The City of Chicago monitors traffic safety patterns within the metropolis and reports online about several things considered to be dangers or hazards to those driving or riding on our roadways. The Chicago Department of Transportation (“CDOT”) also publishes its “Traffic Crashes Annual Report,” which is available for free online. The goal of the CDOT is “…protecting the safety of every person on the street from traffic violence. To fulfill this commitment, we are transforming streets citywide to prioritize safety.”
One of the key issues facing Chicagoans according to CDOT research is the problem of reckless driving. According to CDOT data, “86% of traffic fatalities involved reckless or egregious driving behavior.”
For more, read: Traffic Fatalities in Chicagoland: High Risk of Deadly Chicago Car Crash.
What Is Reckless Driving?
Reckless driving involves many things. CDOT explains that reckless or egregious driving includes drivers doing several risky or dangerous behaviors, including the following:
- running red lights;
- running stop signs;
- wild maneuvers across lanes;
- wild maneuvers around turns;
- wrong-way driving; and
- jumping curbs.
Of note, two-thirds of the traffic deaths in the Chicago area are confirmed to involve drivers operating their motor vehicles at high speeds. CDOT points out that speeding is a common denominator in most reckless driving situations.
For more on speeding, read: Speeding Causes Almost Half of All Fatal Car Crashes in Illinois (Around 25% in Indiana) and Speeding Kills: Driving Over the Speed Limit Still Causes Too Many Fatal Crashes in Indiana and Illinois.
How Reckless Drivers Cause Serious Or Deadly Road Work Accidents
Safety agencies and advocates for accident victims and their loved ones can learn a great deal about the dangers facing anyone in a Chicago Road Work Zone by studying the data prepared by the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (“CFOI”) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor. The CFOI reports on highway worker fatalities at road construction sites across the country and can be reviewed in studies published by the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse.
A “road construction site” is defined as a location of construction, maintenance, and utility work on a road, street, or highway. CFOI data confirms that over half (51.7%) of our road construction workers are killed in accidents on the work site, where they are struck by a motor vehicle while on the job.
Of particular concern is the warning that the number of highway worker fatalities where the worker is on foot and killed after being struck by a motor vehicle is steadily rising in this country. In 2022, the latest reporting year, it reached the highest fatality rate in the past ten years.
It is not debatable that reckless driving when entering or moving through a road work zone can kill the worker who is vulnerable to a driver doing any one of a number of reckless things, such as:
- Failing to comply with warning signs they are entering a work zone
- Failing to comply with warning signs to lower their speed
- Failing to slow down the vehicle to an appropriate speed for the zone itself
- Failing to be alert to dangers of the specific zone and its traffic pattern
- Not being ready to brake as needed in the zone
- Ignoring the warnings of any flagger in the work zone
- Hitting orange traffic cones
- Colliding with barrels or barriers
- Ignoring hazard of slick roads caused by rain, snow, or ice
- Colliding (rear-ending, etc.) with other vehicles in the work zone.
For more, read Workers Face Great Danger from Illinois Highway Road Work Construction Accidents and Fatal Road Work Zone Accidents in Indiana and Illinois.
Liability After Reckless Driver Road Work Crash
After a serious or deadly road work accident in Chicago, the worker victim and their loved ones may have several avenues for justice provided to them under Illinois law. Not only workers’ compensation but personal injury laws involving things like negligence; product liability; or premises liability may apply in the particular situation. Each case is different and deserves individual respect and investigation.
Reckless driving road work crashes may include claims against the following:
- Employer under Illinois’ workers’ compensation laws;
- Driver whose reckless driving caused the crash;
- Other drivers whose negligence contributed to the accident;
- Manufacturers of car parts involved in the crash;
- Those responsible for the repair or upkeep of the motor vehicles involved in the accident;
- Those who negligently entrusted the reckless driver with the vehicle; and
- Premises owners or landlords whose failures of upkeep or maintenance contributed to the crash.
Also read: Damages are Different: Workers Compensation vs. Third Party Personal Injury Claims; Wrongful Death Damages After Fatal Work Accidents in Illinois or Indiana; Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims; and Unrepaired Recalls in 25% of the Cars on Our Roads Today: Legal Duty of Manufacturer versus Owner of the Vehicle in a Fatal Car Crash.
Justice For Road Work Accidents Under Illinois Law
Work involving our Chicago roads, streets, routes, highways, and interstates is ongoing and intense. Most every driver in the Chicagoland area is well aware of all sorts of road work zones in their neighborhoods, communities, or travel paths.
Featured Capital Projects
- Bloomingdale Trail Extension
- CDOT Canal Projects
- Jackson Park Transportation Improvements
- North Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable Lake Shore Drive Phase I Study
Streetscapes
- 111th Streetscape Project, Homan to Sacramento
- 79th Street and Halsted Street Corridor Improvements
- Austin: Chicago Avenue Corridor Improvements
- Bronzeville: Corridor Improvements
- Catalpa Plaza: Clark to Ashland
- Clark Street, Devon Avenue to Arthur Avenue
- Division Street, Deaborn Street to State Street
- Fullerton Avenue Improvements, Narragansett Avenue to Lockwood Avenue
- Greater Englewood Corridor Improvements
- Humboldt Park: Chicago Ave Corridor Improvements
- Humboldt Park: North Ave Corridor Improvements
- Lawrence Avenue, Western Avenue to the Chicago River Streetscape
- Lincoln Avenue Streetscape and Plaza
- Lincoln Square Brown Line Area Improvements
- New City/Back of the Yards: 47th Street and Ashland Avenue Corridor Improvements
- North Lawndale: Ogden Avenue Corridor Improvements
- Pullman: 111th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue Improvements
- Roseland: South Michigan Avenue & 111th Street Corridor Improvements
- South Shore: 79th Street Corridor Improvements
- South Chicago: Commercial Avenue Corridor Improvements.
Accordingly, the risk of someone loved by family and friends going to work one morning on a Chicago road work project and suffering catastrophic or deadly injuries in a reckless driver road work accident is unacceptably high.
It is very vital that workers, their loved ones, and drivers moving along our roadways are aware of these dangers in the hopes that fatalities can be avoided. It is also important for any accident victims to know they have legal rights for redress under Illinois law. Please be careful out there!
