Glenda Mitchell Law Firm

Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in Georgia and around the country according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, but they are not always treated in a timely manner because diagnosing serious head trauma can be difficult for even experienced neurologists and emergency room doctors. While the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury are often apparent within a matter of seconds, they can sometimes lurk undetected for several days.

This is especially concerning for medical professionals because timely treatment is crucial if patients are to recover fully from serious head injuries. According to neurologists, car accident victims should visit their doctors or an emergency room if they are slurring their words, bumping into walls or objects, or having difficulty gathering their thoughts or remembering things.

Researchers hope that a new device based on 3D printing technology could someday help car accidents victims in Georgia recover from spinal cord injuries, or SCIs. Engineers and medical researchers have created a silicone 3D-printed guide that supports specialized cells. The guide is designed to bridge the gap between living nerve cells above and below the injury site. It's hoped that this special platform may be able to restore certain neurological and muscle functions when it's surgically implanted.

Many of the nearly 20,000 new spinal cord injuries that occur each year in the United States involve damage sustained in motor vehicle accidents. The process researchers developed to help these SCI accident victims starts with any type of adult cells. Special bioengineering techniques then turn those cells into neuronal stem cells. 3D printing technology is then used to print both the silicone platform guide and the engineered cells. The purpose of the guide is to keep the cells alive so that they can become neurons.

Motor vehicle accident fatalities have increased sharply for two consecutive years in Georgia and around the country after years of gradual decline, and road safety experts say that a surge in distracted and drowsy driving is one of the primary reasons. Studies reveal that about one in five deadly crashes involves a drowsy driver, and the figures suggest that many of them may have already been dangerously fatigued when they got behind the wheel. According to data from the Translational Research and Injury Prevention Laboratory, motorists who sleep five or fewer hours each night are five times more likely to crash than drivers who sleep for seven or more hours.

Drivers can reduce their chances of being in a drowsy driving car accident by watching for signs of fatigue such as swerving or falling asleep momentarily while sitting in traffic or waiting at a red light. Motorists may drink coffee, open a window or turn their radios up to combat fatigue, but experts say that these tactics are largely ineffective. Road safety groups and government safety agencies agree that sleep is the only certain cure for drowsy driving.

Accidents involving big rigs in Georgia and the rest of the country may be more likely to happen if the truck drivers are far from a rest option. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Kentucky found that accidents were less likely to happen nearer truck stops, weigh stations with a place to rest or rest areas.

Researchers looked at thousands of crashes between 2005 and 2014 and selected the ones in which commercial truck drivers were at fault and fatigue was a factor. They found that on parkways and interstates in Kentucky that had at least one rest option, truck drivers were more than twice as likely to cause a crash related to fatigue if that rest option was 20 to 40 miles away. When the rest option was more than 40 miles away, truck drivers were almost seven times more likely to cause an accident.