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A new study, however, indicates that teenage girls are engaging in risky driving habits. Young women, in fact, were around twice as likely as young men to use electronic devices while driving, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The study also determined that females were 10 percent more likely to be observed engaging in other distracted driver behaviors, such as reaching for an object in the vehicle or eating or drinking.

LA car accident lawyer Mickey Fine, of the Law Offices of Mickey Fine, (Directions : Law Offices of Mickey Fine has represented seriously injured accident victims. An experienced car accident attorney, Fine has seen first-hand how devastating injuries can be to victims and their families.

Distracted driving has become an epidemic as more people use cell phones and other electronic devices. More than 3,000 highway deaths in 2010 were linked to distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It’s important for parents to talk with their teenagers about the dangers of using cell phones while driving or texting while driving.

Another study looking at gender and car accidents revealed that the number of young female drunk drivers is on the rise. In 2007, the risk of being involved in a drunk driving car accident was about the same for young female drinkers as it was for young male drinkers, according to the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In 1996, a male under 21 was four times as likely as an underage female to get into a fatal drunk driving car accident with a blood alcohol concentration of .1 percent, according to the study.

It’s not entirely clear why more young women are getting into drunk driving accidents, but they may be taking more chances on the road than they had in the past, according to researchers.

While teenagers may cause accidents due to their inexperience as drivers or because they have engaged in risky behavior behind the wheel, some young people can become injury victims through no fault of their own. If you were injured, or a loved one was injured or killed due to someone’s negligence, it’s important to speak with an experienced attorney who can protect your rights.

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The American Insurance Association and the Coalition for Medicare Secondary Payer reform both announced their support for the Medicare Secondary Payer and Workers’ Compensation Settlement Agreements Act of 2012, introduced last week by Representatives Dave Reichart (R-Wa.) and Mike Thompson (D-Ca.).

The legislation is aimed at resolving the delays in the review of workers’ compensation set-asides for Medicare.

A Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement (MSA) is an account that is created when a workers’ compensation case is settled to protect Medicare from paying for expenses that are related to the worker’s injuries. Therefore, if a worker has to receive surgery, the MSA would be used to pay for it, rather than Medicare benefits.

“(The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) takes too long to review proposed set-asides, fails to provide appropriate and consistent standards for determining amounts to be set aside, and provides no avenue to appeal CMS determinations,” Douglas Holmes, the coordinator of the Coalition for Medicare Secondary Payer Reform, said in a press release. “The process results in injured workers not receiving funds, additional costs for states and workers’ compensation payers, and additional liability for employers, insurance carriers, and attorneys. A legislative solution to this problem is needed.”

The coalition, which includes representatives for injured workers and insurance carriers, has been pushing for reform of this system for some time, and the Government Accountability Office released a report in March that included recommendations for improving these processes.

“In case after case, we hear of delays in approval, uncertainty of the amount to be reimbursed by injured workers, and changes in amounts to be set-aside after settlements have already been approved,” J.R. Boyd, the president of the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group, said in a press release.

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A new study examining the safety of young workers in the United States has yielded startling findings, says Massachusetts personal injury attorney Mark E. Salomone . According to statistics that appeared in HealthDay News, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health found that approximately 20,000 teen job-related injuries occurred in 2010, including 88 teen deaths due to workplace injuries at privately owned companies. Most businesses with three or more employees carry Worker’s Compensation coverage, which applies to young employees as well as adults.
Teen worker injuries and fatalities can be the due to a number of factors, including dangerous work environments, defective work equipment or poor training. Teenager job injuries have many causes, from construction site accidents and company car accidents to repetitive stress carpal tunnel pain and restaurant worker kitchen burns .
The study found that, out of all the types of work young people are hired to do, farming is the most hazardous. “From a fatality standpoint, farm work is the most dangerous occupation for kids,” said study author Carol Runyan in an University of Colorado news release. “In farm work, youths are working around heavy equipment, digging and cutting with sharp implements. There are deaths almost every year from young people suffocating in grain bins.”
Massachusetts personal injury attorney Mark E. Salomone understands that young workers are typically more vulnerable than adults, across all industries, and that it is vital for teen employees and their families to explore not only Workers’ Compensation rights but other damages they may be able to recover. “Even if your family receives the maximum amount of teen Workers’ compensation benefits,” says Salomone, “it may not be enough to cover all the expenses incurred as a result of your child’s injury. A third party-such as a manufacturer, contractor or someone else whose actions may have been careless-could also be liable for a young worker’s injuries.”
Child labor laws exist across the nation, though in some companies they are not fully implemented or may go unheeded altogether. “We don’t tend to think of child labor as a major issue in the U.S., but we should,” says Runyan. “Laws governing the employment of youth ages 14 to 17 in this country are often very lenient and, in the case of family farms, virtually non-existent.”

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Women often spend a lot of time driving their children to and from school, extracurricular activities like sports, and family activities.

Because they spend so much time on the road with such precious cargo, women often choose vehicles based on their safety rating and other perceived safety features. Yet new vehicle ratings reveal that safety information had been skewed for men, and that women and children may actually be at greater risk of serious injury from car accidents than previously thought.

Starting with 2011 models, the federal government began using a smaller “female” crash-test dummy for some safety tests, instead of the standard, average-sized “male” dummy. The result has been a lower safety rating for many vehicles – as much as two stars – to reflect the increased risk of serious injury for smaller passengers, such as women and children.

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