Oklahoma City Personal Injury Blog

As part of Agriculture Safety Week, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has issued a number of safety tips to keep farmers and their families safe. Farming is one of the most dangerous industries in the country.

In 2009, 440 farmers and farm workers died in farm accidents. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that approximately 243 people are injured every day in farm accidents. 5 percent of these people are permanently injured.

What makes these statistics even more frightening is the knowledge that some of the people injured are children. Farming is a unique industry because it remains the only industry that regularly utilizes young workers and children.

Distracted driving has been a long standing problem. Some say it has been a factor in car wrecks for as long as there have been cars, however the rampant expansion use of cell phones while driving over the past 10 years has caused a significant increase in the number of distracted driving accidents in Oklahoma City.

Although some states, including Oklahoma, already have restrictions on the use of cell phones in cars, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) feels the laws, which limit either texting or the use of hand-held devices, are not tough enough. A devastating chain-reaction crash in Missouri in 2010 has prompted the safety agency to press for tighter measures.

When we think about car accidents, most of us default to the traditional causes - drunk driving, texting, distracted drivers, inexperienced teenagers, speeders and the like.

However, anyone who travels through rural America should be aware of a less common, but equally threatening danger - auto accidents caused by roving livestock. Cattle and other livestock are massive animals; colliding with them can be like hitting a brick wall.

Losing a loved one is devastating. Living with the knowledge that the death could have been prevented can be haunting. A recent Miami Herald story revealed one family's struggle to deal with their loss and get the state to take action to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Three years ago, an elderly woman with dementia drowned in a pond beside her assisted living facility after wandering from her room one night. The facility's administrators blamed the woman's senility for her death.

A state investigation would eventually reveal that the ultimate responsibility for the vulnerable woman's wrongful death was the assisted living facility. A series of lapses in security led to her demise.