Posts Tagged ‘Children’

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!

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?

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.