Articles Posted in Motor Vehicle Accidents

The Georgia Department of Transportation recently settled a wrongful death claim by agreeing to pay the Plaintiff $600,000.00 for the death of his wife. The Georgia DOT delayed resolution for several years and finally agreed to pay the settlement just before trial in Fulton County, Georgia. The claims in this case, Heller v. DOT, which was pending in Fulton County State Court, involved allegations that the Georgia DOT had allowed trees to grow up too closely to the roadway, presenting a deathly hazard for any member of the motoring public who, for whatever reason, happened to leave the roadway. This is what happened to the taxi Mrs. Heller was a passenger in when it hydroplaned during a rainstorm, causing the cabdriver to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a tree, killing Mrs. Heller.

Georgia DOT has a mandatory clear zone requirement, as set forth in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Roadside Design Guide, which Georgia has officially adopted. DOT cut down the trees by the side of I-85 in 2006 and has a larger tree-clearance program, DOT spokesperson David Spear said. “The principal concern relative to the DOT in this issue was the tree,” Spear said. “Relative to drainage and slope design we’ve not made any changes, nor are any warranted.”

The Georgia DOT even apologized to Mr. Heller for the death of his wife, an extremely rare gesture by the DOT.

If you think the Georgia DOT wouldn’t knowingly subject Georgia citizens to a hazardous road condition, think again.

Monday, October 25, 2010

GDOT agrees to second settlement

A San Antonio, Texas jury recently found a bus driver guilty of reckless driving for causing a rear-end motor vehicle collision while he was texting on his cellphone. The texting driver now could be sentenced up to 30 days in jail. He had requested probation in a plea deal, but District Attorney Susan Reed — who described the verdict as a warning to all who text while driving — said she’d like to see jail time imposed.

“This is setting a community standard,” Reed said after the verdict. “The jury and my office has said, ‘Don’t do this. You need to resist the temptation (to pick up the cell phone). It’s very dangerous.’”

Many of you know I have long crusaded on my blog against driving while texting (DWT). I was stopped in traffic on I-75 last night due to a rush hour wreck and took an informal survey of all of the drivers around me. I would say a good 8 out of 10 were texting while behind the wheel. Granted, traffic was stopped, but the new Georgia law prevents any texting whatsoever while behind the wheel. I wonder whether the newly enacted Georgia law against TWD is having the desired effect. U.S.D.O.T. studies on pilot programs show texting while driving has declined 68 percent in Hartford and 42 percent in Syracuse. It is too early to tell whether the Georgia law is having the same effect. Additionally, On Sept. 21, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off the 2010 National Distracted Driving Summit by announcing new anti-distracted driving regulations for commercial truck and bus drivers, rail operators and drivers transporting hazardous materials.

As a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, handling numerous car wreck cases, probably the saddest case of all is one that involves the death of a child. I have blogged before about the absolute necessity of back-up cameras in SUV’s, vans, trucks and really any vehicle that sits high off the ground. Now I see another child in Georgia has been killed by her own parent due to the lack of a back-up camera in the parent’s SUV. A back-up camera, which is very inexpensive, would have prevented this tradgedy. Many newer model vehicles now include these cameras as standard equipment. These cameras are inexpensive and easily found for purchase on the internet.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) estimates that in 2009 there were 292 fatalities involving backing over a pedestrian or bicylist. The NHTSA complete report indicates that among cases where the type of the striking vehicle is known, 78 percent of the backover fatalities and 95 percent of the backover injuries involved passenger vehicles. While people of all ages are victims of backovers, this report confirmed that children under 5 years old and adults 70 and older have an elevated risk of being backover victims compared to the rest of the population. Backover fatalities happen in a variety of areas with the most common area being the driveway, closely followed by other residential areas, public roadways, and nonresidential parking lots. Backover injuries tend to happen more frequently in nonresidential parking lots than other areas.

Golf carts are everywhere in Georgia. We see many golf cart accidents in Peachtree City, Georgia, and this one in Gainesville, Georgia sounds like it may have been caused either by faulty manufacture of the golf cart’s brakes or faulty maintenance.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — One person was seriously injured and three others were taken to the hospital after a golf cart accident occurred at a political fundraiser.

Georgia State Patrol officials said 45-year-old Beverly McDowell was a passenger on a golf cart at a private campaign event for 9th District U.S. rep. Tom Graves in Gainesville when the brakes failed Friday night.

There is a very interesting article in today’s Marietta Daily Journal Online that has many Georgia citizens calling the Georgia Department of Transportation’s lack of road maintenance, including the right of ways next to state roads, a disgrace. Many may not even realize the impact on driver safety the DOT’s failure to meet their duty of road maintenance may have.

Budget crunch forces GDOT to cut back on road maintenance

by Kathryn Dobies

Looks like Georgia highways this Fourth of July Holiday weekend were actually safer than the Georgia State Patrol had predicted, which is great news. Ten people died in car wrecks over the holiday weekend and the Georgia State Patrol had predicted, in one of the most morbid official acts it, apparently, must do, eighteen people would die. There were 2,648 car crashes with 699 injuries.

While we are all enjoying our time this holiday weekend with our families, we must remember that there are ten Georgia families grieving over the loss of a loved one today. As a personal injury attorney here in Atlanta, I often have to talk with people at one of the darkest times in their lives, after they have lost a loved one in a car wreck. My heart goes out to them.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources also reported yesterday that boating accidents and BUI’s, or Boating Under the Influence, arrests were also down. There were eight boating accidents on Georgia waters this weekend, compared to 18 last year. Department of Natural Resources officers arrested 16 people for boating under the influence, compared to 31 last year.

I came across a pretty neat idea in the Blackberry App World today, an app for your Blackberry Smartphone called “Drive Safely” that reads your incoming texts out loud to you while you are driving so you don’t look down at your phone and become distracted while reading that all-too-tempting text. It’s a free app (although you may buy a souped-up version, too) and here’s what it offers:

Features include:

-It is free to use DriveSafe.ly

Many of you know that my practice here in Atlanta, Georgia is dedicated to representing the victims of other people’s negligence in personal injury lawsuits. Many of my clients have been injured in serious car wrecks, some of which were caused by a distracted driver who was using a cell phone or texting while driving (TWD). Many of you know I have often written about the dangers of distracted driving and that I supported the Georgia Legislature’s efforts to ban TWD. The Georgia Legislature did just that this session, the Governor signed the bill and it will go into effect this Thursday, July 1, 2010. Many other states also have new laws prohibiting TWD going into force on July 1, also, including Iowa and Michigan. These other states are facing the same questions regarding enforcement of the law as Georgia police officers and state troopers are. One Michigan sheriff said “I want to make sure our officers aren’t arbitrarily pulling somebody over just because they have a phone in their hands.”

So many of you may have the question of how this law will be enforced? Many police departments are saying police officers will actually have to see with their own two eyes a driver texting before they can arrest that driver. Interestingly, an adult driver may punch in (really can’t use “dial” anymore, can we?) a telephone number while driving but simply cannot text or read a text. How will a police officer tell this difference? Bottom line: he won’t. He will fine you for TWD and then it will be up to you to try to convince the traffic court judge he was wrong and you were really just calling someone on your cellphone, not texting. Plan to bring your cell phone records with you to traffic court!

I am convinced this new law will save lives. Just get the desire to text while driving out of your system now. You may text while driving freely without fear of reprisal up to midnight this Thursday; after that, drivers beware! In a nod to American entrepreneurship, companies that can help you with your texting while driving addiction are popping up. One example is PhonEnforcer, which automatically turns off your cellphone while you are driving if you lack even a modicum of discipline to do it yourself. Of course, if you have teenagers driving, this might be a lifesaver…literally.

Friends: I couldn’t resist bringing this article to you as an example of how, apparently, nothing is beneath State Farm to try to make a buck. How low will it go? This shows how low State Farm is willing to stoop to make a profit. Unbelievable! Take it from an Atlanta trial lawyer, don’t trust State Farm.

Family asked to pay for car damage after dog run over

May 27 03:40 PM US/Eastern