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Seat belts save lives. It’s not just an empty slogan. The Missouri Department of Transportation has startling facts about the link between fatalities and the failure to wear seat belts: Seven out of 10 Missourians killed in traffic crashes in 2011 were unbuckled, and three out of four teens killed in 2011 traffic crashes were not wearing a seat belt. Only 67 percent of Missouri teens (13-19) wear seat belts.

As Missourians killed in traffic crashes in 2011 , we have seen the devastating effects caused by not wearing a seat belt. The proper use of seat belts reduces the risk of serious injuries and even death. In Missouri, 79 percent of the citizens wear seat belts, but the state’s seat belt usage rage is well below the national average of 85 percent.

The Missouri Highway Patrol, Department of Transportation and local law enforcement are cracking down on wearing seatbelts from May 21 – June 3 with their “Click It or Ticket” campaign.

While it’s frustrating to be handed a fine for not being buckled up, the risks of not wearing a seat belt are just too great to ignore the law. In 2011, 784 Missourians were killed in traffic crashes. If everyone were buckled up, the number of deaths likely would be lower.

As of May 6, 2012, there were 255 traffic fatalities in Missouri, an increase of 22 percent when compared to roughly the same time period in 2011 (208 fatalities).

The good news is that Missouri car accident deaths have dropped 37.6 percent since 2005. But Missouri traffic fatality statistics reveal much work is needed to drive the numbers down even further.

In Missouri, 30 percent of traffic deaths involve an impaired driver. The leading causes of car accidents include speeding, driving under the influence and inattention.

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The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is pleased to announce its sponsorship of the Fourth Annual Running of the Bulls 8K, Durham’s premiere community road race and USA Track & Field NC Championship, on Saturday, June 2, in Durham, North Carolina.

Running of the Bulls is an 8 kilometer race – equivalent to 4.97 miles – that will wind its way through the historic downtown area of Durham, North Carolina. The race will start at 7:15 a.m. on Foster Street, close to the Durham Farmer’s Market and the YMCA. During the course of the race, runners will be able to get a glimpse of the different neighborhoods and cultural hotspots around Durham, including the American Tobacco campus, home to the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin. The race will conclude with a lap around the track at Old Durham Athletic Park.

The race will conclude with an awards ceremony at 9:15 at the Durham Athletic Park.

Running of the Bulls 8K is currently open for registration. The registration fee is $35.00 per runner and will close on May 31. Runners will be able to register on the day of the race for $40 per person if any spots remain.

The race is directed by Bull City Running Co. and proceeds from this year’s race will benefit Sustain-a-Bull and other local charities.

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About the Firm:
The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin a car accident lawyer Durham Nc is headquartered in the American Tobacco Historic District, adjacent to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, in Durham, North Carolina, with 12 additional offices statewide in Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Goldsboro, Henderson, New Bern, Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Sanford and Wilson. The firm’s 28 attorneys focus on the following practice areas: Personal Injury, Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, Bankruptcy, Intellectual Property, Civil Rights, Mass Torts and Products Liability. Three of the attorneys are North Carolina Board Certified Specialists in Workers’ Compensation Law, one is a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Social Security Disability Law and one is a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law. The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is involved in the community, including sponsorship of local philanthropic organizations and an active employee matching donation program.

How many times have you been cut off in traffic, or watched another driver run a stop sign, only to notice that the driver was talking on a cell phone?

How many times have you yourself started to veer toward other cars when you stumbled to reach your cell phone or tried to respond to a friend’s text?

Most drivers recognize that cell phones are a distraction that can be dangerous on the road. Yet few drivers want to give up the convenience of ‘talking or texting while theyre driving.

An article in USA Today reports that the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 94 percent of drivers think that texting while driving is a “serious threat” to safety and that 87 percent of drivers are in favor of texting bans. However, more than a third of drivers also admitted to reading texts or e-mail while driving, and nearly 70 percent said that they talk on their cell phones while driving.

Cell Phones and Safe Driving

Data about the dangers of texting or talking on a cell phone while driving is unclear. While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that cell phones were a factor in about 13 percent of fatal crashes See: Personal Injury Lawyers Serving Fayetteville North Carolina
last year, officials note that reporting is unreliable. Drivers are not likely to report that they were engaging in risky behavior while driving, such as talking on a cell phone or texting, especially if those behaviors have been banned in that region.

USA Today reports that the National Transportation Safety Board called on states in December to ban handheld and hands-free cell phone use while driving.

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A new study, however, indicates that teenage girls are engaging in risky driving habits. Young women, in fact, were around twice as likely as young men to use electronic devices while driving, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The study also determined that females were 10 percent more likely to be observed engaging in other distracted driver behaviors, such as reaching for an object in the vehicle or eating or drinking.

Los Angeles personal injury lawyer Mickey Fine, of the Law Offices of Mickey Fine, (Directions : Law Offices of Mickey Fine has represented seriously injured accident victims. An experienced car accident attorney, Fine has seen first-hand how devastating injuries can be to victims and their families.

Distracted driving has become an epidemic as more people use cell phones and other electronic devices. More than 3,000 highway deaths in 2010 were linked to distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It’s important for parents to talk with their teenagers about the dangers of using cell phones while driving or texting while driving.

Another study looking at gender and car accidents revealed that the number of young female drunk drivers is on the rise. In 2007, the risk of being involved in a drunk driving car accident was about the same for young female drinkers as it was for young male drinkers, according to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In 1996, a male under 21 was four times as likely as an underage female to get into a fatal drunk driving car accident with a blood alcohol concentration of .1 percent, according to the study.

It’s not entirely clear why more young women are getting into drunk driving accidents, but they may be taking more chances on the road than they had in the past, according to researchers.

While teenagers may cause accidents due to their inexperience as drivers or because they have engaged in risky behavior behind the wheel, some young people can become injury victims through no fault of their own. If you were injured, or a loved one was injured or killed due to someone’s negligence, it’s important to speak with an experienced attorney who can protect your rights.

SPRINGFIELD Mass Live – A 41-year-old city man, who apparently named the sledgehammer that he uses for work after a prominent personal injury lawyer, allegedly used it to break down the door of an ex-girlfriend’s Windsor Street home early Wednesday and threaten her, police said.

The woman and another occupant of the home escaped injury after they barricaded a hallway door with a refrigerator, Sgt. John M. Delaney said.

The incident began about 1:40 a.m. when the suspect, Eric Turhan Northrop, approached the woman’s home and threatened to use the sledgehammer which he referred to as ” Mark E. Salomone” to break down the door if she didn’t let him in, Delaney, aide to Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said. Salomone is a well-known Massachusetts accident attorney who airs commercials on television.

Delaney, quoting from the arresting officer’s report, said that Northrop “broke through the front door wildly swinging Mark E. Salomone'” and yelled “I am going to get medieval on you like Thor.” A

Responding police officers found the sledgehammer on a table inside the home and arrested Northrop, of 40 Windsor St.

He was charged with home invasion, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, threat to commit a crime and assault with a dangerous weapon, police documents state.

The American Insurance Association and the Coalition for Medicare Secondary Payer reform both announced their support for the Medicare Secondary Payer and Workers’ Compensation Settlement Agreements Act of 2012, introduced last week by Representatives Dave Reichart (R-Wa.) and Mike Thompson (D-Ca.).

The legislation is aimed at resolving the delays in the review of workers’ compensation set-asides for Medicare.

A Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement (MSA) is an account that is created when a workers’ compensation case is settled to protect Medicare from paying for expenses that are related to the worker’s injuries. Therefore, if a worker has to receive surgery, the MSA would be used to pay for it, rather than Medicare benefits.

“(The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) takes too long to review proposed set-asides, fails to provide appropriate and consistent standards for determining amounts to be set aside, and provides no avenue to appeal CMS determinations,” Douglas Holmes, the coordinator of the Coalition for Medicare Secondary Payer Reform, said in a press release. “The process results in injured workers not receiving funds, additional costs for states and workers’ compensation payers, and additional liability for employers, insurance carriers, and attorneys. A legislative solution to this problem is needed.”

The coalition, which includes representatives for injured workers and insurance carriers, has been pushing for reform of this system for some time, and the Government Accountability Office released a report in March that included recommendations for improving these processes.

“In case after case, we hear of delays in approval, uncertainty of the amount to be reimbursed by injured workers, and changes in amounts to be set-aside after settlements have already been approved,” J.R. Boyd, the president of the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group, said in a press release.

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A new study examining the safety of young workers in the United States has yielded startling findings, says Massachusetts personal injury attorney Mark E. Salomone . According to statistics that appeared in HealthDay News, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health found that approximately 20,000 teen job-related injuries occurred in 2010, including 88 teen deaths due to workplace injuries at privately owned companies. Most businesses with three or more employees carry Worker’s Compensation coverage, which applies to young employees as well as adults.
Teen worker injuries and fatalities can be the due to a number of factors, including dangerous work environments, defective work equipment or poor training. Teenager job injuries have many causes, from construction site accidents and company car accidents to repetitive stress carpal tunnel pain and restaurant worker kitchen burns .
The study found that, out of all the types of work young people are hired to do, farming is the most hazardous. “From a fatality standpoint, farm work is the most dangerous occupation for kids,” said study author Carol Runyan in an University of Colorado news release. “In farm work, youths are working around heavy equipment, digging and cutting with sharp implements. There are deaths almost every year from young people suffocating in grain bins.”
Massachusetts personal injury attorney Mark E. Salomone understands that young workers are typically more vulnerable than adults, across all industries, and that it is vital for teen employees and their families to explore not only Workers’ Compensation rights but other damages they may be able to recover. “Even if your family receives the maximum amount of teen Workers’ compensation benefits,” says Salomone, “it may not be enough to cover all the expenses incurred as a result of your child’s injury. A third party-such as a manufacturer, contractor or someone else whose actions may have been careless-could also be liable for a young worker’s injuries.”
Child labor laws exist across the nation, though in some companies they are not fully implemented or may go unheeded altogether. “We don’t tend to think of child labor as a major issue in the U.S., but we should,” says Runyan. “Laws governing the employment of youth ages 14 to 17 in this country are often very lenient and, in the case of family farms, virtually non-existent.”

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Women often spend a lot of time driving their children to and from school, extracurricular activities like sports, and family activities.

Because they spend so much time on the road with such precious cargo, women often choose vehicles based on their safety rating and other perceived safety features. Yet new vehicle ratings reveal that safety information had been skewed for men, and that women and children may actually be at greater risk of serious injury from car accidents than previously thought.

Starting with 2011 models, the federal government began using a smaller “female” crash-test dummy for some safety tests, instead of the standard, average-sized “male” dummy. The result has been a lower safety rating for many vehicles – as much as two stars – to reflect the increased risk of serious injury for smaller passengers, such as women and children.

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Not all injuries are visible, but sometimes the most devastating conditions are only evident to the sufferer. Traumatic brain injury http://www.glennlawfirm.com/personal-injury/brain-and-head-injury-information-attorney-texas, spinal cord injury, broken bones, internal organ injuries-they are all felt by the person suffering, but with little external evidence to others of any extreme pain within. One such injury is a lesser known yet often excruciating condition that goes by two names: complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD). It can be the result of motorcycle crashes, semi-truck accidents, car wrecks, slip and fall accidents and workplace injuries, and yet can be a challenge to diagnose.

Accident injury CRPS can be a debilitating condition that impacts its victims’ ability to return to work and to enjoy the quality of life they may have had prior to the accident that caused it. A neurological disorder, CRPS or RSD can affect the skin, muscles, joints and bones, and may begin after an accident in which the victim has an injured leg or arm, such as a motorcycle accident in which the rider sustains a broken leg.

Texas personal injury lawyer http://www.glennlawfirm.com David Glenn, of Glenn Law Firm, understands how devastating a CRPS diagnosis can be, both for victims and their loved ones. “CRPS is a chronic, incurable pain condition,” he explains, “in which high levels of nerve impulses are sent to an affected site. Experts believe that CRPS occurs as a result of dysfunction in the central or peripheral nervous systems and is most common in people aged 20-35. The syndrome also can occur in children and affects women more often than men.”

One of the greatest challenges of CRPS is that it is very difficult condition to prove in car accident lawsuits http://www.glennlawfirm.com/auto-accidents/car-accident-injury-attorney-texas-lawsuit, slip and fall lawsuits or workplace injury lawsuits. CRPS and RSD lawsuit plaintiffs need aggressive, reliable and knowledgeable legal representation, as that gives CRPS sufferers a much stronger chance of recovering damages. Insurance adjusters may challenge the diagnosis, questioning patients who try to collect compensation. It is important, therefore, for CRPS patients to talk to a trusted, tough CRPS injury attorney as soon after the condition begins as possible.

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It can be hard to admit when you’ve been injured at work, particularly if it’s a slow-developing injury or one that’s not too common. Injuries that are clearly very serious-such as a spinal cord injury or fall from a ladder broken back on a construction site job, brain injury from a company car accident or a bad burn from a restaurant job or working with toxic chemicals-are usually attended to immediately, often requiring an ambulance and sometimes hospitalization.

At Recht Law Offices, the Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia workers compensation lawyers know it’s all too easy for loyal, hard-working employees to be stoic and not complain about pain, especially when it’s from gradually worsening type of injury. These injuries can be equally debilitating and are often musculoskeletal, requiring longer rehabilitation than more immediately severe injuries, and can mean months of physical therapy or occupational therapy for full recovery.
If you or someone you love was injured at work, or if you lost a loved one, in a wrongful death job accident, you need the aggressive legal representation of Ohio, Pennsylvania or West Virginia personal injury lawyers Recht Law Office. We fight for justice. Call Recht Law Offices at 1-800-HURTLINE or complete the online contact form.

Such injuries include common hospital worker injuries such as muscle strains from heavy lifting, repetitive stress injury and carpal tunnel syndrome, which are well-known office job and assembly-line injuries, and knee injuries from going up and down stairs and ladders, which is a frequent construction worker injury.

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