Posts Tagged ‘Guardrail’

Saturday, December 11^th, a woman and her family were driving northbound on I65 in Nashville, in the far left lane. According to eyewitnesses, she apparently lost control, and veered right, across three lanes of traffic and slammed into the rock wall along the edge of the interstate. Witnesses stopped, and waited for officials to arrive. While no one was seriously injured, it is being said that the driver of the car was trying to leave the scene of the accident, even though her Trail Blazer was unable to drive. As it turns out, the woman wanted to leave the scene because she had knocked over a light pole, and didn’t want to pay for it. Sadly, these types of incidents happen daily. People will leave the scene of an accident in fear of being in trouble, or having to pay fines. This site talks about how leaving the scene of an accident, fatal, injured, or not is a very serious crime. Please go here to read more about accidents involving leaving the scene in Tennessee.

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

A woman has been killed in a Nashville car accident on I-40. The woman was heading west on I-40 when she lost control of her car and slid from the right side of the interstate into the median guard rail. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Police officials say that she was not wearing her seat belt and was thrown from the driver seat to the back seat of the car, resulting in her fatal injuries. Officials also say that had she been wearing her seat belt, this could have been avoided.

According to The Naval Safety Center, Only 1% of passengers who were restrained were ejected from their seats during a car crash. Of those ejected, 73% were killed. And for the survivors of an automobile accident, medical costs are on average 50% more expensive for those who aren’t wearing seat belts.

The real question here is why did this lady lose control? It doesn’t appear that the Nashville Metro Police had any clues, but someone may have seen this happen.  If you were a witness to this event, contact our Nashville law office or the Nashville Metro Police with your information.

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

Guardrails save thousands of lives each year by keeping cars away from dangerous drop-offs, ravines, and other traffic. Traffic deaths would be infinitely higher without them. Like most things, there is a right and wrong way to place guardrails. There is a safe way, and an unsafe way.  If guardrails are place too high, too close to the roadway they don’t serve their purpose and can become an object that can cause injury and death. A recent case in New Jersey illustrates the tragedy from the unsafe, incompetent use of guardrails. A 34 year old man was in a car on his way to the airport. When the driver lost control of the car, the car hit the guard rail. So what? Usually this would mean some damage to the car, and missing an airplane…but nothing more. Unfortunately, this guard rail was too high and too close to the roadway, it served as a spear that ended up piercing the passenger compartment and killing the passenger. This unnecessary, wrongful death resulted in a lawsuit and ultimately a multi-million dollar settlement, but despite the settlement and dangers of the guardrail the turnpike authority didn’t fix it. They paid the money but didn’t fix the problem?  What kind of goobers are in charge of things up there? The widow has gone on record pointing out that the guardrail is still unchanged, and needs to be. Let’s hope they pay attention to her, finally.