Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

Two Georgia 18-wheeler accidents caught my eye in the news this week. One took place on Georgia Highway 88 and Ramsey Road. In an all too familiar scenario Dennis Neely of Hephzibah, Ga. drifted into the opposite lane and was hit head-on by a Pepsi-Cola delivery truck. By all appearances, he died instantly. By all appearances, the delivery truck was pretty much fine.

Another accident took place right here in Gwinnett County. Here, a tractor-trailer hauling flammables caught fire, and was completely destroyed within a very short period of time. The driver, and other motorists, fortunately got away unharmed, but the fact that such a fire occurred and developed so quickly that the vehicle was a total loss by the time the fire department showed up should give serious pause to any trucker hauling any potentially flammable load.

There was no information on what exactly had caused the fire, but 18 wheels of friction plus high outdoor temperatures plus who knows what conditions inside the trailer or under the hood can definitely spell trouble. Truckers commonly have safety checklists they are required by law to fulfill every time they hit the road, and this is why--to catch just as many potentially deadly situations as possible before they can happen. Tractor-trailers are uniquely dangerous vehicles inside and out.

This week I read about two tragic DUI -related accidents in the Atlanta area. One critically injured a teenager, another seriously injured a baby. Both caused considerable monetary damage and heartache to families, and both could have been prevented simply by abstaining from drinking before driving.

In the case of the baby injury, the driver's intentions were good. Vehicle crashes are called "accidents" for a reason. Rarely are they borne from evil intentions; instead, they tend to be the work of a simple, honest miscalculation, which all too often is due to slowed thinking and reaction time--which in turn is all too often due to alcohol. In this case, the driver was swerving to avoid a dog. Unfortunately she was unable to account for the vehicle she ended up flipping over, which happened to have a baby inside.

Did you know that car accidents are now the number one killer of teenagers? It's true--and unfortunately, it's only getting worse. This week a couple reports emerged stating a number of sobering facts. One of them, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Health Statistics, stated that motor vehicle crashes caused a full third of all teenage deaths from 1999 to 2006. Another report, released by the Teens in the Driver Seat Center of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), probes further into this disturbing trend. The study, which focused on night driving, found that traffic accident deaths involving alcohol actually decreased slightly for teens between 1999 and 2008.

What factor increased during this time? Cell phone use. Researchers believe that the use of mobile devices while driving is the main factor accounting for the increase in teenage deaths due to auto accidents. The proportion of deaths due to motor vehicle accidents actually had increased for all age groups, but teens most of all. Add that type of distraction, hands-free or not, to the decreased visibility of night driving and the relative inexperience of teenage drivers, and the risk of critical injury or death skyrockets.

Interestingly, TTI's study notes that driving fatalities had decreased overall nationwide during the same time period. In other words, nighttime fatal crashes went up significantly, even as all other fatal crashes went down.

April 30 marked the official beginning of a movement that is
sweeping the country: National No Phone Zone Day. While not technically a national holiday, it might as well be, having gained a massive following since Oprah Winfrey began the campaign in January on her top-rated daytime show. The movement, which has received support from corporate heavyweights like Sprint and government officials like Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, formally kicked off with a live broadcast on The Oprah Winfrey Show that centered around live testimonials both from those who had lost loved ones to cell-phone related automobile accidents and those who had personally survived them.

In addition to Oprah's main live broadcast in Chicago, five satellite cities participated in the discussion with live audiences and celebrity moderators. Atlanta was one of those cities, which was especially appropriate considering that Georgia had passed two bills related to the use of mobile phones while driving just the day before.