Archive for the ‘Injuries to children’ Category

Sometimes research states the obvious, but sometimes the obvious is ignored or denied. Children who suffer some trauma, including victims of Tennesssee or Nashville automobile accidents, may experience personal injury and  post traumatic stress.

The “surprise” is that parents of a child in a Tennessee automobile accident may also experience post-traumatic stress. This is especially true if the child had a personal injury that required hospitalization. The pain experienced by a child, and the extent to which the child’s life was at risk, both made the parents’ stress worse.

If you or anyone you know has been killed or suffered a personal injury in Nashville car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Tennessee car accident attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here. No matter what you do, before you settle your case with an insurance adjuster, read our materials on dealing with insurance adjusters first!

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved. Contact us before you settle your case with an insurance adjuster!

It’s not just auto accidents (or motorcycle accidents or truck accidents) that cause personal injury to people using the roads in Tennessee. A recent study produced by Transportation America quantifies the epidemic of pedestrian fatalities and personal injuries that are occurring in Tennessee and across the U.S.

Over the last 15 years more than 76,000 people have been killed when doing nothing more than walking in the neighborhood where they live. While it is common for many pedestrian accidents to be blamed on the pedestrian/victim, it is more accurate to point out that most streets are not designed for pedestrians, people in wheelchairs, or people on bicycles – even though people who are “a foot” will clearly have to use streets just like automobiles and trucks.

An AARP poll of people over 50 years old found that half of the people felt they couldn’t safely cross the main road closest to where they live.  (For information about the safety of roads in your own neighborhood, click here.) The compiled data for Nashville indicates that the rate of pedestrian death puts us #28 on the list of cities in the United States. Approximately 6 pedestrians will be killed every year in Nashville, just for walking. For more information about this study, click here.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Nashville pedestrian accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Seatbelts make a difference in reducing personal injury in auto accidents. Although seatbelts have been required safety equipment in passenger cars since the 70’s, there is no such requirement for buses. Does it make sense that school buses in Tennessee or anywhere else should be operated without this kind of basic safety equipment? There have been arguments over the years that the rigid, closely spaced seating in school buses provides adequate protection and makes seatbelts unnecessary. School bus accidents are very serious events. Rigid closely placed seats do not protect students from lateral “t-bone” collisions (where they are knocked out of their seats) or from rear-end or rollover collisions. Rollover collisions are especially dangerous to school children who have nothing to keep them in their seats once the bus begins to roll. Finally, the Federal Department of Transportation is considering a requirement of seatbelts in buses, see their plan here.  The National Coalition for School Bus Safety has been adovcating for this for years. For more information from the National Coalition on School Bus Safety, click here. If seat belts reduce personal injury in auto accidents, don’t we want the same for our kids?

Auto accidents, especially when speed is involved, can cause serious orthopedic injuries and fractures. Comminuted fractures are serious injuries to a bone where the bone is crushed,  splintered, or broken into three or more pieces. Comminuted fractures can be complicated to repair, and can be very painful. The site around the fracture will frequently be swollen and weight bearing will be painful or impossible. . Repair of a comminuted surgery may require a combination of pins, plates,  and screws. When our clients have experienced a comminuted fracture, we contact their physician early and closely track their recovery and rehabilitation. We have represented dozens of people with these kinds of injuries and know that early action is critical in order to make a fair settlement.

Car crashes and auto accidents where children are involved can be catastrophic. In a study published in Pediatrics, researchers studied more than 7000 crashes and found that children who were in a booster seat were 45% less likely to be injured than children who were in seat belts alone. The greatest reduction in injuries was in side impact collisions. While the overall reduction in injury risk was 45%, for nearside collisions the use of a booster seat reduced injury risk 68%. Booster seats are required (in most states) for children between the ages of 6 and 8. This study suggests that there is no difference (from a safety performance standpoint) between booster seats that have backs and those that do not have backs. Some older children in this range may think a backless booster is more acceptable than a booster that may resemble a child seat for a younger child. While your 6-8 year old may want to be “grown-up” and just use a seat belt, it is clearly a choice they should not be allowed to make. For information about child seat guidelines and airbag risks to children, click here.

An Oregon jury has ruled that John Deere is not legally responsible for the mutilation of a little girl’s leg from a John Deere sit down mower that kept the blade moving when the mower was put in reverse. This is despite the fact that industry standards and competitor manufacturers do the contrary. When other mowers are put in reverse, the blade stops and eliminates any risk of injury from backing over something.  There are apparently between 250-300 injuries per year involving machines without this safety feature, why would a jury rule for John Deere when their mower was clearly unsafe compared to other models? Well, part of the story the jury heard is that the father who ran over his little girl’s leg and mutilated it, has 5 children under the age of 9 at home. He left them inside the house without supervision while he went out to mow the lawn. He didn’t know his little girl had come outside until it was too late. Is it really fair to blame the dad for this tragedy? Are parents in Oregon any different than parents in Tennessee? When there is a catastrophic injury to a child, any parent in Nashville or anywhere else would feel a sense of guilt, but is that fair ? Any other mower would have done comparatively little damage because the blade would have been stopped as the father put the mower in reverse. Injuries to children are often tragic, and quite frankly this is an injury that was foreseeable to a manufacturer. It’s why all the other manufacturers have blade stops on their sit down mowers. Parents should be responsible for their children, but going out to mow on a hot summer day (like we have in Nashville) while the kids are in the house doesn’t seem like an example of awful parenting. It was just one dad doing what 1000’s of other dads do when they have to. For the full story about this verdict, click here.