Illinois Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

One personal phone call made the difference for two air traffic controllers who are being removed from duty as a result. The AP reports, “the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statements Thursday that the controller at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and his supervisor have been placed on administrative leave because the controller was involved in ‘apparently inappropriate conversations’ at the time of the [midair] crash between a small plane and a tour helicopter that killed nine people” (Joan Lowy, FindLaw News 8/14).

Although officials have said that the phone call probably had no impact on the tragic crash, it exposed several flaws in the air traffic control room including that the supervisor was not in the room as required, and other "unacceptable conduct" including talking on the phone while controlling aircraft.

Air Traffic Controllers are expected to be alert at all times, and are given a short break approximately every two hours for this reason. There is a lot that is at stake if they do not perform their job satisfactorily, and as a personal injury lawyer I am hopeful that this tragic situation will serve as an impetus for more careful air traffic controlling.

Christopher Jensen writes for the New York Times’ Blog Wheels, “Volkswagen is recalling 13,500 of its 2009 and a few 2010 models because of a problem with its fast-shifting DSG automatic transmission. The vehicles covered are the Jetta, Jetta SportWagen, GTI, and Eos built between September 2008 and August 2009 (8/21).

“A small number of these may be affected by a faulty temperature sensor in the DSG transmission,” Volkswagen said Thursday. “Failure of the temperature sensor could result in illuminated warning lamps in the dashboard, and in rare instances the transmission may shift into neutral.” This statement followed the July investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after consumers complained about a loss of power while driving.

As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I strongly encourage all vehicle owners to keep up to date on vehicle recalls and to act immediately if a recalls affects your vehicle. Although some recalls are more serious than others, not acting quickly and taking care of a known problem can have very serious consequences. Under federal law, recall repairs must be done by the automaker at no cost to the owner. For more information or to report a safety problem visit the NHTSA site.

The latest recalls by the National Highway Safety Administration include the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon (Jensen, New York Times, 8/7). The possibility that “break lights may not illuminate – or stay on all the time – has prompted General Motors to recall almost 186,000 vehicles in states with many days of hot weather.” The break function, however, has not been affected.

2004-9 models of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pick up trucks are being recalled. In addition, the sibling vehicles, including the 2006 Isuzu i-280 and i-350 and the 2007-8 i-290 and i-370 are also being recalled.

This recall is not nationwide and GMC said it was recalling only vehicles sold or registered in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Caroline, Texas, Utah, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As a personal injury lawyer I encourage all owners of these vehicles to go to a repair shop for a free maintenance visit to fix the recalled issue, as federal law requires that these repairs be done at no charge to the car owner. It is very important to stay on stop of vehicle safety and take advantage of recall repairs.

Tanya Mohn reports on “a new study [that] has found that most older drivers were unaware of the potentially dangerous impact of medications on driving performance” (New York Times, 8/11). According to the report released by the AAA Foundations for Traffic Safety, “78 percent of respondents used one or more medications, yet just more than one in four were aware of the possible dangers of driving while on medications.“

With the aging population and increasing prevalence of medications, the risks are real. Both proscribing physicians and older drivers should be responsible for monitoring such risks. To help educate people about the dangers of driving while medicated, the AAA Foundations plans to release Roadwise RX early next year – “a free web-based resource intended to help raising awareness about driving risks related to the use of medications. The program will allow older drivers to enter individual medications or combinations of medications, and through a search function, gain access to information.”

As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I am concerned by the study, but encouraged by the AAA Foundation’s quick response to the results. Both patients and physicians need to make sure all necessary precautions are taken while operating a motor vehicle under the influence of prescriptions drugs.