Kansas City Injury Lawyer Blog

Kansas City Car Accident Lawyer Calls for All Passenger Seat Belts, Stronger GDL Laws

The Emergency Nurses Association has just released its annual statewide safety rating just in time for the holiday season. It's the right time for Kansas City car accident attorneys, and the state's highway safety agencies to consider the areas we could be focusing on harder to keep motorists safer on Missouri streets.

The Emergency Nurses Association report is called 2010 ENA National Scorecard on State Roadway Laws: A Blueprint for Injury Prevention. The report rates all 50 states and the District of Colombia on 14 safety criteria. The Emergency Nurses Association is encouraging states that fared poorly to work harder on trying to meet the criteria in time for its next report, which will likely be out in 2012.

These criteria include:

• Primary seatbelt enforcement
• All passenger seatbelt laws
• Distracted driving and texting laws
• Passenger and nighttime restrictions for teen drivers
• Ignition interlock device laws
• Child passenger safety
• Access to a trauma care system

As a Kansas City car accident lawyer, I was concerned to find that Missouri meets only 10 of the 14 eligible teen criteria. While our state has a well-developed state trauma system and mandates child passenger safety up to the age of 16, it does fall behind in certain other important safety criteria. The four criteria that Missouri fails to meet are primary seatbelt enforcement, all passenger seatbelt laws, passenger restrictions on teen motorists and a complete ban on distracted driving, including the use of handheld communication devices and texting while driving.

These criteria relate to safety proposals that Kansas City car accident attorneys have been promoting for years now. It's high time we had a complete and comprehensive ban on the use of handheld cell phones and texting while driving for all motorists. It's also high time that we had seatbelt requirements for all passengers in a car, and not just motorists and front seat passengers.

As a Kansas City car accident attorney and a highway safety advocate, I was very pleased to learn that the Missouri Highway Patrol was honored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police earlier this month.

The IACP through an agreement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, recognizes the work of law enforcement agencies. Every year, the IACP awards the National Law Enforcement Challenge Awards, which are handed out after comparing the performance of state law enforcement and highway safety agencies based on occupant protection, speeding, and intoxicated driving.

This year's award was presented at the 117th annual conference of the IACP in Orlando, Florida. The Missouri Highway Patrol placed first in the "1001 to 2500 State Police and Highway Patrols" category. The award recognizes the MSHP's great overall performance in traffic safety enforcement. The Missouri Department of Public Safety Director John Britt has called it a "well-deserved national recognition" of the superlative performance of the State Highway Patrol, which has been doing great work enforcing safety laws and keeping our roads safer for motorists.

Over next few weeks, the MHP's determination will be sorely tested, as millions of Missourians take to the highways over the annual holiday travel season. The year's biggest travel season kicks off over the Thanksgiving holiday. As a Kansas City car accident attorney, I expect there to be more numbers of Missourians on the highways this year. That means more numbers of Missourians on our roads, not all of who will be fit to drive.

The Missouri Highway Patrol is well aware that it will be under tremendous pressure and stress over the next couple of months. This award should be a huge incentive for the state agency to step up to its challenges.

Driver fatigue has been linked to a fatal truck accident in Bond County, Missouri.

According to police, the accident occurred last Saturday morning when a truck driver on Interstate 70 fell asleep while driving. The tractor-trailer veered off the highway, and struck the victim, 50-year-old truck driver Basil Khamis, who was standing on the shoulder of the highway. Khamis sustained fatal injuries, and was declared dead at the scene. The other truck driver also sustained minor injuries in the accident.

This tragic accident is just another example of how truck driver fatigue continues to impact trucking safety across Missouri. A truck accident investigator, in this case, will look at the driver's logbooks, to determine how many hours he had been driving before the crash. However, manipulation of log books is widespread in the trucking industry. Drivers are paid on an hourly basis, and it's a common practice for drivers to drive beyond the maximum hours they are allowed under federal laws, to earn more money.

Drowsy driving has also been in the news recently after a study found that it is a factor in at least one out of every six fatal car accidents in the country. Tired or fatigued driving is a major accident risk, even when you are driving a small passenger vehicle. When you are at the helm of a massive tractor-trailer that can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, the risks to the safety of other motorists around are magnified.

For Missouri truck accident lawyers, the issue of truck driver fatigue is also linked to the dwindling number of truck stops and truck driver rest facilities in Missouri . Budget cuts have led to the closing down of dozens of truck stops over the past couple of years. This has made it difficult for a truck driver to pull over somewhere safe to rest for a few hours.

According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, about one in every five licensed drivers in the United States will be above 65 years of age by the year 2025. The numbers of such drivers will actually double to 57 million motorists, by the year 2030. The number of drivers in this age group has already increased to close to 20% of the general motorist population.

We now have a situation where we have more elderly motorists on our roads than we have ever had in our country's history. The biggest reason for this is that people are living longer. Moreover, medical advancements and better healthcare has meant that people not only live into their 80s and 90s, but also continue to drive and live mobile and independent lives. Driving when you are an elderly motorist brings with it special challenges. For instance, if you're above 70 years of age, you are three times more likely to suffer injuries during an accident than someone who is between 35 and 54 years of age.

Elderly drivers were also the focus of a special forum sponsored by the National Transportation Safety Board last week. NTSB Chairperson Deborah Hersman, who convened the two-day forum, spoke about the need for strategies to minimize the risks of fatalities and injuries in accidents involving elderly drivers.

As Kansas City Car Accident Lawyers, our firm has handled hundreds of cases involving elderly drivers. I believe the State of Missouri should consider a more restrictive approach to driving privileges. Perhaps that involves driving tests being administered at more regular intervals. At that point, state officials could evaluate vision, medication affects, and slower reflexes that come with age.

Mason Adams, a model 16 year-old boy with a promising future, was killed when he was hit by a school bus as he was crossing the street on his way to school. This tragic accident follows a Clay County, Missouri school bus accident last week when at least a dozen students were injured in a school buss accident in Clay County, Missouri last week.

My heart goes out to Mason's family. From all accounts, he was a great kid & a joy to coach as a baseball player.

Although the accident investigations are on-going, school bus accidents raise a high level of concern in regards to the policies, procedures, and protocols that govern school bus drivers. There is little doubt that the legal process will concentrate on school bus driver education and training, and other issues that directly relate to driver safety.

Our law firm concentrates in Missouri motor vehicle accidents. Two years ago our law firm represented the family of a 16 year-old boy who lost his life in a motorcycle accident. Although the parent's case was settled for a substantial amount, I have continued to dedicate myself to highway safety advocacy as a memorial to his family. Please visit www.highwaysafetyattorney.com for more information.

On my end, I am going to expand my highway safety advocacy efforts into school bus safety concentrating on driver safety. While the facts surrounding this accident will be developed through the legal process, I know that "First Student" and other school bus operators have a high obligation to bus driver safety, especially as the roads become more congested and drivers are more distracted.

A new study should wake us all up to the role of drowsy driving in motor vehicle crashes. The study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety indicates that drowsy driving is a much bigger factor in accidents than has been thought thus far.

According to the study, drowsy driving may be a factor in about 17% of all auto accidents in the country. That means that drivers who drive while they are drowsy, could contribute to as many as one in every six fatal accidents. Those are extremely serious statistics, and it's time that more attention was paid to this deadly killer.

The study was based on surveys of respondents who were asked about their driving practices while fatigued. Approximately 41% of the persons surveyed admitted that they had driven in a tired state at least once in their lifetime, while more than a quarter admitted that over the past month they had driven in such a tired state, they could barely keep their eyes open.

As a Missouri auto accident lawyer, I do not find the study's conclusion surprising. This problem is similar to the distracted driving epidemic. Most people realize it is dangerous, but they do not think they are at personal risk. In fact, most people also tend to brush aside fatigue, and insist on driving even when they're too tired to do so. The result is often severe accidents that end with multiple injuries or fatalities. Most drowsy driving accidents tend to be high-impact accidents. In these cases, the driver is typically too tired to avoid a crash, or has simply dozed off at the wheel.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends simple tips to avoid these devastating accidents. Try to get as much sleep as you can before a long drive. Plan ahead- Take a friend along. Drink lots of coffee. Take breaks. If you are driving with friends, take turns driving.

Overall, I have been very encouraged at the decline in traffic accident fatalities across the state of Missouri. However, Southeast Missouri has actually recorded a recent increase in traffic accident fatalities. It's important that traffic safety agencies there understand the reasons for the spike and implement measures to control these high fatality rates.

Statistics show that there have already been 75 auto accident fatalities in southeast Missouri in 2010. In 2009, 68 people had died in auto accidents here. According to the Cape Girardeau Police Department traffic division, the main causes of accidents in this area are failing to yield, following too close to another vehicle and changing lanes improperly. In fact, more than 600 auto accidents last year were traced to motorists who followed other vehicles too closely.

An analysis of traffic crash fatalities in Missouri in 2009 shows that much of this progress has been made because of stronger enforcement of anti-drunk driving laws. There are fewer hard-core drunk motorists behind the wheel in Missouri now, with a concentration of .15% or more. That has meant fewer accidents being traced to driving under the influence in Missouri over the past few years.

However, reducing drunk driving may prove to be less challenging as compared to other sorts of reckless driving behaviors, like following too close, failure to yield, or changing lanes improperly. Following too close to a vehicle or tailgating is extremely reckless, and can place you at risk of an accident if you're unable to stop quickly enough to avoid the vehicle in front.

Moreover, as a Kansas City car accident lawyer with a special focus on distracted driving, I am seeing more and more collision cases due to distracted driving. Too often, drivers are multi-tasking and are distracted to the point they cross-over into other lanes of traffic. This is a particular problem on rural roads where there is no room for error and on interstates where traffic is moving at a fast pace.