You are currently browsing all posts tagged with 'traffic'

i am being charged with conspiracy to traffic methampetamine. this is my first offense. will i go to jail?

  • Posted on March 8, 2011 at 5:20 pm

for 2 months i really messed up and got into meth. i bought 7 boxes of sudafed that were used to make meth and now am being charged. i have a clean adult record, a full time job and a daughter. i dont want to go to jail but i should prepare my self if i am. any advice?

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what would be a person’s sentence for OWI and lifetime traffic offender ?

  • Posted on October 15, 2010 at 3:25 am

my daughter’s boyfriend was arrested

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what would be a person’s sentence for OWI and lifetime traffic offender ?

  • Posted on October 14, 2010 at 5:27 am

my daughter’s boyfriend was arrested

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what would be a person’s sentence for OWI and lifetime traffic offender ?

  • Posted on October 13, 2010 at 7:37 am

my daughter’s boyfriend was arrested

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what would be a person’s sentence for OWI and lifetime traffic offender ?

  • Posted on July 26, 2010 at 11:23 am

my daughter’s boyfriend was arrested

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Sleep Deprivation and Traffic Accidents

  • Posted on January 12, 2010 at 12:07 pm

Ten years ago, a former colleague of mine, a fine teacher and person, was tragically killed in a car accident in British Columbia. He was on vacation with his daughter who miraculously survived the accident. What happened was a classic case of sleep deprivation: my friend was anxious to make his way to a chosen destination and despite his fatigue and the fact that he had been on the road for over 6 hours, he made the decision to drive through the night. He never made it there.

That there is a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and traffic accidents cannot be disputed. In 1998, 24,318 deaths were cited from accidents related to sleep deprivation in the US. There were as well 2, 474,430 disabling injuries resulting from accidents where decreased mental efficiency and attentiveness due to sleep loss was the major causative factor. In fact, a major review conducted in 1996 suggested that the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez, the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, the nuclear accident at Chernobyl( costing over 50,000 lives) and the near nuclear accidents at the Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom reactors were all associated with sleep deprivation of the personnel involved.

Sleep deprivation is often caused by sleep disorders which are unknown to the subjects themselves. Sleep apnea, for example, is a common cause for sleep deficit. A study at the Sleep Disorders and Research Center of Stanford University Medical School showed that truck drivers identified with sleep disordered breathing had a two-fold higher accident rate than drivers without sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep disordered breathing, commonly known as sleep apnea, affects 15 million people in the United States. This condition, characterized by suffocation and oxygen deprivation which wake the subjects up several times in the course of the night, is responsible for daytime sleepiness and fatigue. Put these subjects on the highway and we have a recipe for disastrous traffic accidents.

Perhaps an examination of the influence sleep deprivation has on our mental acuity and performance level can shed light on how we can protect ourselves and others from the disastrous consequences of sleep fatigue.

What happens to you when you are sleep deprived? According to the Traffic Research Center, these are the influences of sleep deprivation on performance:

a) Slower reaction time: sleeplessness slows down your reflexes; reaction time slows down, preventing you from stopping in times of danger.

b) Decrease in concentration levels: When you are overly tired, your attention span decreases. Most people are subject to a decrease in attention every 90-120 minutes; however, sleepiness makes this decrease even worse and it can cause accidents when you fall asleep at the wheel.

c) Disorder in information processing: Sleepiness is very much like being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When you are sleepy, your mental and psychomotor skills diminish. In one study, a group of subjects were kept awake for 28 hours; another group was given alcoholic drinks every half hour. When both groups were tested for hand-eye coordination, the ones who were sleep deprived performed equally bad as the ones with 0.5 blood alcohol level.

What are the factors that have a direct effect on a driver’s tiredness?

a) The amount of time the driver has been on the road. When a driver has been on the road for 8 or more hours, his driving performance is impaired. The risk of accidents increases.

b) The amount of sleep the driver had the night before. Not having any sleep for 16 hours has a serious impact on driving performance. Research shows that the sleeping period of drivers who are involved in road accidents are shorter than the ones of those who had sufficient sleep.

c) Sleep disorders and Obesity. Sleep disorders like sleep apnea or narcolepsy in truck drivers are a major risk factor. In the same Stanford University Study mentioned above, even weight can seriously affect the frequency of traffic accidents. Obese drivers with a body mass more than 30 kg also presented a two-fold higher accident rate than non-obese drivers.

d) Environmental factors. The lack of resting and parking facilities for drivers is another factor that contributes to the accident rate.

What can we do to ensure that we get adequate sleep?

a) Set up a bedtime ritual—the same time to bed, the same routines like reading in bed or listening to relaxing music.

b) See your doctor if you have snoring or breathing problems, daytime fatigue, morning headaches, night time choking episodes. You could have sleep apnea which can be treated with new devices and technology.

c) If you are overweight, take the steps to bring down your weight. Obesity is a common factor in sleeplessness.

d) Get into a routine of exercise during the day. Do not exercise after 7Pm as the activity could be over stimulating and prevent you from sleeping.

A simple thing like sleep is nothing to be dismissed. More and more studies are revealing a direct link between our nighttime and daytime experiences.

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Understand yourself by noticing: Your six constants

  • Posted on July 1, 2009 at 10:12 pm

Noticing is what we do in our daily lives. We notice the weather and the scowls and smiles on the faces of people we pass on the street. We notice the traffic and the litter and the frisky puppy coming towards us. Noticing is how we learn and how we change, grow and interact. Still if we notice every detail around us, we go on overload.

Noticing requires balance. The question is what is important to notice and what is important to avoid noticing. What I notice depends on where I am at a given moment in my day’s activities and my surroundings. Although the list of things I notice changes depending on where I am, six things remain constant.

1. Mood

I notice the moods of others and my own in reaction to their moods. I notice how easily moods shift. Noticing moods is important for me because moods give clues about what to do or what not to do. What however is most important is noticing my mood in that how I react to an idea, a person, or a situation tells me what works and doesn’t work for me.

2. Surroundings

I notice my surroundings, which include the shapes of buildings and the trunks of trees. I notice where fire escapes are and where potential dangers are. I’m on alert for both the beauty of trees and flowers and the dangers of traffic and possible threats from others.

Being aware of possible threats from others is a city skill. When I lived in the countryside, I thought of snakes and mountain lions as possible threats when I walked in the woods. Now that I live in the city, I think of people and cars as possible threats.

3. Arrangements

Arrangements are how things are ordered. I notice how people cue at the bank and the post office. I notice how systems function. When I lived in East Africa, I noticed how people didn’t cue at the post office. They just crowded together at the counter to buy stamps. I noticed how the loudest voice seemed to get service from the postal clerk.

4. The world

I notice the events of the day by reading a daily paper online. My goal is to be aware of the wider world to keep in mind that my city is not necessarily the center of the world although much of the time I feel that where I am is what matters most.

5. Breathing

The air we breathe sustains us. I notice the air around me and I notice how I breath. Deep breathing equates with a relaxed body. If you’re not already practicing deep breathing that may mean that your shoulders are tense and that you are tense.

6. Words

I notice the words that people use, and I notice how words have the power to bridge or to alienate. Words sell and words compromise.

You may have your own list of six items that you notice. Your list may be conscious or it may not be conscious. An activity that will help you to better understand yourself and the world around you would be to list the six things you generally notice. Another activity that may help you to better understand the world around you is making a list of those things that you want to notice.

This article is from Aaron Language Services at
http://www.aaronlanguage.com/
We provide English writing services to a primarily Japanese clientele. If you are an experienced editor, specializing in medicine or the hard sciences, please contact us via personnel on the menu on the left side of our top page.

Article Source: Understand yourself by noticing: Your six constants

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How to Stop Panic Attacks by Remembering They Cannot Harm You

  • Posted on July 1, 2009 at 7:36 pm

How to stop panic attacks sounds easy enough when you hear or read what folks tell you. But in reality, during a panic attack, it’s very hard to re-order your thoughts to stop the attack. During panic attacks, you are so overpowered by physical and emotional stress and anxiety that it’s very difficult to organise your mind and do the things that you have been taught.

The first thing to remember is that panic attacks in themselves cannot harm you: your life is not in danger. The symptoms you are experiencing are your body’s way of reacting, in the way it knows how, to ‘perceived’ threats to it. But these threats are all in your head, they aren’t real.

In other words, the tightness in your chest and throat, the rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, sweating, the feeling that you are having a heart attack, etc. are you body’s natural reactions to the illogical, irrational fear and vulnerability that you are experiencing.

The trigger for it could have been the stress of going for a job interview, making a presentation, being stuck in traffic, in a lift, and many other situations. The stress of this on top of an already anxious condition can help trigger a panic attack due to the release of adrenaline into your bloodstream. And this can happen many hours after the event.

So how to stop panic attacks under these circumstances? It sounds easier than it actually is — I know, I’ve been there — but you must try very hard to do the following…

1. Be confident and think positively: “I know my life is not in danger and I know for sure that these symptoms will go away very shortly”.

2. Breath deeply and steadily: Controlled breathing can help to calm you down and reduce your heart rate. It’s also a good idea to exhale for slightly longer than you inhale. This pattern may help you relax more quickly.

3. If you have had a panic attack previously you may be able to recognise the first signs. Depending on location and circumstances etc., stop what you are doing, walk away, focus on something completely different, relax. Remember, think positively and control your breathing as above.

However, none of the above can actually get rid of your underlying general anxiety. They are purely coping techniques to help you through a panic attack and hopefully shorten it. They cannot prevent further panic attacks and certainly cannot cure your general anxiety.

Did you know that a critical factor in recurrent panic attacks is the actual fear of another panic attack? You need to face this fear head on and defeat it. If not it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to cure your general anxiety.

Would you like to get more information on how to stop panic attacks in the future using a simple, proven drug-free technique? Then go now to http://eliminatepanicattacks.blogspot.com and prepare to get your old confident self back.

Article Source: How to Stop Panic Attacks by Remembering They Cannot Harm You

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