Personal Injury

Published on: September 7, 2015

Alcohol and Holiday Travel Don’t Mix

You know who doesn’t take the day off for Labor Day? The police! As a matter of fact, law enforcement departments across the country have announced they’re cracking down on careless driving and DUIs this weekend like never before.

There’s good reason for that.

Labor Day is the second deadliest holiday in America. (Only Thanksgiving claims more lives.) Each year, this single weekend sees tens of thousands of arrests on the highways, and the overwhelming majority of them are for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Published on: August 28, 2015

IKEA Warns of Wall Chest Tip-over Injuries after Two Toddler Fatalities

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Safety experts and Atlanta personal injury lawyers have been warning of the risk of child fatalities in furniture tip over accidents for many years.Last year, two toddlers were killed in furniture tip over accidents involving an IKEA dresser unit model. Now, IKEA North America is telling millions of owners of these dressers that these chests must be firmly anchored to the walls in order to prevent accidents of the type that killed the two toddlers.

IKEA has confirmed at least 14 tip over incidents that resulted in four injuries. The company says that the chest must be firmly anchored to the walls, in order to prevent injuries like these.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, one fatality involved a two-year-old boy in Pennsylvania who died in February last year, when a MALM chest of drawers fell on him. The boy was pinned to a bed, and died from his injuries. The second fatality involved a two-year-old child from Washington, who was killed in June of last year when a similar chest fell on him. According to IKEA North America, it has three other reports of child fatalities since 1989 involving tip overs of other models of chests. The company is offering free wall-mounting repair kits for 27 million dressers.

Published on: August 19, 2015

Take Precautions to Prevent Heat Stroke-Related Child Fatalities

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Parents, caregivers and the community at large all have a role to play in helping prevent heat stroke-related fatalities involving children left behind in cars during summer.

Those fatalities are already at record numbers in 2015. So far this year, there have been 11 fatalities involving children who were left behind in heated cars, by parents or caregivers. Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Safe Kids Worldwide commemorated National Heat Stroke Prevention Day, and the agency specifically focused on parents and caregivers, asking them to take precautions to prevent such fatalities in vehicles.

NHTSA has also released a new technical report that would help auto manufacturers in the development of appropriate technologies to help prevent such fatalities. There is no doubt that there is much that manufacturers can do to help prevent such needless fatalities every year. From warning systems to alarms and special child car seats, manufacturers are already working on, or have introduced technology to help parents prevent such fatalities. These devices however, are intended for use as add-ons, and their effectiveness is currently being debated.

Published on: July 31, 2015

“Never Events” in the Operating Errors Still Occur

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Certain major errors during surgery are so rare that they are called “never events”. While such medical errors are rare, they do continue to occur in hospitals across the country.

According to a new review of surgical errors published in the JAMA Surgery Journal, approximately one out of every 100,000 surgeries involves a wrong site error. In a wrong site error, the doctor either operates on the wrong side of the patient’s body, on the wrong body part, or even on the wrong person.

The good news is that these “never events” are very rare. The bad news is that there is very limited data on these errors, which makes devising strategies to control them very challenging. For example, researchers had very little data available on the number of fires that break out in operating rooms during surgery. When there are only a few rare events, data collection is difficult, and researchers find it more challenging to develop strategies to prevent these errors.

Published on: May 8, 2015

Loss of Control, Intoxicated Driving Account for Most Motorcycle Accident Claims

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

New data released by a major insurance company indicates that single-vehicle motorcycle accident claims accounted for the highest number of claims processed in 2014.

The data were released by insurer Progressive Corp., which said that it processed 3.4 times more single-vehicle motorcycle accident claims in 2014. These single-vehicle accidents typically involved intoxicated driving or loss of control due to excessive speed.

According to Progressive, it processed more single-vehicle motorcycle accident claims than rear-end accident claims, crashes at intersections, and stolen motorcycles combined. That means that motorcyclists must be more careful and vigilant about their surroundings at all times.

Published on: April 29, 2015

New Study Focuses on Specific Accident Risks Facing Senior Citizens

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

With the proportion of senior motorists across the country and on Atlanta roads expected to balloon over the next couple of decades, it’s not surprising that leading auto safety groups in the country are turning their attention to senior motorist safety. The AAA Foundation recently announced that it is investing in research that focuses on accident risks involving senior motorists.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is investing $12 million in the study into the driving behaviors of senior motorists. Researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health will specifically investigate factors that affect senior motorist safety while driving. Those factors include prescription drug use that could impair a motorist’s driving abilities and increase the risk of drowsy driving accidents, as well as the impact of deteriorating vision on senior drivers.

As part of the study, drivers between the ages of 65 and 79 will be recruited in several states around the country. Researchers will fit these motorists’ cars with GPS devices to monitor and observe driving patterns. The researchers will use the data that emerges from the study to analyze senior driving patterns and devise solutions to core safety problems.

Published on: April 2, 2015

Volvo Introduces Night Spray Paint to Make Bicycling Safer

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Bicycling at night is a major accident risk. However, a new glow-in-the-dark spray paint that has been introduced by Volvo will help bicyclists stand out in the dark, and reduce their accident risks.

You don’t often see automakers coming up with products that are designed to help bicyclists and pedestrians, but Volvo appears to be the exception.In the past, it has come up with automobile design innovations to help reduce the risk to pedestrians and bicyclists. Now, the automaker has gone one step further, and introduced a new night spray paint designed to be sprayed not just on a bicycle, but all accessories. Simply spray the paint on the bicycle, on your bag, and your clothes. The paint is invisible, and cannot be seen in the daytime. However, during nighttime, and in the glare of car headlights, the paint begins to glow.

Seasoned bicyclists know that it’s important to be visible while riding at night. For years now, bicyclists in Atlanta have stuck reflective tape to their clothes, bag and bicycles to increase their visibility at night time. However, the spray-paint goes one step further than reflective tape by making bicyclists glow-in-the-dark and much harder to miss.

Published on: March 20, 2015

Alcohol, Pot Involved in Half of All Accidents Involving Teens, Young Adults

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Alcohol and drugs are a leading cause of death involving persons in the 18-25 age group in the United States. However, a new study indicates that alcohol and drug use may be much more prominent factors in car accidents involving teenagers and young adult motorists.

According to a new study, 50% of all deaths involving teenagers and young adults in car accidents involve the use of alcohol or marijuana. In fact, researchers who conducted the study expressed concerns that the growing wave of legalization of marijuana around the country could spell disaster for young motorist safety. These motorists are already at a higher risk of alcohol use, drug use, and other kinds of dangerous driving practices. The researchers speculate that the increasing availability of marijuana and easing of restrictions on the use of pot have not had any effect on the popularity of alcohol among these drivers.

The study found that accident victims above the age of 21 were much more likely than younger victims to be driving with a combination of marijuana and alcohol in their system. About 50.3%, of young motorists who died were either stoned or drunk at the time of their accidents. In total, 37% of the motorists tested positive for alcohol at the time of their deaths, while 5.9% tested positive for marijuana. In 7.6% of the cases, the motorists had both alcohol and marijuana in their system.

Published on: March 13, 2015

Young Adults More Likely to Suffer Serious Injuries in Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

It’s a fact that young adults and teenagers are at a much higher risk of accidents and injuries. Studies also indicate that this group of drivers is more likely to be injured severely in accidents.

A new study finds that young adults and teenagers are much more likely to suffer critical injuries that require them to be rushed to hospital emergency rooms after being involved in a motor vehicle accident. Those findings came from a study of data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study found that there were 4 million emergency room visits after accidents in 2010-2011. In fact, auto accidents accounted for approximately 10% of all emergency room visits across the country.

Age was a common factor in most of the persons who were rushed to ERs after being involved in an accident. For every 10,000 persons rushed to ERs for treatment after an accident, 286 persons were between the age of 16 and 24. Among persons above 65, the rate was just 65 for 10,000 persons, and in the case of persons below the age of 18, the rate was 70 for every 10,000 persons.

Published on: March 3, 2015

Highway Safety Group Recommends Stronger GDL Laws, Primary Enforcement Seat Belt Laws for Georgia

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Highway accident fatalities in Georgia have been on the decline over the past few years, but the state could make more progress towards keeping more motorists safer on its roads. That is the opinion of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, an organization that rates all 50 states each year on their highway safety performance.

The report ranks states in three color-coded categories – green, yellow and red. Green signifies the best performance and indicates that the state has complied with most of the group’s recommended highway safety laws, and yellow signifies that while the state has made some progress in complying with these laws, there still remains a lot more work to be done. Red is the worst rating on the scale and is only given to those states that have failed to enact important safety laws.

This year, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety gave Georgia a Yellow rating for its performance in complying with critical safety laws that help prevent accidents.The group ranked states based on the state’s compliance with laws related to child restraint use, seat belt use, drunk driving prevention, distracted driving prevention, graduated driver licensing laws, motorcycle helmet laws and others.