Motorcycles can be exhilarating to ride. For some people they are recreational vehicles that provide enjoyment, and for others they are a source of transportation. Either way, motorcycles can be fun and useful. They certainly cut down on the gas bill; however, they can also be very dangerous. This is why it is so important to wear protective gear.

When you ride a motorcycle, you should wear:

• A helmet
• A good motorcycle jacket
• Gloves
• Long pants
• Boots or shoes that cover your ankles

The combination of these things will help to prevent a good deal of injury in a crash. They will not, however, prevent all injury.

Some people believe that if the protective gear will not prevent all injury, it is pointless to use. This is not the case. Even in the safest car, there is no way to prevent all injury. Seatbelts and airbags can only do so much for you, and in some cases may even injure you. However, statistics show it is still safer to wear your seatbelt.

The same is true for motorcycle gear. It may not prevent all injury, but it will prevent injury in less serious crashes. It will also help to cut down on injury in more serious crashes. This is why it is important to wear your protective equipment any time you ride.

Call a Minneapolis Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

If you or anyone you know has been hit while riding a motorcycle, contact the Minneapolis motorcycle accident attorneys of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen at 612-362-0000.

Our Minneapolis Motorcycle Accident Injury Attorneys represent victims of personal injury and motorcycle accidents in Minneapolis and throughout the state of Minnesota, including: Afton, Anoka, Apple Valley, Arden Hills, Blaine, Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Burnsville, Cambridge, Champlin, Cokato, Columbia Heights, Coon Rapids, Cottage Grove, Crystal, Delano, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Edina, Falcon Heights, Forest Lake, Fridley, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Hugo, Inver Grove Heights, Isanti, Lake Elmo, Lakeville, Lindstrom, Lino Lakes, Little Canada, Maple Grove, Mahtomedi, Maplewood, Mendota Heights, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Mounds View, New Brighton, New Hope, North St. Paul, Oakdale, Plymouth, Princeton, Richfield, Robbinsdale, Roseville, St. Anthony, St. Louis Park, St. Paul, Savage, Shakopee, Shoreview, South St. Paul, Spring Lake Park, Vadnais Heights, West St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Woodbury, and Zimmerman.

Motorcycle accidents can be incredibly dangerous. Motorcycles can reach very high speeds, with no protection to the rider. This is why riding gear is made available, but this can still do only so much in the event of an accident. Even with the availability of riding gear, however, not everyone uses it. This can lead to even more severe injury in a crash.

Motorcycle crashes can be one of the most dangerous types of collisions because of the nature of motorcycles. With little to no protection, a motorcyclist has an increased risk of being injured in a crash. In addition to this, the rider is on a motorcycle that is capable of very high speeds. This adds to the force of impact in the crash, making an extremely dangerous situation.

In a motorcycle crash, there are a lot of different ways in which you can be injured. Road rash is not uncommon, especially when protective gear is not used. This, however, is the lower end of the spectrum. In a crash with a motorcycle, there is risk of:

• Broken bones
• Concussion
• Neck and back injuries
• Spinal cord injuries
• Paralysis
• Death

The degree to which the rider is injured depends on how fast the motorcycle and car were traveling, and how the collision occurred. However, no matter what, the rider is much more likely to be injured than the driver.

A Minneapolis Motorcycle Accident Attorney Can Help

If you or someone you know has been injured in a motorcycle accident, contact the Minneapolis motorcycle accident attorneys of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen at 612-362-0000.

Our Minneapolis Motorcycle Accident Injury Attorneys represent victims of personal injury and motorcycle accidents in Minneapolis and throughout the state of Minnesota, including: Afton, Anoka, Apple Valley, Arden Hills, Blaine, Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park, Burnsville, Cambridge, Champlin, Cokato, Columbia Heights, Coon Rapids, Cottage Grove, Crystal, Delano, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Edina, Falcon Heights, Forest Lake, Fridley, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Hugo, Inver Grove Heights, Isanti, Lake Elmo, Lakeville, Lindstrom, Lino Lakes, Little Canada, Maple Grove, Mahtomedi, Maplewood, Mendota Heights, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Mounds View, New Brighton, New Hope, North St. Paul, Oakdale, Plymouth, Princeton, Richfield, Robbinsdale, Roseville, St. Anthony, St. Louis Park, St. Paul, Savage, Shakopee, Shoreview, South St. Paul, Spring Lake Park, Vadnais Heights, West St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Woodbury, and Zimmerman.

Taking your child to the park or playground for an afternoon can be a wonderful bonding experience. Additionally, it provides your child with the opportunity to get exercise outdoors and socialize with other children.

Unfortunately, the fun of an afternoon at the playground can be ruined by an unnecessary and preventable accident. Studies have found that approximately 200,000 children are taken to the emergency room every year in the United States because of playground injuries.

Parents can help prevent playground injuries by exploring a playground before allowing their child to play on that playground’s equipment. One of the most important features for parents to examine is the actual design of the surface on which the playground equipment is situated.

Surface Design Safety

When checking out a playground for the first time, there are several aspects of surface design that parents will want to look for. These include:

• The material of the playground surface should not be a hard or unforgiving material. Playgrounds that are surfaced in grass, concrete, or packed earth are very dangerous. If a child falls on one of these surfaces, there will be little support and they will likely suffer an injury.
• Playgrounds should be surfaced with safe materials like sand, mulch, wood chips, shredded rubber, or pea gravel. These materials provide a good cushion if a child should fall from playground equipment.
• The playground surface should be free of any dangerous materials such as broken glass or sharp pieces of metal.
• The material used on the playground surface should not be tightly packed to ensure maximum cushioning.

Contact Us

If your child has suffered a playground injury, contact the Minneapolis child injury attorneys of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen, P.L.L.C. today at 612-362-0000 to discuss your legal rights and options.

Children love to go to the playground because there are so many things to do there. Slides, swings, merry-go-rounds, and everything else in a playground can provide hours of fun for children. However, it is very important to keep an eye on your children when they are at the playground. There are many dangers that they may not understand yet.

Swings are one of these dangers. Children often love to play on the swings, and they can be great sources of fun. However, they can also be dangerous. Children often have wonderful imaginations that can get them in trouble.

A child may walk in front of or behind a swing and get hit. Because of the nature of the swings, the child will more than likely be hit multiple times by the swing before it stops. On the other hand, your child may be the one on the swing. Standing up on the swing, he or she could lean too far back and fall off. This could cause injury in many different ways depending on how the child falls.

On top of all of this, children often like to jump out of swings while they are swinging. This could lead to broken bones or a collision between the jumping child and another person.

When injuries happen on someone else’s property, there is the possibility that someone else was negligent and responsible for your child’s injury, especially if the playground equipment was not properly cared for or maintained.

Speak with a Minneapolis Personal Injury Attorney

Playgrounds can be a great place to go for fun. However, it is important that you remember that safety comes first. If you or someone you know has suffered a playground injury because someone else was negligent, contact the Minneapolis personal injury attorneys of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen at 612-362-0000.

Children love to go to the playground. For some reason, the playground is able to provide hours of fun for children. However, it is important to remember that safety is always a concern. Playgrounds may be fun, but they can also be dangerous if you and your children are not careful.

There are many different things at the playground that could cause injury to you child. One of these things is the slide. Most playground slides are somewhere around six feet tall. Some of them are simple stand alone slides, while others are connected to a sort of clubhouse. The latter tends to be even taller than six feet because it has more support.

Unfortunately, the taller these slides get, the more dangerous they become. If a child falls off the top of a slide, he or she is falling at least six feet. If your child somehow finds a way to get on top of the twelve foot tall clubhouse attached to the slide, the fall is twice as high. This can be incredibly dangerous, and injury is very likely at this point.

These injuries can range depending on the ground covering, but broken bones are not uncommon. You should remember that safety is always a priority when you are at the playground. Unfortunately, accidents do happen. In some cases, these accidents may be the fault of the property owner.

Speak with a Minneapolis Personal Injury Attorney

If you or someone you know has had to suffer through playground injuries caused by the negligence of another person or the property owner, contact the Minneapolis personal injury attorneys of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen at 612-362-0000.

Law enforcement and police are supposed to uphold the law and maintain peace and order in society, and for the most part they do this well. Unfortunately, there are cases in which law enforcement officers abuse their powers and treat people brutally. While policy brutality often is associated with physical violence, it actually also can involve verbal and/or psychological abuse as well.

There have been many instances or accusations of policy brutality. The Rodney King riots in Los Angeles erupted because people felt that white police officers had treated Rodney King, a black man, violently. Recently, a man who could not speak English was tasered to death at an airport when he arrived in North America because he was panicking and was said to be dangerous. He indeed may have been dangerous, but not enough to warrant his death.

There are a number of reasons why law enforcement may resort to brutality. For example

• They may fear the situation that they are in
• They may feel pressured to be “macho,” as many of the colleagues may be acting in such a way
• They may have personal stresses that get released upon their victim(s)

Important to note is that these are only a few reasons police may become abusive.

Regardless of why police resort to abuse, however, it is usually inexcusable. If you have been the victim of police brutality, contact the Minnesota personal injury lawyers of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen by calling 612-362-0000.

Porch, balcony, or deck collapse is often times a disastrous incident that more commonly occurs in older structures, including houses and commercial buildings. Typically, they are wooden structures that have suffered many years of wear and tear from use and weather. The wood has rotted and lost the majority of its stabilizing ability, making it a hazard for any who are unfortunate enough to step out onto it.

When a porch or balcony has been worn out to the point of near-collapse, it will only take one instance of overloading for it to collapse and fall through. After this happens, the occupants of the deck are likely to be injured or even be victims of death. Should a balcony in a multi-story building collapse, those who are on the decks beneath the collapsed one are also likely to become victims of this tragedy.

Overloading by people is not the only cause of deck collapse. Furniture or other heavy stationary structures may also break through an older porch or balcony.

Deck collapse does not necessarily have to be the result of rotted wood caving in. Faulty or weak connections between the porch and the building may also result in support failure. Again, these are more common in older buildings, where porches were added before people were made more aware of the necessity of cross-support and stronger links between the main building and the add-on.

Contact Us

Many cities have building codes that require construction plans to be examined and cleared before erection and scheduled inspections after the building has been completed. If you have been a victim of porch or balcony collapse, do not hesitate to contact Minneapolis personal injury lawyers of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen, P.L.L.C. at 612-362-0000 today.

After experiencing a horrifying or distressing situation, a person is likely to take a while to recover emotionally from the shock of what has happened. In the most severe cases, an individual may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is oftentimes a result of the person being threatened or having been submitted to extreme physical harm, such as the threat or actual experience of being tortured. PTSD can also result in an individual who has witnessed physical harm being dealt to or threatened toward another person, such as a loved one.

PTSD is, quite simply put, an anxiety disorder. Sufferers of this illness are usually uneasy and quick to startle. They typically find it hard to show emotion, although at times they might react aggressively or violently to certain situations. Obviously, after having witnessed such events as they have, it is difficult for these people to forget what they have seen. They typically replay in their heads these traumatic occurrences, which makes it very hard for them to move on.

In general, symptoms of PTSD occur within about three months after the event has passed. If they last for longer than a month, then the sufferer is liable to be diagnosed with PTSD.

Contact Us

It can be extremely detrimental to witness a terrifying event such as being threatened by another individual or watching someone you love suffer from physical harm. If you think you might be a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, please contact the Minneapolis personal injury attorneys Terry, Slane & Ruohonen, P.L.L.C. at 612-362-0000 today.

While many people are aware and informed of the many burn hazards that exist inside the home, they often either forget or are uninformed about burn dangers that exist outside. There are many threats that exist outside the house that can result in severe burn injuries to unsuspecting individuals, and it is important for every individual to be aware of these dangers.

By paying attention to the following safety tips, you can hopefully keep yourself and your family safe from outdoor burn injuries.

• Be sure to keep children away from any lighters or matches that may be kept outside for lighting fires, candles, or grills. In addition to keeping these items away from children, you should also educate children on the dangers of these items.
• Before cooking on a barbecue or grill, make sure it is cleaned of all grease buildup. Additionally, use as little lighter fluid as possible to control the size of your flame.
• Make sure that every member of your family, no matter their age, wears sunscreen when spending time outside.
• Exercise safety when handling fireworks, and make sure to carefully and attentively supervise your children if they are playing with sparklers.
• Especially during the summer, make sure that you wear some sort of shoe or sandal when walking on hot pavement or sand. Make sure that your children are also wearing protective footwear.
• When near an outdoor fire or fire pit, make sure that you are sitting a safe distance away and that you do not lean or place your feet too close to the fire.

Contact Us

If you or someone you know has been the victim of a burn injury, contact the Minneapolis burn injury attorneys of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen, P.L.L.C. today at 612-362-0000.

Burn injuries can take place in nearly any room or part of the house, potentially causing disability or even death. The bathroom, however, has a higher number of burn risks than most other rooms in the house, and so families should do everything they can to keep this area of the house safe and secure.

By familiarizing yourself with some of the most frequent bathroom burn hazards and safety tips, you can hopefully keep yourself and your family safe from preventable burn injuries.

• Many families have lots of electrical equipment in their bathrooms. Make sure that the chords on all bathroom electrical equipment are free from any dirt or fraying.
• As soon as you finish using an appliance in the bathroom, unplug it so that it can cool down. Once you unplug the item, it will still remain hot for some time, and so you should keep it as far back on the counter as possible to prevent children from reaching up and touching it inadvertently.
• If you are preparing a bath for your child in either the bathtub or the sink, be sure to carefully check the temperature of the water before bathing your child.
• Do not overload the electrical outlets in your bathroom.
• Keep electrical appliances that are not in use safely stored in a cupboard or on a high shelf, out of the reach of children.
• Set your home’s water heater to no more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Contact Us

If you or someone you know has suffered a bathroom burn injury, contact the Minneapolis burn injury lawyers of Terry, Slane & Ruohonen, P.L.L.C. today at 612-362-0000 to discuss your situation with a qualified and experienced legal professional.