Alcohol-related excesses like binge drinking, underage drinking and impaired driving decrease when taxes on alcohol are increased. That is the conclusion from a review of more than 72 international studies conducted by the Task Force on Community Preventive Health.

The review found that in almost all the studies, whenever taxes on alcohol and prices increased, there was a sharp decline in the number of dangerous alcohol- related practices that people indulged in. There were sharp drops in binge drinking and intoxicated driving. Even studies that looked at teens, found a drop in underage drinking when alcohol became more expensive.

What's more, the study found that these drops in alcohol-related excesses remained consistent across all types of alcohol, from wine to hard liquor. The declines remained the same even when the reviewers looked at different countries and different time periods. The message to take home from this is that several alcohol-related problems that concern Las Vegas personal injury lawyers, including intoxicated driving, can be minimized by increasing the price of alcohol.

It seems like a simple solution to what is still a major highway safety problem in the US. But there's the fact that the alcohol beverage industry will not take kindly to any move to increase taxes on alcohol. This is the same industry that has opposed the use of ignition interlock devices as an alcohol intervention aid. The American Beverage Institute opposes the use of ignition interlock devices to keep potential drunk driving offenders off the roads. This in spite of the fact that these devices are being used as deterrents with great success in several states.

Any increase on the price of alcohol will also not go down well with the drinking public or for the many responsible consumers of alcohol out there. For the time being, it seems like other deterrents like ignition interlock devices, will have to do.

A driver who was distracted while trying to fix a problem with his doors, lack of seat belts that left passengers with no restraints, and the lack of stability control systems in the vehicle - a report by the National Transportation Safety Board blames all of these factors for the serious injuries and deaths that resulted from the Arizona bus crash last year.

On January 30, 2009, a bus carrying approximately 71 passengers, including a large group of Chinese tourists and their tour guide, flipped over on a rural Arizona highway. At least 15 of the passengers were ejected, which was not surprising considering that the bus was not equipped with seat belts. Seven passengers died, including the tour guide and six Chinese tourists. Ten other people were seriously injured.

Now, the NTSB has presented its report on the causes of the bus accident. The report blames the inattention of the driver for the crash. The driver had been engaged in fixing a problem with airflow in his door. With his attention turned away from the road, he lost control of the bus and it overturned, coming to rest on its side.

If anything, this deadly bus accident illustrates that there are distractions beyond the sort of technological distractions that Las Vegas personal injury lawyers and highway safety groups typically focus on. Any time you are engaged in any activity that takes your hands off the wheel and eyes off the road even for a few seconds, you increase the risks of an accident. This is what seems to have happened here.

The NTSB report also offered stinging criticism for the failure of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require seat belts on all commercial buses of the same size. These recommendations were made at least 10 years ago, but the FMCSA has failed to act on these. The NTSB estimates that many of the passengers could have been saved if they had been safely restrained in their seats at the time of the crash. The agency also noted that the bus did not come with stability control systems or lane departure warning systems.

A tawdry system that has failed to ensure seat belts in commercial buses is not likely to rush to require lane departure systems and stability control systems anytime soon. The report should be a wake-up call to the FMCSA to speed up the implementation of passenger restraint systems on all commercial buses and school buses.

Every year, the National Safety Council marks the month of June as National Safety Month. The organization earmarks each week of the month for a number of safety campaigns. This year's schedule for June is as follows

• Prescription Overdose Prevention Week
• Teen Driving Safety Week
• Prevention of Overexertion at Work and at Home Week
• Dangers of Cell Phone Use While Driving week
• Summer Safety Week

It’s Week Number Four, dedicated to the prevention of cell phone use while driving that will interest Las Vegas personal injury lawyers the most. After all, it was the National Safety Council which really brought home to Americans the dangers of cell phone use while driving. Earlier this year, National Safety Council estimated that approximately 28% of all auto accidents every year are caused because of cell phone use and texting while driving. That works out to approximately 1.6 million crashes every year that can be attributed to the use of technological devices at the wheel.

This June, the National Safety Council is inviting community organizations, schools, employers and other agencies to begin efforts against cell phone use while driving. The organization has designed posters that can be used to conduct your own efforts against distracted driving.

The NSC also has tips for you to limit the number of technological distractions you face while you drive. Put your phone on silent mode before you begin driving. Set up voicemail messages that inform callers that you are busy driving, and that you will get back to them as soon as you're able to do so. Resist the urge to read or send text messages while driving. Texting while driving increases the risk of an accident by up to 23 times. That means your chances of avoiding a crash while texting at the wheel are not that great. If you must take a call, try to pull over somewhere safe. Spread the texting while driving message. Tell your friends, colleagues and family never to use a cell phone while driving.

Together, they are supposed to make a formidable combination. Seatbelts save more lives every year than any other auto safety feature, and airbags have so far been estimated to save up to 25,000 lives. However, is a motorist at greater risk of death from an airbag, if he is wearing a seatbelt? It may sound fantastic, but it is probably true.

New studies conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety seem to indicate that motorists wearing seatbelts are at a high risk of serious injuries or death, when they are in a car with the newest version of airbags. The new airbags have been around since 2004, and government standards have mandated them on all vehicles since 2008. The study showed that that belted motorists have a higher risk of death in cars with the new airbags, than non-belted motorists.

The results have shocked Las Vegas personal injury lawyers, safety advocates and automakers themselves. Nobody is quite sure what to make of this, but the IIHS which conducted the study with 3,600 drivers, says the results are clear to see. The IIHS study considered crash data between 2004 and 2007. Drivers were up to 21 times more likely to die if they were wearing seatbelts than if they were not.

There is no plausible explanation for why motorists wearing a seat belt may be at a higher risk of fatal injuries with these airbags, but experts are looking for clues in the fact that the new airbags were designed specifically to protect unbelted motorists. That's because back when those designs were finalized, the seatbelt usage rates for motorists were low compared to today. These days, the national seat belt usage rate is a respectable 80%. This means that the new airbags may be more equipped to protect unbelted motorists than motorists wearing seatbelts.

No Las Vegas personal injury lawyer would want consumers to go home with the wrong message from the study. The study doesn't mean that you should avoid buying a car with airbags, or that you must not wear seatbelts. However, the study does call for further research into current airbag design standards, and how these can be improved.

There are many advantages that elderly motorists enjoy - they're more experienced, less likely to be in a hurry, and likely to be more cautious. However, the fact is that aging can also result in physical and mental changes that can impact a person's driving ability.

Most states have restrictions on senior motorists. These decisions are not meant to be discriminatory, but are meant to protect senior citizens, and ensure that they are equipped with the skills needed to drive safely. However, it can also fall back on family members of elderly motorists to be alert to signs of physical and mental changes in their loved ones. No one knows better than you whether your loved one is still capable of driving. Las Vegas personal injury lawyers suggest that you look for the following signs pointing to the need to take the keys away from a senior citizen.

• Your loved one is getting more forgetful by the day.
• He or she is becoming stubborn and obstinate.
• He or she displays signs of aggressive behavior.
• He or she is driving at excessive speeds or at speeds that are too low.
• You begin to notice that he or she has a shortened attention span.
• There is a diminished sense of vision or hearing.
• You often notice dents or scratches on the car.
• The person takes an excessively long time to return home from an errand or drive.

Driving privileges are a major factor in the health of senior citizens. Studies indicate that when a senior citizen loses his ability to drive, depression sets in. However, it's also important for family members to realize that sometimes older people may not have the ability to be objective about their driving skills. In fact, a majority of senior citizens tend to have a very good opinion of their driving abilities. It’s therefore important that family members be alert to signs of diminished driving abilities, and make the decision to take the car keys away from their loved one.

Playground safety is not just a matter of concern to parents, but also to Las Vegas personal injury lawyers. Often, these injuries occur because of poor planning, poor design, defective playground equipment, lack of padding or cushioning of the ground and other factors.

It's hard to think of children being injured while playing. But the fact is that every year tens of thousands of children have to be rushed to emergency rooms with injuries they suffered on a playground. Most of these injuries are minor, but very often, playground injuries can end with serious head injuries and spinal cord injuries. On an average, about 15 children die every year from playground-related injuries.

There is much that parents can do to ensure that their children are safe while at play.

Make sure your kids are dressed for play. Avoid jewelry or loose clothes that can snag on playground equipment. This can create a choking hazard.

Make sure that the ground around the equipment is soft, padded or covered with mulch or wood chips. If the area around the equipment is covered with concrete, it can result in serious injuries to your child after a fall.

Look at the number of kids playing on a single play set or a slide. The more children on the equipment, the higher the risk of injuries.

Make sure that you are supervising the child constantly.

Make sure your child is playing on equipment that is age-specific for him. Small children must not be allowed to play on equipment that is meant for older children. A child below five years of age should typically play on equipment that is no more than 4 feet high.

The equipment must be free from sharp or jagged edges. Slides must be smooth and free from obstructions like splinters that can cut a child. The chains on the swing must be strong. If equipment looks worn out or old, head off to the next playground.

With summer here, the focus is on the more than 30 children who die every year after parents and caregivers leave them behind in closed vehicles. Thirty is too high a number for any parent or Las Vegas personal injury lawyer to swallow, and it's very important to bring more awareness to this issue.

The children who die every year in these incidents, die from hypothermia after the temperature inside the car becomes too hot. It's very important to remember that it doesn't take long for a child trapped in a closed vehicle to suffocate. Children have a much higher body temperature than adults do, and when they're inside a closed vehicle, they can begin to suffocate quickly. The problem is even more acute when you consider that across all of California, temperatures will begin to rise over the next two months.

In most of these cases, the parents and caregivers who left children behind did so from forgetfulness, and not because of neglect. However, Las Vegas child injury lawyers have been concerned to find that most parents also assume that such a situation could never happen to them. You think you could never forget that your child has been strapped into a car safety seat in the back seat of the car. However, with stressful times and many parents working more than one job to keep the home fires burning, schedules are tight. Very often, these incidents occur when there has been a change in schedule, like when one parent has just taken over the responsibility of dropping of the child to a day care center. Mistakes can occur very easily, and it doesn't even have to be a forgetful or harried parent.

The best approach to preventing such horrible tragedies is a combination of auto safety devices that can alert parents to the fact that there's a child in the car, and more awareness about the issue. A child safety organization called Kidsandcars.org that promotes safety issues involving children and vehicles, is doing a lot to bring awareness about this issue. However, automakers have not yet committed to the development of child detection devices. There are no concrete ideas about how these devices will work, although there is some belief that internal cameras, heat sensors and other devices that are currently used for other purposes, will have to be involved in child detection too.