AUTOMOBILE INJURIES: HOPEFUL SIGNS | POTENTIAL DANGER

A recent report by the Insurance Council of Texas indicated a steady seven year decline in Texas in the number of people injured or killed in automobile accidents. The decline is over 20%. The Texas Department of Transportation confirms a drop in five of the last six years. While we have not performed the research to confirm this point, scuttlebutt among the personal injury bar is that the number of automobile cases across the nation have diminished significantly over the past several years. This is reflected in caseloads involving auto accidents, and in the nature of cases appearing on court calendars. It is confirmed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which indicated that Texas is following a nationwide trend. (“Claims Journal,“ Feb. 10, 2010)

Why is this the case? Simply because the safety features now available in cars assist the vehicle occupants to mitigate injuries when accidents do occur, and also assist a vehicle operator in avoiding an accident from occurring in the first place. Effective seat-belts, front and side airbags and head restraints fall into the mitigation of injury category. Electronic stability control, traction control, ABS brakes, and even forward collision and lane departure warnings fall into the accident avoidance category.

We remind the reader, however, that a major contributor to a potential upsurge in highway accidents lurks in mobile devices, whether handheld or otherwise, as numerous studies have indicated.

On this point, an insurance company recently settled a matter involving the death of two bicyclists in South Carolina for 5 million dollars (unusual in itself in that such a large amount of insurance was available). Why did the company settle on behalf of its inured rather than go to trial?: Their insured had pleaded guilty, criminally, to reckless driving after having been originally charged with “reckless homicide”. A basis for those charges: the driver of the vehicle was on a cell phone at the time of the crash. (Claims Journal, February 10, 2010)

If you have been injured by a driver that was on a handheld device in any manner contact our Manhattan Accident Attorneys office at Orlow Law today.