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Personal Injury Law

Illinois Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

By Hurley, McKenna & Murtz

Post Frequency: 0.5/day

Last Entry: March 22, 2011 at 01:28:39

Growing Anger, Frustration, and Confusion among Toyota Drivers

Posted on February 07, 2010
As Toyota executives have been less than forthcoming about the issues surrounding the recalls, their consumers are becoming increasingly more agitated as many have invested in new, nice, and what they thought were safe cars, only to be fearful of driving them to the point that they are beginning to turn to rental cars...

Toyota Issues a 2nd Recall

Posted on January 31, 2010
The New York Times reports from Detroit, ?Toyota issued its second large recall in two months on Thursday to fix a problem with accelerator pedals that can get stuck, causing vehicles to speed up unintentionally? (Nick Bunkley, 1/22). The recall covers over 2 million cars and trucks between model years 2005 and 2010, and is separate from the 4...

FAA watching American Airlines Closely after several botched landings

Posted on January 10, 2010
CNN reports, ?the FAA said Friday it is closely watching and reviewing American Airlines after the carrier had three landings go wrong in December (12/27, Ahlers and Alsup).? Between December 13 and 24, 3 American Airlines planes had incidents upon landing...

Harley-Davidson Recalling 111,000 Motorcycles

Posted on December 17, 2009
As a personal injury lawyer, I always urge people to keep track of recalls and act quickly if they own an affected product. Christopher Jensen reports, ?Harley-Davidson is recalling almost 111,600 motorcycles because the fuel tanks could leak following a severe crash...

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AAA Test of Older Drivers Goes Online

Posted on December 17, 2009
This week, The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, announced ?that it was making its computer program that assesses the ability of older drivers available free online? (Tanya Mohn, NYT, 12/8). The ?Roadwise Review? program is ?designed to help older drivers test their abilities through exercises that measure eight physical and mental areas that can predict crash risk, like memory, visual processing speed, leg strength, and head and neck flexibility...

Hurley McKenna & Mertz client Mark Stephan inspires the world with his courage

Posted on December 17, 2009
Hurley McKenna & Mertz is proud to represent Mark Stephan who was injured when the front wheel of his bicycle fell off as he was riding on a Chicago area roadway. Mark has inspired our firm with his tireless efforts to return to his prior life. Mark embodies the American spirit...

Mark Stephan walks out of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

Posted on December 11, 2009
Check out this u tube clip of Hurley McKenna & Mertz client Mark Stephan walking out of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Even though his arms and legs were nearly lifeless after breaking his neck when his front wheel suddenly came off his bike, Mark said he would walk out of the RIC someday...

Devices Help Drivers Put Down the Phone

Posted on November 29, 2009
New technology called ZoomSafer is a free service that uses a phone?s GPS sensors to determine whether the user is at driving speeds, and then disables the cellphone from making or receiving phone calls until the car is stopped (New York Times, 11/22, Grobart)...

G.M. Recalling 53,000 Vehicles due to a Fuel Leak

Posted on November 23, 2009
Christopher Jensen reports, ?General Motors is recalling almost 53,000 Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and Pontiac G5s because a fuel leak could cause a fire? (New York Times, 11/6). General Motors has said it will ?replace the fuel pump module on cares on cars used in states with weather hot enough to cause the problem...

Chrysler Is Recalling Jeeps for Transmission Issue

Posted on November 23, 2009
As a personal injury lawyer, I urge all people to maintain awareness about vehicle recalls that affect your family. This week, Chrysler announced it is recalling ?about 161,000 Jeeps because their automatic transmissions were assembled without a system to warn if the fluid is overheating? (New York Times, Jensen, 11/13)...

FAA grounds wayward Northwest Airlines pilots

Posted on November 08, 2009
Recent events surrounding the two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their Minneapolis destination by 16 minutes and 150 miles, has raised questions about pilot responsibility in the cockpit (Lowy, AP for FindLaw, 10/28). Fortunately, the FAA acted swiftly in grounding the pilots indefinitely and revoking their licenses for a year...

Recalls: Off-road Utility Vehicles

Posted on November 02, 2009
Just under 4,000 off-road utility vehicles have been recalled due to the threat of unprompted acceleration (AP for FindLaw, 10/21). The vehicles are manufactured by Bad Boy Enterprises of Natchez, Mississippi and were recalled in response to ?32 reports of unexpected acceleration? leading to injury to both the user and bystanders...

Nissan Recalling 143,000 Vehicles Vulnerable to Road Salt

Posted on October 26, 2009
Christopher Jensen reports, ?Nissan and Infiniti have issued a geographic recall of about 143,000 vehicles in cold-weather states because road salt could cause corrosion that could cause the tire-pressure monitors to malfunction? (New York Times Auto Blog ?Wheels?, 10/16)...

Highway Deaths at Record Low in first half of 2009

Posted on October 19, 2009
Ken Thomas reported, ?the government says deaths on U.S. highways have dropped to a record low during the first six months of 2009,? which is a continuation of a recent trend (AP for FindLaw, 10/9). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data supporting a 7 percent decrease in highway deaths from the same period last year...

Toyota issues huge recall over accelerator risk

Posted on October 11, 2009
Ken Thomas reports on the California traffic accident that ended fatally for passengers of a Lexus ES350 in August, which led ?Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday [September 29] to issue its largest-ever U.S. recall, involving 3.8 million vehicles? (AP for FindLaw, 9/30)...

Sorting Out Differences in Helmet Standards

Posted on September 28, 2009
As a personal injury lawyer, I fully support clarifying helmet standards, as discussed in a recent New York Times article. Dexter Ford reports, ?the surest way for motorcycle riders to avoid joining the rapidly growing ranks of fatality statistics ? up 144 percent since 1997, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ? is to wear proper head protection...

Toyota Orders Inspections after a Deadly Crash in Southern California

Posted on September 27, 2009
Toyota said recently, ?it will order all dealers to inspect their cars for mismatched floor mats after a mat was suspected of snagging a gas pedal on a runaway Lexus, ending with a fiery crash that killed four family members in San Diego County? (Robert Jablon, AP for FindLaw, 9/15)...

Volvo Recalls Cars for Fuel Pump Problem

Posted on September 21, 2009
Christopher Jensen recently reported, ?Volvo is recalling almost 12,000 vehicles because a computer problem involving the fuel pump, [which] could allow the vehicles to stall. The affected vehicles are the 2008-2010 S80, the 2009-2010 XC60 and the 2009-2010 XC70? (New York Times, 9/11)...

FAA orders replacement of Airbus airspeed sensors

Posted on September 14, 2009
Joan Lowy reports, ?federal safety officials are ordering the replacement of Airbus airspeed sensors? (AP for FindLaw, 9/3). These sensors are the kind suspected of causing the fatal crashes of Air France Flight 447 and all 228 on the plane in June...

Chrysler Reverses Stance on Product Liability

Posted on September 08, 2009
Christopher Jensen reports, ?when Chrysler went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, the court granted an important request to prevent current owners from suing the new company if they were injured by a safety defect in the future? (New York Times, 8/28)...

Controller was on phone during Hudson River crash

Posted on August 28, 2009
One personal phone call made the difference for two air traffic controllers who are being removed from duty as a result. The AP reports, ?the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statements Thursday that the controller at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and his supervisor have been placed on administrative leave because the controller was involved in ?apparently inappropriate conversations? at the time of the [midair] crash between a small plane and a tour helicopter that killed nine people? (Joan Lowy, FindLaw News 8/14)...

VW DSG Transmission Problem Leads to Recall

Posted on August 28, 2009
Christopher Jensen writes for the New York Times? Blog Wheels, ?Volkswagen is recalling 13,500 of its 2009 and a few 2010 models because of a problem with its fast-shifting DSG automatic transmission. The vehicles covered are the Jetta, Jetta SportWagen, GTI, and Eos built between September 2008 and August 2009 (8/21)...

Recalls Include Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon

Posted on August 17, 2009
The latest recalls by the National Highway Safety Administration include the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon (Jensen, New York Times, 8/7). The possibility that ?break lights may not illuminate ? or stay on all the time ? has prompted General Motors to recall almost 186,000 vehicles in states with many days of hot weather...

New Study: Older Drivers and Medication

Posted on August 17, 2009
Tanya Mohn reports on ?a new study [that] has found that most older drivers were unaware of the potentially dangerous impact of medications on driving performance? (New York Times, 8/11). According to the report released by the AAA Foundations for Traffic Safety, ?78 percent of respondents used one or more medications, yet just more than one in four were aware of the possible dangers of driving while on medications...

Recent Study says that Texting while Driving Increases risk of Crashing by larger margin

Posted on July 30, 2009
A recent study that videotaped truck drivers for 18 months found that the risk of texting while driving ?sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research ? and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions? (New York Times, Richtel, 7/27)...

Support Grows for Alcohol Interlocks on Cars

Posted on July 30, 2009
The New York Times? blog, Wheels, discusses a recent campaign to ?stop drunken driving by putting some form of alcohol interlock in every new car? (Wald, 5/19). The Alliance of Automobile Manufactures suggested that Congress budget for ?spending $30 million a year on developing devices that would sense alcohol in a driver...

Ford Focus and Volvo C30 excel in Crash Tests

Posted on July 24, 2009
The New York Times (Jensen, 7/21) discusses crash tests performed on two-door versions of popular sedan vehicles. The 2009 two-door models of the Ford Focus, Chevrolet Cobalt, Honda Civic, Scion tC, and Volvo C30 were recently tested. The crash tests were just released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which usually focuses its testing on four door models generally used by families, but ?the organization said the results of these tests could not automatically be applied to two-door versions of the same car because of design and structural differences...

Data on Distracted Drivers withheld due to Political Pressures

Posted on July 24, 2009
Matt Richtel reports for the New York Times, (7/21) results from a 2003 long-term study of 10,000 drivers to determine the effects of distracted driving were withheld from the public partly due to political pressures. The goal of the study was to determine the real danger posed by drivers using cell phones, however hundreds of pages of research and warnings about cell phone usage while driving were not made public, in part, because of concerns about angering Congress...

Helping the Elderly Keep Their Driving Skills

Posted on July 17, 2009
As a personal injury lawyer I am pleased to hear of new technology geared towards helping older people maintain safe driving skills. Although losing the freedom to drive is not something most of us like to consider, we all need to be prepared for the day that we can no longer drive safely...

Speed Kills but Ticketing Falls

Posted on July 17, 2009
Although no one likes getting a speeding ticket, ticketing serves an important function ? to deter drivers from driving too fast and causing injury to themselves and others on the roadway. According to the New York Times blog, Wheels, ?even if you speed every day, the laws of probability say you will get only one speeding ticket every 35 years...

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