Georgia Personal Injury Law Blog

A Calhoun woman has received an indictment after a May 23 car accident that allegedly involved drunk driving and killed a pedestrian. The Gordon County grand jury issued the indictment after a 50-year-old woman struck a 65-year-old woman in a residential neighborhood while the victim was at a mailbox. According to the deceased's daughter, her mother, who was from Augusta, went to the mailbox at around 11:30 a.m. The woman was on the side of the road at the mailbox on Blackwood Place when a Dodge Neon SXT struck her. The Dodge arrived on Blackwood from Ga. Highway 53, and a Georgia State Patrol's incident report indicated that the vehicle was traveling at a fast speed. After the impact, the pedestrian sent her about 52 feet into the air. The Augusta woman was airlifted to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga but died at the hospital. After the crash, the Dodge traveled…

Regardless of how good a Georgia driver is, he or she cannot control what other drivers do. Sudden changes by others can lead to dangerous situations that increase the risk of an accident. This is generally true even if the driver has time to anticipate what others are doing on the highway. However, there are technologies that may enable vehicles to take some of the guesswork out of driving. These technologies work by alerting the driver of changing conditions and may even help the car take action to stop by itself. Automatic braking and other speed-limiting technologies may help drivers avoid rear-end collisions, while lane-departure warnings can help drivers avoid accidents while changing lanes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, these technologies are not always standard in vehicles. In some cases, they are not even required to help a vehicle meet safety requirements. The National Transportation Safety Board…

A multi-vehicle traffic accident on the evening of Nov. 6 left one woman dead and another person injured in Dougherty County. A third man involved in the collision received a traffic citation and may face additional criminal charges related to the fatal crash as well. According to information released by investigators with the Dougherty County Police, the three-car accident occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. at the intersection of Liberty Expressway and Holly Drive in Albany. Witnesses claim the 43-year-old Mitchell County woman driving a black Volkswagen Beetle was stopped at a red light when her vehicle was rear-ended by a red van driven by a 72-year-old Montgomery County man. The force of the impact then caused the Volkswagen to strike another black vehicle in front of it driven by a 34-year-old Ocklocknee's Ford woman. Bystanders rushed to assist the victims, pulling the 34-year-old woman from her vehicle, but they found…

A married couple traveling south on Interstate 75 near Adairsville suffered fatal injuries after their vehicle was rear-ended on the highway. According to authorities, the Oct. 30 accident occurred around 9 p.m. Reportedly, that is when a 2008 BMW struck the rear of the couple's 2004 Ford Explorer, causing the SUV to careen down an embankment adjacent to the roadway. Officials at the scene of the crash declared both the husband and the wife dead. The driver of the BMW, a 50-year-old man, was detained following the crash on suspicion of impaired driving. According to the Georgia State Patrol, multiple charges may be filed against the man. If the GSP investigation were to reveal that the driver of the BMW was in fact intoxicated at the time of the incident involving the married couple, then he may face more than just criminal repercussions. In addition, he might also be named…

Drinking and driving is a serious problem in Georgia and the rest of the United States because on average one person dies every 51 minutes due to an alcohol-impaired driver. While nearly 30 people die because of these accidents a day, the financial consequences of drunk driving are large too. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drunk driving crashes cost more than $59 billion a year when totaled. Some people are more at risk for operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol than others. Twenty-nine percent of motorcyclists who died in car accidents in 2012 had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent or higher, which is above the legal limit. Almost half of these motorcyclists were 40 years old or older, and motorcycle drivers between the ages of 40 and 44 are most likely to drive while intoxicated. Regardless of BAC, younger drivers are more…

Some Georgia residents may be unaware that commercial motor vehicle drivers must comply with a set of federal regulations known as Hours of Service rules. This applies to, among others, truck drivers traveling in tractor-trailers that weigh at least 10,001 pounds or that transport enough hazardous material to require placards. All transportation companies must ensure that their drivers are following Hours of Service rules. Pursuant to these regulations, drivers are limited to, per day, 11 hours of driving and 14 hours of work altogether. Moreover, drivers may not work more than 70 hours per week on average, and once this maximum is reached on any given week, the drivers must rest for at least 34 consecutive hours, within which must pass two nights. The Hours of Service rules also call for drivers to take a half-hour break within the first eight hours of each shift. These new rules reduce by…

The Georgia State Police report that on Oct. 9, a four-vehicle accident in Conyers claimed the life of one person, and two other individuals who were involved were hospitalized for unknown injuries. One of the injured victims, a deputy, was reportedly pursuing the wrong-way driver at the time of the crash. According to the report, the chain-reaction collision transpired at the intersection of Old Covington Highway and Sigman Road in Rockdale County around 11:30 p.m. when a woman driving a Hyundai Santa Fe in the wrong direction on Sigman Road smashed into a black Kia. The force of the impact caused the Kia to crash into a pickup truck, at which point both cars and the truck collided with a fourth vehicle belonging to the deputy who had been chasing the wrong-way driver. The woman driving the Kia was instantly killed in the initial collision with the Santa Fe and…

One person was killed and another was injured in an accident in Warner Robins on Oct. 8. The driver responsible for the crash ran a red light at what appears to be high speed, causing the fatal accident. Police report that around 9:15 a.m., a 22-year-old Warner Robins woman was making a left turn from Burns Drive onto Russell Parkway when her 2002 Mazda Tribute was hit by a 2000 Ford F250 pickup truck, driven by a 34-year-old Perry man, that had just run a red light. The Mazda had the green light for the turn at the time of the accident. The skid marks from the Ford at the scene began before the stop line of the traffic light. The Mazda crashed into a barrier protecting some nearby gas pumps, and the driver's side seating area and the back of the car were crushed. The pickup truck stopped on…

Georgia residents might be interested in figures released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding crashes in 2012 that involved large trucks. Fatalities stemming from these accidents increased by 4 percent over the previous year, with 3,781 deaths in total, reportedly. Among the 1,688 vehicles involved in fatal crashes in Georgia during that same year, 149 of them were large trucks or about 9 percent. Research reveals that 81 percent of fatal accidents involving semi-trucks include multiple vehicles, whereas 58 percent of fatal crashes involving no semi-trucks are multiple-vehicle accidents. Researchers say that, with regard to fatal collisions in 2012 involving a semi-truck, at least one of the involved vehicles was attempting to negotiate a curve in 12 percent of them. In 9 percent of these wrecks, both vehicles were making a turn, and neither vehicle was attempting a turn in almost half of them. According to statistics, almost…

Four softball players from North Central Texas College lost their lives when the team bus was hit by an 18-wheeler in Oklahoma on Sept. 26. The team bus, carrying 15 players, was being driven home by the coach following a scrimmage against Bethany's Southern Nazarene University. The crash happened late in the evening approximately 60 miles north of the Gainesville campus on Interstate-35. Three of the women reportedly died at the scene, and a fourth later succumbed to her injuries in a Sulphur, Oklahoma, hospital. Two other players remained in Norman Regional Hospital the following day, one in critical condition, while the coach and nine other players were treated and released. The sides of the bus sustained severe damages as a result of the crash. Oklahoma police were unsure as to why the semi-truck veered across the median and into the path of the bus. The investigation into the accident…