PERSONAL INJURY BLOG

Preventing fall accidents involving senior citizens could be as simple as popping a pill. According to new research, increased doses of vitamin D could help reduce the risk of fall accidents involving the elderly.

The research was conducted by scientists at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the results of the study were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The researchers found that taking vitamin D supplements every day could help senior citizens reduce their risk of being in a fall accident.

The scientists claim that taking a daily vitamin D supplement could help increase muscle strength and balance, thereby preventing fall accidents involving seniors. The researchers conducted trials in which they found that daily doses of 800 IU of vitamin D slashed the risk of falls by much as 17%.

Fall accidents are also highly common among the senior population. Approximately 30% to 40% of all elderly persons suffer a fall accident every year. Out of these, many involve seniors who were living independently at the time of the accident.

As any Los Angeles slip and fall accident lawyer knows, fall accidents are the leading cause of injury involving adults above the age of age 65 in the United States. As a person ages, he may suffer from a condition called osteoporosis, in which there is decreased bone mineral density, leading to weak and brittle bones. These weakened bones are much more likely to snap when a person falls.

Further, there are serious health risks associated with fall accidents involving senior citizens. These fractures may take a much longer time to heal. There are other complications that can arise when a senior citizen suffers a serious fracture, like a hip fracture. In fact, a senior citizen’s risk of fatality increases dramatically in the year after a fall accident. For all these reasons, it is extremely important to prevent fall accidents involving seniors.

As widely reported, the NFL is being sued by thousands of former players. In early June, the suits were combined into a master complaint with over 2,000 Plaintiffs suing for concussion related incidents while they were in the NFL. In recent years, the league has been extremely proactive about concussions and taken great precautions to protect current players. The recent suicide of Junior Seau—some say it was related to head trauma from playing football—has brought even greater attention to the plight of former players. 

Seau played most of his career for the San Diego Chargers where he started in the 1990s. He retired with the New England Patriots in 2010. His career spanned the era when head trauma was considered “no big deal” and just part of the game. In the current environment, concussions are taken very seriously by the league but the current lawsuit asserts that the league knew of the risks and concealed them from players for a very long time. The lawsuit alleges thatthe league “was aware of the evidence and the risks associated with repetitive traumatic brain injuries virtually at its inception, but deliberately ignored and actively concealed the information from the Plaintiffs and all others who participated in organized football at all levels” as reported by the Los Angeles Times(“Concussion lawsuits to be consolidated; NFL denies culpability” http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-concussion-lawsuits-0120606,0,5009744.story). 

If the NFL was aware of the risks and concealed them from its players, it will follow in a long line of organizations that put their employees at risk of great personal injury for the promise of short term gain. Professional football has earned thousands of people millions of dollars. If the league is found liable for the harm players have suffered, millions of dollars may be on the line. Litigation, unfortunately, may be the only way that massive organizations like the NFL will be forced to make safety a priority.

According to a recent piece in the Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tobar-20120608,0,2603929.column, Compton has had more than 114 people killed by trains that run on the city’s ever expanding metro rail. Since the trains run above ground and cross countless busy streets and intersections in the Compton area, the risk for pedestrian accidents and train-vehicle accidents is extremely high. Furthermore, the Artesia station for the Blue Line that runs into Compton and South Central LA is described as a “Third World train station” by the Times writer Hector Tobar: the station is surrounded by high fences wrapped in barbed wire. One entrance to the station has been locked which forces some riders to walk nearly two miles to reach the station. Many of them jump the fence and risk injury or death because walking the extra distance is such a massive inconvenience.

Of the many pedestrian accidents that happen throughout Los Angeles a huge concentration of them take place near this one metro station. With the interaction of pedestrians, bicyclists, trucks, trains, motorcycles, city buses and other vehicles, the incidents of accidents related to the Los Angeles metro trains will continue to rise in Compton and throughout the Southland. Precautions, warning signs and reasonable expectation of convenience need to be prioritized for all people who travel near and on the metro rail.

Unfortunately David Bowley Jr., 55, was killed as the result of 19 year old Aaron Deveau’s distracted driving. A judge has sentenced Deveau to two years in prison for texting before the crash that took the life of the father of three. This is the first time that anyone in the state has been imprisoned for causing a car crash while texting. It probably won’t be the last and such penalties probably won’t be limited to Massachusetts.

According to the Los Angeles Times article “Teen Gets Jail Time for Texting-While-Driving Crash” (http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-texting-and-driving-teen-in-jail-20120607,0,1563342.story?track=rss) the teen insisted that he was not texting at the time of the crash. His phone records indicate otherwise. In addition to prison time, Deveau will not be allowed to obtain a driver’s license for 15 years.

The sentence sets a precedent for the strict penalty imposed. In an interview for the Times story with University of Utah Professor David Strayer who studies distracted driving, 80% of teens are estimated to have texted while driving. Many more jail sentences will have to be imposed and many more car accident deaths will have to occur before people realize: driving while texting is at least as dangerous as driving while drunk.

Personal injury lawsuits involving bullying are not typically directed at the alleged bully or their family. Instead, most of the suits are directed at the school districts, school boards, and other administrators. When filing for compensation, often, the argument is this: the school should have known about the bullying and prevented it. In the most extreme cases, children have been bullied to death or resorted to taking their own lives: Lennon Baldwin, Phoebe Prince, Jon Carmichael and Seth Walsh are just a few recent examples. In such cases, it seems reasonable for a parent to want justice for the loss of their child.

In the Carmichael case, for instance, the parents filed a 20 million dollar lawsuit in 2011(”More Bullying Cases Have Parents Turning to Courts” http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2011-09-11/bullying-lawsuits-parents-self-defense-courts/50363256/1).  Such lawsuits, some argue, are detrimental to education: if a school district is using funds to fight the allegations, this may divert money from educational expenses. This seems like an understandable position, but how much potential is being lost each year with students who are bullied and cannot focus on school work, develop psychological problems due to ongoing fear, and, in the most heartbreaking cases, take their own lives? What is the price tag on such losses?

An important way that school districts could avoid such lawsuits is to better protect their students and educate their staff on how to effectively deal with bullying. If schools only focus on mathematics, grammar, science, history and other academic subjects, our schools will continue to be havens of bullying. To reduce the empathy gap that tolerates bullying, lawsuits may be the most reasonable step forward until schools can protect all of their students.  

Los Angeles (June 7, 2012)—In The Lord of the Flies William Golding created one of literature’s most enduring and tragic outcasts. In the novel, “Piggy” is often treated roughly by the other boys in part because of his intellectual prowess. But most of the bullying he endures is the result of his social awkwardness, lack of athletic ability and his weight. He is different from the other boys. And like at many Los Angeles schools and playgrounds, being different makes a child a target for bullies.

Since the theme of difference and ostracism has been so deeply explored in literature—Huck Finn, Frankenstein, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Ellison’s Invisible Man—and since tragic cases of bullying are often covered in the news and met with public outrage, why does bullying continue? A clear cut answer is not forthcoming. However, legal action is increasing as a viable solution to the problem.

As was widely reported in the spring of 2010, 15 year old Phoebe Prince took her life after allegedly enduring months of brutal bullying and harassment from her school mates. In the article “Bullying and the Phoebe Prince Case” http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/03/bullying-and-the-phoebe-prince-case/38221/)author and lawyer Wendy Kaminerargues that existing law should be enough to punish those allegedly responsible for the bullying. But she also asks:  Could the school have done more to protect her? The simple answer seems yes. But should the school be legally compelled to prevent bullying? 

 As reported recently in the Los Angeles Times,heightened anti-bullying legislation in New Jersey has been used to charge a 19 year old man and two minors in the bullying related suicide of high school freshman Lennon Baldwin (“On heels of Dharun Ravi verdict, 3 charged after teen's suicide” http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-bullying-charges-20120531,0,595605.story). In California, there is an anti-bullying law that was passed in 2011 called Seth’s law; it’s focused on students who are bullied based on their sexuality. It also requires school administrators to investigate charges of any kind of harassment. The law is named for 13 year old Seth Walsh. Seth killed himself after relentless torment for being gay (“Seth's Law helps to further protect LGBT students from bullying” http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/10/seths-law-helps-further-protect-lgbt-students-bullying). 

Of course the vast majority of bullying incidents do not lead to suicide. But, clearly, even less extreme cases are a major concern for state legislators. 49 states have some form of ant-bullying legislation that is designed specifically to discourage the behavior. Many still believe it is not enough. Some attorneys argue that schools and school districts should be held accountable for personal injuries when bullying occurs. Proving that the school was aware of the bullying can be challenging, however. 

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) may provide parents and their lawyers some access to school records that may indicate if a school had knowledge of harassment. Also, most states have"Open Meetings Acts" which give the public access to public institution’s proceedings. Such records can be used in a libel or slander case if the information indicates that the school has knowledge that a student’s reputation has been harmed.Still, libel and slander can be challenging to prove in a California court. And if the bullying took place at a private institution, the FOIA and Open Meetings Act may not be helpful at all.

If school administrators, teachers, and school boards ignore bullying, will they take action if litigation is threatened? Perhaps. Many parents would like to believe that protecting children is enough incentivefor school boards to prevent bullying but it has proven, time and again, not to be. For many schools, maybe the only way of getting more protection for children is through the threat of litigation. For too many young people, however, lawsuits arise after the damage is done. Can more be done to prevent bullying in the first place? 

There may be years of litigation ahead and more tragic stories before a comprehensive and realistic response to bullying is conceived. Bullying may continue to be rich territory for novelists, unfortunately, and the following ideal is difficult to imagine: outcasts are no longer treated as inhuman and bullying is completely eradicated.Until that becomes the norm, too many children will continue to suffer in silence.