Denver Car Accident Law Blog

Safety officials and bike dealerships across the country, including in Colorado, are reporting increased motorcycle sales over prior years and more riders on the roads. The reasons for that are several, including the early arrival of spring throughout much of the country and the rising cost of gas, which makes operating a passenger vehicle problematic for many people.

That's kind of a double-edged sword: Although motorcycles spell freedom and cheaper transportation to rising numbers of riders, more bikes on streets and highways leads directly to more motorcycle accidents and crash injuries, many of them fatal.

Doctors performing physical examinations on commercial truck and bus drivers must now be trained, certified and listed on a national registry by 2014 in order to continue issuing driver medical cards, according to an announcement made recently by the U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood. The new requirement for medical examiners could help lower the number of truck accidents involving commercial drivers.

In addition, a national database of trained, tested and certified examiners will be created who hold the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's certificate. An examiner must possess that certificate in good standing to be able to determine whether a commercial driver has the physical qualifications required to operate an interstate commercial vehicle, including in Denver and the surrounding Colorado area.

After Rutgers defensive player Eric LeGrand sustained a serious spinal cord injury in a college football game in October 2010, doctors told him he would likely be a quadriplegic and need a ventilator to breathe for the remainder of his life.

They were wrong.

LeGrand eventually became able to breathe on his own and, with some assistance, stand upright, even though he broke two vertebrae in a collision during that game.

Technology developers recently announced that they are creating new devices that are capable of virtually eliminating car accidents. Although the new devices will be available to Colorado drivers in the near future, it may take up to 10 years for all vehicles to carry the wireless car crash prevention device.

The new devices work by emitting a wireless signal that is capable of gathering information about other vehicles on the highway, such as speed and location. Theoretically, if all vehicles were equipped with the device, they would be able to "talk" to one another and warn drivers of potential safety threats.

The two-year anniversary of a tragic pedestrian accident in Portland, Oregon, passed early last week, serving as a tragic reminder of the occasionally fatal outcomes for pedestrians in accidents involving negligence across the United States, including in Colorado.

That accident understandably received wide media attention across the country, and it is again in the news, this time, as noted by a surviving member of one of the pedestrians killed, as "a party, a celebration of lives taken from us."

Tough standards are being proposed for truckers to undergo sleep apnea evaluations in order to identify the medical condition that could cause a driver to become drowsy and cause a truck accident. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is accepting the recommendations of two advisory boards, The Medical Review Board and the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. The new recommendations include that drivers with a body mass index of more than 35 undergo routine testing for sleep apnea.

The concept of a brake-override system to provide protection against a vehicle's sudden acceleration and resulting car accident due to either a problem with its electronic system or what auto industry insiders call "floor mat entrapment" is fast moving toward a universal reality in the United States.

The regulatory push for override-protection systems in all passenger vehicles first began to emerge and gain traction following Toyota's much publicized problems with sudden unintended acceleration in some of its vehicles a few years back.

Many owners struggle to properly install child safety seats in vehicles because the design of most passenger seats does not accommodate child seats very well, according to research produced by an insurance industry group. The findings are sure to be alarming to many parents who rely on these child safety seats to protect their children in the event of a car accident.

According to the research, which was conducted in partnership between the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, only 21 or the 98 top-selling vehicle models from 2010 and 2011 have seat designs that accommodate child safety seats and make them easy to install.