Personal Injury Blog

Advancements in auto safety technology now mean not just a reduced risk of being involved in accidents, but also a much greater chance of surviving injuries. Nevada car accident lawyers have found that most research into auto safety has focused on adding additional devices, like lane departure warning systems, and electronic stability control systems to help reduce the risk of accidents and injuries. However, new research is focusing on improving headlight systems to increase visibility and reduce the risk of accidents, especially those that occur when a vehicle is negotiating curbs.

One such study is being conducted at the Transportation Lighting and Safety Program at the Lighting Research Centre at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Scientists here are specifically looking at the potential for new headlight technologies that can help reduce the risk of accidents while driving at night. At a recent conference, scientists presented research results, including the results of one study that looked at swiveling headlights that direct more lights towards roadway curves. This helps motorists negotiate curves easily while driving at night time, reducing the risk of an accident. Studies found that the risk of nighttime accidents dropped by approximately 4% using these systems.

Another study that was also presented at another conference in Detroit earlier this year, also focused on adaptive vehicle lighting. This technology is based on adaptive glare-free high beam headlights, which allow different types of light to be focused on the road ahead, depending on the conditions. For instance, drivers can focus a high- beam headlight on the road, while using an appropriately dimmer light towards other oncoming drivers on the road. This prevents glare to oncoming motorists, and also provides the driver increased visibility for the remaining sections of the road.The study found that this technology helps reduce the risk of nighttime accidents by as much as 7%.

College students who frequently text on their cell phones while they're in their bed waiting to fall asleep, may suffer from a much reduced quantity and quality of sleep. This increases their risk of being involved in a fatigue-related accident or drowsy driving accident the next day.

According to new research, not only does texting significantly reduce the amount of sleep that a college student gets, it also seems to increase the impact of stress on a college student's life. In other words, college students who were stressed seemed to have deteriorated quality of sleep, and slept for fewer hours per night when they were also texting. The research was published recently in the journal Psychology of Popular Media.

Sleep deprivation is already a serious problem affecting the college student population, and this category of motorists is already at a much higher risk of drowsy driving. College students have hectic lives that include socialization, classes, extracurricular activities, and other activities that make major demands on their time. Therefore, students are much less likely to prioritize sleep, although the health and safety benefits of sleep are well-established.

The research involved 83 college students between the age of 18 and 21. They were specifically looking at how texting affected the student’s stress levels, their potential for burnout, and their overall emotional well-being.

They found that texting significantly increases the risk of sleep-related problems, among college students who are already very stressed. College students, who were stressed, were much more likely to engage in heavier texting, and this further affected their quality of sleep. A motorist who is sleepy is likely to doze off at the wheel, and much more likely to make critical driving errors that increase his risk of being involved in an accident.

There have been significant advancements made in prosthetics technology, and some of that progress could soon result in a new artificial limb that could actually convey sensory data to the brain, allowing a person with a prosthetic limb to actually touch and feel.

According to researchers, they're currently working on laying the foundation for touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs that could go one step beyond current devices available on the market. They're focusing on using the current information that is available about how the brain processes information, and using this data to develop the prosthetic device.

Initial experiments that have been conducted on monkeys have been fairly successful. Monkeys have sensory systems that are very close in similarity to the sensory systems of human beings. In the research, the researchers found that they were able to identify certain patterns of neural activity that were seen in the monkeys’ brains, when manipulating natural objects. They were then able to reproduce these patterns artificially.

Prosthetic limbs are now a billion-dollar industry, and have meant a dramatically improved quality of life for people who have suffered limb amputations. Some of the most common causes of leg amputations are auto, bicycle and motorcycle accidents, assaults, violence and workplace accidents. For instance, a person who has suffered severe crushing injuries to the leg in a motorcycle accident may have no other choice but to agree to a leg amputation, because the leg can no longer be saved. In other serious accidents, there can be a natural amputation of the limb.

Fortunately, advances in prosthetics have meant that patients now have access to limbs that are designed to help them perform a number of physically challenging activities. Las Vegas personal injury lawyers find that these limbs are a far cry from the earlier devices that only allowed the patient to walk in an ungainly and slow manner.