Use of alcohol and drugs by truck drivers, as reported by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), is the second most common cause of accidents involving big rigs (also called 18-wheelers, semi-trailers or trailer-trucks). Due to the enormous size of these vehicles, an impaired driver behind the wheel completes the threat of possible accident that may easily result to severe injuries or death (impaired-driving may be due to alcohol intoxication or due to the effect of illegal drugs (narcotics) or legal drugs (over-the-counter and prescription medicine).
Operating Class 8 trucks, which include big rigs and other commercial vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GWVR) above 33000 lb., requires that the driver has a commercial driver’s license, possesses the necessary skills in the safe operation of a truck, is not feeling fatigued or sleepy, and is not impaired or intoxicated.
To ensure that the last requirement is met, the government has set 0.04% as the legal blood alcohol concentration limit for drivers of 18-wheeler trucks. A driving under the influence (DUI) charge and heavy punishments await those who will be caught with this BAC limit while driving. While those caught with 0.02% BAC level may not be charged with a DUI offense, they, nonetheless, can be issued a 24-hour driving suspension. These limits, by the way, are only for drivers who will be discovered to have said BAC levels while operating a truck; those who are off-duty, but registers a 0.08% BAC may still incur a DUI charge.
Despite the BAC limits and the anti-drunk driving laws, data shows that prior to crashes, many drivers were, indeed, intoxicated or alcohol-impaired. This is because many drivers consume a bottle or two during stopovers, while sharing stories with other truck drivers; some also choose to bring along extra bottles which will keep them company during the long, tiring and lonely long drives between counties.
In its website, the law firm Williams Kherkher says, “Driving while under the influence of any intoxicant is a reckless and hazardous act that could endanger everyone on or near the road.”
For drivers of big rigs, staying sober while on duty is a legal responsibility. It has been explained, time and again, that alcohol impairment can lessen one’s ability to safely operate a vehicle, much more a big rig. The risk of injury and death, especially to drivers and passengers of smaller vehicles, is the reason why drunk-driving has been made illegal. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), about 5,000 small vehicle occupants die every year in accidents where trucks are involved; number of deaths among truck drivers, on the other hand, number to about 700.
Victims of truck accidents will definitely need strong legal representation from a seasoned personal injury lawyer for a higher chance of claiming the compensation they will need for their medical treatment and other losses. This is because proving liability, specifically proving that the truck driver is the one at fault in the accident, may not be a simple task. Due to this, a civil lawsuit, even with evidence showing the truck driver’s liability, may still turn out to be a very challenging task.
Bronchial tubes are air passages that carry air to the lungs. When the inside lining of this tubes become irritated and inflamed, a lung condition called bronchitis occur. Bronchitis is typically caused by viruses, and so self-medicating bronchitis with antibiotics will not help, and may even worsen the condition because of the medication’s possible side-effects.
Bronchitis can either be acute or chronic. Acute bronchitis is accompanied by productive cough, shortness of breath, weakness, chest pain or discomfort, and slight fever. Production of discoloured mucus and difficulty sleeping can also be among its symptoms. These symptoms may linger several weeks after bronchial inflammation subsided. Chronic bronchitis, on the other hand, is a result of recurring acute bronchitis. Individuals with chronic bronchitis may experience the symptoms above for at least three months, and the symptoms may recur within a period of at least two years.
Persons who smoke, have a weak immune system, and are experiencing acid reflux are among those who are most prone to bronchitis. Pollution from car fumes have also been identified as among the risk factors associated with the disease. Unfortunately, some car manufacturers chose to ignore their moral responsibility of producing environment-friendly cars and instead veer towards the opposite side. For instance, a Volkswagen emissions attorney would point out that the German automaker attempted to defraud clean air regulations by equipping its car with software that could defeat standard emissions tests.
If you think you have the symptoms above, visit your doctor right away for an accurate bronchitis diagnosis and treatment. Diagnosing and treating bronchitis earlier may prevent you from experiencing more severe lung complications, such as chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pneumonia.
Finally, to keep bronchitis at bay, you should do what you can in avoiding irritants from entering your lungs. Quitting smoking, avoiding second-hand smoke, using air humidifiers, and wearing mask when outside are just among the many preventive measures that you can take to prevent bronchitis.
Asbestos has been used since ancient times, praised for its fire resistant properties. It is a naturally occurring fiber found in large deposits in every continent. However, it has been found to be a harmful material causing the cancer Mesothelioma.
Even as far back as the Roman Empire and ancient Greece, asbestos was used in building materials. Ancient societies also used it in embalming, clay pots, and clothing, to just name some. Even in the ancient times, people reported a lung problems in those who were regularly exposed to asbestos. Despite these reports, use of asbestos continued into the Middle Ages and even the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution saw a particularly high increase in the use of asbestos as it was not only used in factories, but in oil refineries, chemical plants, railroad cars, and in shipyards. It was resistant to chemicals, water, and electricity making it useful to use in piping, steam engines, and boilers. The continued use of asbestos made asbestos mining a common practice by the beginning of the 1900’s. The beginning of the twentieth century saw a rise in this fire-resistant material being used in a wide variety of products, with the US becoming the number one asbestos manufacturer in the world.
However, people continued to document serious health problems they blamed on the inhaling of asbestos fibers. The number of asbestos workers who were dying unnaturally young increased and people began taking notice of the potential risks of asbestos fibers. Still, use continued and was used in building materials. According to the website of Williams Kherkher, many workers in the industrial industry, such as construction workers and shipyard workers, were at a higher risk for asbestos exposure. Even military and naval veterans were at risk as asbestos was used in building materials they were around.
However, the risks of asbestos were impossible to ignore. Although asbestos was eventually banned in the United States after being linked to asbestosis and mesothelioma cancer, many people still risk being exposed to it as it was so widely used in the past.
Anyone registering a vehicle in Florida is required by state law to purchase an insurance packaged called Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance. Drivers will need to carry a minimum coverage package of $10,000 to maintain their driving privileges. This will help ensure that anyone who is injured in the accident can receive compensation for medical treatment costs and other financial obligations caused by the accident. With PIP insurance, car accident victims can receive financial protection regardless of who may be at fault.
Carrying Personal Injury Protection is obviously beneficial for all Florida drivers. However, the lawyers at Schuler, Halvorson, Weisser, Zoeller, and Overbeck P.A. also point out on their website that the law requiring the protection can sometimes make it easy for insurance companies to dodge claimants and deny paying appropriate compensation. According to The Heartland Institute, a non-profit research organization, this is because auto insurance fraud is rampant in Florida. Because of lenient policies, PIP makes it easy for individuals to stage accidents and make fraudulent claims to insurance companies. This leads insurance providers to be more stringent with their process.
This leaves plenty of innocent people in a pretty tight spot. In particular, these scenarios can leave medical professionals with very little option to recover the cost of treatments they’ve performed to help car accident victims. Often times, hospitals and doctors can face a lengthy process and plenty of red tape that aggravate their attempts to find reimbursement.
Even though Personal Injury Protection helps ensure the safety of drivers in Florida, the policy requiring it can also lead to several potential problems. In particular, it can be hard for medical professionals to claim rightful compensation after giving treatment to victims of no-fault accidents. Hospitals dealing with this problem should not hesitate to consult an experienced PIP lawyer to settle complications involved in making rightful insurance claims.
In 2005, the estimated number of new cases of spinal cord injuries (SCI) in the US was 11,000. Estimation eventually rose, reaching up to 12,500 new cases each year until 2014. Today, in the US, about 276,000 persons are believed to be spinal cord injured; 82% of the patients are male, while the ages of 56% of those with the injury are 16 and 30.
The spinal cord, which is a bundle of nerve tissues and support cells, is one of the most delicate and sensitive parts of the human body; it forms the central nervous system together with the brain. While the brain may be identified as the body’s command center, the spinal cord acts as a pathway where all messages, from and to the brain, pass to the different parts of the body.
Due to the very important function that it plays in the human body, any serious injury to the spinal cord can result to a devastating effect, namely, paralysis. Depending on the severity of the damage to the spinal cord, paralysis may either be Paraplegia, which is partial paralysis, or Quadriplegia, which means total paralysis. Quadriplegia refers to total loss of bodily functions and control from the area of the injury down to the rest of the body (thus, the higher the area of the injury, the greater the extent of paralysis). In Paraplegia, however, loss of function and control is on one side of the body only; there are cases, though, wherein, despite loss of control, the paralyzed body part remains to have sensation.
Until 1995, vehicular (car and motorcycle) accidents were identified as the most common causes of spinal cord injuries. This was overtaken by violence (knife wounds and gunshot) during the early 2000. In 2014, however, a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research showed that falls have become the new leading causes of the injury, especially in older adults. Though no clear picture explains how falls could have overtaken vehicular accidents in causing SCI, researchers can only assume the strict implementation of the seatbelt law in many states as a major contributory factor plus the more active life of the aging American population.
Other identified causes of SCI, include injuries due to sports and recreational activities, work-related accidents, use of alcohol, and diseases, such as inflammation of the spinal cord, osteoporosis, cancer and arthritis.
On its website, the law firm Pohl & Berk, LLP, points out the life-altering consequences of a spinal cord injury. While this injury can definitely make the life of the victim and his/her family filled with burden (physical, emotional and, especially, financial), it can also evoke the feeling of anger, especially due to the thought that the accident leading to the injury may very well have been prevented had the liable individual only acted with proper care. The firm continues to explain that, though the victim’s life may no longer return to normal, he/she can pursue legal actions, which can help him/her receive the financial compensation that will cover expensive medical treatment and loss of wages or loss of capability to earn wages.
Traffic violations are not generally considered serious offenses, but that only covers categories such as failing to signal or tailgating. These are petty offenses that warrant a fine in most cases. However, traffic violations such as driving without a valid license are criminal offenses, and carries potentially serious penalties.
Driving without a license is the same as driving with a license that has been suspended or revoked; they are at a minimum a class A misdemeanor in Illinois. You could spend as much as a year in jail and pay a fine up to $2,500. If you have been involved in an accident where someone got injured, it may be classified as a felony with escalating severity depending on the circumstances such as the severity of the injury to a third party. In such cases, you could be looking at up to 7 years imprisonment and a $25,000 fine, not including expenses for the treatment and compensation of the injured party.
It is certainly an inconvenience having your driving privileges suspended, but not more than spending time in prison and getting a criminal record. If your driver’s license is suspended and you don’t know why, you need to find out so that you can take the necessary steps to lifting it. A notification of license suspension may not detail why, so it is your responsibility to get a court purposes abstract (the driving record) from the office of the Secretary of State.
When the suspension falls under safety responsibility issues or mandatory insurance suspensions, you will need to obtain a certificate of financial responsibility or the SR22 and concomitant car insurance from an accredit insurance company. The website of Insure on the Spot SR22 section describes what specific circumstances will require this certificate.
There is usually a time in a person’s life when they think back with nostalgia to the days when they were young and carefree, and some retain aspects of their childhood in their outlook in life. However, when a woman refers to the “child in me,” she probably does not mean an actual child. But in some cases, that can be true.
Lithopedion or “stone baby” refers to a rare medical condition in which a fetus dies outside the uterus, usually the abdomen, and the mother’s body is unable to expel it without assistance. There are about 300 cases in total, and in some the infant’s body stays in the mother for years before it is discovered or expelled. In most cases, the mother is unaware that she is harboring the body of a dead child until it becomes symptomatic (abdominal pain, swelling) or an examination for another condition reveals it.
The most recent discovery was made in August 2014 in India when an MRI scan of a 62-year-old woman admitted for abdominal pain revealed the hardened, calcified remains of a child lodged on the lower right side of the abdomen. It was the child she had been pregnant with when she was 24, and had been told had no chance of survival because it was growing outside the uterus. It is believed to be the longest ectopic pregnancy in history, although not the longest case of lithopedion, which goes to a woman in China, who harbored her mummified baby for 65 years. She knew it was there in 1948 but only had it removed in 2013 because she didn’t have the money to do it earlier.
The reference to a “stone baby” is based on the fact that when a fetus which has achieved a certain size dies, the mother’s body may not be able to expel it on its own. If the fetus is not removed, the body begins to calcify to protect the mother from the decomposing tissue and prevent infection.
White collar crimes involve schemes or misrepresentations to ultimately and illegally obtain money or property and involve no physical violence, so in many instances the sanctions are lighter than for violent crimes. However, there are some types of white collar crimes that carry heavy penalties in terms of prison time and fines. One of these is wire fraud, which is a federal crime from the get go.
To distinguish wire fraud from other types of fraud, the US Code stipulates that the crime was perpetrated using some type of communication over a wire such as the telephone, or more currently relevant, by electronic means. As such, e-mail scams such as the promise of a lot of money in return for a small deposit or personal information are considered wire fraud.
Wire fraud is quite common, occurring in a variety of scenarios. In Houston, three cases of wire fraud were brought against a store owner, two University professors, and two building contractors. The store owner pleaded guilty to 11 counts of wire fraud and faces up to 30 years in prison plus a possible $1 million per count in restitution. A competent Houston criminal defense lawyer should be able to argue for a lighter sentence considering that the store owner only got a total of $350,000 in the scheme.
The two essential elements of a crime which the prosecution must prove exists to bring a case of wire fraud is provided under the US Code (18 U.S.C. § 1343). These are:
There are some later additions to the mail and wire fraud statute, most particularly honest services fraud, which does not require any communications over wire or the post office. In the case of the building contractors mentioned earlier, for example, the charge of wire fraud were brought in because they bribed a public official to favor them in awarding city contracts for developing or maintaining buildings.
It can be easy to unknowingly participate in a fraudulent scheme, and if it involves any form or electronic communication, it becomes a federal crime. If charged with wire fraud, lose no time in retaining a qualified criminal defense lawyer to fight for your rights and freedom.
Employees are essential for running any business, and savvy business owners know that investing in quality employees will benefit the company many times over in the long run. This includes careful screening of applicants, periodic training, performance evaluation, promotion, and benefit packages. However, human resources management can be like walking a tightrope, especially when dealing with people from divergent cultural, religious, educational, and personal backgrounds. There is always the risk of inadvertently violating someone’s civil rights in carrying out seemingly neutral policies. Not knowing, unfortunately, is not a viable defense.
Employees should know their rights, certainly, because there are too many employers who ride roughshod over them if they think they can get away with it. Since most states adopt at-will employment, an employer can fire any employee without being required to give a reason unless it is discriminatory. The same applies in hiring, promoting, relocating, and compensating practices; business owners can have carte blanche as long as they meet minimum standards and do not favor one class of people i.e. males over another. According to the website of the John Melton Law Firm, this is to foster equal employment opportunities to everyone. Violations of these employee protections can lead to a personal injury lawsuit.
But it can be fatally easy to make a costly mistake for even the well-meaning employer, which is why some business owners prefer to shift some of the work to a business process outsourcing (BPO) company, even to those that are offshore such as a Philippines outsourcing center. That way, they avoid the difficulties of human resource management while still getting the job done well.
Of course, not all tasks can be outsourced. While outsourcing can be highly effective, there needs to be an understanding of when and when not to use it. There are core activities that can only be done in-house, so business owners need to be well-conversant with employment laws in their state as well as realistic about what kinds of tasks they can outsource with confidence.
When you work for the oil and gas industries, you expect that there could be explosions at work that can injure or kill you. The inherent risks of these occupations is why wages are higher than in other industries, and why oil and gas companies are under constant scrutiny from occupational safety watchdogs. Accidents will happen and this is why workers’ compensation is in place.
Take for instance a gas pipeline explosion that occurred recently that destroyed 3 houses, injured residents, and caused a massive fire to break out. Any worker in the area at the time of the unexpected event would have been almost certainly killed. According to the website of the LaMarca Law Group, P.C., a workers’ compensation attorney may be able to aid in a wrongful death lawsuit as well because investigations indicate negligence on the part of the gas transmission company. In fact, 7 lawsuits have already been filed by the families who lost their homes and sustained injuries in the explosion. Fortunately, no one was killed this time.
But explosions at work can happen anywhere, such as in the fertilizer plant near Waco that killed 15 and injured at least 160, many of whom were not even employees of the plant. If investigations reveal negligence on the part of the plant owners or managers as the proximate cause of the explosion, those affected may have recourse to a Texas explosion lawyer.
There are also numerous instances when a day of celebration was turned into a day of consternation because of explosions. The Fourth of July celebrations, for example, is when emergency rooms in hospitals gear up for the influx of people injured by fireworks gone wrong, resulting in severe burns and missing fingers. Studies show that malfunctioning fireworks are a major cause of these accidents, so children should not be allowed to handle or even go anywhere near them.