Motor vehicle deaths rose one percent from 2010 to 2012, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. During that same time period, bicyclist fatalities rose 16 percent. The troubling trend is largely the result of accidents affecting a specific demographic – adult males in urban areas. Adults in general were once a small percentage of […]
Illinois
Illinois semi accident leaves two dead
Two Illinois women were killed on Wednesday when they collided with a semi-truck just south of I-80. The mother and daughter pair were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The truck driver was taken to an area hospital for treatment. The fatal accident occurred at the intersection of County Highway 15 and Morris Road. The […]
United States District Court Issues Payments to Victims of Contaminated Heparin Syringes
In 2007 Illinois-based pharmaceutical company AM2 PAT, Inc. manufactured heparin-filled syringes contaminated with the dangerous bacteria serratia marcescens then sold the dangerous syringes to various distributors who provided them to unsuspecting patients. Many of the patients who used the syringes became seriously ill from exposure to the bacteria. The victims looked to AM2 PAT and […]
CTA Bus passengers, motorists stuck on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive
This week’s blizzard that swept across the nation hit Chicago especially hard. Heavy snow and icy conditions on Lake Shore Drive had initially rendered it very slow although passable. But bus riders and motorists found themselves stranded after a series of crashes, including a bus accident, stopped traffic. Passengers on the number 146 bus were stranded […]
Two Illinois Grain Operators Cited For Willfully Violating OSHA Labor Laws Resulting in Workers’ Deaths
The U.S. Department of Labor has fined two Illinois grain operators nearly $1.4 million following the deaths of three workers, including two teenagers, who were killed when they suffocated after being engulfed by grain. Haasbach LLC was issued 24 citations following an investigation into the deaths of the two teenage workers, Wyatt Whitebread and Alex Pacas (ages […]
Jury awards $2M to injured factory worker
On December 6, 2010, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, an eight member jury returned a verdict of $2,003,002.58 in favor of Rita Thakore, a 54 year old woman from Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Ms. Thakore was represented by Michael L. Teich and Joshua L. Weisberg of Rapoport […]
Recent Highway Construction Worker Fatalities Underscore The Importance Of Increasing Driver Awareness And Safety In Illinois
A 33-year-old construction worker who was killed September 17th when he was struck by a semi-truck in an Interstate 55 construction zone became the 22nd person – and third construction worker – to die in a work zone crash this year, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). The post-crash investigation resulted in the driver being […]
One Of Chicago’s Most Dangerous Railroad Crossings Gets A Safety Facelift In Effort To Prevent Accidents
In the past five years, the railroad crossing between Nagle Avenue, Avondale Avenue and the Northwest Highway has seen six accidents involving trains and automobiles, and in the wake of several such collisions in Chicago this year, steps are being taken to make the crossing safer – a trend that will hopefully extend to the city’s […]
New Data Reveals That Chicagoland Is Becoming A Safer Place To Drive
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) issued a report this month detailing the analysis of highway safety and crash data for the years 2002, 2005 and 2008, and the results show a promising decrease in the number of vehicle-related injuries and deaths. The Highway Traffic Safety Data Overview for Metropolitan Chicago is CMAP’s report […]
University of Illinois At Chicago’s Institute For Patient Safety Granted $3 Million To Evaluate Patient-Safety Policies And Procedures At Chicagoland Hospitals
The University of Illinois at Chicago’s Institute for Patient Safety Excellent has received $3 million of a $23.2 million dollar federal grant given to local governments and aimed at improving safety standards and procedures at medical facilities in an effort to prevent malpractice. Illinois is one of 16 states awarded a portion of the grant, […]
“Are Airliners So Automated That Pilots Are Becoming Complacent?”
The title question was posed by a recent New York Times article examining a trend of behavior in the cockpit that is both alarming because of its prevalence, and disturbing because of its potential for disaster: pilots relying on automated piloting systems to do their job while they shift their attention elsewhere. The topic of autopilot-based pilot […]
Nine Chicago-Area Hospitals Shown To Have Significantly Higher Than Average Infection Rates Amongst Patients, Including One With The Highest Infection Rate In Illinois
The Chicago Tribune published an investigative report yesterday on the unusually high infection rates reported by nine Chicagoland hospitals for the year 2009, and the results, released in the newest issue of the Illinois Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care, are alarming. The infections at issue are bloodstream infections associated with the insertion of central […]
Illinois Driver Polishing Her Nails In Traffic Found Guilty Of Hitting, Killing Woman; Just One Day Before, The 25th State Passed Ban Cracking Down On Distracted Driving
On May 5, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood announced that Wisconsin had become the 25th state in the U.S. to ban texting while driving, calling distracted driving “an epidemic” responsible for killing and injuring thousands of people every year. That statistic is a very unfortunate reality for the family of Anita Zaffke, the […]
The U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA Fines Three Illinois Companies Over $185,000 For Workplace Safety Violations
Three different Illinois companies were slapped with fines by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) during the month of April for alleged violations of federal workplace standards. On April 14, 2010, OSHA announced a $61,500 penalty against Fleetpride, Inc., a nationwide distributor of trucking parts located in Willowbrook, for alleged violations discovered during a February 2010 inspection. The […]
