Articles Posted in Causes & Precautions

A sevenfold increase in opioid-related car crash deaths has recently been reported by researchers. Yet another sure sign the U.S. opioid epidemic is deadlier than ever. More drivers than ever before are dying in crashes while under the influence of prescription painkillers. Columbia University researchers released a statement discussing how prescriptions for opioids like morphine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone have more than quadrupled in recent years. Seventy-six million were reported in 1991 compared to the 300 million in 2014.

With numbers soaring to such heights, it isn’t surprising we are beginning to see a connection to highway deaths. The increase in drivers testing positive for prescription opioids has become a public health concern in 2017. These types of drugs are used to kill pain from serious injury. Their effects include slowed reaction times, impaired cognitive skills, and drowsiness. All things that add a significant risk while driving. While it’s true that these prescription painkiller users are driving under the influence with more regularity than ever before, researchers say they still need to do more research before any clear facts are established.

This rising epidemic has caught the eye of more than one activist organization, including MADD or Mothers Against Drunk Driving. They have voiced their concerns over the lack of reliable testing for opioids on the road and committed themselves to fighting the problem along with all impairing drugs.

To most parents, there is nothing more terrifying than letting a teenager get his or her license and start driving. Parents tend to imagine every possible worst-case scenario – the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a drunk driver hits the teen’s vehicle – and really, they have cause to worry.

Auto Accidents Are Top Cause of Teen Deaths in USA new report states that auto accidents are actually the number one killer of teenagers in the United States, beating out both homicide and suicide. The study, which was funded by the General Motors Foundation, says that both drivers and passengers are at risk.

The report was mostly based off a national survey that looked at 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19. According to the report’s findings, 2,439 teenagers died in 2012 due to auto accidents on U.S. roads. Of those teenagers, about 56 percent of them were driving at the time, and 44 percent of them were passengers at the time. The study also found that more than half of those killed did not put on a seat belt.

In some states, such as Massachusetts and New Jersey, licensed drivers are required by law to report any medical conditions or diseases that could possibly interfere with basic driving skills to the Registry of Motor Vehicle. All of the guidelines and regulations for the minimum physical requirements set by Motor Vehicle were formed with the help of medical experts. There are stricter guidelines for commercial drivers.

Some common medical conditions that can impair your driving skills are impaired vision, seizures, sleeping disorders, dementia and a host of other illnesses. Not all medical limitations have been acknowledged by Motor Vehicle so sometimes a licensed driver will have to make a conscious decision on whether or not they can safely operate a vehicle.

Here are some medical conditions that can affect your driving.

Trucks are the basic necessity of societies as they are the means to transporting things from one place to another. Trucks make it straightforward for people to transport their heavy materials, goods, oil, heavy loads and so on. With truck loads in hand, people have the opportunity of making their work easier. The trucks are also considered as the most vulnerable ones for accidents. Many truck accidents occur on roads and cause a lot of injuries or deaths of the drivers.

Truck accidents are a part of life and they can easily be avoided if drivers and the trucking companies take care of the trucks that they are running on roads. By properly managing the trucks, drivers and owners of trucking companies can avoid these accidents pretty easily. The most probable way of doing so is to completely check the truck so as to make it certain that it does not contain any problem in it. This way, the driver and the other vehicles on road will be safe from the havocs of being destroyed through accidents.

Truck drivers are normally licensed from the relevant authorities but the drivers, sometimes, have to cover long distances which require them to drive continuously for long hours of day and night to reach their destination on time. Sometimes, companies are unable to provide substitute drivers for their trucks and the same one has to drive the truck for long hours which is also a reason of disturbance.

The number of car accidents has reached millions and people are experiencing these accidents with the rise in the number of cars on roads. More and more cars and other vehicles are coming on roads on a daily basis and the number of injured people has also reached millions. Thousands of people also die during car accidents every year. The most regrettable thing of the issue is that most of these accidents are avoidable, but they still occur due to the negligence of one person or the other.

Safety on roads is an issue that has to be handled with great care and you must keep in mind that numerous people and departments are involved in the road safety when it comes to car accidents. Talking about the drivers alone, the following steps may be helpful to avoid these accidents.

Keeping aside all the faults that may be related to car manufacturing company, the car licensing authorities and driving license issuing authorities, etc, the drivers can play an important role to avoid accidents. If a driver is always vigilant and looks straight without any waywardness, the car accidents are certainly avoidable even if there is a little bit of problem with the car. The driver must keep a watchful eye in all directions (of course, through the car mirrors and with the help of his eyes) in order that nothing untoward may happen to him or his car.

Car or automobile accidents happen every day and not all cases can be taken to the court of law. Moreover, not everyone knows whether they should file a case against a driver who injured them in the accident. So how can you determine whether you should turn to the court to fight the case and recover compensation from the negligent car driver? Well, there is a very simple solution to this problem. You can find and hire a good auto accident lawyer to get help with this matter.

An experienced car accident lawyer can let you know whether you should file a case against the other party. Keep in mind that auto accidents involve accidents caused by cars, motorcycles and trucks. Reasons behind auto accidents are manifold. Recklessness is one of those reasons and you can file a case against a reckless driver. Fatigue is one of the key reasons why auto accidents happen, and your lawyer is responsible to prove that the driver cannot use their physical condition as a solid excuse.

An auto accident lawyer can be a great help to you if you want to recover compensation for the physical and financial damage you had to tolerate. The fact is that auto accidents are some of the leading causes of death around the globe. Auto accidents, for the most part, occur due to the negligence of drunk drivers, reckless drivers or passengers who avoid wearing seat belts. A sad thing about these accidents is that a host of innocent people lose their lives. With the professional assistance of an auto accident lawyer, the dependents of the people who die in the accidents can receive a reasonable amount of compensation from the guilty party. With the compensation money, they can pay expenses, such as medical bills.

Keep your eyes on the road. Well, that’s what you are supposed to do to reduce your risk of getting into a car accident. But we all know there are many distractions as we drive from place to place: kids, music, mobile phones, aggressive drivers, etc. And let’s not forget … billboards. Yes, those flashy digital bilboards so common throughout the Sacramento region and California are now being scrutinized by our state legislature.

Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, has introduced a bill to prohibit new digital billboards in California until results are in from a federal study examining whether these flashy roadside advertisements are a dangerous distraction to drivers. Feuer said, “It is a simple, common sense matter to put public safety first. We ought to know the results before we allow more of them.” For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

In Sacramento, message-changing billboards that are the kind being evaluated in the study can be found at Cal Expo and Sacramento State. Are they a dangerous distraction to drivers? They could be if drivers are more focused on the flashy billboards than they are on the road and other drivers.

There is opposition to the prohibition and potential ban, particularly from the film industry which does not want to see their promotional creativity limited. A Clear Channel advertising company representative reminded legislators that the digital billborads can also be used to quickly show kids’ photos during Amber Alerts.

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A family is suing the company EvenFlo, maker of baby products, for the death of their seven month old child. The suit comes after the mother and her son, Issac, were in a car accident. Issac’s mother was changing lanes and had to overcorrect herself. The overcorrection made her lose control of her car, causing it to flip over. Issac was in his EvenFlo car seat at the time and was properly belted in and secure. Unfortunately, the car seat ejected from the car when the car flipped over, resulting in Issac’s death.

EvenFlo isn’t unaccustomed to lawsuits. Just two months before Issac’s family filed a suit against EvenFlo, a $10.4 million jury verdict was set against the company for a defective car seat that caused a four month old boy to die of head injuries. The NHTSA has since recalled this car seat, the “On My Way” model.

When a company puts out a defective product, they are liable for injuries or death that is caused by such defect. If you or a loved one has been injured because of a product’s defect, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins. I will be able to explain your options and give you the help and advice you seek.

At our Personal Injury Law Firm in Sacramento, CA, I see many accidents in which the person killed was not wearing his or her seatbelt. Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I could find seatbelt statistics for California. On the website for the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) I found just what I was looking for. A couple of statistics, listed below, reassured me of the necessity to buckle up:

* Seat belts reduce a person’s chances of dying in a crash by 50 percent.

* In 2004, NHTSA estimates that in California 481 unrestrained vehicle occupants would have survived their crash had they simply buckled up.

In Sacramento and California today, our desire to maximize our time is more prevalent than ever. One of the most common ways we have found to achieve this goal is through the ever-growing popularity of cell phone use and driving. It allows us to be at two places at one time, creating a type of mobile office, and so much more. This “ideal”, however, has not come without its own problems. Sometimes, very serious problems.

Over the past several years, we have seen more and more links to cell phone use while driving and car crashes. Studies show that almost 80% of crashes and 64% of near-crashes involve some sort of driver distraction within the 3 seconds prior. Out of all the causes, cell phone use is the most common distraction. Many of these incidents could have been easily avoided if the use of cell phones was done more responsibly.

Another study, conducted by the University of Utah in the summer of 2006, concludes that talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk. I know this may seem shocking at first, but if you think about the state of mind many people get into while talking on the phone, it makes more and more sense as they are more likely to lose focus on the road and be distracted by who is speaking on the other side of the cell phone.

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