With so many possible injuries, life can be a dangerous playing field, but if you have the right attorney, it can make the game a little bit easier to play.
Recently, the Department of Health and Senior Services organized an advisory committee to analyze data on accidental and preventable injuries to produce the report. The report is called: Preventing Injury in New Jersey; Priorities for Action, and it “includes wide-ranging recommendations for reducing injuries in eight key areas in descending order by number of fatalities: motor vehicle accidents; unintentional poisonings; falls; fire and burns; sports, recreation and exercise; occupational injury; and unintentional childhood injuries.” In addition to the statistics, the report recommends steps that the government, schools, businesses, and individuals can take to improve prevention efforts and reduce the number of injuries in New Jersey each year.
Many of the recommendations seem simple, but are rarely enforced. It urges citizens to decrease accidental recreational injuries by using kneepads, helmets and safety glasses. Findings also report that the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the Attorney General and the Motor Vehicle Commission are collaborating towards $74 million dollars worth of pedestrian safety interventions, crosswalk and intersection improvements and creation of safe routes to school and mass transit. A simple act of wearing a seatbelt or helmet could save a life. It is shocking that ‘unintentional injury’ is the cause of 3,500 deaths and 60,000 injuries that require treatment in an Emergency Room or hospitalization.
Among the report’s other key findings:
* Motor vehicle crashes result in 770 deaths each year, and nearly as many people die from drug overdoses and poisonings
* Hundreds of New Jersey teenagers sustain concussions and other serious injuries while playing sports
* Falls cause nearly 200 deaths each year among seniors
* Approximately 150 New Jersey citizens die each year from fires and water-related drownings.
* Nearly 950 deaths are the result of homicide and suicide each year
The state is taking severe action to stop these common and preventable injuries from occurring. Recently, the Department of Health and Senior Services is working to prevent falls among the elderly through Project Healthy Bones, which is a 24-week education and exercise program for older residents at risk for osteoporosis. This simple weekly implementation could preserve the lives of elderly persons who are not sick, and should live longer lives than some actually do. Additionally, in New Jersey, teens under 17must wear a helmet when riding a bike. Furthermore, on August 1, 1998 this helmet law was extended to include roller and inline skates and skateboards.
If you knew the following statistics, would you take more care in your daily life and for the lives of others around you? It is simple changes in our daily lives that could prevent serious injury or death in New Jersey and across America. Use the information and guidelines that your lawmakers are enforcing, for your safety.
If you have been injured wrongfully, contact the New Jersey Personal Injury Lawyers – Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo PC