Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist Mike Luckavich had the perfect cartoon about texting the other day. It is a group of friends at a bar and they decide to be responsible on the drive home, so one of them says “OK, so who is our designated texter?” Perfect! As you know from reading my blog, studies have absolutlely proven that a sober driver who is texting while driving is really more impaired than an intoxicated driver! Now that’s some sobering news.

I have been writing about this subject for awhile, hoping that come January 2010 the Georgia General Assembly will make it illegal in Georgia to text while driving. Interestingly, now Congress is thinking about making it a Federal offense! Wow! Talking about upping the ante! The Obama administration planned to offer recommendations this past Thursday to address the growing safety risk of distracted drivers, especially the use of mobile devices to send messages from behind the wheel. “We can really eliminate texting while driving. That should be our goal,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, declining to provide specifics of the recommendation.

Well, the statistics don’t lie: the Transportation Department reported that nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million were injured last year in vehicle crashes connected to driver distraction, often by mobile devices and cell phones. This is insane! How many Georgians have to be injured or killed by careless drivers who are texting behind the wheel before it is made illegal? Perhaps the Georgia Legislature could create a new offense, “DWT: Driving While Texting”?

I read yesterday that a group of United States Senators have filed a bill that would make it illegal on a Federal level to text while driving. These Senators are Senator Charles Schumer of New York, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina. The measure, S. 1536, called the Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act (or “ALERT Drivers” Act), would apply to drivers of any car, truck or bus, as well as most other mass transit systems, including light rail. The legislation would not apply to individuals using mobile devices in a parked vehicle, nor would it apply to passengers. Lawmakers said the legislation is necessary, citing a study by Virginia Tech researchers showing that drivers are 23 times more likely to get into an accident when texting on their phones. Other studies show that the effects of driver texting are similar to driving while intoxicated, the lawmakers said.

Good for them…although I really don’t think this is an issue that should be dealth with on a Federal level. It seems to me it is inherently a State issue and I register my hope again here that the Georgia General Assembly takes action in January 2010 to make texting while driving (TWD OR DWT) illegal. Other states have already taken this measure, including New York and California. http://lawyersusaonline.com/?article=432572 Why can’t Georgia be next? Why shouldn’t Georgia be next?

A new study by the American Association for Justice shows that 28,000 motor carrier companies, operating more the 200,000 trucks on American roadways, have violated federal safety regulations. Literally hundreds of Georgia trucking companies were listed as having safety violations. That’s mind-boggling, isn’t it? And scary.

There is no question that the motoring Georgia public takes the brunt of these intentional violations. If you have the misfortune of being involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer or other large commercial truck, you are likely to sustain some pretty serious bodily injuries. Another thing that disturbs me about Georgia law is that currently those tractor-trailers that travel only within the state limits of Georgia are required to carry only $100,000.00 in liability insurance, compared to interstate tractor-trailers, which are required to carry $750,000.00. Georgia is way behind on this issue. The reality is that a tractor-trailer that is intrastate (traveling only inside Georgia) is just as likely to kill or maim you in a collision as is an interstate (traveling from state to state) tractor-trailer. I hope I will be able to make some progress with the Georgia General Assembly next session on this issue.

Meanwhile, do your best to stay away from tractor-trailers while driving. Keep a lane in between your car and the truck. I once an an accident reconstructionist tell me never to drive side by side with a tractor-trailer and just let them go on down the road and stay clear of them. Wise advise from someone who, like me, had seen the end results of too many tractor-trailer accidents.

I saw this new PSA on the hazards of texting while driving on The Today Show this morning. As a mother of a teenager about to get his driver’s permit, I intend to make him watch it. You can watch it, too, but, WARNING: it is extremely graphic. It graphically shows the wreck caused by a teenage driver who was texting while driving three of her friends. A terrible collision occurs and although she survives, she has killed her three best friends. Unfortunately, I have seen this scenario all too often in my plaintiff’s personal injury practice in Atlanta.

For my regular readers, you’ll know it has been somewhat of a crusade for me to advocate the passing of laws against driving while texting. The newest studies are startling. Recent studies show that texting while driving may be as dangerous and lethal as drunken driving. Up to a quarter of the estimated 40,000 vehicle fatalities in the U.S. annually may be traced back to distracted drivers texting. A recent Virginia Tech study found that texting drivers are 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision than nontexters. And although the AAA reports 95 percent of drivers polled acknowledge texting while driving is dangerous, 21 percent of them have done it recently anyway.

Will the Georgia Legislature take the next available opportunity in January 2010 to outlaw texting while driving? Such a law could save thousands of lives. I don’t know what the Georgia General Assembly will do, but for now, concerned parents should have their teen drivers watch this video and think twice about texting while driving.

My heart is heavy and sad this morning after hearing the news that the little six year old girl who was struck by an SUV driver as she was exiting a MARTA bus died yesterday due to internal injuries suffered in this horrible collision. The driver of the SUV has now turned himself in this morning to police and faces vehicular homicide charges. The SUV driver violated the Georgia Rules of the Road by crossing a double yellow line when he struck the little girl. A Clarkston police officer who was parked on the corner of Ponce de Leon Avenue saw the wreck. He had just written tickets to six other drivers for passing on the double yellow line and was just about to go after this particular SUV driver when the driver hit the little girl.

This is a tragedy beyond all proportions. The family had been in Atlanta only for a few days having immigrated here from Nepal. She died on what would have been her first day of school at Indian Creek Elementary School. The Clarkston police chief said the driver who hit the little girl had a lengthy history of disobeying the rules of the road and that he “has no regard for the law.”

So what is wrong with Atlanta drivers? Many obviously ignore the rules of the road, as evidenced not only by this horrible collision but also by the fact that the police officer there had already written six tickets for the same violation just moments earlier. Atlanta is particularly dangerous for pedestrians. My law office is at the corner of Peachtree Street and 15th Street in Midtown, and I personally see numerous drivers run the red light at the intersection every day, and yet nothing is ever done about it. One day someone is going to get killed at that intersection, and I wonder then whether anything will be done about it. Should there be stiffer penalities? Should drivers be required to take driving tests periodically? For now, Atlanta drivers should just take a collective deep breath, calm down and drive more slowly. Maybe if everyone is not in such a big hurry, they will be able to think about what the Georgia Rules of the Road require of them and maybe they’ll actually follow them. Until then, Georgia families are going to face more tragedies like this one.

For those of you who have followed my blog, you know that one of my greatest concerns is the danger that texting drivers present to the motoring Georgia public. Texting while driving is not illegal in Georgia…yet. It is already illegal in several states. Today, another extremely alarming study was made public that concludes truckdrivers who text while driving their semi-trucks are 23 times more likely to cause an accident than another undistracted driver who is driving a passenger vehicle. 23 times! Watch out, Friends!

I have been pointing out incident after incident where an operator of some type of vehicle caused an accident because he or she was admittedly texting while driving. This is especially scary when the offending “texter” s the operator of a public transit vehicle, e.g., a bus or a train. For example, in Boston, Massachusetts, a trolly operator has just been indicted on charges of gross negligence for causing a collision with another trolley that injured 62 people, all caused by his texting when he was supposed to be driving the trolley. In September of last year, a commuter train engineer missed a stop signal while trading text messages with a friend, leading to a collision with a freight train that killed 25 people in California, according to federal investigators. The accident injured 101 people.

What will it take here in Georgia for Georgia Legislators to act? How much scientific evidence do they need to know that texting while driving has become an extremely dangerous proposition for the motoring Georgia public who are doing their best to drive cautiously on Georgia roads? Until texting drivers face some harsh consequences, all I can advise is to stay away from truckers. I would suggest you do this anyway, but with the new study showing that texting truckdrivers are an accident to waiting to happen on Georgia roads, just stay away from them on the road.