Drowsy Driving Causes 8 Times As Many Car Accidents As Previously Thought

Drowsy Driving Causes 8 Times As Many Car Accidents As Previously Thought

As my avid blog followers are already aware I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with three Baltimore Chiropractic clinics in Baltimore, MD. We treat patients with primarily acute musculoskeletal pain. Mainly, we see lots of patients with cervicogenic headaches, axial spine pain, neck pain, mid back pain, and lower back pain. While many of our patients are weekend warriors who strain their necks and backs going too “hard” on a weekend, we also see a lot of auto accident injury patients in our clinics. These patients typically present with whiplash symptoms that may include (but are not necessarily limited to) post-traumatic headaches, cervical (neck) sprain/strain injuries, thoracic spine (mid back) sprain/strain injuries, and lumbar spine (lower back) sprain/strain injuries. We also see lots of extremity injuries depending on the type of crash that these patients endure. We see shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, finger, hip, knee, ankle, foot, and toe injuries as well.

One of the things that we see this time of year is an increase in the number of injuries sustained in Baltimore auto accidents due to drowsy driving. With daylight savings time beginning last week on March 11, we end up having to “spring ahead” and we lose an hour of sleep. Although its great to have more daylight to enjoy following a work day, the first week or so following daylight savings is usually perilous as more and more Americans, particularly in Baltimore, are deprived an additional hour of sleep. This causes them to delay their reaction time on the road and to cause more motor vehicle collisions than would typically be expected.

Using camera footage from inside the vehicles of more than a thousand drivers AAA conducted a study to try and determine just how likely it is for drowsy driving to be the main culprit for car crashes. AAA concluded that drowsiness was a factor in approximately 9.5-10.8% of crashes, which is about eight times more common than was originally determined by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) which put the number at 1.4%. AAA suggests that the reason for the disparity in the research is likely due to the fact that police officers who arrive on the seen and help to determine causation can have a difficult or near impossible time trying to determine if drowsiness is a factor unless the driver admits it (which they rarely do).

While doctors generally suggest that adults of driving age sleep 6-8 hours a night, it is thought that more than 35% of drivers on the roads sleep less than that. With less sleep, cognition and reaction time is impaired, which can leads to more car crashes in Baltimore and across the U.S.

Contrary to popular belief, a cup of coffee, a blaring radio, or an open window is not enough to substantially alter a person’s degree of focus for any more than a few moments. The only remedy to drowsiness is sleep. AAA points out that we as a culture need to move away from the notion that its somehow “cool” to stay up late and get up early. Simply put, there’s no substitute for getting ample rest before getting behind the wheel.

AAA suggests that if you must drive you can try to take a short nap before hand. Even 30 minutes of rest can go a long way to enhancing your concentration while you are on the road. They also suggest trying to avoid driving during over night hours where your body is used to sleeping. AAA also suggests that we all get in the habit of “disengaging” from our electronic devices such as smart phones and TVs at least an hour before bed time to allow our bodies to relax which helps us get a more restful sleep.

If you, or someone you know, has been injured in a Baltimore auto accident and have developed headaches, neck pain, or back pain, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We’ll have your back on the road to recovery.

Dr. Gulitz

Dr. Gulitz Is a Featured Panel Speaker For Maryland Association For Justice

As my avid blog followers are already aware, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with three Baltimore chiropractic clinics in Baltimore, MD. We treat over one thousand new patients a year who deal with problems ranging from acute headaches, neck pain, and back pain to chronic headaches, neck pain, and back pain. The majority of our patients wake up with some stiffness and come in for some acute care. Other patients are traumatically injured as a result of either Baltimore auto accidents or Baltimore work-related injuries.

One of the problems that has been impacting everyone across Maryland and across the United States is the ubiquitous nature of opioid-based medication (percocet, vicodin, oxycodone, etc) to treat chronic pain. While once thought to be safe in small doses, we are seeing people becoming addicted to this medication at an alarming rate. This causes not only health problems, but community problems as people sometimes turn to heroin which is cheaper and more readily accessible. Further, there is an alarming mortality rate in those who become addicted. This is clearly a problem that is getting worse and we need to address how we limit patient’s access to these medications in the first place.

The Maryland Association For Justice is being proactive about this problem by holding a seminar series entitled “The Opioid Crisis And Alternatives To Treat Pain In Workers Compensation Cases.” They are hosting several panels with members ranging from attorneys who represent injured workers, to pain management physicians, and chiropractors to discuss each of our unique roles in handling opioid-dependent clients/patients.

The link to the panel discussion can be found here. Attorneys Dayna Kipnis (Kahn, Smith, & Collins) and Jason Shultz (Law Office of Jason Shultz) will moderate the discussion. The topics of discussion will be the practice of representing opioid-dependent clients, the opioid crisis and alternatives to treat pain, and the benefits of chiropractic treatment for treating soft tissue injuries.

Be sure to come by Hyatt Place Baltimore/Inner Harbor from 1:00-4:30 pm on Friday March 9, 2018 if you want to learn about how chiropractic care is more cost-effective and less dangerous than drugs or surgery, how patients who see chiropractors first generally have fewer spine surgeries, how chiropractic care is poised to help with the opioid epidemic, and how states such as Ohio are forcing injured worker’s to participate in 60 days of chiropractic care and physical therapy before they are allowed to consider surgery. It’s sure to be an interesting and eye-opening discussion.

If you, or someone you know, has been injured as a result of a work-related injury in Baltimore, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We’ve got your back on the road to recovery.

Dr. Gulitz

FDA Approves Blood Test To Measure Presence of Concussions

As my avid blog readers are already aware, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with three Baltimore chiropractic clinics in and around Baltimore, MD. We routinely treat patients with acute and chronic headaches, neck pain, and back pain. Many of our patients have suffered whiplash injuries as a result of Baltimore auto accident injuries. In these patients we routinely treat whiplash injuries such as acute post-traumatic headaches, cervical sprain/strain injuries, thoracic spine sprain/strain injuries, and lumbosacral spine sprain/strain injuries. On occasion we treat patients who have experienced concussions as well. While there is not much that we personally do for these patients with concussions, we nevertheless have a duty to record these symptoms and make appropriate referrals to neurologists whenever indicated.

Concussions are nothing more than damage to the soft tissue of the brain. These injuries occur with or without direct head trauma and they can produce a myriad of symptoms in the afflicted individual. The tricky part about concussions is that generally speaking, no two patients experience the same symptoms, and furthermore, no two patients experience the same onset and duration of symptoms. Just like snowflakes, no two concussions ever seem to be the same.

One of the issues that my clinics run into a lot when treating Baltimore auto accident patients is the idea of causality. In a nutshell, we need to be able to say that to a reasonable degree of medical probability the symptoms that a patient is presenting with to our clinic are present due to an automobile accident. Without being able to say that, insurance companies often deny payment for injured clients, claiming that it is possible that the injuries that my patients have was not caused by an auto accident.

Up until now the issue of concussions was a particularly tough one to handle med-legally. After all, it is POSSIBLE that a patient had experienced a concussion prior to an auto injury and then just presented to my clinic after a crash. However, just this week the FDA approved a blood test that can be used to diagnose a concussion, for the first time ever. This is a big deal for amateur and professional athletes everywhere, as well as for chiropractors such as myself that treat injury patients. Now we can produce specific test results that prove whether or not a concussion is present in a patient/athlete. That will help us treat these injuries better by knowing more for certain if they’ve been sustained in the first place.

The Banyan Brain Trauma indicator will function as a simple blood test. The test will be able to look for levels of UCH-L1 and GFAP proteins in the blood within 12 hours post-trauma. In clinical trials this test was able to predict the presence of an intra-cranial lesion 97.5 percent of the time and the absence of a lesion 99.6 percent of the time. While not perfect, these results will undoubtedly help cut down on unnecessary head CT scans, which are, after all, radioactive and can cause their own problems if done repeatedly.

Ultimately there is still a role for neurological evaluations and CT scans following concussion injuries. This blood test, however, will help us determine which injured patients clinically require the CT scans and which don’t which will cut down on unnecessary radiation exposure and unnecessary medical spending, both of which are fantastic for the patients and the community at large.

I am excited to see this blood test gain acceptance and become implemented into clinics across the nation. I am also excited to be able to say with near 100 percent certainty that a given patient did experience a concussion as a result of a Baltimore auto accident injury and not be questioned about it repeatedly by insurance companies looking to deny care for injured parties.

If you, or someone you know, has been injured as a result of a Baltimore auto accident, whether you have or have not suffered from a concussion, please contact Mid-Atlantic Spinal Rehab & Chiropractic at (443) 842-5500. We would be happy to help!

Dr. Gulitz

Washington State Implements DUI-E Laws. Should Maryland Follow?

As my avid blog readers are aware, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with three Baltimore chiropractic clinics in Baltimore, MD. My fellow chiropractors and I spend our time treating patients with mostly axial spine pain, including (but not limited to) headaches, neck pain and back pain. We do so without the use of drugs or surgery, through methods such as heat/ice, electric muscle stimulation, spinal traction, spinal manipulation/mobilization, and therapeutic exercises. Since the beginning of this year we have seen a sharp rise in the number of auto accident/whiplash patients that have been presenting to our chiropractic practice. I suspect that in large part distracted driving is to blame. I did some research to see what some other states are doing about this epidemic.

It turns out that Washington state last summer instituted a new law that looks to curb DUI-E. As you might expect this stands for “driving under the influence of electronics”. Washington state made it illegal for a vehicle operator to use a phone, tablet, laptop, or video game in a car, whether that car is in motion or not. That’s right – even if the driver is stopped at a red light it would be illegal to send a text message or glance at their phone. First time offenders are being charged fines of $136 and second time offenders are being charged fines of $235. These violations will appear on driving records, and reports of this misconduct will be sent to auto-insurers.

Researchers have discovered that the average text message takes about 10-15 seconds to complete. It is thought that the average motor vehicle traveling on a highway at 55 mph could easily travel the length of a football field while staring at a screen and not paying attention to operating the vehicle. With these high rates of speed and distraction, its no wonder why we are seeing higher speed collisions and worse injuries to vehicle occupants than ever before.

I, for one, am in favor of these strict penalties. I think they may actually help to curb some people’s “addiction” to distracted driving. Even if the financial penalties are stiff, it is a great way to dissuade drivers from unnecessarily taking risks on the road. It is unclear, however, whether or not Maryland will follow suit and enact similar laws locally. Let’s hope they do.

If you, or anyone you know, has been injured as a result of a Baltimore auto accident, whether or not it was the result of driving under the influence of electronics, 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

General Motors Sued Over Collision Between Autonomous Vehicle and Motorcycle

As my avid blog followers already know, I am a Baltimore Chiropractor with three Chiropractic/rehab clinics in Baltimore, MD. Due to the congested nature of the roads in and around Baltimore, we treat many Baltimore citizens who have suffered from auto accident injuries. Typically these patients present with headaches, neck pain, and back pain. Occasionally these pains radiate from their neck and go down their arm. These symptoms can include radiating pain and/or numbness, tingling, and weakness in the affected extremity. Additionally, we routinely treat patients with sciatica, as they similarly display pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness due to lower back injuries.

I like to skim the headlines for news articles that are likely to impact me and my business. Anytime I see something that relates to autonomous driving and auto accidents I stop in my tracks to read the article. A recent article has surfaced that I find interesting because it has many ramifications on the future of autonomous driving. In past blog posts I have posed the question as to who is ultimately financially responsible if an autonomous vehicle causes a crash? Would it be the manufacturer? The owner of the vehicle?

In what’s thought to be the first lawsuit of its kind, a motorcyclist in San Francisco is suing General Motors, manufacturer of the Chevy Cruise for injuries and pain and suffering stemming from a December 7th collision in which the motorcyclist alleges that the Chevy Cruise changed lanes and knocked the cyclist onto the ground, injuring his neck and shoulder. By the way, we routinely treat patients with neck and shoulder pain so these symptoms would not be shocking to me or the Chiropractors that I work with.

As is the case with any motor vehicle collision or car accident, there are two sides to the story. The motorcyclist reports that he was lane-splitting (riding between two lanes of traffic, which apparently is legal in California) when he reported that the Chevy Cruise left the center lane and attempted to merge into the left lane. He then reports that the Cruise veered back into the lane that he was in, striking him, and causing his motorcycle to wobble before finally hitting the ground and injuring him. It is thought that the speeds during the collision were relatively slow, somewhere between 12-17 mph. As my chiropractors and I are aware injuries can definitely occur even at relatively low rates of speed.

Another interesting twist to the article is that there was a human assistant driver behind the wheel of the Chevy Cruise at the time of the collision. He reportedly tried to take control of the vehicle to avoid impacting the motorcyclist but he was unable to. Will he also be named in the lawsuit? I think its too early to tell.

The police report alleges that the motorcyclist was at fault, stating that the Cruise attempted to merge left, aborted the merge, and then came back into its own lane. It further alleges that the motorcyclist made an unsafe lane change when conditions did not permit it.

First and foremost I hope that the motorcyclist, regardless of who is ultimately at fault for the accident, makes a complete recovery. The more interesting thing that remains to be seen over the next few months is the case-law component. That is, who will the courts find is ultimately responsible for injuries inflicted upon motorcyclists and car passengers when an autonomous vehicle is found to have caused injuries. As soon as I know the answer I’ll be sure to post an update to this blog post.

For now, 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 get you back on the road to recovery!

Dr. Gulitz