Archive for the ‘Car Accidents’ Category

Reporting Your Buffalo Car Accident

30
Sep 2015
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Buffalo auto accident attorneyDrivers in the state of New York have to buy no fault insurance coverage. The maximum amount of money available under no fault coverage is $50,000. No fault coverage pays for medical bills and loss of wages after an accident. If you exceed the $50,000 in basic no fault benefits, you can apply for additional benefits available through auto policies from other household members or other vehicles you occupied. No fault coverage is also called personal injury protection (PIP) coverage.

 

No fault PIP coverage means you get all of your medical bills covered and some of your wages paid if you have to miss work following a traffic accident, regardless of who caused the collision. If injuries were serious or death occurred and there was another driver to blame, you may be able to pursue a claim against that motorist for damages not covered by PIP. You need to know how to report a car accident and what steps to take after a collision so you can maximize your chances of getting full compensation for crash losses.

How to Report a Car Accident

If you want PIP coverage, you must follow rules set forth in Regulation 68 for reporting a collision. Department of Financial Services explains Regulation 68 requires: “in the event of an accident, written notice setting forth details sufficient to identify the eligible injured person, along with reasonably obtainable information regarding the time, place and circumstances of the accident, shall be given by, or on behalf of, each eligible injured person, to the applicable No-Fault insurer, or any of their authorized agents, as soon as reasonably practicable, but in no event more than 30 days after the date of the accident.”

The only exception to this requirement is if you can provide clear justification, in writing, for why you did not provide this information within 30 days.

The PIP claim must be filed with the insurer covering the car you were an occupant of. If you were involved in a pedestrian collision, you must file with the car that hit you. If you don’t know who hit you or the driver was uninsured, you can sometimes file a PIP claim with the insurance of any member of your household who had PIP coverage.

You should also be sure to get information from the other driver about his insurance, and to get the other driver’s contact details. When you suffered serious injuries, you will need to deal with the other driver’s insurance. The insurance representing the policyholder who caused the accident should pay for economic and non-financial damages. You can recover this money through a negotiated settlement if the insurer accepts fault and is willing to make a settlement offer. If you do not believe the insurer is offering a fair payout, you can file a personal injury claim. If your family member was killed, you can go to court and file a wrongful death claim.

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Police Could Subpoena Phone Records After Buffalo Rear-End Collisions

25
Feb 2015
By:

Buffalo auto accident attorneyRear-end accidents are one of the most common types of collisions in Buffalo, Clarence, Williamsville, Amherst and nationwide. After a rear-end accident, determining the crash cause is important in order to determine who should be held legally liable for all losses and damages incurred by victims. In some cases, a driver can be held criminally responsible for causing death or serious injury if he was grossly negligent or was impaired while driving and caused an accident to happen.

A personal injury lawyer knows that law enforcement officers will typically conduct a comprehensive investigation into an accident cause, especially if serious injury or death happened. One part of this investigation may involve asking the motorists who were in the crash to provide their cell phone records.

Cell Phone Records Can Shed Light on Rear-End Accident Causes

According to the Claims Journal, a rear-end accident that has made headlines is currently being investigated. The crash involved Olympian athlete and reality television star Bruce Jenner. There were a total of four vehicles in the chain-reaction rear-end crash that left one person dead. Each of the drivers involved in the accident, including Jenner, has been asked to provide their cellular phone records. If any of the drivers is not willing to turn those records over, it is likely that the sheriff’s investigators who have been assigned to determine the cause of the crash will subpoena the records.

The purpose of obtaining the records is to determine if any of the drivers was either talking on the phone during the crash or was involved in texting during the crash. Talking or texting does not automatically mean you are to blame for causing the accident. However, because these behaviors do significantly increase the risk of a collision due to delayed reaction times and impaired judgment, the fact that you were on the phone or texting can be a strong indicator that you may have been at least partly to blame for causing the rear-end or other accident to occur.

Police will look at your call log to determine if you may have been talking on the phone. Cell phone records provide information on the time a call came in or a time the call was made, as well as how long you were on each call. This makes it very easy for police to see whether you were talking at the time of the crash.

It is a little harder to see if you were texting. The problem is that when you are texting, only the delivery time of the text is displayed on the phone records. The time when you are typing or reading does not show up. However, if there were many text messages sent or received at around the time that the accident happened, this could create a strong presumption that you were probably texting at the time of the collision. In rear-end accidents, the rear driver i usually considered at least partly responsible because he has the obligation to make sure he leaves room to stop if the front driver does. Still, phone records could provide more info on whether the front driver may have alone done something wrong that led to the crash occurring.

Contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 800-477-9044 or visit http://www.jamesmorrislaw.com.  Serving Buffalo, Rochester, Williamsville, Amherst Cheektowaga and surrounding areas. Attorney advertising.

Buffalo Teens & Driving Safely in Snow

24
Dec 2014
By:

Buffalo auto accident attorneyWhile teenagers throughout Williamsville, Clarence, Amherst, Buffalo and surrounding areas may be very eager to get their license and begin driving, parents may be less excited about their son or daughter being behind the wheel. A personal injury lawyer knows that there are significant risks for young drivers on the roads. In fact, as Drive Steady reports, the risk of a motor vehicle collision during a teenagers first year of driving is 10 times the risk faced by a more experienced motorist. In particular, the greatest number of accidents involving teen drivers occur during the first six months of the time when a young person gets his or her license.

Motor vehicle crashes caused by teen drivers remain a primary cause of death and serious injury for young people. There is always a danger when inexperienced drivers get behind the wheel; but the risk is made even worse during the winter months when inclement weather hits. Many teens have never driven in snow or with icy roads and this winter will be their first opportunity to battle these elements as they try to get safely to their destination.

Parents Can Play a Part in Teaching Kids Safe Winter Driving

While drugs and alcohol play a role in causing teen driving accidents, some of the biggest reasons why young people are so collision prone include overconfidence in their driving abilities coupled with inexperience that makes it difficult to respond to hazards. This can be a recipe for disaster during the winter, as young people may think that they can handle snow and ice on the roads and may end up endangering themselves and others as they drive in treacherous conditions.

Brand Connection provides some tips for parents on helping kids learn how to drive safely in order to overcome the dangers associated with their first season of winter driving. Recommendations include:

  • That parents do some winter driving practice with kids. When the weather starts to get bad out, parents should take their kids to an empty parking lot and let their children practice driving in the snow. Kids need to learn how to react to a slide, so parents should have them stop suddenly so the car skids and they have the opportunity to get the vehicle back under control. Young people also need to be taught how to brake safely when the roads are icy.
  • Parents should watch for bad weather and try to restrict driving. When the snow is coming down or there is snow on the ground, teen trips in the car should be limited to the essentials. If possible, kids should not drive at all until after the roads have been cleared.
  • Parents may wish to enroll their kids in winter driving classes. Many schools offer this type of education in order to help young people to avoid collisions.

It is also a good idea for parents to share some basic safety tips, like always putting headlights on during snow storms and never passing a plow that is clearing the roads. As the recent massive Buffalo snow storms showed, it is never too early to teach your kids how to handle snow.

Contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 800-477-9044 or visit http://www.jamesmorrislaw.com.  Serving Buffalo, Rochester, Williamsville, Amherst, Cheektowaga and surrounding areas. Attorney advertising.

Rear-View Cameras May Prevent Buffalo Crashes

Buffalo auto accident attorneyParents and relatives of young children need to be extremely careful when backing out of driveways.

As many as 50 young children are run over in a back-over crash every single week in the United States. Around 48 children need to visit an emergency room after being run over, and two children die in these crashes every single week.

A personal injury lawyer knows parents and close relatives are the behind the wheel in a majority of situations where a child is injured or killed in a back-over crash. In fact, according to Kids and Cars, a full 70 percent of back-over accidents resulting in injury or death to children involve a driver who is a parent or who is a close relative.

There are ways for parents to prevent back-over collisions and reduce the risk to their children. One of the best options may involve installing a rear-view camera in a vehicle or purchasing a vehicle that has a rear-view camera already installed in it.

Rear-view cameras can significant improve visibility and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has indicated it require rear-view cameras to be installed in all cars starting in 2016. Until that mandate goes into effect, parents and relatives may wish to purchase a vehicle with a system installed or install an aftermarket system in their vehicles after they have purchased the car.

Rear-View Cameras Reduce the Risk of Crashes for Kids

Rear-view cameras can make a big difference in helping to avoid deadly back-over accidents. In fact, as the Auto Channel reports, a study recently conducted by AAA has revealed rear-view cameras can improve rear visibility in vehicles by as much as 46 percent on average.

For some vehicles, such as hatchback cars, the improvement was even more significant. With a rear-view camera installed, a 75 percent improvement in rear visibility occurred. In vehicles that were smaller, such as sedans, adding a rear-view camera could improve rear visibility by 36 percent.

The greatest improvement in visibility occurred in the 10 feet immediately behind the area where the motor vehicle was driving. This is the area that tends to be the most dangerous spot for kids.

However, even after a rear-view camera has been installed, drivers need to continue to exercise a reasonable degree of care and caution in making sure they do not injure young children or otherwise cause a back-over accident to occur. AAA recommends before getting into the car, drivers do a pre-check to see if there are any obstacles behind the vehicle.

At the time when you are doing the pre-check, you can also wipe off the camera in case there is any snow or debris on it. The visibility of the rear-view camera may be affected by poor weather, so drivers also need to be aware that there is still some risk of a back-over crash.

The average age of a child who is injured or killed in a back-over accident is just 23 months. Drivers need to do their part to keep these vulnerable young people safe from a life changing or life-ending injury.

Contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 1-800-477-9044 or visit http://www.jamesmorrislaw.com.  Serving Buffalo, Rochester, Williamsville, Amherst, Cheektowaga and surrounding areas. Attorney advertising.

Preventing Buffalo Accidents Caused by Intoxicated Teens

27
Oct 2014
By:

Buffalo auto accident attorneyMotor vehicle collisions are a leading cause of death for young drivers. Because of their inexperience, teenagers are also more likely to be involved in collisions than any other age group. Unfortunately, bad decisions by young people can also be a factor in why so many teens and young adults lose their lives in accidents in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and across Western New York.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) recognizes that teens are frequently encouraged to make poor choices, like driving drunk, as a result of peer pressure. MADD has developed programs to try to use peer pressure to positive effect to help reduce collisions among young drivers. A personal injury lawyer knows that pressure from a peer group can also have a negative affect and increase the risk of a teen deciding to drive drunk.

Parents need to be aware of the impact that a child’s friends can have on whether the young adult uses alcohol and then drinks. As the holiday season approaches and kids attend dances and events, it is imperative that parents know who their children are spending time with to ensure that kids are not learning the wrong lessons when it comes to driving drunk.

Peer Pressure and Teen Drunk Driving

A study published in the National Institute of Health assessed the impact of a teenager’s peer group on driving abilities. Unfortunately, the study revealed that a young person who has friends in the car with him is significantly more likely to become involved in a motor vehicle crash than a teen who is alone in the car. There was no corresponding increase in motor vehicle collision risks among adults who had their peers in the car with them.

The study also demonstrated that less popular teens were generally more susceptible to peer pressure, but that more popular teens were the most likely to consume alcohol as a result of pressure from their friends and peer group. By contrast, if a teenager spent time with friends who disapproved of driving while impaired, the teen was much less likely to drive drunk.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has developed a Power of You(th) program intended to capitalize on the effects of positive peer pressure. MADD shares facts with teens as part of this program. For example, there is an informational booklet available that explains to young people that only 20 percent of teenagers binge drink and only 30 percent of teenagers admitted to having consumed alcohol in the 30 days prior to taking the survey.

As part of the Power of You(th) program, MADD also selects a group of national teen influencers. These are young people whose lives have been touched by alcohol or who have played an instrumental role in organizing events in the community to reduce teen drunk driving. The teen influencers will attend and organize local MADD events designed to help other young people make smart choices when it comes to impaired driving.

Parents, too, need to understand the impact of peer pressure and make sure they know who their kids are spending time with this fall and this holiday season.

Contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 1-800-477-9044 or visit http://www.jamesmorrislaw.com.  Representing clients throughout Buffalo and surrounding suburbs including Clarence, Cheektowaga and Williamsville. Attorney advertising.

Buffalo Traffic Accidents & Hands-Free Cell Phone Risks

15
Apr 2014
By:

Buffalo auto accident attorneyMany drivers try to do the right thing by using a hands-free system when they use their phones in the car. Hands-free control makes it possible for people to talk on the phone, but also to text, read or send emails and do other tasks on electronic devices.

Unfortunately, the reality is that you aren’t any safer using a hands-free device than you would be using a cell phone and holding it. You still take your focus off the road, which makes you more likely to cause a motor vehicle collision. You could hurt yourself or others and be held legally responsible for injuries. Texting accident driving attorneys in Buffalo can help those injured by distracted drivers.

Hands-Free Systems Still Can be Dangerous

 

According to Cars.com, 80 percent of drivers surveyed across the United States said that they believed that it was safer to use a hands-free phone system than to use a handheld phone system while driving. Around 70 percent of motorists who currently use hands-free systems said that they do so because of safety concerns.

These hands-free systems may be making things worse because drivers assume they aren’t at risk and are more comfortable spending a longer time on the phone. This problem is made worse because state laws lend support to this idea. As USA Today reports, there are total bans on using handheld devices in 12 states and there are bans on texting in 43 states. There are not any bans anywhere on the use of hands-free devices, so drivers just naturally assume that they are OK to be on the phone.

These drivers don’t realize that the center of their brain devoted to seeing visual activities is 1/3 less active when there are using their hands-free kit. As the National Safety Council (NSC) shows, the brain can’t multitask but is forced to switch back and forth between the phone use and the focus on what’s going on in the car. The brain doesn’t do this really effectively and around 50 percent of the visual information you should see outside your windshield is missed.

The result is that motorists on hands-free kits are just as likely, if not more likely, to crash. Recent studies have suggested that a person using voice-to-text is more distracted than someone who is texting using the handheld phone. Voice-to-text can also take longer to complete than just sending a regular text, so drivers are less focused on the road and are distracted for a longer time.

Around nine percent of drivers on the road at any given time are using a hands-free device, and these drivers are responsible for a lot of accidents. In total, there were 3,327 driving deaths because of distracted driving in 2012 and around 26 percent of the total number of motor vehicle collisions nationwide involved a driver on a phone.

 

Most safety experts believe the best way to solve this is a total ban on all phone use, including with a hands-free device. Until the law changes, though, drivers will just have to police themselves and make the commitment to turn their phones off or keep them out of reach in the car.

Contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 1-800-477-9044.  Attorney advertising.

Reducing New York Traffic Deaths Aim of “Vision Zero”

Buffalo auto accident attorneyNew York City Mayor Michael de Blasio has recently made headlines with his controversial “Vision Zero” plan to eliminate traffic deaths.

Of course, what’s riling folks is not that the plan seeks to dramatically reduce the number of car accident fatalities. Rather, the controversy stems from the fact that, per the mayor, this goal should be a greater priority for law enforcement officials than other anti-crime efforts.

On the surface, this may seem cold. But when you start to delve into the numbers, accident attorneys in Buffalo know the numbers support the mayor’s focus.

In 2011, state law enforcement officials report there were a total of 770 murders reported in New York. That represented a decrease of 11 percent from just a year earlier.

Meanwhile that same year, the National Highway Transportation & Safety Association reports that there were 1,169 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in New York State. This represented a reduction of just 3 percent from a year earlier. What’s more, it’s nearly 52 percent higher than the number of murders committed that year.

When you tally up the total number of crashes in New York state in 2011, there were approximately 308,000. As a result, more than 128,000 people sustained injuries and another 179,000 were left with property damage.

Meanwhile, there were a total of 77,000 people who were victims of violent crime.

Again, this is no small matter and certainly deserves our attention. But when we explore the best allocation of resources, it becomes clear that traffic safety exacts a higher human toll.

This is the argument upon which de Blasio’s plan is based. Perhaps other cities in New York would do well to take a page from his playbook.

The “Vision Zero” initiative is undoubtedly a big undertaking, involving more than 60 actions that range from reducing the city’s speed limit from 30 miles-per-hour to 25-miles-per hour to installing “black box” data recorders in taxicabs to document the speed.

While the issue has been one de  Blasio has stressed throughout his political career, it is one that gained momentum following numerous deaths in a series of high-profile crashes. At a single intersection, three people were killed over the course of a 10-day span.

Modeled after a Swedish traffic safety plan, Vision Zero will involve increasing the New York Police Department’s Highway Division to 263 officers – a significant boost from the 190 that are currently in place. More officers in each precinct will be devoted to traffic safety enforcement, and the department will be instructed to purchase more “speed guns” in order to catch speeding drivers.

The plan will also incorporate the dedication of enough funds to redesign some 50 streets and intersections every single year with the goal of improving accessibility and safety not just for drivers, but also bicyclists and  pedestrians. This will involve the installation of speed bumps, electronic flashing speed warning lights, wider shoulders and improved lighting.

More residential “slow zones’ will be established, where drivers will be required to slow to 20-miles-per-hour, and pedestrians will get the benefit of additional crosswalks, curb extensions and median islands.

Finally, penalties for dangerous drivers will be increased.

If you’ve been injured, contact a Buffalo accident attorney at the Law Offices of James Morris at 1-800-477-9044. Attorney advertising.

Buffalo Teen Car Accident Risks on the Rise

Buffalo auto accident attorneyOne 15-year-old was killed and her 13-year-old sister critically injured recently in a New York car accident, when their 19-year-old brother reportedly struck another vehicle while making a U-turn.

After the initial hit, investigators say the older teen struck several parking meters and then a utility pole. The youngest of the three was ejected. The 15-year-old was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

At The Law Offices of James Morris, our Buffalo car accident lawyers haveseen far too many cases where young lives were lost prematurely due to negligence on the roads. We don’t yet know the cause of this crash – that’s still under investigation. What we do know is that with prom and graduation right around the corner, it’s imperative that parents initiate a conversation with their teens about safe driving.

Other Teens Remain a Significant Distraction for Young Drivers

One of the biggest issues for teens to overcome is distraction. One of the greatest distractions? Other teens.

When a young driver has a group of peers in the vehicle, the risk of a crash rises with each additional passenger. In fact, most teens who are killed in auto accidents are passengers in vehicles driven by other teens, according to the New York State Department of Health.  This is particularly relevant as we approach spring, with formal dances and graduation parties galore. Arranging for a professional driver (a limousine for formal event, maybe a taxi for informal events) may alleviate your fears regarding this issue.

Bear in mind too that as of February 2010, it’s been illegal in New York State for a junior licensed driver to have more than one passenger under the age of 21 in his or her vehicle absent a parent, guardian or driving instructor.

As a parent, you may consider extending that rule until your child reaches the age of 18.

The other biggest distraction, of course, is the cell phone. Research from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development indicate that teens who text and drive are nearly four times as likely to crash as a teen who isn’t texting. Dialing a phone was even worse, making teens 8.3 times more likely to crash than peers who weren’t dialing. (Compare that to experienced drivers, whose risk was 2.5 times greater than their non-dialing counterparts.)

Those same researchers, whose work was recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, learned that teens start out very cautious when they begin to drive. However, as time passes, they start to engage in riskier and riskier behaviors, like texting, talking to passengers and eating. Specifically, during the first six months of having a license, teens were far less likely than experienced drivers to engage in secondary tasks. However, between months 7 and 15 of having a license, teen drivers matched their older counterparts in secondary tasks. During months 16 through 18, they had exceeded more experienced drivers in distractions.

In other words, their sense of confidence behind the wheel quickly becomes inflated.

New York has one of the toughest cell phone laws on the books, banning all drivers – not just teens –  from using handheld phones and texting behind the wheel.

The other major issue for teen drivers, particularly around prom and graduation, is drinking. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2011, 32 percent of drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 who were killed in crashes had been drinking.

Parents should make sure their teens understand that there will  be zero tolerance for such actions, but also that your teen can call you without retribution to come get him or her and avoid either driving drunk or riding with a drunk driver.

Contact the Law Offices of James Morris in Buffalo today for a free consultation. Call 800-477-9044 or visit www.jamesmorrislaw.comAttorney advertising.

Buffalo DUI Accidents – How to Reduce the Risks

21
Jan 2014
By:

Drunk driving remains a major cause of injury and death in the U.S., despite the fact that a lot of progress has been made to reduce the number of people dying due to intoxicated motorists. Just recently, the Republic indicated that a western New York driver was sentenced to between one and three years of prison time because of a fatal drunk driving accident that he caused while driving southwest of Buffalo. Statewide in New York throughout 2012, a total of 344 people were killed by drunk drivers according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

These incidents in Buffalo aren’t the only ones that occur annually. A total of 40 percent of all fatal collisions in the country result from the actions of intoxicated drivers. Someone is killed in a drunk driving collision every 30 minutes. Drunk driving injuries happen even more frequently, with someone getting hurt once every two minutes.

Reducing the serious risk of injury or death remains a top priority and the National Safety Council (NSC) recently published some important information on different techniques that have been effectively used to stop drunk driving. Drunk driving accident lawyers in Buffalo know that laws and regulations can only do so much, even if they are relatively effective. Ultimately, the choice rests with every driver to make a decision to call a cab or call a friend rather than drive home drunk. Making the right choice could save a life.

Techniques to Reduce Intoxicated Driving

The techniques that the NSC discussed to reduce the risk of intoxicated driving included:

  • Screenings and brief intervention. More than 360 different studies in the past have shown that screening and intervention are the lowest cost effective methods of intervening when people have alcohol problems. Employers are often in the best position to offer screenings and can do so as part of employee benefit programs and also to reduce the risk of liability that could result from an employee causing an accident while drunk on the job. Screening and brief intervention can help people with alcohol problems to get the treatment they need and reduce the chances of high-risk behaviors like drunken driving.
  • Public enforcement of drunk driving laws. Everyone knows that drunk driving is illegal, but highly-visible enforcement reminds drivers of how easy it is for them to get caught. Sobriety check points are one possible method of public enforcement, but campaigns around the holidays such as “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” also are effective at reducing intoxicated driving since motorists become more aware that there are a lot of police on the roads enforcing the laws.
  • Ignition interlock devices. These stop cars from starting when a driver has a BAC that is above the legal limit. The National Transportation Safety Board has recently been recommended that IIDs be required for all motorists convicted of driving drunk, even first-time offenders. Around 1/3 of people who are arrested driving drunk each year had already been convicted of an intoxicated driving offense in the past, so an IID could go a long way towards stopping repeat offenders and making the roads safer.

These are just some of the different techniques that could help to reduce the risks that drunk drivers present on the roads. Those who are injured in accidents with an intoxicated motorist also need to understand their legal rights and take action to hold the drunken driver accountable for injuries.

Contact the Law Offices of James Morris in Buffalo today for a free consultation. Call 800-477-9044. Attorney advertising.

Buffalo Traffic Accidents & Drowsy Driving this Holiday Season

19
Dec 2013
By:

Driving while you are fatigued is a dangerous behavior that could result in you falling asleep at the wheel or experiencing delayed reaction times that significantly increase your risk of an accident. Evidence indicates that a person who stays awake too long can start to lose focus and experience other impairments similar to someone who has driven drunk. As a result, a drowsy driver could endanger himself and could put other motorists, pedestrians and motorcyclists at risk.

Unfortunately, many people do drive while they are fatigued because a lot of people aren’t getting enough sleep. Car accident attorneys in Buffalo know that about a third of all American adults are overtired, and about 20 percent of annual car accidents are attributed to drowsy drivers because so many people aren’t well rested. You don’t want to be one of those drivers who is drowsy and who causes a crash, so you should make it a priority to get a good night rest if you find yourself routinely feeling too tired to drive safely.

Tips for Staying Safe from Drowsy Driving Accidents

Avoiding drowsy driving crashes requires you to get enough sleep to stay awake and alert when you are behind the wheel. The Fiscal Times has provided a few key things that you can do in order to get a better night sleep so that you are less likely to become involved in a drowsy driving accident.

To ensure you are getting the best night sleep possible and making the most of the time you do have to get some rest:

  • Put your mind in the right mode to rest. One of the worst things that you can do right before you go to bed is use a smartphone, tablet or other electronic device. The bright white light on these devices makes your brain think that it is time to be awake and alert, making it harder to fall asleep.
  • Don’t drink or eat things that affect your sleep. If you drink a caffeinated drink within six hours of the time you plan to go to bed, you will have a much harder time falling asleep and may have your sleep disrupted. Both alcohol and spicy foods are also bad for sleep. Alcohol could help you to fall asleep initially, but as it metabolizes in the body, you’re probably going to wake up.
  • Exercise in a way that helps you get rest. You should engage in vigorous exercise if you can, since when the body works hard the brain will know that it deserves some rest.  However, don’t exercise too soon before bed or you’ll have a harder time falling asleep.
  • Remember that regular bedtimes are for everyone. Going to sleep and getting up at the same time each day helps your body to establish a sleep routine. Don’t mess that routine up by sleeping late or staying up late on the weekend nights. Instead, if you want to rest on the weekends, take short naps throughout the day.
  • Consider a sleep study if you need one. A sleep study can help you to identify and solve problems that prevent you from getting rest.

Finally, remember that it is often a bad idea to rely on sleeping pills. New studies show that those who take them only fall asleep about 20 minutes before people who took a placebo pill. Unfortunately, sleeping pills can also leave you feeling groggy and make your morning commute very unsafe if the pills fog your head so you aren’t alert behind the wheel.

Car accident lawyers in Buffalo can help if you’ve been hurt in an accident. Contact the Law Offices of James Morris today for a free consultation. Call 800-477-9044. Attorney advertising.