Posts tagged "car accidents"

Our last post covered some statistical insights into older drivers and vehicle safety. Although younger drivers cause more accidents than elders, the rate of crashes does increase as drivers pass age 80. Drivers over age 85 are often in accidents that involve catastrophic injuries or fatalities.

In response to concerns about the increasing risks that face elder drivers, states have begun to implement a variety of different safety measures. This post will look at some approaches.

To start with, one expert lays a conceptual foundation by pointing out that age is less important than health conditions. The problems that lead to impaired driving abilities tend to increase with age-but age itself is not the essential problem.

In late August, California received a painful reminder that older drivers may pose a larger safety risk than other motorists. A 100-year-old man backed his car into a group of school children, hospitalizing a number of them. With older drivers and car accident injuries back in the news, we are posting a two-part series on elder drivers and vehicle safety.

Today's post will present some accident trends involving older drivers. Check back later this week for an explanation of some steps that different states are taking to prevent these crashes.

New research concludes that almost half of convicted drunk drivers may have ongoing drinking problems. A high rate of drug and alcohol dependency among convicted drunk drivers suggests that many are likely to pose a serious risk in the future.

The study looked at nearly 700 convicted drunk drivers and lifetime alcohol habits. Nearly half of the surveyed convicts said that they had long-term "struggles" with alcohol and drugs. 25 percent reported that they returned to dangerous drinking habits after a period of trying to drink less.

Earlier this year a teenage driver lost control and killed a father and daughter in a town just east of San Francisco. This weekend saw a similar pedestrian accident in nearby Walnut Creek. A pickup truck drove onto the sidewalk and smashed into a group of four pedestrians, killing a 52-year-old mother and severely injuring her daughter-in-law.

The accident occurred shortly after 6:00 p.m. last Saturday night. The victim, a math teacher from Santa Barbara, was in Walnut Creek to visit her son and his new wife. The family was walking along a downtown sidewalk when the driver of a pickup truck crashed into them at high speed.

A California lawmaker wants to get the ball rolling in the regulation of autonomous vehicles. Many companies in California are building and testing robot cars and the senator wants there to be safety rules in place as these vehicles increasingly infiltrate the roadways. The senator sees the advent of robot cars as great for California as the many tech companies here could make it a global center for the advancement of the technology.

At the same time, he wants some rules to be in place to deal with the cars and any traffic violations or accidents that may result when a robot car is on the road. It has been said by the people championing the new technology that robot cars will be safer than human drivers and result in less traffic congestion and fewer car accidents.

It's no secret that many automobile accidents result from distracted driving. Too many people drive while talking on cell phones, checking their hair in the mirror or fiddling with the radio dial.

But for teens there's another distraction equally as dangerous: another teen. Studies conducted by State Farm Insurance and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia show that teens who drive with one or more passengers of the same age are more likely to be involved in a car accident than teens who drive alone. By gender, 71 percent of males and 47 percent of females reported being distracted by other passengers immediately before an accident.

Rescue crews airlifted a seriously injured driver to a San Jose hospital after an early morning accident this week. The injured driver was transported to Valley Medical Center for treatment of head injuries and an apparently broken arm. No serious injuries were reported for the other driver in the collision, though a pet dog riding in one of the cars was reportedly killed in the car accident.

The accident occurred shortly after seven in the morning on Tuesday near Mt. Madonna County Park. The head-on collision occurred on a narrow, private road. One of the vehicles involved in the crash had an OnStar system which was used to notify authorities and provide its approximate location. Despite the data from the OnStar system emergency crews had trouble finding the accident in the remote area.

A California man lost his life in a four-vehicle collision on Monday morning. The chain-reaction crash occurred on State Highway 12 just west of the Solano County line. The fatal accident involved three passenger vehicles as well as semi truck that was hauling a bulldozer. The bulldozer had been used to fight wildfires in the area over the weekend.

According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, the man who lost his life was driving his Ford westbound when he crossed over the center line into the oncoming lane of traffic. His car was struck head-on by the semi truck. The collision knocked the Ford back into the westbound lane where it struck a Toyota minivan that had been following the Ford.

We have all heard the warnings about distracted driving, and everyone knows the importance of avoiding such distractions as texting and driving. Unfortunately, distracted drivers continue to cause serious car accidents every day. Innocent victims are often affected by the negligence of distracted drivers and can suffer very serious personal injuries.

A college student who survived a head-on car accident has recently spoken out about her ordeal in order to help others avoid the situation that she landed in when she looked down for only a moment.

In one of the first car accidents to involve a "robot" car, Google's self-driving Prius struck another vehicle, causing what became a four-car accident. The most intriguing part of the story is that the car was purportedly being controlled by a human being at the time, and was not in auto mode. The car accident occurred in California near Google's Mountain View Campus.

The cause of the accident is currently being described as nothing more than human error. The immediate release of the news spread like wildfire, as most believed that the supposedly "flawless" automatic software had failed and caused the four-car accident. When Google released a statement saying that the car was being driven by a human being at the time, some of the excitement died down.

One of the wonderful benefits of living in California is the ability to spend time outside enjoying the weather, doing things like bicycling and walking. Unfortunately, however, these activities can be dangerous when it comes to sharing the road with each other and other vehicles.

Bicycle and pedestrian safety is necessary for everyone to be able to get to where they are going safely. Bicycle and pedestrian accidents are a serious risk whenever motor vehicles run stop signs or speed, or when there is too much traffic. Pedestrians are also at risk when bicycles do not follow traffic signals and ride too fast or out of control.

When a motorist negligently drives and causes an injury accident or a fatal accident, the victim or the victim's survivors are legally entitled to seek compensation from the negligent driver. There are many forms of negligent driving, including driving while intoxicated, driving too fast, driving while distracted, failing to yield and failing to watch the road. The effects of the above types of negligent driving are well understood. However, a new and less understood type of negligent driving is now having a large impact on California roads.

Like drunk driving, driving while drugged or high hurts a driver's judgment and reaction time. With the increased prevalence of medical marijuana in California, the rate of drugged driving has skyrocketed over the past few years.

Late last month, a 90-year-old woman drove through the wall of a nursing home, killing two in the fatal car accident. An investigation indicated that the elderly driver apparently applied pressure to the gas pedal rather than the brake, sending the vehicle careening through the wall of the building.

The fatal accident has called to the light the issue of older drivers behind the wheel and whether they are proficient in their abilities.

Negligent driving is a leading cause of car accidents in San Jose and across the country. Negligent driving comes in a variety of forms, including driving while distracted, speeding, failing to yield, failing to watch the road and other careless actions behind the wheel.

Over the years, society has learned the tragic costs of driving while intoxicated. The risk of an accident increases dramatically when an intoxicated driver is behind the wheel. To deter drunken drivers from getting behind the wheel, states have enacted laws that make it a crime to drive with a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 percent.

In San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area, pedestrian accidents are all too common. We have a very high population density in this area, and pedestrians and vehicles are often in close quarters with each other. Unfortunately, when pedestrians are involved in an accident with a vehicle, pedestrians are especially vulnerable to serious and catastrophic injuries.

At about 2:45 a.m. last Wednesday, there was a fatal accident involving a 63-year-old pedestrian and a Honda Civic. The accident occurred on Highway 101 in Palo Alto, California, just north of Oregon Expressway.

Most people living in and around San Jose are familiar with the "black boxes" that are onboard airplanes. These black boxes, or event data recorders (EDR), record the conditions aboard an airplane and these conditions are retrieved and analyzed in the event of a crash. Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is considering a proposal that would require EDRs to be installed on all new automobiles.

Some automakers already use EDRs in their automobiles. General Motors has included black boxes on most of its vehicles that come equipped with airbags since the 1990s. EDRs are designed to record vehicle conditions in a vehicle in the moments leading up to a car accident.

Twenty years ago, this would have gone without saying: cars need drivers. If Google has its way, that will change in 2011.

Over the past year, tech giant Google has made headlines with its robot, or driverless, cars. Basically, the robot cars use computers and sensors to navigate our public roadways. Proponents of robot cars believe computer drivers will be safer than human drivers, will prevent car accidents, and will save people a great deal of time that is otherwise wasted behind the wheel. The automated vehicles have been tested extensively on California roads, logging more than 140,000 miles in the process.

May means that summer is just around the corner in San Jose and that means more motorcyclists will be sharing the road with drivers. As always, it is important that drivers take the time to be respectful of motorcyclists and remember that motorcycles are motor vehicles with equal rights to the road.

May is also Motorcycle Awareness Month and both car drivers and motorcycle riders are encouraged to be safe while traveling on the road. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 80 percent of all motorcycle accidents end in death or serious injury, compared to only 20 percent of all car accidents.

Since it was founded in 1980, MADD, or Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has played a large part in decreasing the number of drunk driving injuries and deaths. While this is promising progress, a new danger has more recently caused car accident rates to climb: distracted driving.

The head of California's Highway Patrol explained that drivers seldom admit to being on the phone before car accidents occur. In addition, police rarely request phone records to use as evidence against individuals who cause accidents. Even so, distraction was officially reported as the cause in 16 percent of fatal car accidents during 2009. This represents a six percent increase since 2005.

San Jose detectives are investigating an unusual fatal bicycle accident that happened over the weekend. According to investigators, two 32-year-old San Jose men were in attendance at the same house party Friday evening into early Saturday morning. Officers believe the two men were good friends.

Early Saturday morning, one man left the party on his bicycle, and the other man left shortly thereafter in a 2004 Subaru. Investigators say that the bicyclist was riding in the middle of Cherry Avenue near Foxworthy Avenue at about 2 a.m. At about that time, the bicyclist was stuck by the 32-year-old San Jose man's Subaru. Although the street has bicycle lanes, investigators believe the bicycle was not in the designated bicycle lane.