Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

Earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board announced that it would like to see states ban calling and texting while driving. They extended this recommendation even to hand-free devices which apparently do not completely eliminate distracted driving risks. Here in Georgia, I serve as an Atlanta area accident lawyer and represent drivers harmed in serious motor vehicle crashes. Safe driving can certainly help avoid tragedy, but how far should lawmakers go in managing these risks?

Many states differ in this regard, some have complete bans on the use of cell phones unless it is hands free like California and New York. Georgia bans texting while driving, but allows the use of cell phones whether hand-held or not. Specifically, the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) § 40-6-241.2 prohibits drivers from operating a motor vehicle on any public road or highway "while using a wireless telecommunications device to write, send, or read any text based communication, including but not limited to a text message, instant message, e-mail, or Internet data." It is worth noting that even reading a text is prohibited, which could be viewed as similar to picking up the phone to make a call.

It is also worth a few minutes of your time to go to the NTSB site linked above, to find out why the NTSB asks rhetorically, so "what's the big deal" and to review the statistics. We know that 3.092 people lost their lives last year because a driver was distracted while behind the wheel. If we were able to talk with those people now, what do you think they would say about driving distracted?

As noted by the NTSB, an uneventful trip can be one that is never forgotten when tragedy strikes in a distracted driving situation. Many of the accidents that happen when drivers are distracted by texting or talking on the phone while driving, could likely be avoided if the driver's focus was fully on the road.

Although it is important for the states to look at the NTSB recommendation and Georgians are concerned about losing their right to use a phone while driving, it is doubtful that our lawmakers will impose such a restriction on Georgia drivers any time soon. After the NTSB announcement, the author of the Georgia anti-texting bill said that most lawmakers here would oppose a universal ban on cell phone use behind the wheel. He recommends the use of hands free devices and sees no difference between talking on a hands free device and a passenger in the car next to the driver.

But some experts point to subtle differences in behavior while on the phone as opposed to talking with a passenger, including the fact that the person on the phone cannot help the driver see things on the road that might be happening in front of him or her. Interestingly, UPS, which is based in Atlanta-based prohibits its workers from using cell phones while driving.

The NTSB cannot force states to enact the prohibitions they recommend. These came about after a terribly tragic pile-up last year in Missouri in which two people were killed and nearly 40 people were injured after it was determined that texting while driving was what started the accident in the first place.

The Georgia Governor's Traffic Safety Office would like to see drivers put their cell phones away while driving as ideally this is a safer way to go. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution quoted the deputy director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety as saying " '[d]istracted driving is a serious problem. Put the cell phone in the glove compartment.' "

And local law enforcement agrees with this recommendation as the Cobb County Police Department spokesperson was also quoted as saying that use of a cell phone, for example, to dial a telephone number, " ' ... diverts a person's eyes from the roadway to that device ... [and] reduces the response time of drivers.' "

If you or a loved one has been injured in a serious motor vehicle, truck or motorcycle accident as the result of another's texting or other reckless or negligent conduct, the Law Offices of P. Charles Scholle can help. Serving Metro Atlanta and all of Georgia, Gwinnett County injury attorney Charles Scholle understands the potentially catastrophic and devastating impact car, semi-trailer and motorbike accidents and distracted driving can have and can help you secure your legal rights and work hard to obtain the compensation you deserve.

The Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog has recently posted on an Atlanta area MARTA bus accident in which a car played a major factor in the crash. We have also posted on the push to implement federal bus safety standards that have been in place for a decade, but are not yet fully implemented.

Last week, a Harmon Brothers Tour bus chartered to carry 52 passengers from the Mill Creek High School in Buford, was traveling on 1-75 in a construction zone when it had to swerve off the highway to avoid a car stopped in its lane. The bus traveled up an embankment and struck an overpass, all to avoid the car.

The car was in the lane in which the bus had been traveling due to a rear-end collision that occurred before the bus came along. The car had been pushed into the lane in which the bus was traveling, after it had been involved in the rear-end collision.

There were 47 Gwinnett County high school students on board the chartered bus when the accident occurred. One bus passenger was airlifted to a hospital in Macon and 19 others were taken to nearby hospitals. The airlifted passenger was said to be in stable condition. The other passengers were taken to the local hospital as a precaution and were not expected to have any serious injuries.

As with so many Atlanta area highway accidents, this colliison occurred in a construction zone at a merge point where three lanes merged into two. Accident and injury can be avoided if drivers slow down in construction areas and allow the merge to occur without trying to rush through the situation.

Last month, the Georgia Department of Transportation took a big turn on roadside memorials. These are the memorials we have all seen along highways and roads that are constructed by family members and friends after a loved one has died in a fatal motor vehicle accident.

Now the Georgia DOT says these memorials along state and federal highways pose a road hazard for drivers who move their eyes away from the road to take a look at the memorial and become distracted. They say they intend to remove them over time as the roadsides are maintained. This does not apply to city and county roads.

We know from the use of technology within a vehicle such as texting while driving, that when drivers move their eyes away from the road it can be deadly. Presumably, it is a similar safety concern for drivers whose attention is drawn to the make shift memorials that often include messages, flowers and religious symbols, such as a cross.

The families of loved ones who have tragically died in a fatal accident on Georgia's roads have been given an alternative by the DOT. The state is offering a more "uniform" solution to the public memorial. They will issue a sign at the cost of $100 that will include the deceased person's name and the notation "Drive Safely, In Memory" and will give the sign to the person who paid for it, after it has stood for one year. No other memorials will be permitted on Georgia's roads. The application for this sign can be viewed here.

According to a recent account in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, some family members are taking the news of this development very hard. Many bereaved families use the memorials they have created as part of their grieving process and for them it might not be the same creating an individualized memorial for their loved one.

In its Highway Safety Memorial Markers policy statement, the DOT states: "The policy is to provide guidance for the application process and uniform design and placement of memorial markers within the State Highway rights of way."

Although the agency appears to understand that this change is not going to be easy for some families to accept, the DOT's policy on this issue stems from the fact that nearly 1500 people die on Georgia's roads annually.

A big factor in the dangers of the memorials constructed by families and friends is the proximity to the edge of the road. When people gather around these memorials they can be at risk of being hit or killed themselves by oncoming traffic.

The Atlanta, Georgia region has many intersections with red light cameras that monitor potential offenders who might otherwise go undetected. The big news this week is that red light cameras are saving lives by lowering the number of motor vehicle crashes at intersections using these cameras.

The Study
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has issued a study report that included 14 major cities with red light cameras and compared statistics of fatal crashes in cities that do not have these cameras. The study included a broad look at 99 cities with populations over 200,000 and then compared fatal crashes between 2004-2008 and 1992-1996, the latter period being prior to the use of red light camera programs.

The study's objective was to: "estimate the effects of red light camera enforcement on per capita fatal crash rates at intersections with signal lights." The result is that the red light cameras have reduced fatal accidents by 24 percent. And in cities using these cameras, fatal intersection crashes that did not include running red lights were reduced as well.

According to the study, 159 lives were saved with the use of cameras and concludes that over the same period, 815 lives could have been saved if more major cities used this tool. It is thought that drivers pay more attention at intersections they know have cameras and slow down to avoid running a red light.

Some Concerns About Red Light Cameras
The AAA has voiced concerns that these systems can be abused as "revenue generators" rather than lifesavers. Others argue that in fact rear-end crashes have increased due to these cameras and still others voice concern that automating law enforcement removes the human element that enables drivers with special circumstances to explain their situation to an officer.

Study Conclusion: Red Light Cameras Reduce Fatal Crashes
The study's final conclusion states a good case for the use of these computerized systems: "Red light camera enforcement programs reduce the citywide rate of fatal red light running crashes and, to a lesser but still significant extent, the rate of all fatal crashes at signalized intersections. Cities wishing to reduce fatal crashes at signalized intersections should consider red light camera enforcement."

Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a proposal to revise the federal hours-of-service (HOS) regulation for commercial truck drivers. This proposal is timely, since a court settlement agreement requires FMCSA to publish a new, final HOS rule by July 26 of this year.

The HOS regulations would retain their "34-hour restart" provision, which lets drivers restart the clock on their weekly 60 or 70 hours after taking 34 consecutive hours off-duty, under this proposal. The difference with this new proposal is the restart period would have to include two consecutive off-duty periods from midnight to 6:00 a.m., and drivers would be allowed to use this restart only once during a seven-day period.

The HOS proposal also mandates that commercial truckers complete all driving within a 14-hour workday, and that they complete all on-duty work-related activities within 13 hours to allow at least an hour break during their workday. What hasn't been decided yet is whether drivers should be limited to 10 or 11 hours of daily driving time. FMCSA currently favors a 10-hour limit, and so do I.

Texting While Driving Deemed Not "Reckless" by Gwinnett County District Attorney

On Tuesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that vehicular homicide charges against Lori Reineke, a Gwinnett County woman who hit and killed a pedestrian last October, had been reduced from a first-degree felony to a second-degree misdemeanor.

Police had originally charged Reineke with first-degree vehicular homicide due to reckless driving because she had been texting behind the wheel when she struck and killed James Eaton III.

There were mitigating factors in Reineke's favor: it had been dark and rainy that night, and Reineke's light had been green at the time, so Eaton was not supposed to have been in the crosswalk. That said, there was clear evidence that Reineke had been exchanging text messages at the time of the incident. Therefore, police maintained that Reineke hit Eaton not because of poor visibility, but because she was distracted.

However, after reviewing the case, District Attorney Danny Porter said that there were no "reckless driving" factors present at the time of the accident, so there was no way to charge Reineke for more than a misdemeanor.

The question, then--and this is particuarly interesting to me as a Gwinnett County car accident lawyer--seems to have been: Is text messaging while driving reckless?

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.