Articles Posted in Pedestrian Accidents

A lawsuit filed against the City for a breach of its duty to properly maintain a sidewalk has resolved for $300,000. In a one-person bike wreck, the plaintiff lost control of her bike due to an uneven portion of sidewalk which was allegedly not properly maintained by the City. The crash resulted in a broken hip and wrist and also aggravated an earlier back problem, all of which caused pain, suffering and lost wages. At the time of the accident, there was a lift of about 2 inches on one of the sections of sidewalk beneath a viaduct which the plaintiff hit while riding her bike and went over and suffered significant injuries. The uneven portion of sidewalk which allegedly led to the crash has since been repaired.

With few exceptions, cities such as the City of Atlanta are not liable under the traditional theory of negligence for defects in roads and sidewalks. However, a static defect, such as an uneven section of sidewalk can be deemed to be a nuisance.

Accidentally backing over someone accounts for about 15% of all non-traffic crash injuries. Sadly, children between the ages of 1 and 4 years-old account for half of these tragedies and almost half of these accidents happen in the parent’s driveway or in a parking lot. In fact, over 200 children die each year after being backed into by a car.

Everyone, including parents, must be vigilant when backing up or driving in parking lots. Young children are often not aware of their surroundings. Many times they are too small to be seen in the rear-view mirror and wind up in the driver’s “blind spot.” According to Edmonds.com, recent studies show that close to 57 percent of drivers in vehicles equipped with back-up cameras avoided backing over a stationary object that had been placed behind the vehicle when they weren’t looking. The March 2014 research report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) also found that three-quarters of drivers in vehicles with both rearview cameras and audible sensors avoided a back-over accident.

By contrast, 100 percent of drivers in the IIHS study who were operating vehicles without back-up cameras or audible sensors ran over a child-size stationary object that had been surreptitiously placed behind them, according to David Zuby, chief research officer at the IIHS vehicle research center in Ruckersville, Virginia. “Our study adds to the body of evidence that’s been building over several years that cameras will help avoid some of these crashes,” Zuby says.

NHTSA expects rearview visibility systems that meet the final regulations’ standards to be 28-33 percent more effective at avoiding back-over accidents than existing sensor-only systems.

By 2054, when most U.S. vehicles on the road will have rearview systems, the technology should save 58-69 lives a year, according to data NHTSA released with the final rule. By that time, the agency estimates the total benefit from rearview technology to preventing injuries, saving lives and avoiding property should be $265 million to $396 million a year. In coming model years, expect to see automakers adding other types of cameras to cars, SUVs and trucks for maneuverability, better aerodynamics and fun. At 2014 auto shows, Land Rover made a splash with a concept off-road vehicle with a hood mounted camera that captures pictures of upcoming terrain and feeds them to a head-up display at the bottom of the windshield to create a 3-D map.
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The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition is joining Georgia Rides to the Capitol in March. On March 22nd, hundreds of cyclists will ride into town to promote cycling awareness and encourage legislators to support measures that enhance bicycling safety in Atlanta.

Currently, Atlanta is not among the most bicycle friendly cities in the U.S. and we have high accident rates. Drivers can be aggressive and resentful of sharing the road with the slower bicycles. Frequently, even the most well-intentioned drivers do not look for the smaller, less obtrusive modes of transport. Consequently cyclists are hit and seriously injured in intersections or run off the road.

Because riders are largely unprotected, these bicycle collisions often leave cyclists with destroyed equipment and nasty injuries, including brain injuries, broken bones and worse. In 2008, bicycle deaths accounted for 2% of all traffic fatalities in the United States. Injured cyclists can require short and long-term medical care, reconstructive surgery and help managing trauma.
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On Monday morning, an Atlanta driver on I-85 South of Atlanta struck and killed HERO operator Spencer Pass. H.E.R.O. stands for Highway Emergency Response Operator. Pass was parked behind a disabled vehicle in the emergency lane when a truck pulling a trailer side-swiped them.
The tragedy brings to mind an important Georgia traffic law that we see violated on a daily basis. Georgia has a “Move Over Law”. Under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-16, a driver approaching an emergency vehicle should move over into a lane not adjacent to the emergency vehicle. If it isn’t possible to move over safely, the driver should slow down or stop. Violation of this law is punishable by a fine up to $500.00. While it’s the law, this is one of those safety laws that just isn’t enforced and, hence, leads to disastrous results.

A wrongful death action is an action brought when the death is caused by the willful or negligent act of another. The driver of the truck that killed Spencer Pass is now potentially liable for more than the fine. Mr. Pass’s family has lost a father and a husband. Not only did they lose a loved one, they lost his help and financial support. While no amount of money or damages can bring him back, the law does entitle the family to the “full value of the life” of the deceased.
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The Georgia driver of the Cobb County Transit bus involved in a pedestrian accident last week has been charged with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care.

57-year-old Jean Lewis has been formally charged in the Atlanta-area accident, which occurred eight days earlier. On the day of the crash, the victim, a 57-year-old woman was walking on the cross walk at the Hamilton E. Holmes Dr. and ML King Junior Drive intersection. According to the report, the bus driver had a green arrow to turn left. As he was turning, the victim stepped on the curb and into the cross walk. According to witnesses, the victim saw the bus making a turn, and tried to hurry up across to the other side, but was struck by the rear of the bus. She sustained serious personal injuries, including a severed leg and a broken ankle.

A new report by the Governor’s Highway Safety Association reveals that pedestrian accident fatalities across the United States actually increased by .4% in the first six months of 2010. It may seem like a small increase, but it comes after years of great progress reducing pedestrian accident fatalities. Although Georgia’s pedestrian accident fatality numbers declined during the first six months of 2010, there’s more that we could be doing to keep pedestrians safer.
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Atlanta joggers, walkers, and bicyclists should use extreme caution while crossing the intersection of LaVista Road, Lindbergh Drive and Chesire Bridge Road. While the City of Atlanta is aware of the safety defects at this intersection, they have not been remedied. In addition to heavy traffic, the following road defects warrant extra precautions: (1) there is no cross walk on the eastern side of the intersection; and (2) one of the cross walk buttons is missing, while others do not work properly. This forces lawful pedestrians into the street and lead to a potentially dangerous situation.

As Atlanta Injury lawyers, we see many Atlanta pedestrian accidents happen as a direct result of unsafe road conditions that result from the City of Atlanta or the State of Georgia’s lack of attention to noted road defects. All Atlanta residents should use extreme caution as these types of busy intersections.

Legal claims against government agencies are difficult because the set of laws involved are biased to protect the governmental entity. This complex set of laws works to the disadvantage of the person injured by the wrongful acts of government employees, negligent operation of a government vehicle, or by a dangerous condition of public property. The law of governmental immunity (also known as sovereign immunity) in Georgia and other states has claims procedures that must be followed exactly and immunities that the government will attempt to use to eliminate a person’s claim and have it rejected from court, even when the facts show wrongful acts by the government or government employees, or dangerous public property. The Federal Tort Claims Act provides the same type of protection to the Federal government for personal injury and wrongful death claims against the Federal Government. Under both sets of laws, an injured person must send a written notice to the governmental entity putting the entity on notice of the injury and potential claim. The deadline to do this varies, depending on the type of governmental entity that you are suing. Because of this requirement, the complexity of the notice requirements, and the varying deadlines, it is essential that you hire an experienced attorney who can navigate these legal requirements on your behalf, properly preserve you claims against the city, county, state, or Federal Government and pursue your case in the courts.
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Once again, we are reminded of the dangerous road and side-walk conditions which some Atlanta pedestrians are subjected to while they are walking and biking on city and county roads. According to recent reports, an Atlanta resident suffered a serious ankle injury and was rushed to Emory Hospital for treatment when she fell while trying to cross North Decatur Road where it intersects with Oakdale Drive. The injured woman and her husband reported the dangerous intersection (which legally constitutes a “nuisance”) to the Atlanta Journal Constitution in hopes that the broken concrete and sunken roadway would be repaired by the county before someone else is injured.

Generally, the local municipality charged with maintaining the roadway and sidewalk in good condition (i.e., safe and free from dangerous defects and/or hazards) is legally responsible to a pedestrian who suffers an injury if the municipality knew or should have known about the dangerous condition and failed to make adequate and timely repairs. Depending on the circumstances, the liable municipality in the Atlanta area would be The City of Atlanta, Dekalb County, Fulton County, the City of Decatur, Cobb County, Clayton County, the City of Marietta, the City of Brookhaven, the City of Johns Creek, the City of Chamblee, Gwinnett County, etc.

What is especially worrisome about dangerous intersections is that, not only does the injured pedestrian fall and suffer from any number of injuries related to the fall (e.g., broken ankle, broken arm, torn rotator cuff, head injuries), but once they fall, they risk being run over by passing cars on busy streets and intersections. This is why local city and county agencies must be vigilant about making these needed repairs.

To their credit, the cities of Chamblee and Brookhaven have installed miles of new sidewalks and cross walks along Buford Highway which goes a long way in alleviating the dangerous conditions that pedestrians that use the Buford Highway corridor face. However, there still exists many other dangerous stretches of road along Buford Highway and other main streets in and around Atlanta that pose a daily hazard to those people who walk along the roads. This would include commuters who travel by bus, bicycle riders and others who are simply walking or riding along the road and have no safe area to traverse.
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