California Highway Safety Authorities Include Distracted Driving in Strategic Plan

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

The California Department of Transportation’s Strategy Highway Safety Plan includes measures aimed at minimizing highway accident rates on the state’s highways. Los Angeles personal injury lawyers will be pleased to hear that for the first time, the agency has decided to add distracted driving to the targets in this plan.

The Strategic Highway Safety Plan includes inputs by a number of safety agencies in California, including the California Highway Patrol, California Office of Traffic Safety, California Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Several other agencies and private efforts are involved in proposing measures to tackle individual safety problems.

These problems include:

• Minimizing the number of fatalities caused in alcohol-related car accidents every year
• Minimizing the number of head-on collisions every year
• Promoting use of seatbelts and child safety seats
• Promoting teen motorist safety
• Promoting pedestrian safety by increasing crosswalk use
• Promoting senior motorist safety
• Implementing trucking safety measures
• Enhancing motorcycle safety
• Enhancing bicycle safety
• Promoting highway construction work zone safety

The California Office of Traffic Safety has now decided to add distracted driving to this list. With this, the state DOT and other agencies have made clear their determination to tackle distracted driving on a more aggressive footing. It also means that with the inclusion of distracted driving, there will be targeted measures to prevent handheld cell phone use and texting by motorists. This is expected to include not just enforcement of current handheld cell phone and texting while driving laws, but also promoting greater awareness among motorists about the dangers of such practices.

Unless you’ve lived under a rock over the past year, you have read about or heard about the accident risks that come when a motorist is distracted at the wheel. There have been numerous studies documenting the risks to a motorist when he is distracted. Unfortunately, there seems to be a great disparity between knowledge of these dangers and the will to prevent such behavior. Motorists who are aware of these dangers continue to text or have conversations on a handheld cell phone while driving with nonchalance.

Pool Safety on Everyone’s Mind

Friday, April 23rd, 2010 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Drowning is the biggest cause of unnatural death in children aged between one and four years. It’s not just children playing in swimming pools who are at risk of drowning, but also those who are in hot tubs or backyard pools. Approximately 25 percent of all child-drowning related fatalities in the country every year have had some amount of swimming training.

Those facts take on new meaning now that summer is almost here, and millions of Californians will hit the water in a big way. While every parent appreciates the importance of keeping an eye on their children and remaining vigilant at all times when they are by the beach or lake, the same parents tend to take pool safety remarkably lightly. This is in spite of the fact that more than 50% of all child drowning deaths don’t occur in oceans, rivers or lakes, but in residential swimming pools. A child is at a much higher risk of drowning in a swimming pool at his home, or in a neighbor’s pool, than in the ocean.

The number one step that California premises liability lawyers recommend  to ensure safe fun by the water is to pay attention to kids at all times. Many drowning deaths occur even when the child is under the supervision of parents. Contrary to what many parents believe, most drowning deaths don’t involve a lot of splashing or commotion in the water. In fact, all it takes is a few seconds for a child to panic and down.

• If you have a pool, make sure that you have 6-foot fencing around the pool.
• Install pool safety alarms.
• Make sure your pool has the new drain covers that prevent drowning deaths by suction.
• Make sure that pool furniture like lounge chairs and tables are kept away from the fence. Children can use these to climb the fence and walk over to the neighbor’s pool.
• If you have a bunch of children playing in your pool, make sure that you have an adult supervising the kids.
• An adult supervising little children must be an adept swimmer, and must know emergency aid techniques, like CPR.

OmnipresentSEO – Lawyer SEO & Websites for Attorneys

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

A new Internet Marketing company has launched in Los Angeles:  Omnipresent SEO

The definition of “Omnipresent” is essentially the “quality of being everywhere”, and that is exactly the strategy that Omnipresent SEO employs for its clients.

Omnipresent uses traditional internet marketing techniques like Website Design, Search Engine Optimization & Link Building, but also recognizes that in the ever changing world of the Internet, this is not enough.  Therefore, in an effort to “be everywhere”, Omnipresent also utilizes Social Marketing tools such as Custom Facebook Pages, Twitter Feeds, Blogging, Local Listings (e.g. Google Local) & Review Site Management (e.g. Avvo & Yelp).  As new technologies and web destinations emerge, Omnipresent will quickly move to make use of those new tools.

Currently, the company has clients in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Las Vegas, but can work with clients anywhere in the United States or worldwide.