Personal Injury

CTA Buses are Striking Pedestrians in Increasing Numbers

March 7, 2018 | John J. Malm

Last night, a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus struck and killed a pedestrian in the West Chatham neighborhood in Chicago. The pedestrian was walking in the crosswalk in the first block of West 79^th Street at around 7:30 p.m., when she was struck by the CTA bus. The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene. The CTA bus driver was later cited for failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. A similar accident occurred last month, when another CTA bus struck a pedestrian in the Old Town neighborhood in Chicago. According to the Chicago Police Department, the pedestrian was walking in the crosswalk in the 100 block of West Division at around 4:30 a.m., when she was struck by the CTA bus. The pedestrian was taken to the emergency room and was treated for swelling and contusions.

Last summer, a CTA bus struck a mother and her three children as they were crossing the street in the Lakeview neighborhood. According to police, the mother and her children were crossing at the intersection of Halsted Street and Waveland Avenue around 10:15 a.m., when the CTA bus struck them. A witness to the collision told reporters that the infant being held by the mother flew out of the mother’s hands and violently struck the concrete. The children were taken to the emergency room at Lurie Children’s Hospital and the CTA bus driver was taken to the emergency room at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. The driver was later given a citation for failure to yield to pedestrians.

How Does an Insurance Company Evaluate My Car Accident Claim?

March 1, 2018 | John J. Malm

If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury, it is important to know how the insurance company is going to evaluate your claim. Long gone are the days of a skilled insurance adjuster pouring through your records. Nowadays, most insurance companies use a software program, called Colossus, to evaluate your claim. Colossus takes the pressure off the insurance adjuster to evaluate your claim and allows the adjuster to input certain data into its system to arrive at what it thinks is an appropriate settlement number for your claim. Continue reading

Why are Motorcycle Fatalities Increasing in Illinois?

February 26, 2018 | John J. Malm

As the weather starts to warm up, more and more motorcyclists will start hitting the roadways. With the increase of motorcyclists on the roadways, comes an increased danger of those motorcyclists getting into serious, and even life-threatening, accidents. According to the Insurance Information Institute, motorcyclists are more vulnerable on the road and are more likely to be injured or killed in a car accident than occupants in a car, bus, or truck.

In September 2017, three people were injured in a motorcycle accident in Henry County, Illinois. According to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, a group of motorcycles were driving on U.S. Route 150, when two of the motorcycles crashed into each other. That same month in McHenry County, a sixty-three-year-old man was killed when a SUV struck his motorcycle. The Crystal Lake Police Department’s Accident Investigation Team, in reconstructing the accident, determined that the driver of the SUV, a seventeen-year-old boy, turned left in front of the motorcycle, striking the motorcycle. The motorcyclist later died at a local hospital. A similar occurrence happened in May 2017 in DeKalb County, where a twenty-six-year-old motorcyclist died after a SUV turned left in front of his motorcycle. The driver of the SUV stated that she did not see the motorcyclist before turning. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. Continue reading

Michaels Stores Pays Settlement of $1.5 Million for Shattering Vases

February 19, 2018 | John J. Malm

On February 13, 2018, the United States Department of Justice announced Michaels Stores agreed to enter into a consent decree and pay $1.5 million in a settlement agreement over its shattering glass vases. For more information about the initial complaint, filed April 21, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, by the Department of Justice, visit our previous blog HERE.

According to the Department of Justice, Michaels sold approximately 200,000 glass 20 inch vases between 2006 and 2010 in the United States and Canada that had the propensity to shatter and cause serious injuries. According to the lawsuit, the glass vases’ walls were too thin and could not withstand the pressure of normal handling. An engineering consultant utilized in one of Attorney John Malm’s cases discovered that vases being sold in Michaels’ stores were constructed of glass thinner than that in an ordinary light bulb. In at least one case wherein a glass vase shattered, a victim suffered permanent nerve damage. Several other customers suffered injuries requiring extensive surgery. According to the Department of Justice’s complaint, Michaels knew as early as 2007 that at least one customer had been injured by a glass vase, and at least four customers had been injured in the first half of 2009. Michaels did not report the glass vases’ safety issues and customers’ injuries until 2010, thereby violating the Consumer Product Safety Act. When it finally reported the vases’ safety issues, Michaels’ report was purposefully incomplete and misleading to avoid responsibility for the recall of the vases.

Is Tesla’s Autopilot Feature Safe for Drivers?

January 31, 2018 | John J. Malm

Last week, a Tesla Model S smashed into the back of a firetruck at a high rate of speed on a highway near Culver City, California. The firetruck was stopped for an accident on the highway. The driver of the Tesla reported that he had been using Tesla’s autopilot driver assistance system at the time of the crash and the autopilot system did not apply the vehicle’s brakes. Luckily, no one was injured as a result of the crash. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is currently investigating the crash.

How to Successfully Prove a Product Liability Claim in Illinois

January 29, 2018 | John J. Malm

Every year, people are injured by unsafe and defective products. Product Liability Law concerns cases in which a person is injured by a defective product. What is product liability? See our previous blog HERE and our webpage HERE for a breakdown on the basics of product liability.

In Illinois, there are two main ways of proving a product liability case:

Consumer-Expectation Test:

Under the consumer-expectation test, a plaintiff must establish what an ordinary consumer purchasing the product would expect about the product and its safety. This standard applies the objective view of the normal, average expectations of a reasonable person. This test does not apply the subjective expectations of the actual purchasing consumer. Calles v. Scripto-Tokai Corp., 224 Ill.2d 247,254 (2007). The consumer-expectation test allows for easy application by the average juror. Each juror can determine what an ordinary person purchasing the product in question would expect of that product and its safety.

Could Police Begin Spying on Drivers Suspected of Texting Here in Naperville and Surrounding DuPage County?

July 20, 2015 | John J. Malm

As a car accident lawyer, I am always looking at what makes us less safe on the road. At the top of this list is distracted driving. In Illinois, drivers are generally allowed to use cell phones, but are prohibited from using cell phones, hand held or otherwise, when driving in a school zone or when driving in a highway construction zone. Recently, Illinois tightened these restrictions and prohibited all hand held cell phone use while driving.

Texting – the most dangerous form of distracted driving – has long been prohibited in Illinois. Exceptions to the prohibition from texting while driving are quite limited: reporting an emergency situation and continued communication with emergency personnel during the emergency situation; using a device in hands-free or voice-activated mode; if the driver is parked on the shoulder of a roadway; or when the vehicle is stopped due to normal traffic being obstructed and the driver has the motor vehicle transmission in neutral or park. Absent an exception, texting is prohibited.
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Naperville Product Liability Law Update: Defective Furniture Responsible for Thousands of Injuries

June 10, 2015 | John J. Malm

Most people pay little attention to the furniture in their homes or workplaces, expecting items such as tables and chairs to serve their intended purpose. However, the most basic pieces of furniture can sometimes be defective, causing serious injuries or even death. According to a 2011 study conducted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, unstable furniture was the cause of some 43,000 emergency room visits between 2008 and 2010. The culprits included items such as household chairs, office chairs, medical equipment chairs and beds, televisions, bar stools, bunk beds, and futons.

If you have been injured by defective furniture, you may have legal options in the area of product liability. Furniture manufacturers and retailers bear responsibility to consumers for the safe design and construction of their products. If a product is known to cause injury, these manufacturers and sellers are required by law to warn the public of potentially defective furniture. Retailers with a failure to warn of risks associated with their products are subject to heavy fines, as is the case with Office Depot.
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Illinois Product Liability Law Update: U.S. Sues Michaels Stores Over Shattering Glass Vases

June 2, 2015 | John J. Malm

The Consumer Products Safety Commission and the Department of Justice jointly announced their filing of litigation against Michaels Stores Inc. over defective glass vases. The complaint, filed April 21, 2015 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that the craft store giant knowingly violated the Consumer Product Safety Act’s reporting requirements concerning glass vases both manufactured by and sold by Michaels Stores retail outlets.

According to the Justice Department, Michaels purportedly did not report significant information regarding the safety risks associated with the product. Additionally, when Michaels did provide a report to the CPSC, it neglected to inform the agency that not only did it sell the vases, it also imported them directly, allowing the company to avoid legal responsibility with regard to recalls.
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Could Traffic Accidents in Naperville be Reduced by Naperville’s Proposed Transit Plan?

June 2, 2015 | John J. Malm

Transit is an alternative form of transportation, in addition to walking and biking, which the City of Naperville continues to explore and develop as part of its Comprehensive Transportation Plan. A well-developed transit system makes the City of Naperville and the surrounding DuPage Country and Will County area increasingly accessible to local residents. A transit system is desirable because it reduces traffic congestion, a problem which plagues Naperville’s growing population, which is predicted to increase to 155,000 by the year 2020 (approximately 100,000 Napervillians live in DuPage County, while about 45,000 reside in Will County) and has the potential to reduce automobile trips and thus reduce congestion, air pollution, wear and tear on roads and injury-producing car accidents.

For many in Naperville, public transit is a safe and an essential part of day-to-day life, carrying people from schools, to jobs, and to grocery stores. Such transportation services available to the public typically fall within two categories: generalized and specialized. Generalized transit, for example, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Metra, is available to the public and may include rail and bus services. Specialized transit on the other hand often includes car pools, school buses, and shuttles, and may have eligibility requirements.
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