Another summer has come and (nearly) gone. For parents, back to school season is one filled with both immense excitement and relief. But as the warm weather fades into your rearview, it’s imperative that you keep your eyes on the road ahead when dropping off and picking up your children from school. School buses are back on the roads, and children have been known to forget to look both ways before crossing the street. Plus, heavily crowded school drop off and pick up zones are known to be a nightmare for those navigating their way through them.

To avoid accident or injury, be sure to educate yourself with these useful “back to school” driving pointers:

Sharing the Road with School Busses

 They’re large, they’re yellow, and you can’t miss them. However, many drivers are unaware of these common safety precautions they should be taking when sharing the road with school busses:

• Increase the following distance between your vehicle and the bus, so that you have more time to stop if necessary.
• If passing a bus, do so with immense caution and keep and eye out for children who may walk into traffic without realizing the risks associated with their actions.

Drop off Zone Safety

 In the hours before and after school, rushed parents are often doing their best to navigate their way through densely congested pick up and drop off zones. Here are some of the best rules you should be following in order to safely move through a school’s drop off zone:

• Do not double-park.
• Opt to carpool if it’s a possibility, as it cuts down on traffic at the school.
• Do not pick up or drop off your children anywhere but the designated area.

A Word on Speeding

While speeding is frowned upon at all times, speeding within a school zone is especially reckless. As a parent, you are aware that children behave impulsively. Therefore, it isn’t difficult to imagine a scenario where a child crouching behind a parked vehicle on the road during a harmless game of hide and seek jumps out onto the road. You can never predict how children are going to behave, and this is why school zone regulations must be followed.

While the summer months may have been a well-deserved break from homework help, PTA meetings, and driving through the dreaded drop off zones – classes have commenced. As a driver, it is vital that you stay focused on the road and drive cautiously through student-populated areas. Unfortunately, not all drivers take the caution necessary to keep roads safe.

Fast dial #1000 free from your cell and we’ll get you the support you need.

The future has arrived. Due to powerful innovators, past pipe dreams of technologically advanced inventions are quickly becoming reality. Furthermore, the auto industry is a major innovative player. While it has produced awe-inspiring machinery advancements over the years, driverless cars will be the most groundbreaking product the public has seen to date.

In a typical vehicle, the driver controls everything from speed, lane changes, and direction. The margin for human error is so large that each week, millions of car accidents take place across the globe. Distracted driving is a becoming a serious issue that governments must combat, as too many lives have been lost or dramatically altered due to vehicle collisions that could have been avoided.

Driverless cars, on the other hand, will be safer due to the highly intelligent computers that will be operating them. However, there are ethical questions that car manufacturers must address quickly surrounding these autonomous vehicles that are set to hit the streets in mass quantities in the near future.

Programmed for Accidents

While there are presently already plenty of self-driving cars on the streets, they will be unable to be released en masse until auto innovators have made this ethically troubling decision: Who should the car save in the event of an unavoidable accident?

Let’s say that you went out in the next few years and bought yourself a self-driving car. In the months, even years after you’ve made your purchase, you’re completely satisfied with the vehicle and all the convenience it has brought into your life. Everything about the car is great, until one day while driving your typical route to work you find yourself approaching what will undoubtedly be an unavoidable collision. Five pedestrians have run out into the street, and the only way your car can avoid hitting them is to steer itself into the nearby brick wall, killing you in the process.

The Undecided Answer

This is where things become difficult. Of course, minimizing the death toll is important, but not many people will want to purchase a car that is programmed to kill them despite the risk of accidents being higher if they bought a regular vehicle.

Automakers will soon decide, albeit after conducting meticulous research, how to approach this ethical dilemma. Regardless of their decision, there will certainly be many more aspects to consider when seeking compensation for driverless car related injuries.

If you have been injured, and need legal assistance, call #1000 on your cell phone for free. We will offer you a free claim assessment.

What child doesn’t love going to the playground? It isn’t just the slides, swings, and sand pits that can provide hours of fun. The playground gives children opportunities to socialize with their peers, exercise, and simply enjoy their carefree age. However, as cheerful as children are at the playground, there is always a risk of injury when they are at play.

Each year, more than 28,000 children are injured on Canadian playgrounds. To help ensure that your child remains safe, the Canadian Safety Council advises that parents take note of the “5 S’s of playground safety”:

Structure

 Playground structures are evolving to be made out of higher quality materials. Many older ones, however, are less advanced. Before you allow your child to run free on a play structure, ensure that:

• All staircases or steps have good traction.
• Swing set seats are made of soft material with spacing of at least two feet apart.
• Swing sets are situated a good distance away from the main playground.
• The slides are not metal, as hot metal in the sun has the potential to burn skin.

Surface

If a child falls from a play structure, what the ground surface is made of can be a deciding factor on whether a child gets injured. Surfaces should be shock absorbing, and ones made out of wood chips, shredded rubber, and sand can minimize the risk of falling-related injuries. Asphalt, dirt, concrete, and grass, however, are unsafe. Furthermore, surfaces should be 12 inches deep, and surround the entire playground radius.

Supervision

As a parent, you know that supervision is a critical part of keeping your child safe. Since children are not always aware, or ignore completely the risks of climbing unsafely on playgrounds, it is the parent’s job to ensure that their child is playing safely.

Site

Unfortunately, playgrounds are a common place for teenagers to go at nightfall. Once you arrive, be sure to scan the site and look for any broken glass, or nails and bolts from the equipment laying around.

Safety

Before allowing your child to participate in playground games with his or her friends, take the time to go over any playground rules posted at the park. By ensuring that your child understands the risks associated with playing on the structure before they take off, you can dramatically reduce their desires to engage in risky behaviours. Furthermore, most playgrounds have separate areas for different age groups, and parents of toddlers should make sure their child stays away from the larger structures designed for older children.

While parents can certainly do their part to keep their children safe at the playground, sometimes a child’s injury is simply due to lack of maintenance. There is only so much injury prevention a parent can practice, so cities must do their part to properly maintain their playgrounds.

Fast dial #1000 free from your cell and we’ll get you the support you need.

For your precious pooch, trips to the dog park can be a weekly highlight. Chasing tails, competitive fetch, and sniffing new scents make off leash parks ideal places for owners to stop by on their daily dog walks to help socialize their pet. However, things can go south quickly if owners fail to monitor their dog’s activity and temperament.

You see, dogs are mans best friend – until they’re not. A dog bite, whether the victim is a human or another dog, can be extremely painful to deal with depending on the severity and location of the attack.

If you’re planning on heading to the dog park anytime in the near future, be sure to brush up on everything you need to know about dog bite liability:

Don’t Rule your Pup Out

Don’t think your dog will bite another dog or stranger at the off-leash park? Canada sees 500,000 dog bites each year, and all of those offending pups were certainly just as beloved to their owners as your animal is to you.

Unfortunately, most people do not understand the responsibilities they have as dog owners, and the legal troubles that they can face if their canine bites. Even the most well-behaved and diligently trained dogs can pose a risk – as humans can never fully understand the behaviour of animals when they’re placed in unfamiliar territory.

Regardless of whether or not your dog is always on his or her best behaviour around loved ones, always be aware that things can take a turn for the worse when owners become too lax about supervision.

Know your Responsibilities

 If your dog bites another dog or owner, and there were witnesses to the event, the victim has the right to phone animal services. If contact is made, animal services job will then be to find out whether or not your dog is “vicious or dangerous.” This definition could mean any of the following:

• A dog that has attacked, bitten, or caused injury to a person or has demonstrated a propensity, tendency, or disposition to do so.
• A dog that, while running at large, has aggressively pursued or harassed a person.
• A dog that, while running at large, has aggressively pursued or harassed a domestic animal.
• A dog with a known propensity to attack or injure a person without provocation.

However, if your animal is found to be a threat, it doesn’t mean you will be ordered to put it down. In some locations, dog bite cases result in public muzzling rulings for the animal.

The Reality of Legal Proceedings

 Although Ontario used to judge cases based on the “one bite” rule, that allowed dogs one bite before their owner could be found negligent, things have changed dramatically.

The Dog Owner’s Liability Act in Ontario rules that proving owner negligence is not required of dog bite victims when seeking compensation for their injuries. However, if your dog has bitten someone, the liabilities you may be asked to pay can vary depending on whether your canine was provoked or teased by the victim.

At the end of the day, domesticated animals rarely attack unless they feel threatened. Before taking your dog to the park, it’s imperative that they are already adequately socialized with other dogs and animals to ensure they don’t become overwhelmed and fearful when faced with a plethora of new furry faces. Even once the dog park is part of your basic routine, stay diligent and never take your eyes off your pet.

If you or your pet has been attacked at the dog park, seeking compensation for medical expenses can be an important step on the path to full recovery.

If you have been injured, and need legal assistance, call #1000 on your cell phone for free. We will offer you a free claim assessment.