Since about three decades ago, the number of drivers in their teens has been heading down fairly steadily. In the 1980s, well over half of all 17-year-olds had a license to drive a car, while over 40 percent of 16-year-olds also had a license to drive. Now, that number is down to around 50 percent and under 30 percent, respectively.
Teen driving is on the rise again
Sometimes, it is not the staff that is the problem
As our readers in the Bernalillo area know, our law office represents victims of nursing home abuse and neglect. The types of cases we handle include situations that are either outright criminal or that involve physical or other forms of abuse. We also handle cases in which, for whatever reason, a facility just does not give a patient the care he needs.
In other situations, our representation of a nursing home patient may be akin to a traditional medical malpractice case, such as when we seek compensation for prescription errors or errors involving medication. However, there are some occasions in which, in truth, a nursing home patient's injuries may not be the fault of the staff in any respect. For instance, unbeknownst to the staff, a drug or a medical device may have been designed defectively or have had some problem with the manufacturing process that makes it unsafe for patients.
Doctors must respond promptly to late-term emergencies
This blog has discussed how important it is for doctors to pay careful attention during labor and delivery and to take every reasonable step they can to ensure the health and well-being of both the mother and the child.
However, doctors and other professionals who are treating mothers and their unborn children during the pregnancy also must pay careful attention as mothers approach their big day. Should signs of an emergency situation arise during prenatal care, they must respond quickly.
A driver can be drunk and below .08
While the legal limit in New Mexico appears for the time being to be set at .08 blood alcohol content, there is some movement to reduce the common .08 limit to .05. In fact, a state that borders New Mexico will do just that in the upcoming days.
Other states have considered following suit, and a federal organization recommends the move.
Woman to be jailed for 90 days for pedestrian accident
An Albuquerque judge sentenced a young woman to jail for about three months for her role in a pedestrian accident that left a once athletic woman effectively paralyzed and without one of her legs. The accident happened while the victim was out walking her dog. The victim was on the sidewalk, but the young woman went off the road in her vehicle and slammed into the woman, dragging her a few feet before coming to a stop. The woman had the lower part of one of her legs severed in the car accident, and she also seems to have experienced some sort of nerve damage as well.
Initially, the driver of the vehicle did not receive a traffic citation. However, the local prosecuting attorney eventually convinced a grand jury to indict the woman for felony reckless driving, as there was some evidence that she was on her cellphone at the time of the accident. However, as the case continued to develop, it became more apparent that the driver had been distracted by her radio or something else in the car. She wound up entering a plea of guilty to criminal careless driving.
What causes bedsores?
When a person in New Mexico is in a nursing home, they are dependent on the people who care for them to do so promptly and thoroughly. When nursing home professionals neglect this duty and overlook even what seems like a small need or a minor chore, they can cause serious harm to their patients and the families who have entrusted their loved one's care to a nursing home.
For example, take the case of bedsores, also called pressure sores. These wounds are serious medical conditions. Not only are they painful, but they also can get infected, even to the point of causing septic shock in rare cases. Infections in turn cause more pain and can also cause permanent medical problems. They can hasten the death of a nursing home resident.
Overview of New Mexico's Dram Shop law
A previous post on this blog talked about a tragic accident that left two high school students from another part of New Mexico seriously injured. Police indicated that alcohol was likely a factor in the accident, and they also said that they thought some of the teens involved may have been served alcohol at a family's home even though they were obviously underage.
While police were considering criminal charges against the owners of the home, it is important to note that New Mexico law also imposes civil liability on people in the Albuquerque area who serve alcohol when those people go on to cause drunk driving accidents.
New Mexico car accident injuries two high schoolers
Two high school students were injured in an accident in Sunland Park, New Mexico. Police are blaming the crash on drunk driving. An investigation is ongoing as to the underage drivers involved in the accident were served alcohol at a house party.
The accident happened in Sunland Park between two vehicles at an intersection. Police say that the drivers of both vehicles were intoxicated when the crash occurred. One of the drivers, operating a Jeep, was not using his headlights and reportedly ran a stop sign. This caused a collision between the Jeep and a Mitsubishi Galant. The force of the impact caused the Jeep to roll over several times.
New Mexico is ground zero for hit-and-run epidemic
There have been a lot of positive developments with respect to traffic safety over the years. With new safety features in cars and, in some areas, better enforcement of traffic laws, residents of the Albuquerque area might think that the number of traffic fatalities, including fatalities among bicyclists and pedestrians, would be trending downward.
Unfortunately, as this blog has mentioned on previous occasions, the picture of road safety in this state is not all rosy. Across the nation, when it comes to traffic-related deaths, the low-water mark was 2014, four years ago. More specifically, one contributor to this puzzling and disappointing statistic is that the number of fatal hit-and-run accidents has been on the rise and is now that highest it has been in over 40 years, that is, since federal agencies started keeping track.
Heavier traffic Thanksgiving weekend could lead to car crashes
Thanksgiving weekend is commonly known as one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in New Mexico and across the nation. Many people find that traveling to visit relatives and friends is an important Thanksgiving tradition. However, because the Thanksgiving holiday season is relatively short when compared to the Christmas season, people must confine their travels to just a few days out of the year.
According to some experts, it seems that this Thanksgiving will be a particularly busy day on the nation's roads -- the busiest since the last great economic boom of 2005. Predictions are that over 54 million people across the country will travel at least 50 miles away from where they live this Thanksgiving, which marks an increase of just under 5 percent over last year.
