The California Office of Traffic Safety has released its annual seatbelt usage data for the state of California. While the rest of the state is buckling up like never before, the Los Angeles area seems to be lagging behind.

According to the data, overall seat belt usage rates in California are approximately 96.6%. That is a record for the Golden State, and an accomplishment that Los Angeles car accident lawyers are definitely proud of. After all, California's seatbelt usage rates are some of the highest in the country. More numbers of drivers who are buckled in safely simply mean more drivers who enjoy basic protection against severe injuries.

However, when it comes to the Los Angeles area, seatbelt usage rates decline to just about 95.6%. A 95% seatbelt usage rate may seem good enough, but the California Office of Traffic Safety doesn't think so. The agency has set a goal of requiring every person who gets into a car to buckle up. According to the agency, 100% seatbelt usage rates could result in as many as 1,000 lives being saved in accidents every year.

The need for Los Angeles motorists to wear seatbelts is even more severe now, because of the increased number of motorists on our streets. You need to buckle up every time you step into a car, but during the holiday season, when your risks of an accident are at their highest, it’s even more imperative that you and everyone else in your car wear safety restraints. It takes barely a couple of seconds to buckle up, but it could save your life. Even in moderate impact accidents, wearing a seatbelt dramatically reduces your risk of suffering serious injuries.

Most motorists in California are concerned about other motorists being distracted while driving, and specifically using cell phones while driving. According to a survey by the California Office of Traffic Safety, distracted driving is the number one traffic safety fear for most California drivers, much more than aggressive driving, speeding or drunk driving.

According to the survey, 39% of drivers cited distracted driving as a major safety problem on the roads. That was a dramatic increase from previous years. In 2010, drivers believed that speeding and aggressive driving were the biggest problems, with 22% of the drivers voicing such opinions. That was followed by using cell phones and texting while driving, and 80% of drivers were concerned about these practices. However, in 2011, the number of people who fear speeding and aggressive driving by motorists has dropped to 18%, while the number of persons who fear intoxicated drivers has dropped to 13%.

What Los Angeles car accident lawyers find really ironic is that distracted driving is the number one safety concern for teen and young drivers - a category of drivers that is at the highest risk for cell phone use while driving. Younger drivers are much more concerned about the risks of drunk driving. Older motorists, on the other hand, seem to be more concerned about cell phone use while driving.

Law enforcement in California will confirm that hand-held cell phone use in and around the state is high in spite of the ban on the use of hand-held cell phones. This is also in spite of the fact that there are a number of technological aids that are available to ensure that drivers do not have to use a handheld device while driving in order to remain in touch.

California has one of the toughest graduated driver licensing programs in the country, designed to prevent accidents involving teen drivers. However, a new study that has just been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that while there has been a drop in accidents involving 16 and 17-year-old motorists, there has actually been a spike in the number of fatal traffic accidents involving 18-year-old drivers. The study seems to indicate that most of the accidents that should have involved 16 and 17-year-old motorists, are being postponed to when these drivers turn 18 and have full driving privileges.

According to an analysis of fatal crash accident data, there has been a decline of 1,340 deadly accidents involving 16-year-old drivers after graduated driver’s licensing programs were introduced around the country. However, there has been an increase of more than 1,000 accidents involving 18-year-old motorists. The overall conclusion is that graduated driver’s licensing programs are successful, but the degree of success isn’t so clear.

The researchers believe that the spike in accidents involving 18-year-old drivers could simply be because many drivers prefer to wait until they are 18 to get a driver’s license, because of all the restrictions of a provisional driver's license.

Los Angeles car accident lawyers take this to mean that inexperienced 18-year-old drivers are taking to the streets with a full driver’s license and not enough experience to be driving unsupervised. Additionally, driver licensing programs may also be too dependent on co-drivers, possibly taking away from some of the experience that a teen driver could have. Too much dependence on a co-driver does not allow the driver to develop important skills, like looking out for pedestrians and obstacles emerging from the side of the road, judging the speed and behavior of other motorists, and other skills.

The city of Los Angeles scored the worst out of a total of 13 California cities in accident injuries and deaths for 2009. That information comes from a report by the California Office of Traffic Safety, which analyzed accident injury and fatality rates in 13 California cities with a population of 250,000 or more.

The fact that the City of Angels is the deadliest city in California for motorists shouldn't come as a surprise to any Los Angeles car accident attorney. The city has an autocentric culture, with little encouragement of pedestrians and bicycling with the result that there has been no improvement in traffic congestion in the city for decades. The most undesirable driving practices including reckless and aggressive driving, and road rage stems from the pressures arising out of such traffic congestion.

Overall, 31,087 victims were injured or killed in traffic accidents in Los Angeles in 2009. Drunk driving caused approximately 2,763 accident injuries and fatalities. These victims also included 881 motorcyclists, 2806 pedestrians and 1817 bicyclists.  Los Angeles was followed by the cities of Sacramento, Stockton, Anaheim, Riverside, Santa Ana, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Bakersfield, San Jose, Long Beach and Fresno.

There are two facts that stand out clearly in the report. The first is that drunk driving continues to be a major factor in traffic accidents in Los Angeles. More than 2,700 people every year fall victim to accidents involving an intoxicated motorist. That's in spite of all the efforts made by Los Angeles police to keep drunk drivers off the street. In 2009, California police arrested more than 9,096 drunk drivers in Los Angeles County.

The other fact is that pedestrian accident fatalities and injuries in Los Angeles continue to spike significantly. More than 2,800 pedestrians were injured or killed in accidents in Los Angeles in 2009. That is not including the 478 pedestrians below the age of 15 who were also injured or killed in Los Angeles that same year.

The Los Angeles Times has now confirmed that Toyota has settled with the family of a California Highway Patrol trooper who was killed in a sudden acceleration-accident last year. The terms of the settlement were kept confidential in September, but it has now been revealed that the company settled for $10 million.

Last year, off-duty California Highway Patrol trooper Mark Saylor was driving a Toyota Lexus, a loaner from a local Toyota dealership. In the car were his wife and 13-year-old daughter, as well as his brother-in-law. The car accelerated to high speeds, and crashed, killing all four instantly. Saylor's brother-in-law made frantic calls to 911 for help, and those calls, which were later made public, clearly revealed that Saylor who was driving had been unable to stop or slow down the car. An investigation later that one of the floor mats had jammed the accelerator pedal, causing the car to accelerate suddenly.

The company’s $10 million settlement with the family of Mark Saylor is not huge, and California car accident injury lawyers are familiar with heftier settlements involving auto defect lawsuits.  Meanwhile, the Toyota dealership, Bob Baker Lexus, which had loaned the Lexus to Mark Saylor, is also engaged in litigation with the families.

Toyota is reportedly disappointed that the terms of the settlement have been revealed by Bob Baker Lexus. The company would have preferred that the terms of the settlement remained confidential. Toyota continues to face hundreds of acceleration-related lawsuits. Many of these lawsuits have been consolidated into a single suit in a Santa Ana courtroom. The lawsuit includes more than 200 that were filed against Toyota Motor Sales USA.

Toyota has enough reason to want to keep the $10 million settlement under wraps. The company's losses arising out of personal injury and wrongful death compensation are expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

There was a substantial increase in auto accident fatalities in California over New Year's Eve 2010, compared to the previous year. Overall, the California Highway Patrol reported that there were 12 fatalities in the state over New Year's Eve, compared to just seven fatalities last year. That is a substantial increase, and could be linked to the fact that there were fewer DUI arrests in California this year.

According to the California Highway Patrol, 499 drivers were arrested by the California Highway Patrol for driving under the influence during the 12-hour crackdown that began on 6 PM on Friday. A final tally of fatalities for the New Year's weekend crackdown which ended on midnight on Sunday is not available yet. Even the fatality toll of 12, is only for the 12-hour period beginning 6 PM Friday. When the final toll is available, Los Angeles car accident lawyers fear that it could be a substantial increase from last year.

The statistics are just a reinforcement of the fact that although drunk driving is not as much of a factor in auto accident fatalities as it used to be a couple of decades ago, intoxicated drivers continue to be a factor in a large number of accident fatalities in the country. Typically, approximately 30% of all accident fatalities in the country can be traced to drunk driving. Back in the ‘70s, those numbers were close to 50%.

However, Los Angeles drunk driving accident lawyers fear that a sense of complacency could be creeping into the overall public perception as far as drunk driving is concerned. The media especially has made much of the fact that DUI accident fatalities have been continually down over the past couple of years. California law enforcement needs to target DUI more strongly to bring down these fatalities further.

Today, California motorists will drive on what is believed to be the deadliest day for driving in the Golden State. According to a study conducted by Allstate, more California car accidents occur on December 15th than any other day of the year.

Allstate found a whopping 20% hike in the number of car accident claims filed in the state on December 15. The average number of car accident claims in California involving Allstate policyholders, is 435. However, on December 15, that number increases to 539. What's more interesting is that just three days later, there's another sudden spike in car accident claims. On December 18, the average number of claims in California is 523.

According to Allstate, the top five days for California car accident claims is December 15, February 14, October 13, December 18 and September 5.

So what is it about December 15 that keep Los Angeles car accident lawyers so busy? One possible explanation could be that the Christmas holidays are approaching, and motorists are rushing to finish holiday shopping. As the holiday season progresses, there are more numbers of motorists on the road, finalizing their preparations for the holiday.  Besides, the weather does tend to get frostier, sometimes resulting in foggy conditions that impact driving abilities.

While you can't do much to control the increased traffic leading up to Christmas and New Year's, you can take care to reduce the risk of an accident or minimize the severity of injuries. Always buckle up, and avoid driving under the influence. Avoid nighttime travel as much as possible. Take less congested routes, where you are less likely to run into motorists in a hurry.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced that it will investigate whether rental car companies conduct repairs of recalled vehicles before they are released. The announcement came after a petition filed by the Center for Auto Safety with the Federal Trade Commission. The Center for Auto Safety was galvanized into action after Enterprise Holdings Inc. was ordered to pay $15 million in damages to the family of two California sisters who were killed in a fatal accident involving a recalled vehicle they rented from Enterprise.

The two sisters had been driving a Chrysler PT Cruiser that they didn't know had been recalled for a fire risk safety defect. The Cruiser crashed into a truck, and exploded into flames. The two women were killed instantly. Their parents filed a lawsuit against Enterprise, which continued to insist that the accident was not the company’s fault. However, a jury awarded the parents $15 million in damages, and Enterprise admitted its liability in the accident.

Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is getting involved with what Los Angeles car accident lawyers believe is a very serious problem that places the lives of millions of Americans at risk. In any given year, there are hundreds of auto recalls, and it may not be possible for consumers to be aware of every recall when they rent a car. These people may be at risk of an accident if they drive a vehicle that has been recalled because of a defect. During the Enterprise trial, it came out that the company had an unwritten policy that basically made it acceptable to put recalled cars into service if other cars were unavailable.

The NHTSA will look at whether these rental car companies are performing complete repairs on recalled vehicles. With all this scrutiny, these companies could be coaxed into repairing all defective recalled vehicles before they are leased out.

A survey of California motorists finds that cell phone use among drivers is down from last year, but most motorists continue to be concerned about reckless and speeding drivers on the roads. These are the two biggest safety concerns for motorists, followed closely by distracted driving.

According to the survey, the good news was that distracted driving involving cell phones is down among California drivers. About one third of the drivers in the survey said that they are now using their cell phones less than they used to in the past. The bad news is that over the past month, one in every three drivers had used a hand-held cell phone, while one in five had texted or sent e-mails while driving. 55% of the respondents in the survey said that they had been involved or almost been in an accident involving someone who was texting while driving, or talking on a cell phone.

Drivers in Southern California seem to be more worried about distracted drivers with their cell phones than in other parts of the state. Not surprisingly, older motorists above the age of 35 were more concerned about texting motorists than younger people.

Although drunk driving did not feature in the top three concerns of California motorists, 80% of the respondents in the survey supported the use of sobriety checkpoints to check intoxicated driving. There was also welcome news for Los Angeles car accident lawyers that campaigns like “Report Drunk Drivers. Call 911” have had the desired effect. Approximately one-third of the respondents in the survey said that they are now less likely to drive under the influence because of campaigns like this.

There is also more awareness about driving under the influence of legal and illegal drugs. 70% of the persons in the survey believed that punishments for driving under the influence of prescription and non-prescription drugs should be the same as for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is warning of increased accident risks with the end of Daylight Saving Time in California.    According to the agency, adjusting to new a low light environment can place drivers at a high risk of a crash as they adjust to the new conditions. 

According to the NHTSA, in 2009, there were 4,092 pedestrian accidents, and 59,000 pedestrians were injured in these accidents.  Twenty five percent of the fatalities were killed between 4pm and 8pm, and 13% were killed in accidents between 4am and 8am.  The agency is specifically pointing to risks to pedestrians, who may not be visible in the new lowlight environment.

Los Angeles pedestrian accident attorneys recommend the following tips for both motorists and pedestrians to stay safe:

• Pedestrians should carry a flashlight and work to make themselves visible to motorists.
• Wear bright clothing, or stick reflective tape on your clothes, backpacks, bags and briefcases to be visible in the lowlight conditions.
• Expect distracted motorists.  In other words, don't depend on a motorist’s ability to see you while they're driving.
• Avoid jaywalking.
• Avoid crossing between parked vehicles.
• Only cross the road on safe, designated, marked crosswalks.
• Walk only in sidewalks.
• If you're walking in the street, walk facing traffic.

Drivers must also take extra care to look out for pedestrians. Keep your speeds down while you adjust yourself to the new conditions.  Don't depend on a pedestrian’s ability to hear your vehicle as it approaches.  Remember that pedestrians may be wearing earmuffs, and may not be able to hear your car as it approaches.  Improve conditions for good visibility.  Keep your windshield and windows clean.