DUI Officer Crashes Car into A McDonalds Outlet

Normally, you go to a McDonalds drive-thru station to get that badly-needed meal, whatever the time is. However, some locals or those who passed by Diamond Bar in California probably got disappointed when they went to their favorite McDonalds drive-thru station one early morning.

Crashing In

An officer of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was arrested by his peers after his car flew off the 60 Freeway. The car ended in a McDonald’s drive-thru station in Diamond Bar causing damage to the restaurant. Investigators said that 29-year-old Officer Jonathan Chel of the LAPD was brought to the UCI Medical Center after sustaining traumatic injuries because of the car crash. In the medical facility, it is found that Chel was under the influence of alcohol which got him arrested.

Drunk Driving is Bad

Time and again, authorities have worked well to make sure that people knew how dangerous drunk driving is. Every year, the government through the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in its anti-drunk driving campaign. Through tri-media and new media advertisements and information campaigns, these different agencies, as well as concerned groups have put in a lot of effort to let everybody know how dangerous drunk driving is and why people should stop doing it. While some adhere to these calls by the government, others still go driving after drinking, making them learn things the hard way. That is why more and more campaigns are being formulated to better reach motorists to get the message across and make people stop putting their lives and others in danger by drinking and driving.

Law Enforcers Breaking Laws

Law enforcement is one of the biggest problems as far as drunk driving is concerned. Especially if the ones who should be enforcing it at the very people who break it. That is why the government is again reiterating its calls to make people drive safer by taking drunk people off the road. This way, streets would be a lot safer and accidents like these won’t happen again.

Getting Involved in a Hit-and-run: Knowing Your Rights as an Injured Bicyclist

Bicycling is one of the most convenient forms of transportation, most especially in California. In fact, bicyclists are required to comply with the traffic laws of the state, as they also share the road with other motorists. However, bicyclists are vulnerable to hit-and-run accidents, especially if automobile drivers are not aware of their presence on the road.

For some, such horrible incidents are caused by sloppy enforcement of traffic laws. Some would say these are the fault of unlicensed and uninsured drivers. Reasons for such accidents are too complicated and involve a lot of factors that are linked with each other; nonetheless, it is the victims who suffer a lot from these unfortunate instances that should not have happened had the other parties involved acted reasonably with care.

Basically, hit-and-run accidents involving bicycles in California involve criminal charges, which are classified as either misdemeanors or felonies. A misdemeanor charge is filed against the driver d if the bicyclist was hit and caused only property damage, whereas a felony charge is likewise charged if the bicyclist was injured or killed.

While these criminal charges are imperative in punishing lackadaisical and wayward motorists, they don’t actually help in paying the damages to the bicyclists, especially for those who were injured or killed in hit-and-run accidents. For the most part, involved drivers are never located, or, if they had been found, the statute of limitations had already expired.

Fighting Traumatic Brain Injuries through the Seatbelt Law

A crash victim has a great possibility of sustaining head injuries. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), head injuries are any form of trauma that caused damage to the skull, scalp or brain.

Once the brain is damaged through these injuries to the head, the condition is referred to as Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI. Individuals who have this ailment may experience changes in the way they think, speak and feel.

TBI is a growing health problem within the country. Some of its main cities where a lot of road activity is present may have numerous cases of brain injury caused by vehicular accidents. Los Angeles in California is considered as one of these high risk cities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had confirmed through its reports that as of 2009, some 588 accidents had already taken place in this area.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also found out that around 1.7 million Americans sustain TBI yearly. About 52,000 of these victims die, while some 1.365 million or 60 percent are being treated and released from hospital emergency departments. The CDC further said that motor vehicle traffic injury is the leading cause of TBI deaths especially for people aged 20 to 24 years old. 

To fight the growing rate of these health concerns, different states created laws that would govern motorists. In California, a Mandatory Seatbelt Law is strictly implemented. It is also referred to at times as the Vehicle Code Section 27315. Here are some of its provisions: 

Statistics and Injuries due to Distracted Driving

 

Distractions while driving are often fatal. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) there had been about 5, 474 who got killed in vehicle crashes across the United States due to distracted driving in the year 2009. This does not include the 448,000 other individuals who got injured in such accidents. This meant that distracted driving brought around 16 percent of the fatal traffic crashes in that same year.

These staggering numbers include little children, the elderly and young adults. Los Angeles, not surprisingly, is one of the cities with the leading number of fatalities. According to the NHTSA records, in 2009 this highly urbanized location recorded the most number of accidents. 

Distraction while driving occurs when the driver of the motor vehicle attempts to do two things at the same time. Some of the samples of this nasty driving habit include using the cell phone (texting or calling), grooming, reading, or even thinking about other things aside from driving itself. Most of the time, such acts lead to collisions which should have been prevented.

During crashes, those inside the vehicle are susceptible to traumatic injuries. Two of the most common forms of this include the following:

Initial Indications of Traumatic Brain injury

A lot of accidents have been documented at the State of California. One of the possible reasons for this is the high road activity brought by tourism. This is also the primary element being blamed by authorities for their failure to implement the law and protect the citizens living within this location.

Due to the notoriety of California as a place prone to road accidents, it has actually landed in the list of the world’s worst places to drive in.

Based from the 2009 records of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), California topped the list of states with the most traffic fatalities in a year. Records show that in 2009 alone, there were 3,081 casualties in here. Los Angeles, one of its cities, also had the most number of casualties in the same year, with some 588 recorded traffic accident-related deaths. 

There is a great probability that the victims of traffic mishaps would sustain injuries that could debilitate them for life. One of the worst kinds of injury that they could incur is that of the traumatic brain injury (TBI). 

TBIis a type of ailment resulting from a strong blow to the head. It causes the skull to have fractures or have a crack. During the blow, the brain may bump against the skull, which could lead skull fragments to pierce the brain. Once the brain bleeds, or have its tissues torn or bruised, the victim could suffer from disrupted emotional or psychological functions.

The Top Deadliest Mistakes a Driver Must Avoid

In a perfect world, driving can be fun and easy. Every necessary movement associated with driving can be performed with accuracy. But then, this is not a perfect world. Truth be told, there is no such thing as accurate driving. Any attempt to make sure that the driving experience is smooth at all times is downright dubious. At any time and any place possible, driving can lead to either major or minor accidents.

To help drivers uphold their safety and of other motorists, it is important for them to keep in mind the deadliest driving mistakes. Here are some of them that they must avoid:

·         Swerving. It is the switching of lanes without proper caution. It is considered the primary deadly mistake, which, according to the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA), killed 15,574 people n 2007 alone.

·         Drowsy driving. Fatigue is one of the main enemies of drivers. It is often said that driving while tired is as dangerous as driving while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Traffic deaths are at its peak at hours when most people are accustomed to sleeping, usually from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.