Head trauma without signs of a concussion is deceptive and may be just as deadly as trauma that clearly indicates the presence of a concussion.

While it is a good thing that the National Football League (NFL) appears to be taking the issue of concussions seriously, one has to wonder, since they did know about the risks, why they did not take it seriously before now. The answer may involve the drive to win at any cost, risking player safety to achieve that goal. Money would also play a large part in the decision to keep fielding players who had their bells rung on a regular basis, which has something to do with the tough guy image.

Parents and adults who play sports need to be wary of the myth that concussions are what cause brain damage, and that if they avoid getting a concussion, they are ok. That is not the case. Head injuries, whether they result in concussions or not, should be feared for their consequences in the short and long-term, and it is up to parents, coaches, players and school sports administrators to do something about it. Kids and young adults need to be protected.

Witness the case of Owen Thomas, who was the captain of the University of Pennsylvania football team. He took his own life at the age of 21. What did his brain show when it was autopsied? It revealed extensive evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This is the kind of damage that was typically a precursor to death by suicide in hockey and football players as the brain impairment affected their behavior and caused early on-set dementia, among other things. What shocked the researchers was that Thomas had never been diagnosed as having had a concussion.

Then how did he come to have traumatic brain injury? Over the years, he sustained multiple and repetitive sub-concussive head injuries. He started playing football when he was an adolescent and continued into this late teens and early adult years until his suicide. What is the solution to repeated concussive head injuries? One suggestion is that kids younger than 14 should not play sports noted for head trauma issues, but that is not likely to happen any time soon.

Other suggestions are to use better equipment, hold less hard-hitting practices, impose limits on hitting, or institute penalties for helmet tackling or launching players into one another. Unfortunately, the recent history of hockey, football and soccer is filled with acceptable violence in the pursuit of a win and a good time for the crowds. The fact that the players are jeopardizing their health in a serious manner doesn’t seem to register with coaches, fans, parents or even the players themselves.

If you or your child has been involved in a situation involving head trauma, don’t second guess the outcome or the liability of the situation. Make a call to a qualified Austin personal injury lawyer and find out where you stand. The law relating to sports and injuries does involve negligence, and this is an issue an Austin personal injury lawyer can explain to you.

Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.

I was recently reading the book Out Of My Mind to my son.  It’s the story of a young girl who is brilliant, but who can’t communicate with others because she was born with cerebral palsy.  One of the most difficult “scenes” in the book is when  (SPOILER ALERT HERE), the young girl sees her little sister walk behind their car, but the girl can’t communicate this to her mother, who backs into the sister.

This is a scenario that scares me daily as I’m walking through parking lots with my kids.  Though I preach to them to be aware,  my kids don’t understand that the rear windows of most trucks, SUVs, and minivans are too high for their drivers to see any kids walking by.

This is a real problem throughout the country.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 228 people die and 17,000 are injured each year in backover accidents.  Well over half of those fatalities are in children, and seventy percent of those are backed over by a parent or close relative, with one-year-olds being the most hit. 

Fortunately, backup cameras can greatly help reduce the risk of backover accidents.  These cameras, which are now available in almost half of the 2012 new cars, allow drivers to see children and other objects that are behind them. These mirrors may also become more popular due to federal government regulations.  In  2008, then President Bush signed legislation that would require manufacturers to include that the cameras be required in new vehicles.  That requirement is expected to be issued by the end of the year.

In the meantime, keep an eye on your kids and an eye out for other kids to help decrease the risks of these tragedies.

 If you or a loved one has been involved in a backover accident, please feel free to call us.  Victims of backover accidents may make recoveries against the other driver, but may also have claims against uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance policies.

The more you look, the more the world of sports is becoming a dangerous place to play. Head trauma is a serious issue.

Just when you thought you had heard all there was about traumatic brain injury in football and hockey, you then find out this type of injury is prevalent in soccer. Players perform a move referred to as heading, which refers to using their head (sans protection), to redirect or stop a soccer ball. Soccer balls travel at very high speeds, and the force of impact on the skull tosses the brain around. The result? Concussion, also called traumatic brain injury.

While the cognitive impairment may be mild in the case of athletes heading the ball, if a string of these incidents were sustained over a period of time, the cumulative effect could be detrimental. Given the number of soccer players worldwide, this is an issue that bears investigation. Like football, the long-term effects of continually heading may not be known until later in a player’s career or if they donate their brains to science for study. For instance, renowned British footballer Jeffrey Astle, noted for his slamming headers, died of degenerative brain disease in 2002. His damaged brain showed the trademark signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

In a smart move to be proactive, rather than reactive, researchers have published an article about heading in the January 2012 issue of Neurosurgery, indicating caution is the better part of valor. Since many young children play this sport, it would make sense to urge them to refrain from heading the ball until they develop the correct neck strength and proper body control to head a ball properly. Despite knowing the right technique, this is not to say accidents will not happen, because they do.

In anticipation of the debate growing even more strident, many soccer clubs are considering headgear of some sort to absorb the shock of the ball aS it connects with the skull. Soccer balls today are not made of leather, which may lighten their impact as leather is noted to absorb water that creates a deadlier head hit.

Even though those who play sports are playing with the knowledge that they may be injured, there is a line that should not be crossed. That line is the teams fully informing all players of the potential risks of playing the game, including the chance they may suffer cognitive impairment and death from cumulative head hits. You may recall that 21 former National Football League players filed a class action lawsuit against the league for not telling them that they knew about the risks of repeated traumatic brain injuries.

Generally speaking, if negligence is involved in a sport, such as not informing players of all the risks, there may be a good case for filing a lawsuit with the assistance of an Austin personal injury lawyer. Not all cases are the same, and each one has its own set of facts that will determine how a lawsuit may proceed. It is the Austin personal injury lawyer’s job to advise you if you have a case, if it stands a chance of winning and how you may expect your case to develop as it heads toward a settlement or a jury verdict.

Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.

Generally, property damage claims are resolved fairly quickly and easily. But every now and then, you’ll get an issue where the you aren’t satisfied with the way the other driver’s insurance is handling your property damage claim. For example, you may not trust their repair estimate or you may not agree with their decision to total (or not total) your vehicle.

If you have property damage coverage on your car, the best way to deal with this is to go through your insurance company. At a minimum, you can have your insurance company send an adjuster out, and you can see if your company’s adjuster agrees with the other driver’s insurance company.

If they agree, then maybe you feel confident enough to proceed using the other driver’s insurance. But if they don’t agree (or you don’t have confidence in the other company), then you can make a claim on your own policy. Yes, you’ll be out your deductible. But when your insurance company tries to recover its payment from the other insurance company, your insurance company will also recover your deductible for you.

Last night, Fox 7 ran yet another story about the continued problem of Austin drivers texting and using cell phones in school zones.  This is a continued story and a continued risk to our kids.  And when I say “our kids” in this instance, I mean it.  My son’s elementary school  (my daughter has graduated to middle school) has become the poster-child for these stories.  I bet this is the 5th story in the last year or so featuring this problem that has focused on our school.

This is a problem that has to stop.  I know people feel the urge to see who sent that text, check that last email, or make that call that they’re thinking about.  But don’t do it.  Our children are too important to subject to those risks.

I’ve been griping about this for quite some time now.  And if you’re on my newsletter list, you know that I’ve decided to do something about it.  I’m joining up with people across the country to offer seminars on the dangers of distracted driving.  It’s time we stood up for the safety of our kids.

You can watch the news story below:

Cell Phone Law Loophole Puts Kids At Risk: MyFoxAUSTIN.com

Traumatic brain injury can be deadly. It certainly alters a person’s life.

This on-the-job injury case involved a railroad worker. John Doe (whose name has been changed to protect the victim) had worked for the Kansas City Southern Railway Company for a number of years when he was involved in an accident.
The fateful event happened in 2009 when Doe, a section foreman, and his crew were removing broken rail of a section of track. Suddenly, the boom of the crane struck the ball of the rail still loaded in the rack of a railway section truck. The impact rolled it over the forks on the rack and the rail dropped like a stone to the ground. On its way down, Doe was hit and sustained severe back, neck and head injuries.

From that day forward, Doe suffered unbelievable physical pain and suffering, lost wages, mental anguish, loss of current and future earnings, diminished earning capacity and enormous medical bills that he was unable to pay. Doe hopes that his case will be successful, and that he will be able to recover enough money to take care of himself for the future.
Cases like this are tricky and may also involve worker’s compensation. In some states, a worker is not able to sue his employer because he is being paid workers’ compensation. Since this varies state by state, it is something that needs to be checked with an Austin personal injury lawyer if an accident like this takes place in Texas.

Workers’ compensation is always an issue when workers are injured on the job, but each case is different, so never assume you do not have a case or that you cannot get compensation. The details of the case need to be discussed in depth with an experienced Austin personal injury lawyer. As things currently stand, Texas private employers may choose whether or not they will offer workers’ compensation insurance to their employees. Typically, the employer is mandated to tell the worker if they have coverage or not.

Workers’ compensation pays the medical bills and covers a portion of a worker’s lost wages if they are injured on the job or are affected by a work-related illness and the employer has coverage under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, Title 5, Subtitle A, Labor Code. It can also cover for vocational rehabilitation and retraining when an injury prevents a worker from going back to their normal job, and they need to learn a new position to be able to work with a longer-term injury or disability.

Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.

A dozen former National Football League players have filed a personal injury suit against the NFL and others for allegedly overusing the painkiller Toradol.  The lawsuit alleges that teams and trainers were regularly dispensing the medication, which made it difficult to know when players had sustained serious injuries, including concussions.  The emphasis is on concussions and the long-term effects of concussions on the league’s players.  The specific allegations are that the players have residual concussion symptoms, including anxiety, depression, memory loss, severe headaches, sleeplessness, and dizziness.

This story serves as a reminder for several lessons.  First, it is again a reminder that in sports there are many injuries that aren’t just accidents.  While some injuries are unavoidable, teams owe duties to players to take reasonable precautions to make sure the players are safe.  That means not overly medicating them, not forcing them to practice in unreasonably hot or dangerous conditions, etc.

Additionally, the story is a reminder about the danger of concussions.  I feel like I’m on a one-man crusade on this blog, but car wreck and other injury victims need to be on the lookout for symptoms of concussions.  They are sometimes difficult to diagnose, but they can have long-term health consequences.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a sports-related incident or have suffered a concussion in an accident caused by the negligence of others, please give us a call, and we’ll do our best to help you out.

A study released today found that the number of US pedestrians killed or badly injured while wearing headphones has almost tripled in the last six years.  Not surprisingly, most of the victims are teens or young adults.

More than half of the deaths involved pedestrians being run down by trains, and many involved incidents where the train or vehicle driver were sounding a horn trying to warn the pedestrian of the potential problem.

Some accidents happen in odd ways and end in tragedy. This reported case devastated a young man’s family.

The 26-year-old man killed in this accident was out riding his bicycle on a nice day. He was an experienced rider, but that did not help him on that fateful day. The man had nowhere else to go but under a fuel tanker to try and avoid an accident. He would have made it, had the tanker not run over him.

How did something like that happen? The man was riding his bike south in the northbound lanes on a busy avenue. Alongside him was an 18-wheeler from a local fuel company, also traveling south, just about parallel to the bike rider. The trucker suddenly turned into the man’s path as he went to enter a parking lot.

There was nothing the biker could do but try and stop. He did not succeed, and his bike slammed into the tanker, sliding under the truck. A wrongful death? Yes and the young man’s family filed a lawsuit asking for compensation for medical and funeral expenses, pain, suffering and the loss of companionship of their son.

Was there negligence involved in this case? Yes, the trucker turned into the man’s path without taking due care to check his mirrors. After all, he had just been riding side by side with the cyclist minutes before he was killed. Was there something going on in the truck’s cab? There may have been, and only an investigation will tell. The trucker may have been texting, talking on a cell phone or leaning over to pick up papers on the floor of the cab.

What is painfully clear is that the family left behind is beside themselves with grief. Their son just went for a bike ride. They did not expect that they would never see him alive again. Filing a wrongful death lawsuit is one way to bring closure and move forward with their lives. Often people think wrongful death lawsuits are about revenge. They are not. They are more often than not about a family wanting to make sure a similar incident does not happen to someone else.

The family’s pain and shock often translates into concern for the welfare of others, not their own financial gain. In many cases such as this, though, there is often insurance money on the table, and the trucking company would be insured. Working in partnership with an experienced Austin personal injury lawyer would assist the family in facing the challenges to come as their case makes its way through the courts.

Never hesitate to contact an Austin personal injury lawyer if you find yourself involved in a situation like this. You need to know your legal rights, what constitutes a wrongful death, how compensation is awarded, and what to expect while you are waiting for a judgment.

Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.

Recently, a family member was complaining about sending text messages using the keyboard on her new iPhone.

In an effort to help, I tried to show her a feature that allows you to speak your text message.

Her response was, “Great, now I can send texts while I’m driving.”

And my response was, “No! No! No!”

As a personal injury lawyer, I know too well the dangers of distracted driving.

Some of the distracted driving statistics are startling:

• At a minimum,  3,000 people per year die from distracted driving  (that’s equivalent to a regional jet crash every week).
• Almost 30% of car crashes are caused by cell phone use.
• Texting takes your eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds  (at 55 miles per hour, that’s like driving an entire football field blind-folded).
• Study after study finds texting while driving to be more dangerous than driving while intoxicated.

Those problems are getting worse —earlier this month, a government study found texting while driving had almost doubled this year.

Because of those dangers, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended in early December that each state ban all uses of cell phones while driving (except for emergency calls). 

I don’t think that proposal will go anywhere, but I hope it at least starts a conversation because we need a culture change.  This is an increasing problem and we all need to do our part. 

For most drivers, that means making their own change — a resolution to decrease their own distracted driving.  I’m going a step farther this year.  I’m joining up with personal injury lawyers from across the country who have pledged to help take this message into schools and to other groups of drivers.  Because if we’re going to reduce these dangers this year, we’ll all need to work together.