Columbus Personal Injury & Wrongful Death Legal Blog

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 3,166 deaths from distracted driving crashes in 2017. This alone goes to show that distracted driving is an epidemic in Ohio and across the U.S. To keep themselves from becoming a statistic, drivers should know that the number of potential distractions is great.

Distractions go beyond smartphones and navigation systems. Anything that takes drivers' attention from the road, even when drivers' eyes are not taken away from it, can be a distraction. Drivers should, of course, stay away from their phones even when these are hands-free devices. They should also minimize eating and drinking in the car and limit the number of passengers they take on if they are liable to get too caught up in conversations.

In Ohio, 14% of fatal motor vehicle accidents are caused by speeding. The state actually has the ninth-lowest percentage rate in the nation for fatal accidents caused by speeding. Ohio is far below the District of Columbia and New Hampshire, which have percentage rates of 39.5% and 38%, respectively. However, speeding is still a serious problem in the state.

A study by ValuePenguin looked at data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding fatalities to reach its conclusions. The states with the lowest rates of deadly accidents from speeding were Florida and Mississippi. Most other states in the Southeast were also among those with the lowest rates of speeding-related deaths. Overall, more than 20% of fatal motor vehicle accidents in the country happened because of drivers either traveling faster than the posted speed limit or going too fast for road conditions.

Some 12 million people in Ohio and across the U.S. suffer as a result of a diagnostic error in a primary care setting. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found that misdiagnoses and delayed diagnoses are behind one in three malpractice claims involving a serious disability or death. Therefore, they are the leading reason behind serious medical errors.

For their study, researchers analyzed 55,000 malpractice claims in the national Comparative Benchmarking System. The majority (74.1%) of those involving a serious diagnostic error were linked to one of three major conditions: cancer, vascular events and infection.

As a new mother, you will want to protect your child from harm at all costs. If you have already noticed that your baby is not developing or progressing as they should, you will want to know why, so that their issues can be dealt with as quickly as possible. One of the most common causes of delayed physical and mental development among young children is, sadly, preventable birth injuries.

Birth injuries count as any type of injury that occurs during the process of delivering a child. In most cases of birth injuries, the baby was completely healthy in the womb. Complications arising during delivery can cause the child to suffer from life-altering injuries, and, in many cases, these situations occur due to midwife negligence. It is important that you understand the common reasons why birth injuries occur, and how midwife negligence can play a role.