Virginia Child Injury Lawyer » bicycle

Free Bike Helmet Giveaway

srohrstaff — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:28:10 +0000

Bike helmets save lives. We want children to be safe when they ride their bikes, so we are offering a FREE BICYCLE HELMET GIVEAWAY to any child who needs one.

Trudi Hays, who lives in Herndon, Virginia, stepped forward and asked for two helmets for young neighbors. She got them.

If you live in Virginia and know a child who needs a bike helmet, call me at 703-260-6070, send an email to Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com or contact us through our website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com, to sign up for our newsletter and let us know that you want a bike helmet for a child. We’ll put you on our list and also send you a measuring tape so you can tell us the correct measurement of the child’s head.

Brain Injuries in Children – How Do They Happen?

srohrstaff — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:24:09 +0000

Everyone knows the joke: “I’m strange because I was dropped on my head as a baby.” But it’s no joke when a baby or a child hits her head hard.

How do brain injuries in children happen? Here are the five most common causes.

1. Falls. Kids are super active, so falls happen often. Not surprisingly, they are the number one cause of brain injury in children, second only to vehicle collisions.

2. Motor vehicle collisions. Keeping your child properly restrained by a seatbelt or a child safety seat helps, certainly, but she can still suffer a brain injury if her head is hit on a part of the car or by an object sent flying by impact.

3. Pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Teaching your child when she is young to look both ways before crossing the street and to always wearing a helmet when riding a bike is key. But, as we all know, children have not yet mastered decision- making skills and can be unpredictable in their actions.

4. Sports accidents. We want our children to learn the lessons they get from playing sports; however, they can suffer brain injuries from an unprotected fall or a tackle gone wrong.

5. Child abuse. It is unsettling that this is in the top five causes of such a serious child injury. There is evidence (although it is disputed) that shaking a child, especially a very young one, can cause serious damage to the brain.

Immediate and appropriate care can help a child’s possibility of a more significant recovery. For more in depth information on child brain injuries, click here.

Bicycles and Kids and Brains

srohrstaff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:29:45 +0000

I loved riding my bike when I was a kid. I grew up in a small country town, so riding my bike to a friend’s house was a big deal. There was a sense of freedom in being independent — and speedy. It never occurred to me it could be dangerous.

Now, of course, I know better. A study conducted by the Center for Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and published in Injury Prevention in 2007 estimated that bicycle-related injuries among children and adolescents result in nearly $200 million in hospital inpatient charges annually.

One third of the children hospitalized were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. Importantly, about 30% of the hospitalizations from bicycle-related injuries involved motor vehicles.

My firm gives away free bicycle helmets to any child who needs one. We would rather help a child be safe than to have to represent her because she sustained a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident.

If you need to speak to a lawyer because a child has been injured in a bicycle accident, you can call me at 703-260-6070, send me an email at Sandra@RohrstaffLaw.com, or contact me through the firm’s website, www.RohrstaffLaw.com. I’ll be happy to answer your questions – for free.