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Clifford’s Notes, Chicago Lawyer June 1, 2013 By Robert A. Clifford For years, Illinois courts have protected landowners from obvious dangers and risks on their property if it involved fire, drowning and falling from a height. These three dangers were considered examples of a per se obvious danger. Mt. Zion State Bank & Trust v. Consolidated Communications, Inc., 169 Ill.2d 110, 118, 660 N.E.2d 863, 863 (1995). A new wrinkle has been added to the…

Clearinghouse Serves Anyone Interested in Biking The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) bills itself as a national clearinghouse for information about “health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access and mobility for pedestrians and bicyclists.” League Represents Interests of America’s Bikers Founded in 1880, the League of American Bicyclists is the oldest recreational biking group in America. In addition to extensive educational resources and training courses, the group also sponsors National Bike Month in…

Most adults stopped thinking about bike safety when they were kids or after they had kids! While bike injuries and deaths for children have dropped consistently during the past decade, the numbers for adults (and especially men) are going up. Still think you know bike safety? Well, then, match your wits with our experts and answer these 10 bike safety questions for adults. 1. Riding against traffic on a two-way street or against traffic on…

By the numbers 675 Deaths: In 2011, 675 bicyclists were killed in crashes, a 10 percent increase from 2010. Overall, bike injuries and deaths are down for all age groups since 1975 except for men older than age 20. Source: Fatality Facts, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 90% No Helmet: Over the past decade, roughly 90 percent of bikers killed in road accidents were not wearing helmets. Despite this fact, only 20 to 25 percent of…

Visibility, Location and Preparation Keys to a Safe Ride Biking is big in America. According to the League of American Bicyclists, there are more than 57 million cyclists out there at any given time rolling across our nation’s roads and trails. Transportation studies also show that bike trips tripled in the U.S. between 1977 and 2009. And while deaths among bicyclists younger than 20 actually dropped by 87 percent during that time period, fatal accidents…

Bike Safety Tips for Adults As spring spreads across the nation, bikers are popping up as regularly as the lilacs, magnolias and daffodils. Biking among adults has undergone somewhat of a renaissance in America, according to various transportation studies. And why not? Biking is great exercise, easy on the environment and perfect for sightseeing. But any time you mix bikes with motor vehicles, accidents can happen. Before you saddle up for your next ride, you…

Keith Hebeisen, partner, and Sarah King, associate at Clifford Law Offices, co-authored an article for the summer issue of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Journal entitled “The Power of Informed Consent.” The doctrine “imposes upon medical professionals a pre-treatment duty to inform the patient of the material medical information relevant to the proposed treatment, specifically information, that may affect the patient’s decision concerning the treatment,” the authors wrote. The authors, in citing various cases and…

With the summer season lurking around the corner, it’s not just mercury that’s on the rise; work zone fatalities also tend to spike during this time of year. In 2008 alone, the Federal Highway Administration reported 720 work zone fatalities, and most occurred during the months of June, September and October. With June on the horizon, there is no better time to remind motorists to slow down in work zones and prevent fatalities by paying…