BINGHAMTON — To raise money for organizations that combat drunk driving, 309 runners and about 400 walkers made it to the finish line at MacArthur Park during the 15th annual Danielle 5K Run/Walk on Sunday.

“This is the first time we’ve topped 300 runners,” said David Cody, deputy commissioner of the Broome County Department of Parks and Recreation. “It’s gratifying, for as long as we’ve been running, that we are still growing in that respect.”

Jordan Varano, 27, of Endicott, ran the 5K in 16 minutes and 33 seconds, the fastest time for the day.

The athletes raised $23,000, according to event workers. Past funds have been used for programs and equipment to fight drunk driving, including two $500 Students Against Drunk Driving scholarships, tools for the Binghamton police to video tape the arrest of drunk drivers, and the Periwinkle National Theatre presentation of a drug and alcohol prevention play.

The 5K is held in honor of Danielle Stento of Binghamton, who suffered traumatic brain injury and is cared for 24 hours a day after being struck by a drunk driver while walking across a street in Buffalo in 1989.

Source: http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060508/NEWS01/605080317/1006

Name : Shelley Hodgson
09may06

A DOTING grandmother says her life has been ruined by a drug-driver who was jailed yesterday for no less than a year.

“He destroyed my life. He has made me into a piece of rubbish. He has taken my life away from me,” Arsinoe Nikolakopoulos said in a statement through her daughter.

Mrs Nikolakopoulos, now 72, was driving home from church in June 2004 when her car and a speeding vehicle driven by Michael Joseph Taranto, 27, collided.

She was trapped inside her car, and suffered brain damage.

In her statement to the Victorian County Court, Mrs Nikolakopoulos, of Northcote, said she remembered nothing of her life before the accident.

She could not remember her parents or siblings and could not communicate well, cook, or look after herself or her three grandchildren.

“I’m embarrassed people change me, that I can’t go to the toilet … I feel like I’m a burden to myself and my family,” she said in the statement.

Taranto, formerly of Fawkner, pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury, using an unroadworthy vehicle, and unlicensed driving.

He was sentenced to two years’ jail with a non-parole term of 12 months and fined $700; his licence was cancelled.

Mrs Nikolakopoulos’s daughter, Nicky, broke down after sentencing.

“I thought, ‘Is that what it’s worth – 12 months?’ I don’t know whether anything is enough,” she said.

“A maximum for this charge is five years.

“I would have thought four years would have been good, given the circumstances,” she said.

No sentence would make a difference to her mother’s suffering, but Taranto “gets two years at the most and then he walks away,” she said.

Judge Tom Wodak said Taranto was driving at least 46km/h over the speed limit at the time of the crash, at the intersection of the Hume Highway and Major Rd in Fawkner.

His grossly excessive speed and use of cannabis were largely, if not exclusively, to blame.

“All too predictably in these circumstances, it was a matter of time before your propensity for driving too fast would have heartbreaking consequences,” Judge Wodak said.

Judge Wodak said Taranto was travelling south on the Hume when Mrs Nikolakopoulos emerged from Major Rd to turn north into the Hume Highway.

Some witnesses indicated that Mrs Nikolakopoulos did not stop at the stop sign. But Judge Wodak said that if Taranto had been driving at the 70km/h limit, he would have been able to stop well before any collision.

Nicky Nikolakopoulos said her mother was independent before the accident, but now “she can’t do anything any more.”

She hoped others would learn from their story and that Taranto would hurt no one else.

The court heard Taranto was suffering chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Judge Wodak said he took account of Taranto’s remorse, guilty plea, and a delay in the case.

People Against Lenient Sentencing president Steve Medcraft said Mrs Nikolakopoulos’s sentence was worse than Taranto’s. “Weigh up what he’s got and what she’s got – who got the harsher sentence?” he said.

Taranto had six prior road convictions including two for speeding, the court heard.

“I think it (a one-year minimum) is laughable considering his past performance – this is not going to teach him anything,” Mr Medcraft said.

Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara said a two-year maximum sentence was not enough.

“He’s as free as a bird in a year’s time, and back on with life he goes,” he said.

Source: http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,19071582%255E421,00.html

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 9:46 AM CDT

Editor’s note: This is the last in a four-part, weekly series.

By Adam Hammer, staff writer

Hangovers are temporary, but cirrhosis of the liver is forever and often results in death.

“Alcohol is a contributor to the top three causes of death partially because the immune system is decreased,” Barb Meek, a certified nurse practitioner at Fountain Centers, said.

A body’s immune system is an intricate network of blood cells and proteins that protect the body against infections. These defense mechanisms can be severely impaired, leaving them susceptible to infections including pneumonia and tuberculosis.

Not only chronic alcohol abuse, but single-episode and moderate consumption can affect the immune system, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Although the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on the immune system are generally short term, the failure of an appropriate initial immune system response can leave the body open to certain types of infections including HIV.

Following traumatic injuries, alcohol’s effect can also hinder healing and recovery.

For people who have been drinking for many years, serious liver injury often occurs. Heavy alcohol use is the leading single cause of illness and death from liver disease in the United States.

“Because the liver is damaged, it affects everything above it,” Meek said. “The liver is responsible for so much. We can’t live without a functioning liver.”

The liver is particularly susceptible to alcohol-related injury because it is the main site of alcohol metabolism. As alcohol is broken down, a number of potentially dangerous by-products are generated.

Symptoms of liver damage may not appear until damage is rather extensive.

Studies have shown that for serious liver injury to occur, a threshold dose must be consumed over many years. For men that intake could be approximately 72 ounces of beer – five or six standard drinks – daily for 20 years.
For women the threshold amount is one-fourth to one-half the amount for men.

Alcohol-related liver damage is divided into three categories: Fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis.

Fatty liver is reversible and occurs in almost all heavy drinkers. It can also occur for short periods in non-alcoholics after a single drinking session.

Alcoholic hepatitis is characterized by widespread inflammation and destruction of liver tissue. Symptoms may include fever, jaundice and abdominal pain. The condition can be fatal, but may be reversible by abstaining from drinking. Alcoholic hepatitis occurs in up to 50 percent of heavy drinkers according to NIAAA.

As drinking continues, cells continue to die. Tissue continues to be destroyed and replaced by scar tissue, a process known as fibrosis. Extensive fibrosis is one of the characteristics of alcoholic cirrhosis.

Cirrhosis is diagnosed in 15 to 30 percent of heavy drinkers and is usually fatal and always irreversible. It can, however, be stabilized with abstinence.

It’s no secret that alcohol impairs judgment and affects the brain, but the degree of severity in regards to the developing brain is coming to light with recent studies.

A study released by Duke Medical Center notes that a tremendous amount of development occurs in the brain during the teen years, including a major remodeling of the frontal lobes. The frontal lobes are involved in planning, decision-making, impulse control and language.

Developmental changes in the brain are influenced by experience. For example, the brain takes a daily inventory of neurotoxins that are released to the brain so it knows how much to produce for the next day. It takes the brain about 14 years to develop a steady daily production of neurotoxins that is determined by daily inventory taken during the teen years.

The moldability of the brain decreases as people enter their early 20s.

Long-term drinking in adults can cause memory loss and hinder the ability to problem solve. When the brain gets too low on thiamin, often due to malnutrition in relation to drinking, brain damage, delusions and hallucinations can occur.

Granted not all cases of cirrhosis of the liver and other illnesses associated with alcohol are strictly because of alcohol, genetics also plays a large role.

Seeing the signs and symptoms of alcohol-related illnesses can be difficult, however, if someone who drinks often is experiencing high blood pressure, memory loss and often becoming ill, it may be best to see a doctor.

“Even if it’s not from alcohol, it’s a good idea to go in,” Meek said. “People can’t necessarily see a problem themselves, it’s the people around them that can.”

Source: http://www.albertleatribune.com/articles/2006/04/25/news/news1.txt

4/26/2006 8:30:00 AM EST

BIOWIRE

Study Shows African Americans and Latinos Five Times More Likely to Become Injured Than Whites Health Disparities Experts, MADD to Visit Beacon Hill Today.

On the heels of landmark health care reform legislation in Massachusetts establishing a commission to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities, national experts from the Meharry-State Farm Alliance at Meharry Medical College will visit Beacon Hill today with a strong message to state legislators: Massachusetts is needlessly spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to provide long-term health care while its minority citizens are killed or injured at the mercy of the state’s most preventable cause of death–low rates of seat belt usage.

“What we’re facing is a real public health crisis, not only in Massachusetts, but across the nation,” said Irwin Goldzweig of the Meharry-State Farm Alliance, a nationally renowned seat belt compliance advocacy, research and education organization housing the nation’s only comprehensive minority seat belt compliance database. “For the last four years we have been compiling scientific evidence proving that primary seat belt legislation decreases disparities in seat belt use and therefore in preventable death and injury among minority populations. Massachusetts is clearly behind the curve when it comes to addressing this issue.”

“One year ago, the Boston Public Health Commission documented widespread disparities in health care for ethnic minorities in Massachusetts,” said Dr. Selwyn O. Rogers of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Eight months ago, Hurricane Katrina unmasked widespread disparities by race and class in the aftermath of the storm. Today, we have a ’silent’ Katrina. African-Americans and Hispanic Americans are less likely to use seat belts and are disproportionately more likely to suffer traumatic brain injuries, nonfatal motor vehicle injuries, and fatal motor vehicle injuries. A primary seat belt law in Massachusetts would be one tangible public policy step to eliminate these disparities.”

Primary seat belt legislation allows state and local law enforcement to cite motorists who are not wearing seatbelts. Many states have passed secondary legislation that limits law enforcement to stopping motorists for non-seat belt usage only if there is another moving violation in progress.

Among the Meharry State-Farm Alliance’s other findings to be presented:

– Massachusetts provides financial and medical assistance to approximately 100 new spinal cord injured persons per year as a result of preventable car crashes, costing the state nearly $24 million in health care costs.

– More than one-half of the increase in MassHealth spending (the state’s health care coverage program) since 2000 is attributed to services for the non-elderly disabled, accounting for 70 percent of the increased spending as a whole.

– When compared with other states that have passed primary seat belt legislation, Massachusetts would prevent more than 2,000 injuries, 27 deaths and $221.1 million in the first year alone.

– In neighboring Connecticut, a state with primary seat belt legislation, the mortality rate is nearly 38 percent lower per 100,000 motorists.

These findings specific to Massachusetts are supported by scientific evidence accumulated by the Meharry-State Farm Alliance proving that primary seat belt legislation removes disparities in this public health crisis for all Americans.

“The lack of seat belt usage represents significant preventable injuries especially for African Americans and Latinos who are 5 to 6 times more likely than white motorists to suffer critical injuries,” said Goldzweig of the Alliance. “Other states have shown that it doesn’t cost a dime to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars. We hope Massachusetts will consider the data and act in the best interest of its residents by passing primary legislation.”

About Meharry

Meharry Medical College is the nation’s largest private, independent historically black institution dedicated solely to educating health science professionals. The College is particularly well known for its uniquely nurturing, highly effective educational programs; growing preeminence in health disparities research; culturally sensitive, evidence-based health services; and significant contribution to the diversity of the nation’s health professions workforce. Diverse Issues in Higher Education’s ranking of institutions annually lists Meharry as a leading national educator of African Americans with M.D. and D.D.S. degrees and Ph.D. degrees in the biomedical sciences.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Related statistics and interview requests can be fulfilled by contacting Mike Brewer of Seigenthaler Public Relations: (615) 327-7999 or mike@seig-pr.com.

Source: http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=797390

Name : Daniella Miletic
May 9, 2006
A DRUG-AFFECTED driver who was speeding when he smashed into a car, leaving a 71-year-old woman wheelchair-bound, has been jailed for two years.

Michael Joseph Taranto, 27, was travelling at more than 116 km/h in a 70 km/h zone and had taken cannabis before smashing his Commodore into a car at the intersection of the Hume Highway and Major Road, Fawkner, in June 2004.

The County Court heard that Arsinoe Nikolakopoulos, now 73, was left with brain damage and amnesia as a result of the crash. She is wheelchair-bound and incapable of dressing or feeding herself. The court was told that before the crash she had an active life, including visiting and receiving visits from her children and grandchildren.

In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, Mrs Nikolakopoulos said she was in constant pain.

“I don’t remember anything of my life,” she said. “I have forgotten my mother, my father, my brothers and sisters.

“I feel like I am a burden to myself and my family. He destroyed my life. He has made me into a piece of rubbish. He has taken my life away from me.”

Taranto, formerly of Fawkner, had pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury, using an unroadworthy vehicle and unlicensed driving.

Judge Tom Wodak sentenced him to two years’ jail with a minimum of one year and disqualified him from driving for two years.

Judge Wodak said he took into account Taranto’s pattern of undisciplined driving, with convictions for speeding and a “road rage” incident.

“It was a matter of time before your propensity for driving too fast would have heartbreaking consequences,” he said. “For Mrs Nikolakopoulos, her car was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Had you driven even up to the speed limit applying at the scene of the collision, it is most probable that you would have been able to stop well before any collision occurred,” he said.

He accepted Taranto was remorseful and had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder since the accident.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/driver-destroyed-my-life-pensioner/2006/05/08/1146940475926.html

Q: My 16-year-old daughter will be going to her first prom soon. I want her to have a good time, but I’m worried about her safety on a night when so much drinking and driving is going on. Any advice?

A: With the advent of spring, teenagers around the country are looking forward to prom night and graduation activities. It’s a very exciting time in a young person’s life, and naturally parents want their children to have fun, but they also want them to be safe.

“All the more reason to reinforce the message that drinking and driving can be disastrous,” says Gary Pace, Ph.D., clinical director of May Institute’s school for children and adolescents with brain injury. “According to the National Highway Safety Administration, alcohol-related crashes kill more young people ages 16 to 20 than any other age group. And many young people who survive serious automobile accidents are left with life-threatening or life-altering brain injuries.”

Most young people will assure their parents that they know all about the dangers of drinking and driving. However, some who would not drink and drive could find themselves in a situation where they might be tempted to ride with someone who does.

“Statistics reveal that eight young people die every day in alcohol-related crashes,” said Pace. “Many of these deaths occur in the spring and summer months following prom night and graduation parties. And many of these fatalities are caused by traumatic brain injuries that, in most cases, are preventable.”

Traumatic brain injury affects approximately 1 million children every year, with 165,000 requiring hospitalization. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, more people experience traumatic brain injury each year than breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries combined. Currently, more than 5 million Americans are living with disabilities caused by brain injury.

For those young people who survive a life-threatening brain injury, long-lasting effects may impact their ability to function well at school, home and in other settings. [continue]

Source : http://www2.townonline.com/roslindale/opinion/view.bg?articleid=490125