Accidents Archive

Got a Toyota Recall Story? Share it!

February 4th, 2010. By AbiK

I’m amazed at some of the stories out there from folks who are affected by this massive—hell, unprecedented—Toyota recall. There’s over 5.3 million affected Toyota owners out there, each with his or her own story of how the recall has affected them.

One I heard (or, overheard) yesterday: woman says she’s afraid she might lose her job because she doesn’t want to drive her car to work; apparently her commute is one hour each way… and I’m guessing she had no other means of getting to work other than her Toyota.

If you’ve got a Toyota recall story to share—whether it’s something that happened while you were driving, an issue you’ve had with Toyota or a Toyota dealership, or maybe just the sheer confusion you’re experiencing about whether your car is even safe to drive, let us know…

Share your Toyota Recall story

Tags: Toyota, toyota recall
Posted in Accidents, Defective Products, Emerging Issues | 2 Comments »

Biggest News from Detroit Car Show: Driving’s Become a Distraction

January 15th, 2010. By Hunter West

Get ready for a new round of lawsuits everybody. Because the nation’s roadways are about to become a lot more dangerous. 

Consider this statement from an automotive industry engineer: 

“Customers are expecting more and more, especially business people who expect to find in the car what they find in their smart phone,” said Mathias Halliger, the chief engineer for Audi’s multimedia interface systems, in comments published in the New York Times last week. “We should give them the same or a better experience.” 

Experience? 

Really… 

Let’s get one thing straight. Driving is not a video game. Driving is not a virtual ‘experience’. Driving is being in control of a hurtling goliath of metal weighing several tons hurtling down a road shared by other vehicles, or pedestrians hurrying across an intersection. Kids on bikes. Old men with their walkers. 

It’s bad enough that car stereos are more complex, now that you can plug your iPod or mp3 player into the system. Now there are GPS systems that serve to distract drivers even further from the task at hand—which is driving safely. 

Many states and cities have banned talking on a cell phone unless a Bluetooth or other hands-free device is used. Texting while driving is so stupid; its stupidity is a foregone conclusion. That’s been banned too, in many areas across the country. As the bans step up, safety advocates have been breathing a sigh of relief. 

Well for them—and for the rest of us—this horror movie has just become a whole lot scarier, with automotive Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Audi, Auto Accidents, Car Accidents, Car Crash, Ford
Posted in Accidents, Defective Products | 2 Comments »

Can I Get a Witness? (for a Car Accident, that is)

January 11th, 2010. By AbiK

Looking for a car crash witness-on-demand? You just might be able to find one, but it’ll cost you….read on…

True story. I was on I-287 in NJ heading toward Morristown a few years back. Doing about 65. Middle lane. A highway-sized street cleaning truck merged onto the highway, hit the car in the right (slow) lane, which then hit me. I spun into the left (fast) lane, and through some miracle was able to maneuver to the right-hand shoulder. No injuries (thankfully) but no witnesses either. 

So I found myself standing alone in the shoulder—no other car from the accident had pulled over. No witnesses. No help. No involved parties. Nada. Translation: no one for my insurance company to possibly collect from. 

Fast forward to last week. John here at LawyersAndSettlements.com shoots me a link to this website: WreckWitness.com. It’s an interesting and highly simple concept. If you’ve witnessed an accident, you can send in an email—free—about it and you might get paid; or, if you’ve been in an accident, you can search for a witness to your car accident and pay only if you find the right witness. 

At first, I’m thinking back to a recent post I did about commenters who post “eye witness” accounts of accidents Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Car Accident, Car Crash, Witness
Posted in Accidents | 5 Comments »

Texas Car Accident Sparks Jury of Commenters

December 14th, 2009. By AbiK

KWTX.com reported it. The article about the car accident in Texas was only about 130 words. That’s it. And while a car accident is never something to be viewed with nonchalance, this one, as car accidents go, was pretty much your standard head-on collision–and thankfully, only one person of seven involved sustained injury (reportedly non-life threatening) of any sort. 

So why am I even talking about it? Because it highlights a new age of “discovery” in the world of everyday car accidents. This accident, which happened on FM 2484 in Harker Heights, TX—sort of midway between Dallas and San Antonio—sparked 18 comments within approximately 24 hours.

Some of those comments were, of course, from well-wishers who were just thankful that all involved were generally “ok”. Some were from wannabe grammarians—always a few ’em out there… But the comments that caught my eye were these:

• I travel 2484 daily and have wittnessed this lady and her Saturn exceeding the speed limit many times. This was bound to happen.
• Thankyou to all the fire safety and police on the scene for working the accident,I was in the Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Accidents, Texas Car Accident
Posted in Accidents | 1 Comment »