OBJECTIVE This study investigated the profile of drivers involved in automobile accidents attending a hospital emergency department (ED) in Catanzaro (Italy). METHODS Car drivers involved in automobile accidents who were registered for emergency care between May 2003 and February 2004 were included in the study. Demographics and details of the accident were collected immediately after admitta...

The wide use of automobile airbags has undoubtedly reduced the mortality and the incidence of serious injuries from motor vehicle accidents. However, automobile airbags appear to be associated with a variety of injuries including fatal injuries, ocular injuries, upper limb and chest injuries. Further improvements in airbag design together with education of the general public in their use should...

Automobile component malfunctions are typical causes of many on-road accidents. Proper fault diagnosis conducted on automobile engines helps to prevent accidents by providing early warnings. The instantaneous angular speed (IAS) method, which uses low-cost sensors, has proved useful in diagnosing combustion-related faults in engines. In this paper, we evaluated various types of faults that occu...

During the nineteenth century, the common law fashioned rules conditioning compensation for accidents on both causal agency and the fault of a party. This scheme of accident compensation has been under attack for nearly a century. Some of the battles have been fought within the common law itself; product liability emerged with Cardozo's opinion in MacPherson v. Buick Motor Co. 1 That decision h...

Removing accident liability through a no-fault system may only have minor effects on driver care, yet existing studies assessing whether no-fault auto insurance requirements increase accidents use fatal accidents as the primary outcome. In this paper we estimate the effect of no-fault on overall accident rates using detailed data from police accident reports in New Jersey, North Carolina, and U...

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common disorder in which the airway repetitively collapses during sleep; patients with sleep apnea are often inattentive and sleepy. This review discusses driving performance and automobile accidents in patients with sleep apnea. Finally, we discuss the effect of therapy upon driving performance and reported accidents in these subjects.

This installment in Family Practice Management’s series on ICD-10 documentation and coding will focus on the minor trauma family physicians tend to see in an office setting – knee injuries, wrist fractures, bruised fingers, etc. More complicated injuries seen in some rural practice settings, urgent care facilities, or emergency departments are beyond the scope of this article. Injuries are typi...

Routine drug testing of traffic fatalities has shown that about 21% of all victims have controlled, illegal substances in their body at the time of the incident. Although we cannot establish a relationship between drug levels and impairment of driving ability, the presence of these drugs in the body is per se evidence of an illegal act. This, with the potential that these drugs have for impairi...