We know first hand that Michigan auto accidents change the lives of thousands of Michigan motorists every year.

Although some insurance industry publications try to minimize the impact, the truth about automobile accidents is disturbing:

- According to the National Safety Council, there are approximately 12 million automobile accidents every year.
- Approximately 2 million non-fatal, but disabling, injuries occur in automobile accidents every year.
- Approximately 10% of all automobile accident victims become disabled.
- Collisions occurring at speeds as low as 5 miles an hour can lead to significant cervical or neck injury . This is true even though there is little to no damage to the motor vehicles in a low speed collision.
- Even if an accident causes no broken bones, a victim may suffer “soft-tissue” injuries that last for months, or sometimes years. A study reported in the European Spine Journal indicated that 10% of accident victims experienced degenerative bone conditions during the first year after the auto accident .

If you or a loved one was seriously injured in a Michigan auto accident , talk with an experienced Michigan auto accident lawyer .

A recent report in the journal Pediatrics indicates that school bus related accidents – sometimes with cars / automobiles / semi-trucks – and sometimes single vehicle accients – send 17,000 American children to emergency rooms each year. This number is twice the previous estimate.

Crashes accounted for just 42% of th einjuries. Nearly 25% of the injuries occured when childrn were injured climbing aboard and getting off. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fewer than nine children on average are killed in school bus accidents each year.

A researcher at Columbus Children’s Hospital’s Center for Injury Research (in Ohio) suggests placing an adult on school buses and more frequent use of seat belts. Lap shoulder belts in all new school buses are a good idea, as well, according to many experts.

The report and the findings were included in U.S. News and World Report.

Auto accidents in Michigan cause serious injuries, and our office works hard to represent injury victims. We also represent Michigan children and their families with regard to Michigan school bus accident injuries.

Car accidents involving large trucks have increased dramatically over the past several years. One of the causes of this increase in auto accidents involving semi-trucks, according to many experts, is the Bush administration’s decision to reject tighter industry regulations on the trucking industry. The New York Times (on Sunday December 3, 2006) focused on the impact of this deregulation (or more accurately – the rejection of tighter trucking industry regulation).

The New York Times reported that “after intense lobbying by the politically powerful trucking industry, regulators…rejected proposals to tighten drivers’ hours and instead did the opposite, relaxing the rules on how long truckers could be on the road.” The result of this change in policy should not surprise anyone – the fatality rate for turck-related accidents remains double that involving only cars. The weakened rules have reversesd a course set by the Clinton administration and has resulted in the federal government repeatedly missing its own targets for reducing the death rate among motorists, according to the Times.

The specific regulations that have been attacked (or rejected) by regulators include reducing the rules on truckers’ work hourse, proposals for electronic monitoring to combat widespread cheating on drivers’ logs, and calls for more rigorous driver training. Clearly, automobile drivers and automobile passengers have been put at greater risk because of this reckless approach.

Our law firm represents car accident victims who have suffered serious injuries in accidents involving trucks. We know first-hand that these accidents, in many instances, could have been avoided with stronger regulation – lack of sleep or inadequate training is often times the primary cause of an accident involving a car or truck. Pedestrians are also the victims of this lack of government regulation.

Each case involving a car accident and a truck typically involves major injures given the speed, size and weight of the truck involved. Families are destroyed, lives are changed forever. It’s time for our government regulators to stand up and recognize this, too.