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On Behalf of Adler Law Group, LLC Teenage drivers do not have the maturity or driving experience that older motorists have, and this makes sharing the road with them risky. Research shows that teenage drivers are more prone to distraction than older motorists. When these drivers have teenage passengers riding alongside them in their cars and get into crashes, the presence of the teen passenger means a higher risk of death for everyone involved. According to AAA Newsroom, if you get into a wreck with a teenage driver, your chance of dying in that wreck increases by 51% if that driver had a teenage passenger present. The same holds true for anyone else involved in the crash, including those traveling in the teen’s vehicle and any other motorists or passengers affected. Fatality rates involving teen drivers, teen passengers Studies show that the risks associated with teenage drivers having teenage passengers are even more severe for those traveling in other vehicles. If you find yourself involved in a crash with a teen driver who has a teen passenger and are traveling in another vehicle, your odds of suffering a fatality increase by 56%. If you are in the wreck as a cyclist or pedestrian, your chance of dying increases by 17%. Fatality rates involving teens with older passengers Interestingly, when teen drivers crash and have passengers in their cars that are at least 35, the chances of everyone involved dying decrease by 8%. This indicates that it is not having a passenger, in general, that raises fatality risks, but rather, having a young, teenage passenger that does so. Parents of teen drivers should do their part to enhance public safety by making sure their kids practice driving under a wide range of circumstances. They may also want to ban their teens from driving with other teens until they have more road experience.

On Behalf of Adler Law Group, LLC Along with practicing defensive driving, placing your child in an appropriate car or booster seat helps to prevent catastrophic injuries in a collision. Picking the right car seat initially is only part of the equation, however. If you have an accident, you may need to replace the seat before your next trip. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises parents to replace child car seats after moderate and severe accidents. Consequently, if your collision was minor, it may be safe to continue to use the car seat. What constitutes a minor car accident? A motor vehicle accident that may seem minor to one driver may appear quite serious to another. Fortunately, the NHTSA has some guidelines for what constitutes a minor car accident. If any of the following apply to your accident, the crash is not minor for purposes of replacing your child’s car seat: •       The accident makes your car undrivable •       The accident causes your car’s airbags to inflate •       The accident results in damage to the door closest to your child’s car seat •       The accident causes an injury to someone in your vehicle or another one •       The accident damages the car seat Can you see damage to the car seat? Even if your car accident appears to be minor, you should not continue to use your child’s car seat until you carefully inspect it for signs of damage. If the seat has cracks, tears, breaks, compressions or any other damage that may interfere with its ability to protect your child, you should not continue to use it. Ultimately, you do not want to leave your child’s safety to chance. If you have any doubt about the integrity of a car or booster seat after a car accident, replacing the seat immediately is the responsible thing to do.

On Behalf of Adler Law Group, LLC Like many other driving hazards, operating a motor vehicle while feeling less than alert or sleepy is extremely dangerous. Besides the risks of drivers’ impeding traffic, having collisions or sustaining injuries, other motorists and pedestrians on the roads are in danger as well. There are ways to combat driver fatigue. However, driving while drowsy is not always unavoidable for some motorists. Vehicle operators should learn about the following types of injuries that often occur in drowsy driving accidents. Broken bones The forces and objects at work during motor vehicle collisions often are enough to break and fracture bones, especially in the upper and lower extremities. Victims who end up with broken or fracture injuries require immediate medical treatment, and in some cases, ongoing medical therapy to combat the trauma and improve recovery outcome. Paralysis Temporary or permanent paralysis is common in drowsy driving accidents. The impact of force and penetrating objects can damage the spinal cord, head and various areas of the body, leading to torn or bruised nerves, ligaments, tendons and muscles and other issues that interfere with the body’s ability to communicate with the brain and function. Death Unfortunately, death is common in many types of collisions, especially those involving drowsy motorists. Not all accident fatalities occur right away. It is not uncommon for accident victims to end up with seemingly minor or mild injuries that later progress to more severe trauma that ultimately results in death. For example, soft tissue trauma like brain injuries can result in a loss of bodily function that results in an untimely demise. Car accidents can happen anytime. However, incidents that stem from drowsy driving are more common in shift workers, truck drivers, and motorists who use medications or suffer from certain ailments. Lifestyle adjustments and actively staying alert can help to decrease the likelihood of sleepy motorists on the roads.

On Behalf of Adler Law Group, LLC It seems that most people cannot wake up in the morning until after they have their cup of coffee or other caffeinated drink of choice. While caffeine in moderation can keep people focused and alert, there is now a study that links excessive caffeine consumption among truck drivers to an increased likelihood of crashes. Conducted by a lecturer in transport safety at Loughborough University Design School in Leicestershire, United Kingdom, and co-sponsored by the Virginia Tech Transport Institute, the study examined 3,000 drivers in eight states. The conclusion was that short-term use was fine. Five or more cups of coffee or caffeine drinks over a long period, on the other hand, is indicative of a 27.8% chance of a truck driver being involved in a crash within three years of their previous crash. Those who drink one cup have a 21.6% chance of being involved in a crash within three years. Red flag for unhealthy behavior The study pointed out that coffee or caffeine drink was not necessarily the direct cause of the crashes, but it indicates drivers with an unhealthy lifestyle. These associated behaviors could include: Poor eating habits Poor sleeping habits Higher likelihood of alcohol consumption Cigarette smoking Higher likelihood of drug use These associated contributors can translate into a higher risk of causing a crash. Drivers spending more time on the road Truck drivers are essential workers because they are a key component in getting products to consumers and raw materials to manufacturers. To accommodate the higher than usual demand, the U.S. government suspended rules regarding the number of hours truckers can drive. Not all unhealthy drivers are unsafe drivers, nor are all health drivers safe drivers, but the study raises important issues about road safety and driver health when more of them are spending more time behind the wheel.

On Behalf of Adler Law Group, LLC Of all the injuries you can potentially sustain in a car crash, one that causes vision impairment likely is the injury you most fear. Unfortunately, however, car crashes are notorious for causing head injuries. And a head injury often causes visual impairment. The American Foundation for the Blind explains that the three categories of vision impairment consist of the following: Low vision: blurred vision, tunnel vision, blind spots in your field of vision, etc. Legal blindness: 20/200 vision or less as measured by the Suellen Eye Chart Total blindness: no light perception whatsoever Fortunately, the chances of your car crash leaving you totally blind is only about 15%. Legal blindness, however, represents a distinct possibility. Legal blindness To understand legal blindness, think of the eye chart that your optometrist or ophthalmologist asks you to read when you go for your annual checkup. When you have perfect, i.e., 20/20 vision, you can read down through the eighth line of letters. When your vision becomes impaired to the point of legal blindness, you can only read the third line and above. In other words, you can only see at 20 feet what someone with perfect vision can see at 200 feet. If your car crash injuries leave you legally blind, you likely will still retain sufficient peripheral vision to be able to tell the difference between daytime and nighttime hours, as well as between brightly lit and dimly lit rooms. You may also be able to make out shadows and some colors. In terms of what you actually see, however, this deteriorates to the point where you likely will need to use a white cane in order to navigate your surroundings without tripping and falling over obstacles in your path.

On Behalf of Adler Law Group, LLC The mother of two children killed in a deadly car crash last week in Bristol, Connecticut, is said to be working with an attorney, even as she recovers from her own injuries suffered in the wreck. Seeking such help of an experienced personal injury lawyer is always recommended. In this case, it may be crucial in ensuring that the facts of the incident are nailed down and to hold the responsible party fully accountable. At this point, there appears to be some significant confusion over what may have occurred. When police first reported the accident, they told news outlets that the mother of the two little girls, aged seven and four, had crossed over the center yellow line. She was driving a compact car. Her vehicle collided with a Ford Windstar van. But days later, the woman’s family said that police had admitted that they had been mistaken — that it was the van that had crossed over the center lines. The NBC TV affiliate in Bristol says police won’t confirm that their previous information was incorrect. They do say that the investigation is continuing and that more witnesses have been interviewed since the crash. What is not in dispute is that there are two young children dead and four other people injured as a result of this crash. The mother and an adult male passenger from the compact car are reportedly recovering. The Bristol Press reports that the driver and a second person in the van were also seriously hurt in the crash. Meanwhile, the mother’s attorney is asking for the public to respect his client’s privacy at this time of deep loss. He says he is confident that when the police investigation is completed it will show that she was not responsible in any way. Source: NBCConnecticut.com, “ Family of 2 Girls Who Died in Bristol Crash Disputes Police Account,” Catalina Trivino, Dec. 17, 2015