Top 10 Causes of Baltimore Auto Accidents

Top 10 Causes of Baltimore Auto Accidents

As my avid blog followers are aware, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with three Chiropractic clinics in Baltimore, MD. We recently opened our Southwest Baltimore clinic, located at 4600 Wilkens Avenue #102, Baltimore, MD 21229. As expected we’ve seen an increase in the number of auto accident injuries early in January. Typically these patients present with a constellation of symptoms including, but not limited to, headaches, neck pain, back pain, arm pain, and leg pain. While my staff and I are more than happy to take care of these patients when they present, it became clear to me that auto accident injuries were on the rise. As such, I wanted to take a look at the top 10 causes of Baltimore auto accidents. So here they are in no particular order:

1. Rain/Snow – The elements definitely play a factor in auto accidents. Posted driving speed limits are meant for “ideal” conditions and not compromised conditions. I know that in my clinics shortly after rain and/or snow we typically see an influx of new auto accident injury patients. Please slow down and allow for more time to brake during rainy or snowy conditions.

2. Aggressive Driving – Many people do not provide adequate distances between them and other motor vehicles. They speed aggressively, they slam their brakes, and they change lanes quickly without engaging a turn signal. Remember when you are on the road other drivers need to be able to predict your behavior so that they can drive safely around you.

3. Drunk Driving – While there is a legal limit for alcohol content, I personally think that even a single alcoholic drink impairs decision making, reaction times, and motor control. With the advent of uber and lyft and other ride share applications, we should really be focusing on decreasing the amount of impaired/drunk driving.

4. Distracted Driving – When was the last time you pulled up to a red light and looked next to you, only to see the other drivers looking down at their cell phones? I’m surprised that billboards event exist anymore because I routinely see other drivers staring down at their laps as they drive. I personally think that this is the biggest threat to safety on the roads right now.

5. Speeding – Just about every driver thinks that they are a “good driver” and that speed limits are merely suggestions. The truth is that speed limits exist to help to keep traffic moving and to help prevent catastrophic injuries. Speeding even 5-10 mph over the posted limit doesn’t actually get you to your location any faster, but they do significantly increase your risk of injury.

6. Inexperienced drivers – As anyone who has been a teenager or who has teenagers can attest, experience is an important teacher when it comes to driving. Auto insurance rates are typically higher for teenagers because they are more likely to take chances or make poor decisions behind the wheel.

7. Road Hazards – Potholes, uneven road surfaces, cracks, and road debris also present a hazard while driving. It can force cars to react abruptly, causing a chain reaction of accident avoidance maneuvers which is dangerous for every other car on the road. These should absolutely be reported to 311 so that the city/county can work on correcting them.

8. Construction Zones – Typically these construction zones are littered with road cones and they force traffic into new patterns that we aren’t expecting. If drivers carry too much speed or are driving while distracted, they can easily crash or harm construction workers. There’s a reason why the speeds and penalties are drastically different in these zones, so please be aware.

9. Animals – This is more for rural areas and less for urban ones. But even in Baltimore I’ve seen deer and foxes that make their way into the roadways. They are usually scared and disoriented. They can dart into and out of traffic suddenly and without warning, causing crashes and aggressive driving.

10. Human Error – Despite driver’s education, yearly reinforcement for insurance purposes, and daily driving simply put we are all human and we make mistakes. As long as humans are the main operators of motor vehicles, there will always be human error, and there will always be auto accidents and injuries.

These top 10 causes of auto accidents in Baltimore are by no means the only reasons for auto accidents. Fortunately my clinics are conveniently located throughout Baltimore to help with the acute rehabilitation of these injuries. If you, or someone you know, has been injured as a result of a Baltimore auto accident injury, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at 443 842 5500. We would be happy to help!

Dr. Gulitz

Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic Set to Open Third Location in Southwest Baltimore In January

It is with great excitement and anticipation that we are announcing the grand opening of our third location on January 02, 2018. Dr. Joshua Levin D.C. and the team of Advanced Correction Chiropractic & Physical Therapy will be joining the Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab family moving forward. Dr. Levin and his team have been providing great quality chiropractic care for headaches, neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, and leg pain for over ten years and now he brings that experience to the Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab family. The move helps to expand Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab’s reach into Southwest Baltimore, Catonsville, Arbutus, and Halethorpe.

For now Dr. Levin’s location will remain the same at 4600 Wilkens Avenue Suite 102, Baltimore, MD 21229. His phone number (410) 737-8193 and office hours will remain unchanged as well. Those hours are as follows:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 9a-12p ; 3p-6p
Tuesday: 3p-6p
Thursday: Closed
Saturday: By Appointment
Sunday: Closed

Here is a little bit about Dr. Joshua Levin D.C. for those who don’t yet know anything about him.

Dr. Levin is originally from Westminster, Maryland, to which he returned after achieving a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and a Doctorate in Chiropractic in 2002 from Logan Chiropractic College in St. Louis, MO. He was Valedictorian of his graduating class and received the Award of Excellence from the Department of Radiology at Logan. He also attended Towson University prior to his Chiropractic education in their pre-med program. Dr. Levin is a licensed Chiropractor with Physical Therapy privileges in the state of Maryland. He is a member of the Maryland Chiropractic Association and is on the Board of Directors.  Most recently, Dr. Levin has been certified as a Graston Technique provider which is a myofascial release technique utilized by professional sports therapy staffs.

Dr. Levin likes to focus on the treatment and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders resulting from auto or work injuries, sports injuries or just daily wear and tear. He treats patients of all ages from infants to seniors. He also likes to counsel his patients on the benefits of healthy eating, supplementation, regular exercise and stress reduction. In his office he utilizes several Chiropractic techniques, physical therapy, myofascial release and exercise rehab to get the results that our patients are looking for.

Dr. Levin decided to go into Chiropractic as a profession after being treated as a teenager for back pain resulting from sports injuries. He played competitive baseball and tennis, but recreationally also enjoyed golf, water skiing and snow skiing. As a teenager he began training in martial arts and achieved a level of Second Degree Black Belt in Hapkido. He has traveled around the United States and even Australia teaching self-defense to men, women and children as well as helping to train security and police professionals.

Dr. Levin co-founded Advanced Correction Chiropractic and Physical Therapy in 2003 and is now part of the Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab and Chiropractic family of offices. We service the Catonsville/Arbutus/Southwest Baltimore communities and get involved with the community whenever possible.

When he is not at work, Dr. Levin enjoys watching sports ( football, baseball and golf), cooking, and spending time with his amazing wife of 10 years Laise and their two children Alexander and Bellamy.

So please join me in extending a warm welcome to Dr. Levin and his team as they help to enhance the Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic family of offices in southwest Baltimore. Be on the look out for an updated website with updated contact information for this newest clinic. Good news for existing patients of Dr. Levin: nothing will change. He will still be in the office to continue to serve you as if nothing has changed. We look forward to working together for many years to come.

Dr. Gulitz

Auto Insurance Rates Are Rising – Why? And What Can We Do About It?

As my avid blog followers are already aware, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with two (soon to be three) Baltimore Chiropractic clinics. We routinely treat patients with predominately headaches, neck pain, and back pain. About half of these patients present to our offices due to acute Baltimore auto accident injuries. Many have whiplash symptoms and they require intervention to help get them back to pre-injury status. I spend my time on the internet looking for news and stories that impact these patients since they make up much of my practice. I stumbled across a story that confirms what we’ve all been experiencing – that auto insurance rates are rising. So it got me wondering why that was happening and what we can do to counteract the rising rates.

So let’s start at the beginning. Auto insurance rates are going up for a number of reasons. For one, the economy is good. More people have jobs compared to years ago, which means that by in large, more people are commuting to and from work. This leads to more road congestion and then more crashes. Auto insurers (AllState, StateFarm, Erie, etc.) need to charge increased premiums too offset having more claims and more money to pay out those claims. So they are passing that increase in their cost along to you and me, the consumers.

There’s also distracted driving. As we’ve discussed in past blog posts, people are busy texting, snapping, periscoping, facebooking, tweeting, selfie-ing and doing just about anything other than driving and focusing on the road. This leads to many more injuries due to distracted driving. This also causes insurance rates to go up. Keep in mind – human error has always been a contributor to fatal an non-fatal auto accidents in Baltimore and elsewhere, but having more electronics behind the wheel causes more distraction and ultimately does lead to more accidents.

Finally, the cost to repair people and cars have gone up. As cars have become more technologically advanced the cost to repair damaged vehicles has gone up. And you guessed it- those increases are being passed along to you, the consumer. Additionally, as injuries have gone up, so have the number of ambulance rides to the hospital, the number of x-rays, and the number of medical interventions/treatments that people require after an injury.

Like just about everything in life, the costs are going up. So what smart steps can we take to try and reduce our premiums (without unnecessarily diminishing our coverage)?

1. Use months such as December to re-quote your insurance. If you stick with one particular insurer they aren’t likely to get you the best rates year after year. Consider shopping your policy to see if you can save money. You’ll find that you typically can. Additionally, call your existing insurer and ask if you qualify for any discounts on your account. One such way to qualify for a discount is to bundle insurance. If you have your renters/home owner’s policy with the same insurer as your auto policy you can typically save a hefty percentage compared to having two separate policies.

2. If you drive a small amount (just to church and back) consider asking for a discount. Some carriers will discount your rate for lesser driving distances.

3. See if your insurer offers discounts for defensive driving courses. While these courses are boring and eat up typically a whole weekend, they do help to remind us of how we SHOULD be driving, and typically they come with a premium decrease for auto insurance.

4. Try and improve your credit – so much of your rate is credit dependent. If you are able to raise your credit score you can save lots of money a month for the same coverage. So pay down those credit cards and run your credit reports to make sure there are no false charges – your rates can improve significantly just by doing thos.

5. DO NOT cut coverage in an attempt to save money. All too often people just get “the cheapest thing available” in order to get their cars on the road. What they later find out is that their coverage limits are insufficient to handle a claim. Do not make this mistake. Speak to someone you trust and get a sense as to what policy limits would be beneficial to carry given your financial holdings and your car’s value.

Did you know that you can speak to both captive agents (those who work for one company) and non-captive agents (those that can quote multiple companies at once to get you the best price)? Don’t be afraid to ask us or your friends where they buy their insurance. You could be wasting money unnecessarily by spending too much.

If you, or someone you know, has been injured in a Baltimore auto accident, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic. We’ll be happy to have your back on the road to recovery.

Dr. Gulitz

Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Plans to Connect New York and DC in 30 Minutes

As my avid blog readers are already aware I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with two offices in Baltimore City. We treat patients with various types of neck and back pain with conservative measures to help ease their muscle and joint pain in hopes of rehabilitating them back to health. We see plenty of patients who have acute whiplash symptoms as a result of Baltimore auto accident injuries. I enjoy treating these patients because they really need our services, they generally respond quickly, and they are usually very appreciative for the care that they receive in our offices.

One of the things that I enjoy doing is researching trends in driving and transportation, not only because I have an interest in technology and science fiction, but because it directly impacts everyone we know. Elon Musk has long been an inspiration to me as an entrepreneur and as a human being. He has been asking himself tough questions and has been using the best and brightest in humanity to bring us such amazing companies as Tesla, Space X, Solar City and most recently the Boring Company, to only name a few.

Some members of my family still reside in New York just outside of New York City. As much as I enjoy seeing family and friends when I can get away, I loathe the traffic on I-95 and I am always looking for ways to speed up my trip. I’ve taken a bolt bus, I’ve driven, and I’ve taken the train. The bus was packed like sardines and the times to depart were inconvenient. Driving gives me the most control but costs the most when you factor in tolls and attention. At any given time the trip can take me as little as four hours or as many as six and a half. The train was probably my favorite way to commute with about a three hour commute during which I was able to watch movies on my ipad and catch up on email.

I was perusing my newsfeed a few weeks back and I came across a news report stating that Governor Larry Hogan had already given Elon Musk the proverbial thumbs up to create a series of underground hyperloop tubs connecting New York to Washington D.C. (with stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore). These tubes, or hyperloops, would utilize a low pressure system and would utilize magnets to “float” vessels down long paths. The decreased drag/resistance could theoretically get occupants up to speeds of nearly 700 mph and would cut the travel time from New York to DC to around 30 minutes!

The goal of the Boring Company (the company that Elon Musk owns that does the drilling) would be to reduce traffic congestion and to increase our ability to travel without as much dependence on fossil fuels. This hyperloop may also solve the problem with his Tesla cars that generally get 300-400 miles per “charge”.

I, for one, welcome this degree of technological advancement and I thank Governor Hogan for throwing his support behind the project. I suspect it will create jobs both short term and long term and I think it would help to lessen the time and financial burden that it exists to travel to New York from Baltimore. If it becomes a financially viable option for Baltimore citizens it will undoubtedly cut down on traffic congestion and the resulting auto accidents.

Would you ride the hyperloop? Would it be safe? Would we be pinned to our seats? Would we have bathroom access? Would we be able to walk around or would we be strapped in like a roller coaster? These are just some of the questions that I’d want to know before I ever agreed to get on board, but I am excited by the technology and am interested in seeing if the construction can get started soon.

Until then, if you, or someone you know has been injured as a result of a Baltimore auto accident, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500 we would be happy to get you back on the road to recovery!

Dr. Gulitz