The National EMS Memorial Bike Ride takes place this month to honor police, paramedics, firefighters and other emergency response personnel who have been injured on the job or who died while performing their duties.
Three North Carolina cyclists will represent the state in the annual event to raise money for the families and loved ones left behind.
Continue reading North Carolina cyclists raising funds for injured EMS workers
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The 41-year-old North Carolina man involved in a fatal car crash on Interstate 195 pleaded guilty last week to leaving the scene of an accident and involuntary manslaughter. According to authorities, the Richmond car accident was a result of road rage.
In September, the 24-year-old victim was heading south on I-195 when the 41-year-old's pickup overtook him at approximately 90 mph. After pulling out in front of the victim's vehicle, the pickup driver applied the brakes. According to the chief deputy commonwealth's attorney, what ensued was an aggressive driving match, during which the drivers even made obscene gestures at one another.
Continue reading North Carolina man pleads guilty to role in fatal road rage crash
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North Carolina ranks second in the country in the number of driving fatalities. According to a registered nurse at the Carolina Air Care and UNC Trauma, 28 North Carolinians aged 16 and 17 died in fatal car crashes in 2011.
In an effort to reduce these numbers, volunteers from the Raleigh Police Department, fire department, the North Carolina Highway Patrol and other agencies staged a mock two car accident. This was the first time such a simulation was held at the high school in front of the majority of 1,800 enrolled students.
Continue reading Mock accident warns North Carolina teens against driving impaired
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Recently, the state government contracted the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina and a Pennsylvania company to conduct a study on car accidents. The study was meant to evaluate car accidents in which drivers accidentally step on the gas pedal rather than the brake. Researchers found that these accidents tend to occur in parking lots and the drivers are often women.
Even though the opposite is true for car crashes overall, which are caused by male drivers 60 percent of the time, nearly two-thirds of all runaway collisions are caused by female drivers. Gender is not the only factor in gas pedal accidents--age also plays a role. This type of accident occurs most often for drivers over 76 and younger than 20.
Continue reading N.C. study shows gas pedal car accidents linked to gender and age
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North Carolina patients may not be aware that 20 percent of 2,000 surveyed physicians in America claimed they do not inform their patients of medical errors. In fact, it is not even necessary to disclose serious medical mistakes to patients, according to 34 percent of those physicians interviewed.
The new survey, authored by a professor at Harvard Medical School, was published in the journal Health Affairs. The survey highlighted a trend that some doctors do not believe in being honest with their patients. This is demonstrated by the finding that just more than 10 percent of doctors told their patients something untrue in the past year.
Businesses with three or more employees in North Carolina are required by law to either buy workers' compensation insurance or certify to the state that they can independently cover the costs of their employees' work-related injuries. Despite this law, tens of thousands of companies do not purchase workers' compensation, thus putting their employees at risk, according to a recent study.
According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, there are around 170,000 companies in the state with four or more employees. Insurance carriers that write policies in the state claim they only cover 140,472 businesses.
Continue reading Lack of workers' comp coverage leaves employees hanging in N.C.
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Driving in a work zone requires drivers to slow down and be particularly attentive to the road and their surroundings in order to avoid car accidents. Warning signs, traffic congestion and workers on the side of the road all pose challenges to drivers and demand their undivided attention. Failure to do so can result in an accident along the lines of a five-car pileup that took place on N.C. 211 in a construction zone recently.
On the morning of March 23, a 47-year old male driver was traveling east in a pickup truck when he struck a car driven by a 65-year-old woman. The car was knocked off the left side of the highway and went down an embankment. The pickup truck also toppled and struck three more vehicles before the chain reaction came to an end.
An Onslow County, North Carolina, man has been charged with second degree murder in relation to a drunk driving-fueled car accident earlier this month that left a North Carolina woman dead.
The 40-year-old driver was allegedly drunk when his pickup truck collided with the Cadillac the victim was riding in. According to state troopers, the man crossed the center lane of North Highway 17, south of Maysville, and slammed into an oncoming Cadillac. The passenger of the Cadillac, a 53-year-old woman, died on impact. Her husband, who was driving, was taken to a hospital for his injuries.
Last week, a vehicle struck a North Carolina volunteer firefighter while he performed duties at a car crash scene on Highway 52 North in King. When transported to the hospital, it was reported that he was in fair condition but will remain in the hospital for observation.
The firefighter was monitoring traffic at the site of a car accident involving a tractor-trailer that had overturned early that morning, according to news reports. Even though the accident scene was blocked with cones, another driver drove into the area and hit a car owned by the fire department before hitting the victim.
Continue reading Volunteer firefighter hit by car on North Carolina highway
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A study conducted by the University of British Columbia found a link between the diagnosis rate of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and the month that children are born in. This is not a novel concept: studies conducted previously across various states in the U.S. found that rates of ADHD diagnosis differ according to school enrollment cut off dates. Students born in the month before the cut-off date had the highest rate of ADHD diagnoses in these studies.
For North Carolina parents this raises an alarming concern: are children being misdiagnosed with ADHD because they were born in one month rather than another? In the study, conducted in a school year from January to December, students born in December were the youngest in their class and had a 39 percent more chance of being diagnosed with ADHD. They were also 48 percent more likely be treated with medication.
Continue reading Study finds ADHD misdiagnoses linked to the month of birth
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Asheville Office | Melrose, Seago & Lay P.A. | 37 Haywood Street | Asheville, NC 28801 | Phone: 828-477-4219 | Toll Free: 800-673-1835 | Fax: 828-586-8320 | Asheville Law Office
Waynesville Office | Melrose, Seago & Lay P.A. | 576 Dellwood Road | Waynesville, NC 28786 | Phone: 828-477-4219 | Fax: 828-586-8320 | Waynesville Law Office
Sylva Office | Melrose, Seago & Lay P.A. | 2775 Highway 74 East | Sylva, NC 28779 | Phone: 828-477-4219 | Fax: 828-586-8320 | Sylva Law Office
