Bike rally season in South Carolina is almost here.  What better way to spend the spring than traveling across South Carolina’s coastline on your bike, in the company of old friends and some that you just met, with the smell of the sea breeze only occasionally punctuated by the smell of food cooking in the restaurant you have been reading about before your visit; you want to stay long enough to try them all.  Whether you attend the Spring Bike Rally in the second week of May or Black Bike Week on Memorial Day weekend, or even if you stay for them both, you can stay safe if you use th ..read more

Taking a school trip to a theme park in a state with year-round sunshine is a rite of passage for teens from temperate climates.  Teens who play team sports have even more opportunities to engage in such festivities than those who must simply wait until their entire graduating class piles onto a charter bus headed for Dollywood, even though that is still plenty of fun.  Most of the time teen theme park visits result in nothing more damaging than photographic evidence of how silly you looked with the hairstyle you wore sophomore year of high school, but occasionally serious accidents ..read more

If a car hits you when you are not in another car, you tend to think of your life as the time before the accident and the time after.  When cars hit pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists, only the lucky few can walk themselves to the emergency room and then leave the hospital soon after, much the same as they were before, except with a big pile of medical bills and a story to tell.  It is hard to appreciate just how much the human body is not a match for a motor vehicle until the two collide with each other.  Skateboards are among the vehicles where it is often possible to ..read more

In most states, dram shop liability sounds like an obscure legal concept with a laughably old-fashioned name.  Dram shop liability means that bars and restaurants that serve alcohol are legally responsible for car accidents caused by customers who drove after drinking alcohol there; “dram shop” is a 19th century term for an establishment that sells alcoholic beverages.  In South Carolina, though, dram shop liability has dominated headlines in recent months.  The case of Samantha Miller, a woman who died on her wedding day after a drunk driver struck the golf cart where Miller wa ..read more

When two cars collide with each other, it is always a relief when no one suffers permanent injuries, but even if the resulting injuries are minor, the medical bills are still plenty painful.  In cases like these, the way to resolve the financial issues is with the drivers of the two vehicles involved.  Even though advertisements and news stories do not always send this message, most clients of personal injury lawyers can get the money they need to cover their accident-related medical bills and vehicle repairs through an insurance claim; the lawyers simply negotiate with insurance com ..read more

South Carolina is not one of the most populous states, nor is it among the most sparsely populated.  Compared to many other states, it does not have extremes of temperature.  It is the perfect middle ground, which makes it an ideal destination for bachelorette parties and retirees alike.  The rate of fatal motorcycle accidents in South Carolina makes it seem like much more of an outlier.  In recent years, South Carolina has consistently ranked in the top ten states regarding the number of motorcycle fatalities.  Common risk factors like alcohol consumption and riding i ..read more

Your spine and spinal cord are what you have in common with all other vertebrates, from the majestic giraffe to the terrifying Komodo dragon to the tasty catfish.  You never think much about all of the bones and ligaments that make up your spinal column until something goes wrong.  Back pain has a way of interfering with your everyday functioning in ways that pain in other body parts does not; it is much easier to get through an entire shift at work with shoulder pain or a sore foot than it is with a backache.  The symptoms that arise from back injuries affect more than just you ..read more

Without alcoholic beverages, there is no drunk driving.  Without cell phones, there is considerably less distracted driving, as anyone who got a driver’s license before the age of the cell phone can tell you.  The dangerous thing about road rage is that it has so many triggers.  Anyone and anything on the road can get on anyone’s nerves, one angry driver annoys others, and it leads to a snowball effect of irritable, aggressive drivers.  Although there are no laws that specifically impose penalties for driving while angry, road rage contributes directly to many accidents and ..read more

Given the cost of healthcare these days, it only makes sense to delay treatment until your symptoms are so bad that they are interfering with your ability to work.  If you can take some ibuprofen and get through your workday in spite of your toothache, then certainly your root canal can wait until after your next paycheck.  Likewise, people often avoid going to the doctor because they are afraid of getting a diagnosis that will affect them for the rest of their lives, such as diabetes, cancer, or HIV.  Of all the health worries that keep us awake late at night when the house is ..read more

“Seatbelts save lives” has become such a proverbial expression that hardly anyone gives much thought to how seat belts harness their life-preserving power.  The current generation of newly licensed drivers has been buckling their seat belts for as long as they have known how to tie their shoes, as has the current generation of driver’s ed instructors.  Despite that, at any given time, only about one in ten motor vehicle passengers is not wearing a seatbelt, riders without seatbelts account for more than 40 percent of traffic fatalities.  Seatbelts have improved a lot since their ..read more