Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

If the past month has had one consistent theme, it's that change is coming to our roads. And not just here in Gwinnett County, or Greater Atlanta, or even in the entire state of Georgia. Certainly we've had our fair share of debate about legislation recently approved in Georgia. For example, the law the State Senate recently passed that bans texting while driving. Or the one that requires pickup truck drivers to wear seatbelts, just like regular automobile drivers (incidentally, Georgia is one of the few U.S. states that still have not adopted this law).

As a dedicated Georgia motor vehicle accident lawyer, by the way, I wholeheartedly approve of both of these laws. These represent great leaps and bounds in Georgia's commitment to the safety of its motorists, passengers and pedestrians, and I am optimistic that they will help to significantly reduce the incidence of traffic fatalities in our state. But there is an even bigger change coming up, one that affects not only Georgia but also the entire United States. Not only local municipalities or metropolitan urban areas, but potentially every highway in the country. I speak, of course, of the Obama Administration's new bicycle policy, championed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The Associated Press sums up the controversy in this article. LaHood and the Department of Transportation have strongly asserted that individual states and the country as a whole need to treat "walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes." That means more bike lanes and more pedestrian access on bridges, highways and other thoroughfares.

It's heartbreaking stories like this one that truly strengthen my resolve as a Georgia auto accident attorney. Easter should be a time for families to celebrate rebirth--but this year, for one Gwinnett County family, it was a time of unspeakable grief.

On Friday night, a family van was on its way from Lawrenceville to Jacksonville to celebrate a close relative's release from prison. Riding in the van were 57-year-old Brenda Mitchell Edwards, her 39-year-old daughter Melissa L. Mitchell, and her four grandchildren: 16-year-old Dhanja Mitchell, 11-year-old Miya Mitchell, and twin 4-year-olds Christian and Keyshawn Perry. Suddenly, a speeding car swiped the van, which careened into the median and was then struck by a pickup truck. All of the van's occupants were killed.

As an Atlanta Elder Abuse Attorney, I was dismayed to hear the horrifying news of elder neglect that has unfolded over the past week in Greater Atlanta. Steven Easton, who ran an elder care facility out of his home in Monroe, Walton County, was arrested on Wednesday, March 24 on charges of felony murder and cruelty to a person over the age of 65. The reason? Last July, Easton had dropped the elderly Thomas Watkins at Walton Regional Medical Center, telling the staff that Watkins was homeless with no family. The medical center's staff stabilized Watkins, but then realized he was in serious need of additional care and transferred him Atlanta Regional Medical Center. He died ten days later.

Watkins had been a resident at Easton's nursing home, yet his state of neglect had rendered him unrecognizable to his own daughters. He had extreme bedsores, including multiple ulcers where bones and tendons were actually visible through his flesh. The sores had gotten infected and progressed to sepsis, then to organ failure, and ultimately his death. However, officials said all of this was preventable, and that to have reached that point probably was the result of months of neglect. Only after Watkins was cremated did his daughter contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about possible Medicaid fraud. She believed not only that Easton had neglected her father's health, but that he also had taken her father's remaining money as soon as he unloaded him at the medical center. GBI found no evidence of this, but they did contact the Walton County Sheriff's Office about a possible elder abuse case.