Posts Tagged ‘Safety Regulations’

Two Beech High School students have died as a result of a car crash involving two cars on Friday, August 6 on Long Hollow Pike around 3:30 according to The Hendersonville Star News.

Two boys were both riding in a 1993 Toyota, that was driven by one of the boy’s older brother, when the car crossed the center line and  hit another Eastbound vehicle according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s report.

The boy who was riding in the front passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, and the other was sent to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and was in critical condition. The 15-year-old died on Friday according to the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office.

37-year-old Jennifer W. was the other driver that was involved in the crash, and was injured and transported to Hendersonville Medical Center, and has since been released.

According to the report, none of the three teenagers riding in the 1993 Toyota were wearing their seatbelts, but Willingham had been wearing hers.

Our sympathy goes out to the families of the teens involved in this tragedy, and this is yet another example of the dangers of not wearing a safety belt.

According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), they estimate that 15,383 lives were saved by seat belts in 2006, and from 1975 to 2006, safety belts have saved the lives of 226,567 people.

Unfortunately, one out of every four Americans still do not wear their seat belts! Many of these crash related deaths, like these two teenagers, could be avoided with the simple act of buckling up.

A copy of the official police report may be obtained by contacting:

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

A wreck that occurred around 3 p.m. on Sunday August 8 on North Greenhill Road in Mt. Juliet took the life of a 16 year old girl, according to The Wilson Post.

She was a junior at Wilson Central High School, was a passenger in the 2003 Mercury Mountaineer pickup at the time of the wreck, and according to police she was not wearing her seat belt.

The 17 year old driver of the car, also a female, was wearing her safety belt and survived the crash. According to police, the driver crossed over the center line and then overcorrected, causing the truck to lose control.

The girl was thrown from the vehicle during the incident and landed about 90 feet from the road. According to the Wilson Post, she was transported to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, but died at 6:34 p.m. that evening.

“The driver of the vehicle wore her seatbelt while the passengers did not,” said Trooper Bill Fitzgerald of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, according to the report.

Approximately 35,000 people die in automobile accidents each year, and about 50 percent of these victims could have been saved if they had been wearing a seat belt.

Drivers and passengers are also 25 times more likely to be killed or gravely injured when they are thrown from the automobile that when remain in the vehicle.

This is a sad, sad thing for the family of this young woman. Our sympathy goes out to the family of the victim, and we can only hope that this can serve as a reminder to others to always fasten your seat belt when driving or riding in a motor vehicle.

A copy of the official police report may be obtained by contacting:

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

Car accidents in Tennessee are a fact of life, but serious injury and death can be avoided when seat belts are used.

Although seat belts are mandatory safety equipment, and are present in any vehicle involved in a Tennessee auto accident, they are not always in use at the time of the collision.

It’s not that Tennessee drivers haven’t improved, they have. In 2002 about 66% of Tennessee drivers wore their seatbelts (according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).  In 2009 seatbelt use was up to 80%!

Unfortunately, the national average for seatbelt use is 84%. In Texas, 93% of drivers are belted – 90% in Alabama. Why do so many more drivers in Texas and Alabama use their seat belts?  I have no idea.  We have had a “click or ticket” ad  and enforcement program in place for several years – so it’s hard to believe that Tennessee drivers don’t know about the importance of seat belts. For a closer look at the NHTSA data, click here.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Nashville  car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Tennessee  personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Construction zones cause thousands of auto accidents and personal injuries every year and they cause their share of auto accidents and personal injuries in Tennessee as well. Nationally there are over 11,000 people injured in auto accidents that occur in construction zones and more than 800 deaths (click here for data from Federal Highway Administration).

There are regulations for “traffic control” in construction zones, the so called Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and those rules apply to construction zones in Nashville or anywhere else in Tennessee. Unfortunately, the rules are too often not followed or enforced and when that happens people inevitably are in serious car wrecks with personal injuries. Knowing the rules exist is the first step for a lawyer handling construction zone accidents.

If you or anyone you know has been killed or suffered a personal injury in Tennessee, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Tennessee personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Auto accidents in Tennessee can be caused by what are often routine traffic manuvers. U-turns are done thousands of times every day, usually without incident, but they can also be the cause of auto accidents and personal injury. The problem is that they are very hazardous manuevers both to the driver executing the U turn and to any oncoming traffic.

The key for any driver is to keep a proper look out. This means that the U- turn does not begin until the driver is sure there is no oncoming traffic that will be affected by the U turn temporarily blocking a lane during the turn. Tennessee’s Rules of the Road specifically provide that drivers must keep a proper look out (see pages 62-65, Chapter 9, Tennessee Driver’s Manual). Following those rules keeps everyone safe from unnecessary auto accidents and personal injury.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Tennessee  car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville  personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

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.

Trucking Industry Priorities

The American Trucking Association (ATA) is the national voice of the trucking industry, including their employment of lobbyists in Washington. In a recently released survey of trucking executives (click here), the ATA has published the top 10 issues (according to trucking industry executives) for the trucking industry.  Number 1 was the economy and the first item under the issue “economy” was “tort reform”.  In other words, “Don’t hold us responsible for injuring and killing people, it’s expensive.”  Or maybe “Don’t punish us for doing a lousing job hiring and supervising our employees, it’s expensive”.  The second “issue” for the trucking company execs was government regulation. It can be argued that government regulation is the primary reason that the  trucking industry pays attention to such things as hours of service, drug screening, driver safety, or engine emissions. Tennessee and Nashville truck wrecks are more common because of the interstate system and Tennessee being between destination population centers in the North and South. Certainly when a trucking company is sued, their violations of safety regulations are always important issues for us to talk about and for juries to consider.  As Tennessee attorneys who handle cases against trucking companies, we are constantly surprised at how little real attention is paid to safety. We all have to follow rules, the trucking industry is no exception – even if it’s not one of the top issues for trucking company execs.