The U.S. Department of Transportation announced this week that nearly half of the nation’s 16,000 truck driving schools may not be complying with federal safety requirements. This revelation has significant implications for road safety and anyone who has been injured in a commercial truck crash.

According to the federal review reported by the Chicago Tribune, approximately 3,000 trucking schools may have their certifications revoked in early 2026 unless they can demonstrate compliance with training standards. An additional 4,500 schools have been warned they may face ...

On June 12, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, an aircraft widely praised for its safety, became a danger to its passengers and those on the ground. Despite what began as a textbook takeoff and an experienced pilot with over 8,000 flight hours at the controls, the aircraft suddenly lost altitude, caught fire and crashed into residential buildings below.

Of the 242 people on board, only one person survived.

Now, investigators and aviation experts are looking into a concerning possibility: that the aircraft may have failed mechanically.

What We Know So Far

The 11-year-old aircraft ...

Train crossings built for much slower trains

The Southern Transcon line of train tracks, where the deadly Amtrak derailment happened on June 27, 2022, was completed in 1908. Trains of that early 20th Century era travelled at approximately 40-60 miles per hour, so people who needed to drive across in rural locations had a reasonable amount of time to see the train approaching and cross safely - even if they were driving heavy, slow farm equipment. Fast forward a hundred years, and trains travel at increasingly faster speeds due to technology and the human need for speed, yet rural ...

In 2019, more than 36,000 people died in motor vehicle collisions in the United States. Then, in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shut the country down and dramatically changed people’s daily lives for the better part of 2 years. While Americans drove less in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)  estimates that fatalities from motor vehicle collisions are increasing at a rate not seen since World War II ended.

Between the late 1960s and 2019, fatalities from motor vehicle collisions had been falling ...

Low-income victims of automobile collisions rely on Medicaid to cover their medical bills. But what happens when the hospitals and doctors who provide these victims medical care never send the bills to Medicaid? What happens when medical providers try to profit from their misfortune rather than submit the bills to Medicaid, even when the victims provide their Medicaid cards? What happens when the hospitals refuse repeated requests to do so?

Rather than billing Medicaid, unethical hospitals and doctors deliberately bypass Medicaid and place a lien, an interest over an asset or ...

On December 29, 2020, American Airlines passengers bravely boarded a scheduled flight from Miami to New York on a Boeing 737 MAX 8. This was the first time in 21 months that the MAX 8 had flown passengers in the U.S., paving the way for more flights — and more passengers — to be carried on the jet. By the end of February, it is estimated that nearly 100 daily flights in the United States will be flown by the MAX 8, with United, Southwest, and Alaska also resuming service in the first quarter of the year.1 Soon, it will be harder to avoid the MAX 8.

Since the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was grounded in March 2019 ...

The cost of the tragic 737 MAX continues to increase, with Boeing bleeding money to get it back in the air. Beyond dollars, Boeing has lost consumers’ confidence, who will forever be wary of putting themselves or their loved ones on a 737 MAX, regardless of how safe the company claims it is. 

Boeing CEO David L. Calhoun needs to simply stop. Focus efforts on repairing your corporate culture, which, according to recent memos, is at best broken and, at worst, corrupt. Go back to go forward. Earlier 737 models have a solid safety record, which businesses, individuals and economies around the ...

A new study from the Booth School at the University of Chicago estimates that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have become significant contributors to the rise in fatal traffic accidents. They are not only increasing street congestion and hurting transit companies, but are also killing people.

An article from Streetsblog notes that the increase in congestion is partly due to drivers spending 40 to 60 percent of their time circling without passengers, known as “deadheading.” Uber and Lyft have increased traffic deaths by 2-3 percent nationally, which is 1,100 ...

On July 22, the Chicago Tribune reported that a small experimental plane crashed near Chicago’s lakefront on the Southeast Side. Fortunately, the pilot – who lives in St. Joseph, Mich. – was able to stand and talk to emergency crews after the accident.

The pilot had taken off from Oshkosh, Wis., and was headed to Benton Harbor, Mich., when the crash occurred. He suffered head injuries and was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair condition. No one else was in the aircraft, which was intact and lying upside down in a marsh.

According to the Federal Aviation ...

Supposedly a sport where the whole family can enjoy the thrill of zipping along in their all-terrain vehicles, ATV rides can instead turn from fun and togetherness into nightmares of injury and death.

MSNBC recently posted a video describing the fatal ride of a 14-year-old boy who died following an accident on an ATV that weighed 700 pounds.

The report cited these numbers: “In 2010, at least 55 kids younger than 16 were killed in ATV accidents. More than 28,000 were seriously injured, leading the American Academy of Pediatrics to warn... ATVs are dangerous to children, and the ...

The SUV is packed. Inner tubes, water wings, beach towels, and other equipment to guarantee fun in the sun and water are stowed. All riders are strapped in their seat belts. Accidents and injuries are the furthest thing from your mind.

We hate to spoil this idyllic picture, but are impelled to share these sobering statistics: According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), “a projection of traffic fatalities in 2011 shows that of an estimated 32,310 people who died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2011, the largest number – 8,970 – occurred during the July-August ...

Anthony Cutrano’s untimely death is a tragedy. The 52-year-old Palos Heights resident co-founded the Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run and helped create a memorial wall dedicated to military personnel killed in the Middle East conflicts. Cutrano, who for the past ten years had dedicated himself to raising awareness of the contributions of U.S. armed forces, died of injuries from a motorcycle crash in Grundy County. He lost control of his Harley-Davidson on a curved incline.

According to a Chicago Tribune article on May 28, Cutrano was not wearing a helmet when he was thrown off ...

Your cruise ship contract could be taking you for a ride. While most cruises are safe and pleasantly memorable ones, there are cases where passengers have suffered injuries and even death, such as the Costa Concordia shipwreck on January 13.

Many passengers on that boat ride are just now beginning to realize that there was a legal structure in place that shelters cruise operators from big-money lawsuits. The situation gets more complicated in remote jurisdictions. The Costa Concordia, a subsidiary of industry giant Carnival Corp., is located in Italy.

Many cruise ship passengers ...

The meter is ticking on Chicago’s dangerous taxi drivers. Come this summer, taxicab companies that allow careless drivers to use their vehicles will be held more accountable. Hopefully, the move will prevent taxicab accidents that could lead to serious injuries and even death.

The Emanuel administration is focusing on a new ordinance that they say will be easier to enforce than the current one. It will hold cab companies accountable for repeat offenders.

Imagine this: a taxicab driver who has been cited by city regulators 46 times in five years and found liable in 33 cases, yet he is ...

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report on February 14, 2012, finding a Canadian railroad at fault for a train derailment in 2009 near Rockford, Illinois, that led to a woman’s death.

In the report, the Canadian National Railway was cited for its “inadequate emergency communication procedures,” which prevented it from notifying one of its trains about a track washout. The train derailed, causing 19 of its ethanol-laden tank cars to slide off the tracks and explode. A Rockford woman who was in a car nearby died, and her pregnant daughter lost her unborn child.

The ...

Each year, trucking accidents kill or seriously injure thousands of unsuspecting motorists. Every day, there are an estimated 90 people in the U.S. who are killed or injured in a trucking accident.

Accidents involving big rigs happen for many reasons, including driver fatigue, tailgating, careless driving, speeding or faulty equipment. The victims typically are the drivers of cars, motorcycles, and other smaller vehicles that weren’t built to withstand a serious brush with large trucks.  Ironically, many of the truck drivers end up walking away without a scratch, while the ...

We all know that skiing, sledding and skating are fun, healthy winter sports, but they have the potential to cause severe personal injuries unless proper safety precautions are practiced. Common injuries from falls include sprains and muscle strains, dislocations, fractures and even brain injuries.

The U.S. Product Safety Commission reports that in 2010, more than 440,000 people were treated in hospitals, doctors’ offices and emergency rooms for winter sports-related injuries.

Snow-skiing and snowboarding injuries accounted for the most injuries. Sledding and ...

We believe no one should be the victim of a wrongful death, serious brain injury or bodily injury because motorists can’t stay off their cell phones when driving. Yet, that is exactly what is happening at an alarming rate.

In 2010, more than 3,000 people were killed, and thousands more were seriously injured, in distracted driving car crashes because drivers were talking or texting on their wireless electronic devices.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s latest recommendation is that all drivers nationwide should be banned from using cell phones when ...

As the number of urban kayakers on the Chicago River continues to grow, we join those who have expressed concern about safety issues and urge kayakers, whether renting or owning, to take precautions to avoid injury.

The lack of “rules of the road” for kayakers is leading to some close calls, experts say. Given that kayaks are relatively small in size (12 feet long), kayakers can be knocked about by waves or choppy wakes left by large boats. If a kayak capsizes, it’s not always easy to get back on. And some express concern about the water quality, which may contain disease-causing ...

For most 15-year-olds, driver’s education classes are an exciting rite of passage where they get to put all the Illinois Rules of the Road classroom knowledge into practice behind the wheel. But car safety issues are compromising most Chicago-area driver’s ed programs, according to a Chicago Tribune story.

In Chicago, public school students practice their driving skills in what the Tribune calls “some of the oldest and worst-rated driver’s education cars in the state.”  Safety ratings of the cars students learn to drive in vary dramatically. Crash-test ratings for the ...

If you’re ever injured in a car accident, you have a better chance of receiving restitution for your injuries, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling late last week, and Chicago personal injury firm Romanucci & Blandin applauds the ruling.

The court held that a federal regulation that gives carmakers the option of installing either lap belts or lap-and-shoulder belts in rear-inner seats does not preempt state law.

In reaching this result, and by correcting the misreading of a previous case, the court has deprived car manufacturers of one of their most readily used defenses to ...

Biking along Chicago’s 18-mile lakefront bike trail may be fun, but it leads to frequent accidents and injuries, according to a story in the Chicago Sun-Times (August 9, 2009). The bike path, while great, is sometimes so crowded that it’s hazardous. People collide and swerve to avoid hitting rough patches. Chicago lifeguards reported 126 wipeouts between 2002 and 2008.

Wearing a helmet doesn’t ensure safety. A biker quoted in the story was wearing a helmet when he swerved to avoid a pedestrian. Without the helmet, doctors say he would have died. He lay in a coma for a week, needed ...

In the first runway incursion incident, a commuter jet narrowly missed a general aviation aircraft during a nighttime landing at Fresno Yosemite International Airport in California.

In the second runway-incursion incident, a pilot of a general aviation aircraft landed on a closed runway at Reading Regional Airport/Carl A. Spaatz Field in Reading, Pennsylvania.

In the aircraft separation incident, two commercial jets came within 1 minute of lateral separation over the Atlantic Ocean in a non-radar environment where 15 minutes of lateral separation is required.

Romanucci & ...

If you have ever flown into Jackson Hole, Wyoming, you will be hard-pressed to find a prettier landscape to fly in and out of. After all, this is the only commercial airport in the United States that resides in a national park. Despite all of this, runway excursions are not immune.

As you know, Romanucci & Blandin has been very vocal about the safety of our skies—especially regarding our landings. Lately, there have been way too many incidents of overruns and excursions. The NTSB is investigating another such incident from Jackson Hole.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent two ...

On January 17, 2008, at 1243 hours, a British Airways Boeing 777-236ER landed short of Runway 27L at London Heathrow Airport. Work has continued on all fronts to identify why neither engine responded to throttle lever inputs during the final approach, according to the NTSB.

While the aircraft was stabilized on approach with the autopilot engaged, the autothrust system commanded an increase in thrust from both engines. Both engines initially responded, but after about 3 seconds, the right engine’s thrust decreased. Some eight seconds later, the thrust on the left engine was ...

Romanucci & Blandin has always been a strong advocate for aviation safety, not only in Chicago but all over the country. Our recent involvement in the Southwest Airlines runway incursion at Midway Airport has led to substantial safety upgrades at the airport, with many more safety features to come. However, there continues to be a lot of work in this ever-changing industry of expansion and retraction. Only yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board began investigating a runway incursion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in which two airliners may have come within 100 feet ...