Researchers point to the prohibited use of head-to-head contact moves for tackling. Common strategies are butt-blocking, spearing tackles or face tacking. These have all been prohibited since 1976, but are still being used on fields today. The problem with these plays is that the player's head becomes the first point of contact with the tackling player.
The research comes from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. The researchers have offered recommendations to decrease the incidences of head trauma. The recommendations call for referees and coaches to pay closer attention to the player's blocking, tackling and symptoms if players are injured.
]]> The referees can do their part by implementing better enforcement of the safety rules. Researchers are urging referees to throw flags for any head-to-head contact. The coaches need to teach players not to block with their heads but to use their shoulders. Coaches can also tell players to always tackle with their heads up so players will avoid head-to-head contact. The survey even suggests that coaches encourage players to engage in exercises that will strengthen their neck muscles.The coaches also need to recognize signs of concussions and react quickly when a player is exhibiting signs of a concussion. Parents and players also need to learn more about concussions, their symptoms and what to do to recover quickly from any head trauma. All players suffering concussions should be cleared by a medical professional before getting back on the field.
Concussions are very serious injuries. The coaches and team medical personal may have a duty to mitigate damages when a high school player suffers head trauma. Students who have suffered injury outside of the expected level of a contact sport like football may look to a personal injury advocate for assistance in finding a legal course of action towards compensation or awards.
Source: U.S. News, "'Catastrophic' Head Injuries to High School Football Players Rising," April 20, 2012
]]>The technology aboard the ambulance that comes to your door may not be the latest and greatest, and that can literally be the difference between whether a patient lives or dies, especially with cardiac arrest.
According to recent companion pieces by Laura Landro in the Wall Street Journal, a movement is afoot led by U.S. ambulance companies, local communities and first responders like EMTs to shave minutes off of access to emergency medical services. Minutes may save lives in certain scenarios.
]]> Here are some examples of innovations being brought to some ambulance services and other emergency situations:The difficulty with variation in quality of ambulance care is that emergency services are administered in different locales by different entities, including private, public (state and local government), volunteer or nonprofit. No one system is in place to see that improvements in equipment and training are made uniformly across the country.
A recent study by the National Association of State EMS Officials confirms the inconsistency in service levels among localities as well as the impact of the economic crisis on governmental resources that could be used to improve the situation.
Some nationally recognized programs are emerging, however, to provide guidance and resources, including the Culture of Safety plan at the University of Pittsburgh and CARES (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival) at Emory University.
Sources: "The Ultimate Lifesaver," The Wall Street Journal, 2/14/12
]]>And apparently babies falling from the seat have been getting serious injuries, including 33 with skull fractures.
Made of stiff, colorful molded plastic, the Bumbo seat sits low to the ground and supports a baby's lower trunk, with round openings for legs. More in the nature of a toy than a traditional infant seat, the Bumbo does not have safety straps.
]]> The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of the seat in 2007 because there was no warning label not to use the seat on a "raised surface" and those manufactured after that recall have included that warning.A coalition of safety advocates want the CPSC to recall the seat again, this time because injuries continue even when the seat is used flat on the floor and not on raised surfaces. Young children are still getting injured falling to the floor from the chair, rather than from a higher perches.
If this second recall is issued, the advocates want the company to redesign the product and make it safer. The South African manufacturer has reportedly said safety straps would cause parents to have a "false sense of security" and that if the seat is "used as intended" it is safe.
Source: "Should Bumbo baby seat be recalled again?" Detroit Free Press, 2/10/12
]]>While researchers expected the trend, the results are striking. Patients in a surgeon's first 10 ACL repair procedures were five times more likely to need another repair within a year than were patients of surgeons with over 150 procedures of experience. A surgeon's first 60 ACL reconstructions are four times more likely to require another ACL procedure. In other words, a patient's likelihood of needing another procedure varied from about 1 percent to 5 percent depending on the surgeon's experience.
Inexperienced surgeons are more likely to miss other injured ligaments or improperly place or secure grafts, often leading to complications. As they gain experience, practice allows them to avoid common mistakes and oversights.
]]> The study confirms that the learning curve of ACL surgeons has a real effect on patient health. As with any complex task, more experienced surgeons produce, on average, better health outcomes.Researchers and medical professionals commenting on the study suggested that the same learning curve and disparity in health outcomes likely exists in other surgery specialties. To address the higher probability of mistakes and malpractice by inexperienced surgeons, they recommended more supervised training surgeries and simulation training. Interestingly, whether a surgeon had done a subspecialty fellowship didn't have much of an effect on the learning curve.
Source: "A Learning Curve For Surgeons Doing ACL Repairs," Wall Street Journal, 2/9/12
]]>New hours-of-service (HOS) rules announced for commercial truckers in the U.S. will take effect this coming summer. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the new regulation will cost the industry nearly half a billion dollars, but save considerably more due to reductions in car accidents, serious injuries and wrongful deaths.
]]> Highway safety advocates had argued during the review approval process that the new regulations did not go far enough, and expressed disappointment that trucker driving intervals would remain at 11 hours per day. But a major industry group, the American Trucking Association, has filed a legal challenge to a new mandatory 34-hour rest period that keeps drivers off the road for consecutive nights at the end of a duty week.Revised HOS rules were long overdue, and several other provisions underscore the importance of enforcing legal consequences for drivers and companies who ignore hour limits. A new category of egregious HOS violations (three hours over driving time limits) will be subject to a maximum civil penalty. The new rule also mandates rest breaks after eight hours of driving.
When truckers break the rules to make a deadline, or trucking company dispatchers encourage them to falsify logbooks to maximize hours behind the wheel, fatigue can quickly make the road unsafe for all motorists. Our truck accident personal injury attorneys can help injury victims understand how trucking violations affect issues of legal liability.
Source: "Trucking Industry Challenges U.S. on Driver Rest Rules," Bloomberg, 2/14/12
]]>The latest "infotainment" gizmos were on display at the annual Detroit Auto Show. On its Chevy Cruze models, GM's OnStar system would allow drivers to use voice commands to update social media pages. Similarly, BMW's Connected Drive system displays emails, call logs and text read-backs on a dashboard screen. Not to be outdone, Ford's SYNC system would allow web browsing capabilities. Automakers argue that these interactive upgrades are necessary to attract younger drivers and to compete in a changing marketplace. They also say that these "hands-free" systems are appropriate innovations in limiting cell phone use while driving.
]]> Still, safety advocates believe that automakers are not going far enough to prevent distracted driving, and are simply trading one hazard for another. Even though they may not have a cell phone to their ear, using interactive systems could lead to "inattention blindness", the inability to react quickly to hazards because a driver's mind is focused on something else.Further, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation did not hold its annual distracted driving summit in 2011, despite doing so in 2009 and 2010. While it is not clear whether it would be held this year, the Journal suggested that it is a sign that distracted driving regulations may not be as important in light of new multimedia systems.
Source: WSJ.com "Don't Look Now, A Car That Tweets" February 10, 2012,
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