Accident Injury Blog

Whiplash is better described as a acceleration deceleration injury. The injury does not occur because the body contact anything but because of the forces brought to bear on the body.

Take the rear end collision for example. the trunk of the body moves forward and the head is stationary. The neck is caused an inertial injury. The amount of injury can be proportional to the magnitude of acceleration. And since its the acceleration that is ket little or know car damage does not compel the conclusion of no injury.

These type of injuries can vary from muscle and tendon injury to disk injury. There are multiple modalities used to treat these injuries . It is best, in my opinion, to seek competent medical advice on the modality of choice.

This can by chiropractic manipulation, physical therapy, injections, anti-inflammatories , epidural injections all the way to surgery. The key is to work at your recovery.

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As I was busily working away on improving Accidents.com this morning, one of my friends forwarded me an article from the New York Times about possible legislation aimed at distracted pedestrians. If passed, it would ban the use of cell phones and iPods (among other electronic devices) by people who are crossing streets at an intersection. Violators would be subject to a fine.

There were quite a few different opinions quoted in the article. As with any subject like this, everyone has their own view. Mine is this: the government should be there to protect us from dangers, not to babysit us and try to protect us from ourselves. Laws banning distracted driving are warranted because the victims of accidents resulted by it are often not the driver who wasn't paying attention. But, if you're on foot and listening to your cell phone instead of paying attention to traffic, the only one who is going to get hurt is you. Yeah, it's dangerous for people to be using electronics while they cross the street, but it's not within the city's bounds to try to legislate common sense.

An alternative approach? Put together an ad campaign warning people about the dangers of using electronics while walking or running in the streets. Cite the stats. Show a scary picture. Keep us informed about the dangers out there, but let us make our own decisions.

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Police in Paris are starting to use social media to solve hit-and-run car accidents, and in some cases, to solve crimes. While some see this as "spying" and claim that this will encourage people to snitch on their neighbors, I don't see that this is any different than using television or radio to put out Amber Alerts or report missing people hoping to get the community to respond. I actually commend a state agency for being so advanced in their thinking, and hope the United States agencies move in that direction.

I hope that if we continue to upgrade the way we approach, report and track accidents, our roads will become safer. Imagine a world where criminals fear their community, not just law enforcement. I believe that social media has that kind of power. What's your opinion on this?

At Accidents.com, we have been talking to and researching companies that are using technologically advanced approaches to create safer roads, report accidents and even expedite the post-accident process for victims. How can all of this help? Here are some current examples of the technology that is available.

To start with, choosing to implement distracted driving software can keep young drivers safe. Parental controls can aid in the education of future drivers, and adults that have already caused accidents because of irresponsible telephone use in the car should also be forced to use these software applications.

From a social media standpoint, I welcome the real-time reporting from anyone witnessing a drunk driver getting on the road. While it might be considered snitching, if it saves your family member from dying at the hands of a DUI incident, wouldn't you want someone to step up? Twitter, Facebook and other applications have geo-targeting available. Posting that to a local police station seems more important to me than using geo-targeting to send me a $1 coupon to Starbucks.

Have you ever had an accident and had to go pick up your accident report in some remote County so that you can start processing your claim. It's time consuming, and adds to the frustration of a painful event. Technology is also helping this situation.

MyCollisionReport.com launched a system on the West Coast (California, Nevada) that allows police officers to take an accident report electronically, and deliver it to interested parties within hours, not days. Each local police station has to volunteer to use this service, but it provides some interested benefits.

The most interesting part of this technology is the hand held device that police officers use to take accident information. The electronic submission is "smarter" than using paper because it forces officers ask pertinent questions they might otherwise forget. For example, whether or not the driver was texting while driving, which isn't always a standard question on all reports in all states. This could start tracking chronic distracted drivers, and help legislate laws down the road. This technology also helps accident victims file personal injury claims with their insurance company and personal injury attorneys faster.

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