Habitually looking down while holding your phone is correlated with neck and shoulder soreness. The more texting you do, the greater chances you are to establish neck and shoulder pain.

To relieve soreness and pressure, the University recommends limiting your texting to no more that 5 minutes at a time, lift head occasionally throughout the 5 minute duration and do some stretching by rolling your head from your left shoulder to the right shoulder.

Most importantly, do not text and drive, even for a second. This activity may not result in simple neck pain, it may cause an accident and cost you your life.

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If you have been injured in an accident in Wisconsin that has resulted in neck or shoulder pain, please be sure to contact an experienced Wisconsin Neck Injury Attorney.

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Street Survival mixes classroom instruction with actual driving lessons. Teens partner with certified program instructors to practice making emergency stops, controlling skidding, and focusing on the road rather than texting or talking on the cell phone.

Classroom instructors are actual local physics teachers and explain to the students the importance of limiting distractions and keeping their eyes on the road. Teens learn that a car traveling 60 mileas an hour can go the distance of a basketball court in 1 second! While many teens view driving as a right, the Street Survival program tries to get these young adults to understand that driving is one of the first major responsibilities of being grown-up.

Preliminary nationwide results with teens that have gone through the program (including those in the 2009 Milwaukee course) indicate that the information taught is making a difference with teen drivers, as seen by the decrease in driving incidents among graduates of the program. Graduate programs such as this have helped to reduce teen car accidents.

The next Milwaukee Street Survival course will be in September 2010. For more information on this program and to access a registration form, simply go to www.streetsurvival.org.

Information obtained from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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For more information on Protecting Teen Drivers from Milwaukee Car Accidents.

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According to a National Highway Traffic Administration study, distracted driving accounts for 80% of all car accidents.

The Top 7 most distracting tasks that should be avoided while driving include:

• Reaching for a moving object
• Reading and Writing
• Applying Makeup
• Dialing a Hand Held Cell Phone
• Eating, and Drinking
• Texting, Talking and Listening on a cell phone
• Adjusting the Radio or CD Player

The most common distraction that causes the most car accidents involves dropping one’s cell phone while trying to dial or text and then trying to pick it up while driving. Reaching for dropped objects is twice as dangerous as other non-driving tasks including reading and changing the radio channel.

Not paying attention when driving can result in relatively minor car accidents such as collisions in parking lots; however, many times it results in serious crashes causing extensive damages, injuries, and fatalities. The good news is that distracted driving is avoidable.

According to the Wisconsin AAA, the average driver makes approximately 200 driving decisions per mile. As the number of activities increase so so the chances of an accident. And today, more than ever, we have so many opportunities to be distracted, changing songs on your iPod, glancing at the DVD your child is watching, entering an address into your navigation system, and texting a friend. A study done by the Virgina Tech Transportation Institute found that for every 6 seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road.

To reduce distractions, plan ahead. Map out your route before entering the vehicle. Eat before you leave the house. Shut off your cell phone and put it out of site. Once in the car, make a point to concentrate on keeping your hands on the wheel.

Many individuals do not believe that anyone will know if they are texting or talking on the cell phone and happen to be in an accident. It is important to understand that even if you are in a car accident caused by another driver, the insurance company will request your phone bill, review it, and determine if you were talking or texting at the time of the accident. If you were injured in the accident and are pursuing the other driver’s insurance for medical bill payment, you may loose your case based on your phone records.

Now before the Wisconsin State Assembly is a bill that was passed by the Wisconsin Senate banning texting while driving. This ban is proposed to help keep our roads safe. To assist with getting this bill approved, visit legis.wi.gov to contact your local legislator and request the passage of this bill.

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For more information on Wisconsin Car Accidents or to speak with a Wisconsin Car Accident Attorney about an accident that involved distracted driving.

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Honda has confirmed at least 12 incidents with the faulty airbags. The recall applies to 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles. The company also is recalling the Honda Pilot and Acura CL, each produced in late 2002.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident in Wisconsin while driving a Honda vehicle listed in this recall, please get in contact with an experienced Wisconsin Car Accident Attorney.

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In January of this year, a national study came out reporting that 28% of all auto accidents were attributed to the use of cell phones by active drivers. This sparked national attention to the on-going discussions over hand held cell phone use while driving.

Now, a new national report released last week by the Insurance Institute for highway safety concludes that not only hand held cell phones are a driving distraction but hands-free cellphones are equally as distracting. Behavioral testing in laboratory settings indicates that hands-free cellphone conversations are just as distracting as the hand-held variety. Using actual crash statistics, results show there was no significant difference in the number of accidents in the District, California or New York in the months before and after hands-free laws went into effect.

Recently, commercial truck and bus drivers have been prohibited from texting, and last year President Obama required that federal employees refrain from texting while driving government vehicles as well as their own cars if they use government-issued phones or are on official business.

Many national advocacy and non-profit agencies are calling for a complete ban on any type of cell phone use while driving. This includes hand- held and hand-free cell phones. However, with approximately 81% of drivers acknowledging that they talk on cellphones while driving, and an estimated 812,000 drivers are using their phones at any given moment during daylight hours, any movement to ban all use while driving is likely to face opposition. Not to mention the difficulties that enforcement of the ban would bring.

For now, the best that everyone can do is promote awareness of the dangers and think twice before using any device while driving that can pose as a distraction.

For more information on Car Accidents

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