Automobile manufacturers have been striving to reduce the number of accident injuries and fatalities by focusing on technology. Modern cars and trucks are equipped with air bags, and proximity and drift monitors are becoming more common as well. Both emit loud tones to alert the car’s driver that the vehicle is entering a dangerous area. In Europe, this has been shown to reduce accidental injuries from both car-to-car collisions and single-car accidents.

The other area that needs changing is driver behavior, a much tougher nut to crack, especially in the United States, where car ownership is embedded in the culture. People spend so much time in their cars today that it results in a sense of invulnerability. The subsequent lack of defensive driving is one of the reasons why accidental injuries from car collisions in America are bucking the worldwide downward trend.

In the last few years I have seen more dangerous and serious car accidents caused by household and construction debris or household items being transported on the freeways. There are serious or minor car accidents when the items (whatever they are) fall onto the road and a car crashes into the object. These items fall onto the road because they are not secured adequately or the packing of the material is not correct. Highway debris which falls from trucks or cars can be things like mattresses, furniture, bikes, scooters, plastic lawn chairs, construction debris, garbage, lumber or any other subject. Last week the New York Times ran a full article on the dangerous trend on things falling from trucks and cars and landing on the freeway and causing car accidents.

One highway debris or foreign object case which caused a car accident that I handed recently involved a pushcart (or dolly) which was not strapped securely enough onto the beverage delivery truck and fell onto the freeway. We got money for our client who struck the dolly which was in the middle of Interstate 84. On any highway debris or foreign object car accident case the key is to identify whose item it was which caused the car accident.

Passengers in cars which strike a foreign object also have a legal claim always against the driver and also against the owner of the debris which fell onto the highway if the latter can be even identified.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an extremely serious injury that may result from a car accident. Brain injury may lead to permanent or temporary impairment of brain function. Skull fractures, bruises of the brain (hematoma), and nerve damage are often related to such injury.

Brain injuries are more common in side impact accidents than in rear end impact. Injury is generally due to the quick acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle which causes injury to the point of impact and its opposite point (contrecoup).

Concussions may result, along with seizures, headaches, dizziness, lack of concentration, memory loss, depression or anxiety any of which may show up sometime after the accident itself. For this reason, it is essential that you consult an attorney before signing or recording any statement for an insurance adjuster.