As a dog bite attorney lawyer covering Freehold, Manalapan, Marlboro, Howell, Jackson, Paterson and all of central and northern New Jersey and know how physically painful and emotionally traumatizing a dog bite can be. The article cited above provides a lot of good information on how to handle dog bite attacks and how to care for the injury afterwards. Some important statistics cited are “In the US alone, nearly 5 million people are attacked by dogs per year, and 1,000 people go to emergency rooms per day as a result of a dog attack; many of them are children, and about half of them have been bitten in the face.” Dog attacks are a serious problem throughout the country and New Jersey is no different. I suggest reading the article several times so you can be well informed on what to do if a situation arises. I hope this information can be useful to your family and friends in helping to prevent dog bite attacks.

 Once again, I implore the public to be extra vigilant when shopping at these pharmacies. It is bad enough that we are forced to defend ourselves against prescription errors at the hands of pharmacists and their technicians; now simply going to the shelves for Tylenol or a can of Similac has become a potential health threat to us as well.

New Jersey has very busy roads during the summer months especially in Monmouth County. As an attorney representing many motor vehicle accident clients throughout the New Jersey and the Monmouth County area, I ask you to be extra careful driving this summer because the roads will get busy as people travel towards the shore to beat the summer heat. According to AARP, the likelihood of attendees being involved in an auto accident or receiving a traffic ticket should decrease by 15 percent following the completion of the two sessions. Being a Monmouth County and New Jersey injury lawyer I would recommend completing some of these courses to help improve driving safety and to help reduce those outrageously over priced New Jersey auto insurance rates.

State Police Deputy Superintendent of Operations Juan Mattos said, "Four of the seven fatal motor vehicle accidents on Memorial Day 2007 were alcohol related. This is a pointless waste of lives we will attempt to avoid by relentlessly pursuing intoxicated drivers." Superintendent Fuentes added "We can only do so much to encourage safe behavior. In the end, New Jersey's drivers must decide to act responsibly."

As a Monmouth County and New Jersey auto accident lawyer attorney, I have witnessed over the past decade the horrific shattering of lives far too often as the direct result of alcohol consumption while driving cars, trucks and motorcycles. Obviously, we should never ever drink and drive. More safety tips can be found at The American Society of Civil Engineers link and I hope this information will be useful and if applied may even help to reduce the number of traffic related fatalities and severe injuries.

As a New Jersey dog bite lawyer, I can say that many of my clients have been attacked by pit-bulls or mixed breeds that likely had some pit bull in them.  However, the attacks also occur from a multitude of breeds and mixed breeds. The leading studies also reinforce this data. 

It has been my experience that the more severe dog bite victims often endure severe puncture wounds, bone crushing or bone piercing injuries of the face, arms, head, legs or other body parts.  Unfortunately, often times it is not just the physical scarring that will endure but the emotional scarring that may have an even more detrimental permanent effect on the victim.    This may occur when the victim of a severe and brutal dog bite attack suffers emotional trauma in the form of post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. 

The victims of severe dog bite attacks experiencing PTSD may lose the ability to cope with normal everyday situations.  For example; the victim may avoid many social situations for fear that a dog could be around.  Even a small non threatening dog could produce a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety to someone suffering from PTSD as a result of a dog attack.    This can be extremely debilitating and life altering.  The most severely affected dog bite victims will actually lose their freedom to just go for a simple walk around their neighborhood for fear of experiencing the horror once again. They relive the attack in their minds and something that may have lasted only a few seconds will seem like the longest moments of their lives. These victims endure their own “Vietnam War”. The PTSD can produce severe changes in the victim’s personality that may destroy their relationships and can even lead to the total breakdown of the family unit. 

After a severe dog bite attack if the victim begins to experience any of the above symptoms, receiving a proper diagnosis by a competent mental health professional is extremely important.  While ongoing long term psychotherapy may work well for some individuals, for others it is just too stressful and anxiety producing to re-enter the darkest and scariest moments of his or her life.       

Keep an eye out for future posts on this blog where I plan on revealing the problems with the laws in the state of New Jersey as they relate to the procedures that are to be taken by the authorities after a dog bite attack. My opinions are based on my experiences in representing victims of dog bite attacks in places like Paterson and Freehold as well as counties such as Bergen, Monmouth, Middlesex, Passaic and Ocean Counties.   

According to the Federal Highway Authority about 2,500 New Jersey motorcyclists are involved in crashes each year. In 2006, in NJ there were 89 deaths which have more than doubled the 40 motorcycle deaths in 1991. As reported in a recent Glouster County Times article, Rowan University partnered with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and Virginia Tech to promulgate a study gathering data about motorcyclist habits that may help to reduce the incidence of motorcycle related fatalities and injuries.   Dr. Yusuf Mehta, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rowan said”Motorcyclists are vulnerable highway users, and we have been watching the number of motorcycle fatalities in our state increase. The goal is to understand the root cause of increasing motorcycle fatalities." Dr. Mehta said his students will look at police reports of motorcycle crashes and investigate several factors such as pavement conditions, street lighting, and visibility. The study will continue through June 2009 and is funded through a $199,000 grant from the State Department of Transportation.

Furthermore, motorcyclists need to become more aware of highway dangers and avoid making poor decisions. An example of a poor decision would be when there is heavy traffic on the roads so a motorcyclist decides they don’t want to wait in traffic so they drive in between lanes. Let’s say one of the cars decided to make a turn, that would put the motorcyclist in danger and at high speeds could result in a serious injury or even death. Motorcyclists do many things to cause their own danger. Other examples are speeding, making sharp turns, and driving too close to cars. Let’s make a better effort to become more aware of dangers and to make better choices.

While motorists make many mistakes on the road nothing is more deadly then a motorcyclist making a mistake. When driving a motorcycle you need to take extra precautions like driving the speed limit and always being aware of your surroundings.

Motorcycle fatalities have gone down statistically but what can we do to further reduce these incidents of serious motorcycle accidents in New Jersey? One idea is to further educate the public. May is now being recognized as the New Jersey Motorcycle Awareness Month in an effort to remind all motorcyclists and motorists to be responsible when sharing the road. Hopefully education will provide awareness of dangers on the road and what precautions drivers can take. Together we can lower the fatality numbers and make the road a safer place.

1. impaired drivers
2. text messaging while driving
3. big trucks that tailgate
4. aggressive driving
5. using a hand-held cell phone while driving.

New Jersey motorists surveyed also identified the top five driver distractions:
1. reading
2. using a PDA or Blackberry
3. personal grooming
4. talking on a cell phone
5. eating or drinking.

THAT'S RIGHT if you are injured while on a motorcycle or in a cab ride or on a bus or in a commercial vehicle, your medical bills will not be paid by available insurance.  Thus, it becomes even more important to make sure that you retain a personal injury attorney who is proficient in New Jersey motorcycle accident law, truck accident law or taxi related motor vehicle injury law.  This is because your attorney will seek compensation for your pain and suffering and for your outstanding medical bills from the at fault driver.  This area of law has become very complex and requires counsel that has extensive experience in representing persons injured in truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, taxi cab accidents and bus accidents.  This is particularly true in the case of victims of serious injuries because their mounting current and future medical debts with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or spinal cord injuries (SCI) could leave a family into life altering financial ruins. 

My clients are often times totally shocked when I explain to them the realty of the PIP laws in New Jersey.  They often ask how is this possible that I was riding in a taxi and the driver was in a major accident and his insurance company is not responsible for payment of my injury related medical bills? I tell them to thank the powerful insurance lobby who has done an amazing job blaming the "trial lawyers" like myself  for your exorbitant insurance rates while netting BILLIONS in record profits and shielding themselves by succeeding in having the New Jersey legislature pass laws exempting them from payment to their insured's or insured's immediate family member's medical providers where medical claims have become exempt from coverage.  

Representing clients throughout New Jersey including but not limited to Manalapan, Marlboro, Holmdel, Freehold, Millstone, Colts Neck, Howell, Old Bridge, Jackson, Red Bank, Hackensack, Saddle Brook, Paramus, Ridgewood, Teaneck, Demarest, Dumont, Pompton Plains, Glen Rock & Fairlawn the Law Offices of Scott D. Grossman, LLC brings extensive experience, individual attention and compassion for all of our clients.  Please visit our website for further information.       

But recently in Michigan, the group called American Bikers Aiming Toward Education (ABATE) authored a bill which was introduced to the State House which would allow motorcyclists to forego wearing a helmet when they ride as long as riders pay a $100 fee, are at least 21 years old, are licensed to operate a motorcycle for at least two years, have completed a motorcycle safety course and have insurance or security of $20,000 for first-party medical benefits in the event of an accident.

ABATE believes that wearing a helmet infringes on individual freedom of choice and the right to privacy. While that may be arguably true, if you look  at the other states that have repealed mandatory helmet laws, Florida, Kentucky and Louisiana, and you see the exponential rise in injuries and deaths to motorcyclists following the repeal of their helmet laws, you'd have to agree that the interest in keeping the public safe, with something so easy as wearing a helmet is extremely compelling. 

In a recent article in Insurance Journal about the Michigan law, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that in the three years after Florida's repeal of its mandatory helmet law in 2000, 933 motorcyclists were killed, an 81 percent increase.

Another study found that fatalities grew by more than 50 percent in Kentucky and 100 percent in Louisiana after those states struck down mandatory helmet laws.