Teenage Driving: Parents’ Role to Mold Them into Responsible Drivers

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Immaturity and inexperience—these are just two of the underlying reasons why teenage drivers get involved in road accidents. This is due to the fact that teenagers, in nature, have that strong fondness for being adventurous, which involves taking risks. Doing so, however, doesn’t always yield favorable results.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), some 1,963 young drivers between the ages of 15 to 20 were killed in motor vehicle accidents in 2010. Meanwhile, more than 187,000 others were injured that same year.

Surely, immaturity and inexperience are the basic reasons for these injuries and deaths. However, these two can be understood more deeply by looking at some factors.

Basically, distracted driving—outside distractions and use of mobile phones while driving, night driving, and failure to wear seatbelts are three of the most common factors for the injuries and deaths within the said age group.

In fact, in 2010, some 368 young drivers between 15 to 19 years old who were killed in motor vehicle crashes were found out to be distracted at the time of the accidents. Nighttime accidents, meanwhile, occur to them between 9 p.m. to midnight. In addition, three of five 16- to 20-year-old passengers were killed because of failure to use the seatbelt.

The statistics alone only show that teenage driving is a growing concern. Fortunately, this alarming situation has been addressed through the graduated driver licensing systems (GDL) and the implementation of state laws that ban the use of cellphones while driving for teenagers.

Aside from these key improvements, parents should also play a role in reducing such incidents. As it is, teenagers tend to bend the rules when it comes to driving. As such, parents must do a better job in reminding them of the consequences of their actions.

Apart from that, they should also serve as their “guiding light,” especially if they’re still learning to drive. That way, the young drivers learn to prioritize safety behind the wheel and to prepare themselves well in certain emergency situations while on the road.

Incidentally, legal experts, such as a Los Angeles car accident attorney who closely monitors teenage drivers, remind all drivers to be responsible enough behind the wheel, regardless of age.

Personal Injury: What “Duty of Care” Means

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The legal theory of negligence is what governs most personal injury cases. As it is, this concept is used to determine who is at fault in the accident; in other words, it is entirely dependent on who was doing what.

If you have been injured in a personal injury accident such as a vehicle accident or slip and fall, one of the key elements that you must take into account is if the liable party owed you a duty of care.

In determining liability through negligence, there must be proof that the liable party breached or violated his or her duty of care towards you and other people in a certain situation. If such thing happened and it resulted in injuries, then it is said that there is negligence involved.

To begin with, every person has a legal duty to act with reasonable care in every situation. A reasonable standard of care, to be exact, should come in play here, and usually depends on the type of situation and the level of responsibility that a person carries on that instance.

Take for example a person driving a car on a busy road. As any average person would, he or she should be driving with the same level of care. To do so, he or she should maintain speed like the other motorists who are with him or her on the road, and should make sound driving decisions such as changing lanes carefully and slowly stopping the vehicle as the traffic in-front of him or her stops.

Another example is a female property owner in-charge of a residential or commercial area. She owed a duty of care to other people who are visiting her property. However, the level of care that she owes them depends on who the visitor is. If she is running a store, the highest duty of care is owed towards her customers. Trespassers, on the other hand, are owed the lowest of duty of care.

The failure to uphold a duty of care towards another person may lead to a lawsuit if there is injury involved. Incidentally, if you were injured because of another person’s negligence, then you should retain a Los Angeles injury attorney to establish a claim and be compensated for your suffered damages.

Ready for Your Los Angeles Car Accident Case? If Not, Read This

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Car accident cases are among the most common forms of personal injury cases in the City of Angels. Every year, hundreds of car accident cases are being filed in Los Angeles because of road accidents here and there. The relatively high frequency of car accidents in the city is the main reason for the rise of personal injury cases not only in the city, but in the whole California.

If you are a Los Angeles driver or car owner, it is your duty to know the basics about personal injury law for you to effectively protect yourself in case you get involved in an auto accident.

What does the law say?

Under the existing tort laws in California, a driver who causes harm or injury to another individual because of his or her negligence could face legal charges. Additionally, car accident victims can press civil charges against the driver who caused them injuries for them to recover compensations. Such monetary relief could help them take care of the various expenses brought about by the accident.

What are the types of compensations one could recover?

Every car accident case is unique; hence, there is no exact answer to such question. However, the most common forms of personal injury damages that could be awarded to car accident victims include:

•    Payments for loss of income
•    Payments for future loss of income
•    Payments for hospitalization and medication expenses
•    Payments for pain and suffering
•    Payments for emotional anguish
•    Payments for mental distress

Can I settle a car accident case on my own?
There is no rule that requires accident victims to hire a lawyer for their case. However, expert legal practitioners strongly suggest to claimants to retain the services of an experienced and aggressive Los Angeles accident attorney for their case. A car accident lawyer can help them in speeding up the process of their claim so they can get the compensations they need in time.