Welcome to Stop The Damage. Hosted by the Brain Injury Association of NJ.

A brain injury can hap­pen to any­one at any­time. The dam­age can be long lasting…broken bones, cracked skulls, lives torn apart! Often it was from some­thing that could have been pre­vented. Our goal is to stop the damage!

Author Archive

After years of improv­ing crash sta­tis­tics, 2011 saw an increase in the num­ber of peo­ple killed on New Jersey’s road­ways. Accord­ing to State Police, seat­belt usage and dis­tracted dri­ving are two fac­tors which con­tribute to crashes and fatal­i­ties on our road­ways. Pedes­trian fatal­i­ties con­tinue to be an issue in New Jer­sey. Cer­tain areas across the state have higher rates for fatal­i­ties. Read more and check out how safe your com­mu­nity is. Click here

Dec
28

Red light Cameras…Live Footage

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There has been an ongo­ing debate about whether red light cam­eras improve safety on the roads or are sim­ply in place to bring money to municipalities.

A com­pany who places red light cam­eras through­out the county, has just released footage on You Tube from crashes and near misses of cars going through inter­sec­tions which have cam­eras.  Whether you agree with the use of these cam­eras or not–the footage is fascinating…and scary to watch.  See below and tell us what you think.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/12/nj_intersection_crashes_are_po.html

Aug
22

New Jersey Mourns 4 Teenagers

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A beau­ti­ful Sat­ur­day in August turned tragic for teens in Atlantic County who had just fin­ished play­ing a foot­ball game for their high school team. Details of the fatal crash are still not known, how­ever what we do know is that the fam­i­lies, friends and com­mu­nity will never be the same. See link for more infor­ma­tion http://usat.ly/rg2qI4.

As par­ents and teenagers we often think that some­thing like this will not hap­pen to us or our friends, but this is yet another reminder that life can change in an instant. Traf­fic crashes are the lead­ing cause of death and dis­abil­ity for teens. Par­ents, learn tips to keep your teen safe at www.NJteenDriving.com. Teens-see what other kids have to say at www.UGotBrains.com.

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Jul
01

Happy Fourth of July!!

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More peo­ple trav­el­ing and more par­ties to attend means more risk for mak­ing unsafe deci­sions. Don’t let your teens become a sta­tis­tic over the holiday!

In 2009, more than 3,000 youth died as a result of a motor vehi­cle crash and 350,000 were injured.
(Source: NHTSA)

Par­ents, what are your teens doing for the Fourth of July?
Be sure to:

  • Edu­cate your teens about the safety of using seat belts
  • Re-enforce GDL Laws
  • Mon­i­tor your teens behav­ior and ask questions
  • Encour­age your teens to have a voice when they feel they are in unsafe situations

Know the Grad­u­ated dri­ver lices­ning laws (GDL’s):
Know the laws and rein­force them with your teens that fol­low­ing the laws could save their lives.

Seat belt facts:
Check out sta­tis­tics and information.

Parent-teen Con­tracts:
Develop a pos­i­tive rela­tion­ship with your teen by talk­ing about the dri­vnig rules and hav­ing them com­mit by sign­ing a con­tract. The con­tracts will give you the oppor­tu­nity set the stan­dards and your teens will under­stand that dri­ving is a priv­i­lege that should be earned.

Orig­i­nally appeared on Under Your Influ­ence.

May
27

The Bikes are Back in Town

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Sunny skies and long sum­mer days are back. But with the return of this sea­son also comes the return of avid motor­cy­clists to New Jer­sey roadways.

a row of motorcycles As we can all attest, rid­ers are every­where. In this state alone, there are about 300,000. And, this num­ber could increase as gas prices con­tinue to power up motor­cy­cle pop­u­lar­ity.
With rid­ing sea­son in full swing, we need to be extra vig­i­lant of each other. In fact, New Jer­sey is urg­ing all of us (both motor­cy­clists and four-wheeled dri­vers!) to safely share the road.

Last year, 67 peo­ple were involved in fatal motor­cy­cle crashes in New Jer­sey. Since May is Motor­cy­cle Safety Aware­ness Month, it’s a good time to be aware of other vehi­cles around us.

For rid­ers, it’s impor­tant to use every means pos­si­ble to ensure a safe, injury-free rid­ing sea­son. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded to wear hel­mets, gloves, and pro­tec­tive cloth­ing to min­i­mize injury… or worse, pre­vent death. It’s also a good idea to ride in groups with friends when­ever pos­si­ble. As we know, there is safety in numbers.

Are you a new rider? Has it been a while since you’ve rid­den a motor­cy­cle? Con­sider tak­ing a “refresher” course through the Motor­cy­cle Safety Foun­da­tion. There are other resources and tools worth check­ing out before you get back on your bike. A lit­tle edu­ca­tion and some friendly reminders could go a long way.

Motorists have respon­si­bil­i­ties, too. We must get in the habit of look­ing out for motor­cy­cles. Though they’re harder to see than other vehi­cles, try to antic­i­pate their maneu­vers. Rid­ers often change lane posi­tions to respond to road con­di­tions, weather or other fac­tors. Also, allow ample space when fol­low­ing a motor­cy­cle – give them a full car length as you would any other vehicle.

So, before you head out on the road, be sure to do your part to make our roads safe. Together, we can make dri­ving safer for everyone.

 

See Also:

Turns out NJ dri­vers have another dis­trac­tion to con­tend with while driving…bears!

The “Exit 8” Bear, a black bear that was spot­ted in a tree near the exit, had to be tran­quil­ized and removed because dri­vers on the turn­pike were dis­tracted by the sight.

Dis­tracted dri­ving is trend that poses a grow­ing dan­ger.  Nearly 5,500 peo­ple died in 2009 in crashes involv­ing a dis­tracted dri­ver and almost 450,000 were injured.  Dri­vers under the age of 20 make up the age group with the great­est pro­por­tion of dis­tracted dri­vers.  Do you want to help put an end to this type of behav­ior?  Here’s your chance:

What is Dis­tracted Driving?

There are three main types of dis­trac­tion:

  • Visual – tak­ing your eyes off the road
  • Man­ual – tak­ing your hands off the wheel
  • Cog­ni­tive – tak­ing your mind off what you’re doing

Add bear gaz­ing to the fol­low­ing list of dri­ving dis­trac­tions to avoid:

  • Tun­ing a radio, CD player or ipod
  • Apply­ing makeup or per­sonal grooming
  • Read­ing
  • Tend­ing to chil­dren or pets
  • Eat­ing and drinking
  • Pro­gram­ming a GPS
  • Using a cell phone

Your pri­mary respon­si­bil­ity as a dri­ver is to oper­ate your vehi­cle safely! Com­mon sense and per­sonal respon­si­bil­ity are a major part of the solu­tion.  It’s up to each and every per­son to make sure they “Put it Down” and pay atten­tion to the road.  The risks are sim­ply too high!

There are almost 400,000 peo­ple who are licensed to drive motor­cy­cles in the State of New Jer­sey and 5.5 mil­lion peo­ple who can legally drive cars. Add those two num­bers together and you have the mak­ings for some very busy roadways.

And as the days get warmer, more motor­cy­cle rid­ers will no doubt be out on the road­ways. I know it is some­times dif­fi­cult for motorists to see motor­cy­clists, but sim­ple pre­cau­tions can be taken to avoid any mishaps. Before switch­ing lanes, remem­ber to dou­ble check your side and rearview mir­rors to ensure that every­thing is clear. And before mak­ing a turn at an inter­sec­tion, give an extra look to each side just to make sure noth­ing is com­ing your way.

There’s no deny­ing motor­cy­cle rid­ers are more vul­ner­a­ble in their vehi­cle of choice than those who drive cars or trucks. It’s sim­ply the design of the machin­ery. But that’s where the dif­fer­ence stops because peo­ple who ride motor­cy­cles are no dif­fer­ent than you and me. They are our fathers, our moth­ers, our sons and our daughters.

May is national Motor­cy­cle Safety Aware­ness Month and I would like to remind all motorists who travel our road­ways to be alert to the nearly 160,000 motor­cy­cles that are reg­is­tered in New Jer­sey. So this month, and every day, let’s all safely share the road with motorcycles.

For more infor­ma­tion about shar­ing the road with motor­cy­cles and about the NJ Motor Vehi­cle Commission’s Motor­cy­cle Safety Edu­ca­tion Pro­gram, please visit our web­site at njridesafe.org.

Ray­mond P. Mar­tinez, Chief Admin­is­tra­tor, New Jer­sey Motor Vehi­cle Commission

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The Car Care Coun­cil rec­om­mends 10 basic main­te­nance pro­ce­dures to keep your car oper­at­ing at its best:

• Check the oil, fil­ters and flu­ids. Oil should be changed per the owner’s man­ual rec­om­mended inter­vals. Your car’s fil­ters need reg­u­lar inspec­tion and replace­ment, too.

• Inspect hoses at each oil change and have them replaced when leak­ing, brit­tle, cracked, rusted, swollen or restricted.

• Check the brake sys­tem every year and have the brake lin­ings, rotors and drums inspected at each oil change.

• Check that the bat­tery con­nec­tion is clean, tight and corrosion-free. If the bat­tery is three years old or more, it should be tested and replaced if necessary.

• Inspect the exhaust sys­tem for leaks, dam­age and bro­ken sup­ports or hang­ers if there is an unusual noise. Exhaust leaks can be dan­ger­ous and must be cor­rected with­out delay.

• Sched­ule a tuneup that will help the engine deliver the best bal­ance of power and fuel econ­omy and pro­duce the low­est level of emissions.

• Check your vehicle’s heat­ing, ven­ti­lat­ing and air con­di­tion­ing sys­tem as proper heat­ing and cool­ing per­for­mance is crit­i­cal for inte­rior com­fort and for safety rea­sons, such as defrosting.

• Inspect the steer­ing and sus­pen­sion sys­tem annu­ally, includ­ing shock absorbers and struts, and chas­sis parts, such as ball joints, tie-rod ends and other related components.

• Check the pres­sure of all tires, includ­ing the spare, at least once a month. Check the tread for uneven or irreg­u­lar wear and cuts and bruises along the side­walls. Have your car’s align­ment checked at least annu­ally to reduce tire wear and improve fuel econ­omy and handling.

• Test exte­rior and inte­rior lights and have bulbs that are not work­ing checked imme­di­ately. Replace wind­shield wiper blades every six months or when cracked, cut, torn, streak­ing or chat­ter­ing for opti­mum wip­ing per­for­mance and safety.

To help you drive smart and save money, visit www.carcare.org and check out the free dig­i­tal Car Care Guide.

Rich White
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor
Car Care Coun­cil
Bethesda, Md.

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Bar­rel Bob used cour­tesy of the Mis­souri Dept. of Trans­porta­tion. www.modot.org

The spring and sum­mer of 2011 will bring road and bridge con­struc­tion back to our highways.

Buckle Up! – Every trip, every time – safety belts save lives.

Stay Alert! – Ded­i­cate your full atten­tion to the roadway.

Fol­low Signs! – They’ll guide you through work zones safely.

Expect the Unex­pected! – Watch for flag­gers, work­ers and equipment.

Pay Atten­tion! – Turn the radio down and don’t use your cel­lu­lar phone.

Be Patient! – Remem­ber work­ers are improv­ing the road for future travels.

Don’t Speed!– Fol­low posted lim­its and adjust for weather conditions.

Don’t Drink and Drive! – Impair­ment of any kind is unacceptable.

Be Nice! – Merge as directed, don’t tail­gate and don’t change lanes in a work zone

Feb
04

Sobering Numbers: by Jack Bulkley

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Recently, Jack Bulk­ley (@veloreviews) wrote a brief arti­cle out­lin­ing some of the find­ings from the National High­way Traf­fic Safety Administration’s Traf­fic Safety Facts from 2009.

He wrote, “The National High­way Traf­fic Safety Administration’s Traf­fic Safety Facts 2009 divides traf­fic fatal­i­ties into three cat­e­gories: occu­pants, motor­cy­clists, and non-occupants. For 2009 in the USA, 24,747 occu­pants were killed and over 2 mil­lion injured. For motor­cy­clists the num­ber is 4,462 killed and 90,000 injured.

While the num­bers show cars and motor­cy­cles being much more of a dan­ger to them­selves and each other, there were also 4,872 non-occupants killed and 116,000 injured.

Cyclists made up 630 of the dead and 51,000 of the injured.

I don’t know what to say about these num­bers. Cer­tainly 30,000 fam­i­lies morn­ing their dead seems a high cost. I did find that around 60% of the cycling inci­dents involve rid­ing at night with­out lights. So just that one sim­ple change greatly decreases your chance of being a num­ber in a future report.”

Jack Bulk­ley writes on many dif­fer­ent top­ics and all of his arti­cles are a joy to read. Go get involved on his blog HERE.

Also see:

Categories : Highway, prevention
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