Tag Archives: car accident

How Well Do You Know Your Car’s Safety Features?

You spend a good deal of time in your car, commuting to and from work, running errands, and dropping the kids off at school or activities. You probably think you know your way around the driver’s seat. You know the basic safety devices, like seat belts and the emergency brake, but you might not be an expert in a few of the more complex features that can help avoid or minimize the damage in case of a car accident. Consumer Reports offers a few tips on popular vehicle control safety features.

Increasing Your Control

When you step on the gas, your wheels rotate. Without the right amount of traction, though, you’re literally “spinning your wheels,” not going anywhere. Traction control and electronic stability control (ESC) features help vehicles increase traction and get moving. Different traction and stability control systems work in different ways, but most will use sensors and brake systems to momentarily stop wheels from spinning or redirect engine power. Wondering if your car has a stability control system? Though the safety feature was not uncommon on many vehicles in recent years, ESC now comes standard on all vehicles with the model year 2012 or later.

Once you get moving, you need to be able to brake. In modern cars, antilock brakes (ABS) prevent the wheels from “locking” up, which was once a common occurrence when drivers applied the brakes too forcefully. To avoid the dangers the come with being unable to stop, engineers invented ABS, to allow drivers to steer and brake at the same time. Antilock brakes work well when drivers hit the brakes hard.

An additional braking safety system can work hand-in-hand with antilock brakes. A system called brake assist activates when the car’s sensors determine that the driver is applying a “panic stop,” or a sudden stop, such as those that may occur when:

  • A vehicle brakes without warning in front of you
  • A obstacle enters your path suddenly, such as an animal running across the road, another car swerving into your lane, or a pedestrian crossing the street unsafely
  • Hazardous weather conditions, like ice or large puddles of rainwater

Many drivers fail to hit the brakes hard enough, according to Consumer Reports. Brake assist helps slow vehicles down quickly so that they can stop at a short distance.

How Safety Features Prevent Accidents

While devices like air bags and seatbelts can save lives when an accident occurs, braking systems and stability-control devices can help prevent accidents from happening. Think about the importance of being able to accurately steer and brake, especially in snowy, wet, or slippery road conditions.

Even with the help of these devices, safe driving requires all motorists on the road to pay attention and observe traffic laws. Following traffic laws prevents you from causing accidents, but you can still get hit by drivers that are less responsible than you are. When innocent drivers and passengers become victims of someone else’s reckless driving, the dedicated car accident lawyers at Console & Hollawell step in to fight for their legal rights. Get help today by calling (800) 455-2746 to speak to an attorney.

Photo Credit: Corbis Images.

A Yellow Dot Is Worth 1,000 Words

Have you ever thought about what you would do in the case of a car accident?

Call 911, probably. Pull over to the side of the road and locate your license and vehicle registration. Get out of your car and examine the damage. Take down the other driver’s information. You’ve seen the process in movies and on television over and over again

But what if you couldn’t do anything at all?

You may take for granted that, in a car accident, you would not be seriously injured. However, by the time many car accident victims are rescued, they are unconscious or otherwise too badly injured to communicate effectively with police officers and EMTs. You may not be able to tell them that you have a chronic disease or a common medicine allergy. The people working to fix your injuries or save your life will not know about your recent medical procedure or any medications you are currently taking.

Yellow Dot Program Communicates for Car Accident Victims

In the aftermath of a serious car accident, getting you the medical care you need immediately is the primary concern of first responders. While knowing your medical history is important, EMTs and emergency surgeons cannot spend time calling every local doctor in the hopes of finding your primary physician. They must do the best they can with the limited knowledge that they have. But what if there was a way that you could help them?

There may soon be a simple way to communicate important information to first responders, and all it will take is a yellow dot. The program, already at work in other states, including Pennsylvania, provides drivers with the means to be proactive about car accidents. If passed, the bill currently in New Jersey state congress would set up a program that could potentially help save lives after an automobile accident.

While the Yellow Dot Program would be optional, the potential benefits of enrolling in the free program can far outweigh the time costs. In their glove compartments, program participants would keep a specially-marked envelope with their names, photographs, emergency contact information, important medical information, and physicians’ contact information. First responders would immediately know that the accident victim is a Yellow Dot Program participant from a round yellow decal on the car’s rear window.

Helping First Responders Help You

The Yellow Dot Program bill, supported by primary sponsors Richard J. Codey and Robert W. Singer and co-sponsor Linda R. Greenstein, was first introduced in January 2012. So far, the bill has won the approval of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and could next fall to a vote in the New Jersey State Assembly, according to radio station New Jersey 101.5.

If this bill becomes a law, New Jersey drivers will have a great option to protect themselves in case an accident occurs. No one wants to think about being in a car accident, especially a serious one, but taking the initiative could really help you and your family if a crisis occurs. Your doctors need to know as much as possible about your medical history. Your loved ones deserve to know your medical condition as soon as possible after you have been injured. When or if the state establishes the Yellow Dot Program, be proactive, and take the few moments to register your information. It might just save your life someday.

If you or a loved one has already suffered an injury in a car accident, don’t wait any longer to get the help you need. Contact Console & Hollawell’s skilled New Jersey car accident attorneys at (800) 455-2746 today.

Photo Credit: Corbis Images.

Pennsylvania minimum coverage insurance

Before It’s Too Late: Adjust Your Auto Insurance Now Or You Might be Unprotected in a Crash

Many drivers think of auto insurance as simply a cost of hitting the roads legally – pay as little as possible. Insurance companies love it when motorists buy minimum coverage policies because they actually offer very little in terms of benefits. Providers get to keep policy holder premiums and give relatively nothing back in return. Drivers are satisfying state legal requirements, but not really protecting their assets or receiving adequate medical coverage. When do people realize they need better auto insurance? Usually when it’s too late to do anything about it – after a serious motor vehicle accident.

That was the case for Regina Whitehead, a Philadelphia woman who allegedly attempted to add coverage to her auto insurance policy in 2011 as she lay in an ambulance en route to the hospital. The Insurance Journal also reports Whitehead misled her insurance provider about when the accident occurred so her new coverage would pay for the damage to her vehicle. Authorities charged her this week with one count of insurance fraud and one count of criminal attempt to commit theft by deception. Insurance fraud is a third degree felony in Pennsylvania.

Auto insurance is a fact of life, but one that you can make work for you instead of against you. Shoveling more money into the insurance industry’s deep pockets every month isn’t a strategy for success when it comes to paying your medical bills or replacing your car after a crash. Think adding coverage is a waste of money? Let’s look at what a minimum coverage policy in Pennsylvania actually buys:

  • $5,000 in medical benefits regardless of fault.
  • $15,000 in medical bills if you injure someone in a crash
  • $30,000 in total medical coverage for people you injure per accident.
  • $5,000 in property damage if you damage someone else’s car or other real property.

That’s it – no coverage for your own vehicle and a dangerously low ceiling on medical benefits. Your entire medical benefit could run out with just a single trip to the emergency room. Because minimum coverage limits have remained the for decades, while healthcare costs have skyrocketed, barebones policies are in no way equipped to offset the costs of serious collisions and injuries. Without adequate insurance you can be left holding the bag for tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

Who wins in that circumstance? The insurance company. You paid them your premiums on time every month and they happily pocketed the cash knowing the maximum liability they can incur from you in a motor vehicle accident is $40,000. For a multi-billion dollar industry, that’s good, if not sneaky, math.

Adding higher medical benefits to your insurance policy is a marginal cost that could literally save your life in a crash. Even if you have no protection for your automobile, our Philadelphia accident lawyers stress the need to protect your body with higher medical benefits – it’s your one real asset.