Wayne County Personal Injury Law Blog

As an older adult living in Michigan, you have a higher risk of suffering a serious fall that leads to injury or death than your younger friends, family members and neighbors. While some of your enhanced fall risk comes from lifestyle-related factors, such as how physically fit you are, others arise because of environmental factors, and these can vary broadly based on where you live and where you spend most of your time.

According to the National Council on Aging, falls have become the most common cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among Americans 65 and older, with an older adult seeking care in an emergency room for fall-related injuries every 11 seconds. Altogether, more than 27,000 older adults die due to fall-related injuries each year, while another 800,000 undergo hospitalization due to falls on an annual basis. Just what types of factors make today’s older Americans fall and hurt themselves?

One of the most serious types of motor vehicle accidents is when large trucks collide with passenger vehicles. While semitrucks are vital to our economy, they are also inherently dangerous to people like you. Tractor-trailers can weigh 30 times as much as cars and take 40 percent more distance to stop. The vast majority of deaths in commercial truck accidents are occupants of passenger vehicles. 

Many truck collisions occur due to the negligence of truck drivers. Here are some dangerous factors and behaviors that may contribute to large truck wrecks.

Michigan car crashes happen all too often. If you become involved in one, there are several things you should – and should not – do immediately afterward. The most important thing you should do is stay where you are until law enforcement officers arrive and give you permission to leave. Leaving too soon could put you at risk for officers charging you with leaving the scene and/or hit-and-run, both of which are crimes.

The first thing you should do is determine if anyone is injured. If so, call 911 on your cellphone, give your location and request the operator to send immediate medical and law enforcement assistance. Do not attempt to move any injured or unconscious person unless a hazard exists such as a fire, a downed power line or rising flood waters. Moving an injured person can worsen their injuries, especially if the injuries are to their neck or back.

When you do not have a lot of money, you might get creative about paying bills. One payment that may fall by the wayside is car insurance. Yes, you need a car to get to work, but keeping a roof over your head and the heat on may be more important.

However, there are  certain grave risks to driving uninsured in no-fault states such as Michigan. In fact, these risks are so tremendous that they deserve a role when you consider how to allocate your bill payments.