Why You Need Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists Coverage

  What is Uninsured Motorists Coverage? Uninsured motorists “UM” coverage protects you if you are injured by a driver with no insurance.   You may assume that other drivers will follow the law and will buy auto insurance just like you do.    However, this is not always the case.  There are many uninsured drivers on our roads.  Some drivers never buy auto insurance and take their chances on being ticketed. Some drivers have coverage but miss their monthly payment so the coverage lapses. In other cases, the owner of the car may have coverage, but may allow an excluded driver (usually a family member with a bad driving record) to drive the car, so there is no coverage. What you may not realize is that even if a driver does have auto insurance, if the driver does not “cooperate” with his insurance company, the insurance company can deny coverage. If you are injured by a driver with no insurance coverage and you do not have UM coverage, you may have no way to collect from the at- fault driver.   Typically, drivers with assets to protect have auto insurance.  It’s usually those drivers with nothing to lose who do not carry auto insurance. To protect yourself and your family from uninsured drivers, it’s important to carry uninsured motorists coverage, with limits high enough to protect you should the worst happen. What is Underinsured Motorists Coverage? Underinsured Motorists Coverage “UIM” coverage protects you in the event the at-fault driver does not have enough […]

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Essure Implant Litigation

The Ensure implant was marketed as a permanent birth control device by the Bayer company. More than 16,000 U.S. women are suing Bayer over the Essure implant device. The Food and Drug Administration has placed multiple restrictions on the Essure device following patient reports of pain, bleeding, allergic reactions and cases where the implant punctured the uterus or shifted out of place. After thousands of injury reports from women, and repeated safety restrictions by regulators, Bayer has announced that it will stop selling the Essure device in the U.S. Last year, Bayer stopped selling the device in Europe. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/07/20/sales-of-essure-birth-control-implant Injuries associated with Essure include: • Bleeding • Abdominal pain and cramping • Chronic pelvic pain • Implant migration • Perforation/tearing of the uterus or fallopian tubes • Back, joint or muscle pain • Muscle weakness • Unintended pregnancy, miscarriage, fetal death • Surgeries to treat the complications The FDA has posted Essure information on its website: https://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/productsandmedicalprocedures/implantsandprosthetics/essurepermanentbirthcontrol/ucm452254.htm What should you do if you are having problems caused by the Essure device? The Mayo Clinic recommends that you talk with your doctor about your options if you have persistent pain or other symptoms that you think might be related to the Essure device, and advises that removing the Essure device may require surgery, which poses certain health risks. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/contraceptive-implant/expert-answers/essure-discontinued/faq-20436674 If you or a loved one has been harmed by Essure implants, contact us. We may be able to help.

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Food Safety Alert: What you need to know about the current E.coli outbreak

What actions do you need to take to avoid an E.coli infection? The U.S. Center for Disease Control has advised that U.S. consumers not eat any romaine lettuce, and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell romaine lettuce, until more is learned about the outbreak. Also, drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored should be washed and sanitized. https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-11-18/index.html • Consumers who have any type of romaine lettuce in their home should not eat it and should throw it away, even if some of it was eaten and no one has gotten sick. • If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away. • Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator. • Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any romaine lettuce, including salads and salad mixes containing romaine. Take action if you have symptoms of an E. coli infection: • Talk to your healthcare provider • Write down what you ate in the week before you started to get sick • Report your illness to the health department • Assist public health investigators by answering their questions. How many have become ill from this E.coli outbreak? At least 32 people have become seriously ill due to the latest E. coli outbreak. Epidemiologic evidence from the United States and Canada indicates that romaine lettuce is a likely source […]

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Asleep at the Wheel — The Dangers of Driver Fatigue and how to Prevent it

How serious a problem is driver fatigue? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, every year about 100,000 police-reported crashes involve drowsy driving. These crashes result in more than 1,550 fatalities and 71,000 injuries. The real number may be much higher, however, as it is difficult to determine whether a driver was drowsy at the time of a crash. https://www.nsc.org/road-safety/safety-topics/fatigued-driving A study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimated that 328,000 drowsy driving crashes occur annually. That’s more than three times the police-reported number. The same study found that 109,000 of those drowsy driving crashes resulted in an injury and about 6,400 were fatal. The researchers suggest the prevalence of drowsy driving fatalities is more than 350% greater than reported. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.684.6347&rep=rep1&type=pdf How does fatigue affect drivers? • slower reaction time • impaired judgment and vision • decline in attention to important signs, road changes and the actions of other vehicles • decreased alertness, preventing you from seeing an obstacle and avoiding a crash • increased moodiness and aggressive behavior • problems with processing information and short-term memory o microsleeps—brief 2/3 second sleep episodes http://drowsydriving.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Key-Messages-and-Talking-Points.pdf When do crashes due to fatigue occur? Most drowsy driving crashes happen between midnight and 6:00 a.m., when the body’s need for sleep is greatest, and in the mid-afternoon (during the circadian dip). • The driver is alone and more likely to be male. Drivers who drive alone or have no one to help them watch for the signs of fatigue are at higher […]

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source http://www.whamandrogers.com/blog/asleep-wheel-dangers-driver-fatigue-prevent/

Why do I need to call a lawyer immediately after an accident?

1. A lawyer can help make sure important evidence is preserved. In many cases, there may be video recordings of the accident or other evidence that can be preserved, if the request is properly and timely made. 2. A lawyer will be on your side, when virtually no one is. The insurance adjuster is not paid to help you. The adjuster is paid to save the insurance company money. We have received countless calls from people who were tricked or lied to by adjusters. 3. A lawyer can put pressure on the insurance company to handle matters in a swift and expeditious manner. Insurance adjusters know they can’t pull the wool over an attorney’s eyes they way they can with those unfamiliar with the system. 4. A lawyer can help you get the proper medical care promptly. Many doctors will not treat patients who have been injured in an accident. This is because health insurance companies don’t always pay doctors promptly for treating accident victims. 5. If you do not have health insurance a lawyer can help you find doctors who will treat you while your case is pending. 6. A lawyer can help get the hospital to bill your health insurance. Often the hospital wants to avoid billing health insurance and instead files a hospital lien. The lien is filed by the hospital in an effort to make more money from treating you. 7. A lawyer can help getting the health insurance company to pay your accident related bills. […]

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source http://www.whamandrogers.com/blog/need-call-lawyer-immediately-accident/

Auto-Bike Collisions

From school kids riding on bike paths, to the avid bicyclists on the roads, there are a lot of bike riders in The Woodlands. Unfortunately, all too often, bike riders are struck by cars. Even wearing a helmet and other protective gear, a bike rider may suffer severe injuries if struck by a car. According to the NTSA, bicyclists accounted for 2.2 percent of all traffic deaths in 2016. Bicyclist deaths occur most often between 6 and 9 p.m. and in urban areas. The vast majority of bicyclists killed are male. The NTSA provides these pointers to avoid bike accidents: • Ride a bike that fits you—if it’s too big, it’s harder to control the bike. • Ride a bike that works—it really doesn’t matter how well you ride if the brakes don’t work. • Wear equipment to protect you and make you more visible to others, like a bike helmet, bright clothing (during the day), reflective gear, and a white front light and red rear light and reflectors on your bike (at night, or when visibility is poor). • Ride one per seat, with both hands on the handlebars, unless signaling a turn. • Carry all items in a backpack or strapped to the back of the bike. • Tuck and tie your shoe laces and pant legs so they don’t get caught in your bike chain. • Plan your route—if driving as a vehicle on the road, choose routes with less traffic and slower speeds. Your safest route […]

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How dangerous is distracted driving?

Distracted Driving Is a Factor in 15% of injury crashes 10% of fatal crashes and 15% of injury crashes in 2015 were distraction-affected. In 2015, there were 3,477 people killed and an estimated additional 391,000 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers. Cell phone use causes as much impairment as driving drunk People are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08%.    Cell phone users are 5.36 times more likely to get into an accident than undistracted drivers. https://archive.unews.utah.edu/news_releases/drivers-on-cell-phones-are-as-bad-as-drunks/ Texting while driving increases the risk of crashing by 23 times Text messaging increases the risk of crash or near-crash by 23 times.   Sending or reading a text message takes your eyes off the road for about 5 seconds, long enough to cover a football field while driving at 55 mph Texting and driving is 6 times more likely to get you in an accident than drunk driving. It takes an average of three seconds after a driver’s mind is taken off the road for any road accident to occur. Reading a text message while driving successfully distracts a driver for a minimum of five seconds each time. The average speed in the US is about 55 mph. Taking five seconds to read a text in this time means that the driver travels the length of a football field without looking at the road. When you text while driving, the time that you spend with your eyes off the road increases […]

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