Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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Simple design interventions like illuminated crosswalks  can make it easier for motorists  to see pedestrians at  crossings and prevent pedestrian car accidents. A pedestrian car accident often results in severe personal injuries to the pedestrian or his or her wrongful death.

The  issue of pedestrian  safety is one that has been front and center for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as it grapples with an increase in the number of people being killed in car accidents.  Several  studies have found that simple improvements to design and  infrastructure can help prevent many of these accidents.

Many  of these interventions are focused on making pedestrians more visible to drivers.  Very often, motorists fail to notice motorists with devastating consequences. A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that something as simple as illuminated crosswalks can make motorists more visible and help reduce the chance of pedestrian car accidents.

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Spinal cord personal injuries are some of the most devastating personal injuries that can occur in a car accident.  New research finds that MRI scans which are typically used to guide surgeries in spinal cord injury patients, can also be used to make better assessments of a patient’s potential recovery.

A spinal cord injury occurs when there is a jolt or a blow to the spinal cord resulting in injury to the cord itself. The consequences are often catastrophic. Patients may be left with partial or complete paralysis, and may be unable to walk or use their limbs effectively.  Rehabilitation may be a slow process.  Often,  MRI scans are used  during treatment in order to guide surgical options as well as assess the amount of damage.  However, researchers recently found that they could very accurately predict recovery for spinal cord injury patients using these same MRI scans. They found that information from MRI scans helped to predict the recovery potential for patients based on the tissue remaining around the affected area.  The  greater the amount of tissue left, the higher the chances of recovery.

According to the researchers, these are very important findings because they show that MRI scans can be used to guide and inform rehabilitation and therapy options after a spinal cord personal injury.  They  can help doctors provide better counseling to patients about their lives after spinal cord injury, and how they can expect their lives to change after the injury.

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Nationwide, the maximum legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level is .08.    However, most motorists are not aware their auto accident risks begins to increase long before their BAC levels reach that figure.

While .08 is the maximum limit for blood alcohol concentration across the country, the fact is that many motorists, especially light or moderate drinkers, are likely to experience deterioration in their driving abilities that significantly increases their risks of being involved in an auto accident, even at .04 or even lower.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  alcohol can impact driving ability even  after one drink.  The average drink in the United States can result in a blood alcohol concentration of between .02 and .04  for a light to moderate drinker.  This  is sufficient to affect the person’s vision as well as his or her ability to multitask.  Imagine a person with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.02 trying to drive as well as respond to phone calls at the same time.  His or her ability to multitask  is markedly reduced, significantly impacting his or her safety and the risks of being involved in a car accident.

When blood alcohol concentration level rises to .05, there is a significant deterioration in driving abilities.  At this point, the person is not legally drunk, but his coordination skills are impaired, and he or she might find it difficult to steer effectively. Vision is further reduced during this stage of alcohol intoxication, and he may find it difficult to track moving objects which makes it very dangerous when he is on the road and needs to observe the behaviors of drivers around him.  His or her ability to respond to emergency driving situations is also significantly lower at this point. All of these factors increase his or her chances of being involved in a car accident causing serious injuries  or even a fatal car accident.

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Senior motorists experience a range of deficiencies in their physical and mental faculties that make it difficult for them to drive safely and increase their risks of being involved in auto accidents.  Family members and caregivers have a major role to play in encouraging seniors to give up their car keys when they are no longer in a position to drive safely.

It is important to remember that seniors benefit both physically and mentally from the independence that comes from being mobile and able to drive.  However, there may come a time when your loved one is simply  unable to drive without being a risk to himself and others.  At  this point, you must step in and take away the car keys.  Remember that failing driving faculties may have more to do other issues than with the person’s age.  In other words, you must consider your loved one’s driving performances and abilities, and not just his age while deciding to curtail his driving privileges.

The best way to confirm whether your loved one’s abilities to drive safely are compromised, is to observe him when he is driving.  Look for prime indicators of decline in driving skills.  These can include failing to stop and check both ways for traffic, failure to stop at red or stop signs, or failure to stay in the lane while driving. A safe driver must be able to drive appropriately for the traffic and weather conditions, and must be able to take into consideration the driving of other motorists, motorcycles and other users of the road while driving.

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As  the year’s peak motorcycling season descends on us, it is important for motorcyclists to evaluate all of their gear and make sure that everything is in prime condition to prevent personal injuries in an auto accident. Keeping the gear in good condition is an important safety measure.

The  summer months are the busiest motorcycling days of the year, and Georgia roads are likely to see an increase in the number of motorcycles over the next few weeks.  While motorists in cars and trucks enjoy plenty of protection in the form of seatbelts and airbag systems as well as crash avoidance tech, motorcyclists are not as lucky.  They must depend on sturdy and well -fitting helmets,  and high quality motorcycle gear to reduce their risk of injuries in an accident.  While motorcycles on their own have become safer over the past few years with new technology, motorcyclists  are ultimately responsible for reducing the severity and number of personal injuries they suffer in an auto accident through the kind of clothing and gear that they wear.

Wearing a helmet is the single most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of suffering head injuries in the event of  an auto accident. The state of Georgia recognizes the importance of helmets in preventing head injuries in an accident, and requires all motorcyclists, including passengers, to wear helmets.  Georgia helmet laws are not restricted to passengers or motorcyclists below a certain age.  No  matter what your  age or  experience levels, you must wear a helmet when you are out riding in Georgia.  Those laws, on their own, significantly reduce the number of motorcycle accident – related head injuries that occur in Georgia every year.

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An anti- speeding campaign that aims to tackle speeding across Georgia and several Southern States ends on July 21. These types of campaigns are extremely important in the effort to reduce the number of auto accidents involving catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful deaths.

Operation Southern Slow Down included Georgia as well as a few neighboring states and involved additional enforcement against speeding drivers. The campaign started on July 15, and targeted both speeding as well as aggressive or rash drivers.  The aim was to crack down on these drivers and pull them off the roads.  This was the eighth such campaign that included Georgia and the other Southern States,  and officials believed that this was the right time to remind drivers about the need to drive at safe speeds at all times.

The  need to remind drivers of the risks of speeding is especially stronger during summer when there are far more motorists on the road and when everyone is in a hurry to get to their holiday destinations.  Speeding  is one of the biggest killers on American roads with more than 11,000 car accident wrongful deaths in 2022 directly linked to high speeds.   The number of speeding-related car accidents in 2022 was  a 25% increase from the numbers in 2018.  Georgia continues to grapple with a large number of motorists  who drive at high speeds putting themselves and other motorists at risk of serious personal injury or even death.  In  2022,  approximately 422 car accident wrongful deaths in Georgia were  directly linked to speeding motorists. That was a significant 56% increase from the number of speeding-related auto accidents in 2018.

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A new study  finds that  cells derived from a patient’s own fat can help patients with spinal cord personal injury experience sensation and movement in the affected areas.

Stem cell therapies have been a major part of breakthrough research into spinal cord personal injury treatment over the past few years.  The findings of a recent study were published in the journal Nature Communications.  A  clinical trial on 10 patients found  significant improvement in functions like movement, after treatment with stem cells taken from the patient’s own fat.

Out of the 10 participants in the clinical trial, the researchers found that seven subjects exhibited significant improvements in their symptoms.  These  improvements were measured according to the American Spinal injury Association Impairment Scale.  The  researchers found improvements in sensation in the affected areas against testing with light touches.  Participants  also exhibited improvements in motor strength.  Patients with spinal cord personal injuries may also suffer from failure to control bowel and bladder movements and, in the study, participants were able to recover voluntary anal contractions which can be predictive of improvement in bowel functions.

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Patients who have suffered a spinal injury may suffer from autonomic dysfunction or  an extreme severity of autonomic reflexes that can trigger panic episodes  and even heart attacks.  In  recent animal studies, researchers found  ways that could circumvent such extreme reflexes.

A spinal injury after a car accident can lead to all kinds of  life-altering consequences.  The person may suffer from limited movement and mobility,  loss of bowel and bladder control,  restricted motor skills and a number of other consequences. One  of those consequences is  autonomic dysfunction which can be characterized by triggering of extreme autonomic reflexes when the person is faced with even mildly triggering situations.  A person with a spinal injury may experience an extreme  response  to a harmless situation, like loss of bladder control, that triggers panic attacks, heart attacks and strokes.  This  lack of control over autonomic reflex responses could even have fatal consequences for the patient.

In a recent study, researchers found that the reason for such autonomic dysfunction could be traced to a particular type of nerve cell. According  to the researchers, patients with a spinal cord injury may experience  an abnormal rewiring of the nerve cells in the affected area. They found that specific nerve fibers called microglia cells were mainly responsible for this abnormal rewiring of the  nerves which, in turn, causes loss of control over autonomic reflexes. Studies on animals found that depletion of these microglia cells helped to control the autonomic reflexes. The researchers found that when these cells were reduced in number,  these extreme reflexes to mild situations were better controlled.  The researchers say that these are significant findings because of the risk to patients with spinal injury who may suffer heart attacks or even strokes as a result of such panic reactions.

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As many as one in 6 teen drivers in the United States admits to driving while  drowsy.  This  indicates that the problem of drowsy driving among younger motorists is far more complex than we believe.

Those findings came from a recent  study that was conducted by the National Sleep Foundation.  The findings of the study were presented  at a conference of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies and published in the Sleep journal. The researchers estimate that 1.7  million teenagers have driven while  drowsy, and more than 400,000 have done so at least once in a week. The researchers believe that these findings are troubling because we are dealing with teenage motorists or novice drivers with very little experience in driving safely and avoiding auto accidents.

According to the study, teen drivers  are aware that drowsy driving is dangerous  and can increase their chances of being involved in a car accident.  In the study, as many as 95% of them admitted  that they believed that drowsy driving  was dangerous, but most of them did not believe that it was as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol or even driving while using a cell phone.  Clearly, the dangers of drowsy driving are not as apparent to teen drivers.  Teenagers who had jobs were twice as likely to drive while exhausted or sleepy compared to those with no jobs. Most teenage motorists  in the study blamed their work and study schedules for their lack of sleep.

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As many as one in eight seniors will suffer a traumatic brain injury, mainly as a result of a fall accident.

Researchers arrived at those findings recently through an analysis of Medicare data of more than 9,200 patients covering a period of 18 years.  They found that during this time, 13% of seniors above the age of 65   suffered a brain injury that resulted in a concussion.  Most of these personal injuries occurred during fall accidents.

The  researchers are calling the findings of the study “shocking” and  say that far too many seniors are living with  traumatic brain injuries that expose them to the risk of several health complications.  Brain injuries in seniors may cause other complications including dementia and Parkinson’s disease.  They  can also increase the risk of depression and anxiety in patients who are already at a high risk of such struggles.

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