Articles Posted in Georgia Laws

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will soon have a new standard that promises to reduce injuries caused in car and light truck accidents.

The new standard will require the roofs of these vehicles to be able to withstand three times the curb weight of the vehicle. The old standard required the roof to withstand pressure that was only one and a half times the curb weight. That’s not the only change auto safety advocates and Atlanta car accident lawyers are happy about. The earlier standard placed a limit on the pressure applied to a vehicle during testing at 5,000 pounds. The new standard will no longer have that limit. Beside, pressure will be applied to both sides of the roof, and not to just one side during testing.

The changes and standards have pleased safety advocates, because these are much stronger than current standards that only test one side of the roof. The new standards come after about a decade of studies and research by the NHTSA. In 2005 , the agency was ordered to establish standards that would help protect drivers and passengers in rollover accidents. According to agency statistics, approximately 10,000 people die in such car accidents every year. Two thirds of these people die when they are ejected from the vehicle. The number of people who die because of a roof crush or collapse is 667. The agency believes that the new standards will save 135 lives every year, and prevent more than 1,000 injuries.

In February, we had expressed hope on this blog that a bill to make seatbelt use mandatory for pickup truck drivers would be passed by the House. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. For the third consecutive year, the House has rejected the measurethat would prevent several accident related deaths every year, with the House Consumer Affairs Subcommittee voting 4-3 against the bill.

With this, Georgia continues to remain the only state in the country that exempts pickup truck drivers from buckling up.This has meant that the seat belt use rate for pickup drivers in Georgia has remained at around 79 percent, much lower than it is for other passenger vehicles. Pickup trucks are used extensively in rural Georgia, and the seat belt exemption has also contributed to higher fatality rates in rural areas than urban centers.Close to 57 percent of all road traffic fatalities in the state occur on rural roads.In fact, the fatality rate in rural areas is twice that in urban areas, and pickup truck drivers form a large percentage of these fatalities.Even worse, of these pickup truck fatalities, more than 67 percent were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.Experts estimate that at least 26 lives could be saved in Georgia every year, and more than 400 injuries could be prevented if pickup truck drivers too were covered under seat belt laws.

Even in the face of such data, Georgia has delayed making seat belts mandatory for pickup drivers above the age of 18.The bill’s supporters, including Georgia personal injury lawyers have been vocal in their support for such a measure, but these voices have gone unheard by the House. There has been widespread support of seat belt laws for pick up truck drivers. In fact, surveys have shown that more than 88 percent of the population of the state supports making seat belt use mandatory on pickup trucks.In fact, the support for such a bill is strong even in rural areas, with truck drivers voicing support for such laws. Yet, the state has failed to act.

There’s a string of seatbelt laws all relating to the impact of seatbelts on car accident -related injuries pending in the legislature, and each one of them is at varying stages of approval. One such bill is currently in the Senate, and it could have potential implications for an accident victim’s right to recover damages after a car accident.

According to bill SB23, if the victim of an accident was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, then the defendant’s lawyer would be able to bring up this fact during trial. Currently, Georgia law does not allow a victim’s failure to buckle up to be mentioned during trial proceedings. Jurors are not allowed to consider if failure to wear seatbelts could have contributed to the severity of the injuries. If the bill becomes law, then that fact can be used as evidence that the plaintiff or the victim contributed to the severity of his injuries by not buckling up. Obviously, this would have an impact on any damages that the plaintiff would be eligible for as the result of the accident. Georgia personal injury lawyers are expectedly displeased about the bill, and the repercussions it would have on a victim’s right to compensation after an accident. The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association has opposed the bill because it allows the jury to develop a negative perspective of the victim. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has voiced its approval of bill.

A civil trial is all about compensating a victim for another person’s negligence. A victim’s failure to wear a seatbelt cannot be used as an excuse to forgive or lesson the severity of the defendant’s negligent driving behavior. The bill amounts to letting a defendant get away with a possible rap on the wrist, if the victim has failed to wear a seatbelt. If the bill passes, we risk making a civil trial all about the inadequacies of the injured plaintiff, and not the negligence of the defendant.That defeats the purpose of civil justice.

Georgia’s pickup truck drivers look set to begin buckling up compulsorily as the state’s senate passed a seatbelt law last week that will require all pickup drivers to wear seatbelts while they are driving. The senate passed the bill by a vote of 49-4. It will now move on to the House, where it hasn’t fared too well the last few times it made it there. Rural and agricultural interests have long argued that the seatbelt law is unnecessary, and that it will "hinder farmers." Legislators who support the law say that any concerns about farmers and the inconvenience to them are simply overblown.

Legislators who support the bill estimate that it could possible save as many as 105 lives a year in automobile accidents.Besides, there’s the little matter of a grant of $4.6 million that the state would be eligible to receive from the federal government if the bill actually becomes law.Georgia is grappling with a massive budget deficit, and the lure of a grant could be the deciding factor when House members vote for or against the bill.For now, House members have been non committal about their response to the bill.Governor Purdue too hasn’t made a commitment to supporting it

Georgia still remains behind most states as far as mandatory seatbelt laws are concerned, even though pickup drivers themselves have been vocal in their support of any such law.So far, these drivers have been exempt from having to buckle up compulsorily, and this has not only cost the state that $4 million grant, but also hundreds of lives that could have been saved every year by the simple act of buckling up.These pickups can cause their unrestrained occupants serious injuries in the event of an accident. Across the country, states have adopted mandatory seatbelt laws, and the impact on their fatality rates has been clear to see. The increasing rates of seatbelt use and stricter enforcement of seatbelt laws by traffic police has been cited as a possible reason why the accident fatality rate across the country is declining the way it is.

Georgia’s ongoing budget crisis may actually be a blessing in disguise for the state’s motorists – the state has an incentive for passing seatbelt laws that come in the welcome form of a $4 million federal grant, which would not only add to the state’s depleted coffers, but also reduce the number of accident-related fatalities in the state.

The state is the last one in the country that continues to allow pick up truck drivers to drive without seatbelts.All minors and adults are required to buckle up on other vehicles, however. This pick up truck exemption has come in the way of a fund of $4 million which the federal government has tied to a state’s enactment of seatbelt laws.Georgia however has stubbornly refused to make it mandatory for pick up drivers to snap on their seat belts, and has lost out on the funding, thus far.

Now however, the situation is markedly different, and cries for mandatory seat belt laws that can help save thousands of lives a year, are getting louder. One of the weapons in the armor of proponents of making seat belts mandatory on all vehicles without exception, is of course the $4 million grant that the state would receive if it passed these laws.The state currently faces a budget deficit that is set to exceed $2 billion, and with the economy in the shape it’s in, there’s no telling how deep the deficit could go.