According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), the elderly population in America is growing exponentially. Following current projected population growth rates, we’re expected to have over 50 million elderly citizens (aged 65+) by the year 2020. By 2050, we’ll have over 80 million elderly residents. These statistics are proof that modern science and medicine have made wonderful impacts on our longevity, but they also prove that long term elderly care needs to quickly become a priority.

Providing satisfactory elderly care on a national level begins at the state level. This means improving nursing homes and other long term care facilities in every state. In Georgia, we have a long way to go until we accomplish this goal. Our state has some of the worst nursing homes in the nation. As we can see from these Georgia nursing home rankings from 2014, Georgia ranks #43 in the nation for overall nursing home quality. Our nursing homes are ranked lowest among all 8 southeast U.S. states, in fact.

According to a recent study, last year more than 20,000 nursing home residents in the United States suffered serious injuries to their face.  Most of the injuries resulted from falling and hitting hard surfaces or while getting in and out of bed.   The survey raises concern that nursing home residents are not receiving an adequate level of safety monitoring and care.

With the population aging and nearly 1.4 million people already in United States nursing home facilities, it is important that nursing homes be held accountable when these injuries occur.  Programs that focus on fall prevention aim to protect nursing home residents from these injuries, but alone they are not enough.

A fair number of major truck accidents occur on the interstates around Atlanta. Georgia drivers aren’t strangers to the destruction and devastation that semi trucks and other large commercial trucks can cause. Everyone knows that large truck wrecks can be deadly, but what you may not know is that many Georgia residents do not understand the facts about these accidents and how they can be avoided.

When we collectively understand the facts and can decipher fact from fiction, we can begin to learn how to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe when driving next to semi trucks on busy streets and interstates. Here are 4 common Georgia truck accident myths debunked:

Mass tort law is an aspect of personal injury law which involves cases with a large number of plaintiffs that share a common claim against a common group, company, or manufacturer. The most common types of personal injury mass torts involve pharmaceutical drugs, defective medical devices, and dangerous products. Mass tort claims make it infinitely easier for a law firm to help multiple clients at once and ensure action is taken to remove a defective or dangerous product from market.

Like many of the most complex types of civil lawsuits, mass torts can take years to fully settle. This is because most cases have strict deadlines that need to be followed. Also like most types of civil lawsuits, civil torts sometimes award settlements that offer both punitive and compensatory damages. These damages are rewarded to help victims recover as well as deter the defendant from repeating the same mistake.

Semi trucks, big rigs, 18-wheelers, and other large commercial trucks cause a considerable amount of devastation on Georgia’s highways. Around Atlanta, especially, we see a large number of dangerous truck crashes that result in fatalities. Atlanta’s highways are some of the most dangerous in the nation.

Since large trucks carry so much weight and sheer force behind them, a smaller passenger vehicle and its occupants almost always receive the brunt of the resulting devastation when an accident occurs. Big rigs are also large, noisy, and make wide turns. It’s unsurprisingly common for drivers to feel unsettled or uncomfortable when driving next to large trucks.

Atlanta, Georgia has some of the most dangerous interstate highways in the United States. More fatalities per miles traveled occurred on the I-285 than on any other interstate nationwide during 2013. Given the fact that the NHTSA estimates almost 4,000 people died in accidents involving large trucks in 2014, we can safely assume that a significant portion of those individuals died on Georgia highways close to home.

Truck accidents are deadly—there’s no doubting this fact. The massive amount of force and weight commercial big rigs and 18-wheelers carry behind them almost ensures that any type of accident involving a large truck will result in serious injuries if not death.