Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C. and Steve Lombardi from The Lombardi Law Firm are experimenting with a joint project about highway safety. They are looking at trends and tendencies of accidents and injury or death on the interstate highway system that exists in their states, Michigan and Iowa respectively. Their states are separated by Illinois. They are separated from my state _ Hawaii _ by the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada Range and 2,500 miles of deep blue ocean. And lest I forget to mention, 5 times zones for Lombardi and 6 for Glass.
Is it possible for little Hawaii to join the discussion with these two Midwesterners? Let me count the ways.
Lombardi asks the first question, which I will answer for Hawaii, in the title of his article: Who wins and loses when a Ford Focus and a fully-loaded semi-truck crash? I can state without hesitation that the Ford Focus loses in Hawaii. the laws of physics apply in Hawaii and Ford is still selling cars here. Oh, and "yes", we have trucks.
The next question is does Hawaii have interstate highways? Again I am happy to answer yes! I’ll buy a Mai Tai for either or both Lombardi or Glass if they can identify the names of the interstate highways on Maui where the AAJ midwinter convention will be held in February 2010. On Oahu where I live we have the H-1, H-2 and H-3 as interstates.
Next, in order to see if I can connect with Church Wyble, P.C. and Devon Glass in Lansing, Michigan, I read the article that Devon Glass wrote as part of this highway project: This May Save Your Child’s Life When Driving on the Interstate. I was born in Ann Arbor, graduated from the University of Michigan (several times) and so I feel the connection with Michigan in my bones (Go Blue!). First I’d like to thank Devon Glass for the excellent article. At Injury Board we all stress injury prevention and that applies in triplicate when it comes to kids and car crashes.
Continuing with my application to add Hawaii to Michigan and Iowa in analyzing interstate highway injury or death factors, I can say without qualification that Hawaii kids will benefit from the recommendations made in the Devon Glass article. The tips are so important to Hawaii drivers with children in the car that I want to quote them here:
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among children ages 2 to 14. As stated in the last paragraph, child deaths are due in large part to the non-use or improper use of child safety seats and seat belts. The National Highway Safety Commission has a “4 Steps for Kids” Campaign that helps parents choose the appropriate child safety seat based on their child’s age and also how to properly install it in the car:
1. For the best possible protection, keep infants in the back seat in rear-facing child safety seats up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat. At the very minimum, keep infants in rear-facing seats until age 1 and at least 20 pounds.
2. Once a child outgrows their rear-facing safety seat, they should sit in a forward-facing safety seat in the back seat until around age 4 and 40 pounds.
3. A child that has outgrown their forward-facing safety seat should sit in a booster seat in the back seat until the vehicle safety belt fit properly.
4. When a child outgrows their booster seat, usually around age 8 and when they are 4’9” tall, they can use the vehicle safety belt if it fits properly. A proper-fitting safety belt lays across the upper thighs and the shoulder belt fits across the chest.
Overall, all children under 13 should ride in the back seat. Please visit the NHSC website for a detailed illustration of which child safety seats you should choose to protect your children.
So I will wait to see if the application for membership in the Lombardi – Glass Interstate Network (LOGIN) will be accepted.
A resident of Honolulu, Hawaii, Wayne Parsons is an Injury Attorney that has dedicate his life to improving the delivery of justice to the people of his community and throughout the United States. He is driven to make sure that the wrongful, careless or negligent behavior that caused his clients' injury or loss does not happen to others.
2 Comments
Steve Lombardi
Well Wayne you're in. That's a great post. As for answering your question a lawyer from Iowa might be led to ask: How is it that Hawaii being an island could even have interstate highways? After all doesn't the word interstate indicate the highway brings together states? And the witness might answer: Any highway built under the auspices of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 and funded by the federal government is called an interstate highway, even if it doesn't cross state lines. In fact, there are many local routes that lie entirely within a single state funded by the Act. Hawaii has three interstates - H1, H2, and H3 - which connect important military facilities on the island of Oahu.
But of course that answer was similar to many answers provided by expert testimony: Correct and absolutely worthless, because it didn't really answer your question about the AAJ Convention in 2010. That convention will be in Maui, HI at the Hyatt Regency and Westin Maui at 200 Nohea Kai Drive and 2365 Kaanapali Parkway, Lahainna. Of course, never having been to Hawaii (sorry Fred Remington) I’m clueless about the highway. But, and this is a big butt, I can use the Internet which tells me it sits off the Honoaplilani Hwy. A name I can not pronounce and have probably misspelled, just like the word "both" in your post!
Wayne Parsons
Thanks Steve! I guess I didn't run spell check on the article. I just checked the spelling and there were about 5 errors including (my apology!), your name! I think its okay now, at least as far as spelling goes.
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