Articles Posted in Injuries to Children

Massachusetts is a state that offers new teen drivers a three-stage licensing process in an attempt to keep our young drivers safe and out of car accidents in Boston and elsewhere throughout Massachusetts. Our state has picked up on this system because it has proven to help teens become better drivers by allowing them to gradually gain exposure to driving situations through an increased amount of supervised driving, learner’s permits and junior operator’s licenses.

All of this information, and more, is available to you through a custom website designed by AAA’s Keys2Drive: The AAA Guide to Teen Driver Safety. This is a newly launched website that allows residents in any of the 50 states to select their state to view personalized information about their teen drivers.

Our Boston personal injury attorneys would like parents to know that the most important thing they can do to increase the safety of their teen driver is to get involved in their learning process. It is important that you coach your teen, allow them plenty of supervised driving time and talk with them about the dangers and consequences of poor driving habits. Being involved in your teen’s learning process will help you to keep an eye on their progress and ultimately decide when they’re ready to get their license and jump behind the wheel.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were nearly 2,500 teen drivers killed during motor-vehicle accidents in 2009 alone. Another 196,000 teen drivers suffered injuries during these accidents. Throughout that entire year, more than 5,000 15- to 20-year-old drivers were involved in motor-vehicle accidents that resulted in a motorist death. In Massachusetts, there were nearly 200 teen drivers killed in these accidents in 2009.

Parents are, in large-part, responsible for teaching their teen driver’s safe driving habits. Parent involvement should be used to try to better prepare our teens and to try to reduce the number of these fatal accidents.

According to the customized AAA website for Massachusetts, parents should try the following to help teach their young driver:

• Provide your child with at least 100 hours of supervised driving before you allow them to hit the road solo. It is recommended that you complete the hours during all times of the day.
• Allow your teen to drive in a number of conditions. Allowing them to drive through different weather conditions and through varying road conditions will help them to gain experience and should better prepare them for almost anything driving has to throw at them.
• Shower them with positive feedback, when deserved. It is important to remain calm and talk positive through them. Yelling at them will only frustrate them behind the wheel and negatively affect their driving abilities.
• Set good examples. When your teen is a passenger in your vehicle, make sure you’re practicing what you preach; don’t speed, put down your phone, abide by traffic laws, wear your seat belt, the list goes on and on.

As motor-vehicle accidents continue to be the number one killer of teens, more than cancer, homicide and suicide combined, parents are urged to get involved and stay involved. With the proper education and experience, we can help decrease the risks of these deadly accidents for our teen drivers.

It is also recommended that you create a parent-teen driving agreement between you and your teen to help the two of you agree upon some ground rules for driving.
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The summer is here and that means school’s letting out soon and student drivers will be hitting the road in full force. The summer also kick off the start of the 100 deadliest days of the year for teen drivers, according to Mother’s Against Drunk Driving.

Nine out of the ten top deadliest days for young drivers occur between the months of May and August. In 2009, our nation’s roadways witnessed roughly 3,000 teen drivers die in in teen car accidents in Boston and elsewhere. Another 350,000 went to emergency departments with injuries suffered from these accidents.

Let’s put it this way, this is a statistic that says that your child is most likely to die in a motor vehicle accident during this summer. Our Boston car accident attorneys have seen these tragedies occur all too often. For this reason it is important that we send out our young drivers with all the tools they need to help keep them safe on our roadways during these summer months and throughout the year.

In 2009, Massachusetts witnessed nearly 50 teen deaths from motor vehicle accidents that involved a driver aged 15 to 19, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Mother’s Against Drunk Driving offers parents these safety tips to help keep their teens safe on our roadways this summer:

-Make sure that your teen knows and understands the effects and consequences of drinking and driving.

-Insist that your teen wear their seat belt whenever a vehicle is in motion. Minimal seat belt use is one of the leading causes for driver and passenger injury and death.

-Be sure to curb their distracted driving habits. Establish rules that prohibit the use of cell phones, texting or any other dangerous activities behind the wheel.

-Limit the amount of time that your teen can operate a motor vehicle during the evening hours.

-Set a limit to the number of passengers that your teen can drive with at any given time.

“Car crashes are the number one killer of Texas teens,” said Allstate Agent Michael Walker. “Summer is almost here and when school is out, more teens will be hitting the highways across the state. This data should spur parents and community leaders to take action and teach our teen drivers that speeding, distractions and carelessness can be costly.”

A recent study, conducted by the Allstate Foundation concluded that roughly 90 percent of teen drivers consider their parents as the biggest influence on their own driving habits. For this reason, we continue to urge that you speak with your teen about the importance of good driving habits and the consequences of poor choices behind the wheel. Parents are also urged to negotiate a parent-teen driving agreement with your young driver in an attempt to set with some ground rules that you and your teen driver can agree on.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), teen accidents are four times more likely to occur than accidents in any other age group.

Teens made up 10 percent of the U.S. driving population in 2008 and made up 11 percent of all motor vehicle crash deaths. They accounted for nearly 15 percent of passenger vehicle occupant deaths among all ages, nearly 10 percent of all pedestrian deaths and approximately 5 percent of motorcyclist deaths
Join the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving facebook page for more tips and advice about keeping your young driver safe on our roadways during their summer break.
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When children are involved in a car accident in Boston and elsewhere in the United States, many receive brain CT scans to determine if they’ve suffered any brain damage. In most cases, traumatic brain injury (TBI) never occurs. Now there’s new research illustrating that a physician can determine whether the child has a serious problem after observing a child with head injuries for a certain period of time. This allows them to help treat the young patient without resorting to using a CT scan.

Our Boston car accident lawyers would err on the side of caution when it comes to diagnosing a head injury. However, eliminating needless CT scans will also help to eliminate some unnecessary and unwanted radiation exposure.

Children’s Hospital Boston and the University of California-Davis held the study as the results were later released by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network. They study combined data from 25 different emergency departments, and looked at roughly 40,000 children who suffered minor blunt head trauma. Researchers discovered that more than 5,400 of the young patents, or nearly 15 percent, were checked out before making decisions regarding CT use. As the severity of the head trauma varied, so did the observation time.

Researchers found more than 5,400 pediatric patients, or nearly 15 percent, of those studied, were observed before making a decision about CT use. Observation times varied, as did the severity of head trauma. In the study, children who were observed had a lower rate of receiving CT scans than those who were not observed.

“There are actually three groups of patients that come into an emergency room with pediatric head trauma,” says Dr. Lise Nigrovic of Children’s Hospital Boston who co-led the study. “The first is the child that really has no symptoms and it’s obvious to the doctors that the child is fine. The second is the child that has all the major symptoms, vomiting, headaches, unconsciousness, perhaps bleeding. That child is obviously a candidate for a CT scan. It’s the children in the middle risk groups – those who don’t appear totally normal, but whose injury isn’t obviously severe – for whom observation can really help.”

Some may want to recommend a CT scan just as an extra precautionary measure, but researchers warn that CT scans to the head can add even more risks for children. A child’s growing brain tissue is much more sensitive to ionizing radiation than an adult’s brain is. As children typically have a longer life expectancy, their lifetime risk of developing a radiation-induced tumor is greater than an adult’s as well.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children under the age of 4, those between the ages of 15 and 19, and adults over the age of 65 are most likely to sustain a TBI. Nearly half a million emergency department visits for TBI’s are made by children under the age of 14 each year.

In the United States, TBI proves to be a serious and oftentimes fatal injury as it is a contributing factor to roughly a third of all injury-related deaths. Over all, more than 50,000 die, roughly 275,000 are hospitalized, and more than 1 million TBI patients are treated and released from an emergency department. Among all age groups, motor vehicle accidents and other traffic-related incidents were the second leading cause of TBI and caused in the largest percentage of TBI-related deaths.
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A 25-year-old Melrose man crashed into a car that was pulled over in the breakdown lane on Route 1 earlier this month, seriously injuring a 6-yer-old boy, according to Boston.com.

Local officials say the driver was driving while impaired and that marijuana was involved in the Boston car accident.

Boston personal injury lawyers understand the potential consequences that driving under the influence can have on motorists. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 4,000 of the drivers who were involved in car accidents and were tested for drug use reported positive results last year. NHTSA reports also indicate that driving while under the influence of drugs is on the rise.

“Every driver on the road has a personal responsibility to operate his or her vehicle with full and uncompromised attention on the driving task,” said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland at the time. “Today’s report provides a warning signal that too many Americans are driving after having taken drugs, not realizing the potential for putting themselves and others on the highway at risk.”

According to the Essex District Attorney’s office, the 25-year-old driver pleaded not guilty to motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of drugs; operating negligently; OUI drugs, second offense; speeding; and marijuana possession with intent to distribute.

When the driver was asked if he had consumed any alcohol, he stated, “No, but I might have weed on me,” according to a police report.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, police officials hope to one day institute some sort of system to determine impairment on the roadside for marijuana and other prescription drugs since blood tests and urine tests are regulated, time consuming and expensive. Officers are anticipating technology for saliva tests, which are not currently regulated by national standards.

Officials report finding two pipes with fresh marijuana reside inside the 25-year-old’s vehicle and three bags of marijuana near the scene.
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Recently on our Boston Car Accidents Lawyers Blog we discussed the severity and dangers of careless teen driving. We will now look at the impact that teens and distracting driving have on the safety of everyone on the road.

According to The Boston Globe, 63 percent of teens admit to using their cell phones while driving, a proven factor in increasing the risk of Boston car accidents.

In 2009, nearly 6,000 people in Massachusetts and surrounding areas were killed as a result of distracted driving. Massachusetts has been in a six-year debate regarding our distracted driving laws. Twenty-eight states have put laws in effect banning texting while driving. Massachusetts’ law went into effect on Sept. 30.

Distracted driving is not only defined as texting while driving. It also includes fiddling with a GPS, applying makeup, driving with multiple passengers, listening to loud music, and eating behind the wheel.

“Clearly, distracted driving is a problem,” says Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “What is not clear is how best to address it,”

Tips to avoid distracted driving:

– Drink with a lid on your cup to avoid spillage.

– Park to eat or go inside.

– Keep safe driving as the top priority.

– Be well rested when driving.

– Don’t store items on your lap or in between your legs.

– Silence/put away all electronic devices when in route.

– Use proper restraints for pets.

A two-page brochure by the U.S. Department of Transportation is available for you to download at www.distraction.gov.

“Behind the statistics are real families who have been devastated by these tragedies,” says U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
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Dorel Juvenile Group is recalling almost 800,000 child safety seats according to a recent announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Our Boston personal injury lawyers aggressively protect consumers who have been wrongfully injured by a faulty product. In this situation, we remind parents to check their car seats for a possible recall for a defective harness that could leave them more susceptible to a serious or fatal injury in the event of an accident.

The NHTSA began the formal investigation of Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) back in May of 2010. Further investigation has indicated that the child safety seats need recalled because the harness locking and release button is defective. The button does not always return to its locked position, which can allow the harness adjustment strap to move undesirably through the adjuster. A child moving around in the seat can suffer severe injury during a motor vehicle crash with a loose harness.

DJG concluded the defective products were manufactured from the first of May 2008 through the last day of April 2009. Restraint systems sold with a “Center Front Adjuster” are causing the problem. The harness can be found on infant, convertible, and booster child restraint seats mass-produced during this time period. Consumers may have purchased this product as a part of a travel system or stand-alone set.

Consumers are being instructed by DJG to obtain a remedy kit which will fix the malfunction in the locking and release button. Instructions on how to apply the lubricant in the kit are provided along with a repair label that should be placed on the seat once the repair is done. Consumers who purchased the seat can continue to use but should make sure the harness is secure and the lock-release button locks into the correct position.

Safercar.gov is an excellent resource for parents who want to stay informed on child passenger safety. It is recommended that all children 12 and under sit in rear seats. The following are 4 steps to consider as your child grows and can change seat positions in your vehicle:

-Infants should be kept in rear-facing child safety seats at minimum up to 1 year old and at least 20 pounds.

-Toddlers ages 1-4 (20-40 lbs.) can be moved to a forward-facing child safety seat which is secured in the back seat of the vehicle.

-Children ages 4 to 8 should ride in booster seats contained in the back seat of the vehicle.

-At age 8 and older children can use the vehicle seat belt located in the back seat of the car. It is extremely important that the belt works properly before having your child graduate to this method. Proper fitting is considered when the lap belt lays across their upper thighs and the shoulder belt lays across their chest.

For a complete list of models being recalled by Dorel Juvenile Group visit www.safercar.org. And always read the instructions that come with your child-safety seat.
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