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Recent Blog Posts
Texting and Driving in Wisconsin - Is the Person Sending the Text Responsible?
Late in 2010, the State of Wisconsin adopted a law, section 346.89(3)(a), Stats.,which banned texting and driving. The law was designed to stop individuals from composing or sending texts, emails or in any other way creating typed messages via their cell phone while operating a motor vehicle. The law was designed in the hopes of reducing automobile accidents in Wisconsin due to texting. The law does not, however, specifically ban the receipt or reading of a text message or email message. Yet.
With that in mind, a recent civil suit in New Jersey, (Kubert, et.al.v. Best, et. al., 2013 WL 4512313, (N.J. Super.Ct. App. Div. 2013) might make you think twice before sending a text message to a motorist whom you know is actively in the process driving. The case involves an accident in which a young man crossed the center line while texting and struck a husband and wife who were operating an on-coming motorcycle. The husband and wife, who were both severely injured (resulting in each losing a leg), not only brought personal injury claims against the driver of the car, but also against the individual who was texting the driver.
5 Reasons to Hire an Attorney for a Minor Automobile Accident
Ask anyone who has been in a minor fender bender or other car accident and they will tell you that there were many other ways they would have rather spent their day. Even minor accidents can often add up to major headaches given the expense of repairs, injuries, rental cars, time off work and just dealing with other people involved in the incident. While many people choose to handle these frustrations on their own, even small accidents are best left to a professional who can guide you through the process making it a lot less painful. Here are five things you might not have considered regarding the importance of hiring an attorney for a minor accident.
1. They know how to handle the insurance company - While insurance may often cover most of the vehicle damage from your accident, it is important to remember that they are a business that is most concerned with their best interests. A qualified attorney will understand the intricacies of dealing with insurance companies and can often negotiate a better deal.
Three Tips to Consider if you are Involved in a "Miss-and-Run" Accident
Imagine driving down an icy two-lane county highway on a winter night, when suddenly an oncoming car swerves into your lane, headed right toward you. As you find yourself inches away from a head-on collision, you make a snap decision to pull the wheel to the right-rather than into the line of oncoming traffic. While you narrowly avoid contact with the oncoming car, the ice on the shoulder of the road makes it impossible to regain control of your vehicle. Your car flips several times before settling upside-down in the ditch. You are injured and your car is totaled, but the oncoming driver is nowhere to be found.
Fast-forward a month later...between the mounting hospital and medical bills, your totaled vehicle and time off of work, you are struggling to make ends meet. You are confident that having signed up for, and paying premiums on uninsured motorist coverage, all of your expenses will be covered. After all, this type of situation is the reason why you have insurance...but will your insurance cover you? The answer: MAYBE. In most cases, you will have coverage only if, in your altered state of mind, you had the forethought to forget about your injuries, lost vehicle, childcare and missed work, and take a number of arbitrary steps.
10 Considerations If You Are In An Accident
With the onset of warmer weather, people are taking to the roads more frequently for vacations, errands or just a casual Sunday drive. This increase in driving habits can also increase your risk for accidents ranging from minor fender benders to serious collisions. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of ten considerations to keep in mind if you find yourself in an accident situation.
1. Ensure that everyone is okay - Your first concern should always be the health and well being of all individuals involved in the accident. Things can be replaced, but people cannot.
2. Get medical attention for those in need if necessary - Once you are able to ascertain everyone's medical condition, do not hesitate to take care of those who need help before you worry about property damage. Remember that in some accident situations, minutes can make the difference in the final outcome.
Identifying Unforeseen Car Accident Costs
Car accidents occur unexpectedly and even with insurance, property damage and personal injury costs can cause strain on any financial situation. One of the goals of a personal injury attorney is to help alleviate this burden. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, an average of over 100,000 car accidents occur each year with tens of thousands of people suffering from injuries. Unfortunately, a car accident can be a painful experience not just physically, but financially as well.
Costs begin as soon as a car accident victim requires emergency room treatment. A reported stated last year that, on average, an emergency room visit costs 40 percent more than a month’s rent. Additional medical costs vary based on the severity of the injury and treatment prescribed. Costs you can recover in a personal injury action or claim can include:
Responding to a Hit and Run Accident
Car accidents are a stressful experience that no one wants to be involved in. However, to ensure that everyone is as safe as possible, the law requires people involved in a car accident to remain on the scene and render aid if possible. Unfortunately, not everyone follows this requirement. This can lead to hit and run accidents. These are accidents where one of the drivers flees the scene, leaving the other driver to deal with the aftermath alone.
A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveals that these types of accidents result in over a thousand deaths each year. Fortunately, there are steps that victims of a hit and run accident can take in order to recover for their injuries. Many of these steps involve attempting to track down the driver through witnesses and security camera footage, but even if they cannot be found, there may be other options, such as using the police or the victim's insurance company.
Wisconsin Crash Reports Now Available Online
Traffic accidents are, at their worst, serious events with life altering consequences, but even less severe accidents can be frustrating experiences. Dealing with the courts, the insurance companies, the police, and the body shop can quickly eat up large parts of a day. Fortunately, a new program developed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) can make the administrative details of a traffic accident a little easier. The Department has released a new web program that allows people involved in traffic accidents to order their crash reports on a computer or through the use of a smartphone.
Accessing a Crash Report
The new system is already active and running on the DOT's website, as well as through the Department of Motor Vehicles. Accident victims can search the web system using one of three details: They can use their DOT document form number; the DOT accident number; or a combination of the accident date and the driver's license number of one of the parties involved in the crash.
Increase in Car Accidents Predicted for Holiday Season
Last year the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel named Highway 100, northwest Milwaukee, and area malls as having intersections with the most car accidents in Milwaukee County from 2007-2011. It should come as no surprise that the high volume of cars in mall parking lots is what has led to the annually high number of crashes. With the upcoming holiday season inviting an influx of shoppers, collisions should remain constant as reflected in recent years.
Fender benders are common in congested places and what might seem like a minor accident can turn into a major headache down the road. Understanding the claim process is helpful in order to correctly gather all pertinent information necessary for requesting compensation for damages.
Drivers who have been involved in a car accident need to collect all documentation of the incident, including any records pertaining to required medical care. There is a statute of limitations when filing a claim that personal injury victims should also keep in mind.
New Interactive Map Shows Traffic Fatalities
It seems like every day the news has a report about a tragic traffic accident, but hearing about them just one at at time can make it difficult to visualize the full scale of the problem caused by careless drivers. However, there is now a tool available that can change that. The University of Wisconsin Madison's Traffic Operations and Safety Lab, with the help of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and a local news website, has created a map that allows the public to view the traffic fatalities across the state.
How the Map Works
The software, which appears to be built on top of Google's framework, displays markers representing traffic fatalities over an interactive map of the state of Wisconsin. Clicking on a marker yields more information about the crash, such as when it happened, the number of deaths, and any factors that may have caused the accident.
Police Find Texting and Driving Bans Difficult to Enforce
The advent of text messaging and the rapid spread of smartphones has led to a common problem, texting and driving. People who are texting and driving take their eyes and concentration off the road and that can cause deadly accidents. In response, numerous states have passed laws making it illegal to text and drive; however, these bans are proving challenging for police officers to enforce. In fact, a local Wisconsin news station recently compiled the citation statistics for the four years that the ban has been in place. It turns out that the state police have only issued 229 citations during that entire period.
The Problem with Texting and Driving
The core problem with texting and driving, apart from the fact that it takes people's eyes off the road, is in the way the human brain multitasks. Although the expression “multitasking” is common enough and many people brag about their skill at it, the actual phenomenon itself is something of a myth. People can certainly do multiple things at once, but the brain cannot. Instead, the brain rapidly switches back and forth between the two tasks. At the speed that it does this switching, it seems like multitasking, but the problem is that the constant switching takes a toll on the brain's abilities. What this means for texting and driving is that even when a person is looking at the road, his or her divided attention is preventing him or her from seeing about half of what is going on in his or her visual field. This sort of carelessness can cause accidents, and it is what led the state legislature to pass the texting ban.
