Last Monday evening, a 95-year old driver perished in an accident when his car was involved in a head-on collision with a bus.

The elderly Porterville man was driving westbound in his 1995 Pontiac on Road 296 when he inexplicably drifted into the eastbound lanes. He crashed into the bus driven by Cheryl Lyn Seitz, 48, of Porterville.

He was taken to Community Regional Medical Center where he died. Three bus passengers, David Johnson, 41, and Angela Roberts, 38, of Lindsay, and Luz Carrillo, 34, of Porterville suffered minor injuries and were taken Sierra View District Hospital for treatment.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there were 26 million Americans aged 70 years old and older living in the United States — approximately 67 percent these were also drivers. Now that baby boomers are fast becoming old, the growing number of elderly drivers now presents a serious road safety concern.

While elderly people do not get involved in as many crashes as teenagers, a number of them still lose their lives in fatal crashes. In 2008, as many as 4,268 people aged 70 and above were killed in motor vehicle crashes.

The main reason for fatality rates however, was the elderly driver’s fragility. Fragility or their risk of death in a crash increases around ages 60-64 and continues to rise with increasing age.

As drivers age, their physical, cognitive, and visual abilities may also decline. Most often, their vision starts to become impaired and they have slower reflexes. Also, many older drivers take medications for various age-related ailments. Medicine, whether prescription or over the counter, can impair driving ability at any age but can be especially impairing for an older driver.

So if you are an elderly driver, or know someone who continues to drive despite their old age and condition, it would be best to undergo screening the next time the license is to be renewed. It also isn’t advisable to take medication right before driving as some drugs can cause drowsiness and even trigger a DUI-related accident.

There is no general rule regarding elderly drivers being allowed to drive as long as they are able, therefore, it would be up to you, whether as the elderly driver or his/her family, to take appropriate measures to ensure that there is no road safety risk to avoid causing accidents.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

In Dana point, a female driver fell asleep at the wheel and flipped her car while northbound I-5 just north of Camino Estrella.

According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the crash happened at 10:42 in the morning while the driver was on the leftmost No. 1 lane. Allegedly, she dozed off and woke up with oncoming traffic stopping in front of her.

The driver swerved to the left and ended up hitting a wall before flipping her Toyota Corolla. The female driver had minor injuries.

In a survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation’s most recent survey, 28 percent of Americans have admitted to falling asleep while driving while 54 percent (more than half of the respondents), were guilty of drowsy driving.

According to David Cloud, National Sleep Foundation’s CEO, people are not always aware that they are too tired to drive and can fall into a 3-4 second microsleep. If a driver falls into a microsleep while travelling at 65 mph – the distance is equivalent to driving across a football field while unconscious.

But aside from falling asleep at the wheel, fatigued or drowsy driving is also dangerous because it slows down reaction times, impairs vision and judgment. Even if drivers don’t drive off the road because they fall asleep at the wheel, they may end up hitting pedestrians, bikes, or other cars because they were too sleepy to notice their immediate surroundings.

To avoid the hassle of crashing your car or worse, causing an accident that could potentially hurt or kill other motorists, here are some tips you can follow to avoid being a negligent and drowsy driver:

•    Avoid alcohol or drugs/medication that can cause drowsiness before driving.
•    Get enough sleep and adequate rest to be alert on the road.
•    Use the “buddy system” when driving long distances so the both of you can take turns at the wheel when either driver is feeling sleepy or tired.
•    Drink coffee. Two cups of coffee can increase alertness for several hours.
•    If out for a long drive and you’re feeling sleepy, pull over and take a nap. Also, be careful driving especially if you just woke up.

Early mornings or late evenings are often to time when most sleep-related driving accidents occur. So at the start and the end of your day, make sure you’re wide awake and alert because driving is a skill that requires focus and both of the driver’s eyes open.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

This just goes to show that even professional and record-breaking Tour De Force champion bicyclists like Lance Armstrong can get involved in a bicycle accident.

"Lance Armstrong injured in tour of California." (photo credit: examiner.com)

Earlier this week, Armstrong, who was in the Tour of California, was sent to the hospital after being injured in a bicycle crash. The accident happened on a two-lane road outside Visalia, when one of the riders in the main group skidded on gravel and fell, which triggered a chain crash accident.

Armstrong allegedly tried to get back into the race but had to quit because of an injury below his left eye and a wound in his elbow that kept him from holding on too long to the bars of his bike.

Precautionary X-rays were taken and aside from eight stitches below his left eye, Armstrong was fine.

Learning how to ride a bike may be easy, the hard part is how to safely ride one.

These days, heavily congested roads have forced people to resort to using motorcycles and bicycles for their transportation. Riding bicycles are certainly more environment-friendly and fuel-efficient but staying safe on the streets while riding a bike can be a challenge.

Sometimes, when there are no bicycle lanes, cars, SUVs, trucks, motorcycles and bicycles would have to share the road and this has been the cause of many bicycle accidents that have injured or killed thousands of people.

If Lance Armstrong got into a bicycle accident, the odds are, ordinary bikers riding for pleasure, exercise and transportation are even more likely to take a spill on the road sooner or later. So in the meantime, here are some bicycle safety tips:

•    Get a headlight and a rear light for your bicycle especially if you ride during the evenings.
•    Wear bright and/or reflective clothing.
•    Try to avoid busy streets as much as possible, most car drivers will be too busy or distracted to notice you.
•    Take the whole lane when you ride, or at least ride a little bit to the left, rather than stay on the right curb.
•    Never move left or make a turn without checking your area.

If you ride your bicycle safely and follow all of the above-mentioned tips but still get involved in an accident, you may file a personal injury claim especially if the other driver was negligent. Because just as you have the duty to be careful and diligent, so do the other motorists on the road.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

We’ve all heard about “death panels” but it seems that death panel rumors barely hold a candle to the reality of elderly abuse in nursing homes.

Previously, it was reported that a nursing home in Auburn, Colonial Healthcare was ordered to pay $28 million worth of punitive damages for the death of one of its residents in Auburn because of an infected bedsore.

Frances Tanner, 79, although suffering from mild dementia, was healthy when she got admitted to Colonial. However, within 7 months after a fall accident that broke her hip, the long-time civil servant died from a bedsore. Her daughter, Elizabeth Pao, was also awarded $1.1 million for Tanner’s pain and suffering as well as for her loss of companionship.

This time, even after the huge amount of damages awarded against Colonial Healthcare, a Los Angeles nursing home has now been fined $100,000 for an 84-year old patient’s death.

According to a report by the California Department of Public Health, the patient, who was at the center because of a fractured hip and prostate cancer, died because Hancock Park Rehabilitation Center failed to follow the proper policies and procedure.

It improperly administered a nasal feeding tube and the feeding tube apparently started to leak food into the man’s lung which caused pneumonia which led to his death last May 2008.

State health regulators imposed the $100,000 fine, the highest and most severe penalty under state laws regulating nursing homes.

But as evidenced by the continued elderly abuse at nursing homes, mostly brought about by poor management and chronic understaffing, imposing fines and even millions of dollars worth of damages has failed to deter other nursing homes from making the same mistake and abuses on their clients.

If you have a loved one in a nursing home or considering it, it would really be prudent for you to check its background and ask around about its quality of care. But in the worst case scenario that your elderly mother or father or other family members were injured or who died because of the nursing home’s negligence or failure to follow proper nursing care procedures, a fine being imposed against the nursing home by the government is just one of the remedies.

Rightfully, you may file a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death claim against the negligent nursing home to recover compensation for any monetary expenses or loss you and your family suffered because of their acts and omissions.

Filing a wrongful death claim or a personal injury lawsuit isn’t also just for compensation – these facilities should be held accountable for the negligence and since they put profit over people, winning a case against them will force these nursing homes to improve their standard and quality of care to avoid further litigation.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

The fame and fortune of living a Hollywood lifestyle is far from perfect – several celebrities have let the rock and roll lifestyle of being a star destroy their lives through alcohol, drugs and sex.

"Lindsay Lohan arrested twice for DUI." (photo credit: hollywoodtoday.net)

Lindsay Lohan, who, years ago, was one of the most promising young actresses in Tinseltown, is a classic example of how excess can kill your career and saddle you with legal complications.

In 2007, she was arrested twice for driving under the influence (DUI). In one incident, she even suffered minor injuries when the car she was driving hit a curb.

Fast forward to 2010 and Lohan is now facing a lawsuit from three men who claimed that during her 2nd DUI arrest, she took their SUV and held them hostage to chase the mother of her former assistant after a party.

The men (who were Lohan’s passengers in 2007) are suing Lohan for allegedly endangering their lives in an alcohol-fueled wild ride down Pacific Coast Highway.

Unfortunately however, Lohan hasn’t seemed to clean up her act since then as she showed up late for the deposition. Apparently, the former teen queen was even out partying with her mother into the wee hours of the morning on the day of the deposition.

A deposition is a part of civil procedure wherein a testimony under oath is taken before the court. Lohan sat through 6 hours of deposition in order to answer the allegations in the civil complaint filed against her.

According to her lawyer, Ed McPherson, Lohan is anxious to go to trial so that she will be vindicated of the charges against her.

Previously, for her DUI offenses, the actress was sentenced to one day in jail (where she merely served 84 minutes) and was placed on a three year probation, as well as ordered to perform community service, get treatment for her addiction and attend an 18-month alcohol-education program.

A huge percentage of fatal car accidents involved driving under the influence. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 35 percent of all fatally injured passenger vehicle drivers had 0.08 percent BAC or above. Further, it was estimated by the institute that 8,916 deaths could have been prevented had the drivers not been drunk at the time of the accident.

Under the law, aside from facing criminal charges for violating DUI laws, drunk drivers can also be held liable by their victims (whether it is their passenger, the driver of another car, pedestrian, etc.) for compensation. If convicted of DUI, they would have to pay for damages for the injuries or loss suffered by the victim.

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• share via Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later