Automobile Accidents

• Winter Driving Accidents

  Ken Margolin | February 14, 2007 1:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  While the northeast of the country experiences nasty winter weather, from 2 feet of snow to frozen precipitation, it's a good time to remember the added responsibility on anyone who drives in the winter. Most serious highway accidents in winter conditions are the direct result of driver negligence. The most frequent cause of fatal car crashes in winter is the same as other times of year - speed;...

• Reducing Traffic Fatalities

  Ken Margolin | January 30, 2007 4:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A widely cited USA Today analysis of 2006 statistics shows that traffic fatalities were down significantly in sixteen states. Obviously that's good news. The causes of reduced fatalities raise some interesting cost-benefit questions. Some measures - public relations campaigns to reduce aggressive driving - are not controversial. Other means to reduce car accidents force the public to think about...

• Liquor Liability for Serving Drinks to Minors

  Ken Margolin | January 11, 2007 9:30 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts just ruled that commercial establishments that serve drinks to underage persons (under 21 in Massachusetts) have a higher level of liability than when they serve to legal age, intoxicated patrons. The case, decided on January 9, 2007, is Nunez v. Carrabba' Italian Grille, Inc. The plaintiff, a 19 year old, spent a night drinking heavily at Carrabba's...

• When the Insurance Company Comes Calling

  Ken Margolin | December 21, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I was recently retained by a young woman who was seriously injured in an automobile accident. She was hit while crossing the street, in a crosswalk, and suffered multiple fractures. While her injuries are not life-threatening, she will lose significant time from work, will require a lot of physical therapy, and carries the potential for long-term troublesome, and even deteriorating,...

• Car versus Truck Accidents Far More Dangerous

  Ken Margolin | December 06, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  According to the American Automobile Association ("AAA"), American motorists share a fear of being involved in accidents with large trucks. That communal fear is not unreasonable. Approximately 5000 people are killed annually in accidents involving passenger cars and commercial trucks. Fatal car-truck crashes are all too common. While many states have placed limits on the size of trucks' rigs,...

• Traffic Injuries are Not Inevitable

  Ken Margolin | December 04, 2006 11:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A recent article on traffic injuries, written by researchers at a non-profit organization affiliated with Emory University, states that worldwide, traffic accidents cause 1 million fatalities and over 20 million injuries per year. The authors (Lauren P. Giles, B.A.; Elisabeth S. Hayes, M.B.A.; and Mark L. Rosenberg, M.D., M.P.P., Road Traffic Injuries: Can we Stop a Global Epidemic?), draw the...

• Drunk Driving Accidents

  Ken Margolin | November 13, 2006 10:30 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The federal Center for Disease Control estimates that alcohol is involved in car crashes that kill someone in the United States every 13 minutes. That equals more than 15,000 deaths per year due to drunk driving accidents. The government has made a number of recommendations to reduce alcohol-related deaths and injuries on the roadway.It pressured states - with the threat of losing federal money...

• Car Accidents and the Cell Phone Menace

  Ken Margolin | November 10, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A friend of mine joked recently that he had a vision of his demise - run over by a minivan driven by someone talking on a cell phone. He may be right. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society estimates that drivers distracted by cell phones cause 2,600 highway deaths and 330,000 injuries each year. Since everyone knows they shouldn't talk on a cell phone while driving, it remains a mystery why...

• Spinal Cord Injuries

  Ken Margolin | November 07, 2006 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Severe spinal cord injuries fall into the category of injuries that can be described as life-altering. Enormous strides have been made in the last decade to help individuals paralyzed by spinal cord trauma live longer with a higher quality of life. Naturally, the greater the damage to the spinal cord and the more severe the limitation on movement and self-sufficiency, the greater the supports...

• Large Trucks - Danger on our Roadways

  Ken Margolin | October 05, 2006 12:37 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Is there anyone who drives regularly on the highways who has not had a perilous encounter with a large tractor trailer truck? Unlikely. Maybe when seeing an 18 wheeler in your rear view mirror closing fast, or watching a double tractor trailer weaving in and out of lanes or passing traffic at 80 miles an hour, you wondered whether large trucks really cause much death and injury in addition to...