Blog Archive - January, 2014

The most dangerous time for those traveling in motor vehicles is after dark when the visibility of drivers is compromised by a lack of light and an increased number of drunk drivers are present on Georgia and Atlanta streets and highways.  Data from the federal agency also supports the position that the risk of being hit by a drunk driver is higher at night. While eighteen percent of fatal accidents during the day involve drunk drivers, 54 percent of deadly wrecks at night involve alcohol impaired drivers. Because nighttime driving accidents are especially common and dangerous, our Atlanta Accident Attorneys have provided answers to common questions about these types of collisions.

Our Georgia auto accident attorneys recognize that although rear impact accidents constitute the most common type of motor vehicle accident, motorists have many misconceptions about the seriousness of these types of crashes.  Insurance companies often mislead crash victims who are struck from behind while waiting at a red light, stop sign or interruption in traffic flow into the proposition of accepting that these incidents rarely result in serious injury because they sometimes occur at relatively low rates of speed.  In reality, many people suffer severe life-changing injuries or die in this type of motor vehicle accident so we have provided answers to common questions about rear impact crashes.

Although most people know that they may be subject to certain legal obligations when they are involved in a motor vehicle collision, they may be unclear on the specific requirements in terms of reporting the accident, exchanging information and remaining at the scene. Georgia law does not require that every motor vehicle crash be reported to law enforcement authorities, just those invovling personal injury, death, or property damages in excess of $500.  However, a decision to forgo a police crash investigation can have undesired consequences aside from getting a ticket for failing to do so. Georgia Auto Accident Reports can potentially provide the best record of physical evidence and eyewitness reports regarding the circumstance under which a motor vehicle accident occurs.

When you are injured in a motorcycle crash, tractor-trailer collision or other type of motor vehicle accident that is caused by another driver, you may assume that you can expect to be compensated for your injuries, vehicle damage, pain and suffering, lost income and other damages. Unfortunately, this outcome is not guaranteed, even when the other driver was undeniably at-fault for causing the accident.

The high number of traffic accidents caused by drivers who are text messaging on cell phones and other mobile communication devices has been well documented. Some experts contend that in as many as 4 in every 5 accidents, the at-fault driver was not paying attention during the three second interval immediately prior to the crash. While Georgia like many states has made the practice of texting while driving illegal, many drivers disregard the prohibition on text messaging while operating a motor vehicle because the law banning texting behind the wheel is difficult to enforce.

If you are one of the many people that put on your suit of armor and valiantly battled the crowds during Black Friday or the recent holidays, you may have purchased a new television at a ridiculously low price. While families may engage in careful research before making such a purchase regarding details like refresh rate, resolution, Wi-Fi capability and more, most people do not research the potential risk of their new purchase causing injury to their children.

When you are involved in a motor vehicle collision that causes serious injury, it is normal to feel as though you have been victimized by the other driver who is alcohol impaired, distracted or otherwise careless. While many people believe that the other driver's insurance company will make a reasonable offer to settle the claim if liability is reasonably apparent, unfortunately this assumption fails to properly consider the function of insurance companies. An insurance company is in business to make money for its owners or shareholders, and accordingly its goal is to maximize revenue which is accomplished at least in part by minimizing the amounts paid on insurance claims.

When drivers suffer injury in motor vehicle collisions in Fulton County or any of the counties that comprise the Atlanta metro area, they typically have at least a vague understanding that they may have a right to compensation from the motorist who caused the collision. When drivers fail to obey traffic signs or signals, travel at an unsafe speed or multi-task behind the wheel, financial responsibility often is imposed based on traffic violations or otherwise hazardous driving conduct that causes a serious crash. However, the situation can be more confusing if you were a passenger in the car of the driver whose poor driving caused the collision. Because many people are less sure about their legal rights when they are injured while riding in the car with a motorist who causes a collision with another vehicle, we have provided answers to common questions regarding the rights of passengers in Georgia.

When most people think of dangerous occupations where work-related injuries and occupational illnesses are common, industries that typically come to mind might include manufacturing and construction. Although many people do not perceive the health care industry as one that has a high number of worker's compensation claims, a new report by the non-profit organization Public Citizen indicates that the volume of injuries to health care workers in hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care centers and other medical facilities has made the health care industry the most dangerous occupation for employees.

Our Georgia personal injury attorneys at Montlick and Associates have previously written about the risk of liver damage associated with overdoses of acetaminophen. Whether acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol®, is consumed in an over-the-counter or prescription medication, excessive doses of the drug constitute the leading cause of sudden liver failure in the U.S. according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that acetaminophen overdoses force up to 80,000 people per year to visit hospital emergency rooms across the nation. While there are dozens upon dozens of lawsuits pending against Johnson & Johnson alleging liver damage caused by users inadvertently taking excessive doses of the drug, a recent report suggests a new hazard for expectant mothers linked to the use of Tylenol®.

If you sustained a spinal cord injury in a collision caused by a fatigued truck driver or lost a loved one to a drunken driver, you are understandably overwhelmed with excruciating pain, financial hardships and lots of questions. While the most important priority when suffering serious injuries caused by the negligent conduct of another is recovering from one's injuries, the medical expenses and lost income experienced by personal injury victims makes taking appropriate actions to preserve a claim for financial compensation important to protecting one's quality of life. Our Atlanta personal injury attorneys have provided an overview of two common mistakes to avoid for those who suffer severe injury in a motor vehicle accident.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced a new program and proposed guidelines to reduce the number of drunk drivers. While the holiday season typically marks a significant increase in drunk driving fatalities, these latest proposals come in the wake of a rise in DUI crash fatalities from 9,865 in 2011 to 10,322 last year. Further, the federal agency indicates that the majority of these crashes involved drivers whose blood alcohol concentration was .15 percent or higher which amounts to nearly double the legal limit.

When pedestrian are struck by motor vehicles, the consequences are often devastating because the human body is simply not capable of withstanding impact with a vehicle that ways several tons. Although any fatal pedestrian accident is heartbreaking for the victim's family, the loss of a child is particularly tragic. Our Georgia personal injury lawyers were saddened to read about the death of a six-year-old boy who was run down when crossing the street with his older brother this week. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family.

During the holiday season, Christmas carolers, church groups, athletes participating in holiday tournaments and others often travel in 15-passenger vans. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has repeatedly warned about the increased risk of rollover accidents when traveling in these top heavy vehicles. Although the design of these vehicles makes them inherently more likely to rollover, this risk rises depending on a number of factors including the passenger load in the van.

Many people who suffer incapacitating injuries or lose a loved one, such as to a drunk driver, foreseeable and preventable act of violence or an exhausted big-rig driver, do not receive the recovery they should because they make mistakes that damage their personal injury or wrongful death claim. While it may seem reasonable to see how the other party's insurance company will proceed in handling your claim, insurance companies are not in the business of expediting the full value of an insurance claim to injury victims. Further, most insurance companies are staffed with a knowledgeable and experienced team of attorneys, experts, adjusters and others with the objective of reducing the amount paid to injury victims.

Our Georgia motorcycle accident attorneys were saddened to hear about a motorcycle police officer who recently was injured when his bike hit a patch of black ice. Although the 11Alive.com news source reported that the officer's injuries were not life threatening, motorcyclists are 35 times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision than occupants of passenger cars. This is a particularly hazardous time of year for motorcycle riders because of the risk that chilly temperatures will freeze causing black ice which may be very difficult for riders to detect.

Most people that travel the roadways of Georgia recognize that commercial trucks pose a significant hazard to other vehicle occupants due to the massive weight of these vehicles coupled with the limitations they impose on handling and vision. When truck drivers are tired or fatigued, delays in reaction time, impaired judgment and micro-naps can lead to fatal trucking accidents. The need for alertness by drivers operating motor vehicles that can weigh forty tons is undeniable, but a new poll indicates that commercial truck drivers are plagued by sleep disorders and that they routinely get less than enough sleep to be alert behind the wheel of these massive vehicles.

The image of an 80,000 pound big-rig rolling toward you on the highway at a speed of sixty miles per hour as the driver fiddles with his cell phone is a terrifying notion. Although a nationwide ban on handheld cell phone use by commercial drivers of buses and tractor-trailers went into effect last year, the danger of big-rig accidents caused by distracted truck drivers persists. These semi-truck collisions are a product of both commercial drivers disregarding the ban and shortcomings of the anti-cell phone rule. Because our Fulton County trucking accident lawyers are all too familiar with the consequences of multi-tasking behind the wheel of a massive big-rig, we welcome the possibility of a broader ban on all use of electronic devices by commercial drivers.

Although cell phone use by novice teen drivers poses a serious increased risk of causing teen driving collisions, parents often face a daunting task when trying to get kids to turn off their mobile phone when they are traveling the roads of Clayton and other areas in the Atlanta Metro area. The threat created by distracted teen drivers may be amplified by lack of sleep because inattention and drowsiness are an extremely dangerous combination when navigating curves at highway speeds. Although Georgia law attempts to mitigate these risks to some degree for newly licensed teenage drivers, some promising new technological innovations may augment these efforts and reduce the risk of fatal teen driving accidents.

While most people presume that motor vehicle accidents are the result of unsafe driving practices like changing lanes without checking to see that it is safe or driving while under the influence of alcohol, sometime mechanical issues also can play a significant role in causing a collision. Vehicle malfunctions that cause car crashes may be a product of defective components, lack of maintenance or substandard repair work. Given the diverse mechanical factors that may contribute to a collision, these types of car crash injury and wrongful death claims may pose special challenges.

While most people assume that the risk of having their quality of life altered dramatically by medical malpractice is extremely rare, according to studies, approximately 200,000 people per year die because of medical mistakes and errors. Sometimes even relatively routine surgical procedures can result in serious complications and side effects when medical professionals deviate from the appropriate standard of medical care. A recent judgment for $6.7 million arising from complications of a hernia operation serve as a reminder of the way medical negligence can severely impact a patient’s quality of life.

Our Atlanta personal injury attorneys at Montlick and Associates often cite statistics and urge motorists to exercise care and prudence to reduce the risk of motor vehicle collisions which are emotionally devastating for families. However, sometimes real accounts of tragic accidents are the most effective way to communicate the devastation wrought by inattentive, careless or intoxicated drivers in serious vehicle collisions.

Despite the investment of an enormous amount of financial resources and adoption of stricter laws designed to get drunk drivers off the roads of Atlanta, alcohol impaired drivers continue to cause serious car accidents that result in severe injury, permanent disability and even wrongful death. Drunken drivers still claim the lives of more than 10,000 people annually and cause injury to many more. The enormous toll exacted by alcohol impaired drivers has led some to propose that states adopt laws requiring mandatory installation of an ignition interlock device (IID) by anyone convicted of DUI, which includes first-time offenders. Some of the groups that have promoted such a proposal include the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), AAA and MADD.

Concerns about fuel efficiency that spare both the environment and the bank account of vehicle owners has spurred growth in the number of owners of electric and hybrid vehicles in Georgia. As of early 2013, the EV Club of the South estimated that there were approximately 2,000 electric vehicles traveling the streets of the ten county Atlanta metro area. These numbers continue to rise along with the increasing availability of Atlanta electric vehicle charging stations. Although these vehicle offer a number of benefits, they also potentially could pose unique risks of injury to occupants and pedestrians. Our Atlanta auto accident attorneys have provided a few example of the potential dangers that may be posed by these vehicles.

Those involved in car accidents do not generally admit to engaging in unsafe driving behaviors because they have concerns about criminal and civil liability.  The key to proving liability will be to establish examples of unsafe driving behavior or motor vehicle violations.  While many times the law enforcement accident report will assign liability and indicate the driving error or omission that caused the crash, these conclusions can be disputed.  If the law enforcement report indicates that the other driver caused the collision, you can be fairly sure that the insurance company for the other driver will frequently not simply accept this conclusion.  Like the insurance company for the other driver, our experienced Georgia car accident lawyers typically conduct an independent investigation so that we can build a persuasive case for the liability of our clients.

Whether you are a driver, passenger, bicyclist, motorcyclist or pedestrian who is involved in a Georgia auto collision, the steps you take in the immediate aftermath of the crash can have a dramatic impact on your ability to obtain adequate financial compensation for your injuries. Because car accidents are traumatic unanticipated incidents, those who suffer injuries are understandably usually not focused on the most efficient way to preserve their rights to seek legal compensation in a personal injury action.

Many motorcyclists object to mandatory helmet laws, but the enormous toll in personal injuries, loss of life and medical costs related to motorcycle accident head injuries has prompted mandatory helmet laws in virtually all states. Although these laws constitute some infringement on personal liberty, motorcycle safety advocates argue that the financial savings in public health care expenses justify this intrusion. While the philosophical and political debate is beyond the scope of this blog, our Atlanta motorcycle accident attorneys see the tragic toll of not wearing a helmet far too often. As such, we also encourage people to review the following most common myths about motorcycle helmets and helmet use based on information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):

While many Georgia drivers are well aware of the high risk of being involved in a car crash caused by a drunk driver, drugged driving does not receive nearly the same focus by motorists. This disparity may be linked to the fact that most motorists recognize that more drivers ingest alcohol than illicit drugs. This assumption fails to recognize the widespread use of prescription drugs by drivers in the U.S. Some vehicle safety experts speculate that prescription drug use and abuse has become so prevalent that drugged driving may now be as pervasive as drunk driving. Because drugged driving is now such a serious risk for Georgia drivers, our Atlanta drugged driving accident lawyers at Montlick and Associates have provided the following key facts about this extremely risk driving hazard:

Many people who suffer incapacitating injuries or lose a loved one to a drunk driver, foreseeable and preventable act of violence or an exhausted big-rig driver do not receive the recovery they should because they make mistakes that damage their personal injury or wrongful death claim. While it may seem reasonable to see how the other party's insurance company will proceed in handling your claim, insurance companies are not in the business of expediting the full value of an insurance claim to injury victims. Further, most insurance companies are staffed with a knowledgeable and experienced team of attorneys, experts, adjusters and others with the objective of reducing the amount paid to injury victims.

The potential risks and relative benefits of robotic surgery have been the target of widespread debate in recent years. The controversy regarding the merits and safety of using Intuitive Surgical Inc.'s surgical robot system is expected to intensify following two separate safety warnings issued during the last month including what has been referred to as an "urgent medical device recall."

The December and New Years holiday are time of year which can be an extremely dangerous time for vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. The tendency to consume alcohol at family gatherings, office Christmas parties and New Year's Eve parties lead to a surge in alcohol-related crashes. Accident statistics from the recent Thanksgiving weekend, for example, reveals that 19 people died and 260 more were injured in collisions. Our Atlanta Drunk Driving Accident Attorneys at Montlick and Associates are saddened by these reports and concerned about accident victims and their families.

Most people know that teen drivers are statistically more likely to be involved in motor vehicle accidents than other age groups. Teenagers generally have limited driving experience which impairs their ability to cope with driving distractions and can lead teens to underestimate the risk of certain hazardous driving practices. Georgia and other states have enacted statutes that specifically target driving practices that contribute to teen accidents, such as driver's license restrictions on nighttime driving and transporting teen passengers that are not immediate family members. Georgia State law also imposes a zero tolerance policy for underage DUI that carries a one year driver's license suspension for a first offense.

A novel DUI case currently pending in another state suggests an interesting new strategy for combating drunk driving. The prosecutor in the case has essentially charged two 17-year-old boys as accomplices for allowing a 17-year-old girl to climb behind the wheel of an SUV even though she was too intoxicated to drive safely according to a Yahoo news report. The unusual drunk driving case raises the prospect of holding passengers accountable for not intervening to prevent drivers who are obviously intoxicated from driving while under the influence of alcohol.

The impact of a serious motor vehicle collision on a crash victim and his or her family can be devastating both in terms of the immediate consequences, such a pain and suffering, medical costs and vehicle repair expenses, and also the long-term impact which includes potential diminished enjoyment of life, earning capacity and ability to participate fully in family activities. While a personal injury claim based on the negligence of a driver who is intoxicated or texting on a cell phone may provide financial compensation to the injury victim, many car crash injury victims never pursue a claim because they rely on a police officer's evaluation that they caused the accident as reflected in Atlanta Auto Accident Reports.

This is the second installment in our two-part blog post discussing common questions about rollover accident injury claims. Because these accidents account for a disproportionate number of serious injuries and fatalities, it is important that consumers understand the unique risks that contribute to these potentially deadly collisions. If you have not had the opportunity to review the Part I of this blog post, we invite you to do so before reviewing Part II.

While the dangers posed by cell phone use and drunk drivers recently has garnered significant media attention, motorists who are driving a motor vehicle with limited sleep may pose a risk that deserves a comparable amount of focus by traffic safety regulators. While it can be difficult to ascertain the precise number of accidents and injuries caused by drowsy driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has estimated that at least 2.5 percent of all traffic-related fatalities and approximately 2 percent of injuries suffered in car accidents are a product of overly tired drivers.

The importance of wearing a seatbelt when a vehicle occupant is involved in a car crash can hardly be overstated, but seatbelts are particularly valuable when a motor vehicle rollover occurs during a collision. Because seatbelts keep vehicle occupants within the protective enclosure of the passenger compartment and minimize impact with hard interior surfaces of the vehicle, they can prevent permanent brain damage, partial or total paralysis from spinal cord injuries or wrongful death in a rollover collision. Our experienced Georgia rollover accident lawyers see the tragic consequences of far too many of these devastating collisions so we have provided answers to common questions about SUV rollover accidents in Georgia in this two-part blog post.

With the winter season upon us, wet and icy road conditions pose serious hazards for those traveling the roadways of the metro Atlanta area. Black ice forced the closure of multiple lanes of Fulton Industrial Boulevard during this past Thanksgiving week while GDOT workers attempted to clear the hazardous road condition, and a Clayton County motorcycle police officer was involved in an accident when he lost control of his vehicle on slippery black ice according to a WSB-TV 2 report. When rain saturates the roadway with water, it can turn into black ice in freezing conditions so that drivers face a greater risk of injury or wrongful death in a weather-related traffic collision.

Few experiences are as emotionally devastating as the loss of a family member or other close loved one, but the pain can be intensified when the death is caused by the negligent, reckless or intentional actions of another individual. When you lose someone you love, the accompanying sense of overwhelming grief and loss tends to make concerns about insurance issues and legal claims a low priority. Unfortunately, these pragmatic matters generally cannot be put off until the process of coping with one's grief has run its course. When a family loses the primary wage earner in the family, the financial recovery in a Georgia wrongful death settlement or judgment can provide the ability to maintain the family's standard of living, finance the decedent's kids' college education and provide financial security for family members.

Driving under the influence of alcohol constitutes one of the most common and preventable causes of serious auto accidents that result in life-altering injuries and fatalities. While drivers committing DUI-related offenses are less able to safely operate a motor vehicle due to slower reflexes, distorted perception and impaired judgment, they also tend to drive at a high rate of speed because they have an inflated sense of their own driving ability. This combination of less control and increased speed means that drunk drivers are not only more likely to be involved in a collision, but the resulting collisions also disproportionately more severe types of injuries.