Car Accidents

Published on: May 26, 2009

Cobb County Teacher Dies in Wrong-Way Accident

Before Friday’s tragic car accident, South Cobb High School teacher James Chapman was looking forward to a life of wedded bless.

Chapman was due to be married on the 4^th of July in Rome, and had been on his way to New Orleans to celebrate his upcoming nuptials. He was driving with his friend Keith. Both had just finished the last day of school at South Cobb High School where Chapman taught Social Studies and coached a baseball team. Chapman’s car collided head-on with a car driven by 74-year-old Homer Phillips in the southbound lane of Interstate 59. Phillips seems to have been driving the wrong way in a pickup truck, when he crashed into Chapman’s pickup. Phillip’s vehicle then hit another car which rolled over. Both Phillips and Chapman were killed at the scene.

According to police, Phillips was not under the influence of alcohol. They don’t know yet why he was driving the wrong way.

Published on: May 23, 2009

Drowsy Driving Blamed for Washington County Tractor Trailer Accident Fatality

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

A man from Sandersville in Washington County died last week when his truck crashed into a tractor trailer. According to Georgia State Patrol, the victim David Perry Williams was driving a pickup and following the 18 wheeler. As the tractor trailer slowed to make a turn, the pickup struck the rear of the trailer, killing Williams instantly.

Georgia State Patrol troopers believe that Williams likely fell asleep at the wheel. There was no indication at the accident scene that he had attempted to stop the pickup. Williams wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, but considering the massive impact of the crash, troopers believe that a seat belt wouldn’t have helped. According to witnesses at the scene of the crash, Williams had just finished his third shift at work, and was on his way home.

It appears quite likely that Williams was suffering from a severe lack of sleep because of his hectic work schedule. We should be as concerned about car accidents that occur when a motorist falls asleep at the wheel, but somehow, as New Jersey personal injury lawyer Scott Grossman says, drowsy driving is not taken as seriously in the country as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Published on: May 22, 2009

Georgia State Patrol Expects Increase in Fatal Memorial Day Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Georgia State Patrol is expecting an increase of 29 percent in the number of fatal accidents over the Memorial Day weekend. Troopers are expecting 2,725 accidents over the weekend, which begins from 6 pm Friday and runs through midnight on Monday. These crashes are expected to result in eighteen deaths, while 875 people will be injured. In 2008, fourteen people had died, and 721 had suffered injuries in 2,480 Memorial Day holiday accidents.

Law enforcement officers are gearing up to handle the increased volumes of traffic starting from Thursday. Additional police officers will be patrolling the streets to crackdown on motorists for speeding, and conducting sobriety checkpoints to keep drunk drivers off the roads. Additionally, there will be other safety campaigns, including the “Click It or Ticket” campaign to enforce seat belt use, as well as the 100 Days of Summer HEAT campaign that kicked off earlier this month. HEAT or Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic will crack down on dangerous drivers across the state. The HEAT campaign is a comprehensive drunk driving, speeding and aggressive driving campaign that involves all law enforcement agencies.

Holiday weekends are unfortunately more at risk for a greater number of automobile crashes including drunk driving accidents, and speeding-related crashes. With lower gas prices this year, it won’t be too surprising to find more numbers of Georgians on the streets. Initiatives like the one the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is implementing are necessary to ensure that a joyous time isn’t marred by accidents and injuries. This year, Georgia State Patrol expects the same risk factors in a majority of serious or fatal accidents – alcohol use and failure to wear seat belts.

Published on: May 18, 2009

Georgia Embarking on Seat belt Campaign to Reduce Accident-related Injuries

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Law enforcement agencies in the state have launched a campaign to encourage seatbelt use among Georgia drivers to prevent serious accident-related injuries, especially those occurring on rural roads. It is a shift from previous efforts that focused such enforcement in urban centers, and it has to do with the dismal picture of seatbelt use in rural areas.

According to Governor’s Office of Highway Safety deputy director Spencer Moore, rural roads are some of the most dangerous ones, but seat belt usage here is much lower than in urban centers. In 2008, drivers in urban areas in the state were 84 percent likely to buckle up, while in rural areas, that percentage was 79. The discrepancy in seatbelt usage in urban and rural areas is clear to see in the accident fatality rates in these regions. In 2007, 342 people died in automobile accidents in the five metro Atlanta counties. During the same period of time, 527 died in accidents in Georgia’s most rural counties.

Seatbelts save lives. While those higher fatality rates on rural roads may have to do with other causal factors like a shortage of trauma centers in these areas, seatbelts can prevent the kind of critical injuries that result after serious accidents.

Published on: May 11, 2009

Crashed Cars Increase Risk of Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

An investigation by CBS, Atlanta in April exposed a Roswell-based car dealership that concealed accident damage on the vehicles they sold, with sometimes disastrous consequences.

The dealership Ultra Cars, the investigation found, used to purchase cars that had frame damage at auctions, and sell these to customers. Those earlier car accidents were not reflected in Carfax reports, and gullible customers who walked into the dealership had no way of knowing that the car they were buying had earlier been in a major wreck. Frame damage can affect the structure of the car, and consequently its safety. The damage can decrease the value of a car and investigations revealed that salesmen at Ultra Cars didn’t reveal to customers the fact that the car had suffered accident damage earlier. At least one Ultra Car customer who was sold an accident-damaged-car has been involved in an accident. Keith Newton survived the crash, but the accident could have had fatal consequences. Later, he found that the car he had been sold had only been given a cosmetic patch-up job to cover major damage sustained in an accident.

The dealership has now closed down, but not before selling their vehicles to another dealership nearby. With most of Ultra Car’s vehicles sold to a new owner, the dangers from these cars haven’t disappeared yet.

Published on: May 6, 2009

DeKalb County Car Accident Kills Two People

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

A tragic car accident on Rockbridge Road in DeKalb County has killed two people, including a teenager.

According to this report, a car carrying six teenage boys crossed the center line and crashed into a Toyota Corolla, driven by 43-year-old Lisa Hutchinson. She died instantly. Her daughter was in the car with her, and suffered a broken collar bone and at least two fractures. The driver of the other car, a Honda Accord, also sustained injuries. One of the occupants of that car, 16-year-old Benjamin Bynum was also killed. All the teenagers, students at Stephenson High School, have suffered minor injuries.

The 16-year-old driver is likely to face charges. According to police, alcohol doesn’t seem to have been a factor in the car accident.

Published on: April 30, 2009

After Near Miss at Atlanta Bus Accident Site, DOT Begins work on HOV Exit

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

But for good fortune, it would have been a repeat of the tragic Bluffton bus accident in Atlanta that killed seven people in 2007. A group of students from Michigan escaped serious injuries when their bus driver almost made the same mistake that the Bluffton University bus driver did.

The students who were on their way from Michigan to Orlando were traveling in two buses. The driver of the first bus mistook the exit ramp for a through lane, and just managed to stop in time to avoid a potentially serious crash. It was the exact same mistake that the driver of the bus in which several Bluffton University students had been killed two years ago, had made. The near miss has called into question Georgia Department of Transportation’s tardiness in making adequate signage available to warn motorists of the dangerous site.

According to driver Rick Overtein who narrowly avoided an accident, the ramp is still very “deceiving.” Two years after the tragic Bluffton college bus accident, it’s obvious that signage warning drivers on the ramp is still insufficient. After the Bluffton accident, the Georgia Department of Transportation had come in for severe criticism, including sharp words from the National Transportation Safety Board for its failure to install proper signage. The Department of Transportation last week began work on updating the HOV exit, where the Bluffton accident occurred, a full two years later. It will be weeks before the overhead signs come up at the site.

Published on: April 24, 2009

BMW Driver in Fatal South Fulton Accident Arrested

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Police in Fulton County arrested the driver of BMW that was involved in a fatal car accident on Easter Sunday. The car accident killed Robert and Delisia Carter, their nine-year-old daughter Kayla, and their two month old son. A six year old child in another car was also killed in the multi vehicle accident.

The Carters had been out for an Easter Sunday drive when a BMW crashed into their car, and then struck a Volkswagen. The Mercedes burst into flames, killing the family inside. The driver of the Volkswagen, Tracey Johnson sustained serious injuries in the accident. Her six-year-old daughter was also killed.

The BMW fled from the scene of the accident. Fulton police had been looking out for the driver since Sunday. This morning residents of Walden Park in south Fulton County woke up to find that one of their neighbors, 22-year-old Aimee Michael was the driver of the BMW involved in the tragic Easter crash.

Published on: March 26, 2009

Failure to Screen Bus Companies Places Athletes at Risk for Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Back in 2007, a bus accident in Atlanta, involving a vehicle carrying baseball players of Bluffton University, Ohio killed seven people on board, including five players, the driver and his wife. That accident was blamed on driver error, as well as the failure of the Georgia Department of Transportation to maintain important traffic safety devices.

A new report by ESPN brings back memories of that tragic accident, and underscores how much at danger our college athletes are when they travel in buses that are operated by companies with a bad safety record.An analysis done by ESPN’s Outside the Lines shows that between 2007 and 2008, hundreds of college teams and athletes traveled on buses operated by companies that have frequently failed to comply with federal bus safety standards. During this period, close to 85 Division I universities used charter bus companies that were found to be deficient in at least one federal safety score.Even worse, of these 85 universities, close to 35 were been found to have hired buses from companies that have more serious safety infractions on their record. These companies have what is called a "constitutional rating," meaning that the schools should have been refrained from using the company.

Problems at a number of these bus companies used by colleges and universities included faulty maintenance of the buses.Drivers were found to be less than qualified, and too inexperienced to operate these buses. Tinkering of log books was found to be widespread.Manipulating log books allows drivers to clock in more number of hours than is permitted, ending up with more money for the driver, but seriously jeopardized safety for the passengers of the bus. Drivers were also allowed to work for several days before undergoing drug and alcohol testing. Other more serious problems included malfunctioning emergency exits. Studies indicate that bus companies that are found to be deficient in safety scores have a higher incidence of accidents. What’s worse is that authorities at colleges, who had used these buses frequently, when contacted by the ESPN team, were simply unaware that the companies had all these violations to their credit.

Published on: March 20, 2009

Distractions Increase Risk of Pedestrian Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

At our Georgia personal injury law firm, we’ve seen the consequences of being distracted behind the wheel through cell phone use, changing CDs etc., and the devastating motor vehicle accidents these behaviors can cause. A new study shows that these distractions are just as dangerous for their ability to cause pedestrian accidents.

Research is being conducted at the Ohio State University to determine the effect that the use of electronic devices, including cell phones and MP3 players has on pedestrians.According to this report, incidents of distracted pedestrians being hit by cars and even trains are becoming more frequent.

Multitasking is a fact of modern life, and pedestrians who can’t fight the urge to slip on their headphones or stay in touch with the office on their cell phone are at an increased risk of being involved in an accident.We don’t think twice when we see a pedestrian walking with his headset on, swaying to the music, but researchers and doctors are worried that the distractions caused by the use of such electronic devices are severe enough to be a health hazard. The number of pedestrians being rushed to emergency rooms with injuries sustained being struck by vehicles while they were talking or text messaging on their cell phone or listening to music, have increased.These pedestrians are at a high risk of being unable to hear a car horn, or notice a motorcycle making a turn just ahead of them.It’s not just those walking on the streets that are at risk from such distractions. In the last two months, at least two people in North Carolina alone were killed as they walked on train tracks with music playing on their headsets.They failed to hear the train engine as it came hurtling towards them.