While it is good news that NHTSA may soon be imposing stricter underride standards, this action has come too late to save many lives. It is one more example of how safety regulators often take far too long to act, increasing the risk of truck crashes and other types of accidents on the road. Consumer Affairs recently reported on how safety organizations, including an organization called AnnaLeaha and Mary for Truck Safety, believe regulators are falling short.

Federal Lawmakers Should Impose Stricter Safety Regulations to Prevent Truck Crashes & Other Collisions

AnnaLeaha and Mary for Truck Safety is named after two sisters who were killed in an accident with a semi-trailer. The parents of the girls believe an absence of sufficient federal regulations were a direct contributing factor to their children’s death. The girls died in an underride accident with a truck driver who was believed to have been on the road too long. If stricter underride standards had been in place at the time of the incident, the deadly accident may never have happened.

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Davis, Davis, Davis & Davis, PC
35 E Court St
Rocky Mt, VA 24151
Phone: (866) 434-1581
Local: (540) 483-5221
Fax: (540) 483-8234

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At least states have this authority to do this right now. Richmond Times Dispatch indicates states may soon no longer be able to impose additional rules related to trucker meal breaks or to trucker rest breaks which go beyond the rules which exist on the federal level. This is because a provision has quietly found its way into a federal aviation bill which would pre-empt state law and prevent states from giving more protections to truckers when it comes to guaranteed breaks.  This provision is one of several recent efforts by federal lawmakers which appear to have the effect of undermining trucking safety.

Federal Laws Increasing the Risk of Truck Accidents

In December of 2014, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act passed and was signed into law. This Act was essentially a must pass act to keep the government funded and operational. Because it was must-pass legislation, lawmakers were able to put provisions into it which they wanted to get passed quietly, which might not have passed if the individual provision had come up separately for a vote. One of the clauses included suspended a requirement which had been issued by FMCSA. The requirement had mandated a 34-hour rest break, with two periods spanning the hours between 1 AM and 5 AM. This break would be required after a trucker had driven 60 hours over seven days or 70 hours over eight days.

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Farrow & Pulice Attorneys at Law
Bradenton Office
3639 Cortez Rd W
Bradenton, FL 34210
(941) 251-8424

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Maybe it’s because snowmobiles are called recreational vehicles. Regardless of the reason, a lot of snowmobile operators do not take their responsibilities seriously once they mount their sleds to go for a ride, leading often to serious injuries, fatalities and accident lawsuits in Maine courts over their reckless behavior.

Experienced accident lawyers say they see many parallels between snowmobile accidents on the state’s 13,000 miles of signed trails and highway crashes involving automobiles, trucks, motorcycles and various other vehicles.

Among the most common factors in many motor vehicle accident lawsuits is a driver’s unreasonable rate of speed. Just as quite a few motorcyclists, many Maine snowmobile drivers feel they must feed their “need for speed” See : accident lawyers – the sense of the wind whipping over them. However, the circumstances of riding a snowmobile – speeding along a slippery surface of snow or ice with limited braking ability – make it necessary to use extreme care. The failure to use common sense and exercise defensive driving skills can change a routine ride on the trails into a high-speed trip to a court date with a Maine snowmobile accident attorney.

Similarly, Maine snowmobile accident lawsuits often follow crashes involving a drunk driver whose wreckless behavior is accountable for life-changing injuries or fatalities. The blood-alcohol limit of a snowmobile driver, like other motorists, is .08. In the carefree realm of snowmobiling, quite a few people are members of clubs that organize group trips with rest stops at local bars. A beverage or two at each stop impairs judgment and slows the reaction time of even experienced snowmobile operators. Operating in a group with riders who drink also poses dangers, including increasing the potential for colliding with an impaired driver and raising the odds of injuries as a result of being caught up in mimicking their high-speed, careless behavior.

An additional danger cited by Maine accident lawyers would be the fact that consuming alcohol accelerates a lowering of body temperature. Together with the frigid outdoor environment, the operator runs the possible risk of hypothermia, which also impairs a driver’s judgment.

Poor judgment extends beyond driving behavior, Maine snowmobile accident attorneys note. Every winter, lives are lost and snowmobile accident lawsuits are filed when operators foolishly ignore the perils associated with traveling across ice. The thickness and strength of ice will differ widely on rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. Snow often creates a blanket that prevents the formation of thick, strong ice. Even a well-worn trail across water can create the misguided impression of safety if previous travelers have weakened the ice.

A Maine snowmobile accident lawyer is aware that responsible operators can have the ability to protect themselves, their passengers and innocent bystanders by adhering to a few simple rules. Safety equipment, including a helmet with a visor or a set of protective goggles, and layers of water-repellent clothing, is critical. So is carrying a first-aid kid which includes a flashlight, knife, compass, map and waterproof matches.

And don’t ever, Maine attorneys say, travel alone. There is nothing more dangerous to the life and health and fitness of a snowmobiler than being injured without fellow riders available to provide or seek medical assistance.

When someone has been injured or lost somebody as a result of snowmobile driver who ignores practical sense when operating a 500-pound machine, they should seek the advice of a Maine snowmobile accident lawyer who possesses expertise in protecting their proper rights and pursuing fair financial compensation.

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We aggressively move personal injury cases forward. Call for a free consultation: 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 To pursue compensation, contact the Mike Slocumb Law Firm: http://www.slocumblaw.com
Chicago : http://www.slocumblaw.com/chicago-lawyer/personal-injury-lawyer-in-chicago
DC: http://www.slocumblaw.com/washington-dc-lawyer/personal-injury-lawyer-in-washington-dc

Video Transcript:
From the minute you call the Mike Slocumb Law Firm, our staff gets to work quickly on your case. Your case will be assigned to an attorney and a case manager whose sole responsibility is moving your case forward. Moving your case towards settlement. And building your case from a damages perspective so that when we present your case to the insurance company, we ensure maximum compensation for your case. You want to put the insurance company in a position to make a decision. And until your case is ready for trial there’s no decision for the insurance company to make.

Our client calls less then a week after she’s been discharged from the hospital. She has a traumatic brain injury, with in a day or two we come to the understanding that it was a commercial vehical that had caused the accident. We immediately sent notification to the insurance company and to the defendant to not destroy their vehicle. Because we wanted to download the airbag control module.

When you’re dealing with a case which has severe injuries often times the air bag control module can give you a reconstruction of how the accident actually happened. Let me explain. Air bag control module will tell you up to five seconds before the accident happened how fast the driver was going, whether the vehicle had the break circuit switch applied, what were the RPM’s of the vehicle, did the driver have the accelerator pressed, and all of those items (the speed, the RPM, and the break switch) are important in understanding what the drivers actions were leading up to the collision.

None of this would have been possible if a lawsuit had not been filed. The insurance company would have likely destroyed the vehicle, it would have been sent to an impound yard and then it would have been shipped for scrap metal. We also immediately began requesting deposition dates. The reason we request deposition dates is because it moves the case closer to being ready to go to trial.

The sooner we can get the case ready for trial, the better the client is going to be because it puts the insurance company in a position to make a decision. With in three to four months we have downloaded the airbag control module. We have initiated taking depositions, we deposed the defendants, we’ve deposed the driver, we’ve deposed the physicians that treated our client and we’re ready for trial.

The insurance company made a decision to settle the case for the policy limits of two million dollars.

Mike Slocumb Videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeSlocumbLawFirm

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Knoxville TN Personal Injury Lawyers

Establishing an impeccable reputation representing injured victims. http://www.gturnerhowardlaw.com/personal-injury/testimonials Call (877) 496-6580 for the Law Offices of G. Turner Howard III.

Testimonial:
G. Turner Howard III and his staff helped me to recover over $200,000 as a result of my car accident. They answered my questions and were kind and caring throughout the entire process. I would not hesitate to recommend them to my family and friends if they needed an attorney.

Transcript:
My name is Turner Howard, I’m an attorney in Knoxville Tennessee. And I’d like to talk with you about what kind of reputation we have. So that if you call us or you visit us, you know you get real good representation in the community. We have worked very hard over the last thirteen, fourteen years we have had our law firm in establishing an impeccable reputation. And that means that with the other lawyers in town and with the adjusters for the insurance companies, that when we call them, when we contact them, they will respect you, because they respect us.

We are very very careful on the front end on taking our cases, that means if we do take your case, there is a really good chance, in fact over ninety percent are going to settle. One of the first questions we get from our new people who come in, our clients if you will, is how long is this going to take and how much money am I going to get out of this. Well that of course depends on the severity and the complexity of the case, your injury, that type of thing. But the general answer is we work these cases hard, we do not procrastinate, we move them through, we try to get you fare and just representation and get you settled as soon as possible.

Tennessee Personal Injury Attorney Serving:
Knoxville, Maryville, Crossville, Johnson City, Cleveland, Morristown, Farragut, Elizabethton, Athens, Sevierville

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Our Lawyers understand such injuries are far from uncommon

“You know your body and how your mind works, and I knew something was just not quite right. I decided to just try to push through and work through it,” Earnardt Jr. said according to USAToday. Earnhardt Jr. was little more than a rookie, and driving just in front of his late father in the 2001 Daytona 500, when Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed after slamming into the Turn 4 wall on the last lap. Cause of death was a basilar skull fracture, caused when his head, propelled by the velocity of the collision, snapped forward in the accident.

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NASCAR has since made many safety improvements, including a next-generation car that moves the driver toward the center, a head-and-neck restraint device and soft wall technology. However, the risk of concussions and other traumatic brain injuries has not abated.

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While crossing at an intersection is the safest approach, it is also not surprisingly where most of the accidents happen. Pedestrians need to make eye contact with motorists and should be especially mindful of vehicles turning into the crosswalk from an adjacent street.

Dog bites in at on the job as a post man in Orange County are another overlooked risk. While they can occur anytime of the year, Halloween can be a dangerous mix of treats, strangers, darkness, unexpected sights and loud sounds. When the result is a spooked animal, a serious dog bite injury can occur. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, about 4.5 million people are bitten by a dog each year. About 1 million will require medical attention and more than 30,000 will undergo reconstructive surgery.

These injuries are also most likely to impact small children — with those ages 5 to 9 more likely than adults to receive medical attention in the wake of a dog attack. In many cases, the dog is a neighbor’s pet or the pet of a relative of family friend. In such cases, an experienced injury attorney can work in as amicable a manner as possible to file a claim against the homeowner’s insurance policy. Filing a claim can protect you in the event of medical complications, including infections or scaring. In cases involving children, emotional issues may also present themselves and can include isolation or irrational fear of animals.

Whether a motorist, a dog owner, a parent or a young trick-or-treater, we can all do our part to help reduce the risk of injury during the spookiest time of the year.

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Workers’ Comp insurance company attorneys and claims adjusters are not on your side, no matter how helpful they may seem at first. They have a team of attorneys doing all they can to make sure they pay out as little benefit compensation as possible to injured people like you.

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a preliminary total of 4,609 fatal work injuries were recorded nationally in 2011, which is a drop from the previous year, when there were 4,690 deadly work injuries. The decline in workplace fatalities has continued for the past 17 years, according to the Houston Chronicle, which reported on the fatal workplace accident statistics.
As Los Angeles workers comp lawyer, we know how devastating fatal workplace injuries can be on families. Our mission has been to help injured employees obtain the workers comp benefits they need after an on-the-job accident. We also assist families who have lost loved ones in workplace accidents.

In California, fatal workplace accidents unfortunately are not unusual and may require the help of an experienced workplace injury attorney in Los Angeles. California is ranked as one of the deadliest states in the nation when it comes to workplace injuries. California recorded 360 fatalities in 2011, second to Texas, which recorded 433 fatalities. California was one of the few states that saw the number of occupational fatalities rise, from 326 in 2010 to 360 a year later.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that transportation incidents accounted for more than 40 percent of all fatal work injuries in 2011 in the United States. In California, there were 118 fatal transportation incidents. Nationwide, 15 percent of all deadly workplace accidents involved contact with objects and equipment. Fifty workers died this way in California. The third most common fatal accident in the United States involved falls, which comprised 14 percent of fatal accidents in 2011. In California, 60 people died in 2011 from slips, trips or falls.

The report also noted that fatalities disproportionately involved men. And the most dangerous professions? That would be fishers and fishing workers, who experienced a fatality rate of 121.2 workers per 100,000 workers. By comparison, the average fatality rate for all jobs is 3.5 workers per 100,000 full-time workers. Logging workers had the second deadliest job, with a fatality rate of 102.4 per 100,000. Pilots and flight engineers have the third most dangerous job, with 57 fatalities per 100,000.
Out of the top 10 most dangerous jobs, truckers and traveling sales workers recorded the most fatalities in 2011. There were 795 deaths of workers in those occupations in 2011.

If you were injured on the job and need a workers comp attorney serving Santa Ana, Rancho Santa Margarita, Los Angeles and other communities throughout South California, contact California Law Associates. Call 714-542-3377 today for your free consultation. We can assist you if you were injured on the job or if you lost a loved one in a fatal workplace accident.

California Law Associates
3540 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 615
Los Angeles, CA 90010 22342
Los angeles workers comp attorney

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