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
Just when I thought it was safe to go into the water, it is reported this morning that a young woman has died in a boating incident on Lake Lanier and police authorities have charged the man who was driving the boat at the time with BUI, Boating Under the Influence. This comes right on the heels of my last blog entry in which I reported the good news that the Georgia Department of Resources had indicated the Fourth of July Holiday was safer than expected in Georgia, with BUI’s on Georgia waters as being down this year from last year. My heart goes out to the family who has lost a loved one in this preventable incident.
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.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sarah I. Coole
June 21, 2010 Director of Communications
404-527-8700; 800-334-6865
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
Congress is considering a total ban on the manufacture and sell of drop-side cribs. The fact that Congress is even discussing this indicates how truly dangerous they must be, because, as we all know, the United States Congress moves at a glacial pace (read “slow as cold molasses as we say in Kentucky) and the fact that Congress is even now addressing the issue indicates how serious the hazard of drop-side cribs must really be.
Those of us who are parents of older children most certainly raised our children using drop-side cribs. They saved us from an untold number of backaches. No doubt none of us would have used them had we only known what a terrible danger they posed to the safety of our babies, the most precious things on Earth to us. When my children were infants, I was aware of a potential danger of having too much space between the mattress and the crib railings. We were told by our physicians that an infant could scoot between the mattress and the side of the crib and become wedged there and suffocate. The test was to make sure you could get nothing more than your fingers between the mattress and the side of the crib. The current danger being investigated is similar, but occurs when a piece of hardware from the crib is missing or the drop-side is installed incorrectly, which can easily occur.
Representative Kirsten Gillibrand from New York is leading the charge in Congress. “There’s a great urgency here. We have to make sure that no parent is unaware that drop-side cribs could kill their children,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in an Associated Press interview. There have already been recalls of hundreds of thousands of cribs recalled. At least 32 young children have strangled or suffocated in the past nine years due to defects and other problems of drop-side cribs. Even one death is too many. Although drop-side cribs may soon be obselete, they will still be found at yard sales, which may pose a problem for unknowing parents. Before buying any such product, I recommend you check the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website to verify the product you intend to buy has not been recalled and doesn’t pose a safety risk for your child.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, along with the Family Dollar Store, has recalled the “Auto Fire Toy Dart Gun.” The manufacturer of the toy, Henry Gordy International, Inc., of Plainfield, NJ, has refused to recall the toy on its own, even though at least two children have died from swallowing parts of the darts. The toy dart guns were manufactured in China, which raises the issue of how safe are toys or other products manufactured in that country? Remember, this is the same country that manufactured children’s toys that had lethal levels of lead in the paint on the toys. And the same country that sold infant’s formula laced with melamine.
All very scary stuff. It is extremely difficult to advise the average consumer on what is safe and what is potentially lethal. For now, I would simply recommend continuing to check the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website on a regular basis to see what is on their radar screen to help make your family more safe.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Incumbent unseated in State Bar election
It was the first time in memory that an office holder was challenged
Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog