, alert a car accident lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates. Holding negligent drivers financially accountable is another means of turning the tide toward a safer America.
Child safety strangled by window shade cord defective products
Child safety requires constant vigilance on the part of parents and anyone who takes care of small children. But even those persons can be led astray, as with accident injuries from defective products that claim to be safe for kids. That was the case with a 16-month-old boy who was found strangled to death in his crib by his mother in 2007, with a window shade cord wrapped around his neck.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, around 500 young children have died due to such cords since the early ’80s, or about one per month. Clearly, such shades and blinds are potentially deadly products, yet the federal government hasn’t mandated that their manufacturers make them more safe. Instead, it’s let the industry police itself.
But that hasn’t done much good, as evidenced by the fact that the fatality rate hasn’t changed much over the years. Though the CPSC has the authority to demand improvements, its refusal to do so may have meant more child deaths. The window shade industry has recalled many of its products, yet adjustments have been insufficient to reverse the horrible trend.
What can be done? Legal action to force the issue could help. Then better safety devices could be integrated into window shades so that, if a child becomes entangled, the cord automatically is released, rather than remaining taut and tight.
Cords also can be designed so that they don’t form a potentially deadly loop. Such loops often form on inner cords of blinds which aren’t meant to be pulled, but rather to raise or lower the blinds’ material when outer cords are pulled by hand.
Even when applied, some such safety devices have broken or failed to function, resulting in child deaths. In fact, it only takes about one minute for an infant to strangle to death when his or her neck is caught in a looped cord. The CPSC says such deaths largely have impacted children from 9 to 17 months of age.
Parents have a right to insist that all products they buy to which their children will be exposed have safety in mind. Clearly this has not been the case with window shades and blinds, whose cords can form a loop or noose and kill. In such cases, victims’ families have a legal right to seek financial compensation from negligent manufacturers for their part in the child’s death, and to demand that such companies fix the problem.
Jim S. Adler & Associates is dedicated to child safety and to helping families who have suffered tragically due to others’ negligence. If a child in your family has been harmed by a defective product, alert a personal injury lawyer with an Adler & Associates office in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Channelview, TX, and get the support you need to fight back and correct a tragic situation.
Texas’ biggest road menace? Uninsured motorists
As a Texas driver, what should be your biggest concerns on the road? Drunk drivers? Right up there. Speeding drivers? Certainly. But don’t forget drivers of 4.1 million more vehicles. That’s how many are uninsured, says the Texas Department of Insurance.
This is not to say all 4.1 million uninsured vehicles are driven recklessly and may hit you. But if one does, you’re in big trouble — even if you weren’t to blame. That’s because it can be hard to collect car accident damages when the at-fault driver has no insurance. Your own insurance company won’t want to pay, and the other driver probably won’t be able to pay. Checkmate.
Those millions of uninsured vehicles represent 22 per cent of all cars and trucks on Texas’ roads. If that doesn’t make them Texas’ biggest road menace, what does? In fact, it’s staggering to think that nearly a fourth of all vehicles in Texas are in clear violation of a law which mandates drivers be financially responsible for the damages they cause in a collision.
What’s being done about it? Not nearly enough. But some steps are being taken.
One is that the state of Texas soon will issue warning letters to uninsured drivers, as identified by a cross-check of an auto insurance database with state vehicle registrations. To be mailed this spring, those warning letters will affirm that these persons appear to be violating the law and must provide proof of insurance.
Violators can be fined up to $350 for their first conviction and up to $1,000 for later ones, with possible suspension of their driver’s license. Also, thanks to the new database, law officers are less likely to be fooled by a bogus proof of insurance provided by drivers. They can quickly confirm or dispute that on their own.
Even better is a solution devised by the Houston-area cities of Richmond and Pasadena. You say you have no insurance, as required by law? Say bye-bye to your car. It will be impounded in those cities until the driver gets it insured properly. And why not? Every inch those vehicles roll is a violation of state law.
Houston doesn’t bother doing that, and Houston pays a price. The city records up to 15,000 such violations per year, though that’s clearly a small fraction of total uninsured drivers in the nation’s fourth largest city. But those traffic citations lack teeth. Want proof? More than 100 persons in a recent year were ticketed five times for driving uninsured — yet they kept on driving anyway.
What can you do about it? First, tell your elected representatives what you think. Also, consider buying uninsured motorists coverage from your car insurance provider. This can protect you if you are hit by an uninsured vehicle.
Meanwhile, watch out for those drunk and speeding drivers, too. Of course, many are probably uninsured as well. Some people have no respect for the law.
And if you are injured by another driver — whether they’re insured or not — alert a car accident lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates. In many cases, insurance won’t be all you’ll need to protect your financial well being.
Toyota stuck accelerator blame may extend to ‘EMI’
In the SOS over Toyota stuck accelerators causing death to innocent Americans, a new element is entering the sad and disturbing picture: EMI. That stands for electromagnetic interference, which is what some say is causing the fatal bursts of sustained acceleration.
In theory, EMI can be caused internally by components of a car’s own systems, or via cell phones or airport radar. EMI essentially disrupts or alters the electronic commands that a car should be receiving from its internal systems in order to brake, accelerate or perform other driving tasks.
Toyota document savors money saving at expense of stuck accelerator safety
The negligence of Toyota toward innocent American consumers seems to know no end. The latest sign of Toyota putting profits over public safety is found in an internal Toyota document from July 6, 2009, in which a company executive bragged that it was saving $100 million by negotiating a limited recall for Lexus ES and Toyota Camry vehicles for accelerator malfunctions.
That limited recall may have saved Toyota millions at the time, but Toyota’s failure to address the problem fully led to more stuck accelerator car crash accidents and what’s now become the largest recall in its history: more than 8 million vehicles.
The month after the Toyota executive boasted about saving money on the limited recall, a family of four riding in a Lexus in California was killed when its gas pedal stuck to a floor mat. It wasn’t until November of 2009 that Toyota issued a full recall to fix the gas pedals of its defective products.
Texas, California cities are tops in drunks, spurring more drunk driving accidents
Drunk driving accounts for a whopping one third of all U.S. traffic fatalities, or about 12,000 Americans killed in the past year. But drunk driving isn’t the same throughout America. Some cities have worse problems than others with alcohol, as surveyed by Men’s Health magazine. It found Fresno, CA as the “most drunk city in America.”
The magazine’s survey included a city’s alcohol-related car crashes, its number of drunk driving arrests and the severity of its drunk driving penalties. It also based conclusions on death rates from alcoholic liver disease and the frequency of binge drinking.
Paxil side effects, surgeries can spur a Paxil birth defects lawsuit
Many American women have taken antidepressant drug Paxil during their pregnancy. Now many American newborn children are suffering birth defects as a result. Since 2005 Paxil has been shown to have serious side effects in newborn babies, including ailments of the heart, brain, spinal cord, lungs and other vital organs. Such Paxil side effects injuries often require surgery or even repeated surgeries to correct.
That’s a high price to pay for the negligence of a pharmaceuticals giant such as Paxil creator GlaxoSmithKline of London, England. GSK reaps almost $1 billion per year in Paxil sales in America alone, and that huge amount is only about 2 per cent of its total annual drug sales. Meanwhile, American children are suffering horribly due to Paxil side effects injuries.
Toyota stuck accelerator followed by Prius bad brakes defect
Will Toyota’s defective product failures ever stop? First it was SUV rollover calamities. Then it was stuck accelerator pedal catastrophes. Now it’s bad brakes on Toyota’s Prius, the world’s top-selling gas-electric hybrid vehicle.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has begun investigating flaws in the 2010 Prius’ brakes, after its safety arm, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fielded 124 complaints from consumers. Four of those complaints concerned brake-related accidents in the Japanese automaker’s hybrids.
It seems some Prius brakes fail to function properly when the vehicle travels over potholes, bumpy roads or surfaces which are slippery or uneven. That’s not good, especially when you consider how common such surfaces are on streets and highways. On them, a Prius’ braking might pause when the car shifts from its traditional hydraulic brakes to an electronic braking system.
Hammer TV offers safety tips as ‘reality TV’ with meaning, message
Each day, Americans are “hammered” with visual messages on TV and the Internet. But how many are trite, and how many are truly useful? Do we really need to know whose kitty can play the piano? Or do we need to know which defective drugs or injury accidents threaten our loved ones?
At Jim S. Adler & Associates, we’re trying to close the information gap not only in our website’s written content, but in its videos. That’s why we’ve created “Hammer TV,” a video-only Web service filled with helpful safety tips and information for keeping your family whole and healthy.
Named after longtime Texas personal injury attorney Jim “the Texas Hammer” Adler, Hammer TV hosts a variety of “Top Stories” videos on the dangers and costs of SUVs, ATVs, distracted drivers, salmonella food poisoning, uninsured motorists, defective drugs such as Paxil and — one of our biggest threats, literally — the risks posed by big rig, tractor trailer, semi truck and 18 wheeler vehicles.
But don’t worry: There’s also a human touch. Among Hammer TV’s “Top Stories” and “News on JSA Charities,” it offers looks at small children in need getting free “snow parties” or holiday clothes, and even an “up close and personal” look at the Texas Hammer himself, Jim Adler.
Hammer TV also has a touching tribute to Kevin Hills, a Texan who was killed by an 18 wheeler, and a heartwarming dedication to the staff and volunteers of Safe Kids Greater Houston, whose mission is to keep our kids safe.
Or check out Hammer TV’s “PSAs” tab for tips on road rage, water safety, kid safety and the dangers of texting while driving. Heck, you even can watch Jim Adler’s famed “TV Commercials” all in one place — and with no interruptions by annoying TV shows.
It’s all there for you — and for free — on Hammer TV. Tune in, and learn more.
Beyond that, the Texas Hammer has hard-hitting videos for you on YouTube and on Facebook.
On Facebook, check out Jim Adler’s latest flipcam interviews about Toyota’s massive stuck accelerator recall and why the Japanese automaker can’t be trusted, as well as his take on the computer screens coming to car dashboards this fall. Crazy, right?
Also on YouTube as well as on Facebook, watch the emotional video Jim Adler’s firm created for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and MADD Victim Services. Drunk drivers take a terrible toll in human life and in the anguish of victims’ survivors. This video puts a powerful face on them and is a moving reminder that we all have a responsibility to protect each other.
Call it reality TV with meaning and a message. Or call it Hammer TV. Either way, it’s here for you.
