Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

On Saturday, a head on collision in Clayton County left one dead and another in critical condition in Atlanta Medical Center. Mookie Blaylock, former Atlanta Hawks All-Star, drove over the median into southbound lanes on Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro, GA and ran into a van head on, killing the passenger of the van. Blaylock remains in the hospital under critical condition. It is unknown what caused Blaylock to cross the median into oncoming traffic. Blaylock has recently been treated for seizures, and although this is not a confirmed contributing factor in the accident, people who have had seizures may not be safe to drive, nor allowed by Georgia law. In fact, a person with epilepsy may obtain a license to drive cars and trucks weighing less than 26,000 pounds if he or she has been seizure-free for 6 months. [GA. COMP. R. & REGS. r. § 375-3-5-.02(2)(c) (2010); GA. CODE ANN. § 40-5-35(a) (2010)] People that experience nocturnal seizures, seizures that occur at night, may obtain a restricted license for day-time driving only. There are 6 states (California, Delaware, New jersey, Oregon, and Pennsylvania) that require physicians to report people experiencing seizures to a state agency, usually to the Department of Driver Services. Georgia law does not require physicians to report such cases, but GA doctors are permitted to release medical records if they believe the patient is incapable of operating a motor vehicle. It is imperative that epileptic people use caution concerning driving as seizures may return at any time. Many physicians believe at least 12 months is necessary to be sure it is safe to drive. People that experience an aura before a seizure are at a much reduced risk of accidents as the aura may act as a warning that a seizure may be coming. If you have epilepsy or have experienced a recent seizure you may want to look up your legal standing pertaining to your driving eligibility.

Traveling on a bicycle can be extremely beneficial to ones health and environment, but can be exceptionally dangerous, particularly in a busy city filled with anxious, and often careless drivers such as Atlanta. Drivers are multitasking constantly, and with so many other tasks to complete, looking out for bikers and pedestrians while driving is often neglected. A bicyclist is allowed to operate in the middle of the traffic lane if the bicycle lane is obstructed or if the road is too narrow to provide a specific bike lane. The Georgia Drivers manual states, “The law requires a driver to allow at least three feet between the driver and bicyclist wh en passing.” Often this is when most bike accidents happen, some very avoidable.
Over this past Memorial Day weekend, a 14 year old boy was killed in a bicycle accident in DeKalb County. While traveling east on Casey Cove Road, the boy crossed the center line and struck the front of an oncoming Honda CRV, headed westbound. The collision knocked him from his bike to ground where he was struck by an F-150 Pick up truck, also headed westbound. The boy was taken to Dekalb Community Hospital where he later died of brain injuries. The boy was a football player and just graduated the 8th grade, soon headed to high school. This young man didn’t even outlive his maternal great grandmother, a reminder that any of our lives can be taken whilst still unfulfilled, and at a moments notice.

Simple precautions when riding a bike may prevent the chance of an accident. While many accidents are out of the hands of the bicyclist, it is important to prevent the ones you can, but prepare for the ones you can’t. Robin Frazer Clark has handled many bicycle-car collision cases similar to this one, and fights to obtain justice for those whose lives have been significantly altered by the carelessness of others.

As a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney who handles a wide variety of car wreck cases in Atlanta and the surrounding Metro area, I am sometimes, though not that often, asked to represent people in hit and run incidents. I say not that often because I don’t think many people know that their own car insurance may provide coverage to them when they are involved in a hit and run incident, especially when they are hit as a pedestrian. That may come as a surprise to you. It does to many people, including even other lawyers and judges. Unless you routinely handle car wreck cases as a lawyer, you may not be aware that your uninsured motorist coverage (UM) that you have purchased on your own vehicle also provides insurance coverage when you are hit while a pedestrian by a hit and run car.

But the insurance carriers know it, and once you try to make a claim on your car insurance policy for injuries sustained while a pedestrian, that’s when the insurance carriers go into full press mode to trot out every excuse in the book to deny you coverage. It’s wrong on many levels, especially when you were the one who paid the premiums exactly for that situation. It may even border on fraudulent, because they certainly don’t explain that to you when you are paying them the premiums!

This unjust situation came to mind recently as I read a story about a young UGA student who was hit by a hit and run driver while she was a pedestrian in Athens. She was severely injured in the incident. It also came to mind because next month I will be arguing this issue to the Georgia Court of Appeals in which I represent a client who was also severely injured by a hit and run driver while he was walking across Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta. State Farm Insurance Company denied his claim on his own policy on the basis that he did not report the incident to State Farm immediately. Did you know your car insurance policy, regardless of the carrier, has a provision in it that you must report an incident to them immediately. Which begs the question: what if you don’t know it’s an incident that might be covered by the policy? What average person would think that their insurance policy that covers their car would provide insurance coverage to them when they are on foot? That doesn’t even make sense, does it?