In The News

Published on: November 29, 2024

Naps can Improve Motor Learning after Brain Injury

New studies find that persons who have suffered traumatic brain injury and are undergoing rehabilitative motor skills therapy, may benefit from short naps after their therapy sessions. Traumatic brain injuries often occur from car accidents, motorcycle accidents, trucking accidents, slip and falls as well as due to construction site accidents.

The results of the study were published recently in the Journal of Sleep Research. The researchers focused on the role of short naps during rehabilitation therapy for persons who have suffered traumatic brain injury. Many persons with brain injury struggle with motor tasks after their personal injuries.

The study involved the participation of 32 subjects with a brain injury. The participants were required to take short naps of about 45 minutes duration after their therapy sessions. Their performance was monitored using a number of parameters including MRI imaging. The researchers found that there was enhanced performance after the participants napped, with improvements including quicker retrieval of learned sequences.

Published on: November 13, 2024

Avoid Car Accidents This Thanksgiving Holiday

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the deadliest holidays of the year with law enforcement agencies recording thousands of car accidents during these 4 days.

Thanksgiving ranks right up there with New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo as one of the most alcohol -intense holidays of the year. There is a special tradition attached to Thanksgiving which makes it even more strongly linked to alcohol – related car accidents. The Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, typically called Drinksgiving or Black Out Wednesday, ranks as the single biggest drinking day of the year. More alcohol is consumed on this Wednesday than on any other holiday. This means that as you set out for your Thanksgiving break, you are likely to be sharing the road with people who are highly intoxicated on alcohol after having drunk excessively the previous day.

It is not just drunk drivers that motorists need to be extra cautious of during Thanksgiving. Statistics show the incidence of all other types of dangerous driving behaviors including speeding and distracted driving also increases over this holiday weekend. This combination of drinking, being distracted by mobile phones and other passengers in the car as well as speeding to get to their destination on time makes for an ideal combination that increases the risks of being involved a serious car accident. Bear in mind that the Thanksgiving holiday is also when emergency responders and hospital emergency rooms are stressed to their limit which means that if you are involved in a serious car accident, help might be delayed.

Published on: October 17, 2024

Drivers Prone to Misusing Accident Safeguards in Cars with Partial Automation

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Motorists driving cars with partial automation soon learn to adapt to the various safeguards that are present in these systems, possibly increasing their car accident risks.

According to a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers are very quick to learn ways to circumvent the limits or safeguards set by the partial automation systems in their cars. Vehicles with partial automation systems require motorists to continue to pay attention to the task of driving and step in when there needs to be an intervention. However, an analysis of several partial automation systems in automobiles show that this is not always the case.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers focused on a number of partial automation systems, including Volvo’s Pilot Assist System and Tesla’s Auto Pilot system. In the Volvo system, the researchers found that drivers were often distracted by snacking and checking their phones while the system was at work. They were also likely to get more distracted as they became use to the system and as they learned to get around the limitations imposed by the system. Drivers using Tesla’s Auto Pilot found ways to get around the warning system before it escalated into a full blown intervention. They continued to engage in distracting behaviors only stepping in to take minimum actions to stop warnings or alerts issued by the system.

Published on: October 4, 2024

Decline in Auto Accident Wrongful Deaths During First Half of 2024

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Preliminary statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show a drop in the number of people killed nationwide in auto accidents during the first 6 months of 2024. This is the 9th consecutive quarterly drop in car accident fatality numbers. It is important to better understand why this drop in auto accident wrongful deaths occurred and to continue to work to improve the numbers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released encouraging news in the form of car accident data for the first half of 2024. The statistics show that there was a 3% drop in the number of auto accident fatalities during the first 6 months of 2024, compared to the same period of time in 2023. The data reveals that there were 18,720 deaths in car accidents between January and July of 2024. This was a drop from the 19,330 deaths that were recorded during the first 6 months of 2023.

This drop came even as there was a slight increase in the number of vehicle miles traveled by Americans in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period of time last year. This year, Americans traveled approximately 0. 8% higher number of vehicle miles or 13.1 billion extra miles, compared to the same period of time in 2023. Overall, 32 states recorded a drop in auto accident deaths during the first half of 2024. This included the state of Georgia which recorded 696 deaths in car accidents during the first six months of 2024, in comparison with 762 deaths during the same period of time last year.

Published on: September 20, 2024

New Bill Would Require SUVs, Trucks to Protect Pedestrians

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

A new bill that is expected to be introduced soon would require federal standards for the heights of SUVs and pick-up trucks to also consider pedestrian safety. This is an extremely important change which is likely to save lives in auto accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles.

According to Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pennsylvania), who is introducing the new bill, while there is much that is currently being done to protect occupants inside the vehicle, there is much more that can also be done in order to protect vulnerable users like pedestrians and bicyclists who are outside the vehicle when auto accidents occur.

The popularity of pick-up trucks and SUVs has skyrocketed in the past few decades, and these are some of the most in-demand automobiles on the American roads. Unfortunately, while these are very popular vehicles, their presence on our roads also pose a serious danger to motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists. Their large sizes and bulk makes it much more likely that occupants of smaller vehicles will suffer serious personal injuries or wrongful deaths when they are involved in an auto accident with these large SUVs and trucks. There is immense danger to pedestrians and other vulnerable users like bicyclists who are involved in auto accidents with these vehicles.

Published on: September 9, 2024

Study Finds Behavior Interventions can Help Reduce Distracted Driving

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

The use of interventions including financial incentives, goals and social competition can significantly help reduce the incidence of distracted driving on our streets.

Distracted driving causes thousands of car accidents in the metro Atlanta region every year. A new study proves that different interventions could be used to help bring about changes in driver behaviors, resulting in motorists being less likely to reach out for their cell phones while driving.

The study was conducted by an insurance provider and divided more than 1500 participants into 5 groups. The first group was the control group which only received information about the dangers of using a handheld cell phone while driving. Group 2 was given a free phone mount, while group 3 was given habit formation tips over a period of several weeks. Groups 4 and 5 were sent text messages about their performance on handheld cell phone use goals, and were given the chance to win or lose points based on their usage. Participants in group 5 were also given the chance to share in a $2000 prize if they met their goals.

Published on: August 13, 2024

Georgia Anti-Speeding Campaign to Prevent Car Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

An anti- speeding campaign that aims to tackle speeding across Georgia and several Southern States ends on July 21. These types of campaigns are extremely important in the effort to reduce the number of auto accidents involving catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful deaths.

Operation Southern Slow Down included Georgia as well as a few neighboring states and involved additional enforcement against speeding drivers. The campaign started on July 15, and targeted both speeding as well as aggressive or rash drivers. The aim was to crack down on these drivers and pull them off the roads. This was the eighth such campaign that included Georgia and the other Southern States, and officials believed that this was the right time to remind drivers about the need to drive at safe speeds at all times.

The need to remind drivers of the risks of speeding is especially stronger during summer when there are far more motorists on the road and when everyone is in a hurry to get to their holiday destinations. Speeding is one of the biggest killers on American roads with more than 11,000 car accident wrongful deaths in 2022 directly linked to high speeds. The number of speeding-related car accidents in 2022 was a 25% increase from the numbers in 2018. Georgia continues to grapple with a large number of motorists who drive at high speeds putting themselves and other motorists at risk of serious personal injury or even death. In 2022, approximately 422 car accident wrongful deaths in Georgia were directly linked to speeding motorists. That was a significant 56% increase from the number of speeding-related auto accidents in 2018.

Published on: August 10, 2024

Campaign to Prevent Red Light Violation Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Next month, federal transportation safety authorities will kick off a campaign that is aimed at helping motorists understand the dangers of running red lights. The campaign hopes to avoid serious personal injuries suffered by motorists and pedestrians each year by persons failing to obey traffic control signals.

Violation of stop lights is a major traffic offense that is responsible for thousands of car accidents every year. According to some estimates, every year, close to 1,000 people are killed in more than 100,000 car accidents caused by motorists who run stop signs. These are some of the more common violations, and are responsible for many deadly intersection accidents annually. More than 50% of the people killed in these car accidents are pedestrians, bicyclists or passengers in vehicles involved in the accident. These are absolutely devastating auto accidents, and very often, also high-speed accidents.

Next month will see a special commemoration aimed at preventing such accidents. Stop On Red Week is marked during the first full week in August every year. In 2024, that first week falls between August 4 and August 10. The very first Stop On Red Week was commemorated by the Federal Highway Administration in 1995, and every year, during this week, the federal administration along with the National Safety Coalition promotes greater awareness of the dangers of driving recklessly or violating traffic safety rules. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that between 2004 and 2018, there were close to 12,000 car accident wrongful deaths caused directly by motorists running red lights.

Published on: August 1, 2024

Georgia Teens to Benefit from New Auto Accident Prevention Program

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

All K -12 students in Georgia will now benefit from free access to traffic and road safety education thanks to a collaboration between the Georgia Department of Transportation and a leading education media organization.

Georgia has struggled with an increase in the number of car accident wrongful deaths across the state, with 1,800 people dying in auto accidents across the state in 2022. There were more than 2,000 auto accidents recorded in the state that year involving drivers between the ages of 15 and 24. Clearly, this is a high risk category of motorists and the Department of Transportation wants to ensure that drivers falling in this age category have access to all the resources that they need in order to drive safely and responsibly.

The new collaboration is called the Car and Road Safety Program, and is an initiative between the Georgia Department of Transportation and We Are Teachers which is a national educational advocacy program. We Are Teachers conducted surveys across Georgia schools, working together with teachers in order to develop high quality materials that are specifically targeted to Georgia students. The 5 year program will make available to students quality theoretical resources as well as the chance to take a virtual field trip anywhere in Georgia. There are also lots of interactive quizzes and plenty of activities to sharpen young motorists’ knowledge about traffic safety.

Published on: July 24, 2024

Research Shows Improvement in Autonomic Dysfunction After Spinal Injury

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Patients who have suffered a spinal injury may suffer from autonomic dysfunction or an extreme severity of autonomic reflexes that can trigger panic episodes and even heart attacks. In recent animal studies, researchers found ways that could circumvent such extreme reflexes.

A spinal injury after a car accident can lead to all kinds of life-altering consequences. The person may suffer from limited movement and mobility, loss of bowel and bladder control, restricted motor skills and a number of other consequences. One of those consequences is autonomic dysfunction which can be characterized by triggering of extreme autonomic reflexes when the person is faced with even mildly triggering situations. A person with a spinal injury may experience an extreme response to a harmless situation, like loss of bladder control, that triggers panic attacks, heart attacks and strokes. This lack of control over autonomic reflex responses could even have fatal consequences for the patient.

In a recent study, researchers found that the reason for such autonomic dysfunction could be traced to a particular type of nerve cell. According to the researchers, patients with a spinal cord injury may experience an abnormal rewiring of the nerve cells in the affected area. They found that specific nerve fibers called microglia cells were mainly responsible for this abnormal rewiring of the nerves which, in turn, causes loss of control over autonomic reflexes. Studies on animals found that depletion of these microglia cells helped to control the autonomic reflexes. The researchers found that when these cells were reduced in number, these extreme reflexes to mild situations were better controlled. The researchers say that these are significant findings because of the risk to patients with spinal injury who may suffer heart attacks or even strokes as a result of such panic reactions.