East St. Louis, Madison County, IL Personal Injury & Work Accidents Blog

Everyone who has suffered an injury on the job understands the impact it can have on your life. The cumulative impact of all work accidents is harder to grasp. A new study from the University of California, Davis, suggests that workplace injuries and illnesses cost the United States roughly $250 billion per year. That staggering figure is more than all forms of cancer, more than diabetes and more than strokes cost the nation. Workplace injuries affect individuals and families, but they also impact the financial health of the United States as a whole.

The study focused on data from 2007. In that year, more than 8.5 million work injuries were suffered, as well as an additional 516,100 work-related illnesses. An estimated 59,000 people died from injuries and illnesses related to their jobs that year. While the study used the decline in productivity to generate a cost estimate, it should not be forgotten that each injury and illness strikes an individual and can turn a worker's life upside-down in an instant. The numbers do make it clear that there is an urgent need to do more to ensure the health and safety of all American workers.

The President made a proclamation naming this December National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. The goal is to reduce the unacceptable number of car and truck accidents involving distracted driving, alcohol and drug use. The proclamation is just one of the tools being used by the current administration to reduce drugged driving by ten percent over the next five years.

The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign has also targeted impaired driving this holiday season. Both campaigns are timed to curb impaired driving during the time of year when it is most likely to occur. The holidays are a time of celebration, but they are also a time when too many drivers make poor decisions about driving under the influence. Every year, fatal car accidents change the way some families view the holidays.

The holiday season marks a festive time for families to get together and celebrate. It is a time cherished by many children and their parents. It is also a time when injuries to children are commonplace, as they may be introduced to dangerous items, choking hazards and other threats. To ensure that you have a safe and joyful holiday season, take a moment to consider the things you can do to protect your children from harm.

Childproofing can seem like an impossible task for the parents of an active toddler. Sometimes it can feel like your children are on a mission to run into every sharp-edged corner, break every piece of glass and place every small object available into their mouths. The problems are only made worse when taking your children to friends' or relatives' homes. People without small children generally do not consider the hazards posed by holiday items.

Effective this past Monday, Illinois is now tracking deadly "dooring" accidents occurring across the state. "Dooring" accidents, or getting "doored," are terms that cyclists coined for bicycle accidents occurring when a parked motorist carelessly opens their car door into the bike lane, making contact with the cyclist or the bicycle itself. Such accidents are common in crowded, bike-heavy metros such as Chicago.

It's encouraging to see Illinois officials take a serious interest in these bicycle-v-car-door accidents. In these collisions, the best-case scenario is when the cyclist flies to the ground and suffers scrapes and bruises. However, the "dooring" action often causes a much bigger problem: the cyclist being launched out of the bike lane and into traffic. This will often cause serious trauma and crush injuries, leading to traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken bones, and internal organ injuries.

It doesn't take much for a pedestrian's life to be threatened by a reckless motorist. In a steel-v-bone battle, the pedestrian faces little chance of walking away from a collision. A recent string of car-v-pedestrian accidents has left several dead and many others injured in Chicago. One such tragic accident occurred recently in the Belmont Area.

At roughly 6 a.m. Saturday morning, a 60-year-old man was killed when a motor vehicle struck him in River North. The man was found lying in an alleyway when responders arrived at the scene. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 a.m. Unfortunately, this man's death is far too common in Chicago, as another pedestrian accident a day earlier sent two boys to the hospital.

A recently published letter in the Chicago Sun-Times described the terrifying experience of a local commuter. The Chicago-Area driver recently had her car's muffler inspected after the exhaust system started getting noisy. Since the repair estimates were substantial, the motorist decided to leave the shop with an estimate and think about it.

The next day, the woman was driving to work on I-90 when her car's hood suddenly flew up, smashing her windshield and blinding her vision! The driver coolly - but not calmly - got her car across three lanes of traffic and avoided a highway accident by pulling safely onto the shoulder. An Illinois State Police Trooper showed up and asked her if she had recently had the car in the shop. Unsurprised by her response, he wrote up a police report for her.

Roughly 80 people die each year from drunk driver car accidents on New Year's Day, as reported by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. That figure illustrates a 150 percent increase in the chances of one dying in an alcohol-related crash when comparing it to an average day this time of year.

What is even more startling is that experts predict these numbers to be even higher during the upcoming New Year's 2011 celebration, because the holiday falls on a Saturday. While Chicago already experiences a serious drunk driving epidemic, the problem will dramatically spike during this weekend's festivities.

The new study only highlights the death toll for drunk driving fatalities each holiday, it doesn't account for the thousands of serious injuries that drunk drivers will cause their victims. Some of the victims may escape with bruises, scrapes, muscle soreness or whiplash, but many of the accidents will cause spinal cord injuries, or even traumatic brain injury.

Prevent Becoming a Drunk Driver Victim on New Year's

The safest plan for New Year's is to stay at home and avoid the roads altogether. For the serious reveler, this isn't even an option. For those folks, here are some other practices that will hopefully lower that deadly 150 percent mark:

As you spend time with friends and family this Thanksgiving, you should take special care during your travels. While many believe that New Years' Eve, St. Patrick's Day or the Super Bowl present the greatest threat from drunk drivers, it is typically "Turkey Day" that takes the infamous spot each year.

Thanksgiving is the largest travel day in the U.S., resulting in an unusually high amount of drivers on the road. This heavy traffic is coupled with the busiest days of the year for bars and nightclubs, providing a deadly mix ripe for drunk-driving accidents.

How to avoid becoming a Drunk-Driving Victim

While there is no way to eliminate the entire threat that drunk drivers present to our families, there are some ways to reduce the likelihood of an intoxicated driver seriously injuring or killing you or family members on Thanksgiving: