Posted on August 04, 2017 in Personal Injury

During the summertime, waterparks are an effective and fun way to beat the heat. However, they can also leave you with serious injuries.

Whether it is a slip-and-fall accident or a drowning, injuries and illnesses can occur at waterparks. So if you do suffer an injury at a waterpark,who can potentially be to blame?

The following are the common liable parties in waterpark injuries:

• Waterpark Owner - Similar to amusement parks, waterparks are required to provide a reasonable duty of care to their visitors. If an accident was caused by a defect or negligence, the waterpark owner may be held liable for the injuries caused.
• Waterpark Workers - Waterparks employ lifeguards, ride operators, food vendors, and maintenance workers, all of whom could potentially cause you to suffer an injury. While the waterpark could be held liable for an employee’s negligent actions if he or she was within his or her scope of work, an injured party can hold the employee liable for injuries caused by reckless, willful, or malicious acts of employees that were outside the scope of their employment.

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 Posted on June 10, 2017 in Personal Injury

Work Injuries a Leading Cause of Death and Injury in the United States

At Ivey Barnum & O’Mara, we have served more than a few victims of workplace accidents. As a result, we are well-acquainted with the pain and suffering they can cause. That’s why we’re spending thisyear’s National Safety Month honing in on workplace injuries and helping you avoid them.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, thousands of people die in workplace accidents every year. While not every workplace injury results in death, injuries on the job can result in lost production time, lost wages, and long-term physical, emotional,and financial harm to the employee, among other painful consequences.With so much at stake, you can’t afford to take the possibility of a workplace injury lightly. In order to help you keep yourself safe on the job, we’re here to help you better understand what workplace injuries are, how they happen, and how to handle them when they do happen.

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 Posted on May 17, 2017 in Personal Injury

This summer, many people will be opting for long road trips on their vacations.If you plan on taking an extended drive this summer, make sure you’re prepared by taking these safety precautions so that you and your loved ones aren't faced with a serious car accident.

Maintenance Your Car

Upkeep whatever vehicle you will be taking on the road this summer. It’ll be hotter than normal, so you don’t want to be caught on the side of the highway in the heat. Take your car for regular oil changes, battery checks, tune-ups, and tire rotations. Also, ensure you invest in a good roadside assistance service in case your car requires a tow.

Check Your Car for Recalls

One thing your mechanic may not do if you’re not taking it to the dealership is to check for product recalls. However, you can look forany potential problems with your car by visiting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) search tool to enter your vehicleidentification number (VIN). The website will identify any vehicle that has not been repaired as a part of a safety recall in the last 15 years.

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 Posted on May 09, 2017 in Personal Injury

It’s no secret riding motorcycles is one of the most dangerous forms of transportation. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motorcyclist deaths occurred 27 times more frequently than fatalities in other vehicles, based on 2014 crash data. Here are some of the most common reasons bikers get into so many accidents.

Lane Splitting

Lane splitting is what happens when a motorcycle drives between two lanes of stopped or slow-moving cars. While in many states, this is illegal,in other states it is a widely recognized as a standard practice. However,accidents can occur because the bike is in such close proximity to cars,which are larger and can cause more damage. Likewise, being in between two cars reduces the space motorcyclists have in which to maneuver. So,if a car starts to change lanes without realizing a bike is next to it,the rider has less room in which to avoid the oncoming car. This is mostly the result of the fact that car driver’s don’t anticipate any vehicle or motorcycle will be passing them in slowed traffic.

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 Posted on May 02, 2017 in Personal Injury

Now that the weather is warming up, more and more people will be flocking to the water to cool off during the hot summer days. At the same time, hospitals around the country will see an increase in swimming-related accidents. More alarmingly, there will also be unintentional drowning,which is the 5^th leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 2005 to2014, there were more than 3,000 unintentional drownings, and around 1in 5 people were children 14 years of age and younger.

Children are, of course, some of the most vulnerable to swimming accidents.If someone leaves a gate open near a pool, a curious toddler might venture out into the yard and accidentally fall into the water. Kids are also not particularly strong swimmers, especially the younger they are. Once they fall in, if no adult is there to take them out quickly enough, they could sustain permanent brain damage or even death from lack of oxygen.

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 Posted on April 27, 2017 in Personal Injury

Car accidents can be particularly disorienting and stressful. People never expect them to happen, and when they do, they may be completely blindsided by the events. Likewise, accidents can be dangerous and can also often cause our stress responses to increase. Our heart rates intensify, and our adrenaline levels rise, which is our bodies’ ways of preparing us for danger.That same response, however, can often numb us to the situation at hand.Without thinking about it, you could find yourself apologizing to another driver involved.

While this is a natural response, it may not do you any favors in the long run. You and the other driver might not know who caused the accident. In fact, both of you might have contributed some part to it. However, if other people witnessed the events and stopped to help you, all they might be seeing is you apologizing to the other driver. If a police officer later investigates the accident,he or she may take witness statements that place you at the scene apologizing to the other driver. The other driver’s insurance company may use this as evidence you actually were at fault in the incident.

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 Posted on April 18, 2017 in Personal Injury

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2017,there was a total of 999 car accident fatalities in the state New York alone. In fact, car accidents are one of the leading causes of death and injury in the United States.Part of the reason people carry car insurance is to avoid costly medical bills and car repairs in the event they do get into an auto accident.

All states require people to drive with car insurance to cover the cost of any injury and damages in case of an accident. New York is no different.If you’re caught driving without insurance in New York, it is considered a criminal offense. All New York drivers must have a policy with the following minimum coverage:

• Property damage - $10,000 per accident
• Basic personal injury protection - $50,000
• Bodily injury - $25,000 per person up to $50,000 per accident
• Uninsured motorist bodily injury - $25,000 per person up to $50,000per accident

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 Posted on April 12, 2017 in Personal Injury

Real-time ridesharing is a type of service that began being offered only a few short years ago.It’s a service that arranges one-time shared rides on short notice.Typically, this carpooling uses devices such as smartphones and GPS devices to find and take rides. Two of the most popular services include Uberand Lyft, which have both been growing in popularity.

While the process seems simple enough-picking a destination, ordering a ride, paying through the app, waiting for the driver-using a businesslike Uber and Lyft to find a ride presents its own complications. For example, if you were driving your own car, you would know that you are either insured or uninsured and know how much your policy limit is in case an accident occurs.

However, when getting into the car of a complete stranger, you trust that they meet all of the following criteria:

• They can drive well
• They can drive safely
• They have insurance to cover damages

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 Posted on April 03, 2017 in Personal Injury

According to the Mayo Clinic, whiplash is a kind of neck injury that results from a powerful, rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck. It creates a motion like the crack of the whip. In the majority of cases, it’sthe result of a rear-end auto accident; however, it can also occur in the wake of a sports accident, physical violence, or other trauma.

Symptoms of the injury can include neck pain, stiffness, tenderness in the upper back, fatigue, and headaches. Less common symptoms include problems with concentration and memory, inability to sleep well, irritability,and ringing in the ears. Long term complications, however, can include chronic neck pain.

Normally, people who experience whiplash can expect to recover completely after a few months. In other cases, people might experience chronic pain as the result of the injury even long after the accident occurred. People rarely can predict the outcome of how whiplash will heal, but generally,chronic pain is more likely when the initial symptoms include rapid onset of pain, headaches, severe neck pain, and pain that radiates to the arms.

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 Posted on March 28, 2017 in Personal Injury

In the summer of 2005, the recently married Jennifer Hagel Smith was informed her husband, George Smith, was missing. They were on their honeymoon trip,a Royal Caribbean cruise in the Aegean Sea. The night before, both Jennifer and George were enjoying themselves on the ship casino, drinking and gambling until it closed. The next morning, 16-year-old Emilie Rausch discovered a bloodstain on the lifeboat canopy. George was partying the night before with three other men, who later became suspects in the investigation.

Jennifer, too, was under suspicion for the disappearance of her husband,though she claimed to have no memory of the night before. She was found at 4:30 in the morning passed out in the hallway, a blackout that could explain her memory loss.

George’s parents brought in Ivey, Barnum & O'Mara, LLC’s Michael Jones to help them investigate the case and to see if he could provide more answers. He immediately got to work perusing the ship documents and interviewing the 4 men last seen with George. Two of them plead the 5^th, one had a foggy memory of the events, and the last was serving prison time in Florida for trafficking. The man in prison, Greg Rozenberg, was the most forthcoming out of any of the suspects. All of the men claimed to have ordered room service at the time of George’s disappearance,but the timeline of the events is still suspicious. They were the ones who supposedly put him to bed before going back to one of their rooms and ordering room service. However, neighbors of George heard a loud commotion in his cabin around that time, and the ship made no record of a large room service order by the 4 suspects.

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