Georgia Personal Injury Law Blog

There's no question that attitudes toward driving under the influence of alcohol have changed considerably here in the U.S. over the last several decades, with more people than ever understanding just how dangerous this behavior is. Indeed, statistics show that while alcohol was a factor in 55 percent of fatal crashes in 1982, this number has since declined to roughly 33 percent. As encouraging as this development is, a recently released report by the Governors Highway Safety Association reveals that the threat posed by impaired driving not only remains very real, but has actually evolved. Authored by a former senior official with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the report found that 43 percent of drivers who died in car crashes had some sort of drug in their system, while 38 percent of drivers who died in car crashes had alcohol in their system. Based on 2015 data, the most recent year…

If you are struggling to pay your credit card bills, mortgage payments, and other monthly expenses, you are not alone. Many people in Macon are also experiencing financial problems that interfere with their ability to make timely payments to their creditors. As burdensome and embarrassing as it can be for you to have credit card debt, your emotions may be preventing you from developing healthy financial habits. If you are currently working and earning income, you may be able to catch up on your payments. If not, there may be other options available. Learn how to overcome the shame often associated with credit card debt so you can take action to improve your financial situation. Assess your situation Evaluate your financial behavior so you can understand why you are in this situation. If you do not have a good understanding of how to manage your finances, you may have trouble…

When it comes to safety awareness, April is an exceedingly busy month. That's because in addition to the entire month being designated National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, the week of the 3-7 was National Work Zone Awareness Week and the week of the 9-15 was National Dog Bite Prevention Week. While these are all extremely important safety issues meriting special attention, it can understandably prove to be difficult to keep track of them all. However, given that more people are now going to be outside owing to the return of spring and the fact that estimates show there are now close to 70 million dogs living in U.S. households, it's perhaps worthwhile to revisit some of the lessons of National Dog Bite Prevention Week. In the event you question the need for such an exercise, consider the following: More than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs here in the U.S.…

When the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its estimates for the number of traffic fatalities during the first 9 months of 2016 earlier this year, people were understandably concerned. That's because it projected that as many as 27,875 people lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents versus 25,808 during the same timeframe in 2015, an 8 percent increase. While these figures have sounded an alarm about the safety of our roads and highways, the numbers recently released by another federal agency will likely raise these concerns to another level. Last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released its annual figures concerning large truck accidents, meaning those weighing in excess of 10,000 pounds. They revealed that the number of large trucks involved in fatal accidents rose from 3,749 in 2014 to 4,050 in 2015, an 8 percent increase. Furthermore, the rate of large trucks involved in fatal accidents per 100…

While improving economic conditions has resulted in rising wages, greater job stability, and increased employment opportunities, they have also had the other less obvious impact of putting more people back on the road. Indeed, this reality, coupled with low gas prices, has resulted in a considerable spike in the number of motor vehicle miles traveled. Although this may seem like a welcome development, it actually comes at a time when more people than ever are choosing to make the transition from motorist to pedestrian owing to everything from improved public transportation and monetary concerns to a desire to live a healthier lifestyle and reduce their carbon footprint. Of course, with this increase in motorists and pedestrians -- and the number of smartphones owned by each -- comes a heightened risk of fatal accidents. It wasn't until the Governors Highway Safety Association released a report last week examining the number of…

While most of us would like to think we are capable of being objective when it comes to assessing our driving abilities, it might prove to be a more difficult exercise than we imagine. That's because not only are we inherently defensive when it comes to this issue -- when is the last time anyone admitted to being a bad driver? -- but perceptions of what is acceptable behavior behind the wheel varies from person to person. The good news is that there are certain avenues through which we can find out once and for all whether we can be confident in our driving judgment and abilities, or whether we need to think about making some changes. The first, and perhaps simplest, way to do this is to openly assess whether you engage in any of the following behaviors, long identified as being among the riskiest: Speeding: Surveys show that…

It would perhaps be the understatement of the century to say that there has been no shortage of action -- and controversy -- on Capitol Hill over the course of the last two months. Indeed, from healthcare and immigration to the federal budget and Supreme Court vacancy, there has been no respite in either the halls of Congress or the Oval Office. While this is perhaps not altogether unsurprising, it does raise concerns as to whether lawmakers are still paying sufficient attention to those matters, which despite not being on the same scale as those mentioned above, are nevertheless vital to the functioning of the nation. For example, are federal lawmakers continuing to make road safety a priority? The good news is that it appears as if the fight to make our roads and highways safer have not been abandoned. Just last week, the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and…

While there are basic steps to take after an accident, those steps become more complex with kids, because you will probably want to get them checked for injury even if nothing is immediately apparent, and especially if the children are very young. Most of the time, you will also need to make sure your attempts to repair the damage to the vehicle include costs for a new child safety seat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends child safety seats be replaced after every moderate or severe accident, but it does state that no replacement is needed in cases of a minor accident. If you are trying to figure out whether or not an accident qualified as a minor one, you need to make sure it fits every criterion covered by this checklist: The vehicle can be driven away from the crash The door nearest the car seat has sustained no…

Over the last decade, we've seen efforts to develop vehicle safety technology undergo something of a seismic shift. Indeed, while the focus of automakers was long centered solely around developing technology designed to limit bodily harm to drivers and passengers in the event of an accident, these efforts have broadened in recent years to develop technology designed to prevent accidents altogether. By way of illustration, a person needn't look any further than the development of automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane departure systems and, more recently, fully self-driving vehicles. Interestingly enough, as we move closer and closer to having fully self-driving vehicles on the roads and highways -- something that would almost certainly reduce the number of accidents attributable to everything from impaired driving and distracted driving to speeding and reckless behavior -- it seems that many Americans are still apprehensive about this prospect. Last year, AAA completed the…

While most of us know that drunk driving occurs all too frequently on U.S. roads and highways, we might not fully appreciate just how much of a cost this reckless conduct takes year after year. However, a recently published study in the medical journal Pediatrics provides some much-needed insight on the scope of the problem, while simultaneously illustrating the need for lawmakers at the state level to start doing more. As part of the study, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine analyzed a large data pool of fatal car accidents occurring from 2000 to 2013, and determined, rather shockingly, that drunk driving is taking a disproportionate toll on children, teens, and young adults. Specifically, they found that there were 84,756 car accident fatalities among people age 20 and under during this timeframe, with more than 25 percent of these deaths involving a drunk driver, and almost 50 percent occurring on the…