Traumatic Brain Injury – What It Is, Why It Happens
Our brains are incredibly complex. The medical and scientific communities make frequent breakthroughs in understanding how it works, but researchers agree that much of the knowledge about our brains still remains a mystery. Although modern medicine makes great strides every day in diagnosing and treating brain injuries, there’s still a lot to understand about the…
Read MoreWhy is Thursday Trucking’s “Deadliest Day” of the Week?
Driver safety technology is evolving, and automakers and trucking companies are paying attention. By installing features like anti-lock brakes, lane drift warnings, blind spot detection, and other safety applications, cars and 18-wheelers should be getting safer. Unfortunately, fatalities continue to occur at an alarming rate on our nation’s roads and highways. In Oklahoma and throughout…
Read MoreCunningham & Mears Is a Proud Supporter of Wings
Our society does a pretty good job of providing educational opportunities to special needs children. But after they graduate high school many of these people are faced with a very difficult reality that there just aren’t many options for them for what they can do. Wings is an incredible organization that was founded with the goal of…
Read MoreOil Rig Explosion Injures Two in Wewoka
An oil rig caught fire and exploded in Wewoka, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City, and injured two workers. The explosion occurred on April 2 while workers were installing an oil and gas pumping unit near Highway 56. Two workers were injured in the accident. One was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in…
Read MoreConstruction Site Accidents and the Fatal Four
Here in Oklahoma, we depend on construction workers. We depend on them to build our homes, our shopping centers, office buildings, and medical centers. It’s a physically demanding job and, as a result, the number of on-the-job accidents tends to be higher than other industries. Recent OSHA data reveals that 21.4% of all on-the-job fatalities…
Read MoreThe Long-Term Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries
One of the most serious injuries a person can sustain is a spinal cord injury. This type of physical trauma can result in paraplegia, an inability to move the lower part of the body, or quadriplegia, which is the inability to move the body at all. With any spinal cord injury, even if the patient…
Read MoreCourt Ruling Allows Oil Workers to Sue Well Operators
Injured oil-field workers can sue well operators for injuries suffered on a drilling rig, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision on March 13, 2018. In December 2013, an oil field worker was hurt on a rig near El Reno and filed suit. That lawsuit led to a State Supreme Court ruling that…
Read MoreWhy Do Tractor Trailer Rollovers Occur?
Truck rollover accidents can be some of the most deadly crashes on the highway. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) states that an average of four cargo tank truck rollovers happen every day in the United States. And, many of these incidents are preventable, as they occur due to driver negligence or poor truck…
Read MoreOklahoma Oil Rig Explosion Claims the Lives of Five Workers
On Monday January 22, 2018, five workers died in an explosion on an oil drilling rig in Oklahoma, which is being considered the deadliest oil and gas accident since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 which claimed 11 lives. The oil rig that exploded is owned by Patterson-UTI, a Houston-bases drilling and hydraulic fracturing company…
Read MoreBill Requiring Children to Wear Seatbelts Passes Oklahoma House
As spring starts in earnest and more families take to the highways for vacations and road trips, the risk of car accidents goes up. You may not be aware that, currently in Oklahoma, children between the ages of eight and 13 can ride in the backs of vehicles without having to wear a seatbelt. A…
Read MoreTruck Drivers Scamming Hours of Service Safety Rules
When truck drivers are exhausted, yet continue to drive an 80,000-lb. machine along highways, everyone is put at risk – even the truckers themselves. The mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is to oversee the safety of our highways by governing commercial vehicles like trucks that transport good and busses that transport…
Read MoreThe Dangers of Oil and Gas Extraction: Avoiding Falls
Every workplace carries with it some degree of risk of injury for workers, but some industries, such as oil and gas extraction, are more dangerous than others. PBS News reports that, on average, one oil field worker dies about very six weeks on the job in the Bakken fields, which tend to get a lot…
Read MoreStruck-By Injuries in the Construction Industry See a Staggering 35% Increase Since 2010
Struck-by injuries are one of the most common injuries for construction workers. Throughout the United States at roughly 252,000 constructions sites, nearly 6.5 million people work on an average day. The fatal injury rate for the construction industry is one of the highest of all industries, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)…
Read MoreOpioid-Related Car Crashes See a Seven-fold Increase
A CBS News story reports that prescriptions for OxyContin (oxycodone), Vicoprofen (hydrocodone) and morphine have quadrupled from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 300 million in 2014. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, which is more than any year on record. One of…
Read MoreSports Waivers In Oklahoma
More adults than ever are choosing to participate in organized sports activities, placing themselves at a heightened risk of injury. Factors that contribute to adult sports injuries include age, lack of agility and poor conditioning. The likelihood of receiving damages for injuries suffered during a sports activity, however, may be limited by various factors — including the…
Read MoreDram Shop Liability In Oklahoma
According to recently published data, approximately one third of all road fatalities in Oklahoma involve drunk driving. If you are injured by a drunk driver in Oklahoma, you may be able to sue a number of parties, including the bar that served the drunk driver. Basis for server liability in Oklahoma Oklahoma’s Supreme Court has held that…
Read MoreCombating Insurance Company Bad Faith
Insurance companies have dedicated staffs of insurance adjustors, attorneys and accountants who are charged with minimizing your damage payments. In the best circumstances, the conduct of these parties can be inconvenient and time-consuming. In the worst circumstances, an insurance company’s tactics to deny coverage can cross the line into bad faith. What is insurance bad…
Read MoreInjured By A Government Employee
News 9 reported a total of 22 school bus accidents in 2012 in the Oklahoma City area. More than a third of these accidents were caused by driver negligence. If you are injured due to the negligence or fault of a city worker, such as a school bus driver or city tow truck operator, you may be…
Read MoreTexting And Driving: A Deadly Combination
Texting while driving is the top nationwide cause of teen road deaths in the United States. Most states ban all texting while driving. Oklahoma is among a small minority of states that have less restrictive bans. Impact of texting Researchers at Virginia Tech found that texting while driving virtually doubles the risk of crashes. This is because texting…
Read MoreClaiming Damages For Dog Bites
An Oklahoma City toddler was reported to be in critical condition after being bitten multiple times by a dog. Police believe that the child was taking food to the dog just before the bite and that the child was unattended at the time of the accident. Oklahoma’s dog bite law Oklahoma law imposes strict liability…
Read MoreWhat You Should Know About Motorcycle Helmets for Oklahoma City motorcyclist
According to a recent accident report, a motorcycle carrying two riders veered off the roadway and hit a cable barrier. Both riders were thrown from the motorcycle — neither was wearing a helmet. Between 2008 and 2010, 42 percent of all motorcyclists killed while riding were not wearing a helmet. Oklahoma’s helmet law Oklahoma is a partial helmet-law…
Read MoreMotorcycle Safety Tips for Oklahoma City motorcyclist
An Oklahoma City motorcyclist was killed while trying to exit on Broadway Extension toward Interstate 44. According to police, the victim was momentarily distracted when their motorcycle jumped a curb and rolled over several times before stopping, after which he was pronounced dead at the scene. Rider error is one of the most common causes of fatal…
Read MoreBrain Injuries — What to Look For
Brain injuries lead to approximately 50,000 U.S. deaths and 230,000 hospitalizations each year, and yield annual medical and rehabilitative costs of more than $76 billion. Nearly half of all brain injuries result from motor vehicle crashes. Another major source of brain injuries are contact sports, such as football. Need for medical advice Even seemingly minor brain injuries can…
Read MoreClaiming Damages For Food Poisoning In Oklahoma
A health reporter for Channel 9 News in Oklahoma City was nearly killed by food poisoning after she ate undercooked ground beef at a barbecue. Initial symptoms included terrible heartburn, which progressed to diarrhea, vomiting and disorientation. She was rushed to the hospital, where blood tests showed that her liver and kidneys had shut down…
Read MoreBicycle Laws and Negligence in Oklahoma
Thousands of Oklahomans use their bikes to get around, especially during pleasant weather days. Cycling is great exercise, fuel-efficient, and fun. However, biking can also be dangerous if cyclists and motorists don’t understand how (or simply refuse) to share the road. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 857 bicyclists lost their lives…
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