Lake County Ranked as One of the Safest Major Metropolitan Areas for Pedestrian Traffic

According to a recent report titled “Dangerous by Design 2014,”the Chicago Metro area ranked as one of the safest of the major metropolitan areas in the nation for pedestrian traffic. The report released by the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, compared the 51 largest metropolitan areas in the nation and ranked Chicago the 44th most dangerous (aka the 7th safest) metro area for pedestrians in the nation. The report classified the Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida metro areas to be the country’s most dangerous.

According to an article on the report, one of the factors that may explain why the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metro area ranked so favorably on this list is the conscious effort made by community development professionals and urban planners throughout the area to make streets safer for pedestrians. Those in charge of reshaping communities in and around the Chicago metro area are making more streets into “complete streets” that include sidewalks and bicycle areas. They have also worked to make crosswalks shorter, more effective and closer together to reduce pedestrian accidents.

Read More

Trucking Accidents on the Rise in Illinois: How You Can Be Safe

According to statistics from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the number of large trucks involved in crashes where at least one person needed immediate medical attention or a vehicle had to be towed away because of “disabling damage” has decreased nationally in the years since 2005. However, the number of those types of crashes has risen in the state of Illinois.

With more than 8,000 serious crashes in the state in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, highway safety is a concern for Illinois drivers. The Illinois Department of Transportation reports that, in 2008, 94,021 people were injured and 1,043 people died in accidents.

Semi-trucks or tractor-trailer crashes are a particular concern because of the increased potential for serious and catastrophic injuries. In 2008 there were 14,632 crashes involving trucks in Illinois. Fatal truck accidents accounted for 10.5 percent of all fatal crashes in the state, with 115 deaths resulting from trucking accidents.

Read More

New CDC Report Finds Many Unintentional Injury Deaths are Preventable

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 900,000 Americans die prematurely from the five leading causes of death. But, a recent study conducted by the CDC has found that up to 40 percent of these deaths could actually be prevented.

In the United States, the five leading causes of death are unintentional injuries, heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases and strokes. These five causes of death contributed to 63 percent of all U.S. deaths back in 2010. The CDC’s new report was published in their weekly journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study looked at premature deaths before age 80 for each cause in each state. The study found that if all states had the lowest death rate observed for each cause of death, it could be possible to prevent:

Read More

Too Many Passengers and Teenage Car Accident Risk

Birds of a similar feather do indeed tend to flock together. The old proverb can apply in many different contexts, but the basic meaning remains the same: people like to associate with other people who are like themselves.

This can be a major problem when the "birds" in question are teenage drivers who are inclined to ignore rules about safe driving. Such drivers are the cause of many Lake County car accidents.

This article will discuss recent research findings that peer pressure is a main cause of accidents for teen drivers. Knowing more about why and how this happens should help society create and enforce more effective graduated licensing laws for young drivers.

Read More