Edward P. Shaughnessy Law Blog | Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

Physical, mental repercussions of car accidents can last

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy on Thursday, July 30, 2020.

For far too many people, car accidents can have lasting effects. Even if people do not suffer severe physical injuries, they can still sustain mental or emotional trauma that affects them for an extended period of time. Though you may have hoped to avoid involvement in this type of incident, you, like many other Pennsylvania residents, were not so lucky.

Most people find themselves involved in a car accident at some point. While some of those incidents may be minor, others are severe. You may have recently suffered serious injuries in a car crash and wonder how these injuries will affect you in the long term.

What if your car accident affects your income?

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in Car Accidents on Tuesday, July 21, 2020.

Car accidents clearly affect your life from the moment they happen. This is true even when just your car is damaged, but especially so when you suffer injuries. You may need to spend time in the hospital recovering and healing. Even after getting released, you may need more recovery time at home. It only takes a split second for another driver to cause a crash, but you could be paying for it for weeks.

But what if your injuries are more than a short-term issue? What if that car accident causes you to lose your job?

Load shifts can cause unavoidable accidents

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in trucking accidents on Monday, July 6, 2020.

When you see a semitruck go around a corner and roll, what is your first thought? Do you assume that the driver must have been going too fast?

This type of accident is very dangerous, especially for those who may be riding next to the truck on the road. A semi can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds and can crush other vehicles in a second. It is true that some of these accidents happen when drivers are speeding, but that's not the only reason.

Crumple zones improve safety

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in Car Accidents on Friday, June 26, 2020.

Have you ever heard someone complain that "they just don't make cars like they used to"? Odds are, that person was involved in a minor accident. They may be frustrated by the way their new car seemed to take a lot of damage in the crash, and they may be complaining that a car they had back in the '70s would have simply had a few scratches and been fine.

The reason for this, in many cases, is that modern cars have crumple zones. However, this doesn't mean that they're worse. They're actually far better. These crumple zones increase safety on the road by a wide margin.

Avoid these driving mistakes and you can avoid accidents

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in Car Accidents on Friday, June 12, 2020.

If you want to avoid car accidents this year -- as we all do -- you need to know what steps to take. Too many people seem to just hope that they don't get hit by attempting to generally follow the traffic laws, rather than taking active steps to avoid a crash. That's often not enough. They get hit by other drivers or cause accidents themselves.

To help you take that more active role, here are a few mistakes you should strive to avoid:

Only using your mirrors when you are backing up, rather than turning around to look behind the car and using a backup camera.
Pulling out into an intersection when there is a green light, assuming that no one coming the other way is going to run the red light.
Not looking far enough in front of your car. For instance, it's a mistake to look just a few seconds ahead, since you really want to look 12 seconds in front of the vehicle.
Not leaving the proper distance between you and the next car on the road. You want to be three or four seconds behind them, at minimum, and yet many people drive at just one or two.
Letting go of the steering wheel with both hands when you need to do something in the car.
Using your cellphone while you drive, even if all that you are doing is making a call, not sending a text.

Safety tips from a man who lived through 2 motorcycle accidents

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in Motorcycle Accidents on Wednesday, May 27, 2020.

The first thing that you often hear about motorcycle accidents is just how likely they are to be fatal. The death rate is much higher than it is for those in car accidents. This is true.

However, that doesn't mean that there is nothing you can do to prevent such an outcome. In reality, most motorcyclists who get into accidents live through those accidents. One man survived two of them, and he offered up some survival tips afterward. They include:

Wear a helmet with a full mask, as most people are facing the pavement when they impact it. A smaller helmet may look "cooler", but it offers less protection.
Wear gloves. Any time you fall off of your bike, no matter the reason, you will reach out to break your fall.
Put on reflective clothes or bright colors so that it is easier for drivers to spot you.
Learn as much as you can about your bike, including what types of things may cause you to crash. Anticipating an accident can certainly help.
Remember that injury is nearly inevitable in a crash. Be ready for that and concentrate on trying to reduce the severity.
Don't drive too quickly. In one accident, he was racing another bike and came to a blind corner, causing both of them to crash. Slowing down reduces the odds of an accident and reduces the severity of the injury if a crash does happen.

10 car accident facts you should know

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in Car Accidents on Thursday, May 14, 2020.

Car accidents happen every day. On one hand, to those involved, they are unexpected and shocking. On the other, as a national trend, they're something we deal with all the time. This duality makes it a bit hard to think about the role that accidents play in daily life. How you view it likely has a lot to do with how much it has impacted you personally.

To help illustrate what car accidents really look like in America, here are 10 facts everyone should be aware of:

Between 35,000 and 40,000 people die every year in car crashes.
For those up to 54 years old, car accidents are a leading cause of death.
If you want an overall fatality rate, it comes in at 12.4 deaths per 100,000 people in the U.S.
When compared to Japan or Australia, the U.S. has a massively high traffic death rate, which is roughly 50% higher.
Cyclists and pedestrians are killed in many accidents, and the trends indicate these accidents are just growing more common.
Many drivers who crash do so because of inexperience.
The vast majority of accidents happen due to human error.
The total cost of U.S. car crashes is a stunning $871 billion annually.
By some estimates, a car accident takes a life every 24 seconds.
Car accidents can happen to anyone, and even safe drivers are injured in car crashes.

Watch out for these roadway hazards in efforts to stay safe

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy on Friday, May 1, 2020.

Though you and many other Pennsylvania residents likely drive on an almost daily basis, it is important to never become a complacent driver. Even if you have years of driving experience, you still need to maintain a constant focus on the task of driving and remember that other drivers could easily carry out reckless or negligent actions that put you in a dangerous situation.

Of course, the potential dangers on the road do not stop at other drivers. You could easily end up facing certain conditions that make it more hazardous to be on the road at a given time. If you do not account for these hazards and take action to drive more safely, you could end up in an accident.

What the online shopping surge could mean for accidents

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in commercial vehicle accidents on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.

How often do you buy things online? Would you say you have done so far more often lately?

If so, you're not alone. There has been such a massive online shopping surge in the last few months that Amazon, the largest online retailer and one of the most successful companies in the United States, had to hire 100,000 more workers in a frantic effort to keep up with demand. That's a type of quick increase like we have never seen before.

Girl making 'marvelous' recovery after being hit by a car

On behalf of Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy posted in Car Accidents on Friday, April 17, 2020.

It's been approximately six months since a seven-year-old girl was hit by a car while getting off of a school bus and crossing the street back in October. The driver who hit her failed to stop properly. The good news is that the girl just got to come home and appears to be making great strides toward recovering.

Doctors did not know at the time how she would do. When the car slammed into her at 3:30 that fall afternoon, she suffered a serious brain injury. Her mother claims she nearly died on the way to the hospital. But she did survive, and, riding in a wheelchair, she's now coming home.