Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

As a Georgia 18-wheeler accident lawyer, I was disturbed to read recently that trucking companies in our state and elsewhere are still on the road despite a clear federal order to shut down for safety reasons. According to the Associated Press, a report by the Government Accountability Office shows that hundreds or even thousands of "motor carriers" -- trucking and bus companies -- that were ordered to shut down because of safety violations stayed in business by simply changing their names. These "reincarnated" companies use different names but the same addresses, owners and contact information. As of late July, the GAO said, more than 500 reincarnated carriers were still on the road. Georgia is one of at least nine states with the rogue companies.

All in all, the GAO found at least 1,073 trucking companies and 20 of 220 commercial bus companies that had changed their names after an order to shut down or pay thousands of dollars in fines. The safety problems with the original companies included failure to test drives for drugs and alcohol; use of unsafe vehicles and equipment; and failure to have a valid license. GAO investigator Greg Kutz said the reincarnated companies pose a public threat because they dodge their legal obligations to fix the safety problems that got them in trouble in the first place. In fact, the GAO said the number of reincarnated companies may be higher than its report estimated, because it looked only at exact matches between names and addresses, not partial matches or very similar information.

As an example of the dangers of these reincarnated companies, the AP cited a bus crash in Texas with multiple fatalities, caused by a blown tire. The bus company involved, Iguala BusMex, was owned by Angel de la Torre, former owner of Angel Tours Inc. Angel Tours had been ordered out of service two months before the crash after an "unsatisfactory review." Iguala BusMex was waiting for a permit from the federal government when the bus crashed in August of 2008, killing 17 members of a Vietnamese-American Catholic group. The Iguala BusMex bus that crashed had a retreaded tire installed on its steering axle -- a violation of federal regulations.

As a Metro Atlanta bus accident attorney, I am very concerned about the potential safety problems posed by these reincarnated companies. Federal safety regulations are in place to protect other drivers from serious accidents caused by mechanical failure or irresponsible driving by motor carriers. When companies openly break those rules -- to cut costs or out of simple carelessness -- they put their own truck drivers and everyone around them at serious risk. In a crash between large vehicle like a tractor-trailer and a passenger car, simple physics and well-documented statistics say the truck will always crush the smaller vehicle, endangering the lives of everyone inside. That is, innocent people almost always pay the price when trucking companies cut corners on safety.

In this latest installment on Georgia Accident Reports, we ask the question: What happens if you are in a Georgia accident on private property, like a parking lot? Who decides fault between the parties, and how does one obtain the insurance information for the other driver? If a crime was committed, like a drunk driving wreck or a hit and run collision, then the police will of course have jurisdiction. If a crime or obvious traffic offense was not committed, then an officer is under no obligation to act. Law enforcement officers will usually not draft an accident report if there are no injuries and the accident occurred on private property. I myself have been involved in truck accident in a private parking lot. The police officer refused to complete a report. Luckily for me, the other driver was honest about what happened, and his insurance company paid the claim. This dosen't always happen.

The Georgia Department of Transportation does offer a Georgia Private Property Accident Report. This form is very detailed and thorough with respect to the quantity of information. However, this form is not required to be filed in Atlanta with the DOT and according to a DOT spokesperson I spoke to: "Is only for people to give to their insurance company."

It is questionable to me whether this report is valuable at all, since the person filling it out will probably be only one party to the accident emphasizing his or her own version of events. On the back of the form, there is a blank where one can list in narrative detail what happened, but this does not require all parties to complete it.

Accident reports accomplish 2 things: they provide information and they assign blame. The Private Property Accident Report provides a lot of information but does not assist with determining fault. I would tell my clients to provide information, but to omit any question or blank that requires him or her to make judgments or conclusions concerning fault. I think an insurance adjuster, absent an admission of fault by his insured or overwhelming physical evidence, will deny a claim and dare the other driver to sue. Unless there is a third party arbiter of fault, the insurance company always has an out. This is unfortunate, but it makes you appreciate a police officer. They really do protect and serve.

If you have been seriously injured in a car accident, truck crash or motorcycle wreck on private property, then you should contact an experienced Georgia personal injury attorney to protect your interests. If you are approached by the other driver or his or her insurance company, don't say anything until you speak to a lawyer and formulate a strategy.

As a Metro Atlanta tractor-trailer accident attorney, I was happy to see a recent report in the Times-Georgian of Carroll County about a new campaign to educate the driving public about the dangers posed when a large truck collides with a passenger vehicle. According to the newspaper, the Georgia Department of Public Safety is stepping up enforcement of the law and trying to raise awareness as part of the Georgia Targeting Aggressive Cars and Trucks initiative. The current effort is the third wave of enforcement to hit west Georgia this year, combining efforts of state troopers, local sheriffs' deputies and the Motor Carrier Compliance Division of the DPS.

Joey Boatright, the Georgia State Patrol Villa Rica Post Commander, said drivers in both cars and trucks are sometimes responsible for the aggressive driving that can cause serious semi truck accidents. Large trucks need three times as much distance as cars to come to a complete stop, he said, when they're going at the same speed. That makes tailgating by both cars and big rigs extremely unsafe, he said, removing the space the truck needs to stop safely in an emergency. Blind spots on trucks are also an important issue for both kinds of drivers to be aware of. To raise that awareness, the article said, troopers cited about 300 vehicles on busy west Georgia roads in one week in mid-August. They also stepped up inspections of 18-wheelers, looking for mechanical and safety problems such as bad brakes or missing headlights.

As a Georgia trucking crash lawyer, I have seen the terrible injuries a trucking accident can cause firsthand. Commercial trucks weigh many times more than the average family car -- and in a crash, all of that extra weight translates into greater force. As a result, crashes between tractor-trailers and cars are much more likely than car-car crashes to be fatal or cause catastrophic, disabling injuries. That's true regardless of who caused the crash. When the stakes are this high, I believe both parties have a strong incentive as well as a legal duty to be extra careful about safety, leave enough following distance and follow state and federal safety laws designed to prevent these terrible accidents. Unfortunately, accident statistics show that too many drivers don't understand these risks, and thousands of lives are lost each year as a result.

As I have blogged about before, Atlanta truck accident victims suffer vertebral disc injuries which can go undiagnosed by their doctors. The reasons for this are twofold. First, ER doctors do not typically order MRIs (magnetic resonance images) of the neck or back, the diagnostic test used to show a disc injury. It simply is not an ER doctor's job. He is there to make sure that his patients do not die from an immediate injury, not to diagnose every single injury. Once he is convinced that someone is stabilized and not in mortal danger, the ER doctor either admits the patient to the hospital for further care or discharges him or her with instructions to follow up with another doctor. This is called triage. Second, MRIs are expensive, and insurance companies don't want to pay for them. Therefore, they insist that orthopedic doctors exhaust conservative measures before they order and MRI. Sometimes, orthopedic doctors don't even order them at all except for the insistence of the patient.

Sometimes, the patient, especially a man, wants to be tough and not admit to others he was hurt too badly. The adrenaline of the accident can convince someone he or she is fine. Dealing with an insurance company for a diagnostic is not fun either.

Whatever the reason, don't wait. Get the MRI. Back and spinal injuries, including disc injuries are very serious. If they are not diagnosed within a reasonable time, the insurance company of the at-fault driver may deny coverage. The later the diagnosis, the more these insurance companies argue that the injury was not suffered at the time of the collision. If the treating doctor cannot definitively say that the injury was caused by the accident, the victim may be out of luck. It's a vicious cycle.

You must recognize the symptoms of a herniated, bulging or ruptured disc injury.

Traumatic Structural Experience. A person who has experienced a disc injury may feel a "pop" sensation in his or her lower back or neck, followed by the onset of pain. The presence of such a sensation pop does not necessarily mean that the person has experienced a disc injury. In fact, the facet joints are capable of "popping." Moreover, if one is injured in a violent auto or truck accident, a small "pop" will probably not be audible.

Back Pain. Persistent back pain that endures beyond the first few days or weeks following the accident could be the sign of a disc injury. Spinal column discs are flexible and elastic, but the forces in an impact can push this cartilaginous tissue beyond its limits, causing a herniated or ruptured disc. The collapse of the disc can place great pressure upon the sciatic nerve. The pain can consist of numbness with bouts of sharp, stabbing pain, sometimes extending down to the feet and legs. If not treated, the pressure of the protruding or collapsed disc can cause chronic pain and numbness.

Back Spasms. The muscles in the back, like the spinal erector, upper rhomboids and trapezium, can become very tight and inflexible. This is the body's defense mechanism. The body will attempt to limit mobility by tightening muscles to limit further movement and injury. This muscle tightness can extend to areas far away from the injured disc like the neck, shoulders calves, toes and feet.

If you have been in a serious automobile accident, boat accident or motorcycle accident, and have experienced back pain, make sure you follow up with your orthopedic. Don't see a chiropractor. See a medical doctor only. If you experience the symptoms above for an extended period, insist on an MRI. Finally, see an experienced Atlanta back injury lawyer to make sure that the insurance company does not claim that the disc injury was caused by something other than the accident.

As a Gwinnett County car accident attorney, I was sorry to see another report about a fatal accident affecting a child. MyFox Atlanta reported Aug. 4 on the death of a seven-year-old boy who was hit by a woman's SUV as he walked to school. Police say Atlanta woman Shirley Ogilvie struck second-grader Cameron Dunmore while she was taking her own daughter to school. Ogilvie relied on a friend, Darlene Henson, to say how sorry she was, and reportedly cried on a relative's shoulder during the news conference.

According to the article, Dunmore was crossing the street in front of his elementary school when the accident occurred. A crossing guard reportedly held a stop sign in the middle of the street as he crossed, but for unclear reasons, Ogilvie failed to stop. Henson said Ogilvie drives the same street every day to take her daughter to school and is distraught over the child's death. Police say charges against Ogilvie are pending, including charges of vehicular homicide. The CEO of DeKalb County, where the accident took place, said he would start a traffic study on the crosswalk where the crash took place.

As Henson said at the conference, the death of a child is always devastating. As a Metro Atlanta car wreck lawyer, I'm sorry to say that I've handled several cases involving wrongful deaths of children in traffic accidents. In addition to being very emotionally difficult cases, they can often be financially catastrophic as well. Nobody worries about money right after a terrible accident, but as time goes on and accident-related bills begin to arrive, grieving families are forced to think about how they will pay the six-figure costs of necessities like hospitalization and a funeral. For many families, these unexpected costs completely swallow their savings, forcing them to scramble just to make ends meet.

As a Metro Atlanta car wreck lawyer, I was amazed to see a July 21 New York Times article reporting that the federal government may have suppressed research showing that even hands-free cell phone use is a dangerous distraction for drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency responsible for studying car crash data, decided in 2003 not to make its research public for political reasons, the Times reported. The findings were made public after the Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen petitioned for its release under the Freedom of Information Act.

This is big news for Georgia traffic accident attorneys like me, because it calls attention to a problem responsible for a substantial amount of serious crashes. Not every driver believes cell phone use is a safety threat, and some of them actively resist giving up a tool that has become very convenient for them. That could change if the federal government chooses to throw its weight behind strong research and a public awareness campaign, in the way that it did for seat belt use and intoxicated driving. Its failure to do so for allegedly political reasons means it may have failed to prevent thousands of crashes a year, including crashes causing wrongful deaths and catastrophic personal injuries.

The article said high-level Department of Transportation officials told Dr. Jeffrey Runge, head of the NHTSA, that the agency's funding could be in danger if it wrote to state governors about the findings, since it could be interpreted as "lobbying" the states. Runge recalled being asked whether they had enough evidence to avoid angering stakeholders, including the House Appropriations Committee, the voters it serves and the mobile phone industry. Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety said this reasoning raised serious concerns. The research was analogous to research the NHTSA does on other topics, such as seat belt use, which has never been construed as lobbying. By allowing the research to be suppressed for political reasons, the NHTSA abdicated its responsibility to prevent deaths and injuries, Ditlow said.

The research itself (in PDF format), a review of more than 150 scientific studies, came to a damning conclusion: Talking on the phone while driving noticeably harms drivers' behavior and performance, regardless of whether they use a handset or a hands-free earpiece. In both cases, the study found, the cognitive demands of talking on the phone reduced reaction and information processing times, causing clear safety problems. This contradicts the prevailing approach to driver safety. No state bans cell phone use altogether, although five states and several cities ban hand-held phone use for everyone, and 21 states and the District of Columbia restrict it for drivers under 18. The NHTSA had called for its own study of cell phone use involving 10,000 drivers, but those plans were quashed along with the study. Until the safety groups' petition, only a bibliography was publicly available.

Other highlights of the study:

• Driver distractions, including but not limited to wireless devices, contribute to about 25% of all crashes. The agency had no data breaking down individual distractions.
• In 2003, 6% of driving time was spent on the phone, which was up from 4% in 2000.
• Research showed little safety difference between use of handheld and hands-free devices. The NHTSA's official recommendation is to avoid all phone use while driving, except in emergencies.
• The agency does not recommend hands-free-only laws because they "will not address the problem."
• It did recommend that states pay special attention to young and novice drivers' use of wireless devices

As an Atlanta car crash lawyer, I was grateful to see a good resolution to a terrible hit-and-run accident that took the life of a little girl this week. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Aug. 13 that a man who fled the scene after hitting a girl with his car has turned himself in. DeKalb County law enforcement officers say 44-year-old Gregory Armwood of Covington illegally changed lanes to pass a stopped MARTA bus before hitting six-year-old Sukmaya Mager. Mager died in the hospital Aug. 12, the same day she would have started elementary school. Armwood is charged with second-degree vehicular homicide and failure to exercise due care.

According to the article, a Clarkston police officer saw Armwood cross a double line to pass the stopped bus and another car. Mager, her mother and a neighbor were crossing the street in front of the vehicles, putting them right in Armwood's path. The article did not specify whether Mager's mother or neighbor were hurt in the crash, but it did say they were refugees from Nepal who had just arrived two weeks ago and don't yet have jobs or good English skills. State records show that Armwood has multiple traffic offenses on his record, most recently in 2003, including speeding, DUI and running stop signs and red lights. He and his attorney did not comment for the article.

My heart goes out to this family, which must deal with this terrible tragedy while they build new lives in the United States. According to the article, the Magers have no relatives here, speak no English and have not yet found jobs, which means they will have trouble paying for their daughter's cremation. As a Georgia auto accident attorney, I'm sorry to say that I see families thrown into similar financial situations all the time. Although the vast majority of my clients have jobs and are native-born Americans, a car crash can wreak havoc on a family's finances, causing six-figure medical bills and weeks of lost wages from time when victims cannot work. Part of my job is helping families in this situation find solutions to these overwhelming legal and financial problems, caused by a serious accident that was no fault of their own.

As an Atlanta intoxicated driving attorney, I was sorry to see that a drunk driver claimed at least one life in a recent motorcycle crash. A woman riding on the back of a motorcycle died after a suspected drunk driver hit the motorbike, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Aug. 8. The woman and her companion, who was operating the motorbike, were returning from the National Bikers' Roundup at the Atlanta Motor Speedway at around 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 8. According to a Clayton County police spokesman, they were rear-ended by a driver who fled the scene but was apprehended. She was pronounced dead at the scene; her male companion was hospitalized with serious injuries.

The unidentified victim was visiting Georgia from South Carolina; her companion is from Riverdale. According to the article, they were on Riverdale Road near Garden Walk Boulevard when Lamar Jayson Johnson, 18, struck the motorcycle from behind. Johnson continued down Riverdale and then hit another vehicle, a police spokesman said, before abandoning his car and starting to run. A witness to the crash followed Johnson on foot and managed to subdue him until police arrived. Johnson, of McDonough, is charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, following too closely and possession of alcohol by a minor. He is being held in Clayton County jail.

As a Georgia motorcycle accident attorney, I know from both experience and research that motorcyclists are only as safe as the least safe driver on the road allows them to be. That can include the motorcyclists themselves, of course, but research shows that in the majority of multi-vehicle accidents, it's another driver who didn't see the bike until it was too late. That's particularly bad because serious motorcycle accidents can wrongfully kill the riders or leave them with life-changing, catastrophic injuries -- regardless of fault. Motorcyclists and their families are often left to pick up the pieces while they struggle with insurance companies and the other driver, who may use juries' prejudice against motorcycles as an excuse to deny the settlement payments they owe under their own contracts.

The Georgia state legislature is considering a law that would outlaw cell phone use in the driver's seat for our youngest drivers, the Augusta Chronicle reported July 13. Georgia House Bill 23 would bad both texting and talking for drivers with a Class D license, which is held by people under 18. If caught, these drivers would have two points assessed against their licenses, the same as for speeding 15 mph over the limit or violating the open container law. If it passes, Georgia would join 21 other states and the District of Columbia that ban all cell phone use for novice drivers, though the definition of a novice varies between states.

The article starts with an anecdote from 17-year-old Brendan Grota, who said he gets nervous when he rides with a friend who drives while texting. The problem has also been noticed by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, according to Sgt. Ray Childress. However, Childress said, the problem is not limited to teenagers -- most people he sees texting while driving are in their twenties, and he would prefer a ban for all ages. The article cites research from several sources showing that text messaging while driving is hazardous, including a National Safety Council fact sheet saying drivers are four times as likely to crash when they are using a cell phone. The Council, a nonprofit, has called for a complete nationwide ban on all cell phone use while driving.

As a Gwinnett County, Georgia auto accident lawyer, I know many people will defend phoning and driving as convenient and no more harmful than other driver distractions. But because I work with victims of serious accidents every day, I have a different perspective. According to this article, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reported that nearly 80% of crashes are caused by driver inattention, and it is hard to pay attention to the road when your eyes are on a phone. Simply talking might seem safer, but according to a study by the University of Utah's Applied Cognition Laboratory, talking on the phone produces a level of impairment similar to drunk driving. That is why I believe the smartest course of action is to not use the phone while driving, even if there is no law against it.

As a Metro Atlanta DUI accident lawyer, I noted with interest that a woman from Cobb County was sentenced to 18 months in prison for providing alcohol to friend of her teenaged stepson. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Aug. 6 that Kecia Evangela Whitfield, 44, is accused of providing the alcohol that led to the death of 16-year-old Garrett Reed in a drunk driving accident. After Reed died in a crash in January, tests showed he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.13, higher than Georgia's 0.08 limit for adults and much higher than the 0.02 limit for minors. Reed was a friend of Whitfield's stepson, Lyndon Winfree, who allegedly gave alcohol to five friends, including Reed.

Whitfield testified that she bought the alcohol for Winfree, who she said was allowed to drink at home under supervision. She said she didn't know anyone but Winfree would be drinking it, a claim Winfree contradicted with his own testimony. According to Whitfield, Winfree stole the alcohol and other groceries while she was upstairs taking care of her baby. The prosecutor in the case said it was reckless to leave alcohol unsupervised around teenagers. Whitfield ultimately was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a $1,300 fine and 100 hours of community service.

This is a criminal case -- but as any Georgia drunk driving accident attorney will tell you, Whitfield could be held legally liable for the accident in a civil case as well. In Georgia, parents may sue people who furnish alcohol to their minor children and teens without parental permission. This "social host" law makes adults who provide alcohol to teens legally responsible for the results, including fatal DUI accidents like Reed's. Drunk driving accidents can be extremely serious, especially when the driver is an inexperienced teenager -- causing wrongful deaths and catastrophic injuries such as severe burns and paralysis. A lawsuit cannot reverse these terrible accidents, unfortunately, but it can help victims and their loved ones recover the money they need to deal with the serious medical and financial effects.

A driver's failure to slow when entering morning traffic on Interstate 285 caused a fatal chain-reaction crash, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Aug. 6. DeKalb County law enforcement said their believed an unnamed driver in an SUV caused the five-vehicle crash on the morning of Aug. 5. The article did not give details, but said the chain ultimately resulted in an 18-wheeler striking a group of motorcyclists. That crash killed motorcyclist Joseph Johnson of Clover, S.C. and injured three other riders, one seriously. The SUV driver also sustained moderate injuries.

Of course, it would be a mistake to make a judgment about fault without some of the facts missing from this article. But this set of facts makes it seem likely that the SUV driver was at fault. As a Metro Atlanta car wreck lawyer, I regularly use police reports to establish fault in the accidents I handle. (You can find much more about accident reports on my site, under Accident Report Resources.) A police report is not proof, but it is powerful evidence that a presumably neutral third party agrees that the defendant was at fault for the accident. If the DeKalb police say they believe the SUV driver caused the accident, that would be strong evidence in any Georgia car crash lawsuit victims decide to file. Any criminal charges or traffic tickets for the SUV driver could further strengthen the case.

The story also caught my eye because it involved a crash between a large truck and a motorcycle. Motorcyclists' rates of injury and death are considerably higher than other motorists', in part because their lack of a steel cage, seatbelts or airbags leaves them vulnerable in an accident. That would be especially true in an accident with a large truck, whose weight and size is hundreds of times greater than that of even the largest motorcycle. As a Gwinnett County, Georgia car accident attorney, I know that a collision with a big rig can kill or seriously injure people inside even large passenger vehicles. Motorcyclists in the same position would be likely to suffer wrongful deaths or very serious injuries.

A Georgia boating accident left one young man seriously injured and another with minor injuries, the Bainbridge Post-Searchlight reported July 28. According to the article, 14-year-old Davis Wallace and 16-year-old Jake Goodson were being pulled in inner tubes behind a boat operated by Mike Wallace. The elder Wallace told the Georgia Department of Natural Resources that he moved out of the way for another boat, then overcorrected, throwing the teens onto the bank of the river. Goodson was not seriously injured, but the younger Wallace was hospitalized for severe injuries at Memorial Hospital in Bainbridge, then transferred to another hospital in Tallahassee.

As a Georgia boating accident lawyer, I noticed right away that this accident was similar to a Georgia drunk boating accident that I recently wrote about on this blog. In that case, the victims were three young girls being pulled in inner tubes behind a boat operated by the father of one of the girls. The operator made a sharp turn, sending the girls into debris and rocks on the shore and causing injuries that required surgery. He was eventually charged with boating under the influence of alcohol.

In this newest case, alcohol was not reported as a factor. But as a Metro Atlanta boat accident attorney, I believe the two accidents are an important reminder that all Georgians should consider safety when they go out on boats and personal watercraft this summer. Boaters may not think boating accident are as dangerous as car accidents, but in fact, recreational boating accidents kill about 700 Americans every year, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. In fact, because a boating accident takes place in water, victims knocked unconscious may be in even greater danger of death from drowning or being caught in a propeller.

In a previous post, I outlined how to get a copy of a Georgia Motor Vehicle Accident Report. Now that you have obtained one, other questions may arise such as: a) "What do all those funny codes mean"; b) "How do you interpret the diagrams"? and c) "Is the accident report admissible in court?"

The Georgia Accident Report is drafted, coded and signed by a police officer or other law enforcement official in charge of investigating an auto accident, truck accident or motorcycle accident in the state of Georgia. All Georgia police officers are trained to complete accident reports at the police academy. Georgia officers must learn and know the Georgia Accident Report Training Instructions.

Usually, an accident report is completed by the officer that arrives on the scene, interviews the witnesses, makes the measurements and assesses the facts. They sometimes include the Georgia Accident Report Overlay or Key, which serves as a legend for the codes on the accident report. The officer can choose to cite one or both drivers, or neither driver.

Sometimes these forms are hand-coded and sometimes they are typed. Sometimes they are not completed correctly. Officers are human. They make mistakes. It is the responsibility of those who were involved in the accident to seek out the officer and convince him to correct these forms or point out irregularities in the forms that could affect the driver's substantive rights. Call the officer if the accident report is wrong.

Just because you try to contact an officer, however, does not mean he will call you back. I have had good luck getting police officers to call me back. Being that I am an injury trial lawyer, they usually would rather talk to me on the phone then have me issue them a subpoena. No one likes to sit all day around the courthouse I suppose.

Are Georgia Accident Reports admissible in court? Not generally. Accident Reports are considered heresay evidence. Heresay is not generally admissible. However, if the officer who drafted the report is on the stand, you may be able to use the report to help the officer refresh his memory or to impeachment the officer if his testimony differs from what is on the report.

What happens with an auto or truck accident causing the death of a driver or passenger? A special investigation must be performed and a supplemental accident report completed. This is a complicated topic for another day.

Accident reports can be great for proving your case against the offending driver. They are usually right, and insurance companies usually respect the results. If the accident report is wrong, however, all is not lost. Just be proactive in making sure your rights are protected. Talk to an experienced Georgia personal injury attorney if you are seriously injured in a Georgia motor vehicle accident and you are worried about what has been included or omitted from the accident report.

As a Georgia drunk driving accident lawyer, I regularly use police reports and court records to show that my clients were hurt by drivers who were legally drunk at the time of the accident. As with many states, Georgia offers law enforcement two ways to determine whether someone is driving under the influence of alcohol. One is the driver's blood-alcohol concentration measurement. If a driver is at or above the 0.08% legal limit, he or she is presumed impaired "per se." However, Georgia drivers can also be charged with DUI if an officer believes they were "less safe" drivers because of alcohol, drugs or both. This does not require a chemical test, but can be based on field sobriety tests, reckless driving or other behavior by the driver. Either charge can lead to a Georgia DUI conviction and liability in any Atlanta intoxicated driving accident lawsuit.

That's why I was surprised to see that the chairman of the county commission for Carroll County, Georgia, in Metro Atlanta, was allowed to drive home after a breath test putting him just under the legal limit. According to a July 15 article from the Times-Georgian of Carroll County, Bill Chappell was pulled over at a roadblock in unincorporated Carroll County late in the evening of July 9. A video of the stop shoes Chappell had trouble performing field sobriety tests, including following a flashlight with his eyes, walking a line and standing on one leg. However, a breath test showed Chappell had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.071%, less than 0.01% under the limit. Rather than arrest him, the officer let him drive home, a distance of less than two miles, and followed to ensure that he arrived safely.

The newspaper made a video of the traffic stop available here.

According to the newspaper, Chappell told the officer he was returning home from a regional development council meeting in Meriwether County. After the meeting, he said, he had one drink, then stopped by a convenience store for a Diet Coke on the way home. The officer asked Chappell for the exact time when he had the drink, but the videotape is silent during his answer, which a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department said could be an attempt to protect private medical information. The spokesman also said the medications Chappell named at the stop would not have affected his ability to drive. The spokesman attributed the problems with the field sobriety tests to Chappell's age, weight and health problems, and said the trooper did not feel Chappell was "over the influence." Nonetheless, he followed Chappell home.

The "less safe" standard allows law enforcement officers to use their discretion in cases where a chemical test is unavailable or inconclusive. That may be what happened in this case. However, because Chappell is an important person in local politics, the decision to let him go will almost inevitably be criticized as politically motivated. I do not know whether that was the case, and I do not care to speculate. But as a Gwinnett County, Georgia car accident attorney, I do know that driving under the influence causes very serious accidents. Drunk driving causes wrongful deaths and catastrophic personal injuries, including severe burns and brain damage that can leave victims disabled for the rest of their lives. For that reason alone, I hope the officer making this judgment call truly felt that Chappell was safe to drive.