News Archive

Motor Vehicle Accidents News

Report Shows Spike in Pennsylvania Drivers Dropping Insurance
With all the open bars, people on the road and rejoicing in the streets, it is easy to imagine that New Year's is a risky time. Holidays are the most hazardous time for drivers, a result of sharp increases in traveling and drunken driving. And when it comes to New Year's, research over the years offers sobering statistics. According to research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the day of the year with the most fatalities from accidents is the Fourth of July, with an average of 161. Not far behind are July 3rd with 149, December 23 with 145 and New Year's Day is fourth with 142.  

Holiday Traffic Deaths Rise in Pennsylvania
Of 12 people killed over the Christmas holiday in crashes handled by Pennsylvania state police, 10 were not wearing seat belts. Another 410 people were injured in 1,673 crashes investigated by troopers between Christmas Eve and midnight the Sunday following Christmas. This year's numbers are up strikingly from 2007, when eight people were killed and 236 were hurt in 964 crashes.  

Is New Year's the Most Dangerous Time to Drive?
A national report said the number of people dropping their car insurance in these tough times is way up. Minimum liability insurance is required to register a car in Pennsylvania and if you let it lapse the registration could be suspended. Suspensions for this year have run a little over 150,000 in each of the past two fiscal years, and this year is on a pace for more than 200,000.

Teenager's 911 Call About Dad Driving Drunk Held Sufficient Cause for Stop
A teenage daughter's 911 call to police that her father was driving drunk was enough to justify a stop of his vehicle, even without evidence of erratic driving, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled. Reversing two lower courts, the justices said that details given by a known citizen, who would have been accountable if the report were false, gave police reasonable and articulable suspicion to stop and investigate the driver. The police had received two emergency calls from the daughter, one reporting a domestic dispute and the other to report that her father had left the house and was driving drunk. She provided a description of his car and the plate number, which led police to stop the vehicle when they saw it driving in the neighborhood. The father was subsequently charged with driving while intoxicated and refusing to submit to a breath test. After his motion challenging the legality of the stop, he entered a guilty plea. 

New Trial Ordered in Ford SUV Rollover Case
An appeals court has reinstated a claim that a design defect caused a 2000 Explorer SUV to roll over and crash, seriously injuring the driver. Ford had previously won the case, claiming that the driver caused the accident by making overcorrective steering maneuvers that would have caused any vehicle to roll over. However, a three-judge appeals court ordered a retrial because the trial judge failed to inform the jury in his charge that evidence of the driver's alleged negligence was irrelevant to the threshold issue in the case: Was the vehicle's design defective? 

Auto Deaths Down 10 Percent This Year
Federal safety officials say auto fatalities dropped almost 10 percent in 2008 through October. If the trend holds up for the last two months of the year, highway deaths could reach their lowest since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there were 31,110 auto fatalities in the first 10 months of this year, representing a 9.8 percent decline over the same period in 2007.  

State Police Find Majority of Child Safety Seats Improperly Installed
Pennsylvania State Police found more than two-thirds of child safety seats were improperly installed or had other problems in an inspection conducted last month. Only 92 of the 307 seats that were inspected were found to be properly installed during inspections conducted at 52 locations in Pennsylvania. 50 citations and 132 warnings issued as part of the "Click It or Ticket" campaign were for failing to properly buckle a child in a safety seat. Problems included failing to anchor the child seat to the vehicle seat, failing to use the child seat's harness to hold the child in the seat, facing the car seat in the wrong direction, and using a seat that has been recalled because of a defect. 

Nissan to Recall Nearly 430,000 Vehicles Worldwide
Nissan Motor Co. will recall nearly 430,000 vehicles worldwide, some with faulty braking lamps and others with ill-connected cables that could stall an engine. Subject to recall are 247,840 Serena wagons, which have ground cables that may have been improperly installed, meaning they could disconnect and stall the engine. The other 181,836 vehicles being recalled are Tida compact models with fault bulb sockets that could lead to brake lamp failure.  

32 Arrested for Drunk Driving Over Holiday Weekend
It was a busy Thanksgiving weekend in the Lehigh Valley for Breathalyzer tests and heel-to-toe walking. More than 63 state and local police officers stopped more than 700 vehicles starting Friday in hopes of reducing the number of drunk drivers on the road during a specialized training and law enforcement program dubbed "Operation Nighthawk." Of the 705 vehicles stopped over the weekend throughout the Lehigh Valley, police arrested 32 people for drunken driving, issued 264 traffic citations and made 14 arrests for drug charges.

Rules Target Medically Unfit Truck and Bus Drivers
Federal regulators are taking steps to get medically unfit truckers and bus drivers off the road after being accused for years of dragging their feet on the issue. Under a rule approved by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, states will be required to merge commercial truck and bus drivers' licenses with drivers' medical examination certificates into a single electronic record. Linking the two will make it easier to check whether drivers have met medical requirements to operate commercial vehicles. States will have three years to comply. The administration has also recommended creating a registry of medical examiners qualified to award certificates to drivers.  

Nine Killed in Holiday Crashes
Nine people were killed in crashes investigated by Pennsylvania State Police during the Thanksgiving holiday driving period. 321 others were injured in the 1,042 crashes to which troopers responded from Wednesday through Sunday. Seven of those killed were not wearing seat belts and four died in alcohol-related crashes. Eighty of the crashes were alcohol-related.

Aging: A Law Reduces Driving Deaths, But Why?
A Florida law requiring drivers 80 and older to have their vision tested appears to have reduced the number of driving deaths among older people. Researchers found that the fatality rate for drivers in that age group went down 17 percent after the law passed, even though the overall rate in Florida rose 6 percent in the same period. The big question remains why. To begin with, fewer than 7 percent of drivers in the state were not allowed to renew their licenses because of poor vision. That alone would be unlikely to explain the drop in fatalities. 

Fatalities on the Rise in Vehicle-Animal Crashes
Fatalities from vehicle crashes with deer and other animals have more than doubled over the last 15 years, according to a new study by an auto insurance highway safety group that cited urban sprawl overlapping into deer habitat. The report found that 223 people died in animal-vehicle crashes last year, up from 150 in 2000 and 101 in 1993. Since 1993, Texas had the most deaths from such crashes, with 227, followed by Wisconsin with 123 and Pennsylvania with 112. 

Fatal Crash Driver Has Record of 6 Citations
A York County police officer was killed when he was struck by a sport utility vehicle. The driver has not been charged, but has a history of traffic violations. She has been cited six times for offenses, which included careless driving, speeding, tailgating and disregarding traffic devices, since 2000. She was found guilty for each offense and has paid nearly $800 in fines. The officer was hit while he was setting up orange safety cones to block a lane for reconstruction of a fatal crash that occurred earlier.  

New Federal Rule Pre-Empts State Tort Claims Related to Seat Belt Injuries
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration once again has launched a "pre-emptive" strike against state personal injury suits by inserting a pre-emption provision in a new rule governing seat belt safety, according to consumer and trail lawyer groups. The final rule is known as the "designated seating position" rule. It revises the definition of "designated seating position" to determine the number of seat belts that are required in a particular vehicle, and it eliminates the exclusion of auxiliary seats from the definition so that all seating locations intended to be used while a vehicle is in motion would provide the appropriate levels of crash protection.

Upper Darby Man Charged in Road Rage Incident
A 24-year-old Upper Darby man, infuriated that a woman had honked at him in an intersection, pulled a gun on her and her 2-year-old daughter and said, "You're dead." He was arrested after the victim called 911 from her car. Police found that the man had a concealed weapons permit and enough weaponry at his home "to start a war."

Car Crash Risk Rises on Election Day
Could voting for president be hazardous to your health? An analysis of Election Day traffic deaths dating back to Jimmy Carter's 1976 win suggests just as much. The study found that on average, 24 more people died in car crashes during voting hours on presidential election days than on any other October or November Thursdays. That amounts to an 18 percent increased risk of death and an additional 800 people suffering disabling injuries. 

Lawsuit Names Clarion Borough and PennDOT in Wrongful Death
Clarion Borough, the state Department of Transportation and a Clarion woman have been sued in connection with the death of an 80-year-old Clarion woman. The woman was struck by a vehicle while walking across an intersection. The wrongful death suit blames the Clarion woman driving the car, but also alleges that both the county borough and PennDOT were aware of how dangerous the intersection was and did nothing to correct the problem.

Bill Would Ban Teen Drivers from Cell Phone Use
The state's licensed junior drivers would not be able to sue their cell phones while driving under terms of a bill sponsored by the House Transportation Committee. The bill, in an effort to reduce accidents involving junior licenses, would add 15 hours to the 50 hours of practical driving experience already required, restrict the number of passengers and make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense for drivers aged 16 and 17.

Police Launch Drive Against Aggressive Driving
Police in Berks County want to take the aggression out of drivers who run red lights and ignore school crossing guards. The statewide initiative to crack down on aggressive driving will continue through September 21, with state-funded enforcement activities planned.

16 People Die in Crashes Over Labor Day Break
Sixteen people, including two operators of all-terrain vehicles, were killed in crashes investigated by state police during the Labor Day holiday driving period. 412 people were injured in 789 crashes troopers investigated between 6 p.m. Friday and midnight Monday. Eleven of those killed were not wearing seat belts and four of the fatal crashes were alcohol-related.  

$2 Million Awarded in DUI Death
A Dauphin County jury awarded more than $2.2 million to the estate of a man who was struck and killed by a drunken driver moments after she left a now-defunct downtown club. The woman, who had consumed more than eight drinks in less than three hours, was also sentenced to 3 to 6 years in prison.

As More Cycles Hit Road, More Riders Get Hurt
With record highs for gas prices, motorcycle ridership is growing at a brisk pace. However, new riders may not be taking safety precautions. Since 2003, the year Pennsylvania repealed helmet requirements for most riders, the number of registered motorcycles in the state has jumped 36 percent, from 265,054 to 360,287 in 2007. Statewide, crashes have gone up slightly less, with a 34 percent increase. But fatalities rose by 44 percent, from 156 to 225.

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