Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

I have been a financial supporter of Georgia Mothers Against Drunk Driving for many years, also serving as a member of the MADD executive committee. I have represented the victims of drunk drivers in my Gwinnett County catastrophic injury law practice. Every day in Georgia, drunk drivers cause injury and death. They should not be in a car. They should not be driving. And they should not have children with them.

Earlier this week, a woman who police said is a Cobb County resident, was arrested for driving under the influence of both alcohol and pain medication. She also had the drug Ecstasy in her car. In addition to the medications she had in the car, she also had two small children, ages 3 and 7, riding as passengers. The nature of her relationship with them was not reported.

According the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the woman was driving her SUV, a Toyota 4Runner with her passengers on Cobb Parkway when Acworth police officers observed her weaving. She was not able to stay in her lane and crossed over it several times. She was pulled over due to this.

The police arrested and charged her with several criminal counts. These include DUI, two counts of DUI child endangerment, an open container (she had an open bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade in the car), a failure to maintain her lane and possession of illegal drugs.

Apparently, on the stop with police, she admitted to having had a drink within the hour prior to the stop. She also told the police that she had taken prescription pain medication.

The National Highway Safety Administration has noted that many states have statutes that provide for an enhanced DUI when a person is driving drunk with children in the car. Cobb County officials have charged her with child endangerment, which is considered to be the appropriate charge to address the inherent dangers of impaired driving when there are children in the vehicle.

Earlier this year, Jan Withers, National President of MADD, wrote a post entitled "Drunk Driving Can Be a Form of Child Endangerment" in which she recounts many tragic examples of children who were the victims of a drunk driver. In each case, the children were innocent passengers in a car driven by a drunk driver.

Ms. Withers advocates for the universal understanding across the country that the child endangerment laws should come into play in cases in which children are passengers with a drunk driver. So do I.

Drunk drivers cause injury and death on Georgia's roads. If you have been injured in an accident caused by a drunk driver, please contact The Law Offices of P. Charles Scholle, for a free consultation. With offices in Duluth and throughout the Atlanta area, we are able to support victims in pursuing their legal rights and recover from their injuries.

As an Atlanta catastrophic injury and wrongful death lawyer, I have helped many families dealing with the tragic wrongful death of a child. There is no way to discuss this subject without an inherent level of pain and discomfort, because it is unnatural to outlive one's child.

In a local story that has made national headlines, a Cobb County mom was recently convicted under Georgia law of vehicular homicide in the second degree for the death of her child, but the legal proceedings surrounding the accident continue.

As most Atlanta residents are aware, grieving mom Raquel Nelson has to live with her decision to walk across a street outside a crosswalk for the rest of her life. Her four-year-old son was struck and later died from injuries sustained by a hit-and-run driver. But should Ms. Nelson be held responsible for the death of her son? It appears that she does not believe so.

After the Atlanta area mom was convicted of the Georgia crime of homicide by vehicle in the second degree - based on the fact that she had not used a crosswalk and "acted recklessly" -- she has said in interviews on national television that her grief began all over again.

One of the reasons for this was that she could have ended up serving a longer prison sentence than the hit-and-run driver who hit her son and killed him. This possibility made national news and was upsetting to many.

But Judge Katherine Tanksley heard the public outcry and only sentenced her to 40 hours of community service and 12 months of probation. The judge suspended the fines associated with these crimes. Her sentencing was not the maximum 36 months she could have received.

But she said no thank you and that is her right. Instead, she has decided that she would like to defend herself in a new trial. Perhaps because she believes her decision to walk across a street from a bus stop, rather than in a crosswalk, does not make her legally responsible for the death of her child. A tragedy she has been grieving since the accident occurred.

Ms. Nelson was prosecuted under, among other laws, a provision of Title 40 of the Georgia Code, Motor Vehicles & Traffic, which provides for homicide by vehicle in the second degree. Having been found guilty of violating this provision and others, she would have a criminal record. But, if she is acquitted in the new trial, she will have no record.

Prior to sentencing, she had expressed concern that there were no single moms on her jury and that any single mom would understand a quick decision to walk outside a cross-walk to get home. Jury selection is very important in every case, and perhaps the make-up of another jury will improve her chances of acquittal.

Ms. Nelson had testified during trial that the bus left her and her three children off across the four-lane Austell Road and that this was closer to her apartment than the crosswalk that was 0.3 miles distance. She did not want to walk with her children in the dark and was trying to get home quickly, so she did what many of us might do, she took the fastest way home and walked across the road with her children.

Some community members agree that Georgia's vehicular homicide laws need to be amended to apply to those only driving vehicles and that bus stops should be placed closer to crosswalks. It remains to be seen what happens during the retrial, but whatever the outcome Ms. Nelson appears determined to fight the charges.

As a Gwinnett County personal injury lawyer, with a practice that covers the Atlanta area and the state, I have represented many families in need of help through the legal system. If you have been injured in an accident, please do not hesitate to contact me for a free personal consultation about your situation at one of my local offices.

The eve of the summer solstice brought heartbreak as a two-year-old Georgia toddler died in a tragic Jonesboro van accident. The child was left in a day care van and that is where she was found and taken to the hospital. Our hearts go out to the family involved in this tragedy.

Infant and toddler deaths can occur very quickly in a hot parked vehicle. As an Atlanta personal injury lawyer, I want to remind parents that accidental injury and death can be avoided. Never leave your child or children unattended in a parked vehicle, under any circumstances.

In the Jonesboro incident, the toddler was left in her day care van for approximately two hours or more. The day care children were on an outing to a local Chuck E. Cheese. Once the toddler was discovered, she was taken to the Southern Regional Medical Center. She passed away at the hospital.

The facts of this situation are currently under investigation by the Clayton County police and it has not yet been determined whether criminal charges will be brought. The specific cause of death has not yet been determined, but the outside temperatures reached 95 degrees. Potentially, Georgia day care licensing authorities could also review the licensing of this center.

In addition, depending on the facts, the toddler's mother could bring a lawsuit for wrongful death against the day care center and individuals involved in this tragedy. A wrongful death is any death caused by the negligent, reckless (extremely careless) or intentional actions of another which can include vehicle accidents, crimes due to poor security, elder abuse and many other situations.

In Georgia, personal injury claims usually the injured person sues on his or her own behalf to recover compensation for an injury and the financial costs, physical pain and emotional suffering. However, when the injury results in a victim's death, Georgia law allows the close relatives, in this case the toddler's mother, of the deceased person to bring an action for wrongful death.

The day care facility that apparently was responsible for the child, is located about 20 miles north of Atlanta. The toddler's mother told local Atlanta news outlets that she wants to see the day care center closed. She also said that the providers told her that her child was falling asleep "between the seats" of the van and was not noted to be left behind. If she was in a car seat, which is required under Georgia law, it is not clear why she would have fallen between the seats which might have made it difficult for her care givers to realize she was not accounted for with the other children.

As an experienced child injury and wrongful death lawyer practicing throughout Georgia and the Atlanta region, I am available to evaluate at no charge any potential legal claims involving injury and death. These cases are tragic and life-changing.

With good weather and summer fun, come some added dangers of personal and catastrophic injury. And as a Georgia personal injury lawyer experienced with helping victims of serious injuries and their families pick up the pieces after suffering injury, I see first hand the dangers of summer fun. I do not wish to step on anyone's summer fun, but I am compelled to warn parents of some specific dangers noted earlier this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The age of social media and access to sites like YouTube has made communication more interesting and information more available. But along with this, teens are doing more and more dangerous activities to get the attention of their peers filming dangerous or daring acts to post for others to see.

Parents must pay attention to this potential and warn their children of these dangers. They are real and potentially life-changing and they are happening right here in the Atlanta metro area and surrounding counties.

As noted in the piece in the AJC, the dangers include the allure of tall bridges with shallow waters under them. Some bridges are lower, but the water is not deep enough to support the jump from above. Gainesville police told the AJC that divers do not consider what they are jumping into ... but they do it anyway. And of course, adding to this danger is the use of alcohol, which impairs judgment.

Social media is a part of the problem, say local police. As noted in the AJC article, "[w]ith school out and the summertime heat, bridge jumpers are out in full force around Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona, both a quick drive from Atlanta." Law enforcement near these popular lakes is all too aware of the dangers of jumping from bridges.

The potential for debris that is unseen catching a diver and keeping them from surfacing is one real problem. Another is the fact that jumpers often misjudge the distance to shore and have difficulty swimming the distances back to safety. And the police caution that another very real danger is the height of the bridge and distance to the water which can be a very hard blow to the diver's body.

Only last February, "a Buford woman was seriously injured when she was forced to jump 40 feet into Lake Lanier to avoid being struck by an oncoming tractor-trailer." She was seriously injured.

Another danger is that drivers can become distracted by jumpers and end up in an accident themselves. In addition, some train trestles are too narrow for pedestrians and if you are walking on a trestle, you might be forced to jump to avoid being hit by a train. The Forsyth County Fire Department was quoted as stating that the public cost of rescue is a factor that most do not consider.

The police in Cobb, Forsyth and other areas, will write citations when they find jumpers, but sometimes these teens and others are able to jump when no one is around. Which is, in itself, quite dangerous.

Being in the top five nationally of most lists might be a positive, unless the list has to do with Georgia or Atlanta area fatal car crashes. That is why as a Gwinnett County auto injury and wrongful death lawyer, I report with concern about a recent statistic that was published about fatal auto wrecks in Georgia.

Last month, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an analysis that found Georgia has the dubious distinction of ranking fourth in the nation for the costs of medical and work losses that result from fatal car crashes. The rankings were based on data from 2005, the most recent available.

The cost is a staggering $1.5 billion to victims and to their employers for medical and work losses. The total cost from the top 10 states alone was $41 billion in 2005.

Representing the families of victims of fatal auto crashes, I am all too aware of the cost to victims and their surviving family members. The basis for the high costs in Georgia is not specified. If you read our local newspapers or watch our local media news, you will likely be aware that many of our most-traveled highways, such as I-285, I-85 and I-75 and others surrounding the metro Atlanta area, can be dangerous places to travel.

The CDC Injury Center included some recommendations to lower these statistics nationally, including seat belt enforcement, child car safety policies, graduated drivers license programs that slowly increase teen driving privileges and universal motorcycle helmet laws.

These efforts can make a real difference. The use of motorcycle helmets is said to decrease brain injury by 69% and reduce the risk of death by one-third. The use of Graduated Driver Licensing programs have already been instituted in some states and have been reported to reduce teen crashes by 40 percent for drivers who are 16 years of age.

The Atlanta-Constitution Journal reported last week on an important food recall. The Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog wants to ensure that our readers are aware of this food recall to keep Georgia and Atlanta residents from personal injury to themselves and their families in using the unsafe food product.

The food recall involves a curry spice that has been sold through Georgia's Target stores as well as those around the country. The nationwide recall is due to the fact that the curry has been found to contain high lead levels.

Lead is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, infants and children, but it is also unhealthy for adults to ingest. This product is not safe and if you have it in your home or suspect you have it in your home, please take it immediately to your local Target store.

Lead is a substance that over time accumulates and can be very harmful in healthy development. That is why it has been taken out of paint products and toys. Lead has also been found in corroding lead pipes in drinking water in cities around the country, but the amount of lead is monitored to ensure public safety. There is some controversy about what is a "safe" level of lead.

Specifically, the Georgia Department of Agriculture notes that the voluntary recall involves a ground turmeric that was sold in glass bottles at Target stores. Since this spice is often used to make curry dishes, it is widely used in various cuisines such as Middle Eastern and South Asian dishes.

The curry product is called "Archer Farms Ground Turmeric" and has a "best buy" date of June 2011 to January 2012 with a UPC code of 0-85239-02612-0. If you or a family member purchased this item, return it to the Target store. For more information on contacting the manufacturer directly please click here.

For many years now, the National Transportation Safety Board's recommendations for bus safety have been ignored with very little action taken by the Department of Transportation or Congress. And just when the federal government is about to start hearings on bus safety, we have a local reminder of the dangers inherent in Atlanta bus accidents.

Earlier this week, 13 passengers were injured when a MARTA bus was hit head on by a vehicle that veered into the wrong lane. The bus was turning into the Indian Creek MARTA station and had been traveling on route 119. As the bus prepared to turn into the station, it was hit. The driver of the car has been charged and the bus driver is said to have no fault in this incident.

The larger concern about bus safety is demonstrated by this MARTA accident. All the passengers that were injured were in the bus, including a three-year old girl who was taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. Other injured passengers were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

The national bus safety issues are looming after so many passengers have been killed or injured across the country. We regularly read about Georgia bus accident deaths and injuries. Just last fall, the Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog posted on a tragic accident in which one student was killed and ten other were injured after a bus overturned between on Highway 113. As is often the case in bus accident deaths, the passenger who died had been ejected from the bus.

This spring the NTSB will hold hearings on the safety recommendations that have been in place for over a decade. These include seat belts in buses, safer windows, stronger roofs, recorders to track the time a driver has been driving to avoid fatigue, as well as better driver instruction and licensing controls.

The United States Department of Transportation has taken some small steps for bus safety and drivers are prohibited from texting while driving. As the economy struggles and many are trading in their cars for public transportation the Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog urges that bus safety be taken seriously and that governmental entities responsible for passenger safety standards, implement more safety for all bus riders.

It should have been just another bus ride home to his mom, but it ended in tragedy. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that earlier this week an 8-year old Cartersville boy was struck by a school bus and died on the scene at the Cartersville bus barn. This tragic school bus accident has the local community in shock.

The Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog posted recently about two teens that were struck and killed while walking on a rural Hephzibah road. When tragedy strikes, we question why. How could a young boy be taken in such a tragic accident? A tragedy like this causes all Georgians to think about keeping our loved ones, and especially our children, safe. What seems like a normal day can turn into devastation in the blink of an eye.

In the Cartersville tragedy, the boy rode in a school bus and was dropped off at the bus barn only to be killed after exiting the bus. That bus was driven by a relative. The boy had probably done this many times before, because his mother worked at the bus barn. Tragically, on this day the young boy got off his bus at the barn and then apparently walked around the bus in which he had been riding. The boy was killed by a school bus that was in the area of the bus barn.

Sadly, the school bus driver who was driving the bus that struck and killed the young boy was apparently also a long-term employee with an excellent record. Authorities are investigating the incident, but say charges are unlikely to be filed. Certainly, that driver's sorrow must also be terribly difficult.

The Cartersville school system is understandably in shock over this tragedy. The assistant superintendant of schools spoke to the AJC about the closely-knit community and their care for one another: " 'Words do not fully capture the pain our hearts feel at this time; and we join with [the family] as we grieve together.' "

An Atlanta Metro tractor-trailer accident became a tragedy this week after a six-month old baby died from injuries sustained in a Cobb County crash. The infant's parents were both injured in the crash. The Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog and its affiliated Georgia injury law firm wish to express our deepest condolences to the bereaved family.

The truck crash, which also involved several passenger cars, took place on I-75 in Cobb County this past Saturday night. Investigators say that a truck traveling towards the Windy Hill Road exit failed to brake for stopped vehicles on the road. The vehicles, a Toyota Highlander, a GMC Acadia and a Buick LaSabre were stopped in traffic in a construction zone that involved lane closures.

The driver of the truck apparently did not brake and instead slammed into three cars crashing into the rear of the Acadia, the side of the Toyota Highlander and the rear of the Buick LaSabre. The now-deceased baby was a passenger in the Acadia.

The baby's parents who reside in Douglasville, Georgia were immediately treated at Atlanta Medical Center after the accident and their baby was taken in critical condition to Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta (Scottish Rite). But sadly, on Monday their baby died from the serious injuries sustained.

The two occupants of the Buick were also injured, while those in the Toyota were not injured.

The tractor-trailer driver is now charged with two misdemeanors -- 2nd-degree vehicular homicide and following too closely. He was not injured in the crash.

Passenger cars on Georgia's roads travel along with heavy vehicles such as tractor-trailers. When they are involved in a collision, the passenger cars are far more likely to be damaged and passengers injured.

This is a matter of weight and speed -- the heavier vehicle cannot stop or avoid a collision as well as a smaller, lighter vehicle. Apparently, in this accident, the truck is alleged to have been following too closely and either did not brake or could not stop in time to avoid the cars.

A truly devastating accident happened in Gwinnett County Friday night after four students left band practice at Southwest DeKalb High School. The accident left one student dead and two others in critical condition.

Seventeen-year-old Miles McBride was driving his 14-year-old sister, Carmen McBride, and two other students home after band practice. According to authorities, Miles swerved to avoid a dog in the road, but instead collided with another car, then flipped over into the roadside woods. Shortly thereafter, Carmen was pronounced dead.

The car's other occupants were also injured, two of them critically, and Miles McBride sustained serious injuries himself. The other car's driver and 3-year-old passenger were also injured, though thankfully not seriously.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of this accident is its irony. The driver was trying to avoid an accident, not cause one. He didn't want to hurt the dog or his passengers, who could have been injured if he had hit the dog. But in trying to avoid one accident, he caused another, much more serious one--and as a result, his sister died. One can only imagine what he must be going through.

You may have heard about the Georgia school bus crash last week that killed one student when the bus ran off Highway 113 and rolled over. The student, James Rashawn Walker, was ejected through a window and died shortly thereafter.

Since the accident, many interesting discussions have surfaced--one of the most interesting being about how, according to the Georgia State Patrol, the driver involved in the crash lacked proper certification to drive a school bus. Could this lack of certification have been the factor that led to the student, affectionately called Ray-Ray by his classmates, being killed?

Not necessarily, according to Carroll County school officials. They say the bus driver had been through more than the necessary amount of training to be officially certified as a bus driver for the district. In other words, even though it appears he had yet to actually receive certification, school spokespersons insist that the driver was perfectly legal to drive, since he had completed all necessary prerequisites and was at the time driving under a trainer's supervision.

Of course, the school district absolutely has an interest in protecting itself against a Georgia school bus death lawsuit, so we must take their words with a heavy grain of salt.

And it's difficult to verify how much training the driver actually did receive--that's why an official certification is so important. Actually, technically, the driver is supposed to have two certifications: a "P" signifying passenger endorsement, which he did have, and an "S" for school bus endorsement, which he did not.

Meanwhile, as some Georgia parents, school officials and community members call for stricter qualifications for future bus driver trainees, others are calling for something more than 200 school districts across the nation already have: safety belts on school buses.

You don't have to be drunk, or on drugs, or distracted by your cell phone, or even driving in low visibility on slick roads, to kill someone in a car crash. All it takes sometimes is one red light unheeded.

This past Saturday morning, a young man named Andrius Nikolaychuk, only 18, was driving through the intersection of Cruse and Old Norcross Road on a green light when his car was hit by Wykelia Robinson, 28, of Norcross, who did not stop for her red light. Nikolaychuk died at the scene, and his 7-year-old passenger was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Robinson and her two children, who were in the car with her, were also taken to medical centers for minor injuries. Charges against Robinson are still pending, but police say that drugs and alcohol were not factors in the accident. So far all we know is that she broke an elementary traffic law: always stop at a red light.

Anyone who underestimates the importance of making sure kids are adequately monitored by adults will think again after reading this heart-wrenching article about a Gwinnett County burn victim. In it, we learn about a little boy named Alfred Real who nearly died when he and his friend were playing with a grill lighter and a gas can. Now eight-year-old Alfred's body is covered with third-degree burns, he wears a protective nylon suit while his skin regenerates, and he endures hours of physical therapy each and every day. Everything he used to know how to do, basically, he has had to relearn from scratch.

Alfred's parents say their son was trying to extinguish the fire another child had caused, and my heart truly goes out to them, and their brave little boy. However, it is worth considering that with adequate supervision, this
Gwinnett County child injury may not have happened at all. The details of the accident are not clearly by the press--which makes sense, as at this point everyone is probably just giving thanks that Alfred is still alive. Still, it seems clear that if Alfred was supposed to have been watched by a babysitter, a neighbor or family friend, it wasn't enough to keep him away from a clearly hazardous situation. If such a person was supposed to have been watching him, Alfred's parents would have a compelling case for legal action on the grounds of the their negligence.

Georgia burn injuries, though common, run a wide gamut from mild to severe. On the extreme end, burn victims can suffer from extreme shock, infection, respiratory problems, nerve damage, and thick scarring that can limit their mobility for a lifetime. Emergency medical attention, skin grafts and other surgery, special wound dressings and garments, and round after round of physical and psychological therapy are just some of the expenses that can be incurred. And that's just on the time and money end. A disfiguring burn can permanently affect a person's quality of life, so prevention is critical.

As fall rolls in, the death toll is rising for Gwinnett County pedestrians killed by motor vehicles. Just after I posted a blog on the profusion of Gwinnett County car-pedestrian collisions we've had lately, another Lawrenceville pedestrian fatality was reported on Pleasant Hill Road. According to police, the victim evidently was attempting to cross in a no-crossing zone, and was probably homeless, but none of this changes the fact that one more human life was lost.

Meanwhile, in the wake of a 13-year-old Dacula pedestrian Dakota Wilson's death last week, residents and city officials have been debating the safety of the intersection on which the boy was killed. The intersection is more aptly a junction of Jim Moore Road, a major Dacula thoroughfare, and Braselton Highway. Despite its heavily trafficked location, and the adjacent location of Duncan Creek Park, including its skate park teeming with kids (read: non-drivers), there is no sidewalk, stoplight or crosswalk. The kids (and young adults) routinely walk or skate across the highway to the nearby convenience store. This is not safe behavior, but without a convenient option for crossing safely, residents argue, human nature and thirst will always take over.

It's a complicated issue when a pedestrian is killed while crossing in a no-crossing zone. No-crossing zones exist for a reason, often because visibility is not good enough for drivers to avoid pedestrians safely. And of course, near highways, where drivers tend to speed up in anticipation of getting on the high road, the risk is even greater. It does seem like in this situation the city should do something more to protect its kids, but because a state highway is part of the intersection, it apparently is a state budgeting issue rather than a local one.

The past two weeks have seen two children--one 4-year-old in Lawrenceville and one 7-year-old in Suwanee--drowned in Gwinnett County apartment swimming pools. In addition, 21 more near-drownings, including one in Lilburn on Monday, have already been reported in Gwinnett County in 2010. Compare that to the grand total of 23 calls for the entirety of 2009, and you've got one busy year for the Gwinnett County Fire Department. The strangest part is that the summer's only just begun.

Fire Department spokesman Captain Tommy Rutledge has said that warmer temperatures this year are partly to blame. When it's hot, it's into the pool for the kids, especially if there's a pool right at home.

Which brings us to apartment complex swimming pools, the site of both of these deaths. Unlike county swimming pools, Rutledge said, most apartment community pools don't have lifeguards. Obviously this puts kids who swim at apartment pools, and other swimming pools that might be left unattended, at a greater risk.

The deaths and near-deaths we've already seen this year serve as a sad reminder that children need constant surveillance in pools, regardless of the depth. It's known that a child can drown in just a few inches of water, so even if you've just got a paddling pool, it's crucial to always have someone watching. No excuses.