Vested Interest - September 1998 Issue

The President’s Thoughts

From my years of practice, knowing all the societal good that is done by consumer oriented attorneys, it has always surprised me that the public at large seems to be unaware of or does not appreciate what we do. As attorneys representing consumers, we know that our cars, our medical devices, our children’s clothing and toys are safer; our roads, our skies, our rails are safer. The quality of probably every aspect of life has improved because of the efforts of trial attorneys.

ITLA, as an organization, is committed not only to helping the injured, but also affirmatively working to reduce the risk of injuries. With that in mind and in keeping with the ATLA national campaign, to “Keep Our Families Safe,” we will initiate an awareness campaign relating to the risk of death and brain injuries from bicycling and the benefits of helmets. The statistics are dramatic. The use of bike helmets will prevent 80% of all deaths and reduce the risk of brain injuries by 88%. Helmets can prevent one head injury every four minutes. Each year there are 500,000 bike crash injuries requiring emergency room care. Over 800 are fatal and almost 700 could be prevented if helmets were used. Of those killed, the vast majority are children under the age of eighteen. The campaign to raise the public awareness of bicycle-related deaths will include ads, distribution of information on the use of bike helmets, bike helmet videos for use in our schools and the distribution of bike helmets at various locations. We will begin this year in the Chicagoland area and move to locations throughout the State of Illinois. The campaign will proceed in cooperation with the City of Chicago, the Chicagoland Safe Kids, the Chicago Region PTA, Region II (City of Chicago) Trauma Center Medical Directors Committee and the University of Chicago Childrens Hospital.

A similar helmet program was started by the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association a couple of years ago and was effective in increasing the usage of bike helmets. I hope we can also be successful in increasing the use of helmets in Illinois, especially among children, and reducing deaths and serious brain injuries to children and adults alike. This will be another example of our concern for the safety of Illinois families. We must continue in our efforts on many fronts to improve the level of safety for the citizens of Illinois, and also to make the public aware of our concern for their safety. This is the first of what I hope will be many ongoing campaigns to better inform the public of what we really stand for and what we really do.

Martin J. Healy, Jr.
President, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association