New Jersey Injury Lawyers Blog

In recent months much attention has been given to pedestrian safety and now it is garnering even more attention.

The death rate of teenage pedestrians has risen 25% over the last five years, according to statistics released this past summer. Many of those deaths have been attributed to distracted walking. Safe Kids Worldwide, which is dedicated to preventing injuries in children globally, recently studied a group of 34,000 teenagers as they crossed streets in school zones. The group discovered one out of every eight middle school children and one out of every five high schoolers were distracted as they crossed the street. The study revealed 39% of the children wore headphones, 39% texted, 20% talked on the phone and 2% used some sort of handheld game or tablet as they crossed the street. ⁽¹⁾

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Careless driving charges are the most common charges drivers face, but should they warrant jail time? That’s a question facing the State Supreme Court and its decision could establish a guideline for municipal courts who commonly hear such cases. (1)

The Supreme Court is set to review the case of a woman who received a 15-day jail sentence for careless driving after she hit a pedestrian who, two months later, died from injuries sustained in the accident. The prosecutor of this case argued that the sentence was fair considering the actions and the harm they caused, while the defense attorney argued that no jail time should be imposed for a careless action even when the end result is death. (1)

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Drivers know that if they drive too fast they risk getting a ticket or, even worse, may cause a traffic accident. It would be safer to drive below the speed limit, right? Wrong. Driving below the posted speed limit could be just as dangerous as driving above it. In fact, the National Motorists Association references research that claims more accidents are caused by slower traffic than faster traffic. (1)

The problem with slow traffic is that it is not always obvious how slow is too slow. Occasionally, speed limit signs will post both a maximum and minimum limit; more often only the maximum allowed speed is posted. So, how slow is too slow? In general you are driving too slowly if you are traveling under the “normal speed of traffic” on that particular roadway. (2)

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By now, children throughout the State are back in school which means more pedestrians and motorists are on the roads at the same time. In order to keep New Jersey roads safe pedestrians and motorists alike need to take extra care.

A nationwide program entitled Safe Routes to School (SRTS) encourages children either to walk or ride their bikes to and from school. Back in 1969, almost 50% of children traveled to school by foot or on their bicycles; today, less than 15% do. The SRTS initiative was intended to encourage children to get healthier, more active and less dependent.(1)

Another effect of the initiative was to cut down on motor vehicle traffic. In 2009, families across the country drove 30 billion miles to get their children to and from school. That accounted for 10 to 14% of the traffic on our roads. (1)

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By now, most New Jersey drivers are aware of the stiff penalties associated with texting and driving, particularly if that action results in an accident. What they might not know is that you don’t even need to be in the car to be held liable.

August 27, 2013, a New Jersey appeals court determined that a person who texts another person with reasonable knowledge the intended recipient of the text would be driving and would read the text immediately can be held liable if an accident occurs as a result of that action. (1) The court likened the sender of the text to a passenger in the car, albeit a virtual one, saying that just as a passenger has a responsibility to not distract the driver, so does the sender of the text. (2)

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“License, registration and cell phone,” are words New Jersey motorists may soon hear from police responding to the scene of an accident if a newly proposed bill wins approval.

The bill seeks to give police the right to look through the phone’s call and message history without a warrant in order to determine whether or not use of the phone could be a contributing factor to the accident. The bill would allow a police officer to confiscate a driver’s hand-held phone after an accident resulting in death, injury or property damage if that officer has reason to believe the driver was operating the phone at the time of the accident. (1)

Much has been written lately about the dangers of distracted driving, with use of cell phones high on the list of distractions. A recent MSN article concerning which type of tickets most affect insurance rates stated that reckless driving was considered one of the biggest offenses leading to increase insurance rates. While it was noted that the definition of reckless driving varied by state, at least one state – Virginia – said it was considering categorizing texting while driving as reckless driving. (2) Recently New Jersey increased its penalties for drivers caught using a hand-held cell phone or texting while driving.

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