Coming up is the Child Injury Prevention Conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C. from October 15-18. The conference highlights the “dramatic reduction of unintentional deaths and injuries to children over the last 20 years.” Additionally, the program highlights ways to continue to keep our children safe. There are different programs, seminars, lectures, discussions, etc. that talk about various topics - public health, injury prevention and more.

As personal injury and auto accident attorneys, we see and hear from a lot of people involved in accidents and car crashes. In one case we recently filed, the defendant was 16 years old at the time of the accident.

That being said, there is a lot of talk lately about raising the driving age of our teens. A study published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety highlights the fact that the leading cause of death for teenagers is auto crashes and accidents. Turning 16 has been a rite of passage for teens around the country because it’s the age when they can legally drive or obtain their learner’s permit - although laws vary from state to state. The one exception is New Jersey, which has the driving age set at 17.

As an age group, 16 year olds are more than 10 times as likely to have an accident than drivers aged 30 to 59. Additionally, more than 5,000 teens in the U.S. die from car crashes, according to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration.

Regardless of the driving age, all adults and parents need to do our part of teach our teens how to drive safely and responsibily - as well as teach them the consequences of not driving safely. For more information on raising the driving age and to view the complete study, please visit the Insurance Institue for Highway Safety. There are many resources available online regarding safe driving, including those available on our website in our Consumer Resources section.  

The Government Accountability Office recently put out a study that the amount of commercial vehicle operators that are medically unfit is more than 500,000, and these drivers should not be behind the wheel of a semi truck or 18-wheeler. As we all know, South Florida’s busy roads have as many trucks on them as anywhere else, and this can put us and our families in danger with these drivers on the road.

Damage done by a collision between a large commercial vehicle and a smaller passenger car can be catastrophic, causing death, catastrophic head or body injuries and a multitude of other problems. There are many older drivers operating commercial vehicles whose health deteriorates rapidly after the last renewal of their commercial license. One would be shocked at the number of people carrying such a license, but who no longer have the required minimum eyesight. However, this unfortunate fact is usually learned after the accident or disaster has already ruined or taken lives.

For more information about medically unfit truck drivers and the study released by the GAO, please click here. You can also visit the news section of our website at www.balkanpatterson.com for additional details.