Atlanta Auto Accident Lawyers

Montlick & Associates, Attorneys At Law Discuss Regional Law Enforcement Effort To Curb Speeding

The Georgia State Patrol announced that law enforcement officers in the state of Georgia in cooperation with law enforcement officers in Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina began an initiative to identify drivers operating at speeds greater than the posted limit. The week-long initiative has been dubbed, "Operation Southern Shield." The focus of Southern Shield is to apprehend speeding motorists in an effort to reduce the number of traffic deaths or prevent a traffic death. If you or someone you love has been injured by a speeding motorist in Georgia or the surrounding states, Montlick & Associates has the knowledge and experience you need to maximize your chance of financial recovery.

Montlick & Associates, Attorneys At Law Want Parents Of Young Drivers To Beware Of Summertime Driving Dangers

The American Automobile Association (AAA) dubbed the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day the "100 Deadliest Days." Summer has earned this dubious distinction because of the risk young, newly minted drivers pose to themselves and motorists, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. AAA estimates that young drivers are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash during summer than at any other time of the year. During this time frame, 15% of all fatal crashes involve a teenage driver, more than any other time of the year. If you or a loved one was injured in a car accident involving someone else's negligence, Montlick & Associates has the experience, dedication, and compassion to help you recover compensation for your injuries.

Tractor-trailers possess a multitude of factors that pose an enhanced risk to roadway safety, including a huge disparity in weight and significantly longer stopping distances when compared with passenger cars.  Large trucks can outweigh a typical passenger car by a factor of 20-30 times.  The extraordinary length and height of a tractor-trailer also obscure visibility for the truck driver and other motorists.  Although many factors related to semi-trucks and commercial drivers play a role in the number of trucking-related injuries, the size of a massive big-rig contributes both to the number of collisions and the severity of those accidents.  In this blog article, our Atlanta tractor-trailer accident lawyers highlight the danger of no zones without implementation of safety innovations and properly trained drivers.

Ambulances are emergency vehicles intended to save lives, taking ill or injured patients to hospitals for emergency medical attention.  However, ambulances have certainly been involved in accidents over the years, but most accidents do not involve a situation where the driver of an ambulance falls asleep at the wheel, causing an accident that results in the death of the patient being transported to the hospital.  Tragically, such an incident recently took place in Rome, Georgia. 

Punitive damages, sometimes called exemplary damages, may be awarded Georgia to car accident victims in rare instances. A jury may award punitive damages to a car accident victim as punishment of the motorist who caused the crash for reckless behavior, such as driving while intoxicated or driving in a manner consistent with previous driving infractions such as speeding or reckless driving. The potential for punitive damages is an issue which must be thoroughly discussed between car accident victims and their car accident attorneys. Car accident victims need to understand that punitive damages are not available in every case. However, a knowledgeable and experienced Georgia car accident attorney will know how to perform an exhaustive investigation to discover whether there is any justification for seeking punitive damages.

In the State of Georgia, all resident drivers are required to minimum liability insurance to be allowed to drive legally. The minimum amount of insurance every driver must carry in Georgia is at least $25,000 per person in each accident and $50,000 total per accident. This mandatory amount of basic insurance covers personal injuries and property damage that a driver causes someone else to suffer up to the limited proscribed in the policy.

If the number of fatalities in any given year is a fair gauge of the safety of driving in a state, then Georgia is indeed a dangerous place. In 2016, Georgia ranked as the 4th highest state in the country for deaths on its roadways, with more than 1,500 people dying in motor vehicle accidents.  Since the beginning of this year, there have been more than 160 fatalities on Georgia roads. According to the Georgia Department of Transportation’s statistics, the number of fatalities was up in 2015 and 2016 after a steady decline between 2007 and 2013.

Atlanta personal injury attorneys would like to discuss a recent jury verdict in a low-speed traffic accident case. The plaintiffs, who are husband and wife, were seeking approximately $1 million in damages. The jury awarded them just over $11,000. It is difficult to say what happened in the case and why the jury decided the way it did. Notwithstanding the uncertainty, many lessons can be learned from the case.

A massive crash involving a tractor-trailer truck killed one person and injured 17 others, according to AJC.com. One woman who was involved in the crash described her hair-raising, near death experience. She told the local news outlets that she kicked her way to freedom out of fear of becoming trapped in her car and fled her vehicle mere moments before a tractor-trailer slammed into her.

Social network sites are growing at a phenomenal rate and the trend toward detailing one’s daily activities for the world to see is starting to have a significant impact on car accident and personal injury claims. According to Pew Research Center, 68% of all U.S. adults are Facebook users, while 28% use Instagram, 26% use Pinterest, 25% use LinkedIn and 21% use Twitter.

Apple's iPhone will soon have the capability to block text messages while driving. This technology is not new for phones, including the iPhone. However, the development will help drivers to avoid distractions created by the need to read incoming text messages and the corresponding desire to respond to or initiate a text.

Jay Inslee, the Governor of the Washington State believes that autonomous automobiles should be on the road sooner rather than later. The governor signed an executive order in early June 2017, declaring that it is the policy of Washington to use autonomous technology to eradicate human error when driving. The governor wants testing to begin before the summer is over on both driverless and human back up versions of autonomous vehicles. 

The future may be here before we know it. A fully autonomous vehicle, a car that operates without human back up or intervention, could be tested on the road as soon as next year. Automakers have made great strides recently in improving autonomous technology. However, no fully autonomous vehicles have been tested on the road among other vehicles.

Personal injury law covers a wide range of scenarios. You may have heard the term "tort." Tort cases are a form of civil case, and they often involve situations where an individual was injured by or as a result of the actions or omissions of another person or company. The classic example would be a car accident, but many other cases fall into this category as well, including product liability cases, where a manufacturer is responsible for an injury. Other cases involve medical malpractice, where a medical practitioner has caused harm to a patient. If you were injured by circumstances that were not your fault, but can be attributed to the intentional or negligent actions of someone else, then you might be considering pursuing compensation from the person or entity that was responsible for your injuries.

Punitive damages, sometimes called exemplary damages, may be awarded Georgia to car accident victims in rare instances. A jury may award punitive damages to a car accident victim as punishment of the motorist who caused the crash for reckless behavior such as driving while intoxicated or fleeing the scene. The potential for punitive damages is an issue which must be thoroughly discussed between car accident victims and their car accident attorneys. Car accident victims need to understand that punitive damages are not available in every case. However, a skilled and experienced Georgia car accident attorney will know how to perform an exhaustive investigation to discover whether there is any justification for seeking punitive damages.

A College Park police officer suffered serious injuries on Memorial Day when a driver who fell asleep at the wheel crashed into his parked patrol car, according to AJC.com. The officer is lucky to be alive. He was rushed to a local hospital with severe injuries but was listed in stable condition. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating to determine how the incident occurred.

Article Summary: Our law firm discuss the chemical spill in April that caused traffic on the Downtown Connector in Atlanta to be diverted for several hours and how HAZMAT accidents can occur. The Atlanta Journal Constitution that the crash occurred during the early morning hours, in the area of the Connector near 10th Street. Both sides of the highway were closed for a couple of hours, and one side was reopened as soon as cleanup efforts permitted. The other side of the highway reopened several hours later after all of the accident debris and all of the hazardous substance was cleared from the roadway.

Article Summary: Our Atlanta Accident Injury Lawyers say car accident injuries can change lives in an instant. Sometimes car crashes leave victims with broken bones and stitched-up gashes. At other times, though, car accidents leave people with severe and permanent injuries. An automobile wreck left one man paralyzed from the chest down, and he is undergoing treatment, therapy and surgeries for his spinal cord injury while adjusting to living life in an entirely different way, according to the Citizen-Times. He was just sitting in traffic when he was rear-ended by a car traveling at high speed.

According to a recent survey, 46 percent of drivers aged 25-34 believe that texting and driving should be permitted. The next oldest demographic is also lax when it comes to texting and driving. The survey shows that 22.7 percent of drivers ranging in ages from 35 to 44 believe there is no issue with texting and driving. Fortunately, the youngest drivers, as a group, do not approve of texting while driving. However, it is alarming that the attitudes of drivers who are 25 to 44 years old are ignoring the proven danger of the practice.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigates catastrophic transportation events and also researches various modes of transportation to make vehicular travel on our nation's roads safer and more efficient. Passenger van travel is an effective method of transporting a small group. Typically, passenger vans accommodate fifteen people — one driver and fourteen passengers. Passenger vans have a greater likelihood of rolling over as the number of passengers increase, according to NHTSA research. Drivers of passenger vans must be aware of the potential risk and take the precautions necessary to avoid serious injury or death.