California Bicycle Accident Lawyers Archives - Page 5 of 5

Bipartisan Support for Traumatic Brain Injury Program

Posted on August 3, 2014November 23, 2019 by Gary Brustin

While lawmakers in Congress don’t agree on many issues, it has been encouraging for California bicycle accident lawyers to find consensus on important traumatic brain injury legislation.

Traumatic brain injury is a serious public health issue in this country. In June, the House Of Representatives unanimously the Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act. This is an important piece of legislation that has not received heavy publicity in the media, but is likely to impact public health policy in the United States for several years to come.

This legislation is designed to provide resources to persons who suffer from traumatic brain injury, and also increase investments in education and research on traumatic brain injury, its treatment and prevention. The bill has been approved by the Of Representatives, and will now move on to the Senate. We hope the Senate will also approve the bill.

As many as 2 million Americans in the United States suffer from brain injury, and are currently living with these traumatic injuries. However, much of the public spotlight on these injuries tends to focus on injuries suffered by veterans, especially those returning from combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also important to understand that the ordinary American is much more likely to suffer a brain injury in a slip and fall accident or a bicycle accident than on the battlefield. Every day, Americans suffer brain injuries when they tumble downstairs, play sports like football, or perform everyday tasks.

You can reduce your risk of suffering a traumatic brain injury. Wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle or bicycle. Only wear a helmet that is strong, sturdy, meets federal specifications and is manufactured by a reputed manufacturer. “Fall-proof “ your home especially if you’re a senior citizen.

New High-Tech Aids for Your Bicycle

Posted on July 21, 2014November 23, 2019 by Gary Brustin

As a bicyclist, you are one of the most vulnerable users on our roads, with very little except your helmet protecting you from serious injuries in an accident. Fortunately, bicycles are getting more technologically advanced, and now do a much better job of helping you prevent accidents, than they did before.

Many bicycle safety technologies are especially designed to help reduce the risk of an accident. For instance, a relatively new innovation is the ICEdot, an app that works in collaboration with your smartphone. The sensor detects a bicyclist’s impact and motion. If it detects impact, it immediately sends a signal to contact 911. The app also sends an alert to all the names on your emergency contact list. Basically, this device ensures that a bicyclist is never really riding alone. Even when he is in danger, friends on his emergency contact list as well as emergency rescue services are immediately alerted. The device will also send emergency contacts as well as rescue services your GPS coordinates, so that help can be sent as quickly as possible and with minimum hassle.

Another must have for bicyclists these days is a more sophisticated GPS product. A device called BikeSpike helps you keep track of bicyclists, sending alerts in the event of an accident. The device is very popular with bicyclists in 2014 who want to ride not just a reputed brand name bicycle, but also one that comes with tech that enhances their safety Other new products are based on relatively old technology, with a new form, like bicycle horns that sound very much like car horns.

Bicycles are also getting smarter, and are now equipped with features that actually reduce the risk of accidents. For instance, new bicycles now come with features that help make it easy to slow down the brakes, and also make steering on a bicycle easier.

Bicyclists and the Doctrine of Comparative Fault

Posted on July 1, 2014November 23, 2019 by Gary Brustin

Bicyclists in California can recover damages when they have suffered injuries in an accident. However, what happens in those cases where the bicyclist is at least partly to blame for the accident?

There are several ways that a bicyclist may contribute partly to his own injuries in an accident. For instance, he may fail to obey traffic laws. If you cross traffic lanes, or otherwise ride unsafely, you could possibly be blamed for the accident when one occurs.

Say for instance, you were riding down the wrong way on a one-way street, and were struck by a speeding car. A judge may determine that you were partly to blame because you were driving in the wrong direction. However, just because you are partly to blame in the accident, does not mean that you are absolutely not eligible for compensation recovery. It does mean that the compensation that you were eligible for will now be reduced by the percentage of your fault in the accident.

Determining whether you are at fault in the accident will fall on the judge. You can expect the insurer for the motorist involved in your accident to claim that damages should be reduced significantly because you were very much to blame for causing your own injuries. However, a judge will determine how much you were to blame in the accident. If the judge believes that you were not at all to blame in the accident, and the fault was that of the motorist, then you will be awarded 100% of the damages. However, if the judge believes that you were 20% negligent, then your damages will be reduced by 20%, and you will only receive 80 percent of the damages you would have been eligible for.

In any case, you must speak to a California bicycle accident lawyer if you have been injured in an accident. Determining fault and assigning percentages is a complicated process which judges will consider only with inputs from lawyers.

New Technology Helps Spinal Injury Patients Move Limbs

Posted on June 17, 2014November 23, 2019 by Gary Brustin

Brain and spinal injuries are some of the most devastating injuries impacting persons involved in bicycle accidents. Both of these are catastrophic injuries, and there is no complete cure for these injuries. Therefore, a new announcement by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Battelle provides very encouraging new to California bicycle accident lawyers.

According to researchers, a 22-year-old quadriplegic is now the first patient to use the electronic bypass technology that directly reconnect the brain with muscles. The technology actually helps persons who suffered paralysis as a result of spinal cord injury to voluntarily and functionally control paralyzed limbs. The quadriplegic patient is the first in a group of five participants who have been chosen for a clinical study into the benefits of the device.

According to the researchers, the procedure works very much like a heart bypass surgery to bypass electrical signals. In this procedure, the electrical signals are taken from the brain, and go directly to the muscles, without touching the site of the injury. The technology is based on algorithms that analyze the person’s brain activity, which translate the neuro impulses from the person’s brain and transmit this information to the person’s paralyzed limb. In the case of this patient, his brain signals actually bypassed his injured spinal cord, and moved into his hand, allowing him to move his paralyzed hand. The technology is called NeuroBridge.

During a typical bicycle accident, when a bicyclist is thrown several feet away from the bicycle and lands on concrete with an impact, some of the most serious injuries that can occur involve the spinal cord and head. Fortunately, in recent years, there has been significant progress in developing technologies that help patients who have been paralyzed as a result of the spinal cord injury, move their limbs again.