DRIVING WHILE PREGNANT: CAR CRASH RISK SPIKES 42% IN SECOND TRIMESTER

Orginal Story: LATimes.com

Pregnancy is not without health risks, and now researchers from Canada have identified a new one: serious car crashes. This information greatly intrigued a Grand Rapids Car Accident Lawyer who defends many types of clients.

During the second trimester of pregnancy, a woman’s odds of being behind the wheel in a multi-vehicle accident that was bad enough to send her to a hospital emergency room were 42% greater than they were in the three years before she became pregnant, according to a study published Monday in CMAJ, the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal. However, by the third trimester, the risk was significantly lower than it was before pregnancy, and it fell even further in the first year after the women gave birth.

“It amounts to about a 1 in 50 statistical risk of the average women having a motor vehicle crash at some point during her pregnancy,” said Dr. Donald Redelmeier of the University of Toronto, who led the study. A Hackensack Car Accident Lawyer found this information extremely surprising.

The research team, from the University of Toronto and affiliated institutions, wondered whether the fatigue, distraction, nausea and other annoyances that accompany pregnancy might make women more vulnerable behind the wheel. They were particularly curious about the second trimester, a time when pregnant women often feel like their normal selves. As a result, they don’t change their behavior to account for the significant physiological changes happening in their bodies.

The researchers identified more than 500,000 women who gave birth in Ontario during a five-year period from 2006 to 2011. They combed through data from Ontario hospitals to see how often they got into serious car crashes during the three years before they became pregnant; during each trimester of their pregnancy; and for the first year after their babies were born.

The women in the study were not paragons of perfect driving during the baseline period. The researchers counted up a total of 6,922 crashes, which worked out to about 4.55 crashes per 1,000 women per year. That was more than double the population-wide average of roughly 2 crashes per 1,000 people per year. However, the researchers noted that the women in the study were relatively young, which helps explain their higher crash rate.

During the first month of the first trimester of pregnancy, the crash rate fell slightly to 4.33 crashes per 1,000 women, the researchers found. However, that difference was too small for the drop to be considered statistically significant. A Chicago Car Accident Attorney thought that women are often over cautious during this time, especially during first pregnancies.

But something had definitely changed by the first month of the second trimester. During that month, the women’s crash rate soared to 7.66 collisions per 1,000 women per year, according to the study. That was the most dangerous month for pregnant women behind the wheel. For the entire second trimester, the crash rate was 6.47 collisions per 1,000 women per year, which was 42% higher than during the baseline period.

Women from all walks of life became more vulnerable during this period, the researchers found. The increased crash risk was seen in all women regardless of age, socioeconomic status, whether their babies were born early, the gender of their babies and most other factors. Time of day, week and year also had no effect. The only characteristic that seemed to influence the crash rate in the second trimester was whether the women lived in urban or rural areas (it was higher for city drivers).
The safest month for all women turned out to be the last month of pregnancy. In those final weeks, the women tracked in the study had only 2.74 crashes per 1,000 women per year. And in the year after giving birth, the accident rate dropped even more, to 2.35 crashes per 1,000 women per year, the researchers reported.

The women saw no increase in car accident injuries when they were passengers in other people’s cars, or as pedestrians, according to the study.

Health experts have previously identified auto accidents as the leading cause of fetal death related to a trauma. However, the study did not include data on crashes that caused injuries serious enough to kill a fetus because women in those cases didn’t go on to give birth. As a result, the statistics probably underestimate the true risk of driving while pregnant, the study authors wrote. A Minneapolis Car Accident Lawyer would like to know this data.

“The message here is not to stop driving,” Redelmeier said in a video released by the Sunnybrook Research Institute, which is affiliated with the University of Toronto and the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (where Redelmeier is a staff physician). “The message is to start driving more carefully.”

He added that the pregnant women he cares for ask about the risks of flying planes, soaking in hot tubs and skating on Rollerblades. However, he said, “not once has a woman asked me about road safety despite it being the much larger, greater risk.”  A Nashville Car Accident Lawyer thought that this information should be shared with all women especially those who are pregnant.

Redelmeier’s previous research on automobile accidents has found that American drivers are more likely to crash on days when presidential elections are held.

First wrongful death lawsuit settled for Toyota

Story first appeared on USA Today

A Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman announced Thursday that the company has settled the first of hundreds of pending wrongful death or injury lawsuits, all filed as a result of unintended acceleration by Toyota vehicles.  A Grand Rapids Car Accident Lawyer is closely following these developments.

Toyota reached the agreement in the case brought by the family of Paul Van Alfen and Charlene Jones Lloyd, spokeswoman Celeste Migliore said. They were killed when their Toyota Camry slammed into a wall in Utah in 2010.

Migliore declined to disclose the financial terms.

Attorney Mark P. Robinson, who represents the nine plaintiffs named in the suit, did not reply to phone or email messages.  Tacoma Auto Accident Defense Lawyer firms have been monitoring these lawsuits.  Also, a Tacoma Wrongful Death Defense Lawyer has been reviewing them.

The remaining lawsuits are not affected by the settlement, Migliore said.

Toyota issued a statement saying that the company and its attorneys may decide to settle select cases, but "we will have a number of other opportunities to defend our product at trial."

"We sympathize with anyone in an accident involving one of our vehicles," the statement said, "however we continue to stand fully behind the safety and integrity of Toyota's Electronic Throttle Control System, which multiple independent evaluations have confirmed as safe."

The Los Angeles Times, which first reported the agreement Wednesday, said Toyota had also reached a settlement in another case brought by retired Los Angeles police officer Michael Houlf. The case was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and brought under California's lemon law for vehicles. The size of that settlement and details about that case were not immediately available.  In an Oklahoma City Wrongful Death Defense Lawyer firm these lawsuits and settlements are being reviewed.

Last month, Toyota agreed to a settlement worth more than $1 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits claiming economic losses Toyota owners suffered when the Japanese automaker recalled millions of vehicles. Hundreds more lawsuits involving wrongful death and injury remained.

The Van Alfen case was to be the first of those tried, and to serve as a bellwether for the rest. It had been set to go to trial in February.

In 2010, Toyota settled a previous wrongful death lawsuit for $10 million before the current cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.  A Salt Lake Auto Accident Defense Lawyer has been scrutinizing the suits brought forward.

In the earlier case, a California Highway Patrol officer and three of his family members were killed in suburban San Diego in 2009 after their car, a Toyota-built Lexus, reached speeds of more than 120 mph (193 kph), hit an SUV, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.  A Kansas City Wrongful Death Lawyer has been reviewing the details on this.

Investigators determined that a wrong-size floor mat trapped the accelerator and caused the crash.

That discovery spurred a series of recalls involving more than 14 million vehicles and a flood of lawsuits soon followed, with numerous complaints of accelerations in several models, and brake defects with the Prius hybrid.

Toyota has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and stuck accelerator pedals for the problems.  A Chicago Car Accident Lawyer firm is reviewing the lawsuits.  Meanwhile, a Boca Raton Wrongful Death Lawyer is monitoring the ongoing investigations.

In the accident that spawned the newly settled case, Van Alfen was driving the Camry on Interstate 80 near Wendover, Utah, on Nov. 5, 2010, when it suddenly accelerated, investigators said. Skid marks showed that Van Alfen tried to stop the vehicle as it exited Interstate 80, police said. The car went through a stop sign at the bottom of the ramp and through an intersection before hitting the wall.

Van Alfen and Lloyd, his son's fiancée, were killed. Van Alfen's wife and son were injured.

Based on statements from crash survivors and witnesses, the Utah Highway Patrol determined that the crash was the result of a stuck gas petal.