Saint Louis Personal Injury Law Blog

The song that begins with, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go,” doesn’t end with, “But we never arrived because Dad fell asleep at the wheel.” However, this doesn’t mean that you and other Missouri residents should discount the hazards of drowsy driving when you are preparing to visit family during the holidays, or at any other time.

Drowsy driving is as much of a safety concern as distracted driving and drunk driving. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caution that getting behind the wheel while fatigued can be as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. If you’re running on little sleep, your reaction time, attention span and ability to make smart decisions are compromised – just the same as if you were driving drunk.

Fall season means back to school, cooler weather and the start again of certain sports and extracurricular activities. It comes with fun holidays and harvest celebrations. There is much to look forward to.

However, like with anything else in life, fall also has its own hazards. Many of these affect school-aged children. Arm yourself with the knowledge of what they are and how to properly prepare your child to prevent the likelihood of an accident and injury occurring.

When you imagine a workplace injury, you may think of a broken bone or brain injury. However, one of the most common types of occupational injuries is a repetitive stress injury. A cumulative trauma disorder refers to damage to tendons, nerves and muscles due to repetitive motions.

Repetitive stress injuries often affect the wrists, hands, neck, shoulders, elbows and forearms. A few of the most common repetitive injuries are carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, bursitis and tennis elbow. Here are some workplace activities that may lead to this type of trauma.

It is virtually impossible to avoid sharing the road with commercial truckers these days, but that does not make doing so any less stressful. For many motorists, navigating around large trucks is anxiety-inducing, both because they can prove difficult to see around and because they pose a serious threat to smaller cars because of their more substantial size and weight.

While driving alongside semi-trucks can prove dangerous under even the best of circumstances, truckers who abuse alcohol or drugs while on the job can make sharing the road with them downright deadly. Regrettably, however, substance abuse is quite common among commercial truckers, many of whom abuse substances in an attempt to combat boredom or cover more miles.