Roadway Departure Crash

Fifty miles north of Nashville, a 62-year-old man lost his life when the vehicle he was driving south on I-24 in Kentucky just above of the Tennessee state line left the road, crossed the median and slammed head-on into a north-bound tractor-trailer truck. An article in the Leaf-Chronicle, quoted the investigator, a Kentucky State Trooper as saying that the deceased driver suffered from some sort of medical emergency that caused him to lose control of his vehicle.

Recently I read an interesting article outlining the finding of a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. According to the survey, 95 percent of respondents 55 and older have one or more medical conditions and 78 percent use one or more medication, yet only 28 percent  indicated some awareness of the potential impact on driving performance associated with  those medications. Previous research indicates that use of a single potentially driver impairing medication as well as use  of multiple medications increases the risk of being in a crash.

As we reach a certain point in the aging process we begin notice that many of the things we rely on to be safe drivers, eye sight, hearing, response time, are not as sharp as they once were. Another factor is that we suffer medical conditions and take medication for them that further limit our ability to be the drivers we once were.

No matter what your age, if you take one or more medications check with your physician about the possible effects that the meds might have on your driving. Many medications react in a totally different manner when used with alcohol or with other medications. Some medications have a tendency to make a driver drowsy and create the risk of falling asleep while driving.

If you are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident caused by a driver who was taking medication or who had a serious medical condition that impaired their driving, we urge you to contact our Nashville car accident attorneys today for a free consultation. When you hire an auto accident attorney from Phillip Miller & Associates, you’re getting a qualified and dedicated lawyer. Details about our attorneys and staff can be found by viewing our website at www.seriousinjury.com where you can get to know the men and women who will be looking out for your best interest.

Speed = Teen Fatalities

Nashville TV station WSMV reports that two Nashville teen girls are hospitalized in critical condition and an adult is dead after he lost control of his speeding vehicle and crashed his car into a commercial building.

Speeding is one of the most common contributing factors of traffic crashes. Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) show that the driver-level attribute “driving too fast for conditions or in excess of posted speed limit” is the critical contributing factor in more than 99 percent of all speeding-related fatal crashes, as defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for more than one in three deaths in this age group. In 2008, nine teens ages 16 to 19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries. Per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash. Fortunately, teen motor vehicle crashes are preventable, and proven strategies can improve the safety of young drivers on the road.

How big is the problem?

In 2008, about 3,500 teens in the United States aged 15–19 were killed and  more than 350,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes. Young people ages 15-24 represent only 14% of the U.S. population. However, they account for 30% ($19 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among males and 28% ($7 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among females.

Parents cannot count on others to teach their teens the dangers they face when they were on the highways and byways of Tennessee. Teens don’t learn to drive in driver’s education classes, they learn to drive when Mom and Dad give them the car keys to the family car and send them out on their own. Some say experience is the best teacher but the problem with experience as a teacher is that you get the test before you get the lesson.

If you or a loved one is killed or injured in a Nashville automobile accident by a teen driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Roadway Departure Crash

A tragic loss for the family and friends of Barbara A. Krantz and her 18-year-old son Clifford, who were killed yesterday when their automobile driven by Ms. Krantz, departed the roadway and hit a tree. My sympathies and prayers go out to the family. For more information about the accident check out The Nashville Tennessean. 

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney we know that these types of crashes are referred to as “Roadway Departure Crashes” (RDCs). The Federal Highway Administration defines a RDC as a non-intersection crash that occurs when a vehicle crosses an edge line or a centerline, or otherwise leaves the traveled way. According to the Federal Highway Administration roadway departure crashes are frequently severe and account for the majority of highway fatalities. In 2008, there were 19,794 fatal roadway departure crashes resulting in 22,080 fatalities, which was 53 percent of the fatal crashes in the United States.

In crashes of this sort investigators will be focusing on two areas of interest. They will focus first on the possibility of  some sort of medical emergency that might have incapacitated Ms. Krantz, a finding that will be made by the coroner. The second area of interest is whether she was distracted and the distraction caused her to leave the road. Distraction investigations are very difficult because the only people that were there at the time are unable to tell investigators what happened.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville automobile accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies

Distracted Driver

Whenever you see an accident, usually involving one car that leaves the road, an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney starts thinking about driver distractions or  medical emergency. When investigating a distracted driver case we try to determine just what the driver doing in the moments before the crash that caused his/her vehicle to leave it’s lane and cross over into an oncoming vehicle? What caused the driver to change focus from driving to other things?

Reference an article reporting on a collision in Blount County Tennessee in which a lone driver was traveling along a two-lane highway when for some unknown reason she crossed over the double yellow line and crashed head-on into a van carrying 5 people. She was not wearing her seatbelt and suffered serious injuries. Her condition at the present time is critical. All of the van passengers were wearing a seatbelt.

I don’t envy the investigators on this one. The first thing they are going to have to determine is whether the driver had some sort of medical emergency that rendered her unable to control here vehicle, that evidence will be determined by the treating physicians. The next thing that will need to looked at is whether she had and was using a cell phone, was smoking a cigarette or eating while she drove. All of these activities are considered major distractions that lead to thousands of automobile accidents each year.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration driver inattention by distraction is the leading factor in most crashes. Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event.  Primary causes of driver inattention are distracting activities, such as cell phone use, and drowsiness.

It only takes a second, look away at something inside or outside the car, look back to the road in front of you and your life, and lives of other human beings can change in a way you never anticipated. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee car accident caused by a distracted driver contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Drunk Driving Crackdown

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyer I am all too aware of the dangers posed by the holiday season. Fortunately for all Tennesseans the fatality rate for drunk driving collisions is steadily decreasing year after year. But those statistics offer little hope to families who lose loved ones to drunk drivers during the holiday season.

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In 2008, 327 people died in highway crashes in Tennessee involving a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher. That’s an 11 percent decline from the 377 alcohol-related deaths in 2007. As part of National Drunk & Drugged Driving Prevention Month, the Tennessee Highway Patrol will be stepping up its enforcement crackdown to find and remove impaired drivers from Tennessee roadways.  Troopers will be conducting more than 100 sobriety and driver license checkpoints now through the New Year’s holiday to get drunk drivers off the road.

The holiday season is one of the deadliest and most dangerous times of the year due to an increase in impaired driving.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in December 2008, 888 people were killed nationwide in crashes that involved a drunk driver with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. That was down from 992 people killed in similar impaired driving crashes in 2007.  In Tennessee, in December 2008, eight people were killed in crashes that involved a drunk driver with a known BAC of .08 or higher compared to 12 people in December 2007.

“The holidays are about gathering together with friends and family to celebrate the joys of the season, but no amount of good cheer will save people from the consequences of impaired driving,” said Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel Mike Walker. “Impaired driving is against the law and Troopers will be out in force working to save lives by making sure drunk and drugged drivers are kept off the road. If we catch you, we will arrest you. No exceptions. No excuses.”

The 2009 Christmas holiday period begins Thursday, December 24th, at 6:00 p.m., and runs through Sunday, December 27, at 11:59 p.m. During the 2008 Christmas holiday period, nine people were killed in traffic crashes on Tennessee roadways. This represents one death every 11 hours and 20 minutes. Alcohol was involved in nearly 29 percent of those crashes and four of the seven motorists killed were not wearing safety restraints.

The 2009 New Year’s holiday period begins at 6:00 p.m., Thursday, December 31, 2009, and will end 11:59 p.m. Sunday, January 3, 2010. Last year, 2008-09, 12 people were killed during the New Year’s holiday period and 42 percent of the fatalities occurred in alcohol-related crashes.

Please set an example to your friends and family, especially your teen drivers. If you drink don’t driver, if you drive don’t drink. If you observe and impaired driver identify the vehicle and call 911 or in a rural area *847 and report them. You may save a life. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Nashville automobile accident involving a drunk or impaired driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Drunk Drivers Kill

It took a Washington County Tennessee jury a mere 34 minutes to find Michael Gardener guilty of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and driving on a revoked or suspended drivers license. The jury handed down a 22-year sentence, the maximum allowed by law. Before you get into your car after you have been drinking you might want to remember this case before you start the engine.

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I can tell you for certain that juries across the state are sick and tired of people like Mr. Gardner who flaunt the laws and take the lives of productive citizens. The victim in this case Johnny Morphew, 48 was a respected citizen, a firefighter and medical flight paramedic who was driving from home to work. On behalf of the staff and lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates I want to extend out deepest sympathies to Mr. Morphew’s family and friends, and indeed, to the people of Washington County for their loss.

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In Tennessee in 2008, 327 people were killed in crashes where the driver or motorcyclist had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher. That is down from 377 people killed in 2007 with a BAC of .08 or higher..

If you or a loved one is injured or killed by a drunk driver contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Entering An Interstate

In my capacity as a Nashville automobile accident attorney I have become a keen observer of driver attitudes, especially on Nashville area Interstate highways. Today as I was driving to a meeting across town I observed a driver who was smoking and talking on his cell phone, and from my point of view, doing something else on the front seat while entering I-40 who did everything wrong and but for some “on their toes” drivers he would have caused a multi-car collision. After calming down from the near miss I had just witnessed I knew exactly what the topic of my evening blog would be. Entering an Interstate.

In most driving situations, you slow down or stop before you enter a busy road, but when entering an interstate, you do the opposite.  You must use the merging or acceleration lane to speed up and merge with fast-moving traffic already on the interstate. Good judgment and good timing are necessary to merge smoothly with fast-moving traffic.  Upon entering the interstate on-ramp, stay to the right and increase your speed in the acceleration lane/entrance ramp.  Use the ramp to reach interstate speed so you can merge smoothly into the travel lane when the way is clear.  Be sure to give the proper left turn signal to indicate your need to enter the traffic lane.  Drivers already on the interstate should, for their own safety, make allowance for vehicles attempting to enter.  It is your responsibility to yield the right-of-way to other cars on the interstate.

Unnecessary stopping on interstate on-ramps causes many rear-end collisions and also obstructs the even flow of traffic. Do not drive to the end of the ramp and stop, or you will not have enough room to get up to the speed of the interstate traffic.  Drivers behind you will not expect you to stop.  If they are watching the traffic on the main road for space to merge, you could easily be hit from the rear.  If you have to wait for space to enter an interstate, slow down on the ramp so that you will still have some room to speed up before you have to merge.  Heavy traffic conditions sometimes create a slowdown at an entrance ramp.  Unless it is absolutely unavoidable, it is best to keep your vehicle moving at least at some slow pace.

Remember please, you are piloting a 3000 lb deadly weapon at a reasonably high rate of speed when you make this maneuver, put down the cell phone, the coffee and put on your eye makeup when you arrive at your destination.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed by a negligent driver entering a Nashville Interstate highway contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Hit & Run

On December the 14^th my Tennessee auto accident attorney blog identified the chief contender for the most thoughtless Tennessee driver of 2009. She was drinking, texting and driving with her several day old baby unrestrained when she hit a sign and crashed her car injuring the baby. I thought that this late in the year I wouldn’t find a driver that even came close to this person, but then I read an article in several Nashville media outlets describing the arrest of Angela Marie Shenkle and I think I will be forced to reconsider.

It seems Ms. Shenkle has been charged following an incident in which she stuck and killed a Madison pedestrian as he walked along Gallatin Pike in Nashville. Investigators quoted in the articles believe that she was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. When they located her they found two syringes and two bottles of liquor in her vehicle. To take this tragic story to another level of madness, investigators believe she was involved in a Hit & Run on another pedestrian earlier that same evening. Ms. Shenkle was charged with unlawful use and possession of drug paraphernalia, drug possession without a prescription and DUI. I would expect that homicide charges will follow after the investigation is completed. The identity of the Madison man was not released but I have added him to my prayers along with Ms. Shenkle.

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I’ve seen dozens of Hit & Run cases, but never have I seen one that makes me think at first glance that a driver was going around town trying to hit pedestrians. Now, don’t get me wrong, I only know about this what I read in the articles but this gal is cold-blooded. Imagine, hitting a human being with your car and leaving them to die alone in the street. After Ms. Shenkle is finished with whatever punishment she gets for this crime, she should permanently forfeit her privileges to operate a motor vehicle in Tennessee.

Hit & Run drivers are, in my consideration, the worst kind of human being. Most H&R drivers are under the influence of alcohol, others have already run afoul of the law and have lost their driving privileges, yet they continue to get behind the wheel and ignore the rules. Many H&R drivers are trying to avoid detection because they don’t have insurance and they don’t want to face the responsibility for their actions. No matter which category they fall into they are the very worst type of person, someone who will leave an injured or dying pedestrian lying in the street.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed by a drunk Hit & Run driver recovering damages for your loss can be a tricky propostition and you will need an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney to help you protect your rights. At Phillip Miller & Associates we can help you.

Winter Weather Collision

Two people killed in a head-on collision in Greeneville Tennessee. According to the Greeneville-Times a pickup driven by Andrew Pierce, 25, skidded on slush in a curve, crossed the centerline and crashed head-on into a small Toytoa Tercel driven by Bronson A. Ricker, 36. Both Ricker and his passenger Melody Gosnell, 28, were killed at the scene. At the tie of the accident it was snowing and approximately 2 inches of snow covered the roadway. There are several driving events that require intense concentration by the driver. A driver must always be on the defensive, thinking about what other drivers might do AND be prepared to respond with proper reactions. In addition, certain conditions, especially bad weather, trigger the need for special knowledge and skills.

Winter Driving: Several steps should be taken to lessen the effects of snow, sleet or ice.  They include:

• Keep the windshield clear as possible: (a) keep a quality ice scraper in the car, (b) be sure the heater-defroster is in good condition, (c) have wiper blades in excellent condition, (d) have the outside mirrors clear and ice free.

• Be alert to poor traction: start slowly and never over-power and spin the wheels.

• Keep speed steady and slow (but not too slow). In deeper snow, you have to use the vehicle’s momentum to keep moving.

• Never over-brake and slide the wheels.  DO NOT pump the brake pedal. Instead, APPLY steady pressure.

• Never over-steer and skid the front wheels.  The front tires should have good treads.

•   If your car starts to skid, always turn into the direction of the skid. In summary, continuous hard braking on snow and ice can result in the locking of the front brakes, causing a loss of steering.  Always maintain a safe speed for these conditions to avoid excessive breaking.

The Basic Speed Rule:

The speed at which you drive determines how much time you have to act or react and how long it takes to stop. The higher the speed, the less time drivers have to spot hazards.   Judge the speed of other traffic, and react to avoid the mistakes of other drivers. The Basic Speed Rule (BSR) is not a Tennessee law, but it is a general safety principle. The BSR does not set an exact speed limit; instead, it teaches that the speed you may drive is limited by current conditions. For example, if the posted speed limit is 65 m.p.h., and you are driving at night on a two-lane state highway and it’s raining or foggy, 65 m.p.h. is too fast for those conditions.

To obey the BSR, think about your speed in relation to other traffic (including pedestrians and bicycles), the surface and width of the road, hazards at intersections, weather, visibility and any other conditions that could affect safety.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Nashville car accident during winter weather by a driver who is violating the Basic Speed Rule contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies.

Seven Tennessee women died in an automobile accident in Lewis County, Tennessee, forty miles south of Nashville, this past weekend when a single passenger vehicle crossed a yellow line and rammed head-on into a van carrying women on their way to work at a nearby factory. The 69-year-old driver of the car was dead at the scene and police said they had no idea what caused her to cross into the other vehicle. i send my sympathy and prayers to the families and friends of all of those injured or killed in this tragic accident.

Unfortunately, neither her family, nor the families of the victims will ever be able to answer that question for sure. As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney it’s clear that one of three things happened. The driver was either distracted by something in her car, a cell phone, radio, GPS device, or she just lost concentration and failed to focus on the task at hand, or she had some kind of medical emergency that caused her to lose control of her vehicle.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes. Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event.  Primary causes of driver inattention are distracting activities, such as cell phone use, and drowsiness.

According to a survey conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 95% of respondents 55 and older have one or more medical conditions and 78% use one or more medications, yet only 28% indicated some awareness of the potential impact on driving performance associated with  those medications.

The lesson to be learned following this accident is that no matter where we are going, down to the corner to the local store or cross-country, we have to be vigilant and never lose focus of the task at hand. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident you owe it to your self to take advantage of a free consultation with one of the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates

Distracted Driver

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