The Greatest Risk Of Returning To School Is Approaching And Leaving The Bus

As summer comes to an end, you will notice a significant increase in traffic as children return to school. The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports "For twenty-three million students nationwide, the school day begins and ends with a trip on a school bus. The greatest risk is not riding the bus, but approaching or leaving the bus."

With increased traffic there needs to come increased awareness from all who share the road.


Safety Tips For Students

- When waiting for the bus, wait in the designated area only. Make sure to stay clear away from the street so the bus has plenty of room. Mirrors and other parts may surpass the dimensions of the vehicle and can easily strike a bystander.

- When entering and exiting the bus, ALWAYS cross in FRONT of the driver. All buses are equipped with rear stop sign to impede traffic behind from passing. With that being said, look both ways.

- Never hang out of a window or throw anything from it. The smallest object could cause a catastrophic accident on the road.

Safety Tips For Motorists

- Whether you have children or not, familiarize yourself with school zone rules. Always obey the reduced speed signs. Many states enforce school zone laws even when school isn’t in session.

- Never pass a bus that is stopped and letting children on/off. All school buses are equipped with a stop sign on the rear and it is to be obeyed as any permanently fixed sign.

Make sure to always buckle up and obey traffic laws. Be aware of the time. If it is morning or afternoon there is a good chance students are in the area.

Astronaut Loses Life In Jet Ski Accident

Sadly, retired NASA astronaut Captain Alan Poindexter was killed after a jet ski operated by his son, Zachary, collided with the jet ski Capt. Poindexter was riding. Reports stated that both of the jet skis were in motion when the astronaut suddenly stopped. His son did not see him and the jet skis collided, striking the Captain.

Regrettably, this type of accident is not uncommon. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission stated in a 2011 report that personal water crafts were involved in 22% of reported boating accidents. Of those accidents, 7 fatalities were reported.

It's important to follow safety rules and regulations when operating one of these vessels.

Water Ski Regulations from The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission:

• The operator of a vessel towing someone on skis or another aquaplaning device must either have an observer, in addition to the operator, on board who is attendant to the actions of the skier or have and use a wide-angle rear-view mirror.
• No one may ski or aquaplane between the hours of 1/2 hour past sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise.
• No one may water ski or use another aquaplaning device unless they are wearing a U.S. Coast Guard-approved non-inflatable Type I, II, III, or V personal flotation device (PFD). Inflatable personal flotation devices are prohibited for skiing/aquaplaning.
• No one may ski or use another aquaplaning device while impaired by alcohol or other drugs.
• The operator of a vessel towing a skier may not pull the skier close enough to a fixed object or another vessel that there is risk of collision.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident, or if a loved one has been killed, contact Florida Personal Injury Attorney Jeffrey B. Sexton any time, day or night.

Reinstate The Ban On Assault Weapons

There is a long time debate whether guns kill people, or people kill people.

However you look at it, the fact is; people with guns kill people. This is evident in the recent Aurora, Co. shooting. Could this have been prevented?

Whenever a mass murder takes place in our country, we as a nation become polarized when it comes to the second amendment. Our right to bare arms is one of our most talked about and controversial pieces of legislation in our Bill Of Rights.

But, when they adopted it in 1791, did law makers ever hear of an AR-15? A sub machine uzi? Even a Tommy gun? Nope.

The semi-automatic weapon is as dangerous as an automatic weapon. The difference being, that semi - automatic requires you to pull the trigger after each round. An automatic allows you to hold the trigger and dispense at will. Neither semi-automatic or automatic seem to be conducive to squirrel hunting. So the question remains; Why on earth would someone need such a weapon? Especially a private citizen?

In 1994 enough people asked this very question... Enough in fact to merit a ten year ban on assault rifles in the U.S. Unfortunately, that ban expired in 2004 and no attempts to reinstate it have been made. Since then, Americans have been stockpiling, and legally obtaining semiautomatic weapons via the internet and in person with very little difficulty.

Again, who needs these weapons? Hunters? Unless you’re hunting a deer with gang ties, you’re probably over armed.

The fact is, NOBODY needs them. At least, nobody in the private sector. Gun enthusiasts will just have to get excited about what’s available to them. Staunch efforts to reinstate the ban are underway. Incidents like this should awaken us to the realities and dangers of allowing citizens to obtain such heavy fire power.

Americans should have the right to bear arms. A shotgun, rifle, handgun. Not the same weapons we issue our Marines on the front line. We don’t allow people to drive an Abrams tank on the freeway or to park a Chinook Helicopter in their driveway... Why are we allowing military grade weapons into the hands of citizens?

Motorcycles Dubbed "Donorcycles" By Medical Professionals

In 2000, Florida Legislature repealed their mandatory helmet law for motorcyclists. Today, it turns out that getting rid of helmets did in fact save lives, just not the lives of the motorcyclists. Michigan State University researchers found an unanticipated, life saving benefit that resulted in Florida’s abandoned helmet laws, “Our central estimates show that organ donations due to motor vehicle accidents increase by 10% when states repeal helmet laws.”

Helmet-less bikers have become so “generous” with their organs that the medical community have designated these bikes as “donorcycles.” These statistics have been fortuitous for people in need of a liver, kidney, heart or other organ transplant.

Reports done by the Centers for Disease Control state that while motorcycles make up about 3% of the registered vehicles on the road, they now account for 14% of all traffic fatalities. And while the over all number of traffic fatalities has fallen since 1949, motorcyclist deaths have been on the incline, up 4% in Florida alone.

In just the past week, the Centers for Disease Control found a correlation between the reversal of motorcycle helmet laws and deaths among bikers without helmets. Helmet-less fatalities showed to be 5 times more frequent in states without mandatory helmet laws. The Centers for Disease Control stood by the fact that it’s safer to ride with a helmet than without. However in 2000, biker groups in Florida argued exactly the opposite -- that helmets were in fact hazardous despite all of the evidence proving otherwise. The bikers cited a study claiming that helmets increased the risk of a spinal injury however researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine state otherwise.

Professor Adil H. Haider led a study in 2011 that found helmeted riders were 22% less likely to suffer cervical spine injury. “We are debunking a popular myth that wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle can be detrimental during a motorcycle crash,” says Haider. “Using this new evidence, legislators should revisit the need for mandatory helmet laws,” Haider said. “There is no doubt that helmets save lives and reduce head injury. And now we know they are also associated with a decreased risk of cervical spine injury.”

To add insult to injury, taxpayers are getting the bill when these bikers ride sans helmet and end up in public hospitals. A study done in California found that biker accidents result in the public paying for 72% of the medical costs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that $1.3 billion per year could be saved if motorcyclists could be coaxed into wearing protective head gear.

In the mean time, organ recipients will continue to be the only beneficiaries to the bikers repealed helmet law.

Distracted Pedestrians

We all see a lot of coverage in the media about the dangers of distracted drivers, but what about distracted pedestrians? The online journal of "Injury Prevention" states that the injury and death rate of pedestrians distracted by technology has sky rocketed since 2004, more than tripling in that time period.

"Two phenomena are likely contributors to the possible association between headphone use and pedestrian injury: distraction and sensory deprivation," site authors of the journal Injury Prevention. When a pedestrian is distracted, they are inclined to walk slower and more likely to walk in front of a moving vehicle. Of 116 accidents from 2004 to 2011 where pedestrians were noted as using headphones, 70% resulted in fatalities; greater than two thirds were males under 30 years old and over half of the vehicles involved were trains.

This past February, a boy in Wisconsin was struck by a train as he walked with his head down and headphones on under his hood. Because his senses were deprived, he did not see the warning lights of the train or the sounds of it's horns blaring. Just a day later a similar situation occurred in Michigan and another teen was killed. As summer approaches, teens need to be made aware of how dangerous it is to not only drive but also to walk or ride a bike while distracted.

Pedestrians:
• Be aware of your surroundings.
• Avoid distractions like texting, talking on the phone, or wearing headphones.
• Make eye contact with drivers to make sure they see you and know that you are there.
• Obey all crosswalk traffic laws.

Drivers:
• Look out for pedestrians and bicyclists, especially ones that may not be watching the road.
• Avoid distractions such as talking on the phone, listening to loud music, and texting.
• Always yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
• Reduce speed on neighborhood streets

Increasing awareness among drivers and pedestrians is the only way to convey that multitasking on the road is extremely dangerous.

Bath Salts Epidemic

In a gory scene out of a horror movie, a naked man was found eating the face of another man in Miami on May 26th. It is suspected by police that the 31 year old Rudy Eugene was on a designer drug known as “bath salts” and this drug is what caused the psychotic episode.

A Miami police officer shot Rudy Eugene 4 times before cannibalistic psychosis was ended.

While the Miami police have not officially concluded that Eugene was on “bath salts,” experts confirm he was exhibiting the tell tale signs of someone high on the drug. Some symptoms of this drug include perception of super human strength, paranoia, hallucinations, extreme violence, and nudity as a result of the increased body temperature that would cause most people’s organs to fail.

Armando Aguilar referred to people on this drug as a “walking dead person.”

The victim was 65 year old Ronald Poppo, a homeless man, who lost 75 percent of his face in this brutal attack.

Dr. Paul Adams is a physician at the Jackson Memorial Rider Trauma Center in Miami where the victim is being treated. Dr. Adams says that he is seeing more and more instances where virtually uncontrollable patients showing signs of psychosis are being brought in.

"You can call it the new LSD. It's a recreational drug. They [patients] seem to be unaware of their surroundings. They are not rational, very aggressive and are stronger than they usually are. In the emergency room it usually takes four to five people to control them, and we have had a couple of people breaking out of restraints," says Adams.

In 2011, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency banned for a year the possession and sale of 3 of the chemicals used to make the psychotic drug.

The drug resembles the salts one would use to put in a bath, and it can be injected, swallowed or smoked. It is far less expensive than other drugs and is able to be made in a home kitchen.

Since this drug is new, police are unsure how to handle it. Last week the Senate passed a FDA bill that will outlaw the active ingredients mephedrone, methylenedioxyprovalerone (MDPV) and methylone as well as other drugs.

Due to the law only banning specific chemical combinations, chemists have been altering the makeup of these drugs to keep them technically legal.

Rudy Eugene was killed by police during the attack and Ronald Poppo remains in the hospital in critical condition.

Pool Safety This Summer

With warm weather here, people are able to spend more time outdoors doing activities they love such as playing sports, barbecuing, or swimming. Spending time at the pool with your family can be a wonderful way to cool off; however, taking your eyes off of your child for just a moment can be life changing.

Each year, far too many children are victims of drownings or near drownings. Below are just a few steps every adult should exercise when watching children in, or around a pool.

• Be sure that your pool is fenced in and has a self latching gate. 
• Pool toys and floaties are not life jackets and should never be substituted for supervision by an adult. 
• Assign an adult to supervise the children. Whether there is one or many adults in the immediate area, be sure that at least one knows they are keeping an eye on the kids. 
• Remove the children from the pool area if you are going to be distracted, even for just a moment. 
• Do not over crowd your pool with toys that float on the surface, be sure that you can see any children in the pool clearly, without obstruction. 

Two summers ago, there was a case in which a nine year old girl had drowned at a pool party. While there were plenty of adults around the pool area to watch the children, no one was specifically assigned to the task. Since the adults were so distracted by their own conversation, they failed to notice that the young girl had jumped off of the diving board-- and did not resurface. Once it occurred to the adults that the girl was missing; they wasted valuable time searching for her in the home-- not realizing because of all of the pool toys and rafts floating on the surface, that the girl was lifeless at the bottom of the pool. This situation was completely avoidable.

In addition to these suggestions, make sure that there aren’t any objects your child could use to gain access to a neighbor’s pool. You could the most secured and childproofed swimming pool but a ladder or jungle gym too close to a fence could give a determined child an entry way into a either their own pool or neighbor’s yard.

During the summer of 2010, a six and three year old accessed their neighbor’s pool and drowned, even with the neighbor’s pool fenced and gated. It is unknown how the children were able to access the pool, however, they were seen playing with a stepladder in their own backyard before the accident occurred.

Drowning is the second leading cause of death for children ages one to 14 years old. In 2007, there were 3,443 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States. When a drowning is non fatal, the child can suffer from brain damage that may involve long term disabilities such as learning disabilities, memory problems, and permanent loss of basic functioning. Don’t let your child become another statistic this summer. Child drownings are preventable and it all starts with a responsible adult.