It’s safe to say we’ve become addicted to our cell phones. Americans spend an average of 5.4 hours per day on their phones. That is according to the results of a study published by the University of Rochester. If you add up all the calls you make each day to friends and family, it might be an hour.

Ensuring a safe and healthy birth is one of the most important responsibilities of obstetricians and gynecologists (OB/GYNs), midwives, doulas, and other medical professionals who handle this area of medicine.

However, their negligence, or more appropriately, their failure to uphold a standard of care, may lead to preventable injuries to moms during the labor and delivery process.  

What birth injuries can mothers suffer from, and how often does it happen? Those are some questions we’ll address below. 

Most dog owners firmly believe their pup would never hurt anyone. According to the information collected by the Insurance Information Institute, out of the 90 million dogs living in the U.S., 4.5 million of them had bitten someone, and most of those victims were children. When those bites happen “within the family,” the family pays the bills. What happens if the dog bites a neighbor, visitor, or someone out on a walk?

A dog bite can be a physically painful and emotionally traumatic injury. When there is an issue with the dog owner’s negligence that contributed to the bite, you might be able to seek compensation from them by filing a claim. Would they have to pay out-of-pocket medical bills, or does homeowners’ insurance cover dog bites? That answer depends on the details of the policy and the liability issue.

What started as an uneventful Saturday afternoon in this quiet Godfrey, Illinois, home ended with a car crashing through the backyard fence of one home and slamming into the corner of another home. As reported by KSDK News, the driver was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. In the aftermath of this accident, insurance claims could be filed from a homeowner’s policy, auto insurance, and healthcare. It could be a complicated case and is a prime example of property damage in a personal injury lawsuit.

There are two potential damage categories in any personal injury lawsuit. That would be reimbursing the injured party for the costs related to medical treatment or for any lost or damaged property. To get that reimbursement, you need to work with the right kind of experienced Illinois injury attorney who will identify the at-fault parties and negotiate with the relevant insurance companies to help you receive the maximum settlement. It is essential to understand what can be classified as property damage.

Distracted driving is a big problem in our nation as a whole. While that’s certainly a concern, the rates here in your own proverbial “backyard” in Illinois are what worry you the most since you’re sharing the road with those inattentive motorists day in and out.

When you think of distracted driving, the thought of a motorist talking or texting on their phone may initially come to mind. That also makes sense since you are likely aware that the use of a hand-held cell phone while behind the wheel of a car in our state is illegal.

While Illinois law outlines how motorists can only use cellphones when using voice-activated commands, an earpiece, or a Bluetooth headset, is this the only activity that can distract drivers? No, not at all.

Safe driving means following designed traffic laws on the road. However, some rules can be unclear, especially those concerning lane changes in intersections. Many drivers wonder whether changing lanes in the middle of an intersection is advisable, safe, or even legal.

The truth is that the legality will depend on a combination of your state’s traffic laws, the design and signage of the intersection, and other situational conditions.

Medical slide boards, also known as transfer boards, are mobility aids designed to help those with limited mobility in transferring between two surfaces. These are flat, rigid boards, typically made of durable materials such as plastic, wood, or a composite. They act as a bridge between surfaces, allowing individuals to slide across rather than being lifted.

Although slide board transfers are intended to reduce the physical strain of moving patients, they can pose significant hazards when used incorrectly.

Turning left at an intersection, while often a necessary maneuver, is among the most common precursors to a crash at these locations. In a study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), researchers found that making a left turn was the critical pre-crash event — the key factor leading up to the crash — in more than 22% of all crashes at an intersection. This was the single most common factor, with only a vehicle traveling off the road as the pre-crash event coming close to the same frequency.

Making a left turn across oncoming traffic should be a simple, routine maneuver for any driver, but there are several reasons why it’s more complicated and dangerous than it appears at face value. Depending on the intersection, the driver making the turn may need to take into account the speed of oncoming traffic from three different directions, as well as potentially limited visibility in one or more of those directions. In addition, driver frustration often plays a factor in making a rash decision behind the wheel and recklessly taking a left turn when it’s not safe.

Our brains are a complex system of neurons and synapses that enable thoughts, decisions, memories, perceptions, speech, movement, and automatic behaviors like breathing, heart rate, and sleep. That is a busy organ. Ironically, only 0.25 inches of skull bone is designed to protect the brain. When that skull is subjected to blunt force or some sort of penetrating object, the result can be a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A brain injury affects behavior in many ways that can be temporary or long-lasting.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes a TBI as “a brain injury that is caused by an outside force. TBI can be caused by a forceful bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body or from an object entering the brain. Not all blows or jolts to the head result in TBI. Some types of TBI can cause temporary or short-term problems with brain function, including problems with how a person thinks, understands, moves, communicates, and acts. More serious TBI can lead to severe and permanent disability, and even death.”

The Illinois Secretary of State created hundreds of traffic codes to keep everyone on the road safe. These codes provide a helpful manual for drivers on how to navigate the roads, streets, and highways without being cited for a traffic violation. The codes also help prevent common sideswipe accident scenarios.

Here is what the traffic codes say about lane changes: “A vehicle shall be driven as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane and shall not be moved from such lane until the driver has first ascertained that such movement can be made with safety.”

When you cross over the lane, you run the risk of getting involved in a sideswipe accident. However, not all sideswipe collisions are the same. The following are some of the most common types of sideswipe accidents.