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A Georgia jury this week awarded a couple, damages of $317,000 in the first product liability lawsuit related to injuries from Yamaha Rhino All-Terrain Vehicles.

Roger McTaggart was injured in 2007 when his ATV flipped over, trapping his leg. He suffered crushing injuries in the accident. McTaggart filed a lawsuit against Yamaha, alleging defects in the Rhino ATV. According to his attorneys, the accident occurred on a flat piece of land on which it should have been safe to ride an ATV. McTaggart claimed in his lawsuit, that the Yamaha Rhino should’ve come with doors that would have contained the rider’s legs, thereby preventing crushing injuries in case of a rollover..

Not surprisingly, Yamaha insisted that the injuries were caused not because of any inherent stability defect in the Rhino, but simply because the driver operated the vehicle in a reckless manner. It’s highly likely that Yamaha will pursue this line of defense in most of the Rhino product liability lawsuits that are pending against it. Yamaha plans to appeal the verdict.

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Not everyone who begins biking takes part in a bicycle safety training program. It also doesn’t help that there are no valuable resources for novice or beginner bicyclists in Georgia. That’s why it’s good to see an online bicycle safety training program developed by a group of University of Georgia graduates for a bicycle advocacy group called Bike Athens.

The training program is available for free online, and consists of 36 slides, all containing bicycle safety instructions. There are interactive videos and quizzes designed to make the process fun. The program’s focus is on defensive driving tips for bicyclists, and includes modules on bicycle safety checks before you ride. This is something a lot of bicyclists, especially beginners, neglect to do. It’s important to know that your bicycle is primed and ready for a ride and that brakes and quick releases are all functioning properly.

Athens has a large concentration of bicyclists who will find this program useful, but a safety program like this is recommended not only for bikers in Athens, but elsewhere across Georgia. It’s not likely that experienced bicyclists, who have been biking for years, will find the safety modules interesting or useful. However, for novice and beginner bicyclists who very often get involved in accidents, the online safety program offers easy tips and helpful advice.

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There’s not much comfort to be had from the realization that people in other countries seem to be just as distracted behind the wheel as Americans are. The results of a survey released last week show that, across the world, motorists take the task of driving far too casually, and continue to indulge in activities that take their concentration away from the road.

The survey was conducted by Jabra, a unit of GN Netcom, and included respondents from Europe, North America and Asia. According to the survey:

· 28% motorists have sent or received text messages while driving (no surprises here)

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DeKalb County, Emory Healthcare Partner to Care for Abused Elderly

It is one of the first such initiatives anywhere in the country, and as Atlanta elder abuse lawyers, we are extremely proud that DeKalb County will be home to an exclusive elder abuse shelter and treatment center. DeKalb County prosecutors and Emory Healthcare are partnering up to provide a safe haven for senior citizens who are abused and have nowhere else to go.

Under the partnership, emergency workers will bring patients would have been abused to the geriatric center at Emory Health Care, which is donating a few beds for this very purpose. These elderly persons will be treated, and then be examined to look for any signs of physical abuse, and if the doctors determined that abuse has taken place, prosecutors will move in to prosecute the cases.

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Single Focal Lenses Could Minimize Slip and Fall Accident Risks in Elderly Persons

Wearing eyeglasses with multifocal lenses can actually increase an elderly person’s risk of suffering a fall accident when he or she is outdoors. Therefore, senior citizens, who spend a lot of time outdoors, may be better served if they shift to single focal lenses. Those findings come via a study conducted by Australian researchers at Sydney’s Prince Of Wales Medical Research Institute.

The researchers studied a group of 606 senior citizens with an average age of 80, and gave half of them two pairs of glasses with single focal lenses. The remaining members of the group were asked to continue using their multifocal lenses as usual. Both groups were asked to record the number of fall accidents they suffered over a course of 13 months.

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Fourteen people have been killed in accidents across Georgia over the Memorial Day weekend, including fatal accidents in Cherokee County and Fulton County.

Reports coming before the Memorial Day weekend came to a close to Monday night, had more than 700 people injured in automobile accidents since the holiday began on Friday evening. Overall, Georgia State Patrol responded to more than 2,700 accidents up till 6 pm Monday.

Four of the people who died were traveling in Fulton and Cherokee County. In Fulton County, a motorcycle accident left the 37-year-old motorcyclist dead at the scene. Speed is believed to have caused the accident. A little while later a Honda and a Suburban crashed, killing the Suburban driver. In Cherokee County, a Ford Taurus veered off the road on Highway 20 and crashed into a tree. A driver and a passenger, both Emerson residents died at the scene, while another passenger was airlifted to hospital with critical injuries. Investigators believe driver error and weather conditions may have been a factor in that crash.

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A 21-month-old toddler, who sustained serious injuries when she was caught in a car power window, is recovering from injuries. The accident occurred last Friday when the child was alone in the family car with her three-year-old brother. The child’s neck became trapped in the power window when it suddenly became activated. She was initially unresponsive, and had to be rushed to the Barrow Regional Medical Center, and later to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She is now expected to make a full recovery.

Fortunately, this horrible incident is like to have a happy ending. Injuries from activated power windows are not exactly unheard of. According to the NHTSA, every year, approximately 6 children die from power window accidents, and close to 2,000 children are injured.

Last year, Kidsandcars.org had conducted a survey that showed that power window accidents and injuries may be far more common than the NHTSA believes. The surveyors asked participants about whether they had ever caused injuries to anyone by activating a power window. Up to 6% of the participants admitted that they had indeed injured another person by activating a power window. According to Kidsandcars.org, when you translate those statistics into the general population in the United States, it works out to approximately 13.6 million power window-related injuries every year.

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New Pool Safety Guidelines Call for Swimming Lessons for Children Below 4

The general wisdom, thus far, has held that children may only begin swimming lessons after they complete the age of 4. Pediatrician groups have traditionally believed that children below 4 years of age, may not be developmentally ready for swimming lessons. That attitude is now changing. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, if children below the age of four have swimming classes, it could actually help prevent many pool drowning deaths

Drowning is the second biggest cause of unintentional death among children between the age of one and 19. The risks are dramatically higher for children between the age of one and four. Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending a series of steps to prevent drowning-related deaths in children of this age group, and swimming lessons is one of those measures.

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Rear-ender accidents involving passenger vehicles hitting large commercial trucks, are far more common than we think. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are approximately 23,500 such truck accidents every year in the country, and these kill approximately 160 people.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is working on technologies that will help minimize the number of these accidents. The agency is working on a number of configurations of lights that will alert motorists approaching the back of an 18 wheeler to the risk of a collision. But the most promising configuration involves two sets of six LED lights, each placed on the back bumper. When a passenger vehicle gets too close to the back of the truck, a rear-facing radar system will activate the lights, alerting the motorist to slow down. The agency has already begun testing the system, and will likely move on to dynamic testing on the highways of Virginia. The FMCSA is likely to begin field operational testing involving the placing of these systems on fleet vehicles, by the end of this year.

A commercial truck can be up to 40 times heavier than other vehicles on the road. Whether it is a rear end accident involving a large commercial truck striking a smaller vehicle, or whether the truck is the one being hit, the consequences are the deadliest for the occupants of the smaller vehicle.

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New FMCSA System Promises to Eradicate CDL Fraud

In 2002, an inspector general’s report informed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of widespread Commercial Driver’s License fraud in the industry. Drivers who obtained fraudulent CDL’s were linked to a large number of accidents that resulted in fatalities and serious injuries. The fact that there is little FMCSA control over the issuance of Commercial Driver’s Licenses is one that has worried Atlanta truck accident lawyers. But not for long now. The FMCSA is in the process of rolling out a web-based system that will streamline the process of issuing CDLs to truck drivers, and limit the amount of fraud.

Once the new system is in effect, testing for CDLs will be scheduled through the system. The system will contain information of all examiners, the test site, date of the test, as well as the results.Testing that is done outside of the system will result in no CDL being issued.

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