St. Louis Personal Injury Blog

When a driver is paying attention to their phone rather than St. Louis traffic, they typically do not react as their vehicle closes in on another vehicle or pedestrian. After all, they are looking at what’s on their electronic device, not the impending collision. So the results of a new study make perfect sense: researchers have found that crashes caused by distracted drivers are more likely to result in severe injuries and fatalities than other motor vehicle wrecks.

The study by researchers at the Risk Institute at Ohio State University say the risks of severe injury or death in distracted driving crashes are enhanced in rear-end collisions and wrecks on interstate highways and in road construction zones.

Decades of safety research, regulation and innovation have helped to make automobiles safer today than ever. Despite rapid advances in technology, we must still face the reality that motor vehicle crashes resulting in injuries and sometimes fatalities happen every day in St. Louis.

Though automakers tout new safety features in their vehicles each year, consumers often overlook one important aspect of staying safe when driving around town in a new car, pick-up or SUV: the newness of the vehicle can itself hinder your ability to avoid accidents.

Prior to the rise of ride-sharing services in St. Louis and other major U.S. cities, traffic fatalities were at the lowest point in more than 50 years. But the emergence of Uber and Lyft might have contributed to an increase in fatal car crashes in cities where the services operate, authors of a new study have said.

Researchers from the University of Chicago and Rice University said that the data shows that in the eight years since Uber and Lyft began aggressively expanding, there has been a significant increase in traffic fatalities.

There has been an almost endless stream of heated back-and-forth in national media over the upcoming midterm elections. Sometimes overlooked in all the fury is the fact that Missouri voters will have three different medical marijuana proposals on their November ballots.

New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute will give voters something to ponder: car wrecks in states where recreational weed has been legalized are up 6 percent.