Fatal Intersection Accidents Decline

A new study issued today by the National Safety Council reports that fatal crashes at intersections with traffic lights decreased by 17% and fatal crashes at intersections involving red-light running decreased by 27% from 2005 to 2009. The study analyzed fatal crash data in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, using statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“This report shows that we are making large strides as a nation in reducing crashes at intersections,” said Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council.  “However, despite the improvement there were still 12,396 fatal crashes at intersections with traffic lights, including 4,394 fatal intersection crashes involving red-light running during that five year period.

While we are making progress, the 13,266 fatalities from these crashes remind us that we have much more to do. Each of us should consider these statistics and the measures we can take to protect ourselves, our families and our communities.”

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee intersection automobile accident, contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and get a free case analysis.

Distracted Driver

It doesn’t take much of a distraction for a driver to end up in critical condition. If one is traveling at a high rate of speed it takes only a second or two for the vehicle to leave the road and hit something hard, a concrete barrier, a guard rail, trees or God-forbid another vehicle or a pedestrian.

In Memphis last week, a 23-year-old man ended up in critical condition after his car slammed into a utility poll on Highland Ave. near Spottswood. According to local media sources the driver was heading north on Highland when he became distracted and his front tire hit a curb. The car then left the roadway and went into a spin, with the driver’s side of the car hitting the pole. Fortunately, the man is reported to be in non-critical condition.

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.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a distracted driver, contact the experienced Nashville auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation.

This past week there was serious motorcycle accident in Memphis, Tennessee involving a motorcycle and a tractor-trailer. A 61-year-old Bartlett, Tennessee man was following a tractor-trailer on I-40 in a construction zone when the truck slowed for traffic the motorcyclist, from what I can gleen from media reports, was following too close, was unable to brake in time, was thrown from his motorcycle, and collided with the rear-end of the trailer.

Tennessee law states: “The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and the condition of the highway.”

When another driver makes a mistake, you need time to react. Give yourself this time by keeping a “space cushion” around your vehicle. This space cushion will give you room to brake and avoid hazards when needed. Good drivers keep this safe following distance or space cushion to have a better view of the road.

The more space you allow between your car and the car ahead, the more time you will have to see and react to traffic hazards or crashes down the road. Many drivers don’t see as well as they should because they follow too closely (tailgating). The vehicle ahead of them blocks their view of traffic and road conditions. Rear-end

This is serious business my friends, serious indeed. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee wreck caused by a driver following too close, you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Philip Miller & Associates

Maintain A Safe Distance

and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Motorcycle Fatality

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney, I can tell you for certain that when you mix an inexperienced motorcycle rider, excessive speed and alcohol, that you have a dangerous cocktail. Reference a recent case in Madison County, Tennessee in which a 52-year-old man died after he consumed alcohol, got on a motorcycle, drove at excessive speed, lost control, left the road and slammed into a culvert.

Every day, 36 people in the United States die, and approximately 700 more are injured in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. The good news is that the number of fatalities in drunk-driving crashes has declined 49 percent since 1982, going from 21,113 in 1982 to 10,839 in 2009, a record-low level. There were 10,000 fewer drunk-driving fatalities in 2009 than in 1982.

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 in a Tennessee automobile accident casued by a drunk driver you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies.

Intersection Crash

More than 100,000 crashes a year are caused by drivers running red lights, killing some 950 people and injuring 90,000 others, making it a leading cause of fatal crashes in metropolitan areas, according to the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

Worse, the numbers are on the rise: Fatal motor vehicle crashes at traffic signals increased 19 percent nationally between 1992 and 1998 (the last year for which FHWA had statistics); over the same period, all other types of fatal crashes increased just 6 percent. This is a situation where people are dying from something that’s 100 percent preventable.”

Reference a intersection accident in Kingsport, Tennessee, in which an SUV, traveling west on Stone Drive approaching Fairview Ave. Witnesses told police investigators, the SUV simply ran the red light and was T-boned by a vehicle with the right-of-way. Fortunately, the SUV driver suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The high fatality rate associated with red-light-running crashes is partly attributable to the fact that they are usually “T-bone,” or side-impact, crashes involving high speeds (since drivers often accelerate to get through a red light quickly). Indeed, images of vehicles broadsided at intersections often show cars cut in two or with pulverized midsections. “Of all the injuries we see, these are some of the worst,” says Harry Teter, executive director of the 2,200-member American Trauma Society. “You’re hitting the most vulnerable part of the car.”

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee red light running crash, you owe it to yourself and your family to contact an experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer like those that you will find at Phillip Miller & Associates. Call for a free consultation so that you can learn about your rights and remedies.

Hit & Run Victim

An 18-year-old Nashville woman, the victim of a Hit & Run crash involving a tractor-trailer, is lucky to be alive today. The collision happened at the intersection of I-40 and I-24, when the woman in her Mini-Cooper entered I-24 and was rammed and pushed for some distance by the speeding tractor-trailer before he ran her off of the road and into a steel guardrail.

Numerous witnesses stopped to help the young woman but the truck driver sped away like the coward he/she is. 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 Nashville hit & run driver recovering damages for your loss can be a tricky proposition and you will need an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney to help you protect your rights. At Phillip Miller & Associates we can help you.

Road Rager Kills Wife

A great drama played out in a Tennessee courtroom this past week as a road rager husband, previously convicted of voluntary manslaughter, vehicular homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated child neglect and felony reckless endangerment, was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.

The man, in an angry rage, chased his wife with his vehicle and at high speeds he rammed the rear-end of her SUV and forced her off the road, the SUV rolled and she was ejected and killed. Her passenger was seriously injured. The couple’s oldest son, who was 11-years-old was a passenger in his father’s vehicle, witnessed this outrageous act and the death of his mother. In a letter to the court, the convicted man admitted he made “poor decisions”, but refused to take responsibility for the death of his wife. He didn’t say who he thought was responsible.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving as, “when individuals commit a combination of moving traffic offenses so as to endanger other persons or property.” Some other communities define aggressive driving as “the operation of a motor vehicle involving three or more moving violations as part of a single continuous sequence of driving acts, which is likely to endanger any person or property.”

To avoid conflict with the term road rage, departments should clearly identify that issue and train their officers to use the correct terminology during the program as well as during traffic stops and public information opportunities. Road rage differs from aggressive driving. It is a criminal offense and is “an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon by the operator or passenger(s) of one motor vehicle on the operator or passenger(s) of another motor vehicle or is caused by an incident that occurred on a roadway.”

If you or a loved one are injured or killed by a Tennessee road rager contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies.

Twin Fatalities

Two Sweetwater, Tennessee residents, twin sisters, were killed in an accident at around 9:30 Saturday night on Old Highway 68 at the Sands Road intersection in Madisonville.

According to a report in local media sources, the 68-year-old woman was driving a 2002 Chevrolet Tracker and failed to stop at a stop sign. A pickup truck driven by a 60-year-old man from Madisonville, Tennessee, slammed into the passenger side of her Chevrolet Tracker, killing both women,

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.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Nashville automobile accident, contact the experienced Nashville auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation.

A Gleason, Tennessee woman was killed and three child passengers were injured when she was ejected as her car rolled over into a ditch. Police officials say the 38-year-old driver was not wearing her seat belt when she drove off of the road, over-corrected and rolled over.

Her passengers, a 16-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy were injured in the wreck. This tragedy brings to mind several important issues of highway safety. The first and most obvious, what distraction caused the driver to drift off of the roadway creating the need to over-correct? The second, this woman may well have survived had she taken the few seconds to buckle-up her seat belt.

Although the local media outlet didn’t mention it, I would bet that the children were belted in, and they survived because of it. Tennessee law requires the use of seat belts. An overwhelming number of studies show that seat belts, when used correctly, save lives. Seat belts help prevent injury by preventing ejection.

As in this incident, ejection greatly increases the chance of death or serious injury. The chance of being killed in a crash by being ejected from a vehicle is one in eight.  Safety belts virtually eliminate ejection.  The belted driver stays inside the car and is better protected from injury.

For this and other Tennessee highway safety tips, visit the website of the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates.

Child Safety Seats Save Lives

As an experienced automobile accident and safety attorney part of my goal with this Blog is to keep drivers up to date about Tennessee highway safety issues. I often write about issues involving children and child safety seats and today’s Blog is about new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

New guidelines for parents say children should ride in rear-facing car seats longer, until they are 2 years old instead of 1.  And some kids should ride in booster seats until age 12.

Both organizations say older children who’ve outgrown front-facing car seats should ride in child booster seats until the lap-shoulder belt fits them. Booster seat or not, children younger than 13 should ride in the back seat. The advice is based on evidence from crashes. For older children, poorly fitting seat belts can cause abdominal and spine injuries in a crash.

Child safety seats reduce fatal injury by 71 percent for infants (less than 1 year old) and by 54 percent for toddlers (1 to 4 years old) in passenger cars. Young children restrained in child safety seats have an 80 percent lower risk of fatal injury than those who are unrestrained.

Tennessee was the first state in the country to pass a Child Passenger Protection Law requiring children to be restrained in child safety seats (car seats and booster seats).

A.  A child under one year old, or any child weighing less than 20 pounds, must be in a child passenger restraint system (car seat) that is facing the rear of the car.

B. Children who are one through three years old, and who weigh more than 20 pounds, must be in a child passenger restraint system that is facing forward.

C. Children who are four through eight years old and whose height is under four feet, nine inches, must be in a belt positioning booster seat system (child booster car seat) and wearing a seatbelt.

These seats should be in the rear seat of the car, if possible. The children can’t make the decision to protect themselves, this is the legal responsibility of the parents. It is also the responsibility of the parents to teach by example.  If you are driving and witness a parent driving without having their child properly restrained it is your duty to notify the authorities. Call 911 is you are in an urban area and *847 in a rural area. Make the call and save a child’s life.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee highway automobile accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident law firm of Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies