Auto Safety

Written by: Reginald C. Hair

It is 7:00 AM on a Tuesday morning in August. You are late for work for the second time this week. To add insult to injury, there is a stopped school bus in front of you. Are you legally able to pass this school bus?

South Carolina has implemented certain laws to protect children that are on their way to school or back home from school. Please be mindful of what is considered breaking the law and what it not breaking the law when it comes to passing school busses. [Read more…] about South Carolina Stopped School Bus Laws

Have you ever painted a whole room and had a sore arm or shoulder the next day? What about serious pain and swelling in that shoulder the day after? That would be an example of a soft tissue injury. The same kind of injury can happen in a car accident if a body part is twisted, bruised, or quickly moved back and forth. Just like pain from painting can take hours to show up, the same thing can happen after an accident.

[Read more…] about Why Do Soft Tissue Injuries Appear in a Delayed Manner?

Car accidents can do a lot of damage to your abdominal area. One of the most injured organs in that area, second only to the liver, is the spleen. Though it doesn’t get much attention, the spleen is an important organ that helps fight infections and filters old blood cells from your bloodstream. Any injury to the spleen could be life-threatening and should be treated right away. If you’ve been in a car accident that caused trauma to your left side, you’ll want to know more about spleen injuries and their dangers.

[Read more…] about How Common Are Spleen Injuries After a Car Accident?

In 2004, a woman in Michigan was talking on a cell phone when she drove through a red light and into an intersection. She hit another car and killed a 12-year-old boy from the impact. The light hadn’t just turned red, it had been red for a little while, as the car she hit wasn’t the first through the intersection. She was reported to be looking straight ahead while on the phone—not looking down, like we usually assume with an accident like this. Even though she was looking ahead, she was distracted by her phone conversation. And that was 15 years ago. Think of how cell phones have advanced since then to occupy even more of our attention.

Distracted drivers kill 9 people a day and injure over 1,000 others. They’re a leading factor in fatal and serious car accident injuries, right behind drunk driving and speeding. Drivers have become complacent even though they are putting their own life and others’ lives at risk every time they get behind the wheel.

[Read more…] about Why Is It Dangerous to Use Hands-Free Devices While Driving?

Written by: Reginald C. Hair

“Will my insurance premium increase even if a car wreck was not my fault?” This is a common question that we receive from a lot of our clients. The answer to this question depends on many factors. The best way to find the answer to this question is by doing the following: reviewing your insurance company’s policies and speaking to your insurance agent.

While it may seem unfair, car wrecks that are not your fault can increase your insurance premium. A 2017 study conducted by the Consumer Federation of America, revealed that Progressive was the most aggressive when penalizing innocent customers, compared to GEICO and Farmers Insurance, which occasionally increased insurance rates by 10% or more for innocent drivers. Allstate rarely increased premiums, while State Farm never increased premiums for innocent drivers. [Read more…] about Car Wrecks and Insurance Premiums

Written by: Reginald C. Hair

The importance of sleep has been drilled into our minds since we were all kids. We have all been told that our body needs to be well-rested to function at its capacity. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night is recommended. Without an adequate amount of sleep, your cognition, attention, and decision-making skills can be impaired.

Sleep deprivation slows your reactions to stimuli, decreases accuracy of responses, and leads to long lapses in attention. According to the National Sleep Foundation and AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a driver who has slept for less than five hours in a 24-hour period has the same likelihood of getting into a collision as someone that has been driving drunk. Unfortunately, sixty percent of Americans have operated a motor vehicle while feeling drowsy, and around one-third of them have actually fallen asleep behind the wheel. [Read more…] about Sleep Deprivation and Car Wrecks