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The National Transportation Safety Board voted to recommend to states that they lower the blood-alcohol content that constitutes drunk driving.

Currently, all 50 states have set a BAC level of .08, reflecting the percentage of alcohol, by volume, in the blood. If a driver is found to have a BAC level of .08 or above, he or she is subject to arrest and prosecution.

The NTSB recommends dropping that to a BAC level of .05.

Each year, nearly 10,000 people die in alcohol-related traffic accidents and 170,000 are injured, according to the NTSB. While that’s a big improvement from the 20,000 who died in alcohol-related accidents 30 years ago, it remains a consistent threat to public safety. Studies show that each year, roughly 4 million people admit to driving while under the influence of alcohol.

The recommendation prompted immediate criticism from restaurant trade groups. “This recommendation is ludicrous,” said Sarah Longwell, managing director of American Beverage Institute. “Moving from 0.08 to 0.05 would criminalize perfectly responsible behavior. Other comments included: “Further restricting the moderate consumption of alcohol by responsible adults prior to driving does nothing to stop hardcore drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel.”

The United States, Canada and Iraq are among a small handful of countries that have set the BAC level at .08. Most countries in Europe, including Russia, most of South America and Australia, have set BAC levels at .05 to constitute drunken driving. The lowering of blood-alcohol levels to .05 has worked where it’s been tried. When Australia dropped its BAC level from .08 to .05, provinces reported a 5-18 percent drop in traffic fatalities.

Even the lowered levels have been shown to cause drivers’ impairment. The NTSB reports that at .05 BAC, some drivers begin having difficulties with depth perception and other visual functions. At .07, cognitive abilities become impaired. At .05 BAC, the risk of having an accident increases by 39 percent. At .08 BAC, the risk of having an accident increases by more than 100 percent.

The NTSB believes that if all 50 states changed their standard to .05, nearly 1,000 lives could be saved each year. It is also considering other steps to help bring down the death rates on America’s roads.

The NTSB is an investigative agency that advocates on behalf of safety issues. It has no legal authority to order any change to state or federal law. It would be up to individual states whether to accept the NTSB’s recommendation, and up to the Department of Transportation whether to endorse the recommendations.

The last move from .10 to .08 BAC levels took 21 years for each state to implement.

If you or someone you know was injured in an alcohol or drug-related accident, the lawyers at Lane Brown, LLC will work with you as a team help you recover. Please contact us by calling Lane Brown at 312-332-1400, or on our website, at lanebrownlaw.com. We can help!

Food allergies can result in serious and even deadly injuries if ignored. Recently, as a result of a recent settlement between the federal Department of Justice and Lesley University in Massachusetts, students with serious food allergies may now qualify for accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. By applying ADA to food allergies, the Department of Justice has turned food into an access issue… access to an education in this case. This decision will likely impact both higher education as well as the primary and secondary levels. The Lesley University case involved a student who had celiac disease, and because of that, required a gluten-free diet. This was not available as part of the mandatory meal plan that the University required the student to participate in. The Department of Justice responded to a complaint from the student, entered into a settlement with the university in which Lesley University agreed to make dietary accommodations for students with special dietary needs. The implications of this settlement are likely to be far reaching and require significant changes for all levels of education in order to avoid charges of discrimination against students with special dietary needs.

Foods which are mislabeled, restaurants which ignore customers’ requests for food information because of allergies and other vendors may negligently cause catastrophic, and completely avoidable, injuries to consumers by failing to take known allergic sensitivities into account.

If you or a loved one has suffered serious injuries as a result of food product mislabeling or misrepresentations, you may be able to take action. Please contact the attorneys of Lane Brown, LLC, or call us at 312-332-1400 to speak with us about your options. We can help. To learn more about Lane Brown, please visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.

When asked if they would consider driving at or above the adult legal limit of .08 for blood alcohol, teens almost always say they would not.

But when asked if they would consider texting or talking on the cell phone while driving, many honestly say they would. Studies indicating that the risk of an accident is similar for talking on a cell phone and driving at the .08 limit are eye-opening for many teens.

If you or a loved one has suffered personal injuries as a result of the negligence of a drunk driver or a distracted driver, you may be able to take action. Please contact the attorneys of Lane Brown, LLC, or call us at 312-332-1400 to speak with us about your options. We can help. To learn more about Lane Brown, please visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.

The AP (4/11, Kageyama) reports, “Toyota, Honda and Nissan are recalling more than 2 million vehicles globally for an identical problem with air bags on the passenger side whose inflator may burst, sending plastic pieces flying.” The AP notes that “the recall for air bags made by Japan’s Takata Corp. affects other automakers including non-Japanese manufacturers, and may be as many as 3 million vehicles, Takata spokesman Akiko Watanabe said Thursday.” The AP notes that “a worker forgot to turn on the switch for a system weeding out defective products and parts were improperly stored, which exposed them to humidity, according to Honda spokeswoman Akemi Ando.”
CNN Money (4/11, Riley, Wakatsuki) also reports that “Honda said it was aware of one crash in which a passenger front airbag casing had ruptured after being deployed with too much pressure” but is not aware of any injuries or deaths resulting from the defect. Meanwhile, “Toyota said it had reports of five airbag malfunctions, but no injuries.”

Accidents involving cars, trucks, and motorcycles can result in serious personal injuries to drivers, passengers and pedestrians. The Chicago law firm of Lane Brown, LLC practices in personal-injury lawsuits resulting from vehicle accidents. If you, your family or other loved one has been injured, please contact Lane Brown, LLC. We can help.

The National Law Journal (4/2, Bronstad) reports, “A lawsuit filed against Ford Motor Co. on behalf of consumers alleging economic damages tied to sudden acceleration comes months after Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay more than $1 billion in cash and repair costs to resolve similar claims.” The Journal continues, “The suit, filed on March 28, asserts that Ford, despite receiving hundreds of reports of electronics defects tied to sudden acceleration, failed to install brake override systems in some North American vehicles until 2010, even though it knew about problems as early as 2002. As a result, the cars manufactured during that interval put drivers in an ‘unreasonably dangerous’ situation, the suit says.”

If you or a loved one have suffered a severe injury, the law offices of Lane Brown, LLC can help you. Please contact us or call now (312) 332-1400 for an immediate consultation with an injury attorney in Chicago, Illinois.

If you suspect a manufacturing or design defect caused your auto accident and serious injury, we invite you to contact our office. A lawyer with experience in defective equipment claims will provide a free consultation and case review.

A jury in Los Angeles last Friday awarded $8.3 million to a man who accused a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson of knowingly marketing a faulty hip implant that was later recalled. It was the first of approximately 10,000 lawsuits which have already been brought, with many more sure to come throughout at least the United States. The basis for the cases is its design which places metal on metal components in a way that can cause metal poisoning and other health issues. The Wall Street Journal noted that, in a statement issued after Friday’s ruling, DePuy spokesperson Lorie Gawreluk said the company maintains that the ASR XL hip implants were not designed defectively and it is planing to appeal the decision, based on the results of post-trial motions. The jurors who heard the case, however, clearly disagreed. After the verdict, one juror reportedly stated that he “wanted punitive damages”, citing “evidence that DePuy took too long to correct problems found with the device.” In August, 2010, Johnson & Johnson is reported to have recalled 93,000 of the implants, when it said 12 percent failed within five years. Meanwhile, analysts are projecting that overall, lawsuits over the device “could cost J&J billions of dollars to resolve.” For more information about our firm, and how you can take action for your injuries, please contact us at 312-332-1400 or visit our website at lanebrownlaw.com.