Sure, cities have traffic jams, while the country has roadside vendors selling jams — and little traffic. But rural drivers should know this: You are more likely to die in a car or truck accident than those on packed  urban streets or freeways.

Why? Glad you asked. For one thing, people tend to drive faster on rural roads — and certainly have more freedom to do so, compared to city folk bogged down by numbers. Urbanites who are stalled at rush hour, take heart: At least your slow speed makes it less likely you’ll get hurt in a collision.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

An item in today’s San Antonio Express-News shows how far Texas has to go to treat pedestrians and cyclists with respect on our roads. It pertains to a horrible accident last week in which a San Antonio-area couple riding a tandem bicycle on a road’s shoulder were hit and killed by a pickup truck traveling 70 mph in a 65 mph zone.

The driver “lost control” — a common excuse for bad driving — and veered onto the shoulder, killing the two people.

No charges have been filed in the tragedy. Nor have charges been filed in the case of David Mollenauer, a San Antonio Symphony musician who was hit by a car while on his bike and left for dead earlier this year.

Mollenauer survived, and witnesses even got the car’s license number. Yet again, no charges have been filed, even though the driver’s identity is known.

Some say that’s because Texas treats cyclists and pedestrians as second-class citizens. If a car strikes property and damages it, then its driver is legally liable for negligence. If a car strikes a person in a motorcycle accident, bicycle accident or pedestrian accident, the car’s driver may face no penalty at all — even in a hit and run!

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Why is it so hard to collect  a car accident insurance claim, even when you weren’t at fault? Because insurance companies are stingy–and are getting even stingier due to uninsured motorists on the road. When an uninsured driver is at fault in a car accident, then the claim goes to the innocent driver’s insurer, who doesn’t want to pay. And that’s a huge problem.

Some Texas cities are doing something about it — but Houston isn’t one of them. According to a report on KHOU Channel 11 News, more than 15,000 drivers annually for the past two years were ticketed in Houston for driving without car insurance — a legal offense. And some uninsured drivers were ticketed repeatedly. In fact, more than 100 people got ticketed five times for the same offense.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

July 4th weekend is a time to celebrate America’s liberty. Yet our liberties don’t include driving while impaired, a misjudgment which claims almost one third of all traffic deaths yearly, and an even higher 40 per cent of all traffic deaths on the mid-summer holiday.

Alcohol abuse by drivers crosses all geographic and socioeconomic lines. But motorcyclists have the highest proportion of alcohol abuse of any drivers on the road, and thus more motorcyclists die in traffic accidents on Independence Day than on any other day of the year.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

How many wake-up calls does it take to drive home the point that driving is serious business — always? Driving requires your full attention, and that means keeping your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road and your mind on operating a heavy vehicle at sometimes high speeds in complex traffic.

Apparently a woman in Illinois didn’t think driving required such focus. In fact, she thought driving was incidental to her primary task: painting her nails. And as a result, another woman is dead — an innocent woman who was stopped at a traffic light on her motorcycle and was wearing a helmet but nonetheless perished when a car driven by the nail-painter hit her from behind.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

A motorcycle accident can mean many things to many people. For Gale Harold of ABC dramedy Desperate Housewives, it meant a serious injury which sidelined him while he was playing one of the biggest roles of his career: as Jackson Braddock, the new boyfriend of Susan Mayer, played by series star Teri Hatcher.

For others, a motorcycle collision may mean death — or at least debilitating injuries. In such cases, and when the motorcycle driver was not at fault, an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer can help victims seek the financial compensation they deserve from those who are accountable.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

It sounded like such a good idea: Get 50 or more miles per $4 gallon, rather than a car’s 15 or 20 miles at best. That may mean riding a motorcycle, which gives you more gas bang for your buck than almost any other vehicle.

But with motorcycle riding on the rise, so are motorcycle accident deaths. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says traffic deaths overall declined in 2007, yet motorcycle deaths rose. In fact, they’ve jumped from 5 per cent of the traffic death total in 1997 to 13 per cent of the death total last year, with an increase in each year.

In that decade, the feds say, 75 per cent more motorcycles have been registered. With bikers almost doubling, that certainly accounts for an increase in deaths. (more…)

Share on Facebook

As gas prices have gone up, traffic fatalities have gone down — at least when it comes to cars. But while fewer folks are pounding pavements in four-wheelers, more are riding on motorcycles, scooters and bicycles to save gas money. And the added traffic on vulnerable vehicles means more people are dying.

The Texas Department of Transportation reports that motorcycle use is up on the state’s roads and highways, with sales of cycles rocketing. And already, correspondingly, motorcycle deaths are ahead of last year’s pace in Houston alone.

The motorcycle’s allure is a no-brainer, at least as far as fuel costs are concerned. While many cars do well to get 15 miles per gallon, most motorcycles get between 40 and 80 miles per gallon, depending on the cycle and the driving habits of their drivers. In short, if you accelerate slowly and obey speed limits, you’ll save gas. If you tromp it and roar off, you don’t save as much. (more…)

Share on Facebook