Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

Strange things happen on the road, and a car accident is often not what it seems--especially if it takes place during a downpour. What was thought at first to be a crash caused by a thunderstorm has been called into question by Gwinnett County police, who have filed criminal charges against a Lawrenceville man for causing the Lawrenceville crash that killed his wife and injured her 10-year-old daughter.

The man allegedly grabbed the car's steering wheel from the passenger seat, making the car crash through a mailbox, a utility pole, and finally into a tree. His wife, in the driver's seat, died at the scene. Currently booked at the Gwinnett County Jail on felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless conduct charges, the man intentionally grabbed the steering wheel, according to police investigators. His motive for doing this, however, remains under investigation.

With this limited information it is impossible to know whether the man grabbed the steering wheel in a vain attempt to control the car on slick roads, or whether he acted belligerently in the heat of an argument, or even whether the act was intentional and premeditated. There are too many variables to be completely certain. As a Lawrenceville car accident attorney I have seen many cases, and any of these motives is plausible. It will be interesting to see what this investigation uncovers.

Continue reading "Lawrenceville Man Charged with Grabbing Steering Wheel in Deadly Crash" »

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?

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

According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, two people were arrested as of Wednesday after a fatal Dacula accident this past Saturday that ejected two, killed one, and allegedly involved racing. One of the arrested is 24 years old; the other is only 18.

I don't need to tell you that highway racing is an extremely bad idea. I especially don't need to tell the families of Emmanuel Vasquez-Marrero, who died in the crash, and Carlos Bonilla, who narrowly escaped the same fate.

But I would like to point out something that often doesn't occur to people when they think of automobile accidents. Despite the fact that there were four injuries, two arrests, two cars racing and one death, there was only one vehicle in this crash. Does that mean the driver of other car that was allegedly racing doesn't hold some responsibility? Of course not. But no one in that car died. Only one car crashed, and the person driving, the person who killed Vasquez-Marrero, was none other than a trusted friend.

It's tempting to blame the brashness of youth for tragedies like these. Teenagers in particular are at risk for automobile accidents, especially nighttime fatalities. Higher likelihood of drinking, text messaging or trying to impress friends, plus a lack of experience and true gravity regarding a driver's responsibilities, can all be factors.

Continue reading "Dacula Drivers face Homicide, Felony Charges after Highway Racing Accident" »

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.

Continue reading "Child Drownings and Near-Drownings at Unusual High" »

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.

Continue reading "The Dangers of Tractor-Trailers" »

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.

Continue reading " Teenage Drivers' Death Rate Soars, Especially in Nighttime Accidents" »

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.

Continue reading ""National No Phone Zone Day" Goes Live from Atlanta as Anti-Cell Phone Driving Laws Pass in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin" »

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.

Continue reading "New Traffic Policies for Georgia and the Entire U.S." »

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.

Continue reading "Repeat Reckless Driver Deals Death to Family on Easter Weekend" »

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.

Continue reading "Unlicensed Nursing Home Owner Charged with Murder, Elder Abuse" »

With Halloween coming up soon, I would like to remind drivers and families to keep safety in mind as they have fun. Most people don't realize this, but according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Halloween is the second deadliest day of the year for pedestrians, surpassed only by New Year's Day. Not surprisingly, alcohol plays a big part in that statistic. The Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety reports that across the nation. 58% of highway fatalities involved a driver who was legally drunk, with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or greater. This is far above the national average for the entire year, which is routinely around 32%. As a father and a Georgia drunk driving accident attorney, I'd like to offer safety information for trick-or-treaters of all ages.

In response to the typically high rate of DUI accidents on Halloween, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety promises that law enforcement will be on high alert for drunk drivers. In fact, police agencies began their crackdown a week before, on Friday, Oct. 23, according to MyFox Atlanta. On that day, police agencies throughout Metro Atlanta set up checkpoints to check for alcohol-impaired drivers and stepped up patrols. The same measures are expected throughout the Halloween weekend that begins Friday evening. The enforcement effort includes mobile blood-alcohol testing as well as a team of wreckers standing by to impound vehicles of drivers found to be under the influence of alcohol.

Avoiding drunk driving is at the top of the list of Halloween safety tips offered by Consumer Reports for drivers. In a blog post dated Oct. 28, the magazine reminded drivers that kids may be out even later than usual this year because it's a Saturday followed by the end of Daylight Saving Time, which adds an extra hour to Nov. 1. The blog suggested to drivers that they use extra caution in residential neighborhoods and anywhere else children are gathered, driving slowly and keeping an eye on child pedestrians. It also reminded parents to let kids out of vehicles on the curb side of the road; use flashers during stops; avoid using phones while driving and always use age-appropriate safety seats. For trick-or-treaters on foot, Consumer Reports said parents should accompany kids under 12; kids should stick to sidewalks and walk rather than run; and parents should consider giving their kids glow sticks, flashlights or costumes with reflective material, so drivers can see them easily.

As a Gwinnett County DUI accident lawyer, I hope both drivers and pedestrians take these warnings to heart. Through my work, I frequently see the heart-breaking results of drunk driving. When people choose to get behind the wheel after drinking, they expose all of the innocent drivers and pedestrians around them to death and permanent, irreversible disabilities. These catastrophic, emotionally devastating injuries can throw victims into a financial panic as well, thanks to the double whammy of huge medical bills and unplanned, injury-caused time off work. And of course, the drunk drivers themselves face the heartbreak of knowing they are responsible for these injuries, as well as criminal prosecution and liability in a potential Georgia drunk driving injury lawsuit.

Continue reading "Metro Atlanta Police Agencies Plan Extra Patrols to Cut Down on Halloween DUI" »

As a Metro Atlanta auto accident lawyer, I was pleased to see that the driver allegedly responsible for three deaths in commuter traffic last week is facing the charges against him. According to an Oct. 20 article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, driver James Miles surrendered to authorities at the DeKalb County Jail that day. Miles is accused of driving recklessly in the Oct. 13 incident, which caused the deaths of three Southern Co. employees in a nine-person commuter van. One other employee is hospitalized with a broken skull and leg. No injuries to Miles were reported.

The crash happened on U.S. 78 in DeKalb County. Witnesses say Miles, in a Dodge Stratus, was changing lanes in and out of traffic before he clipped the back of the Southern Co. van. The crash caused the van to flip it on its side, trapping the passengers and requiring rescue crews to remove the roof. Killed were the driver, Robert Harold Clinton Jr., 60; and two passengers, Ollie Benny Stephens Jr., 49, and Cindy Fitzgerald, 54. All were from Lilburn. Seriously injured was Courtney Hill, 25, also of Lilburn. Miles is now facing three counts of misdemeanor vehicular homicide, charges that some of the crash survivors said seemed light. Misdemeanor vehicular homicide is punishable by up to a year in jail for each offense. Felony vehicular homicide is punished more severely, but is reserved for cases of DUI, reckless driving or certain other offenses. A former district attorney told the newspaper that reckless driving can be difficult to prove.

I understand the frustration these survivors, who are co-workers and friends of the victims, may be feeling. As a Gwinnett County car wreck attorney, I see the results of careless driving through my work on a weekly basis. Even if a choice doesn't meet the legal standards necessary for a felony vehicular homicide charge, that doesn't mean it's a safe, reasonable or necessary choice under the conditions on the road at that time. However, even if prosecutors' hands are tied, surviving family members have another legal option for bringing the careless driver to justice: a Georgia auto accident lawsuit. With a legal claim, victims of a serious crash can hold the wrongdoer responsible for his or her actions and recover the costs the accident caused.

Continue reading "Driver Surrenders to Face Charges for Fatal Rush Hour Crash " »

As a Metro Atlanta bus accident attorney, I was saddened to hear of a Sept. 15 accident in which a school bus fatally hit a five-year-old child. Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA reported Oct. 5 on a bond hearing in the case for bus driver Sharon Dale. Dale is charged with second-degree homicide, failure to use due regard and violating procedures for school bus drivers in the incident that killed kindergartener Everett Johnson in northwest Atlanta. The hearing, which was attended by a group of Dale's colleagues, ended with Dale's release on a signature bond. She is suspended from her job with pay until the outcome of the trial.

According to the article, the accident happened shortly after Johnson and six other students got off the bus. Johnson reportedly fell behind the pack because he had dropped his book bag. When he bent over to retrieve it, Dale allegedly couldn't see him and tried to pull the bus away from the curb. Dale was reportedly so distraught that police waited a day to interview her. At the hearing, police officer Kim Jones testified that she climbed into the driver's seat and found that it would have been impossible to see a bent-over child in the position Johnson had occupied. However, Fulton County prosecutor Richard Elliott argued that Dale had a responsibility to adjust the mirrors for full visibility. Jones testified that she observed nothing wrong with the mirrors.

My heart goes out to Johnson's family. As his grandmother observed in the article, no amount of legal maneuvers can reverse this terrible accident. But as a Gwinnett County bus accident lawyer, I am very interested in what bus manufacturers and bus drivers can learn from the tragedy. Dale may be guilty of extreme carelessness if, as Elliott suggested, adjusting the mirrors correctly would have helped her see Johnson. If that's the case, Dale, and perhaps also her employer, would be liable for her negligence in any lawsuit the Johnson family chooses to file. However, if it's not possible to adjust the mirrors to remove every blind spot from the driver's view, the negligence may more properly lie with the manufacturer of the bus. In that case, it would be the manufacturer who would be liable for the wrongful death.

Continue reading "Court Considers Bond in Case of Bus Driver Charged With Running Over Kindergartener" »

As a Gwinnett County auto accident lawyer, I was sorry to read in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about how the recent rains claimed their first life Sept. 23. Barbara Jean Smith of DeKalb County was killed after she stopped at Spaghetti Junction to help a driver whose car had spun out on the wet roads. She was out of her vehicle and standing on the ramp from I-85 south to I-285 east when a third driver rear-ended one of the stopped vehicles, pushing the vehicle into Smith and Smith over the edge of the bridge. She fell about 50 feet onto the northbound lanes of I-85, the newspaper said, and died at the scene.

Smith's three children, ages 19 to 22, describe her as a generous person who was sometimes impulsive in her urge to do good. She may have been acting on impulse when she stopped for the spun-out driver, Donald Sykes of Covington in Metro Atlanta. She had lent Sykes her cell phone and was standing with him on the elevated shoulder of the road when Marcelino Chavez-Lopez rear-ended one of the stopped cars. The crash pushed the stopped car into the two, throwing Smith over the bridge's railing and leaving Sykes with multiple fractures. Chavez-Lopez is charged with second-degree vehicular homicide, driving without a license and failure to stay in his lane.

I'm sorry to say that, as a Metro Atlanta car wreck attorney, I have long been aware that stopping by the side of the road is not very safe. Drivers who pull into shoulders and breakdown lanes to take care of car trouble or other unavoidable problems are killed far more often than they should be by drivers who drift out of their lanes. In fact, this is such a widespread problem for law enforcement and emergency personnel that Georgia has a Move Over Law requiring motorists to change lanes or slow down when passing emergency vehicles on the side of the highway. Drivers have a legal and moral obligation to be careful at all times, of course, but it's especially important to slow down and stay aware when passing stopped vehicles on a busy, high-speed highway.

Continue reading "DeKalb County Woman Dies in Rear End Accident While Trying to Help Flooded Driver" »

If a Georgia Auto Accident or truck accident results in the death of a driver, passenger or bystander, a Georgia Motor Vehicle Accident Report is drafted by the investigating police officer, just like for any other accident. However, when a fatality is involved, Georgia law requires that a supplemental accident report be drafted by specially trained officers. Sometimes these officers work for police departments, but rural areas and small cities may not possess the resources to staff a specially trained team. Usually, if a municipality does not have appropriate personnel, then the county will provide a team. If the county does not have a team, then another local jurisdiction can provide a team. If no local officers are qualified, then the Georgia State Patrol will investigate and draft the fatality accident report supplement.

What do these specially trained officers do? Well, they perform a complete forensic investigation, including but not limited to: a) an evaluation of the collision dynamics; b) a mechanical inspection of the vehicles; c) a more thorough identification and interview process for drivers, passengers and witnesses; d) speed calculations; e) time and distance studies; f) crash data downloads from on board vehicle computers on tractor trailer rigs that have been involved in serious accidents; and g) computer animations. If you have ever driven in metro Atlanta or Gwinnett, Cobb or Dekalb Counties near major interstates, you know that if an accident has resulted in a death, that the entire road can be shut down for hours. These teams do their jobs carefully, regardless of the ambient chaos around them.

The most highly trained of these Georgia accident investigation teams are the Specialized Collision Reconstruction Teams of the Georgia State Patrol. SCRT units were authorized in 1997 after the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia demanded greater emphasis be placed on forensic examinations so that serious violators of Georgia's traffic laws could be prosecuted and so Georgia DUI accident victims could obtain justice. SCRT officers receive over 1100 hours of comprehensive training in traffic accident investigation and reconstruction. Since January 1998, the SCRT units have conducted over 2000 fatal crash investigations. There are 5 SCRT teams in Georgia, spread out among the state so that they can cover all regions of Georgia quickly and efficiently.

Georgia Accident Reports and supplements for fatal car or truck accidents can be difficult to make sense of. You should contact an experienced Georgia wrongful death attorney to obtain copies and discuss the contents with the investigating officers. The reports, including any SCRT Reports, should be available through the Georgia Open Records Act.

Like any accident report, time is of the essence when mistakes are made. Mistakes can become "facts" if not corrected. Be diligent in obtaining and reviewing a report should a tragedy occur.