Driving Hazards

June 12, 2013

Seatbelts Could Have Saved 3 BU Students in New Zealand Car Accident, Officials Say

The three Boston University students killed last May when their minivan flipped on a rural New Zealand road, could have survived had they been wearing seatbelts, officials said.

Rotorua, New Zealand Constable Tina Mitchell-Ellis, said that the three students who died, and a fourth who suffered severe brain trauma, were not wearing seatbelts and were thrown from the van. The four other passengers in the van who were wearing seatbelts survived and sustained only minor injuries.

The students had all been a part of a study-abroad program in New Zealand and were driving in a rural part New Zealand to begin a scenic hike. According to reports, the driver of the van, Stephen Houseman, became distracted while driving and drove onto the side of the road before over-correcting and flipping the van four times.

Neither drugs nor alcohol were involved in the accident, and police did not suspect Houseman was speeding before the accident. Officials believe that inexperience with driving a van and being unfamiliar with the roads contributed to the accident. Houseman pled guilty to careless driving and had his license suspended for six months.

This tragic accident involving Massachusetts college students is a stark reminder of the dangers of operating a motor vehicle or being a passenger in a motor vehicle, and not wearing a seatbelt. According to both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Safety Council, seatbelts are the most effective safety device for preventing serious injury or death in the event of a car accident. In fact, wearing a safety belt can reduce the risk of serious injury during an accident by more than 50%.

In a study done by the NHTSA, 42% of motor vehicle passengers who were killed in accidents were not wearing a seatbelt. Under Massachusetts law, seatbelt violations fall under secondary enforcement laws; meaning that a driver can be ticketed by an officer for not wearing a seatbelt only if he or she has committed another traffic violation. The seatbelt usage rate in Massachusetts is estimated to be around 74%, which is lower than the National average (88%). However, the NHTSA estimates that over 1,600 lives could be saved and 22,000 injuries prevented each year if seatbelt usage was at 90% in every state.
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May 28, 2013

Police Investigate Memorial Day Motorcycle Accident in Holliston, MA

by Altman & Altman

A motorcyclist was flown to Brigham and Women’s Hospital yesterday after being critically injured in a crash in Holliston, Massachusetts.

The male motorcyclist was the only person involved in the single-vehicle accident which occurred on Brook Street around 2:30 p.m. Monday. Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated approximately 81,000 people were injured and 4,612 were killed in motorcycle accidents in 2011 in the United States; a 2% increase from the number in 2010 and a 41% increase from 2002. Motorcycle accidents accounted for 14% of the total number of motor-vehicle crashes in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that per every vehicle mile traveled, motorcyclists are 30 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in an accident, and 5 times more likely to be injured during an accident.

The NHTSA stated that 49% of fatal motorcycle crashes involved collisions with other motor vehicles; 75% occurred with the motor vehicle in front of the motorcycle. Fatal motorcycle accidents were most likely to occur with fixed objects, rather than collisions with other motor vehicles.

Speeding, rider inexperience, and alcohol use are the three main factors that contribute to the high risk of accident on a motorcycle. According to the NHTSA, 35% of all motorcyclists involved in accidents in 2011 had been speeding before the crash. Inexperienced and un-licensed individuals made up 14% of those injured or killed in motorcycle accidents, and individuals who had had their licensed suspended previously were 1.4 times more likely to get into an accident compared to those with a passenger vehicle license revocation. Alcohol use is also a risk factor for fatal motor cycle accidents. The NHTSA estimated that about 29% of all motorcyclists were impaired by alcohol at the time of an accident. Riders aged 40-44 made up 38% of that group, respectively, followed by individuals ages 45-49 and 35-39 at 37%.
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May 20, 2013

Investigation Continues in Fatal Boston Hit-and-Run Accident Involving MIT Professor

by Altman & Altman

Police are still investigating a hit-and-run bicycle accident near Kenmore Square that killed an MIT professor this weekend.

Kanako Miura, 36, a native from Japan and visiting professor at MIT since 2012, was struck and killed by a truck while riding her bike at the intersection of Beacon Street and Baystate Road around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The truck fled the scene. Police say they are looking for a garbage truck that was possibly involved in the accident.

Bikes are considered a way of life in the city, but residents say that the area around Boston University is especially dangerous for anyone including cars and pedestrians, with accidents occurring at an average rate of two to three times per week.

Since 2007, Mayor Thomas Menino has strove to make Boston a more bike-friendly city by implementing more infrastructures such as bike lanes and bike paths to support more cyclists as well as installing the Hubway bike share program. In 2011, Boston was rated one of the safest cities to ride in in the United States, and this year, Cambridge received a Gold-Level rating for being one of the most bicycle-friendly communities in the nation.

Still, with more riders on the road today than ever before, the city is faced with the challenge of how to prevent more accidents from occurring. In a report published by the City of Boston in correspondence to Bike Safety Month, the Boston Police Department reported a bike ridership increase of 28% (56,000 trips per day) as well as a 2% increase in accidents (488 in 2012) since 2010. In more than half of the bike accidents reported, the cyclist was not wearing a helmet.
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January 23, 2013

Snow Contributes to Multiple Crashes in Salem, MA Area

by Altman & Altman

Wintery weather contributed to a number of automobile accidents in Salem, MA and surrounding communities last Wednesday.

A woman driving a Toyota Corolla slid into a Ford F-250 truck that was parked on the side of the road at 290 Canal St. while the driver was trying to active the vehicle’s four-wheel drive. Manna Whitfield was identified as the driver of the Corolla and Matthew Plauche as the driver of the F-250. Both Salem residents escaped injury, said police.

Another driver, Robert Dee of Salem was struck the right rear of a school bus and then skidded into a parked car. He was traveling down Wilson Street toward Jefferson Avenue when he tried to brake but couldn’t stop. There were no reported injuries to either Dee, the bus driver, or any of the passengers. Police didn’t issue any citations. “It was snowing, and the roads were very slippery,” according to police.

Shortly after that, Walden Miranda of Lynn crashed into the rear bumper of an MBTA bus at 285 Lafayette St. The bus was picking up passengers at the time, but there were no reported injuries. The Maxima sustained damage to its front grill and bumper, and the bus had minor unspecified damage.
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November 26, 2012

Holiday Travel Car Safety

by Altman & Altman

As Thanksgiving weekend comes to an end, so does one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, and New England roadways return to business as usual. An estimated 1.7 million people took to the roads in New England the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the days following the holiday proved to be as busy.

The busiest travel days in the Bay State occurred Wednesday and Sunday as major backups and minor accidents occurred. Traffic was heavy on Interstate 93 and the Mass Turnpike on Wednesday; on Thursday, holiday travelers were jammed in a thirteen mile backup on I-90. On Sunday, the intersecting point of Interstate 84 and Interstate 90 proved to be the source of the most traffic during the day.

Two minor car accidents occurred on the Mass Pike this Sunday as well as many similar accidents throughout the weekend. The accidents caused prolonged backups for a major part of the day. No major accidents were reported. Authorities in Connecticut reported that two people had died on the state’s roadways.
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November 24, 2012

Women Surpass Men in Holding Licenses, Impacting Car Accident and Safety Statistics

by Altman & Altman

For the first time in American history, women drivers now exceed the amount of licensed drivers in the United States over men. The news came after a study by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, which viewed gender trends in drivers licenses between 1995 and 2010, released its results. This reverses a long time gap between male and female drivers, dating all the way back to Henry Ford’s first Model T.

During the early twentieth century, women drivers were a minority and were ridiculed by men for driving. The trend continued in the Eisenhower era when only half of women eligible for drivers licenses held them; they were mostly expected to play the role of “homemakers” and raise families. As women started to enter the workforce and the idea of “women’s liberation” began to gain popularity, women started to drive more. By 1995, the number of women who obtained driver’s licenses were only slightly behind men, and in 2010, the trend finally reversed itself.
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November 9, 2012

Fall Nor’easter Endangers Roadways

by Altman & Altman

Drivers in the Bay State, still recovered from last week’s hurricane, endured a strong Nor’easter that wreaked havoc on the roads, resulting in flooded and icy conditions. The storm left a total of nine inches of snow in Massachusetts, although many places received a mixture of rain and snow. It also produced strong wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour on the Cape and Islands and up to 50 miles per hour in Boston. The extreme weather amounted to a perfect storm of dangerous road conditions.

State police reported a number of spinouts and accidents on major roadways, which were compounded by heavy traffic delays. An accident that occurred Wednesday on Route 28 in Bourne resulted in the fatality of a Rhode Island man after his car hydroplaned and struck a utility pole. Bourne and State police responded to the crash, and it remains under investigation.
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November 7, 2012

Commonwealth Votes Yes on ‘Right to Repair’

by Altman & Altman

In Tuesday’s election, voters in the Commonwealth overwhelmingly voted to pass question number one, the “Right to Repair” ballot question. Boston.com reports that 85 percent of voters approved the question with 98 percent of the votes counted at 2pm on Wednesday. Question number one passed with the highest margins of the three 2012 Massachusetts election ballot questions.

The new law requires that, by 2015, automakers must provide dealers and repair shops access to software codes and information which make the diagnosis and car repair easier for them.

According to the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, William Francis Galvin, the law will not force any manufacturer to reveal trade secrets and also will not interfere with any agreements made by the manufacturer, dealer or authorized repair facility. Any violation of the law will be treated as a violation of state consumer protection and unfair trade practices.
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September 10, 2012

Car crash destroys the front of nearly 300 year old Marshfield Home

by Altman & Altman

Brian and Patty MacKinnon will attest to the infamous perils of the length of road on South River Street that bends around a cranberry bog. Vehicular accidents have been occurring there frequently enough now to no longer surprise the Marshfield residents. Over the past three winters, the MacKinnons have lost three fences to cars sliding off the pavement and into their front yard.

And now the family two doors down from the MacKinnons, the Thayers, have their own tale of motor mayhem to share. Clifton and Dorothy Thayer, along with their son, Jonathan, were displaced from their home on an early Saturday, September 8, 2012, at around 2:47am. They were awakened to the roar of a young man and his car smashing into the left side of the house at the corner next to the roadway. The collision caused so much structural damage to the home, built in 1725, that officials declared it uninhabitable. Fire Captain Louis Cipullo described the destruction of the house as extensive and, by Sunday, the front of the residence was being held up by braces. Thankfully, the Thayers were asleep upstairs at the time of the accident, so none of them was injured.

The American Red Cross provided the Thayers with housing and emergency funds. Neighbors have said that they have been staying in Brockton and Weymouth, amongst other locations. When the MacKinnons were stirred by the crash they immediately called 911. Brian MacKinnon described the noise as a “thunderclap” and impossible to ignore. The driver sustained minor injuries but was up and on his feet though visibly upset over the incident.
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September 10, 2012

Second wrong-way driver of the weekend causes another collision

by Altman & Altman

This past Sunday morning, September 9, 2012, at approximately 5:35am, a Roxbury resident was killed in a car accident at the entrance of the O’Neill tunnel in Boston. What makes this incident more unusual than a typical vehicular tragedy is that the deceased man, Idefonos Barros, was driving down the wrong way of Interstate 95, and that this was the second incident of wrong-way driving on a Massachusetts highway just this weekend.

State Police are continuing their investigation as to what caused the three-way collision. Barros was driving a 1999 Dodge Dakota south on 93 North toward the O’Neill tunnel’s entrance when he collided into a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder, according to Renee Nadeau Algarin, the deputy press secretary for the Suffolk County’s District Attorney’s office. Algarin also stated that after the initial collision, the Nissan spun out of control and struck the left side barrier. Before the collision occurred, State Police received at least one phone call about a wrong-way driver and immediately launched a search for the vehicle.

Sadly, the police were too late to catch up with Barros. And during the time when reports of the incident were first surfacing, it was unknown whether Barros was ejected from his car because of the crash or if passing drivers helped him out of his vehicle. He was eventually taken to Tufts Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Firefighters removed a 45-year old woman from the Nissan Pathfinder. She was also taken to Tufts Medical Center though her injuries were not a threat to her life. Both drivers appeared to be wearing their seatbelts. There was no indication of drugs or alcohol playing a role in the crash. And the third driver whose Ford Eagle collided with the pile-up was fortunate enough to walk away without any injuries.
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