Assisted living is often sought as an alternative to a nursing home for elderly people that are largely independent, but still require some assistance. However, four in 10 residents in assisted living facilities suffer from dementia and require much higher levels of care than an assisted living facility can typically provide.

Although assisted living care facilities market their services to people with cognitive difficulties such as Alzheimer’s, many facilities across the country struggle to deliver the care needed to keep residents secure and provide the attention they need and, not surprisingly, many violations occur.

With dementia care the fastest-growing segment of assisted living, there are concerns that cannot be ignored. Many believe that these for-profit facilities do not staff to the level necessary to meet the needs of residents, which all too often can lead to neglect or even abuse of elderly residents in their care.

Contact An Experienced Assisted Care Facility Injury Attorney For Help

If your loved one has been injured by negligence or abused in an assisted living or nursing home setting, it is important to seek help. Contact the Iowa nursing home elder abuse and neglect personal injury attorneys Hemminger Law Firm for immediate assistance today at 515-283-2116.

Although car accidents are the leading cause of death in children ages 1 through 19 in the U.S., death rates from crashes have decreased over the last decade which many attribute to increased seat belt use, car seats for kids, safety improvements to vehicles, better road construction and growing awareness of the hazards of teen drunk driving.

However, recently, researches note a reversal in the downward trend and an annual increase in childhood car crash mortality rates between 2013 and 2016. Although the cause is still being evaluated, many believe that distracted or impaired driving may be to blame for the recent increase.

Cell phone use by far has resulted in more and more distracted driving among teens, putting drivers, passengers and other motorists and their passengers at significant risk. Add to that the changing attitudes about drugs related to the legalization of marijuana in many states or the scourge of opioid addiction among youth and more teens engage in drugged driving.

An editorial on a recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine comparing kids safety in a variety of countries, underscores the sad fact that a child or adolescent in the United States is 57 percent more likely to die by the age of 18 years than those in other wealthy nations and car accidents lead the list of causes.
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Although there has been progress, clearly there must be more effort to protect children across the country, particularly in the age of distracted drivers and impaired driving. If you or a family member has been injured in an Iowa motor vehicle accident contact Hemminger Law Firm for immediate assistance at 515-283-2116.

Drivers across Iowa still haven’t gotten the message that texting while driving is prohibited. Texting while driving can not only result in a costly ticket, but worse, a distracted driving car accident.

Since the law changed making texting while driving a primary offense in Iowa, the number of tickets issued to motorists texting while driving has increased dramatically, underscoring just how many drivers are not paying attention to the road.

Although the law does allow some activity on the phone behind the wheel such as using GPS or making a call, officers are pretty astute at spotting the difference and have seen a bounty of texting while driving offenses.

From weaving on the highway to pulling out phones at a traffic stops, officers have issued a steady stream of tickets for texting while driving that never seems to stop.

Ticketing distracted drivers is not without good reason. Robust texting while driving laws are becoming the norm across the country in response to a spike in distracted driving accidents, many of which result in injuries or fatalities.

Distracted driving accounts for nearly 25% of all motor vehicle fatalities and is the culprit behind 58 % of teen crashes, which not only poses a risk to the distracted driver but all motorists on the road and to pedestrians crossing the street.

As the number of citations increase, the hope is that texting while driving will become a thing of the past reducing the number of distracted driving accidents that occur every year. Putting phones away on the road will make the  journey safer for everyone.

Texting while driving is still a problem in Iowa.  If you have been injured in car accident by a distracted driver, contact the Des Moines personal injury attorneys of Hemminger Law Firm for help at 515-283-2116.