Author: John Young

Albert Einstein once said that the world is a dangerous place because people do not do anything about it.  We, as children learned something from our mothers that is as true today as it was when she said it.  If you make a mess, you are responsible to clean it up.  You are responsible to clean it up fully.  We, as trial lawyers know that this means if you harm someone through your negligence, you are responsible for making up for that harm by fairly compensating the person you hurt.  This rule has two good effects.  The first is that the person who is harmed is taken care of by the person who hurt them.  The responsibility for this harm, and taking care of it, is not shifted to Medicare to pay the bills and Social Security to pay for the lost wages.  We as a society do not have to make up for the harm because the responsible party is doing that.  Second, it causes people to be more careful, so that they do not hurt people and do not have to make up for the harm they cause.  As social animals it is our goal to live a happy and fulfilling life.  If no one injures us, we can do that.  If we do not injure another, everyone is free to do that.  This is not a concept of socialism or communism, it is a pillar of the free market society.  Capitalism is best served by happy healthy workers contributing to their own welfare and pursuit of the dream of living the better life.

So, we ask you, why would a system that promotes these values be under constant attack?  Why are our legislatures so intent on stripping the people of the protections offered by the tort system?  A logical response is that our legislative bodies are controlled by the moneyed interests.  Lobbyists, corporations with huge amounts of money,influence lawmakers to do their bidding. Why would corporations spend money to attack the tort system?  Said another way, why would corporations spend money to restrict your right to be fairly compensated if you are injured by another’s negligence? Behind every car accident there are two insurance companies, one for each car.  One of those companies now has the legal obligation to pay the injured party to make up the harm caused by their insured.  Every dollar the insurance company pays out in fair compensation is one less dollar of profit.  The profits for these companies are huge.  These huge profits justify the obscene amount of money these companies spend to influence lawmakers to restrict your rights and as a consequence increase their profits.  Remember, the good hands people, despite their warm and fuzzy commercials, are a for profit corporation and if they do not have to compensate you fairly they make more money.  Said another way, if they do not have to compensate the bread winner who can no longer work, you and I will have to take care of the injured person through Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

You might say it can’t be that bad, but it can be.  Our world will become a more dangerous place unless we the people stand up and tell our lawmakers that what our mothers taught is is right and we are not going to let it go.  We have the right to be fairly compensated if we are hurt.  It is a matter of honor to make up for the harm we cause.  Corporate self interest cannot warp mother’s words.

We welcome you back to your work week.  As part of our ongoing series of blogs from the perspective of our college age associates, we are proud to present the thoughts of Joseph M. Young, Junior, Indiana University.  Joe is majoring in Religious studies and Psychology.

Drunk driving has a negative connotation in America, for good reason. It can lead to all kinds of accidents driving into a ditch, to a massive multiple car pile-ups. Drunk driving can lead to motorcycle accidents, highway accidents, large truck accidents , semi tractor-trailer accidents, and other trucking accidents.  In any drunk driving accident, serious injuries can occur. These injuries include back injuries, paralysis, brain injury, and permanent impairment. All  these injuries can lead to lost wages, future medical bills, unemployment, disability, and hours and hours of painful physical therapy. Larger bills, bigger fines, and a greater loss of life and limb can result from major collisions caused by drunk driving.

Like any bad habit though, drunk driving is preventable. If a person knows that he or she is prone to drive after they have been drinking, the responsible and right thing to do is for that person to give the keys to a friend. If a friend is not around a responsible person will have to choose not to drink or to stay home all together. There is always a cab, which is possibly one of the best options, provided money is available. Having a sober friend or designated driver is also always a good preventative option.

Unfortunately all of the preventative ideas in the world will not stop some people from drinking and driving. Hopefully, some people can recognize their fault and stop when they realize their error in judgment. If you ever find yourself drunk and need to get somewhere call a friend immediately.

The holidays are a busy time of the season and many people are out and about, shopping, and going to parties. A few moments reflection can prevent a damper on your holiday spirit.

Always be aware of your surroundings. Whether walking in a parking lot or using an ATM, pay attention to what is happening around you so you do not become a victim of crime. Shopping with friends is a good idea and a deterrent.  When going to and from your vehicle keep your keys in your hands in case you need to use the car panic alarm.  Be watchful and leery if someone is loitering or acting suspicious.  Leave such areas and contact authorities. These few reminders can help keep you safe and happy during your holiday activities.

The Lawyers of Young and Young are your Indiana Severe Injury Attorneys.  We represent severely injured Hoosiers all over the state from our Indianapolis Offices.  Today, we want to discuss the subtle signs and symptoms of brain injury.  As you know from our past discussions, brain injury affects thousands of Hoosiers.  The effects of the brain injury range from causing the victim to be in a coma for the rest of their lives to signs and symptoms that people do not even know are caused by the injury. (Remember, we are not doctors, the following is general information and is not intended to be used to diagnose any particular problem, if you are concerned about your medical condition, please seek the advice of a competent licensed medical professional).

Stepping back, brain injury is caused when the brain itself is injured.  The injuries can be from car accidents, drunk driving accidents, falls, being hit by an object, illness (such as a stroke), bicycle accidents, falls down stairs, and other incidents. Usually the head is struck by something, or the head is forced forward and then back very rapidly.  When the head is forced back and forth very rapidly, the brain hits first the front of the skull and then the back of the skull.  This can cause bruising and bleeding in the brain.  The injured person may lose consciousness, but not losing consciousness does not mean there is no brain injury.  Sometimes the person has altered awareness.  This altered awareness has been described as having the bell rung or knocked goofy.

The patient may seek medical treatment, and they may not, depending on the severity of the injury.  Fortunately, awareness is increasing about the problem associated with brain injury and people are more likely to seek treatment these days.  The medical treatment will include being asked questions about your medical history, how you were hurt, and examination of your body and tests.   These tests may include x-rays and CT scans or MRIs.  These tests may be negative as they are not capable of fully “seeing” all of the potential injury, in other words they are good tests, just not perfect tests.  The patient may be sent home and told to be on the lookout for unusual symptoms.  It is essential that the injured person be watched by another person for these symptoms because they may not be obvious to the injured person.

These symptoms may include changes in personality (Like crying easily when the person never was a crier in the past), easily angered, changes in sleep patterns, memory issues, speech issues (such as not being able to identify and use certain words, changes in energy level, changes in former hobbies or interests, changes in friends (such as not being interested in seeing friends), being a little off, not completing tasks that ordinarily would always be completed, headaches, changes in senses such a vision, hearing and smell.

If you have had a brain injury (or a loved one has had a brain injury) be on the lookout for these signs and symptoms.  They may be subtle, and may not appear for days or weeks.   If they do appear, and or do not go away, seek medical attention as soon as possible from your primary care physician or neurologist.  You may need further medical care and treatment to help you deal with these medical issues.

Young and Young is your Indianapolis accident lawyer.  Young and Young represents Hoosiers with severe personal injury caused by the negligence of others. We represent those with amputations, brain injury, spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis, blindness, burns and scarring as well as all other severe personal injury.  We represent those severely injured in drunk driving accidents, highway accidents, automobile accidents, and all other types of accidents where Hoosiers have suffered serious personal injury.

Young and Young wants you to know about concerns over defibrillator failures.  You know about defibrillators.  These are the machines you see in schools and other public building hanging on the wall in a box with a glass front.  The purpose of these defibrillators is to provide instant heart shocking power to a patient to get the heart pumping again.  Doctors tell us that in many case if you can shock a stopped heart quickly enough, the chances of the person suffering the heart attack recovering increase a lot.  The problem is, a lot of the defibrillators are not working. If the defibrillator is not working properly the heart attack patient will likely die. In the last 5 years, the FDA has received more than 28,000 reports of defibrillators not working.  We think it is not surprising that the manufacturers of the defibrillators have issued more than 68 recalls involving hundreds of thousands of machines.  It is our position that the FDA is a useful tool, but like all government programs it cannot effectively deal with the magnitude of the problem.  We fully endorse the idea that if you make a mess, or cause a problem, you are fully responsible for making up for  the harm you cause.  Further you have to fully make up for that harm.

Big corporations want the public to believe that lawsuits are ruining our economy and hurt our international competitiveness.  Yet these same corporation howl when government regulates them.  Well you can’t have it both ways.  Legitimate lawsuits are the most highly effective method of making corporations clean up their messes and the harm caused by those messes. The civil justice system costs nothing in taxes, nothing in administrative fees, nothing in regulatory costs.  Certainly the civil justice system places costs on products, but it is better than allowing corporations to pollute and injure as much as they want to. After all, the purpose of the civil justice system is accident and injury prevention.  If corporations would use reasonable and cost effective engineering solutions with their products, we would resort far less to the secondary purpose of the civil justice system, compensation for the injured person.

The lawyers at Young & Young are Indiana personal injury lawyers practicing out of our Indianapolis offices.  We only represent seriously injured Hoosiers, injured by the negligence of others.  We know the medicine about brain injury, blindness, back injuries, spinal cord injuries (such as paraplegia and quadriplegia), amputations and all other serious injuries.  If those injuries lead to death, we have 56 years of experience representing Hoosier families in wrongful death accidents.  If the injuries are serious enough to render our client unable to work, we are also Indiana Social Security Lawyers.   Serious personal injury work for Hoosiers is all we do. We know how to prosecute drunk driving accidents, large truck accidents, highway accidents, semi tractor-trailer accidents, motorcycle accidents, and construction accidents.

John P. Young is a cyclist.  He rides to work two to three times a week.  It is excellent exercise, saves gas, and the wear and tear on the car.  Mr. Young has been heard to say the ride is better than a cup of coffee because it gets your blood pumping, and there is no caffeine let down later in the morning.  We are mindful, however, of the dangers of riding a bicycle.  Many drivers are either not paying attention to riders or they do not care.  Many times cell phone using drivers commit big mistakes because they are not paying attention to the road.  Therefore, to it is important for the cyclist to try and make themselves as conspicuous as possible.  Some ideas to help you to be seen include wearing bright yellow or white clothing.  Maintain reflectors on your bike.  Have a red light facing backwards.  It helps if this light is oscillating, meaning it changes patterns so that the eye is drawn to it.  If you are riding at dusk or at night, a headlight can also be of help.  The light will not be of much help for you to see, but it will help drivers to see you.

Sometimes no amount of lighting or reflective material will stop a car from being negligent and hitting a bike. Our hearts go out to the family of Officer William Phillips.  Officer Phillips had just finished his shift and was riding at night with colleagues when he was struck by Sue Ann Vanderbeck.  Ms. Vanderbeck states that she was distracted while driving her car.  Her distraction took her eyes away from the road, and Officer Phillips.  It is clear he was wearing all of the prescribed clothing, using the proper lighting and reflectors.  He could not, however, stop Ms. Vanderbeck from driving while distracted and hitting him.

We hope that Mrs. Phillips, and her son can find peace in what has happened to them.  We hope that the memories of a good father and husband are as precious as the life well lived.

Figures released to coincide with this week’s distracted driving summit in Washington suggest that 18% of those killed in 2009 in distracted driving car wrecks were using a cell phone. Nationwide, fatalities linked to distracted driving (which include activities other than wireless devices) actually declined by 6 percent last year. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood insists however, that the problem is still of epidemic proportions and that the figures don’t take into account police reports that don’t document the cause, if any, of the driver’s inattention.

According to LaHood, “Drivers can lose focus by using devices such as mobile phones and portable computers, or such activities as eating, talking and personal grooming.”

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, 995 persons were killed and 24,000 were injured on the roads in 2009 owing to cell phone use. Overall distracted driving regardless of kind was responsible for 16% (about 5,500) of all traffic fatalities. The findings also indicated that the teenage cohort had the greatest proportion of distracted drivers, but it was the 30-somethings who had the most auto fatalities from cell phone use specifically.

As part of the summit, LaHood also announced a new rulemaking to prohibit commercial truck drivers from texting while transporting hazardous materials. Commercial truckers are already generally prohibited from texting on the job.

As we noted in a previous blog entry, the cell phone distracts the driver regardless of the age or experience level;  if the driver is distracted, problems occur. Eights states have banned any wireless use other than hands-free operation but Indiana is not one of them.  So stay off the cell phone while driving.  Your family wants you home safe, and all the others human beings on the road want to get home safe to their families too.

This blog has previously underscored the risks posed by inexperienced teen drivers who sometimes have false bravado; they can pose road accident danger to themselves and other motorists and passengers.  With this in mind, the default presumption is that auto safety classes for new drivers seem like they would cut down on the number of traffic accidents. According to IndyStar.com, however, some state officials have concluded that driver’s ed paradoxically may be a waste of time:

Indiana lawmakers say the state’s driver education program isn’t working, citing a fractured system administered by three separate agencies and statistics that put the program’s usefulness in doubt.

Public affairs director Sarah Meyer of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles  told a group of state lawmakers last week that a study of current drivers under 18 showed those who took driver’s education had nearly four times the crashes that those who didn’t take the classes had.

A consolidation of the three-decades-0ld program in one agency with a uniform curriculum may be in the works–assuming Indiana elected officials can be convinced that driver’s ed in general is still worthwhile in the first place. Under current Indiana law, teens who take driver’s ed can get their licenses at age 16-1/2 while those don’t must wait until they are age 16 and nine months. It could be that the three-month window allows for a head-start on the statistical possibility of getting into a highway accident.

For drivers of all ages, please see our previous blog entries that provide some safe driving tips, including the most recent ones suggested by Allstate. As always, the Indiana personal injury lawyers at Young and Young strongly recommend that you should drive defensively and with a high degree of alertness at all times.

To facilitate what it calls an ongoing dialogue on safe driving, Allstate Insurance Co. recently released its annual America’s Best Drivers Report identifying the safest U.S. cities for motorists.

The report compiles collision-related property damage claims the insurer received from insured drivers in about 200 of America’s largest cities. Based on this data, Ft. Collins, Colorado was determined to be America’s safest city; Indianapolis was 44th on the list, so there appears to be some room for improvement in Hoosier driving habits. Rounding out the top five cities were Chattanooga, Boise, Colorado Springs, and Knoxville. Our nation’s capital was ranked as the worst city for driving safety on this list.

According to an Allstate official, “Human error is the biggest cause of accidents. It is vital for us to educate drivers across the country on the importance of being tolerant and attentive behind the wheel.”

The company has some general safe driving tips that may help to avoid a road accident regardless of what state or city in which you might reside:  stay alert and minimize distractions like cell phones, maintain awareness of road conditions especially in bad weather, don’t tailgate, avoid being either a perpetrator or victim of road rage, and service your car regularly.

You’ve probably seen the footage of New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig giving his poignant retirement speech in 1939. Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable, fatal brain disease which became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The field of traumatic brain injury is benefiting from a substantial amount of ongoing investigation conducted by medical experts. Boston University researchers, for example, are now suggesting that ALS may be concussion related. They apparently found a large amount of an abnormal protein called TDP-43 in the brain and spinal cord of two former football players and one boxer all of who suffered from ALS.  The common denominator among all three was a history of repeated blows to the head. It turns out that Gehrig, too, was apparently hospitalized three and four times with major concussions. It’s too early to tell if there is a direct link, so more research will be necessary, but one of the researchers told CNN the following:

Is there a possibility that Lou Gehrig did have this new disease instead of sporadic ALS? It is possible but we really will never know. What’s important to know is that Lou Gehrig, like so many athletes, went back to play over and over again with a repetitive head injury. We know that’s not good.

As a practical matter, most Hoosiers are more likely to “get their bell rung” in a car wreck or in slip-and-fall accidents than in competitive sports. If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident involving a blow to the head, see your doctor immediately, and follow the medical advice given. If the condition was the result of an injury caused by the negligence of someone else, legal representation is also important. Contact the experienced Indiana personal injury lawyers at Young & Young in Indianapolis for a private, confidential, and free consultation.