Blog Archive - December, 2016

The most recent numbers show that in 2009 there were 3,277,700 recordable, non-fatal accidents in private industry workplaces. Of those, nearly 52 percent involved sprains and strains, most often involving the back, and nearly a million of these injuries caused significant time away from work. If you add bruises, contusions, cuts, lacerations and fractures to the list, you have accounted for almost two-thirds of the accidents which lead to days away from work.

While most drivers in Atlanta and throughout Georgia are aware of the potential danger posed by drivers who are operating a semi-truck, car or SUV while under the influence of an illegal narcotic or alcohol, many do not give a second thought to driving after taking a prescription medication or over-the-counter drug. However, there are many legal drugs that can impede one's ability to drive just like an illegal drug or alcohol. When a driver causes an accident because the driver is drowsy after taking a sleep aid or antihistamine, the driver may face both criminal and civil liability.

If you work in the construction industry, you understand that occupational hazards that can cause serious injury are a constant presence at construction projects. While compliance with safety rules, proper maintenance of equipment and vigilance can decrease the risk of enduring catastrophic injury or wrongful death, construction sites are inherently dangerous. Although there are many hazards on the typical Georgia construction site, heavy machinery poses a unique risk to operators and those on the ground.

There are several issues that everyone should be aware of regarding auto accidents. Considering that an auto accident takes place nearly every 60 seconds in the United States, you stand a pretty fair chance of needing this information at some point in time. When you are involved in an unexpected car crash, you may be so shook up that you don't know what you should do. It can be extremely helpful to have these few reminders firmly in your mind to avoid making a mistake which could cost you plenty down the line. The following are the most common mistakes that people make after an accident.

Because the baby boomers are aging, it is believed that the number of drivers over the age of seventy will triple over the next twenty years. Generally speaking, as drivers age they tend to become more cautious and conservative on the road, modifying their driving habits in order to avoid the busiest highways or driving at night. Even so, older drivers are significantly more likely than younger ones to be involved in multi-vehicle crashes, most especially at intersections.

Considering there were 177 million vehicles on the road in 2006 which were equipped with airbags, it's hardly surprising that there have also been injuries caused from the airbags themselves. There are also records of injuries or death resulting from the airbag's failure to deploy in a serious accident. While no one will dispute that airbags do save lives, injuries and deaths from this safety device happen more often than you would think. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that over 22,000 people have had their life saved by an airbag.

Pedestrian accidents present a much greater risk of injury than the risk experienced by those in motor vehicles because a pedestrian has no protective steel enclosure let alone safety equipment like seatbelts and airbags. While the danger associated with pedestrian accidents has fallen consistently over a recent five year period, this trend has ceased as the number of pedestrian accidents have started to climb. During a recent year period, almost 4,300 people died in pedestrian accidents while another 70,000 people suffered injury. Interestingly, the rise in pedestrian accidents has not impacted all groups of pedestrians equally. In this article, our personal injury attorneys will review the particular risk factors that increase the risk of someone being involved in a pedestrian accident and speculate on potential reasons for the sudden increase in the number of pedestrian accidents.

Many people believe that road rage and aggressive driving are the same thing, however these two issues are completely separate causes of auto accidents. Aggressive drivers may actually cause more anxiety to American drivers than impaired drivers. Drivers who operate their vehicles with such behaviors as unsafe lane changes, excessive speeding, chronic tailgating or running red lights or stop signs can pose a serious risk to other motorists. With holiday traffic increasing, impatient driving behaviors can lead to car collisions as aggressive drivers make obscene hand gestures, honk, flash their lights, or even pass on the right hand side of the road.

Car With Vehicle-2-Vehicle Technology May Be Able to Speak to One Another Wirelessly As Soon As 2020

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is moving forward with a proposed rule that would require all automakers to install specialized radios in cars that would enable the vehicles to "speak" to one another wirelessly. The radios (called dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) radios) would have a range of about 1,500 feet and would wirelessly broadcast and receive information about vehicles' speed, position, and whether a specific vehicle nearby is applying its brakes. If NHTSA's proposal becomes a rule, it is hoped that the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology would be standard equipment on all new cars within the next four to seven years.

Uber Vehicle Caught Running Red Light, But Who is Behind the Wheel?

On Wednesday, December 14, a Lyft rider's tweet quickly gained national attention after the rider/tweeter claimed a self-driving Uber car entered a San Francisco intersection on a red light and nearly struck the Lyft vehicle in which the woman was riding. The report raised concerns about the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicle technology and whether passengers of these vehicles (as well as other motorists and passengers) are safe with a computer "behind the wheel." Uber later asserted that the vehicle involved was not autonomous and that a human driver made the blunder.

Faulty Seatbacks May be to Blame for Hundreds of Deaths, Including Children

While defective and deadly airbags may have occupied the headlines for the past year or more, one woman has been waging a decades-old war against another vehicle design defect that claimed the life of her young daughter in 2000. According to the woman, a faulty design in her vehicle caused her seatback to collapse in a crash and tragically crush her daughter, who was seated in the rear of the woman's Ford Escort. The woman had pulled off to the side of the road to allow an emergency vehicle to pass when she was struck from behind by another vehicle. The force of the impact allegedly caused the woman's seatback to fall backwards with such force that the woman's seven-year-old daughter was killed.

Self-Driving Car Legislation is First of Its Kind in the Nation

Earlier this month the State of Michigan – once a trailblazer in the development and production of the automobile – became the first state in the nation to pass legislation that allowed automated cars to be tested, sold, and utilized for ride-sharing operations. The law is more expansive than even California's autonomous vehicle legislation which, if passed, would allow autonomous cars to operate within the state so long as a human driver is present in the car and able to take control of the car in the event of an emergency. The law (which was signed by Governor Rick Snyder on December 9, 2016) represents the efforts and input of legislators as well as auto manufacturers like Ford and Toyota as well as ride-sharing businesses like Uber and Lyft.

Transition Between Automated Driving and Human Driving is Not Smooth, Study Says

In the future, truly "driverless" cars will be able to shuttle passengers from one destination to another without a human having to make any manual input to adjust the car's speed and/or direction of travel. Autonomous cars (it is hoped) will be able to travel along a roadway at a constant speed, avoid colliding with other vehicles and hazards, and handle curves in the road and navigate turns safely. Until the requisite technology is developed and tested, however, "driverless" technology is actually semi-autonomous in nature and requires human drivers to remain alert and able to take back control from the computer on a moment's notice. A new study conducted by a group at Stanford University suggests humans may have a difficult time handling this transition.

Common Practice of Driving Without Enough Sleep Can Lead to Car Collisions

Whether out of ignorance or necessity, many Americans choose to drive without being adequately rested. A 2005 study from the National Sleep Foundation claimed that over 150 million adult drivers (or about sixty percent of adult drivers) have operated a vehicle when they were "drowsy." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also showed that about 20 percent of all fatal traffic collisions in the country involve drowsy driving. Yet despite these dire statistics, individual drivers continue to drive without first getting sufficient rest.

Atlanta Personal Injury Attorneys Discuss the Role of Surveillance Videos in Slip and Fall Accidents in Stores

Grocery stores, department stores, and other retail chains have a legal duty to keep their establishment reasonably safe from hazards that might cause slip/trip and fall accidents. This duty might take the form of providing adequate warnings to suppliers and shoppers or making fall hazards safe. In this blog article, our Atlanta personal injury lawyers discuss the role of video surveillance in proving a slip and fall accident in a grocery store or department store.

Ignoring a Vehicle Recall Can Affect More than Your Safety

According to a January 2016 MarketWatch.com article, which cited statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2015 was a record-setting year in terms of the number of vehicles subject to a recall. More specifically, NHTSA statistics (as cited in the article) showed that over 50 million vehicles were subject to at least one recall in 2015 – the highest number of recalls in a single year. More troubling is NHTSA's estimate that in any given year approximately 25 percent of recalled vehicles are never taken in for repairs or replacement parts. If this estimate is true, then this means that in 2015 alone over 12 million vehicles that had potentially-dangerous defects were not repaired.

Georgia Auto Accident Lawyers Analyze the Effectiveness of Sobriety Checkpoints in the Enhancement of Traffic Safety

Those who drive under the influence of alcohol continue to account for a significant number of serious accidents resulting in injury and death. The average number of DUI fatalities in the U.S. continues to hover at approximately 10,000 people per year. Because drunk drivers account for nearly one in three motor vehicle fatalities in a typical year, some traffic safety experts have proposed the use of sobriety checkpoints as a countermeasure to promote vehicle safety in Georgia. In this blog article, our Georgia auto accident lawyers consider the use of drunk driving checkpoints as a means of making our roadways safer.

Atlanta Scooter Accident Lawyers Discuss Severity of Safety Risks Posed by Scooters and Mopeds

Scooters and mopeds offer a cost-effective form of transportation especially given the mild weather experienced in Georgia much of the year. High fuel prices have made motorized bikes, such as scooters and mopeds, popular options in the Atlanta metro area and throughout Georgia. Although some people select low speed motorized bikes as their transportation option because of a belief in their safety, these vehicles are characterized by many to have similar safety limitations to those of motorcycles. In this blog article, our Atlanta scooter accident lawyers provide important information about scooter and moped laws as well as safety issues.

Workplace Injury Attorneys Discuss Claims Arising From Roofing Fall Accidents in Georgia

A man fell to his death while he was working on the roof of the a convention center. The roofer tragically lost his life after falling approximately fifty feet. His tragic death is a sobering reminder that construction jobs are dangerous jobs, especially roofing jobs, which place workers high above the ground much of the time.

Montlick & Associates, Attorneys at Law Discusses Truck Accident Complexities Following a Fatal Dump Truck Accident in Savannah, Georgia on December 9, 2016

WTOC reported on Friday that Law enforcement, fire, and EMS services were called to an accident scene Friday morning just west of I-95 on Fort Argyle Road/204 in Savannah, GA.

The Holidays Can Bring Out the Worst Drivers. So which State Has the Worst Holiday Drivers?

It is no secret that nearly every state in the nation experiences an increase in the number of traffic injury and traffic fatality crashes around the holiday season. It is unclear precisely why this happens: perhaps the increase in the number of cars on the roadway make it statistically more likely that a car crash will occur during this time of year. Or, perhaps the stress of the holidays – the need to visit distant family members or a "to-do" list that does not seem to end – affects and distracts a great number of drivers. Whatever the reason, however, it is clear that when driving across Georgia, in the Southeast, or elsewhere in the United States during this holiday season, drivers need to be alert and drive safely.

The Deadly "D's" of Driving

There are many laws and regulations as well as public safety campaigns geared towards reducing the rates of drunk and distracted driving.  While it is true that both distracted driving and drunk driving are responsible for a significant number of traffic-related injuries and deaths each year, there is a third "D" – drowsy driving – that can be just as dangerous as drunk distracted driving. However, drowsy driving receives far less attention than the other two behaviors.

Our Car Accident Lawyers Analyze Distracted Driving Accident Claim Filed against Snapchat

The distracted driving crisis has reached epidemic proportions because of the prevalent use of mobile phones by drivers, especially newly licensed motorists. The focus of law enforcement efforts and legislation aimed at curbing cell phone use by drivers has tended to focus on talking and texting on a mobile phone. While these activities might be the most common forms of distractions involving mobile phones, the popularity of social media websites offers a new type of distraction for teen drivers. A lawsuit filed by a person who suffered serious injury when struck by a motorist using Snapchat raises an interesting question about the potential liability of social media website companies for accidents caused by distracted drivers using their "apps."

Bus Driver Arrested and Charged in Deadly Chattanooga School Bus Accident

School buses provide transportation for millions of school children. Parents must trust that the school bus company has employed experienced, competent, dedicated and compassionate drivers who truly care about the children on their bus. These drivers are responsible for the children they take from point A to point B.

Poor Design and Maintenance of Parking Lots and Garages Can Lead to Serious Injury

The holiday shopping season has begun, and even though an increasing number holiday shoppers are choosing to make their holiday gift purchases online, many still prefer the experience of shopping at their local malls or retail establishments. Parking lots filled with vehicles belonging to festive shoppers are a common site across Georgia during the holidays. These parking lots and garages are sometimes a convenience for shoppers and, other times, a headache. However, few, if any, shoppers expect these lots and garages to jeopardize shoppers' health and safety. However, poorly designed and/or maintained parking lots and parking structures can be the site of serious or even fatal injury accidents.

A Medical Malpractice Attorneys Review Report Indicating a Failure to Report Fatal Hospital Infections in Georgia

While many people are aware that surgical errors, anesthesia errors, and birth injuries are forms of medical malpractice that can result in debilitating or fatal injuries, the impact of preventable infections continues to be a top threat to patient safety. Most hospitals and their medial professionals provide quality medical care to patients.  However, a recent Reuters report described a series of infection-related tragedies in hospitals that caused preventable deaths. For example, an infant who was born fifteen months premature tragically died ten days after birth when the baby developed a fatal infection while in the neonatal intensive care unit. In this blog article, our Atlanta medical malpractice attorneys analyze this new report indicating that some hospitals are not reporting deaths caused by hospital-acquired infections.

Recent Survey Finds West Georgia Hospitals are Among the Safest in the State

Hospitals provide life-saving medical care for millions of people in Georgia, and while a significant number of patients receive quality medical care, some patients do not. In fact, some patients suffer injuries or illnesses because of hospital errors that go undetected. As such, it is always nice to see that some Georgia hospitals have received "A" ratings. The national hospital safety advocacy organization, The Leapfrog Group, rated 72 Georgia hospitals, giving 16 of these hospitals an "A" safety grade. WellStar Paulding Hospital and WellStar Douglas Hospital of Hiram and Douglasville were rated the safest in Georgia, both receiving an "A."

Auto Accident Attorneys Discuss Complex Legal Issues Raised by Multiple Vehicle Traffic Accidents in Georgia

Multi-car pileups can be one of the deadliest types of car crashes because of the number of vehicles involved and the risk of multiple impacts. Auto collisions that involve a chain reaction with several cars are not uncommon on highways with heavy traffic and factors like road hazards, limited visibility, and inclement weather. While some of these accidents could be avoided if motorists adjusted their driving to fit the conditions, many drivers disregard conditions that necessitate increased caution. In this blog, our auto accident attorneys provide an overview of information regarding multi-car pileup accidents.

The case involving a father and the death of his two-year-old son finally came to a conclusion when a Georgia jury found the father guilty of murder. In June 2014, the father left his toddler in a hot car for seven hours while he was working, leading to the young boy's death. On that same day, the father was "sexting" with multiple women, one of whom was a minor. The father was not only found guilty of murder, but was also found guilty of child cruelty, and three counts relating to text messages with underage women.

Car Accident Lawyers Warn Motorists of the Danger Posed by Unlicensed Drivers in the State of Georgia

Motorists without a valid driver's license pose a more substantial risk to vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. A recent AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report indicates that one in five fatal motor vehicle collisions involve a driver without a valid license or a license that raises questions about its validity with law enforcement officers. According to the report, 8,500 people per year die in collisions caused by motorists without a valid license. In this blog, our Atlanta car accident lawyers review the special threat posed by unlicensed drivers in Georgia.

Georgia Teenager Suffers Fatal Injuries Following Tragic I-475 Head-On Collision

Anytime a teenager suffers severe or fatal injuries as a result of a car accident, the aftermath is especially tragic. Teenagers have their entire lives ahead of them, and one accident can change everything in the blink of an eye. A recent Macon car accident resulted in the death of a 19-year-old after the teen was struck head-on by an oncoming vehicle, according to a local news report. As the teenager was merging onto I-475, he lost control of his car and crossed over the median into the southbound lanes of I-475. An SUV traveling in a southbound lane did not see the teenager's car and could not avoid striking the vehicle. The driver of this SUV and her daughter were taken to a hospital for treatment, and their condition is unknown.*