Brooklyn Personal Injury Law Blog

Students at nine New York-area high schools have the opportunity to take part in a unique type of video game: a driving simulator complete with an irritating passenger who demands that the driver call her brother and send a text message for her.

While this may sound odd at first, the driving simulator has the lofty purpose of teaching teen drivers about the real dangers of distracted driving accidents. While they simulate driving, they must navigate the road amidst the chatter, text while driving and place a phone call.

The results can be distressing. The driving simulator has led test subjects into pretend accidents that are designed to show them the very real dangers of distracted driving.

Earlier this month, New York City experienced its tenth fatal bicycle accident. The 24-year-old Brooklyn man died after he ran a red light and was struck by an SUV.

According to Transportation Alternatives, the number of fatal bicycle-accidents appears to be on the decline in New York City. Last year, 18 bicyclists were killed in the city and just two years prior, in 2008, 26 bicyclists were killed.

The New York Daily News reported Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White as saying that in the last decade the number of personal injuries suffered by bicyclists has decreased, despite the fact that the number of bicyclists has increased.

Earlier this month 15 passengers were injured in when an MTA bus crashed into two other vehicles in the Bronx. The accident occurred when the bus made an unscheduled stop and struck a sports car and livery cab at the intersection of Third Avenue and 170^th Street.

One witness to the public transportation accident reported hearing a "boom" and then seeing bus passengers stumble off the bus as those in the nearby vicinity rushed to help. The 15 injured passengers were taken to a nearby hospital. Luckily none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.

Despite the economic downturn, recently a rather surprising statistic was announced, June ended with a decline in bankruptcy filings. This dip is welcomed news after a long stretch of the same old depressing economic downward spiral.

The drop in filed bankruptcies was a fairly impressive 6.2 percent drop from May, and an even better 10 percent decrease compared to June 2010. Bankruptcy filings in New York were down five percent. These figures seem to offer a glimmer of hope; some may begin thinking things may finally be looking up for the economy. According to experts, however, this optimistic view may be a slight jump of the gun.

Experts point out that although factors like unemployment and foreclosures may impact the rate of bankruptcies, bankruptcy filings seem to be most closely tied to consumer credit and debt. Therefore what may be driving the decline in bankruptcies is the fact that Americans had less access to credit the past few years and thus less debt to discharge. Now consumers are being given more credit, so consumers can use this additional credit to get them through rough financial times. In sum, the fact that fewer Americans filed for bankruptcy does not necessarily provide evidence that the economy is any healthier.