Atlanta Injury Lawyers Blog

Tougher laws are on the horizon for teen drivers in Atlanta according to AJC reporter Bob Keefe. According to Keefe, while the laws will filter down to the state level, the legislation is being pursued in Washington by highway safety advocates on Capitol Hill, who are pushing for passage of the Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection or STANDUP ACT.

Under the Act, every state, including Georgia would be forced by federal legislation to prohibit teen drivers from texting or making cell phone calls while driving. While the law would not be mandatory on Georgia per se, failure to follow the Act, if passed, could result in a loss of Federal transportation funding for highways and other projects.
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Insurer Allstate has released its annual list of the safest cities in America. The insurer ranked approximately 200 American cities on the basis of the number of accidents that motorists are likely to be involved in here. As an Atlanta car accident lawyer, I’m not at all surprised to learn that Atlanta ranks at number 146.

For the record, the safest city in the US for motorists is Fort Collins, Colorado. The average motorist in Fort Collins experiences an accident just once every 14.5 years. That means the average motorist there has a likelihood of being involved in an accident that’s close to 31% below the national average. Fort Collins was followed by Chattanooga, Boise, Colorado Springs, Knoxville, Eugene-Oregon, Reno-Nevada, Huntsville-Alabama, and Cedar Rapids.

Atlanta car drivers should take some comfort in the fact that the city ranks ahead of New York, Houston, San Antonio, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia in terms of danger to motorists.

When you look at the large cities that are considered dangerous to drivers, you realize that some of them have peculiar challenges that impact motorist safety. For instance Los Angeles has an auto centric culture that means more numbers of motorists, not all of them equipped to deal with all that traffic. In Atlanta’s case, it’s insane traffic congestion, which contributes to a number of accident risk factors like aggressive driving and road rage. In addition, Atlanta mass transit system is not well-developed, so most commuters are forced to drive to and from work. This leads to even more traffic and congestion.
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For years now, trucking safety advocates have been calling for speed limiting devices to be made mandatory on all 18-wheelers. In 2006, the American Trucking Associations and an auto safety group petitioned the federal administration to make these mandatory in all trucks that weighed above 26,000 pounds. The following year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration invited comments on the issue. It’s been four years since then, and both agencies have received thousands of comments supporting the installation of such devices. In spite of this, there has been no movement forward on these proposals. That sorry situation could soon change.

This May, President Obama directed his administration to get to work on a double-edged policy that would attack greenhouse gas emissions and increase fuel efficiency for the trucks. Both of these objectives can be accomplished through the installation of speed limiters on truckers. According to some estimates, trucking companies would obtain increased fuel efficiency of 1% for every reduction in truck speed of 1 mph. Besides, there are substantial environmental benefits too. Lower truck speeds limit the emission of greenhouse gases. It is therefore safe to assume that it won’t be soon before we have a federal rule mandating the installation of speed limiting devices on all commercial trucks.
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As a dog lover myself, I always love it when I see motorists driving around with their dog in the car. I don’t like it as much when I see that some of these dogs are not restrained, are moving about the cabin, or trying to jump out the window. Not only are these dogs at a serious risk of injury when they are engaged in such behavior, but they are also creating a serious distraction for the driver. A new survey by the American Automobile Association finds that one in three drivers who drives with their pets in the car, is distracted by the animal.

Dogs can cause a number of distractions. It your dog is moving about the cabin, or is restless, or trying to jump out of a moving vehicle, you will find yourself with one hand on the steering wheel, and the other trying to restrain him. If your dog is barking nonstop, you will find it hard to concentrate on the road. Worse, I sometimes see motorists driving with little dogs on their laps. This is dangerously distracting behavior, and if you were a true dog lover, you wouldn’t be putting your dog and yourself to such risk.

Here are just a few of the options that you have to restrain your dog and prevent him from becoming a distraction while you’re driving.
• If you have a large car, use a crate to restrain your dog.
• Small dogs can be restrained in dog booster seats or dog carriers.
• There are a variety of seat belt models that can restrain your dog safely and comfortably.
• Physical barriers are designed for use in larger vehicles like SUVs. These can be made of metal or mesh, although the metal ones are sturdier.

Failing to properly restrain your pet in the car is a violation of the basic Georgia traffic laws, which are:

THE THREE MOST BASIC TRAFFIC LAWS REQUIRE DRIVERS TO:

1. Obey traffic control devices (lights and signs);
2. Obey the traffic directions of a law enforcement officer or firefighter, even if it goes against what the traffic control devices tell you to do;
3. Never drive on a roadway that has been closed for construction, for the purpose of a special event, or for any other official reason.

There are many devices out there, and a simple look around should make it easy for you to secure your dog while you’re driving, so that you can comply with the basic traffic laws of Georgia and not be operating your car in an unsafe and negligent manner.

In fact, experts say that the kind of distractions caused by Buddy in the car, are almost the same as the distractions caused by texting while driving. However, while texting while driving has received nationwide attention, not too many people pay attention to the distraction caused by pets.
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It is a common scenario in Atlanta. An Atlanta area resident is seriously injured in a car accident caused by and out-of-state driver, usually driving a rental car and in Atlanta for a convention or business function. After the accident, the out-of-state driver returns to his home state (many times thousands of miles from Atlanta).
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Many insurance companies improperly seek reimbursement for medical payments they have made to the insured when the main case settles for the limits of the uninsured motorist coverage (“UM”) portion of our client’s policy. The Georgia Court of Appeals has held that a non-duplication of benefits clause is only enforceable when the insured’s damages are equal to or below the UM coverage limits of the policy. Johnson v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 216 Ga. App. 541, 544, 455 S.E.2d 91 (1995); Jenkins & Miller, Georgia Automobile Insurance Law (2008-09 ed. 2008) pp. 499-500.
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The family of a woman who was killed during an auto accident on I-85 will receive $600,000 from the Georgia Department of Transportation for their losses. The DOT has also delivered an apology to the family of the victim, Patricia Heller.

In January 2003, Heller, a healthcare consultant, was on her way to work at her employer’s Georgia office when her taxi spun out of control on a rain slicked highway, and crashed into a tree. She died from injuries sustained in the accident. Her husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit that named the Georgia Department of Transportation, city inspectors and others.

The claim against city inspectors was based on the fact that the accident was traced to a bald tire on the taxi, which had cleared inspection just the previous day. The claim against the Georgia Department of Transportation was based on the premise that the highway design of the section where the accident occurred was defective, and that a tree should not have been allowed to grow so close to the road.
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Considering how effective Electronic Stability Control (ESC) systems have been in minimizing the numbers of rollover accidents occurring in the United States every year, it’s not so surprising that these systems have been able to do the same for tractor-trailer rigs. A new study conducted by researchers at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that if every commercial truck was equipped with an ESC system, we could prevent approximately 3,600 truck rollover accidents every year. We could save about 106 lives, and prevent more than 4,400 injuries every year.

However, the trucking industry has still not moved to make the systems mandatory on all 18 wheelers. This is in spite of the fact that these massive big rigs that can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, are at a major risk of flipping over. A truck rollover can occur when a tractor-trailer is traveling at high speeds, and the driver slams on the brakes suddenly. Rollovers can occur when a truck is traveling in slippery road conditions. Even what seems like a normal turn at an intersection can prove catastrophic if the weight of the cargo shifts, contributing to a rollover. The clear reason why: the trucking industry is more concerned with the costs associated with implementing safety devices than they are with making the roads safe for drivers.

A truck rollover is not just a disaster for the truck driver, but can have catastrophic consequences for any other vehicles nearby. Besides, there is a risk to public health and safety from any hazardous materials that may be spilt during a rollover. This is a serious issue when there is a tanker truck involved in a rollover accident. Typically, tanker trucks are more likely to flip over, because of the weight of the liquid cargo which can cause a shift in balance. When gasoline or fuel are spilled on a Highway, the risks of an explosion or a massive fire, are immense.

In spite of these risks, the trucking industry has been reluctant to wholeheartedly adopt electronic stability control technology in their fleets. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also chosen to drag its feet on the matter, saying that it will wait for the results of a full-fledged study into the benefits of ESC systems in trucks, before making a decision on the matter. While they wait, one must wonder how many lives will be needlessly wasted in catastrophic trucking accidents which could have been easily avoided with the proper technology. This is not a rhetorical question and truck safety must be addressed in this country to stop needless accidents and even death.
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