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Tag Archive for: Automobile Safety

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Building a Better Dummy

Check out this interesting article care of CBC News that discusses how the traditional design of crash test dummies may be the reason why it is more likely for a female to sustain serious to fatal injuries in an automobile collision and how “building a better dummy” may be the key to resolving this inequality.

CBC News:  Why life-saving improvements to car safety have benefited men more than women

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No You May NOT Wait in the Car

Have your children ever asked you if they could just wait in the car while you run into the bank, grocery store or post office?  Though it may seem like a short trip where kids would be safe, they may not be.

In keeping with our posts about summer health and safety, I thought I would touch on another very tragic, but preventable, circumstance surrounding cars and children.  It was the first very hot and humid day a few summers ago when I heard of the death of a two-year-old after his grandmother left him in the car.  She just forgot he was there and went about her day.  While it might seem inconceivable that this could happen to any caring and well-intentioned adult, I read an article recently that helped me to understand how possible this is.

Several years ago a mother in Calgary was returning to her job as a University Professor after a one-year maternity leave following the birth of her second child.  She was a well-educated and diligent mother that did everything she could to protect the safety of her children during pregnancy, at home, and in the community. With her return to work the family had to adopt a new routine.  She dropped her older child at day care and proceeded to take her daughter (11 months) to her new child care provider.  The mother and daughter were singing and laughing in the car when the child fell asleep.  The mother then spent the next several minutes putting together a very detailed mental plan of how she was going to get her child out of the car seat and into the day care without waking her.  Once she visualized that process, and understood how it would all work, her mind rapidly switched to thoughts about her first week back at work and all the things she needed to accomplish.  She arrived at work, went about her day, and realized when she came to her car to go home that her daughter was still in the car seat.

Her purpose of engaging in the interview and having the article published was to help people understand how this could happen and how it can be prevented.  For her, she believes that the process of “visualizing” the drop off of her daughter made her mind believe that it actually happened.  When her mind switched to thinking about work, it was convinced that her other responsibilities had been completed.  This is the power of visualization, and of a distracted mind.

But I feel the most important aspect of the article were the strategies for prevention.  The mother went on to have other children and talked openly about the steps she now takes to ensure she does not relive this tragedy.  She explained that she always makes sure she puts something in the back seat with her children.  Her purse, work bag, lunch. This requires her to enter the back seat of her car when getting out.  Or, the opposite could also work – put a diaper bag, toy or child backpack in the front seat to cue you to their presence.  This mother also said she has asked her child care providers to call her directly if her children are not dropped off on time, as expected.  Lastly, when putting her children in their car seat she puts on a bracelet that is kept in the seat.  She takes it off when getting them out. This serves as a visual cue, but has also become part of her new car seat routine that will reinforce a new behavior (put the bracelet back in the car seat when leaving the vehicle, making her access the seat).

According to WebMD “there is no safe amount of time to leave a child (or pet) in a car”.  The temperature inside a car can rise or fall exponentially faster than the temperature outside, as your car functions as a greenhouse.  Just get in your car on a hot day and try to breathe.  Preventing child death from being left in a car is possible, and parents need to be wary of new routines, changes in schedules, and the cognitive process of remembering multiple things.  And most of all, don’t be naïve enough to believe the self-fulfilling “this could never happen to me” phenomenon.  Any oversight, regardless of how significant, can happen to us all.

 

Summer Programming Note:

Summer vacation is here and we will be taking a break from our regular schedule.  We will be posting some of our popular seasonal blogs just once a week throughout the summer but will resume our regular three weekly posts in September, filled with new and exciting content including our popular O-Tip of Week series.

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Drugs or Driving? You Might Have to Choose

Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)

The Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) Blog recently posted this very interesting and informative article on the legalization of marijuana and how this may specifically impact the drivers of Ontario.  The proposed reforms to Impaired Driving Laws, as listed in the article, include:

For the first time, the Government of Canada has proposed prescribing limits to the amount of THC – an inebriating component of cannabis – detected in a person operating a motor vehicle. The Government is also proposing prohibiting any detectable levels of many other drugs while operating a motor vehicle.

The proposed changes include attempts to close loopholes in our current laws and providing for easier roadside testing by authorities, including:

  • allowing mandatory roadside saliva swab testing;
  • allowing blood tests taken by professionals on the scene who are not doctors;
  • allowing breathalyser testing of any driver (omitting to the current requirement for “reasonable suspicion” of impairment); and
  • changing the definition of impaired driving with blood alcohol levels over 80mg/100ml from “while operating a motor vehicle” to “within two hours of operating a motor vehicle” (an attempt to close legal loopholes where people claim to have drunk alcohol immediately before driving or immediately following an accident to account for an anticipated failed sobriety test).

People operating motor vehicles will be committing a criminal offence if they are found to have THC levels in their blood above 2ng/ml. Drivers with levels above 5mg/ml or levels above 2.5ng/ml combined with blood alcohol levels over 50mg/100ml will face more significant penalties.

The penalties are also generally going up, especially in the case of repeat offenders who may now be sentenced up to 10 years (up from the current five), and will now be eligible to be deemed “dangerous offenders” in appropriate circumstances.

So why is this so significant?  As an Occupational Therapist it is common for many of my clients to require the use of medication to manage their symptoms.  While most (or all) would love to be able to go without regular use of these drugs, it is typical for medications to be prescribed to help people manage initial and acute symptoms for things like sleep, depression, anxiety, pain, headaches, and spasms.  Often, that usage continues beyond the acute phase of recovery to help with the management of more chronic and relentless problems that don’t resolve in time.  It is no secret then that people with disabilities tend to be high consumers of medication.

More recently, as the benefits of medical marijuana become studied and well known, my clients are choosing to forgo the gut-wrenching and highly addictive narcotics for the milder but often effective marijuana option.  My clients that use medical marijuana report better sleep and more stability in their symptoms without the intense side-effects they experienced on other drugs. 

So my clients tend to use medication, some are switching to marijuana, but most concerning with this legislation change is that most of my clients are also drivers.  Very few actually don’t resume driving and in fact returning to driving is often one of their main objectives.  Driving provides freedom and convenience, and people who end up stranded at home tend to decompensate emotionally due to the isolation that comes from not being able to enter the community often and independently.  Sure, many places offer public transit options, but try having pain, reduced tolerances for activity, standing or sitting restrictions and then be expected to walk to, wait for, and then sit on a bus that has jerky starts and stops every few blocks.  Public transit is just not a great option for people that don’t tend to feel well.

I am all for the safety of Ontario drivers and I can appreciate how the laws in Ontario need to evolve with the introduction of new policies that can impact driving.  However, I am concerned that these changes unfairly target an already marginalized portion of our population without providing suitable alternatives to allow people to get around their community.  How will my clients who currently drive while medicated be able to continue to get around? 

Further, there is also a potential change to the mandatory reporting requirements for professionals around driving.  Currently, only doctors are required by law to report potentially unsafe drivers to the Ministry of Transportation.  There is talk that Occupational Therapists will also have this responsibility soon.  So, if I know that my client is taking narcotic medication and also drives to work daily, will I be required to report this?  If that is the case, then what about the doctor that prescribes the medication in the first place?  Is he going to give people the option of:  drugs or driving? 

Personally, I think the bigger problem on the roads is non-prescription related.  Drinking and texting seem to be causing more injuries and deaths than the use of properly prescribed and consumed medications.  I hope the lawmakers of Ontario are considering all the risks on the roads and working to develop solutions fair to all of us.

 

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Be Prepared on the Road

While driving is usually simply an adventure of fighting traffic to get from point A to point B, sometimes circumstances beyond our control can get in the way.  Weather conditions, breakdowns, accidents and more can leave you stranded at the side of the road.  As a driver it’s important to be prepared for these situations by having emergency items in your vehicle at all times.  Many kits can be purchased online and at local retailers, or you can create your own emergency car kit, but ensuring you have these basic items in your trunk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is There A Need For Speed?

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are involved in in motor vehicle accidents every year.  Many attribute accidents to weather conditions or distracted, impaired or dangerous driving, but what about speed?  Recently, BC has increased speed limits in an attempt to create safer highways, but many question whether this is a solution or a gateway to an even bigger problem?  Check out the following from Harris Law on this controversial decision and let us know:  Do you think increasing speed limits is a good idea?

Harris Law:  Could speed limits increase in Canada?

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Don’t Put Your Feet On the Dashboard

All passengers love to get comfortable on a long car ride.  I often see passengers in passing cars stretched out with their feet up on the dashboard.  Did you know this is a very dangerous thing to do?  Check out the following article which shows just how dangerous this can be.

She Was Just Putting Her Feet on the Dashboard — And It Was One of the Biggest Mistakes of Her Life