Each day, Americans are “hammered” with visual messages on TV and the Internet. But how many are trite, and how many are truly useful? Do we really need to know whose kitty can play the piano? Or do we need to know which defective drugs or injury accidents threaten our loved ones?

At Jim S. Adler & Associates, we’re trying to close the information gap not only in our website’s written content, but in its videos. That’s why we’ve created “Hammer TV,” a video-only Web service filled with helpful safety tips and information for keeping your family whole and healthy.

Named after longtime Texas personal injury attorney Jim “the Texas Hammer” Adler, Hammer TV hosts a variety of “Top Stories” videos on the dangers and costs of SUVs, ATVs, distracted drivers, salmonella food poisoning, uninsured motorists, defective drugs such as Paxil and — one of our biggest threats, literally — the risks posed by big rig, tractor trailer, semi truck and 18 wheeler vehicles.

But don’t worry: There’s also a human touch. Among Hammer TV’s “Top Stories” and “News on JSA Charities,” it offers looks at small children in need getting free “snow parties” or holiday clothes, and even an “up close and personal” look at the Texas Hammer himself, Jim Adler.

Hammer TV also has a touching tribute to Kevin Hills, a Texan who was killed by an 18 wheeler, and a heartwarming dedication to the staff and volunteers of Safe Kids Greater Houston, whose mission is to keep our kids safe.

Or check out Hammer TV’s “PSAs” tab for tips on road rage, water safety, kid safety and the dangers of texting while driving. Heck, you even can watch Jim Adler’s famed “TV Commercials” all in one place — and with no interruptions by annoying TV shows.

It’s all there for you — and for free — on Hammer TV. Tune in, and learn more.

Beyond that, the Texas Hammer has hard-hitting videos for you on YouTube and on Facebook.

On Facebook, check out Jim Adler’s latest flipcam interviews about Toyota’s massive stuck accelerator recall and why the Japanese automaker can’t be trusted, as well as his take on the computer screens coming to car dashboards this fall. Crazy, right?

Also on YouTube as well as on Facebook, watch the emotional video Jim Adler’s firm created for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and MADD Victim Services. Drunk drivers take a terrible toll in human life and in the anguish of victims’ survivors. This video puts a powerful face on them and is a moving reminder that we all have a responsibility to protect each other.

Call it reality TV with meaning and a message. Or call it Hammer TV. Either way, it’s here for you.

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With a national summit on distracted drivers set for this week, studies due today from the journal Pediatrics show that parents can have a huge effect on how effective — or distracted — their teen drivers become.

Conducted by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA and given funding by State Farm Insurance Co., the studies show that parents who set specific driving boundaries and urge caution in their kids are a lot more likely to have kids who survive into adulthood. (more…)

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Kids and play — an unbeatable combo. But not always. Sometimes, playground safety hazards can turn a carefree day into a traumatic trip to an emergency room.

Safe Kids USA, an organization supported by Jim Adler, founder of Jim S. Adler & Associates, knows the numbers. Safe Kids finds that 200,000 children yearly wind up in an ER after a playground mishap. Of those, about 90,000 suffer serious injuries, such as a broken bone — and 15 kids die.

Vigilant parents can keep such harm from happening, starting at home and extending to the proper maintenance of playground facilities.

As USA Today warned in a recent report, parents should ensure their kids aren’t wearing necklaces or clothing with drawstrings near the neck. Such things can get snagged on playground equipment and, with a fall, can choke a child — perhaps strangle him or her. So don’t even leave home when such a hazard dangles from a child’s neck.

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July 4th weekend is a time to celebrate America’s liberty. Yet our liberties don’t include driving while impaired, a misjudgment which claims almost one third of all traffic deaths yearly, and an even higher 40 per cent of all traffic deaths on the mid-summer holiday.

Alcohol abuse by drivers crosses all geographic and socioeconomic lines. But motorcyclists have the highest proportion of alcohol abuse of any drivers on the road, and thus more motorcyclists die in traffic accidents on Independence Day than on any other day of the year.

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Enough is enough. Too many children have died when parents or guardians left them unattended in cars. As summer’s heat rises, such neglect, in effect, is a death sentence. Wake up, America, and don’t ever leave small children behind in a hot vehicle, which one emergency physician says is like “leaving your child in a lit oven.”

Besides protecting the child’s life, you may be helping your own. Increasingly, parents are being arrested and charged with such offenses as child abuse, child neglect or child endangerment. The last can be a felony leading to a jail sentence. Was it worth it to leave the child alone while you went inside a store for some cigarettes?

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Again, tragedy has struck down an innocent child — and again, the tragedy was avoidable. Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson’s 4-year-old daughter has died, a day after strangling on a cord left dangling from a treadmill at her Phoenix, AZ home.

The treadmill wasn’t turned on, but clearly the cord was still dangerous. Normally such cords are clipped at one end to a treadmill user, so if the person falls, the cord will pull out of the machine at the other end and turn it off. In this case, little Exodus Tyson’s weight apparently wasn’t enough to pull out the cord, which instead became a noose.

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Most parents are extremely protective of kids. But anytime they take them in a car or other vehicle they’re exposing them to the No. 1 killer of America’s children. Indeed, child safety advocate group Safe Kids USA reports that car accidents and other motor vehicle mishaps are the chief cause of child deaths between ages 3 and 14.

That’s confirmed by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, which says car accidents are the top cause of deaths in kids aged 2-14. The center also says car accidents injure 250,000 American kids yearly. With about 2,000 of them suffering fatal injury, children are the victims in 5 per cent of America’s fatal traffic accidents. And unlike adults, it’s safe to say that no such child has caused the car accident in which he or she died.

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The tragic news of an infant death in a stalled car on the Galveston Causeway Sunday lends a sobering reminder that simply doing the right thing by buying and using protective car seats may not always be enough. Car seat safety is no guarantee of survival.

Child safety seats are far more common today, now that each state has passed child occupant protection laws. Yet as many as 1,800 children under age 14 die annually in vehicle accidents.

Even more disturbing is the fact that some of these children, like the child killed Sunday, were killed while sitting in a car seat.

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