As part of many wrongful death lawsuits, surviving loved ones can claim a loss of companionship or consortium. These terms refer to a personal injury claim that seeks damages for surviving family members, the spouse, or children of the deceased. In most cases, the term loss of consortium refers to the affection, sexual relations, and services received by one spouse from the other. Occasionally, a loss of consortium can also be applied to a personal injury claim by children of the deceased but is a term usually reserved for the loss of relations between spouses. Personal injury lawsuits claiming a loss of consortium are usually brought on by the uninjured spouse. They may run in tandem with another wrongful death or personal injury claim but are generally limited to the uninjured spouses' loss of love, companionship, or sexual relations. In order for a spouse to claim loss of consortium, there are several…

Fatal accidents are always tragic, leaving families without their treasured loved ones. Unfortunately, fatal accidents often leave families with more than emotional damages; they leave them with financial uncertainties. If your family has suffered a loss because of another person's negligence, you may find relief from your unexpected financial burdens in the form of wrongful death compensation. Families who lose a loved one to an accident face unexpected end-of-life expenses. Between a loved one's medical bills and funeral expenses, many families find themselves totally unprepared financially. Unfortunately, even when families can pay these expenses, the financial losses tied to the death of a loved one are not over. Many families suffer financially for years from the loss of a loved one. In many cases, this suffering is due to lost income, especially when the deceased victim was the breadwinner. In these cases, wrongful death compensation can be extremely important as…

At any given time there are many drivers on Georgia roads who are under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, or both. Studies that have been done concerning the effects of each of these drugs suggest that they have different effects. This post covers some of the findings of these studies. Cognitive and automatic functions: Alcohol has a stronger influence on cognitive functions, which include motor skills and concentration in activities like steering, braking, signal detection, hazard perception, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination. Marijuana affects automatic functions. These include the ability to stay in the lane of traffic or to keep speed constant. Marijuana also degrades the ability to make decisions quickly, thereby affecting the ability to react to external cues like changing traffic signals or the presence of an obstacle in the road. Over-and-underestimation of driving ability. Marijuana makes drivers more likely to underestimate their driving abilities. Pot smokers tend…

Drivers in Georgia and the rest of the United States face the same roadway risks associated with distracted drivers. Mobile tablet or smartphone use by someone behind the wheel creates a serious distraction that has been linked to car accidents. Data reviewed by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal facts about the hazards of driver distractions. From 2011 to 2012, the number of people injured in distracted driver accidents increased by 9 percent from 387,000 to 421,000. The year 2012 also saw 3,328 deaths in similar crashes. In 2011, distracted driving caused 17 percent of car accidents in which a person was injured. The CDC defines sources of distraction in three ways: visual, manual, or cognitive. Texting and driving are especially dangerous because the activity causes all three types of distraction. Texting makes the driver take his or her eyes off the road, remove one or both…

According to law enforcement officials with the Henry County Police, a Butts County man was killed and two others were seriously injured in a collision that occurred when a driver reportedly ran a stop sign. The fatal collision occurred on the night of Nov. 29 on Georgia 81. Officers did not say if any other factors like impairment contributed to the wreck. A 19-year-old man was driving a 2002 Ford Focus on Jackson Lake Road when he approached the road's intersection with Ga. 81. He reportedly failed to stop at a stop sign when he arrived at the intersection. He then collided with a 2007 Ford Mustang driven by an 18-year-old man. The impact of the collision caused the death of the 19-year-old. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident by responding emergency personnel. A 19-year-old female passenger in the Ford suffered serious injuries, and she was…

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…

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…

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…