An article appeared in the Buffalo News today about teen driving habits, specifically teens driving while texting and emailing. The statistics in the article are alarming. Over half of the teens surveyed in a national study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, admitted to texting while driving. That number jumps to 58% when the study is narrowed to high school seniors. As we mentioned in a previous post on texting while driving the practice can significantly increase your risk of an accident while driving. This point is reinforced by another stat line from the Buffalo News article: Distracted driving accounts for 16% of teen motor vehicle deaths.

While these stats are scary, the Transportation Department aims to do something about it. They are in the process of awarding grants in pilot programs in California and Delaware to deter the behavior through stepped-up enforcement and education on the dangers of texting while driving. If you have teen drivers in your household do your part as well. Let your teen know that texting while driving is a reckless habit that not only endangers their safety, but the safety of other drivers on the road. Consider having everyone in your household participate in a program like WGRZ’s ‘Pledge to Hang Up’, WIVB’s ‘thnk b4 u txt’ program, or any of a number of programs that advocate again distracted driving. More information, including quick facts and tips on how to stop, is also available through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program, ‘Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks.’

Do your part to stop preventable car accidents. Be sure that you and your family are practicing safe driving techniques. Don’t text and drive. If you do find yourself in an accident due to a distracted driver, contact the law firm with over 100 years of combined personal injury experience in Buffalo. Call the Law Offices of James Morris at 716-855-1118.

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The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents estimates that roughly 60% of accidents at work go unreported every year. Many avoid reporting workplace accidents for fear of executive confrontation or simple lack of will. Despite the perceived burden of reporting a workplace accident, employees actually benefit from recording such incidents. For instance, if an employee seeks time-off for an accident at work, referencing a log of when the accident occurred is helpful in determining how much time off is needed to fully recover.

What most people fail to realize is that, under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulation of 1995, employers are required to report all accidents in the workplace regardless of the incident’s severity. For this reason, it is imperative that employees do their part in recognizing when workplace accidents occur and properly recording them for employer review.  This requirement extends beyond the realm of erroneous human behavior to include spread of diseases and illnesses as well. Employees and employers should take every measure possible to prevent workplace accidents. The list below provides four preventive measures to take in every workplace:

1. Safety Training for New and Current Employees: As part of orientation, all employers should enforce a rigorous safety training session to assure that employees know what to do if a workplace accident occurs.
2. Ongoing Safety Education: an initial safety orientation is a good start, but continuing safety education in the workplace at regular intervals can save employers thousands of dollars in the long run if a workplace accident were to occur. Monthly safety meetings, bulletin board reminders and occasional informational video sessions are all good ways of continuing an employee’s safety education.
3. Provide Necessary Safety Equipment: easily the most obvious point on the list, but also the most important. Without necessary safety and first-aid equipment readily available, an accident in the workplace can go from bad to worse in minutes. Essential safety protection includes eye goggles, adhesive bandages and ear plugs.
4. Proper Training for Specialized Machinery: if your organization uses any sort of occupational-specific machinery, necessary training in machinery function should be given to all employees who will use it. This sort of training should not occur on the job, but rather before the employee begins work.

Texting while Driving threatens our safety behind the wheel. Unfortunately, little research exists to conclude the severity of damage texting while driving causes. The Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) however, released a definitive report last summer on distracted driving, pulling research from over 350 scientific papers published over the last decade. Much of their research focused on cell phone use while driving. Before we get into the conclusions of the GHSA’s research, here’s a brief overview of the different types of distracted driving.

Four types of driver distraction:

• Visual – drivers eyes focused on something other than the road
• Auditory – listening and focus attention to sound unrelated to driving
• Manual – physically interacting with something other than the steering wheel
• Cognitive – mental processes focused on something other than driving

Many distractions incorporate any or all of these types causing both sensory and mental distractions. The GHSA used these distractions as criteria for their study to determine when drivers were considered distracted. Now that you know what constitutes distracted driving, here are some of the most startling distracted driving statistics from the GHSA’s report (view the full report here: Distracted Driving: What Research Shows and What States Can Do)

1. Drivers are distracted up to 50% of the time while driving: based on observations of over 100 different drivers, drivers engaged in a secondary activity 25%-50% of the time. More specifically, evidence showed that two-thirds of all drivers surveyed reported cellphone use while driving
2. Fifteen to thirty percent of all crashes involve at least one distracted driver: this proportion may be even greater due to restrictions in generating data.
3. One eighth of all drivers admitted to texting and driving: the study also suggested that texting is likely to increase crash risk more so than traditional cell phone use.

Due your part to stop preventable car accidents by shutting out distractions while driving. Should you fall victim to a distracted driver, contact a buffalo lawyer from a law firm with over 100 years of combined personal injury compensation experience. Call James Morris Law, 716-855-1118.

A dog bite injury is painful enough for a family to deal with, let alone the numerous other animal injuries a person can suffer. The info-graphic below provides a grim look at the havoc an everyday pest, like a mosquito, can wreak on an unsuspecting victim. If you need a lawyer as the result of a dog attack, or a personal injury attorney in Buffalo, call James Morris Law today, 716-855-1118

Source: TotalInjury.com

Reckless driving applies to any age group, typically however, it’s our young driver’s that concern us most. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that in 2009, over 3,000 teens, age 15-19, were fatally injured in car accidents, and another 350,000 were treated for automobile injuries. An even more startling automobile accident statistic by the CDC claims that, though people ages 15-24 account for just 14% of the population, they account for 30% of the total costs of injuries from car accidents among males, and 28% among females, culminating a whopping total of $26 billion annually. So what causes this vast discrepancy in teenage driving risks versus the rest of the population? The CDC provides an extensive list of teen car accident factors to explain this phenomenon; here are a few of the most important:

1. Teens are more likely to speed: In 2005, 37% of fatal car crashes involving 15-20 year olds were due to speeding. The presence of male teenage passengers increases this likelihood according to a study on the observed effects of teenage passengers on the risky driving behavior of teenage drivers.

2. Teens have the lowest rate of seatbelt use: a 2005 study confirmed that roughly 10% of teens admitted to rarely or never wearing a seat-belt, that percentage was even higher for male participants.

3. Teens are more likely to be in an accident at any BAC level: the CDC confirms that any elevated level of blood alcohol puts teens at a greater risk of a car accident than the rest of the population. Twenty-five percent of drivers age 15-20 who died in a car accident in 2008 had BAC levels of .08 or higher.

4. Teens are more likely to be in a car accident on the weekend: A 2008 study found that 56% of teenage fatal car accidents occurred on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Fortunately, there is hope for teen drivers. Research suggests that 16-year-olds who enrolled in comprehensive graduated drivers licensing (GDL) programs slashed their risk of getting in an automobile accident by as much as 40%. An automobile accident can strike anyone at any time, not just teens. Should you, a child or a friend need a car accident attorney, call an attorney in buffalo from a law firm with over 100 years of combined personal injury experience. Call James Morris Law, 716-855-1118.

Below you’ll find anything and everything you’ve ever needed to know about car accidents, car accident law and car accident injuries that we’ve posted on JamesMorrisBlog.com. Enjoy!

1. Should NYS Ban Cell Phone Use in Cars
2. Useful sources for knowing your BAC Level
3. Read this and think twice before driving impaired
4. How much would a fatal car accident cost you?
5. Texting while driving on the rise
6. Why automobile accidents occur between cars and buildings
7. Are teen car accidents higher in the summer?
8. Why your bus driver might cause your next car accident
9. What happens in a car accident with an uninsured motorist?
10. Most common type of car accidents in New York and its cause.
11. Teen Car Accidents: What’s the Cause?

We are pleased to announce that the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers has extended an invitation to James Morris. This is an elite group of the top lawyers in New York. Membership in the organization is by invitation only and is extended to individuals who exemplify superior qualifications, trial results and leadership in their respective state. The Top 100 Trial Lawyers list is based on and limited to an average of 100 lawyers in each state. Membership in this organization allows the attorney to attend legal education conferences and share information and tactics with the country’s leading trial lawyers.

While the perils of drunk driving are apparent to everyone, the number of people who still commit this act is discouraging. In late December, an impaired driver claimed the life of a South Buffalo man just ten houses from the victim’s home. The driver, a West Seneca native, now faces upwards of seven years in prison, charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular man slaughter. The victim was crossing a neighborhood intersection that he’d presumably passed an immeasurable number of times when the intoxicated driver struck. Paramedics rushed the man to the Erie County Medical Center where he died early the following morning.

Drunk-driving accidents can be prevented by both impaired drivers and pedestrians. If you’ve been drinking, avoid operating a vehicle at all costs, regardless of whether you’re below the legal limit. As a general rule, if you’ve had anything to drink, find a different ride home. For pedestrians, be aware that drivers do take the risk of driving impaired, so stay alert of your surroundings and avoid walking on roads, especially dim lit roads at night. If you’re interested in testing your BAC purely for informational purposes, consult the sources below:

• BloodAlchoholCaclulator.org
• BAC Estimates
• Erie County: Stop DWI
• Home Breathalyzer Kit

New York State Trial Lawyers Association President Leslie Kelmachter testifies at a city council hearing:

President Kelmachter stressed that there is no malpractice “crisis” in New York, pointing out that since 1991 insurance premiums have risen less than the rate of healthcare cost inflation. President Kelmachter advocated for greater efforts to reduce medical errors, stating that “the biggest driver of malpractice insurance costs is tragic and preventable medical errors themselves.”

A woman finds herself still at the mercy of her caretakers at ECMC five months after a car accident stole her ability to walk, speak, eat on her own or even move her head. The August accident involving an impaired driver and his 40-year-old female passenger resulted not only in the woman’s injuries, but a vehicular assault charge and a four-year prison sentence for the driver.

The pair was returning to Buffalo from Indiana. The woman drove from Indiana to Pennsylvania until she grew weary, at which point the man took the wheel. The man, driving under the influence of drugs, lost control of the vehicle between Exits 55 and 56 on a Hamburg highway and was struck by a passing vehicle. The passenger side took the brunt of the collision, resulting in the woman’s devastating injuries. In addition to his impairment, the man operated the vehicle with a suspended license.

In a statement to the Supreme Court, the driver said “I didn’t mean for this to happen. . . I cry myself to sleep every night. I’m sorry, that’s all I can say.” Despite the man’s remorse, in addition to the vehicular assault charge, the court charged him with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and possession of marijuana. In a statement to the Buffalo News, the victim’s husband stated “Everything my wife loved to do, she can no longer do because of this accident… She can’t do anything by herself.”

You can avoid accidents like this. Do not drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or allow anyone in that condition to drive your vehicle. If you’ve suffered due to someone else’s recklessness, call James Morris Law today 716-855-1118.