Washington DC Injury Attorney Blog

In the state of Maryland there are 202 plug-in electric vehicles registered, of which, 94 of them are registered in Montgomery County. The owners of these plug-in electric vehicles will now have more charging stations throughout the county. A national real estate and development firm, Federal Realty, is in partnership with Car Charging Group to install eight more electric charging stations on the east coast, seven of which will be right here in the metropolitan area. In Montgomery county there will be one at the Rockville Town Square and one at Bethesda Row. The charging stations will be of the category level II and 240-volts. Charging stations come in three levels, the higher the level, the quicker the electric car charges.

These charging stations work just like gas pumps. All you need to do is pull up, plug-in and pay for the electricity with a credit card. The cost per hour of electrical charging will be between $3.00 to $4.00. An electric car can travel an average of 100 to 200 miles between charges.

There are also a lot of tax benefits to owning an electric car. Anyone who registers and titles a plug-in electric vehicle in the state of Maryland through July 1, 2013, is eligible to claim $2,000 excise motor vehicle tax credit along with the already established $7,000 federal tax credit for owning electric vehicles. Also, owners of electric cars can claim a $400 tax credit toward the installation of electric vehicle charging stations in their homes.

For more information on the locations of charging stations in your area, please visit www.mychargepoint.net

Virginia drivers, under the age of 21, could have their license suspended for a year if they get behind the wheel after drinking alcoholic beverages. These underage drinkers and drivers will face stiffer penalties for driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .02% or more. Violators will have their license suspended for a year and will receive either a fine of up to $500 or 50 hours of community service.

In the Nations capital there are currently, 30 speed cameras and 50 red-light cameras that control speeding and the running of red lights. A new program was introduced that will expand the number of cameras and increase the types of tickets/infractions that can be issued. The new cameras will be installed in the next year in areas that demonstrate a need for additional control and enforcement.

There are various studies that show that traffic enforcement and the use of speed cameras and re-light cameras save lives. Traffic fatalities in the District dropped to 25 in 2010 from 75 a decade ago. This is according to D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier.

The new cameras will use technology to cut down with vehicles blocking intersections, vehicles failing to yield to pedestrians on crosswalks, truck height-restrictions and weigh trucks along I-295.

The new program would be the most aggressive in the Nation, and studies have shown that the use of this technology reduces crashes and save lives.

Google has developed a new car called the "Google Car". It is a Toyota Prius that is equipped with software that allows it to drive itself. The Google cars use video cameras, installed on the roof, radar sensors and laser range finders to travel through traffic on its own. These cars also navigate the road by using detailed maps. According to Sebastian Thrun, a Google software engineer, "Our automated cars use... Google's data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain."

The Google car was made with the intention to help prevent traffic accidents, free people's time, reduce distracted driving and drunk driving, and reduce carbon emissions. So far, the Google Car, has traveled about 140,000 miles and has only been involved in one traffic accident, a rear-end.

Google has yet to determine when these Google Cars will be available to the general public, but when they are, a question arises, if there is an accident, who would you sue?. The current statutes and case law in the United States were written for cars with human drivers, in order to determine the liability in an automobile accident. Therefore; once these Google Cars are put out on the market, laws would need to change.

There are three factors that could determine liability in case of an automobile accident:

1) Google - the author of the software used by the Google Car;
2) Toyota - the current and only car Manufacturer of the Google Car; and
3) The Owner of the vehicle.

Liability would be determined on the type of accident and could have one or more of these parties at fault. The legal process would examine who is at fault. For example, was it a software issue or a mechanical failure? A software issue would be if the program made the wrong decision and caused a crash, and a mechanical failure would be if a part used to build the Google car was defective or malfunctioned.

All in all, the Goggle Car was created to make driving and roadways safer. In 2008, the NHTSA reported that there were 37,261 automobile fatalities. Lets hope that if and when the Google Car is put on the market it will lower the yearly number of deaths in the United States.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) in Washington, D.C. announced a new proposal in early December that would put a rule into effect that would require all new cars and light trucks to have back up camera systems by the year 2014. The camera systems would require a rear video camera and interior display to be installed in all new cars and light trucks. The camera systems would add about $200 to the total cost of a new vehicle. The new rule would require the camera systems to have a driver visual area of 20 feet to the rear and 20 feet wide.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that about 300 people are killed and another 18,000 injured a year due to back up accidents. If this new rule is implemented it would save anywhere between 95 to 112 deaths and nearly 7,000 injuries a year.

According to Ray LaHood, Secretary of the DOT, the changes would "help drivers see into those blind zones directly behind vehicles to make sure it is safe to back up."

Currently, about 20 percent of new vehicles come with an optional back up camera system. If the new rule is put into effect, the rule would have to be met by 10 percent of 2012 new vehicles and 40 percent of 2013s and all 2014s vehicles. The camera systems would be required in all new vehicles with a gross weight of 10,000 pounds.

The proposed camera system rule would become final after a 60 day public comment period.