This week, Rahm Emanuael, Chicago’s mayor, announced that the city is taking steps to tackle the problem of dangerous cab drivers head-on. Mayor Emanuel’s cab driver reforms include a system for the real-time monitoring of when cab drivers receive traffic tickets.

City workers will now make a regular practice of monitoring the moving violations database kept by the Illinois Secretary of State. Thus, the city will be able to act immediately to remove a dangerous cab driver from the road, rather than waiting until the driver’s annual license renewal date comes around.
This will also permit the city to know immediately when these tickets are issued – even if they are later thrown out in court. As our top Chicago automobile accident attorneys have previously noted, cab driver tickets are thrown out at rates far higher than those of regular drivers. This is largely because cab drivers contest their tickets in court at far higher rates, and the police officers who wrote the tickets are tasked to more crucial duties and hearings – leaving Chicago judges with no testimony on the moving violation, and often no choice but to throw out the tickets.

This reform will be paired will another measure: a cooperative effort of city workers and the Chicago Police Department aimed at adding more moving violations to the city’s “watch list” – infractions that will be monitored in the database.

The mayor’s reforms also include placing limits on the number of hours which cab drivers may work each day. Driver hours will now cap out at 12 driving hours within a 24-hour period. City cab drivers will be required to install CPS and taximeter devices which will allow the city to audit cab companies and ensure that this limit is being observed.

Companies whose drivers violate the rules will face fines up to $5000. Drivers will also be required to participate in behind-the-wheel training in order to keep and maintain a Chicago cab license.

In announcing the reforms, mayor Emanuel emphasized that the city’s goal in increasing safety on Chicago streets. He also candidly admitted that the city has fallen down on the job of mandating cab driver safety in the past.

The city’s reforms also touch on cab-related issues not directly tied to safety. These include new standards for fuel efficiency in all Chicago cabs. The collection of reforms aims to “change that whole experience” of riding in a Chicago cab.

Our top Chicago personal injury attorneys are pleased to see the city taking aggressive action to stop dangerous cab drivers. We would have liked, however, to see the city taking even more aggressive action. We hope that these reforms are a first step in the journey towards safer Chicago cabs, and safer Chicago roads.

If you have any questions about a serious accident involving a taxi cab, please give us a call us at 312-527-4500 or email us at info@passenlaw.com for a complimentary consultation. You can also learn more by following us on Twitter, reviewing our LinkedIn or Avvo.com pages, and by reviewing our website.

The author of the piece, Dr. Amy N. Ship, is a medical school teacher who oversees young doctors-in-training in an academic practice.  In her practice, she has noted that physicians routinely include in annual preventative-care checkups a series of questions and topics for discussion with patients, designed to reduce the risk that a patient will engage in unhealthy and dangerous behaviors.

Some of these questions are targeted towards preventing what we think of as traditional health issues such as disease.  These include questions on diet, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, and other such behaviors. But others of these questions are targeted towards preventing patient accidents, trauma, and emergency room visits.  These include questions on helmet use, seatbelt use, and other similar safety measures.

Dr. Ship’s proposal is elegant in its simplicity.  She simply notes that, with the epidemic of accidents, injuries, and death stemming from distracted driving, it only makes sense to begin to question patients on distracted driving practices, as well.  Our Chicago car accident lawyers heartily endorse her proposal.

Including such questions in annual preventative-care checkups in far from symbolic.  Because the practice is only now being proposed, there have been no studies establishing a direct correlation between physician questions about distracted driving and the reduction of these dangerous behaviors.  There have been other studies, however, showing the effectiveness of the practice as to other problem behaviors.  For example, research by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force has shown that even only three minutes of discussion with a physician about the risks associated with smoking makes it more likely that a patient will quit.

This only stands to reason.  Although the dangers of smoking are now widely known, the usual means of conveying this information – public service announcements, blandly-worded television commercials, and habitually-ignored warning labels – are lost in the bustle of modern life.  But actual conversation, in which a smoker is forced to focus on and truly think about the real-world risks of his behavior, cannot so easily be ignored.  Our Chicago products liability attorneys believe that when this conversation is had with an authority figure such as a physician (as opposed to friends and acquaintances), it has even greater resonance.

We believe that this same effect can be had with respect to distracted driving.  As with smoking, the great risks associated with distracted driving are now widely known, if frequently ignored.  As our personal injury and wrongful death attorneys have previously noted, distracted driving is now one of the principal causes of automotive accidents in America, with an estimated 28% of all accidents, or 1.6 million accidents a year, tied to these dangerous practices.

And although estimates of the increased risk of vary, studies have shown that talking on a cell phone while driving can increase the risk of an accident  about four times over – the equivalent of driving while intoxicated.  Texting, however, increases the risk of an accident about 23 times over: an unacceptable risk for drivers, their passengers, and the innocent drivers and pedestrians in their way.

Our Chicago accident lawyers encourage physicians to adopt the practices described in Dr. Ship’s insightful article.  Indeed, we advocate that every possible measure be taken – from education to legislation to lawsuits – to stop this negligent behavior that has somehow become commonplace in American society.  Conversations by physicians are but one piece of the puzzle, but we hope that they will prove an effective tool.  As Dr. Ship herself notes,  “When a doctor raises an issue while providing overall preventative care, the message is different from that conveyed by a public service announcement nestled between ads for chips and beer or a printed warning on a box.”

For a free consultation with an experienced Chicago injury attorney at Passen Law Group, call us at (312) 527-4500.

A newly released government study found that one in twelve drivers admitted to having driven drunk in the previous year.  The study was conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  Although the data was collected in 2008, the results were released last week.

Specifically, the study asked individuals whether they had driven when they believed that their blood alcohol level exceeded the legal limit of .08%.  This figure is particularly shocking when you consider the fact that it is likely that additional people engaged in this highly dangerous behavior but were too embarrassed to admit it.

In addition, a staggering one in five people admit to having driven within two hours of consuming alcohol.  Although this does not necessarily mean that these individuals were intoxicated when they drove, it is still dangerous behavior.  Of this group, the study also asked how many drinks they believed they could consume and still safely drive.  Forty percent of these individuals indicated that they could safely drive after consuming three drinks.  A terrifying eleven percent believed they could safely drive after consuming five drinks.  This behavior explains why injury and wrongful death from drunk driving are still so common:  apparently, at least twenty percent of American drivers simply do not understand the physiology of alcohol consumption, and are accordingly putting us all at risk.

Another facet of the study shows the profound disconnect between individuals’ logical evaluation of risk and the behavior they engage in themselves.  Four out of five people in the study stated that they believe that drunk driving is a major threat to their safety.  Indeed, this belief is well founded, as statistics compiled by the Federal Department of Transportation show that around a third of motor vehicle accidents resulting in fatalities stem from drunken driving.  Yet these individuals are still engaging in the practice themselves.  This goes far beyond negligence, to a willful disregard for the lives that will cross the paths of their paths.

Individuals seem willing to tolerate dangerous behavior in their friends, as well as themselves.  Like those who admitted to driving drunk, one in twelve people admitted to having ridden in a car with a drunk driver within the past year.  One group in particular was prone to this behavior:  young men aged 21 to 24 years.  Of this group, one in four admitted to riding with an impaired driver.

As NHTSA Administrator David Strickland eloquently stated, “We have to do more as a country to close the gap between believing that drunk driving is a threat and actively doing something about it.”  The first step is to make drunk drivers pay for their actions, and the devastating consequences.  If you or someone you love has been injured or killed by a drunk driver, it is crucial that you take action.  If this behavior is ever going to change, we must send a strong message that our society simply will not tolerate this abuse.  We urge you to speak with an experienced Chicago car accident attorney about your options.  Your courage and resolve could save lives.

Drunk driving is a particular problem over summer holiday weekends.  That’s why police nationwide will be putting on a two-week-long assault on drunk driving surrounding the upcoming labor day weekend.  Patrols and checkpoints will be greatly increased for those two weeks, in the hope of catching offenders, preventing accidents, and dissuading offenders from future drunk driving.

For a free consultation with an experienced Chicago personal injury lawyer at Passen Law Group, call us at (312) 527-4500.