Toms River New Jersey Personal Injury Law Blog

Teens are just as liable as adults to engage in what one National Safety Council representative calls the Three D's: drugged, distracted and drowsy driving. In New Jersey and across the U.S., 3.6 million teens will be graduating from high school, which means graduation parties and more inexperienced drivers on the road.

Many high school students are no stranger to alcohol and drugs, both prescription drugs and illegal ones, and even those who do not partake of them likely know someone who does. Part of being a friend means offering a ride to those who become impaired by drugs or alcohol. Teens must not drive after taking any amount of these substances.

New Jersey residents who work in construction are likely interested in ways that AI is making construction safer. The statistics on construction safety are clear. Construction is one of the most dangerous fields to work in; it is estimated that every single day, 14 construction workers die on the job. Construction workers are five times more likely to die on the job as other workers, so it's understandable that site managers are interested in getting any help that they can in making the work site safer.

One way that AI is improving worker safety is by simplifying tasks before the workers start their job. One of the things that makes construction sites so risky is the number of unforeseen variables that are involved. The less work that construction workers have to do on the site, the less dangerous the site becomes. AI and robotics are working together to produce prefabricated construction. This is a process where many of the elements of construction are put together in a controlled factory. These prefabricated elements are then delivered to a construction site. As a result, a number of the would-be hazards on the construction site are completely eliminated. The human factor is taken out of the picture.

Federal data shows that more and more people are dying in large truck crashes in New Jersey and across the U.S. In 2017, a total of 4,102 people died in such accidents, marking a 28 percent increase from 2009. Rear-end collisions are among the most common types of accidents between large trucks and passenger vehicles, and they can also be among the most devastating.

This is why truck safety groups are advocating for a federal guideline that would require all heavy trucks to have forward collision warning and mitigation technology. The National Transportation Safety Board has made such a recommendation on at least 10 occasions since the 1990s to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but the latter has yet to propose any regulations. This has led to criticism of the NHTSA.

The widespread use of prescription opioids has been called an epidemic, and people in New Jersey could be at increased risk when drivers abuse these drugs. A study that looked at data about fatal two-car accidents found a relationship between opioid use and motor vehicle crashes. Researchers identified which drivers were considered responsible for causing accidents and if they had prescription opioids in their bodies. Among people labeled crash initiators, they had almost twice the likelihood of testing positive for opioids compared to drivers who were not responsible for crashes.

According to the study, opioids were associated with about 2 percent of fatal two-car wrecks in 1993. By 2016, this number had grown to 7.1 percent. The data sample for the study included 1,467 drivers who showed the presence of opioids in their systems. Hydrocodone was the most prevalent, showing up in 32 percent of these drivers. Morphine appeared in the systems of 27 percent of the positive-tested drivers, and oxycodone had been used by 19 percent.