Car accidents may take only seconds, but pain and suffering can linger weeks after an accident and in some cases even years.  It is difficult to determine initially how long a victim can expect to be sore from their injuries sustained in a crash.  Many factors apply, such as the speed at which the accident took place, the size of the vehicles involved, if safety seatbelts were in use, if airbags were deployed, and where the vehicle was struck.

Statistics show that 70 percent of people who have been involved in a car accident and saw a doctor for treatment experienced pain for up to six weeks following the accident.  One can only imagine the length of time those who did not seek medical care experienced pain.

Fall is around the corner and that means it’s time for kids to head back to school. The first few months of a new school year can be chaotic for Nebraska families, especially if your children are headed to a new school. Amidst the chaos, accidents can occur if drivers or pedestrians are careless. All it takes is one mistake to place the lives of our youth at risk.

Did you know that between the years 2006 and 2015, 301 school-aged children died in school transportation-related crashes in the U.S.? Be prepared to remind your kids to prioritize safety when traveling to and from school. This is the best way to keep them safe and stop them from becoming another statistic.

On Monday evening in Omaha, NE, more than 800 friends, relatives, and fellow students attended a vigil at a Creighton University church to remember, pray, and comfort one another over the death of Joan R. Ocampo-Yambing, 19, a victim of a tragic car accident that occurred earlier that day.

The accident happened that morning on I-80, near the 84th Street underpass. The driver of a semitrailer truck failed to notice that traffic had slowed and proceeded to collide into a Prius. Afterwards, the semi collided with a Chrysler Sebring convertible and came to a rest on top of that vehicle. The Sebring collided one more time into a Freightliner semi. The two occupants of the Sebring were pinned underneath the truck that caused the initial impact but managed to be extracted and suffered minor to moderate injuries.

On Sunday, August 6th, a serious 3-vehicle crash occurred in Omaha on 99th Street and Blair High Road. The accident was reported at 2:11 PM and happened when a 2004 Ford Explorer Sport Trac ran a red light at the intersection and collided with the passenger rear door of a 2008 Honda Civic. As a result of the force of the crash, the Civic then collided with the front end of a 2012 Jeep Liberty that was waiting at the intersection.

An 8-year old Omaha boy, Ayden Jones, suffered from a potentially life-threatening head injury and remained in critical condition as of Monday, August 7th. The boy was a passenger in the Honda Civic. Three others were injured in the accident, including a relative of Ayden’s who was taken to the hospital with Ayden, treated, and later released. Two others were treated for minor injuries at nearby hospitals.

According to a recent article and interview conducted by USA Today, many Uber drivers are driving dangerously long shifts in order to make ends meet. Uber does not enforce any limits on how many hours per day or week their drivers can work since they’re independent contractors. In addition, the company often runs incentives that encourage drivers to work for long shifts on the weekends.

Multiple interviewed drivers and past drivers stated that it’s common for some drivers to work up to 16 hours a day due to low pay or tempting driving incentives. The hourly rates drivers receive depend largely on the area and hours they drive during, but it’s not uncommon for many drivers to receive $5-$8 an hour on average if they’re not in a major city.

Vehicle fires can be incredibly dangerous. When mixed with fuel and the electrical parts of a car, even a small engine fire can quickly combust into an explosion that may give the occupants of the vehicle little time to escape. Auto manufacturers are creating vehicles that are safer than ever, but car fires continue to be a risk due to the myriad of electrical parts and batteries modern vehicles boast.

According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 174,000 highway vehicle fires were reported in 2015. 445 fatalities resulted from those fires as well as 1,550 injuries. The reported property damage that resulted from these fires amounted to $1.2 million total. The number of reported vehicle fires in our nation has gone down substantially within the last 10 years, but as you can see, we have a long way to go still until our highways are free from the risk of dangerous car fires.

Four people were taken to the hospital in Omaha, NE on Thursday morning after a pickup truck ran a red light in the intersection of 156th and Maple. The accident occurred just before 10:30 am on Thursday, June 1, 2017. Police officers say that the driver of the red pickup truck was traveling eastbound on West Maple Road when they ran a red light and collided into a silver sedan that was making a left-hand turn onto 156th Street.

The force of the collision caused the two vehicles to crash into two other pickup trucks that were waiting at the traffic light. All four people in the sedan suffered from serious injuries. The injuries were later reported as non-life threatening, however. No one else in any of the other vehicles was injured.

According to U.S. and Nebraska laws, a driver is defined as intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol any time their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is over 0.08%. If you’re pulled over for any reason and are tested to have this much alcohol in your bloodstream, you can be given a DUI/DWI even if you were not pulled over due to any noticeable driving impairment.

It’s important to note, however, that even alcohol levels under 0.08% can cause a deadly car crash. Here are the facts you need to know regarding how much alcohol it takes to become impaired in Nebraska:

On April 25th, a major accident between a school bus and a passenger vehicle left 5 people in Omaha, Nebraska– including at least one student– injured. The accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon at 63rd Street and Ames Avenue. The bus was driving eastbound on Ames and turning left on to northbound 63rd when the 2007 Hyundai Sonata, traveling westbound, struck the school bus.

According to Sgt. Chuck Casey who arrived on-scene, the Sonata was traveling “at an extremely high rate of speed.” The crash occurred at 4:31 in the afternoon. According to witnesses who saw the accident, at least one victim appeared to be pinned under the vehicle after the crash. The Hyundai struck the bus near its rear wheel. Debris was strewn across the intersection. When police arrived, they reported that the Hyundai’s front half had been torn apart.

There’s no doubting the perils of the highway. Driving is a necessary, dangerous activity we take part in every day. There are ways to lessen the dangers, however. When a warrior or martial artist learns to defensively block incoming attacks, they learn how to protect themselves and their body from serious harm. Taking this same approach, a motorist can learn how to drive in a more defensive manner that may help them avoid devastating car accidents and keep their loved ones safe.

Driving defensively is a tactic that balances caution with the necessity to keep up with the flow of traffic. It revolves around learning how to anticipate circumstances and preemptively plan for situations that might occur which involve quick thinking. Essentially, it teaches us that thinking one step ahead of your opponent—whether that opponent is a drunk driver or a commercial truck driver who loses control of their vehicle—is the first step to coming out ahead.