Georgia Personal Injury Law Blog

Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the agency that investigates transportation accidents, issued a statement that was critical of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the agency responsible for oversight of the truck and bus industry. The NTSB, because of its investigatory role in truck and bus accidents, has a great deal of insight as to the types of safety violations that lead to deadly truck accidents, and criticized the FMCSA for a lax response to companies' failures to comply with safety regulations. The NTSB cited four accidents within the last 12 months as examples of where the FMCSA had evidence of the companies involved safety violations, yet failed to act prior to the fatal crashes that left 25 dead and 83 injured. Two crashes involved bus companies that had various violations, including defective brakes, inappropriate tires, numerous vehicles placed out of service and a history of driver…

Last week, just north of Atlanta, in the town of Milton, a woman had a very narrow escape. As she drove along the road, she suddenly heard a "huge boom" and when she finally recognized what had happened, she could only say, "Oh my God, oh my God." Her left hand had been crushed by the impact of a 9-lb rock the size of a volleyball had crashed through the windscreen on her vehicle. She was incredibly lucky, as police calculated the rock was moving at close to 100 mph when hit struck her vehicle. Of course, if the rock had hit any part of her body besides her hand, the outcome would have been far worse. Instead of a damaged vehicle and an injured hand, her name would like to have been added to the list of fatalities from car accidents in Georgia this year. The rock it the windscreen…

Driving presents a conundrum for most people in Macon. Experience is essential to developing the skills necessary to safely operate a motor vehicle on the streets and highways of Georgia, but in order to gain that experience, you must begin as an inexperienced, and typically, teen-aged driver. Moving a teen driver from inexperienced and overwhelmed to experienced and competent is a significant problem. Fatal car accidentsare the leading cause of death for teens, and yet for most Americans, giving your keys to your son or daughter and sending them out on their own, is an essential rite of passage. In addition to their inexperience, teens today are faced with an unparalleled barrage of distraction while driving. And no device is more distracting than a smartphone, a device that insinuates itself in to our driving habits, making it seem as if no would be able to go anywhere without it It is…

Driving from Macon to Atlanta on I-75, you may think that it would be fairly easy to engineer a driverless car to deal with such a route. And while I-75 is not some lightly traveled route, after all, it is six lanes most of the way, the wide lanes, gentle curves, and controlled access intersections limit the number of unpredictable events you may encounter. Sure, driving the road still comes with any number of potential causes of a car accident, from deer crossing in twilight to a recapped semi-trailer tire blowing out as you pass by, but as compared to a busy city intersection, the interstate makes for an easy drive, especially for a computer. As driverless car prototypes are already operating on U.S. highways, you may expect that they could appear in your favorite dealer's showroom any day. That may be overly optimistic. The interstates, for all their challenges, are…

When we hear about a car accident, our first thought is often, "Was anyone killed." Macabre as this thought is, it is hard to suppress. Even though we never think that a car accident is going to happen to us as we drive about our day in Macon, the truth is we never really know. A writer in the Atlanta Magazine details her experience after a "minor" car accident. She says she did not see the accident coming until the interior of her car "exploded" and she was plunged into darkness for seconds as the airbags inflated. Luckily for her, the accident was both minor and there were paramedics nearby, who had been eating dinner. They rushed to the accident site to help. She suffered only minor injuries, like bruising and soreness. She complained of chest pain, which could have been from a slight fracture of her ribs. These low-speed car…

Most people have had the sensation while driving the roads in Georgia, especially while on the interstates. You may not feel tired when you begin driving, but after a while, staring at the road in front of you, you sense you eyelids becoming heavy and you may even feel your chin drop, as you momentarily drift off. You may arrive at your destination, and think to yourself that maybe you should have had a little more sleep, but you do not feel as if you were ever in any danger. After all, it is not as if you were driving drunk. Or is it very much like driving drunk, and in the range of car accidents, could it even be worse? A recent study finds that many people who believe they have had an adequate amount of sleep still are driving drowsy. The study from the University of Pennsylvania Health System…

When you driving the roads surrounding Macon and Warner Robins, you probably have seen the occasional deer along the highway. Sometimes you may even see a group of deer, often with their young. While you may be charmed by this bucolic scene, you should take it as a warning. While deer can be cute at a petting zoo, along the road they pose a danger, and in many cases a mortal danger for car and truck accidents. The good news is the number of deer-car accidents declined last year, according to an analysis done by a large insurance company. They calculate the odds of a driver in the United States striking a deer as 1 in 174. This represents an improvement from last year when the odds were 1 in 167. While Georgia was not in the top states for deer collisions, it is no reason to be complacent. The…

In Georgia, the struggle against drunk driving continues every day. From education in schools, to Georgia State Patrol troopers using checkpoints and stopping suspected drunk drivers, a great deal is being done to reduce the number of traffic fatalities caused by drunk driving accidents. But the need remains great. Too many people are killed and too many suffer lifelong injuries that will inflict decades of pain and require lifetime medical care. So it is important to learn that binge drinking, the consumption of more than five drinks in a row, remains prevalent among high school students. Frighteningly, almost sixth percent of high schools seniors admit to incredible binge drinking of 15 drinks or more at a single time. One wonders how it is possible to avoid alcohol poisoning or death at this level, but this extreme binge drinking continues to occur and it is disturbing to find that it has…

Perceiving movement and calculating the time it takes for one object to strike another object is an inherently complex operation. Those who are very good at it can become successful baseball or tennis players. But we all have to do it. Whether driving on I-75 through Macon, or on winding Georgia state roads, every time you drive a car, your brain is making unconscious calculations when you change lanes, merge or make a turn. The brain uses the data received from your eyes and the size of the object on your retina to complete part of the calculation. However, it also uses "rules of thumb" such as the artist's depth cues that function as a shortcut in figuring outdistance. For motorcycle riders, this has a consequence that drivers may perceive them a further away, resulting in a motorcycle accident when they pull out in front of them. Research has found that…

This week, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) tried to "make it real" in demonstrating the dangers of not wearing a seat belt, texting, and DUI to students in a Macon school. The GOHS uses a real pick-up truck equipped with dummies to show what happens in a rollover car accident. During the simulation, the dummies in the pick-up truck are not wearing their seat belts, and they are ejected from the vehicle during the rollover crash. A frequent cause of death in car accidents is the ejection of the occupants from the car. Upon ejection, a vehicle occupant typically strikes the ground or other objects at highway speeds. Even if they survive the ejection, they can receive additional severe or fatal injuries if they fall in the roadway and are struck by other vehicles. The director of GOHS commented that students are frequently found not complying with seat belt…