Personal Injury Blog

In a bid to combat drowsy driving and other safety issues, the federal administration is proposing new rules that would impose penalties on trucking companies or bus companies that pressure their bus or truck drivers to violate federal safety regulations.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed a rule that would ban bus companies, trucking companies, shippers, receivers, carriers and other companies from forcing drivers to break safety regulations. Those safety regulation violations could include forcing drivers to violate federal Hours of Service regulations so that they can reach their destination faster.

These practices are widely seen in the shipping industry, when companies pressure their drivers to drive for longer hours simply so that the shipment can be delivered faster. Commercial motor vehicle drivers may also be under pressure from their employer to drive for longer hours, simply to get passengers to their destination much faster.

Violation of Hours of Service rules lead to fatigue, because the driver may end up working much longer than his body can take. Driving while fatigued is a serious accident risk for any motorist, but it is an even more serious truck accident risk when it involves the driver at the helm of an 80,000- pound truck.

The proposed bill would ban tracking companies or bus companies from forcing their bus or truck drivers to violate any federal safety regulations, including driving improperly maintained vehicles to maintain or fulfill deadlines. Driving a defective commercial vehicle could increase a driver's risk of causing an accident, because malfunctioning components increase the risk of brake failure, or may cause the driver to lose control of the bus.

The proposal has been put up for comments, and the federal agency is seeking comments until August 11.

A combination of marijuana and alcohol can affect the driving abilities of most adult motorists. However, when it is a teenage motorist behind the wheel, the effect of the combination can be deadly. The combination of marijuana and alcohol impairs a person’s judgment abilities, and places him at a high risk of being involved in an accident.

According to a new study published recently, when teenagers are driving under the influence of a combination of marijuana and alcohol, they’re likely to be severely impaired, and are much more likely to drive recklessly. They are more likely to be involved in car accidents, and are also more likely to be given traffic tickets.

Teenagers in the study were found to be 40 percent more likely to have gotten a traffic ticket when they were driving under the influence of alcohol, and 24% more likely to be involved in a car accident in this condition. However, when they were under the influence of both marijuana and alcohol, they were 90% more likely to be ticketed, and had a 50% greater likelihood of being involved in a car accident.

Under the law, no teenage motorist below the age of 21 should be using marijuana or drinking alcohol, but these laws are often broken. While drinking and marijuana rates among teenagers have dropped, these are still serious problems that parents need to take seriously. In 2011, approximately 31% of students reported drinking alcohol, while 13% said that they used alcohol as well as marijuana. However, 20% reported combining both marijuana and alcohol on occasion.

While better enforcement can help reduce intoxicated driving among teenagers, parents can do their bit to prevent their child from engaging in destructive behaviors.

This likely was not one of the benefits of going to college that your Dad told you about. According to the results of an interesting study, high education levels can actually help protect the brain against damage after an injury.

Interestingly enough, the research finds that highly educated persons, who have suffered a traumatic brain injury, can recover from the injury much quicker than persons with low education levels. In fact, the research found that educated people were seven times more likely to recover from the injury and have no disability one year later, compared to high school dropouts.

According to the researchers at Johns Hopkins, the difference between recovery levels in high school dropouts and college graduates is definitely very intriguing. The gap indicates that brains that have been subjected to high education levels are much more likely to be able to recover from an injury. The study was based on an analysis of medical records of more than 700 people who had suffered a brain injury. In all of these cases, the brain injury was serious enough to require hospitalization and rehabilitation.

When the researchers analyzed the medical condition of the people about one year later, they found that only 10% of high school dropouts had no damage. All the rest suffered some level of disability. In comparison, the recovery rate of people who had high levels of education was approximately 39%.

This is where the study gets even more intriguing. The higher the number of advanced degrees a person had, the higher his levels of recovery after the brain injury. The researchers speculate that this has something to do with mental fitness. A brain that has been put through regular workouts in the form of studying and learning, is probably better able to defend itself against injury.