Children, whose parents are part of a carpool, may be at a much higher risk of suffering injuries in accidents, because parents’ rules about booster seats become lax when they're part of a carpool.

That information comes from a new study, which has just been published in the Journal of Pediatrics. The study's authors say that parents, who would otherwise never drive a car without making sure that their child is buckled in safely in a booster seat, tend to let these rules fly out the window when they are part of a carpool group. The main reasons for this are lack of time and overcrowding. Parents, who are picking up children on their way to school, may not take the time to restrain children individually in their seats.

However, San Francisco car accident lawyers believe that these practices are extremely dangerous. Automobile accidents are the major cause of death for children below the age of 15. Every year, hundreds of lives are saved in accidents because children are safely restrained in booster seats.

In California, new laws require a child to be in a booster seat until the age of eight, or until the child reaches 4'9" in height. Those laws have been passed because children of this age group could suffer severe and even fatal injuries to internal organs, if they have been restrained in seatbelts.

Seatbelts have been designed specifically for adult bodies, and can do little to protect children from injuries in an accident. In fact, they may do more harm than good. A booster seat can protect the child's body, by cushioning it. According to some studies, a child who is restrained in a booster seat is about 45% less likely to suffer injuries in a car accident, compared to a child wearing a seatbelt.

Lawmakers are moving to protect airline passengers from the kind of outrageous treatment they receive when they enter airport security screenings. Those measures come as public opposition to the Transportation Security Administration's overbearing security protocols gather force.

Last week, I spoke to Lawyers.com about the legal options available to passengers who feel that they have been violated at these security screenings. There have been numerous incidents involving abuses by TSA personnel. As a California aviation accident attorney, I get my share of calls from people who believe that they have been violated by TSA officers at airline security.

Most complaints are related to intrusive pat downs. Unfortunately, options available to persons who want to avoid these pat downs are limited. If the airport has a scanner available, you can just use the scanner. However, if there is no scanner available at the airport, or if it is out of service for any reason, then you have no choice but to go through the humiliating pat down.

However, passengers who have tried to sue the federal administration over a pat down citing privacy invasions, have had less than complete luck. For one thing, the Transportation Security Administration is a federal agency, and is, therefore, immune from civil liability.

However, the full body scanners that are at airports could provide passengers with a viable claim. The body scanners are still fairly new, and there is very little information that is available about the kind of health risks involved with these scanners. There have been a lot of concerns about exposure to excessive radiation from the use of the scanners. In fact, the European Union has been so concerned about the health effects of the full body scanner that it has banned the use of certain x-ray scanners at security screenings at airports.

It’s not just unfriendly roads that increase the risk of accidents for pedestrians in San Francisco. It's also a lack of prosecutorial will to come down heavily on motor vehicle drivers who have been involved in serious or fatal accidents with pedestrians. In the year 2011, at least 13 people were killed in pedestrian accidents in San Francisco. However, San Francisco pedestrian accident lawyers have found that very few of those accidents resulted in prosecution of the motorist involved.

Out of those 13 pedestrian accidents this year, 12 accidents involved motor vehicles. Out of these 12, 11 drivers have not faced any criminal charges. However, District Attorney George Gascón has been talking about changing the situation.

Gascón, who took charge at his new position in January, has been showing signs that he intends to prosecute drivers whose negligence leads to pedestrian accidents. He filed misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charges against a bicyclist who caused an accident resulting in a pedestrian death. Gascón has also announced that at least 3 motor vehicle drivers are likely to face charges in pedestrian accidents that occurred in 2011. At least one of those drivers caused the accident when he was driving with a leg cast.

According to a report by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the biggest cause of pedestrian accident injuries in 2008 was a failure by motorists to yield right-of-way to pedestrians. These failures accounted for about 41% of all pedestrian accident injury cases. This year alone, there have been several cases in which accidents have been traced to the driver's failure to yield to a pedestrian, but so far, no charges have been filed against these drivers. Gascón has announced that he will soon get to work on prosecuting dangerous drivers who place others at risk when they drive, but there is no indication of when this will be.

A lackluster attitude towards holding motorists responsible for pedestrian accidents criminally liable does contribute to an unsafe environment for pedestrians, because motorists don't believe they will be held responsible for their reckless driving.

Lauren Scruggs is the 23 year old fashion model that was recently maimed by walking into the rotating propeller blades of the aircraft she just de-boarded.  The plane was being piloted by a friend of hers and details of the indecent are not yet known.  Aviation attorney, Gerald Sterns, commented on the dangers of private aviation and the amount of risk that is present.  To view the full story click on the following link http://blogs.lawyers.com/2011/12/model-mangled-by-airplane-propeller-among-hundreds-injured-in-aviation/

ABC has conducted an analysis of the most dangerous intersections for bicyclists in the Bay Area. Many of these intersections, which see higher numbers of accidents involving bicycles and cars, are very familiar to San Francisco bicycle accident lawyers.

According to the report, there have been approximately 11,000 bicycle accidents across the Bay Area over the past four years, many of them occurring at these intersections.

The most dangerous intersections are.

• Telegraph Avenue and 42nd St. in Oakland
• Mendocino and Pacific Avenue in Santa Rosa
• Monument Boulevard and Detroit Avenue in Concorde
• College Avenue and Russell Boulevard in Berkeley
• Sir Francis Drake Blvd., and Baywood Canyon Road in Fairfax

These intersections are very often the scene of collisions involving cars and bicycles, many of them ending with fatalities. The MTA has limited funds available for a major overhaul of engineering work to make these intersections safer for bicycles. For now, the agency is concentrating on increasing bicycle safety awareness among the public. Drivers must know that they share the road with bicycles, and must look out for bicyclists. Motorists must look out for bicycles especially closely near intersections, because many accidents in California occur at intersections. Bicyclists are especially easy to miss when they are in a vehicle’s blind spots or during night time.

The need to protect bicyclists from such accidents is even stronger, because most collisions that involve a car and a bicycle end with the bicyclist suffering serious injuries, or even death. There is almost nothing preventing a bicyclist from devastating or fatal injuries in an accident. Even a bicyclist wearing a helmet may be at risk of suffering a brain injury that can leave him seriously impaired for the rest of his life, or dead.

You can add crash protection to the list of reasons to buy a hybrid vehicle. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Highway Loss Data Institute finds that hybrid vehicles protect occupants in a crash much better than non-hybrid vehicles do.

Researchers analyzed more than 25 combinations of hybrid-conventional vehicles as part of the study. They found a substantially lower risk of injuries involving occupants of hybrid vehicles. The reason for this is that these vehicles are much heavier than conventional vehicles. A hybrid vehicle weighs about 10% more than a nonhybrid vehicle. This additional mass gives these cars a distant advantage in accidents. As a result, these vehicles offer approximately 25% greater protection in the event of an accident, compared to non-hybrid vehicles.

This increased crash protection in hybrid vehicles is definitely good news for San Francisco car accident lawyers, considering the popularity of hybrid vehicles in San Francisco and around California. For a long time, drivers had to choose between fuel efficiency and environmental impact before buying a car. Environment-friendly cars were lighter, smaller and therefore, less safe than conventional vehicles. However, as the Highway Loss Data Institute study shows, that isn't true any longer.

The Highway Loss Data Institute findings coincide with other findings by the Insurance Industry for Highway Safety. The studies have found that a vehicle’s size and weight does impact the risk or severity of injuries in accidents. One recent study found that driver death rates dropped with an increase in vehicle weight. In fact, the Insurance Institute’s studies into hybrid and conventional vehicle crash protection rates is allowing researchers to examine more closely how vehicle mass affects the risk of injuries accidents.

According to a study conducted by a Temple University professor, persons who exhibit aggressive driving practices have specific personality and psychological traits. Persons, who identify strongly with their cars and think of their vehicles as an extension of their own self-identity, are more prone to aggressive driving.

The researchers conducted a study to try to understand the mind of an aggressive driver. They based their findings on two studies that were conducted in Israel. In the first study, researchers collected data from 134 surveys, and in the second study, they introduced certain factors like risk attraction, into this data.

The researchers found some intriguing results:

• Persons, who identified strongly with their cars, were much more likely to be territorial and aggressive while driving.
• Drivers with compulsive tendencies, or those who faced severe time pressures, may also be more susceptible to aggressive driving.
• Further, aggressive drivers often tend to be young drivers, who do not yet have a fully developed self-identity, and could be trying to compensate. Additionally, young people tend to be overconfident, which can lead to aggressiveness and rashness while driving.

Aggressive driving can mean a variety of different behaviors to a San Francisco car accident lawyer, from speeding and ignoring traffic laws to tailgating and changing lanes frequently. In short, these are driving practices that are insensitive to the safety of other drivers, and significantly increase the risk of an accident. Aggressive driving as a factor in auto accidents is much more common than we know. In fact, these practices are linked to two thirds of all fatal accidents, and more than one third of all accidents that end injuries.

However, until now little research has been done into what drives motorists to such driving practices. In fact, this is believed to be the first study to delve into the psyche of an aggressive motorist.

According to a study conducted by a Temple University professor, persons who exhibit aggressive driving practices have specific personality and psychological traits. Persons, who identify strongly with their cars and think of their vehicles as an extension of their own self-identity, are more prone to aggressive driving.

The researchers conducted a study to try to understand the mind of an aggressive driver. They based their findings on two studies that were conducted in Israel. In the first study, researchers collected data from 134 surveys, and in the second study, they introduced certain factors like risk attraction, into this data.

The researchers found some intriguing results:

• Persons, who identified strongly with their cars, were much more likely to be territorial and aggressive while driving.
• Drivers with compulsive tendencies, or those who faced severe time pressures, may also be more susceptible to aggressive driving.
• Further, aggressive drivers often tend to be young drivers, who do not yet have a fully developed self-identity, and could be trying to compensate. Additionally, young people tend to be overconfident, which can lead to aggressiveness and rashness while driving.

Aggressive driving can mean a variety of different behaviors to a San Francisco car accident lawyer, from speeding and ignoring traffic laws to tailgating and changing lanes frequently. In short, these are driving practices that are insensitive to the safety of other drivers, and significantly increase the risk of an accident. Aggressive driving as a factor in auto accidents is much more common than we know. In fact, these practices are linked to two thirds of all fatal accidents, and more than one third of all accidents that end injuries.

However, until now little research has been done into what drives motorists to such driving practices. In fact, this is believed to be the first study to delve into the psyche of an aggressive motorist.

Our law firm is featured in a new article in the Examiner that looks at the weak oversight of helicopter tour companies operating in Hawaii, and their poor record of being insured in the event of an accident. 

Read the full story:  Hawaiian Helicopter Tours: Some allowed to operate with no insurance

Eight people were injured in what police believe was a double drunk driving accident, involving two intoxicated motorists in San Francisco. The accident involved a van and sedan. According to police, the driver of the van was speeding when he ran a red light and broadsided the sedan. There were two people in the van, and six in the sedan. All of them have been injured in the drunk driving accident.

The impact of the accident was great, and firefighters had to use Jaws of Life to extricate the injured passengers. At least two of the victims suffered critical injuries. Police believe that the drivers of both the van and sedan were driving under the influence at the time. According to police, both drivers have been arrested in the accident.

Sometimes it's easy for San Francisco car accident lawyers to believe that with all the focus on distracted driving, much of the attention has been shifted from the still-very-real problem of intoxicated driving. Granted, the numbers of people dying in alcohol-related car accidents has been declining over the past decade. However, driving under the influence is still the second biggest factor in auto accident fatalities annually.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there had been at least 112 million episodes of drunk driving in the United States in 2010. The agency also reported that those numbers have declined by 30% over the past five years. However, some intoxicated drivers, like young drivers, especially males, continue to be at a high risk of being involved in intoxicated driving accidents. 112 million instances involving a drunk driver placing the lives of motorists at risk is too high a number to tolerate.