California has one of the toughest graduated driver licensing programs in the country, designed to prevent accidents involving teen drivers. However, a new study that has just been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that while there has been a drop in accidents involving 16 and 17-year-old motorists, there has actually been a spike in the number of fatal traffic accidents involving 18-year-old drivers. The study seems to indicate that most of the accidents that should have involved 16 and 17-year-old motorists, are being postponed to when these drivers turn 18 and have full driving privileges.

According to an analysis of fatal crash accident data, there has been a decline of 1,340 deadly accidents involving 16-year-old drivers after graduated driver’s licensing programs were introduced around the country. However, there has been an increase of more than 1,000 accidents involving 18-year-old motorists. The overall conclusion is that graduated driver’s licensing programs are successful, but the degree of success isn’t so clear.

The researchers believe that the spike in accidents involving 18-year-old drivers could simply be because many drivers prefer to wait until they are 18 to get a driver’s license, because of all the restrictions of a provisional driver's license.

Los Angeles car accident lawyers take this to mean that inexperienced 18-year-old drivers are taking to the streets with a full driver’s license and not enough experience to be driving unsupervised. Additionally, driver licensing programs may also be too dependent on co-drivers, possibly taking away from some of the experience that a teen driver could have. Too much dependence on a co-driver does not allow the driver to develop important skills, like looking out for pedestrians and obstacles emerging from the side of the road, judging the speed and behavior of other motorists, and other skills.

Three construction workers were seriously injured in a fall accident at a construction site in San Francisco this week.

The accident occurred in the Dogpatch neighborhood, when the men were working on a six-story building project. They were pouring concrete when they fell three stories down, sustaining serious injuries. A fourth worker also suffered minor injuries.

The construction sector is one of the most dangerous workplaces for California workers, accounting for approximately one out of three fatalities annually. Fall accidents are some of the most serious construction site accidents, and also some of the most preventable ones. Most fall accidents can be prevented through the use of safer work platforms, elevated surfaces, and guardrails. These accidents can also be avoided if workers are provided fall protection gear when they are working at certain elevations.

Construction workers in California who are injured in accidents on a worksite may be eligible for monetary compensation for their injuries under the state’s Workers’ Compensation laws. Compensation after a construction accident can include damages for medical expenses and lost wages. Workers may also be eligible to file short-term and long-term disability claims.

However, in some cases, there may be third parties that may be liable for a construction worker’s injuries. For instance, when an accident is caused due to the negligence of a subcontractor, or a party other than the employer, the victim may have grounds to file a personal injury lawsuit against the party.

There are other types of construction accidents that may involve third party liability too. For instance, when an accident or injury is caused because of defective equipment, a California construction accident lawyer can often name the manufacturer of the equipment in a third-party lawsuit, opening up another avenue for compensation recovery.

Many Americans tend to schedule a move for a summer, which means the next two months will see more numbers of passenger vehicles towing trailers on the highways. It's the right time to draw attention to the fact that every year hundreds of people are killed or seriously injured in accidents caused when unsecured or poorly secured trailers come loose from vehicles.

USA Today has a report on how states around the country are acting to toughen existing laws aimed at preventing runaway trailers. According to federal data, every day one person dies in such accidents across the country. Most of the accidents occur when a poorly secured trailer goes out of control. Such trailers can careen into traffic around the vehicle, causing serious collisions, multi-vehicle accidents, and pileups.

Motorists, who are unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity when the trailer breaks loose, are at serious risk of catastrophic injuries. Nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 15,211 people were killed in trailer accidents between 1975 and 2008. According to Ron Melancon, who is a trailer safety activist from Virginia, California has seen major loss of life and property in trailer accidents. Since 1975, 1,706 people have died in trailer accidents in California. Since 1988, 51,806 people have been injured, and 91,268 cars have been destroyed in these accidents. The toll in damage and fatalities has been devastating. During this period of time, the cost of property damage from these accidents has touched $189 million, and the cost of fatalities from these accidents has topped $4 billion. Overall the economic cost of such accidents has topped $4.87 billion.

California is one of several states that require safety chains that prevent a trailer from going out of control when it breaks free from the vehicle. Safety chains in California must have a breaking strength that is equal to or greater than the total weight of the towed material. According to trailer safety activists and Los Angeles personal injury attorneys, the only ways to prevent these accidents is education, awareness, enforcement and enhanced engineering and design that can minimize the impact of human error.

The next step in the battle against distracted driving seems to be The Pledge. Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey set off the trend on 30 April this year, when her show featured a special segment called “National No Phone Zone Day.”

On that show, which was graced by the likes of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, as well as representatives of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, Oprah took the pledge to never use a cell phone while driving and to make the car a “no phone zone.” She also asked for viewers to do the same. People were asked to sign up for the pledge on the website, and promise never to use their cell phones while at the wheel.

This week, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took the pledge to never indulge in text messaging while driving, although not on Oprah's website. The mayor has written a special piece for Huffington Post, announcing his pledge and calling on the more than 37,000 employees of the city to do the same. The mayor is taking part in a special anti-distracted driving campaign by AT&T to combat texting while driving. The campaign is supported by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department. These are some of the people who see firsthand the effects of texting while driving-related accidents.

Any Los Angeles personal injury attorney however, will be even more excited to note that the Los Angeles Unified School District is participating in the campaign. Teenagers are some of the biggest users of texting devices, and distracted driving has added another risk to the already high accident potential of these motorists. Getting school authorities to become more involved not just in raising awareness about the problem, but in nudging students to switch off their cell phones while driving, is no small feat, and is likely to reap great results.

Here is a list that won't have too many surprises for any Los Angeles personal injury attorney. Thedailybeast.com has compiled a list of the top 100 deadliest and most crash-prone highways in the country. At least two California highways feature in the top 10 on the list.

The list rates highways based on the number of fatal accidents that occurred on the highways during summer between 2004 and 2008, the number of fatal accidents per mile, and the total number of fatalities that occurred on the highway. The data includes accident information during June, July and August of 2004, through June, July and August of 2008.

Interstate 15 in California comes in at number four on the list. This highway runs across more than 207 miles. Between summer of 2004 and summer of 2008, there were 437 fatal accidents on this stretch of highway, and these resulted in a total of 506 fatalities. That made it an average of 1.52 fatal accidents per mile.

At number five was Interstate 10 which runs across more than 242 in-state miles. Between summer of 2004 and summer 2008, there were a total of 341 fatal accidents on this road and these resulted in a total of 387 fatalities. This highway had an average of 1.41 fatal accidents per mile. There are a number of other California highways that feature in the top 100.

Not all the highways are dangerous because they are badly maintained or poorly designed. In fact, California has a pretty decent record in road maintenance. Some states like New Jersey have traditionally had some of the worst highways in the country. That's why you find so many New Jersey highways on the list.

However, California’s highways might be more dangerous because they're used by larger numbers of motorists. There are other internal factors that contribute to high fatality rates on a highway. For instance, low seat belt usage rates translate into high fatality numbers. That means that there are some highways in the country on which failing to buckle up, could be akin to suicide.

No birthday party is complete without a bouncy house or bouncy castle. More and more parents actually install these at their homes for their children to frolic in. However, these cute looking inflatable rides are responsible for injuring tens of thousands of children every year. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 30,000 children are injured in these inflatable rides every year. Of these, about 85% involve children below 15 years old.

According to California ride inspectors, the biggest factors in inflatable ride injuries are poor installation of the ride. These rides are often found in local community-run carnivals, where the standards of safety may be lacking. For instance, inflatable rides are meant to be held down using sandbags and stakes. However, it's not uncommon to find rides being held down by buckets of water. Improper inflation procedures can end with the bouncy house deflating, injuring children.

Inflatable ride injuries also often occur when children hurt themselves after other children fall while on them. This especially occurs when there are too many children on a single ride. A larger, heavier child can easily fall on smaller ones with serious injuries, including spinal cord injuries and head injuries. Children may fall off the inflatable ride on the surrounding concrete, and hurt themselves. These injuries can be prevented if the ground around the ride has been padded. However not every amusement park or carnival will take great care with safety precautions, especially when it comes to inflatable rides that look reasonably safe.

Los Angeles personal injury attorneys believe that it’s important for parents to inspect an inflatable ride before allowing their children on it. If the ride is crowded with far too many children, look for another ride. Also, avoid a ride that has several bigger children playing with smaller ones. The ground around the ride must preferably be padded, and not made of hard concrete. Also, look at the ride operator. If he seems preoccupied and least interested in the behavior of the children on the ride, you might be in for trouble.

Police have identified the 7-year-old child who was killed on Wednesday when his father's motorcycle collided with a car. The impact threw Victor Camacho 22 feet from the impact and killed him. Victor and his older brother, 8, were riding on the motorcycle with their father, though the older boy was not seriously hurt in the impact. The boys' father was uninjured.

Camacho's motorcycle was heading northbound, and a car that was parked on the curb pulled away to make a U-turn. The motorcycle struck the car a moment later, throwing Victor over the vehicle, where he landed on the other side, apparently killed on impact.

According to police Sergeant Tim Bedwell, the car appears to have not yielded to the motorcycle. The police are continuing to investigate the matter.

Further complicating the matter is the fact that it is illegal for more than one passenger to be present on a motorcycle. Only one passenger is permitted, and must ride behind the motorcycle operator. Victor's older brother was riding in front of their father. Additionally, Victor's helmet was not properly fitted for his size, and came off in the impact. A proper helmet might have kept the injuries in the fall to a minimum.

Victor's older brother suffered minor abrasions to his face, but was otherwise doing fine at the hospital.

Charges in the case have yet to be filed, as the police are continuing to investigate. The police have not released any names, and it is unclear where the identification of young Victor came from. A 19-year-old woman was identified as the driver of the other vehicle but, again, her name has not been released.

Both drivers permitted the police to take drug and alcohol tests. Until these results are returned, police are declining to file charges or mention what potential charges might be considered.

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Two Chicago travelers have filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Transportation Authority after allegedly suffering from smoke inhalation at a Northwest Side 'L' station.

Terry Cookes and Joseph Ellison were riding the 'L' Blue Line train on April 28, 2009. They claim that when the train entered the Logan Square station, smoke was coming from the station's track area and that the smoke began to enter the car of their train. Both are asserting that they suffered injuries from the smoke inhalation and that the CTA was responsible due to negligence.

The suit argues that the CTA driver negligently brought the train into the smoke-filled station. Furthermore, it claims that the CTA did not have proper fans to keep the train cars clear of smoke nor was the smoke properly purged from the subway station. The suit seeks a judgment against the CTA as well as to recover the costs of the suit itself.

The case comes on the heels of several high-profile accidents at the CTA. In 2008, a CTA train operator disobeyed a red light and overrode safety protocols that would automatically halted the train. The operator’s decision lead to a derailment that nearly sent the train off the edge of the platform to the street below.

Since 2005, there have been 13 derailments of CTA-operated 'L' trains. Other train-based transit systems, even those with larger capacities, do not have as many breakdowns or derailments as the Chicago system. Even New York's subway system, which racks up six times as many miles of transit annually, only had seven derailments within the same time that the 'L' racked up 13.

Allegations of poor maintenance procedures, insufficient or inadequate training for drivers, and the age of the 'L' transit equipment continue to raise questions about the system's safety. This new suit is merely the most recent iteration of an issue that is increasingly worrisome.

Oftentimes, people hear statistics without really getting a sense of them. The news talks about how statistics show that driving is more dangerous than flying even though people drive all the time without getting into wrecks. Those people are the lucky ones… For the people who are involved in significant accidents, or have a loved one or relative that was involved in one, statistics of the dangers of driving are very real.

In Kentucky recently, 14 people were killed in three automotive accidents over four days. A Mennonite family was struck when a tractor-trailer crossed the median, killing 11 and leaving only two surviving children. Another tractor-trailer crossed the median into opposing traffic killing a woman on a motorcycle. Another woman died just blocks from her house when her car struck a tree. These accidents had different causes, but each one took lives. Yes, it is safe to drive on the roads in most cases, but proper driving is no guarantee of safety. A family observing all the laws and proper procedures can still end up involved in an accident and even killed if another driver loses control of a large truck or other massive vehicle and drives into them or forces them off the road.

State authorities are investigating the incidents above, particularly the two cases in which the medians were crossed. The causes of the accidents may have been issues with the roads themselves or possibly the fault of the drivers. For that very reason, traffic accidents are particularly difficult to investigate, especially on busy roadways such as interstates. Evidence can scatter, and every moment spent collecting information ties up the roads and costs time, money, and frustration to all involved. Regardless of those difficulties, the victims—or the victims’ families, as the case may be—deserve to know the truth of what happened, especially if findings can bring about safer roads or stricter rules for the kinds of vehicles that might have been at fault.

In Ohio, two unrestrained dogs attacked an unnamed woman as she was walking her own small dog. The attacking dogs, a pit bull and an American bulldog, were apparently after the woman's pet and rushed across the street when they saw the two passing by. The woman lifted her dog up in her arms to protect it and received numerous injuries as the two bulldogs tried to get at the smaller animal.

A man who was in the house that the two dogs had originated from ran across the street and defended the woman and her pet, kicking and pushing at the dogs in an effort to get them off her. Putting himself between the two parties, the man also suffered injuries as the dogs became more excited and began biting him as well. Both the woman and the man required medical attention. The woman's pet was unharmed.

The owner of the two dogs has been identified as Tessa Campbell, age 36. She claims that children in the house let the dogs out, but the authorities have still charged her with leaving animals at large. Campbell claims that the dogs have been vaccinated for rabies but could not recall the veterinarian's name. The county health board will be notified in regard to the incident, and the two dogs are currently being held in quarantine pending further investigation.

It is unclear whether the animals were let loose purposefully or simply by accident, but bulldogs and pit bulls have very powerful jaws and are very strong for their size in proportion to other dogs. Due to their strength, animals of these breeds require a higher degree of supervision for fear of the injuries these dogs can cause. Yet all manner of animals and pets, much like the aggressors in this case, frequently get loose and rarely does it end in an attack. Luckily, no one in this case was seriously injured, and it becomes another such event added to a long list in the debate over pet owners' rights versus community safety standards.