U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said as much this week when he revealed that it took considerable pressure from the government before Toyota would recall millions of cars in order to fix their gas pedals.

Because Toyota dragged its corporate feet, many Americans have died in horrific car crash accidents, when their vehicle suddenly sped up and they couldn’t slow it down. Such victims’ survivors now face a life of anguish, but they’re making their voices heard by launching lawsuits against Toyota for its manufacturing negligence.

Such lawsuits should seek punitive damages as well as compensatory damages, since  Toyota should be punished for its outrageous indifference to public safety. The manufacturer seemed willing to pay victims and survivors settlements as part of the price of doing business. Fortunately, that wasn’t enough for the federal government, whose intervention led to the enormous recall of 2.3 million vehicles in America to fix accelerator pedals which might stick.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a defective Toyota product, let a defective product lawyer or car accident lawyer with USALegalHelpCenter.com go to work for you. He or she will fight for your rights to fitting and fair financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Toyota sent a message to American consumers with its early disregard of its stuck gas pedal crisis. Now send a message to Toyota that such callous indifference to public safety will not be tolerated in the U.S. legal system.

According to the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), affiliated with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), no reduction in crashes occurred in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C. after bans on drivers using handheld cell phones took effect. This was based on assessing insurance claims for car crash damages.

Why? That’s a good question, since the link between cell phones and traffic deaths has been clearly established. One conclusion could be that fewer drivers in those states chose to heed the law and continued texting and talking, anyway.

Another possibility is that drivers who’d used handheld phones changed to bluetooth devices or other hands-free phones. Research shows that those phones also involve dangerous driver distractions. So, states changing the law and then drivers changing phones didn’t help.

Answers may be elusive, but they will come — and they must come, because Americans are being slaughtered by those who think driving a heavy vehicle in heavy traffic isn’t important enough when they want to divert themselves by phoning or texting inconsequential messages to friends.

All laws which seek to restrict if not outlaw such driving distractions and cell phone accidents are basically common sense laws. And they aren’t meant to punish, but to protect. After all, every person who drives also has hours each day when they aren’t driving, and those hours are the times to make phone calls, send text messages or surf the Web. Looking away even for a moment while traffic whizzes by is not the right time. It’s the potentially fatal time.

Such laws and their results will bear watching in the years ahead, as American comes to terms with cell phone fixations — even  addictions — of so many citizens. But flatline results in three states do not mean we should back off and cede the progress already made. They only mean we should re-examine our efforts and work harder. The payoff — in spared lives and in whole families — is certainly worth it.

USA Legal Help Center.com supports victims of distracted driving car crash accidents. A cell phone accident lawyer can seek financial compensation in a cell phone accident lawsuit or distracted driver lawsuit.

That may be because they accept a quick cash settlement from their employer that’s not nearly enough. It also may be because they rely on Workers Compensation benefits, which can be marginal.

A far better source of recovery can be gained under the Jones Act, a law passed in 1920 to protect the rights of American seamen. The Jones Act provides more far-ranging recovery to seamen who are injured on the job, or to their survivors if they are killed.

Financial recovery should be pursued under the Jones Act if a seaman was injured due to unseaworthiness of a vessel or due to negligence on the part of his employer or fellow crew members, for whom the employer is responsible.

If you or a loved one is such an injured seaman, and you still aren’t sure about your eligibility or strategies for recovery, alert an experienced and knowledgeable Jones Act lawyer or attorney, or a maritime accident injury lawyer or attorney, with USA Legal Help Center.

Legal help can be supplied to seamen from all 50 states for injuries suffered on American waters. Simply fill out the free case review form on this Web page, and a USA Legal Help Center representative will respond to you shortly.

Indeed, drunk driving accidents have killed more than half a million Americans since 1982. That’s more Americans than have been killed by foreign enemies in all wars since and including World War II.

Even if you drive defensively, you can be struck by a drunk driver, who may speed through a red light at an intersection and hit you broadside, or may speed heedlessly toward cars stopped at a stop sign and then rear-end them catastrophically.

But there are some things you can do to increase your odds of avoiding such a drunk driving accident collision. One is to avoid driving, if at all possible, in the early morning hours after midnight, when most drunk driving accidents occur. Another is to drive less on weekends than on weekdays, since weekends have a larger number of drunk driving accidents. And another is to support all laws and efforts to enhance public safety by clamping down on drunk drivers.

If, however, you or a loved one suffers harm due to a drunk driver, it’s not too late to protect yourself in another way. That is, you can ensure your legal rights are safeguarded by an experienced and knowledgeable drunk driving accident lawyer or attorney with USA Legal Help Center.com.

USA Legal Help Center can provide you with a car accident lawyer or attorney for all 50 states in the USA. This lawyer can grapple with insurance companies who try to deny, delay or underpay what they rightly owe after a drunk driver has caused losses. Your USA drunk driving attorney also can battle in the legal arena to gain full and fair financial compensation for your losses, such as lost wages, mounting medical bills and pain and suffering.

Contact USA Legal Help Center today, and launch the process of seeking a cash award for your suffering caused by a drunk driver. Just fill out the brief free case evaluation form on this web page, and a legal representative will respond shortly to help you assess your case.

Since it’s not enough to say “Hang up and drive” and expect everyone to do it, anymore than it’s not enough to say “Just say no” to drugs and expect everyone to do it, states are passing laws to, in effect, legislate common sense. Up to 18 states and the District of Columbia now have laws on the books making texting while driving illegal.

Some will say this can’t do any good, since it will be difficult if not impossible for law officers to discern if drivers are texting while driving. But the same argument was made regarding seat belt laws, and those have helped save many thousands of lives. Besides, texts and cell calls leave an electronic trail, including times. It wouldn’t be that hard to determine if a driver was using his or her phone at the precise time of an accident.

The trucking industry thinks it should be above such laws and not have to obey. It argues that truckers use computers in their vehicles to stay in touch with fleet managers and so forth. But that’s no excuse. Taking your eyes off the road even for a second can be just the wrong second, leading to a horrendous semi truck accident. And besides, idle checking of computer screens is probably the indulgence of many truck drivers, not sending or receiving crucial information.

All of us who use America’s roads have a responsibility — to ourselves and to each other — to make driving safety our chief priority. When chatting endlessly to a friend or texting a colleague becomes the priority instead, tragedy can ensue. That’s not an opinion — it’s a fact. So yes, hang up and drive. But do so because you know and understand how important it is, not just because you were told to do so.

In fact, it’s alarming news, because if women drinkers become as dangerous on our roads and highways as men, then America’s carnage from drunk driving accidents is going to get far, far worse. And it’s bad enough already, with about 16,000 drunk driving deaths per year.

Here’s the latest DUI news on which to chew: The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that the number of women arrested for drunk driving has jumped almost 30 per cent in the past decade. That’s not a statistical aberration — that’s a huge chunk. And it’s getting worse.

Why? Societal changes play a part. More men are unemployed today, and more women may feel the stress and pressure to bring home the bacon — as well as cart the kids from school to the doctor to the mall to home. Such stress and pressure might be relieved with a drink — maybe one drink — but for many people, one is never enough, and inebriation ensues — which becomes especially dangerous when they drive a heavy vehicle at high speeds through complex traffic patterns while making cell calls.

The DOT says 10 states have had an increase in impaired women in fatal wrecks: Wyoming, New Hampshire, Ohio, Montana, Indiana, Washington, Kansas, Tennessee, Nevada and West Virginia.

Yes, men remain the big DUI problem. But though male DUI arrests still outnumber female DUI arrests by almost four-to-one, a decade ago the ratio was almost six-to-one.

In fact, male DUI arrests have actually dropped by 50,000 per year in the past decade. In the same time, female DUI arrests have increased by 36,000 per year.

No one wants to be a statistic, but such numbers don’t lie — and can be illuminating. It’s time for all Americans to take stock of their lives and those of their loved ones and realize that anyone, at any time, can cause a life-changing if not life-ending car accident because they drove while intoxicated. USA-LegalHelpCenter.com takes that very seriously, and we hope you do too.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, on behalf of President Obama, is calling for a national summit of safety experts to address the explosion of irresponsible driving that’s accompanied the invention of cell phones and texting. Millions of Americans talk by cell and send texts while driving, and many of them have killed their fellow Americans in the process.

So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws making texting while driving illegal. Congress also is mulling legislation which would cut states’ highway funding by 25 per cent if they failed to pass such laws.

Meanwhile, the car carnage continues, from the horror of an individual’s accident, as when an Illinois teen died in June when she drove off the road during a text, to the grim horror of the California commuter train which crashed and killed 25 people — all because the inattentive train operator was texting.

Since common sense isn’t preventing this national nightmare, laws must intervene. Of course, some say such laws can’t matter, since it’s difficult to enforce a ban on texting while driving when it’s hard to observe outside the car. But naysayers once said seatbelt laws wouldn’t work for the same reason, and today’s widespread adherence to seatbelts has saved thousands–perhaps millions–of lives.

Study after study has demonstrated that texting while driving severely hampers a person’s driving ability. In fact, studies by Car and Driver Magazine, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and others show that texters drive as badly as persons who are legally drunk.

Beyond legislation, it’s vital that educational efforts also help stem the tide. If anything, vast numbers of Americans simply need a wakeup call about an obvious and vast problem which their texting fixation ignores.

But if it’s too late for your or a loved one, and you’ve been harmed by a texting driver in a traffic accident, fight back in the legal realm by claiming financial compensation for your loss.

Alert a cell phone accidents lawyer or car accidents lawyer today with USA-LegalHelpCenter.com, and get experienced legal support on your side.

USA-LegalHelpCenter.com can provide you with the lawyer or attorney you need for your personal injury concerns in all 50 states of the USA. Simply fill out and submit the free case evaluation form on this Web page and a legal representative will respond promptly to explore your case.

And don’t worry: Our staff won’t be driving or otherwise multi-tasking when they call you, but will give you their full attention.

Indeed, drivers are the most vital variable in car wrecks and other traffic accidents — not weather, defective parts or road conditions. Though such reasons and many others do arise in wrecks, most collisions continue to be due to drivers who — quite simply — make a momentary but lasting mistake.

Which cities and states have the best drivers? According to the 2009 Allstate America’s Best Driving Report, Sioux Falls, SD, is the nation’s safest-driving city, followed by Fort Collins, CO, and Chattanooga, TN.

Cedar Rapids, IA, Knoxville, TN and Fort Wayne, IN also get high marks.

Among cities with a million or more residents, the safest in terms of drivers are Phoenix, AZ, San Diego, CA, New York, NY, Houston, TX and San Antonio, TX. They’re followed by Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Los Angeles, CA and Philadelphia, PA.

The cities with the most improved drivers begin with Alexandria, VA, followed by Lexington-Fayette, KY, Arlington, TX, Hampton, VA, Virginia Beach, VA and Aurora, CO.  Reno, NV and Shreveport, LA also fared well.

Of course, as a man might say about his in-laws, everything is relative. Having more safe drivers doesn’t mean these cities don’t suffer many agonizing traffic mishaps. It just means they have fewer car fatalities and auto accidents than in even worse places.

Yet Americans do have some reason for hope. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the 37,261 Americans killed in car accidents and other collisions in 2008 marked the lowest number since 1961, and the first months of 2009 have sustained such improvement.

Still, think about it: 37,261 killed. That sounds like the final tally after a horrendous war — and it’s only one year’s worth of car carnage on America’s roads. It also doesn’t count the millions of people who suffer severe injuries, perhaps involving paralysis or amputation, and the billions of dollars in medical bills, lost productivity and property damages.

Beyond that, some stats are alarmingly rising. America’s motorcycle deaths have increased for 11 straight years. Motorcyclists now represent 14 per cent of America’s traffic fatalities, though they’re just 2 per cent of all drivers.

Also, the recent decline in fatalities is being partly offset by new safety problems. Even though states are increasing their vigilance against drunk driving, even though many cars have more safety features, even though more people than ever wear seat belts, and even though roads are built and designed for greater safety, more than 37,000 Americans still perish in traffic accidents. And why?

Driver error. Drivers ignore road signs, fail to yield and disregard oncoming vehicles. They tailgate, suddenly change lanes and fail to stop for obstructions ahead. And they do such things in large part because drivers, quite simply, are distracted.

Perhaps when they first learned to drive, people were taught to pay rapt attention to the road at all times. They carefully checked their rear-view mirrors, signaled before changing lanes and yielded to other vehicles. And perhaps, for a time, such lessons stayed with them.

But with repeated driving for thousands of miles and a number of years comes an illusory comfort zone. After all, it’s just driving, and it’s done every day. This prompts drivers to believe they’ll be fine on the road, even if they are juggling a fast-foods drink in one hand and a cell phone in the other while they try sending a text message which has no immediate need.

Such multi-tasking is killing many Americans, and preventing the USA’s accident deaths, damages and injuries from dropping even further. Thousands aren’t dying and millions aren’t being maimed due to “accidents,” but rather due to avoidable mistakes. And that’s not to mention those who drive drunk, an avoidable error in itself.

Correcting Americans’ many driving errors can be hard to legislate, though states are trying, taking measures such as passing laws to curtail calling and texting behind the wheel. But beyond laws against such flaws, if knowledge is power, then raising awareness of these mistakes can help, too.

Thus, in the face of those 37,261 deaths last year, all drivers should rededicate themselves to the old adage of “safety first.” They should recognize and obey the rules of the road and realize that impatience, indulgence and selfishness can be the worst excuses for cutting across three lanes of traffic to make a freeway exit that they almost passed because they weren’t paying enough attention. After all, a friend had to hear their “LOL” joke via a text.

Yet not everyone will get this wakeup call, and harmful if not fatal accidents will persist. But when they do, at least there’s help.

If you or a loved one in your state has been harmed in an auto accident or car wreck due to another driver’s mistakes or negligence, you have a legal right to refresh or extend the education of the driver who caused the crash. Contact a qualified car accident lawyer or auto accident personal injury attorney in your state and let him or her press your case for full and fair financial compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

USA-LegalHelpCenter.com offers such support in all 50 states of America. Fill out the free case evaluation form on this web page, and a legal representative will get back to you shortly about your car accident or traffic collision case.

Once a driving error has caused hardship to you or a loved one, don’t make your own error by failing to pursue all legal means for recovering your full and just financial compensation. In time, that, too, may help curb the driver negligence that’s costing so many Americans — too many Americans — their lives.

Drunk driving in America is a tragedy seemingly with no end. Though DUI or DWI accident fatalities have declined since as many as 26,000 died yearly three decades ago, the current annual death rate of around 16,000 is a horrendous price to pay for allowing drunks to roam freely on America’s roads and highways.

Much has been done over the decades to curb the problem, and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have achieved a great deal. But with the carnage continuing, much more still needs to be done.

Thankfully, some states are taking new actions against DUI, DWI or drunk driving deaths. One is New Mexico, which led the nation in per capita DUI deaths until enacting laws which brought a required “ignition interlock” to vehicles driven by convicted drunk drivers. With this device, a driver cannot start his or her car if the mandatory breath-alcohol analysis shows him or her unfit to proceed.

Eleven other states are passing similar laws, including California. Yet even these laws only do so much good. That’s in part because 70 per cent of drunk driving accidents are caused by drivers with no DUI convictions on their record — thus, they’d have no ignition interlock on their car. And all it takes is one drunk driver to end many innocent lives.

Other means of attacking the problem are stiffer punishments for those who are caught, and rehab centers to help drunk drivers kick the alcohol habit. Heavier enforcement also is an option.

In Texas, a new law will allow police to get a blood or breath test on the spot of an accident in which drunk driving is suspected — and without a warrant. Texas, California and Florida have the most drunk driving deaths in the USA.

While such new laws and other efforts await, do everything you can to drive defensively and avoid drunk drivers, who cause much of their destruction in late-night or early morning hours, after consuming far beyond what should be their limit.

Also, if you or a loved one is harmed in a drunk driving accident, don’t be a victim, but a victor. Challenge the guilty parties in a drunk driving accident lawsuit. USA-LegalHelpCenter.com can provide you with a skilled and experienced drunk driving lawyer or attorney in all 50 states.

A drunk driving lawsuit can do more than gain monetary compensation for you and your family. It also can send a loud and clear message that such gross negligence and killing will not be tolerated.

Drunk driving is not and should not be considered an inevitable reality of life, but instead a horrifying plague which must be fought by a society whose innocent citizens deserve far better.

Despite new get-tough policies by the FDA, is the problem ever truly solved when so many contaminants seep and ooze into America’s food supply chain, whose weak links have become alarmingly prevalent?

Yes, progress is being made, in part thanks to dutiful food suppliers who take swift action when their products are found to be tainted. One is Nestle, which quickly recalled Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough when some was found to harbor E. coli bacteria. American food suppliers also recalled huge supplies of tomatoes in 2008 when they were believed to contain salmonella food poisoning — even though the salmonella later was traced to jalapeno and Serrano peppers instead.

Yet even so, many Americans are being sickened — and some even die — from food poisoning caused in food production, processing, distribution or retailing. These Americans are innocently eating food which they bought in good faith, and are being rewarded with severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and other maladies.

To guard against such afflictions, keep posted on warnings and recalls issued by the Food and Drug Administration, which regularly alerts consumers about food poisoning products and other dangers. Also stay tuned to USA-LegalHelpCenter.com’s Lawyer Blog, which will update you on such food poisoning cases.

But if it’s too late, and if you or a loved one has been harmed by food poisoning due to food industry negligence, get a food poisoning lawyer provided by USA-LegalHelpCenter.com. Persons in all 50 states can engage an experienced food poisoning attorney who can fight for their legal right to financial compensation for medical costs, lost wages and pain and suffering.

To get started, simply submit the free case evaluation form on this Web page, and a legal representative will get back to you promptly. Meanwhile, watch out for food poisoning alerts, wash and cook all food thoroughly, and try to enjoy the taste without fretting over potential bacteria. Most food should be savored, not feared.

Chances are, you’ll be fine. But if you aren’t, USA-LegalHelpCenter.com is here to help you.