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Author: Anthony Proffitt

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motor vehicle accidents

How can you avoid a crash while driving during storms?

Spring is here, and for people in Tennessee, that means being vividly aware of the risk of severe storms. Being part of Dixie Alley, an area of the southern state prone to tornadoes, you must have the knowledge to stay safe if one of the severe storms that can produce tornadoes occurs while you’re on the road.

The most important thing to remember in severe weather is that it’s okay to pull over on the side of the road, find a parking lot to wait out the storm in or wait under an underpass. Many people realize that the weather is too dangerous to continue traveling in.

If you do decide to park and wait out the storm, turn on your lights and hazard lights. It’s hard to see if there is hail, heavy rain or high winds, so your lights will help others avoid colliding with you.

How can you reduce the risk of a crash while driving?

If you continue driving in a thunderstorm, you can reduce the risk of a crash by giving others more space. Put a longer distance between yourself and the next vehicle, so you have more time to stop if they brake. Riding too closely, especially on slick surfaces, is more likely to result in a rear-end collision.

Adrenaline runs high when sirens are blown and the weather turns dangerous, but you have to keep your wits about you. Make sure you’re slowing down, keeping an eye on the road and watching out for hazards that could cause a crash. By traveling carefully, you can get to a safe spot.

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Uncategorized

You may be able to hold 3M accountable for your hearing loss

To say that hearing is important would be an understatement. You probably enjoy listening to your children play. You might like going to hear live music. And whether in business or your personal life, communication is vital.

But most Americans suffer from hearing loss at some point in their lives. And if you have served in the military, you could be one of over 2.7 million veterans receiving disability benefits due to problems related to hearing loss or ringing in your ears, even after the diligent use of earplugs.

Why are earplugs so important?

Any way you can reduce the level of sound entering your ears is important to retaining your hearing. Extreme noise levels can affect your body in many ways, including:

  • Damage to inner-ear nerve endings
  • Permanent hearing loss
  • Tinnitus (ringing in your ears)
  • Increased stress
  • High blood pressure
  • Sleep loss
  • Decreased immunity

Countless members of the armed forces have used earplugs while serving in the military. But lawsuits related to allegedly defective earplugs have already cost the company who manufactured and sold the combat earplugs millions of dollars.

3M allegedly knew their product was defective

If you served between 2003 and 2015, you may have used 3M’s Combat Arms earplugs. And it may be of interest to know that hundreds of soldiers have filed lawsuits against the company for allegedly providing a defective product.

Some 3M employees were allegedly aware of the earplug defects in 2000. However, false claims about meeting military standards resulted in many military members suffering from hearing loss, troubles with balance and ringing in their ears.

You do not need to accept negligence

If you used 3M’s earplugs during your time in service and are suffering from the company’s alleged negligent acts and false claims, you might be able to hold them accountable. Considering your best efforts to protect your hearing, you may be interested in exploring your options if you feel a defective product, such as 3M’s earplugs, contributed to your hearing loss.

Categories
nursing home abuse and neglect

Recognize these 3 kinds of invisible abuse

Nursing home abuse and neglect can take place right under your nose. Many types of abuse and neglect are invisible; Unless a resident tells you about the abuse, it may be hard to know it’s taking place.

As someone who wants to make sure your loved one is safe and cared for, knowing the signs of abuse is important. Here are three kinds of invisible abuse to look for.

1. Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse is among the worst kinds of invisible abuse. There are no physical injuries, but your loved one’s mental state may suffer. Whether it’s being verbally abused with name-calling or told they aren’t valuable and that no one loves them, it’s a difficult type of abuse to deal with. How can you recognize it? Look for signs of depression or changes in normal behaviors.

2. Financial abuse

Unless you’re in charge of your loved one’s financial accounts, financial abuse is another difficult kind of abuse to recognize. You may recognize financial abuse is occurring if you find that your loved one is not paying bills on time or if their accounts keep running low at a nursing home despite having funds deposited regularly.

3. Psychological abuse

Psychological abuse is not necessarily the same as emotional abuse. Psychological abuse can include harassment, bullying and behaviors intending to harm your loved one’s mental state. While emotional abuse can include psychological abuse, it’s not necessarily the same. Recognize it by looking for changes in behavior or negative reactions to certain staff members.

These are three types of invisible abuse that you have to look for. If you notice them, it is time to seek help.

Categories
catastrophic injuries

Yes, your broken bone can be catastrophic

When you think of a catastrophic injury, you probably think of head injuries or spinal injuries. Interesting, even something as common as a broken bone can be catastrophic.

How? Consider a severe break. A bone might be shattered, breaking in several places. In some cases, these breaks require surgery. In worst-case scenarios, there’s little that can be done to restore the bone, so patients have to have metal rods and other medical devices inserted to help them heal.

This is a long and painful process. Surgery can often get the bones back in the right position, even if an implant is necessary to help. The individual may struggle during and after healing, though. There is a potential for complications, and the bone-healing process could take many months.

Another risk is that the bone could become infected, or the site around the bone could become infected. With any surgery, there is a risk of exposing the area to bacteria, which could lead to infections that require medical treatment through medications or potentially additional surgeries.

After a crash, no one wants to go through the pain and suffering of broken bones and the surgeries that could come with them. The reality is that some may never truly heal correctly. If you’re a victim struggling with broken bones, remember that you have rights. You should hold the driver who caused your crash responsible so that you can focus on healing and not on the financial losses that your medical care could cause. Your condition is serious, and you deserve only the best care.

Categories
motor vehicle accidents

Head-on collision case heads to grand jury in Tennessee

A case involving a fatal collision has been sent to the grand jury in Knoxville. According to the news, the son of a Knoxville fire captain was killed when a Chevrolet pickup truck crossed into the southbound lanes of Chapman Highway.

This resulted in a chain reaction that caused the captain’s son to run head-on into the Chevrolet. Next to him in the second lane was the witness, who also stuck the victim’s vehicle. He said he could not avoid it when the first two vehicles collided.

The prosecution in this case is arguing that the accident would have been avoided if the defendant had put on the brakes and made sure to stay in his lane or to swerve over to the right instead of into oncoming traffic. There had been no vehicles in the right lane, so the defendant could have moved over safely.

The defendant’s attorneys would like the case to be handled in civil court, but presently, it is heading to the grand jury where criminal charges may result in a conviction. The state’s position is that negligence that results in a fatality could constitute a criminally negligent homicide, which is why the case should be handled in criminal court.

Cases like this are tragic for all people involved. One person lost their life, and another could go to prison or even be deported since he’s in the United States illegally. If you’re in a crash like this or lose a loved one, you can pursue your own civil lawsuit while waiting for the results of a criminal trial.

Categories
dangerous and defective products

3 types of defects could lead to injuries for users

When a product is defective, it means that it is imperfect in some way. Perhaps the connection to the battery is poor, so it won’t start up. Maybe the medication you ordered was contaminated.

In most cases, a product will be considered defective if it could cause harm to the user who purchases it. For instance, the child trying to use the toy with a defective battery could end up with burns from battery leakage or if a fire starts due to a malfunction, and a person who takes a contaminated medication could end up with another serious illness.

There are three kinds of product defects. These include:

  • Manufacturing defects
  • Marketing defects
  • Design defects

Each one of these has its own risks. For example, a marketing defect may mean that there were inadequate warnings on the box. Design defects mean the device may be dangerous to the user due to a poor design. Manufacturing defects are defects created during the manufacturing process.

With any defect, the risk is that someone will get hurt as a result of mistakes that were made along the process from the creation of the product until the final piece hit the market. The good news is that those who are hurt can seek out reparations for those damages.

If you’re hurt, the manufacturer, marketing team, designer or others could be liable for the injuries you’ve suffered. Our site has more on what to do if you’re a victim of a faulty device or product that has exploded or caused cuts, broken bones or other serious injuries.

Categories
Uncategorized

What you should do if you encounter a drunk driver

Every year there is a renewed effort to lower the number of drivers operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. While these efforts certainly do help provide awareness and education about the dangers of driving under the influence, there are still excessive numbers of arrests and crashes due to drunk drivers.

Combating DUI

In 2018, the Tennessee Highway Patrol initiated a new program called, “Sober Up TN.” This initiative had goals consisting of increasing sobriety checkpoints, reducing DUI fatalities and organizing community meetings to bring attention to the dangers of intoxicated driving. Though final numbers have not come out yet, hopefully this program was able to continue to lower DUI incidents on the road. There were 476 less DUI arrests in Tennessee in 2017 as there were in 2016. Unfortunately, there were still 7,323 people arrested for DUI in 2017.

Encountering a drunk driver on the road

As you can see, there are plenty of intoxicated drivers out on the roads that could injure or kill themselves or another driver. If you are out driving, how would you know if another driver is inebriated? Here are a few signs that you may see from an impaired driver:

  • Erratic driving that includes swerving and weaving
  • Times of fast acceleration or sudden braking
  • The vehicle is drifting side to side and out of their lane
  • Driving into oncoming traffic
  • Driving without headlight on
  • Slow reactions to traffic signals or at intersections

What you should do

If you encounter a drunk driver out on the road, do you know what to do? You should first position yourself that does not put yourself in danger. You should not try to drive next to the car and try to stop them or avert their path. This will only increase the danger of an accident. What you should do is gather as much information about the vehicle as you can. This includes license number, make, model and color. If there are any special attributes about the vehicle, such as a dent, unusual paint jobs or even bumper stickers, you should also note that.

Once you have this information, pull over and call the police. You should also know the area you are in and the names of streets and intersections where you encountered the driver.

Spotting a drunk driver on the road can be scary since it means there could be an imminent accident. The most important thing you can do in this case is protect yourself from that driver and contact the police.

Categories
nursing home abuse and neglect

Are nursing homes as dangerous as they seem?

Nursing homes are supposed to be safe spaces for the elderly to receive the care they need as they age. Many people who reach the need for a nursing home are unable to perform some of their daily tasks on their own. They may have advanced health conditions that lead to confusion or weakness, memory difficulties or other problems that require around-the-clock care.

When you place a loved one in a nursing home, you want to know that the staff is experienced and trained well. You want to know that your loved one is safe. If you do your research, you can find a nursing home that provides the care you expect. However, there are many that do not reach the standard of care you would want your loved one to experience.

Did you know that around a third of all nursing homes expose residents to abuse of some form? Abuse may take the form of malnutrition and neglect, physical abuse, exploitation or sexual abuse, for example. Interestingly, around 90 percent of those who abuse the elderly are known to the residents. That means that the abusers may be other residents, nursing home staff members, family or friends.

Why is it important to ask about the staff’s background?

Did you know that around 92 percent of all nursing homes have hired a convicted criminal? Nursing home employees aren’t required to go through background checks. Ask about the employees in the home you’re considering, so you know if the facility has stricter requirements.

These are some shocking statistics, but they may help you understand how to find the right nursing home.

Categories
catastrophic injuries

Protect yourself after a catastrophic injury by filing a claim

Catastrophic injuries are injuries that change your life forever. They’re so serious that you may never fully recover. They include injuries to the spine, trauma to the brain and other serious wounds.

If you’re in a crash and suffer catastrophic injuries, it’s likely that you’ll know right away. The stories of people who couldn’t see, couldn’t feel their legs or who were left without hearing all come to mind as injuries that are devastating and instant in crashes.

What can you do to reduce the severity of a catastrophic injury?

Sometimes, there’s not much you can do, but the most important thing you can do for yourself is to call 911 and get to a hospital. Even if you think you’re fine, you need to go to the hospital for a medical exam. That exam is the basis for everything that is to come, including suggestions for treatment, the potential for life-saving or life-changing drugs to be administered during a short window for success and as documentation that you can submit when you make a claim against the driver who struck you.

People who suffer from catastrophic injuries often end up needing a lifetime of medical care, exams and other treatments. Some need multiple surgeries in hopes of reducing pain or increasing mobility. No matter what happened to you, it’s important that you have the chance to be compensated. You can file a claim shortly after the crash, but make sure you wait to settle or go to trial until you know how serious your injuries are and how they’ll affect you in the future.

Categories
dangerous and defective products

You should always report a defective product

Defective protects can become a huge hazard in your home. For example, a device like a pressure cooker with loose latches or no way to release pressure in an emergency could explode and cause harm. A coffee pot that doesn’t regulate itself correctly could spray hot water or coffee on those around it.

In any situation where a defective product is present, it’s necessary to take steps to eliminate the risk to consumers. Most commonly, this comes in the form of a recall. Recalls may be voluntary or not, but the end result is the same: The products are no longer sold if they are dangerous.

What should you do if you believe you have a defective product?

The first thing to do is to make sure you did everything correctly when you set up the product. For example, if you were supposed to remove safety tape or papers and failed to do so, the product might not work correctly.

Next, read the manual to guarantee that you’re using the product as it was designed to be used. If you don’t, you could hurt yourself despite warnings in the materials or tips on how to avoid injury.

If you find that you’ve done everything correctly, but you’re still struggling with the device getting too hot, sparking or causing other problems, you should report it. You can report the defective device to the store where you purchased it, directly to the manufacturer, to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in some cases and to your attorney for further help with your defective product case.