I'VE SEEN ENOUGH REAR-ENDERS! MY HONK TO THE REAR GAMBIT by Dr. Arlo Gordin

Over the years I've seen some very responsible, careful drivers come in to my office with car accident-caused injuries they apparently couldn't avoid . . .

But I began to ponder, is there a way they could have avoided that accident that we weren't ever taught in drivers' education?

It would seem that when somebody slams into our car from the rear, that's out of our control.  After seeing hundreds of people in this situation, I devoted serious thought into the prevention of rear-end collisions.  From this came the idea for a driving technique I've used repeatedly to protect myself from accidents.  I call it "Honk To the Rear". 

This driving technique can help you avoid, or lessen the impact of what could be a devastating rear-end collision.  You know you can take responsibility in your driving for what's in front of you and what's to the side of you.  This technique allows you to take some responsibility for what's going on in the cars behind you!

It works like this.  When you find yourself having to stop or slow in traffic, 1) where it would not ordinarily be expected, like a freeway or a fast thoroughfare, 2) in the middle of an intersection where you are expected to drive right  through, 3) when heading downhill with people behind you indicating poor braking ability or inattention 4) while driving in poor weather conditions causing vision or braking impairment, employ the following guidelines:

The moment you find it necessary to apply your brakes suddenly, instantly shoot your eyes to your rear view mirror.  If you cannot clearly see the eyes of the driver behind you indicating that he has seen your red lights and has applied his brakes, instantly begin to honk your horn.  Honk.  Honk.  Honk.  The unconscious response of the person behind you is to apply the brakes when that honking is heard.  "Why is he honking?  Something must be wrong," is the instinctive message.  Also immediately turn on your emergency flashers too.  You're trying to get them to hear and see something is going on and go into alert-driver mode (as opposed to retarded texter-mode for example).

Of course, the person in front of you thinks you're insane for honking.  "Why are you honking?  Can't you see the lady in the crosswalk in front of me?"  The lady in the crosswalk also thinks you're crazy.  "Don't you know I have the right-of-way?"  But of course, you're not honking to the front, not honking to her; you're honking to the rear.

A person unexpectedly steps into the crosswalk, or chooses to walk against the "DON'T WALK" signal. Traffic behind you is moving at 45 MPH.  You honk for the people behind you, so they won't run into you.  The cars behind you brake and no collisions occur.  It's unfortunate that the lady in the crosswalk is startled, but better for everyone that a collision hurting people (and property) has been avoided.  

Hitting the brakes that extra second earlier, after being alerted by the honking, can make the difference, especially in Los Angeles traffic where we often don't get that cushion of space around us which they told us in Driver's Ed would protect us from rear-end collisions.  The driver who is looking at someone strolling down the street, the driver texting, the one who is rummaging around in her purse, the person who is just spacing out, the driver messing with the telephone or nav system, or even listening to loud music, hears your Honk, Honk, Honk, crunches the brakes and doesn't hit you.  The honking could also signal the driver barreling along three cars behind you and prevent a four-car freeway pile-up. I employ this technique often and I know it has protected me on many occasions.

That additional method of warning by turning on your emergency flashers gives an additional signal that something ahead is not speeding along; it's not business as usual.

A third way is, when a vehicle ahead of you has slowed in your lane to make a left turn, to turn on your left turn signal.  Traffic behind you cannot see the signal from the car ahead, but seeing yours gives them an additional visual cue that traffic isn’t barreling through, but instead indicates you're stopping to turn.           

Rear-end collisions are well worth avoiding.  The damage they can cause to your spine is a hassle to repair and can sometimes leave permanent weakening of the ligament tissues that are torn.  The aggravation of having to fix yourself, and your car, are all things we can do without in our busy lives.  We have plenty of more important things to do.

I hope this driving tip saves you from needless whiplash, pain, and wasted energy in dealing with body shops and insurance adjusters. So practice it a bit, until the technique becomes instant and intuitive.  Remember - in sudden situations - you can Honk to the Rear.

Accidents by Dr. Arlo Gordin

In collisions when cars run into cars (or motorcycles, trucks, bicycles, trees, pedestrians, etc.) and metal gets bent, it is common to get injured. These injuries are all too easy to sustain, but to heal completely and properly is not so easy.

Most of the time, injury results in pinching your nerves, in sprains, torn ligaments, pain, inflammation and other symptoms. When these injuries are only partially treated (such as just heat, therapy, massage and drugs) they heal incompletely. You can end up with pain, stiffness or numbness, and later, degeneration and arthritis in your joints from incorrect or incomplete treatment.

Accidents can sometimes cause broken bones, cracked ribs, head concussion or even internal organ injuries. Those are some of the reasons that careful examination is important, and when needed diagnostic tests and x-rays.

You may easily understand the way that injury occurs to your neck and spine. After all, the human head has the weight of a bowling ball, and is supported on a bony spinal column only about an inch and a half in diameter. Snapping the weight of your head against the small neck ligaments that hold it up, injuring your ligaments is the cause of “Whiplash”. Frequently you could damage the normal healthy curve that was in your neck before the accident. The mid-back and low-back spinal areas are also frequently damaged and hurt, causing pinched nerve short circuits and pain.

As result your neck and back can be in pain, and often they don’t move fully or well.

Bracing your hands on the steering wheel can cause the impact to be transferred through your arms, injuring your wrists, elbows, or shoulders. For example, the force into your wrist could cause you a carpal tunnel syndrome which "short circuits" the nerves in your wrist, hands or fingers. Your knee can be injured by striking the dashboard or bracing on a pedal or the car's floor. A foot jammed onto the brake pedal will transfer the force to your ankle, leg, knee or hip, potentially injuring those areas. Rib sprains from force to the rib cage can cause tremendous pain.

In my clinic, I have the experience and technical skills to properly assess an accident. So many times I have seen injuries misdiagnosed and mistreated by other professionals. Even on x-rays, the fractured bones were not "caught", sometimes at emergency rooms or with specialists! And often the exact technique needed to replace a displaced tendon, or unpinch a shorted-out nerve in the neck or spine isn't in the repertoire of other professionals who treat accident patients. When those types of shortcomings are encountered, you can most often expect that your recovery can be limited, that future pains will be expected, and that incompletely recovered injuries can "degenerate" (worsen and become arthritic) as the years after the accident pass by.

Very importantly I care about my patients, and my work is to see that you get fully well. I take your well-being as my most important job. My patients have trusted me for years to do the job exceptionally well and to get them out of pain, restored properly, and healthy.

I have three main goals in helping you after an accident: (1) Get you out of pain and feeling better and moving normally as soon as possible, (2) Follow through to treat each injured area so that they all heal properly and completely, so that (3) You will be free of future problems and not have degenerated arthritic joints from the injury in the years later.

Many people choose Chiropractic care for these types of injuries, because it is the type of treatment designed specifically to restore joints to normal position and function, un-pinch nerves and cause them to heal correctly. It can prevent you from developing degenerated and arthritic joints. It keeps back problems from becoming permanent.

Of course the more advanced, thorough and complete the type of Chiropractic that is used; the better will be your result. With my Advanced Applied Kinesiology which I use in my office, your injuries can be diagnosed, understood, explained and treated accurately.

Nutritional supplementation can be very valuable for its natural pain-relieving effects and in supporting the complete healing of damaged (overstretched and torn) joint tissues and inflamed nerves. Because of the side effects of anti-inflammatory and pain-killing drugs, if they are used at all, they should be used only briefly. However, scientific studies show that frequently nutrients outperform anti-inflammatory drugs. Supplements for injury can relieve pain too, but they speed healing, which drugs don’t. The anti-inflammatory drugs actually sabotage tissue metabolism and healing.

It is very important for you to get to us promptly. Wasted time causes things to heal, but they will be expected to heal in the wrong positions (in the place where the bones shifted to from the microtearing of ligaments that occurs in a majority of accident injuries). Yet another big problem is that many times patients have wasted their insurance money going to other places to get little real help at all. Then the insurance company often won’t pay all over again for the real help that’s still needed, especially after the useless treatment undergone already spent a lot of money on medical bills. What a hassle!

Most automotive injuries and personal injury cases can be paid fully by insurance.

We can also help you in the correct legal and insurance direction. It’s usually far better to have us refer you to an excellent attorney, than to have a lawyer choose your doctor (who when be chosen by an attorney to whom money is the most important motive) on monetary grounds rather than on doctoring skills. I've observed that the attorney's work on settling accident cases with an insurance adjuster can require less specialized skills than those required for healing patients properly!

I can accept many accident cases on insurance and am qualified to make all necessary legal and insurance reports. After an accident, I advise you call us first and promptly, and we can advise you on the phone which are the proper next steps for you to take.

Most important: Don’t waste your time, money, and most importantly your health, doing nothing, taking ineffective drugs, or getting poor treatment. These result in short and long-term problems, pain and lost mobility. That can be avoided by getting the best treatment. Here's my suggestion:

Get the right things done promptly and feel right as quickly as you can, and get things to heal completely and right!