Personal Injury Lawsuit

With the Fourth of July rapidly approaching, many people across the country are gearing up for a fun week of barbeques, parades, speeches, and fireworks. Of those activities, fireworks are inherently dangerous. Their name alone should clue people in to the danger related to them. Unfortunately, a name with “fire” in it is not enough to prevent injuries.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 10,000 people are injured each year. In 2006, 11 people died from injuries that were caused by fireworks. The nearly 10,000 people injured were just the ones treated in emergency rooms. We really have no way of telling how many people are afflicted with minor injuries and don’t seek treatment. Of all of the injuries that end up in hospitals, 5% require hospitalization. The care these people receive goes beyond an in and out visit. They have to stay in the hospital beyond a few hours.

In 2006, 2/3s of all fireworks-related injuries occurred between June 16th and July 16th. Out of all of the injuries, 1 out of every 3 injuries was to an individual under the age of 15. Individuals that were male were also injures three times as frequently as female individuals. Of all of the injuries to people, 47% of the injuries afflicted people who were under the age of 20.

The body parts that were most frequently injured were the hands, eyes, head, face, and ears. The hands were injured 2,300 times in a year; the eyes 1,500 times; the head, face, and ears were injured 1,400 times. Overall, the injuries were most frequently burns. More than 50% of all injuries were burn injuries. This injury was the most common injury except on people who were hurt on the head or in the eyes. In these cases, contusions, lacerations, and foreign bodies in the eye occurred more frequently.

Fireworks’ injuries are associated with blindness, third degree burns, and permanent scarring. None of these things, most likely, will go away with time.

In addition to the injuries that fireworks can directly inflict on people, they are also capable of causing life-threatening residential and motor vehicle fires. Even if people are not in vehicles or homes, there is still a considerable degree of damage done.

More than 1/3 of all of the deaths that occurred were the result of professional devices being sold illegally to consumers. In 2006, firecrackers were responsible for roughly 1,300 injuries; sparklers caused 1,000 injuries; and rockets, including bottle rockets, were the cause of 800 injuries.

For more information on the dangers of fireworks, please visit http://www.habush.com.

Whiplash claims are one of the most common injuries featuring insurance claims made by insurance companies’ costumers, and this may largely be due to the fact that many cars on the market are not adequately built to protect passengers and prevent whiplash injury.

Most customers are however unaware of this as research on the matter is very limited, greatly due to the recent nature of the knowledge of the fact that whiplash is caused often and badly prevented -in the current situation. City cars are the least effective in preventing whiplash injuries in low-speed rear-end shunts. That’s the stark warning from Thatcham, the insurance industry’s research centre, as it published its new head restraint ratings.

The report explains that drivers are being short-changed on safety, with the front seats of 11 small cars failing miserably to impress testers. Not one was rated as Good, which is described as ‘offering good protection for most sizes of occupant’. And only two were Acceptable, while the vast majority were Marginal. The Fiat Panda and Ford Ka were graded as Poor, which means they ‘offer little protection from whiplash’.

Thatcham’s crash research manager, Matthew Avery, said: “City cars are not equipped to protect their occupants’ necks when they have to absorb the crash energy from larger, heavier vehicles. Combined with poor seat design, this makes whiplash far more likely.”

Avery then added that a good seat design shouldn’t be linked to the cost of the car, and while 75 per cent of all seats tested achieved a Good or Acceptable rating, more needed to be done in the city car sector. This category is growing in size as more motorists choose to drive ‘greener’, cheaper-to-run models which tend to also have better anti-whiplash prevention and protection. The newer modules learn from the past’s faulty ones, explaining why they offer better built vehicles for today’s consumers.

Meanwhile, Thatcham has given its seal of approval to premium manufacturers Audi, Saab and Volvo for achieving a Good rating on every vehicle in their ranges.

Whiplash injuries cost the insurance industry millions of pounds annually, according to the Association of British Insurers. The Association also reported that there were 432,000 claims alone in the last financial year, with the average amount paid out to motorists coming in at £3,500 - a whopping £1.5billion claim bill in total.

Thatcham has published complete results of its whiplash tests online. Log on to the website thatcham.org to find out how well your car’s front seats performed and consider upgrading to a safer model as it may very well be worth your while -and money. If you opt out from a vehicle upgrade, a cheaper solution on offer could be to get health insurance which covers against whiplash claims. This type of cover would be less pricey than a new car but just as worth it.

Most health insurances cover against whiplash but some do so better than others. If you decide to shop for different health insurance than your current choice, keep certain things in mind. Firstly, ensure they cover you against whiplash specifically. Secondly, have a look at what their requirements are. Does the accident need to be another driver’s fault for you to make your claim? Remember car insurance does not usually cover against whiplash - you need separate health insurance to protect yourself against these risks.

If you are suffering from whiplash, make an appointment to see your GP immediately. You need certified proof from a qualified doctor that you are in actual fact suffering from whiplash, but the doctor is unlikely to sign anything unless he has witnessed the symptoms himself. Whiplash is often short-lived, so go to A&E if necessary.

When a person sustains a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the immediate symptoms and eventual impairments will vary according to which brain area was injured, and whether more than one area was damaged. A brain injury to any one of the lobes or areas discussed below can be devastating to a person’s quality of life, causing permanent disabilities which require lifelong physical care.

Five Lobes in the Brain

The lobes are the general divisions of brain tissue, and each one controls different aspects of human functioning. An injury to any given area will result in impairment of the areas of functioning that area controls.

1. The Frontal Lobe

This is behind the forehead, and controls our ability to plan, organize, solve problems, and direct our attention to specific ideas or things. Our personality and behavior are controlled here also.

2. The Parietal Lobes

There are two, one on each side towards the top back of the head. The right side Parietal Lobe controls a person’s visual-spatial perception – their ability to find their way around both strange and familiar places. The left side Parietal Lobe controls understanding of language, both written and verbal. These two lobes also contain the brain’s main sensory cortex, which enables a person to assess texture, size, weight, and shape.

3. The Occipital Lobe

This lobe is below the Parietal Lobes at the back and is the brain’s vision center. This is where the brain recognizes shapes and colors and stores associations to them.

4. The Temporal Lobes

These are at the sides under the ear areas and enable a person to distinguish between different sounds and different smells. The right Temporal Lobe controls visual memory and the left controls verbal memory.

There are two very important additional areas as well:

• The Cerebellum – below the Occipital Lobe at the back. It controls balance and muscle coordination. An injury here can reduce a person’s ability to do basic daily things like talk, walk, eat, and generally take care of oneself.

• The Brainstem – at the base of the whole brain, in the center, and connecting to the spinal cord. The brainstem controls basic survival functions: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion, and arousal ability (being awake and alert). There are sub-areas: (a) the Medulla Oblongata, a kind of relay station for nerves; (b) the Midbrain, a nerve pathway which has hearing and vision reflex centers; and (c) the Pons, which holds the breathing center.

Some Causes of Brain Injury

The brain can be injured by a blow to the skull, or by the skull being pierced by something. It can also be injured by:

• Increased intracranial pressure – the skull forms a rigid container so that if any swelling occurs in the brain, there is no extra space to contain it. This will put pressure on the brain tissue and injure it.

• Severe shaking – the brain will hit up against the inside of the skull and be bruised, which can directly damage it, and can also cause swelling which will lead to increased intracranial pressure. This type of brain injury happens in Shaken Baby Syndrome and in whiplash injuries.

• Lack of oxygen – oxygen is essential to the ongoing health and function of all body tissue. A near-drowning is an example of this type of brain injury. The person may regain consciousness, but have permanent brain damage requiring long-term care.

Every brain injury is different and there are a myriad ways such an injury could happen. Symptoms may be immediate, such as unconsciousness, or delayed, as memory loss sometimes is, as well as headaches, mood swings, and difficulty with speech or hearing.

When a brain injury is caused by somebody else’s negligence, the injured person may have a valid legal claim for compensation. If you have a loved one with brain injury and would like to know more about how to deal with the legal side of the situation, consult an attorney who has long experience with brain injury litigation.