Car Accident Attorney Blog Bellingham

September 15-21, 2019 is Child Passenger Safety Week

September 15-21, 2019 is Child Passenger Safety Week and September 21, 2019 is National Seat Check Saturday. Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Ad Council, the organizations have launched a new series of public service ads (PSAs) that remind parents and caregivers to protect their child’s safety at every stage of life from infant to teen, by making sure they secure them in the appropriate car seat for their age, height, and weight. The ads created for Child Passenger Safety week link to a page that helps parents identify the safest seat for their child.

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8 Washington State Motorcycle Laws All Riders Must Follow

Motorcycle laws are in place to keep both riders and drivers safe on the roads. Washington State has eight important motorcycle laws that every rider must follow and it’s in their interest to do so. If a rider is involved in a motorcycle accident, he or she will have a harder time collecting a settlement for their injuries if they were breaking a law at the time of the crash.

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Is Lane Splitting on a Motorcycle Legal in Washington State?

Motorcycle riders are sometimes tempted to move through heavy traffic more quickly by lane splitting. Lane splitting is when a bicycle or motorcycle rider rides their bike in the same direction as the flow of traffic but between lanes or rows when traffic is moving slowly or stopped. Other names for lane splitting are white-lining, lane sharing, filtering or stripe-riding.

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How to Prevent a Blind Spot Motorcycle Accident

Summer is prime motorcycle season in the Pacific Northwest and that means more motorcycles interacting with trucks and cars on the roads. When motorcycle accidents happen between a car or truck and a motorcycle, motorcycle riders are much more vulnerable to injury and death because they don’t have the same type of protection. Blind spots are especially dangerous for motorcyclists because motorcycles are smaller and harder to see than passenger cars. When a passenger car or truck driver cannot see a motorcycle in their blind spot they may move into the space and cause a serious crash.

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Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Campaign

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is dedicated to stopping deadly driving behavior that contributes to the loss of thousands of lives every year. They are using the “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign during the week of August 16- September 2, 2019 to remind drivers that drunk driving is a deadly epidemic that takes the lives of more than 10,000 people each year.

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August 4-10, 2019 is Stop on Red Week

The National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) is partnering with organizations and communities across the country to raise awareness about the dangers of red-light running during National Stop on Red Week. Each day of this week focuses on different safety themes around red lights, useful statistics and information.

Running red lights is a common safety problem on our roads; a study of 19 intersections without red light cameras in four states found a violation rate of 3.2 per hour per intersection (Hill & Lindly, 2003). According to data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 890 people were killed in car crashes that involved red light running in 2017. An additional 132,000 people were injured by drivers running red lights that year.

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What is the Deadliest Date of the Year for US Car Accident Fatalities?

Thousands of people are killed in fatal car accidents every year. Data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows that there were 34,247 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2017; killing a total of 37,133 people.

Fatality rates vary dramatically from the season to season and even from day to day. If you had to guess the deadliest date of the year for car crashes, you would probably pick a holiday associated with drinking or a date in the winter date because of the risk for bad road conditions. Most people would be shocked to know that a date in August was identified as the deadliest for car accidents in a study completed by the IIHS. Data gathered between 2012 and 2016 identifies August 2^nd (yes, today!) as the date with the highest US car accident fatality rate; 505 people were killed on that date during this period and overall August accounted for 15,914 deaths.

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Top 9 Most Dangerous Intersections in Bellingham

The risk for car accidents increases at intersections because cars are traveling in opposite and intersecting directions on two or more roads. In Bellingham, there are nine intersections that stand out for being the site of the most car accidents each year. According to an article on the Bellinghamherald.com, Bellingham police received reports of 1,350 accidents within city limits between January, 2016 and June, 2017.

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Keystone Announces Fifth Wheel Recall of Model Year 2019-2020 Dutchmen Voltage Trailers

Keystone RV Company has announced that it is recalling 79 Dutchmen Voltage trailers, (model-year 2019-2020, model 4185) due to the possibility that the wrong fifth wheel pin box hitch was installed. An 18,000 lb.-capacity fifth wheel pin box hitch may have been installed instead of the specified 21,000 lb-capacity pin box hitch. The danger is that if a vehicle were loaded to a weight more than 18,000 pounds, the pin box could fail which increases the risk of crash.

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Do Bike Lanes Reduce Bike Accidents?

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Active Transportation Annual Safety Report, Washington pedestrian and bicycle deaths doubled over four years between 2013 and 2017. This amounted to 60 deaths in 2013 and 122 in 2017 (pedestrians shouldered most of the increase in fatalities). Pedestrian and bicycle accident injuries went up 31 percent during these years, from 351 in 2013 to 461 in 2017.

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