He Was Only 20-Years-Old

I hate to sound like a broken record but the Tennessee roadway departure crashes just keep on coming. Is anyone in our political leadership paying attention? It doesn’t appear that they are. A 20-year-old man was killed early this morning when the car he was driving caught on fire after the vehicle left a Tipton County road and hit a culvert.

The accident occurred about 4 AM when the driver lost control of his vehicle, left the roadway, went into a ditch, slammed into a driveway culvert, burst into flames and burned to death. A horrible way to die. My prayers go out to the family and friends of this young man. I hope they find the answers to the many questions they will have.

Many questions arise; why did he leave the roadway? Was he distracted, did he fall asleep, was he speeding, did he consume alcohol or drugs, was he talking or texting on his cell phone? Investigators may or may not be able to determine the cause, an autopsy will answer several of the questions and his cell phone records will answer others.

One question this investigation won’t answer, and question is, when are the political leadership of this state going to step up and do something about this deadly epidemic of roadway departure crashes? Is anyone listening out there?

If you or a loved is injured or killed in a Tennessee roadway departure crash you owe it to your self to contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Put The Phones Down

Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death in the United States for 3- to 34-year-olds. Crashes are among the top three causes of death throughout a person’s lifetime.  They also are the No. 1 cause of work-related death. Annually, more U.S. soldiers are killed in crashes in privately-owned vehicles than all other Army ground accidents combined.

Each year since 1994, between 39,000 and 46,000 people have been killed in motor vehicle crashes. That’s more than 650,000 lives lost during the past 15 years. It includes people inside and outside of vehicles, as well as motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians who were struck by vehicles. There are activities people tend to think are riskier than driving, such as flying in an airplane, but consider this: The lives lost on U.S. roadways each year are equivalent to the lives that would be lost from a 100-passenger jet crashing every day of the year.

In addition to the thousands of fatalities, many more people suffer serious life-changing injuries in motor vehicle crashes. More than 2.2 million injuries resulted from vehicle crashes in 2008. To reduce this toll, prevention must focus on the top factors associated with crashes. Driver distractions have joined alcohol and speeding as leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes.

The National Safety Council estimates 25 percent of all crashes in 2008 involved talking on cell phones – accounting for 1.4 million crashes and 645,000 injuries that year. Cell phone use has grown dramatically over the past 15 years. In 1995, cell phone subscriptions covered only 13 percent of the U.S. population; by 2009, that had grown to 91 percent.

It’s up to you and each of you to get real about the danger of this “convenience” we have come to rely on. When you are talking on the cell phone while driving you are not only putting your life in danger but also the lives of every other driver and pedestrian in your path. Put down the phone and focus on the task at hand. Stay alive and don’t kill anyone.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a driver under the influence of a cell phone contact the experienced Nashville auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Teen Cell Phone Use Behind The Wheel

One of the things an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney must do is to keep up on the latest trends and studies on highway traffic safety. I recently read an interesting article outlining a study done by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and State Farm Insurance Co. relating to teaching your children the positive and negative benefits of using their cell phones when they drive.

This research indicates that adults should emphasize with teens the positive effects of staying off the phone while driving, rather than highlight potential negative consequences of cell phone use while driving.

Teens in the study were asked to share the positive and negative effects of refraining from cell phone use while driving.  When asked, teens that seldom use cell phones while driving tended to cite positive motivators.  Teens that frequently use cell phones while driving tended to refer most to the drawbacks of not using a cell phone while driving.  In comparing the two groups, the findings showed that positive messages outweighed negative messages in breaking through with teens on cell phone practices while driving.

Experienced Tennessee auto accident lawyers and professional highway safety experts agree that parents play a key role in helping teens become good drivers. Parents should not rely solely on drivers education classes to teach good driving habits and should restrict night driving, restrict the numbers of passengers riding with their teen, supervise practice driving, always require use of seat belts and choose vehicles for safety, not image. Parents can also set a good example by practicing safe driving techniques themselves.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee auto accident caused by a teen driver using a cell phone contact the experienced Nashville auto accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation.

As an experienced and dedicated Nashville automobile accident attorney, I try to keep my readers up-to-date on the newest information on driving safety. As I’ve mentioned before on several occasions studies shoe that talking on a cell phone, whether hand-held or hands-free makes a driver as impaired as if they had a blood alcohol level of .04. There is a definite trend toward banning cell phone use while driving. The use of all cell phones while driving a school bus is prohibited in 19 states and the District of Columbia. The use of all cell phones by novice drivers is restricted in 28 states and the District of Columbia.

A jurisdiction-wide ban on driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone is in place in 9 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) and the District of Columbia. Utah has named the offense careless driving. Under the Utah law, no one commits an offense when speaking on a cell phone unless they are also committing some other moving violation other than speeding.

Local jurisdictions may or may not need specific state statutory authority to ban cell phones. Localities that have enacted restrictions on cell phone use include: Oahu, HI; Chicago, IL; Brookline, MA; Detroit, MI; Santa Fe, NM; Brooklyn, North Olmstead, and Walton Hills, OH; Conshohocken, Lebanon, and West Conshohocken, PA; Waupaca County, WI; and Cheyenne, WY.

Text messaging is banned for all drivers in 30 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, novice drivers are banned from texting in 8 states (Alabama, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia) and school bus drivers are banned from text messaging in 2 states (Oklahoma, and Texas).

For more information about this and many other driver safety issues contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates.

http://www.iihs.org/laws/cellphonelaws.aspx

A tragic tractor-trailer fatality occurred yesterday morning near Caryville Tennessee when the trucker was unable to bring his truck to a stop as he encountered traffic stopped for another accident. The tractor-trailer clipped a pickup truck, ran through a guardrail and plunged 1000 feet over a cliff. The driver was ejected even though he had on his seat belt.

In Tennessee a driver must always be on the defensive, always thinking about what other drivers might do and be prepared to respond with proper reactions. Drivers must know and understand safe and proper braking procedures for the vehicles they drive. This includes the principles of adequate following distances.

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.

I have only read the media reports of this accident but under most circumstances a trucker should be able to see far enough ahead to see the problems ahead, unless he was distracted by something. Cell phones and texting are the number one offenders when it comes to distracted driving. Investigators will most probably find phone records that will indicate that he was on the phone when he should have been keeping a lookout ahead.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile tractor-trailer accident accident caused by a negligent Trucker, contact the experienced Nashville tractor-trailer accident attorneys at the Nashville law firm of Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Driving Under The Influence of Cell Phone

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I think that it is important to provide the folloeing information to my readers. Please take not. Or, as those of you who have taken Latin, “Note Bene”.

Three years after the preliminary results first were presented at a scientific meeting and drew wide attention, University of Utah psychologists have published a study showing that motorists who talk on handheld or hands-free cellular phones are as impaired as drunken drivers.

“We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit” of 0.08 percent, which is the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S. states, says study co-author Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology. “If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving.”

Psychology Professor David Strayer, the study’s lead author, adds: “Just like you put yourself and other people at risk when you drive drunk, you put yourself and others at risk when you use a cell phone and drive. The level of impairment is very similar.”

“Clearly the safest course of action is to not use a cell phone while driving,” concludes the study by Strayer, Drews and Dennis Crouch, a research associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology. The study was set for publication June 29 in the summer 2006 issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

The study reinforced earlier research by Strayer and Drews showing that hands-free cell phones are just as distracting as handheld cell phones because the conversation itself – not just manipulation of a handheld phone – distracts drivers from road conditions.

Human Factors Editor Nancy J. Cooke praised the study: “Although we all have our suspicions about the dangers of cell phone use while driving, human factors research on driver safety helps us move beyond mere suspicions to scientific observations of driver behavior.”

The study first gained public notice after Strayer presented preliminary results in July 2003 in Park City, Utah, during the Second International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training and Vehicle Design. It took until now for the study to be completed, undergo review by other researchers and finally be published.

Key Findings: Different Driving Styles, Similar Impairment

Each of the study”s 40 participants “drove” a PatrolSim driving simulator four times: once each while undistracted, using a handheld cell phone, using a hands-free cell phone and while intoxicated to the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level after drinking vodka and orange juice. Participants followed a simulated pace car that braked intermittently.

Both handheld and hands-free cell phones impaired driving, with no significant difference in the degree of impairment. That “calls into question driving regulations that prohibited handheld cell phones and permit hands-free cell phones,” the researchers write.

The study found that compared with undistracted drivers:

• Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car. All were talking on cell phones. None were drunk.
• Drivers drunk at the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level drove a bit more slowly than both undistracted drivers and drivers using cell phones, yet more aggressively. They followed the pace car more closely, were twice as likely to brake only four seconds before a collision would have occurred, and hit their brakes with 23 percent more force. “Neither accident rates, nor reaction times to vehicles braking in front of the participant, nor recovery of lost speed following braking differed significantly” from undistracted drivers, the researchers write.

“Impairments associated with using a cell phone while driving can be as profound as those associated with driving while drunk,” they conclude.

Are Drunken Drivers Really Less Accident-Prone than Cell Phone Users?

Drews says the lack of accidents among the study’s drunken drivers was surprising. He and Strayer speculate that because simulated drives were conducted during mornings, participants who got drunk were well-rested and in the “up” phase of intoxication. In reality, 80 percent of all fatal alcohol-related accidents occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. when drunken drivers tend to be fatigued. Average blood-alcohol levels in those accidents are twice 0.08 percent. Forty percent of the roughly 42,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities involve alcohol.

While none of the study’s intoxicated drivers crashed, their hard, late braking is “predictive of increased accident rates over the long run,” the researchers wrote.

One statistical analysis of the new and previous Utah studies showed cell phone users were 5.36 times more likely to get in an accident than undistracted drivers. Other studies have shown the risk is about the same as for drivers with a 0.08 blood-alcohol level.

Strayer says he expects criticism “suggesting that we are trivializing drunken-driving impairment, but it is anything but the case. We don’t think people should drive while drunk, nor should they talk on their cell phone while driving.”

Drews says he and Strayer compared the impairment of motorists using cell phones to drivers with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level because they wanted to determine if the risk of driving while phoning was comparable to the drunken driving risk considered unacceptable.

“This study does not mean people should start driving drunk,” says Drews. “It means that driving while talking on a cell phone is as bad as or maybe worse than driving drunk, which is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated by society.”

University of Utah Cell Phone Research

Previous research by Strayer, Drews and colleagues include:

• A 2001 study showing that hands-free cell phones are just as distracting as handheld cell phones.
• A 2003 study showing that the reason is “inattention blindness,” in which motorists look directly at road conditions but don’t really see them because they are distracted by a cell phone conversation. And such drivers aren’t aware they are impaired.
• A 2005 study suggesting that when teenagers and young adults talk on cell phones while driving, their reaction times are as slow as those of elderly drivers.

The University of Utah psychologists conducted the alcohol study because a 1997 study by other researchers evaluated the cell phone records of 699 people involved in motor vehicle accidents and found one-fourth of them had used their phone in the 10 minutes before their accident – a four-fold increase in accidents compared with undistracted motorists.

Those researchers speculated there was a comparable risk from drunken driving and cell phone use while driving. So Strayer and Drews conducted a controlled laboratory study.

The study included 25 men and 15 women ages 22 to 34 who were social drinkers (three to five drinks per week) recruited via newspaper advertisements. Two-thirds used a cell phone while driving. Each participant was paid $100 for 10 hours in the study.

The driving simulator has a steering wheel, dashboard instruments and brake and gas pedals from a Ford Crown Victoria sedan. The driver is surrounded by three screens showing freeway scenes. Each simulated daylight freeway drive lasted 15 minutes. The pace car intermittently braked to mimic stop-and-go traffic. Drivers who fail to hit their brakes eventually rear-end the pace car. Other simulated vehicles occasionally passed in the left lane, giving the impression of steady traffic flow.

Each study participant drove the simulator during three sessions – undistracted, drunk or talking to a research assistant on a cell phone – each on a different day.

The simulator recorded driving speed, following distance, braking time and how long it would take to collide with the pace car if brakes were not used.

The study was funded by a $25,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration – which is interested in impaired attention among pilots – and by Strayer’s and Drews’ salaries. The Utah Highway Patrol loaned the researchers a device to measure blood-alcohol levels.

Driving while Distracted: A Growing Problem

The researchers cited figures from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association indicating that more than 100 million U.S. motorists use cell phones while driving. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that at any given moment during daylight hours, 8 percent of all drivers are talking on a cell phone.

“Fortunately, the percentage of drunk drivers at any time is much lower,” Drews says. “So it means the risk of talking on a cell phone and driving is probably much higher than driving intoxicated because more people are talking on cell phones while driving than are driving drunk.” The main reason there are not more accidents is that “92 percent of drivers are not on a cell phone and are compensating for drivers on cell phones,” he adds.

Cell phone use is far from the only distraction for motorists. The researchers cite talking to passengers, eating, drinking, lighting cigarettes, applying makeup and listening to the radio as the “old standards” of driver distraction.

“However, over the last decade many new electronic devices have been developed, and they are making their way into the vehicle,” the researchers write. “Drivers can now surf the Internet, send and receive e-mail or faxes, communicate via a cellular device and even watch television. There is good reason to believe that some of these new multitasking activities may be substantially more distracting than the old standards because they are more cognitively engaging and because they are performed over longer periods of time.”

Other studies by Strayer and colleagues on cell phones and driving may be downloaded from: http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a drunk driver or one using a cell phone contact the experienced Nashville auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies

As an experienced Nashville auto accident lawyer when a driver pulls out into the path of an oncoming ambulance, lights flashing, sirens engaged, you have to ask yourself, what in the world was the driver doing that so distracted them from the task at hand. In Tennessee you must yield the right-of-way to a police vehicle, fire engine, ambulance or other emergency vehicle using a siren, air horn or a red or blue flashing light.

Reference a Rutherford County Tennessee accident in which the car driver did exactly that. I suspect that when investigators look carefully at the cell phone and texting records of this grossly negligent driver they are going to find that this driver was engrossed in the electronic world and absent without leave from the world of the highways and byways of Tennessee. The ambulance rolled over and four people were taken to the hospital. Luckily no one was seriously injured.

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.

Distracted

If you or someone you love has been hurt in a serious Tennessee car accident due to somebody else’s negligence, then you may be feeling angry, frightened, or even alone in your suffering.

There is no reason for you to bear your burden alone.  The experience of a Tennessee auto accident is traumatic enough and your recovery will bring its own challenges.  You don’t need the added stress of worrying about who will pay for the medical care you need, how your car will be repaired, and if the individuals responsible for your suffering will be brought to justice.  This is the time to call Phillip Miller & Associates, the law firm of local Tennessee attorneys and staff who for the past 25 years have dedicated their lives to protecting the rights of injured men, women, and children in Tennessee.

In Part Three, I’d like to address another important factor in enhancing your teenagers driver education experience. Engaging your teen in safe driving is the first step in protecting him from harm, and talking with your adult peers is another important step to raise awareness and drive change. The following are some ideas for discussing the issue with other parents:

* Talk to the parents of your teen’s friends about the rules they have for their teen driver and share your rules as well – an easy way to gather effective resources. It’s just as important to discuss teen driving rules with fellow parents as it is to discuss rules you have regarding teen parties, alcohol use and curfew.

* Convince parents in your community to commit to a common set of driving rules that they’ll enforce. It’s much easier to be an effective parent when you have the support of other parents in your community.

* Find out how other parents respond when their teen violates their family’s driving rules. Ask them how they’ve handled situations that you have found challenging. Parents often gain useful advice from each other.

* Discuss how best to coach teens on what to say when they’re passengers in a car that they think is being driven unsafely.

* Talk to other parents about how to respond if they discover that one of their teen’s friends who has been driving has also been drinking. Give each other the authority to take the teen’s car keys and call the teen’s parents, call a taxi or allow the teen to sleep over. Agree that you’ll never permit a teen to leave your house and drive if you suspect that he has been drinking.

* The next time your school organizes a meeting or back-to-school night for parents of teens, be sure the topic of teen driving is on the agenda.

* Organize a parent discussion at your teen’s school about your state’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) requirements to help parents of teen drivers in your community learn the law. Consider inviting a representative from your local police to explain the regulations and how they’re enforced where you live.

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney i hope the last three blogs have been helpful to the parents of teen drivers. If you need more information check out my website at Phillip Miller & Associates or any of the following web sites:

http://www.saferoads.org/

http://www.aaafoundation.org

http://vtti.vt.edu

http://usa.safekids.org

http://fmcsa.dot.gov/

http://autosafety.org/

http://www.carcrash.org/

http://www.madd.org

http://www.stopimpaireddriving.org

Impaired By Cell Phone

Three years ago researchers at the University of Utah released preliminary results of their study of the impairment level of drivers using cell phone. This past month the final report has been released. The report shows that motorists who talk on handheld or hands-free cellular phones are as impaired as drunken drivers.

“We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit” of 0.08 percent, which is the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S. states, says study co-author Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology. “If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving.”

Psychology Professor David Strayer, the study’s lead author, adds: “Just like you put yourself and other people at risk when you drive drunk, you put yourself and others at risk when you use a cell phone and drive. The level of impairment is very similar.”

As an experienced Nashville auto accident lawyer the report clearly shows that the best approach to take is to totally avoid using your cell phone, hands on or hands free, while you are driving. If you or a loved one is seriously injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a driver under the influence of a cell phone you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Nashville car accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Teen Fatalities

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney my professional life is all about highway safety. When I’m at a social event I am regularly asked by parents about what they can do to help their children become safer drivers. My advice is, first and foremost, don’t delay the conversation.

Research shows that many parents delay talking about driving safety until their children are “permit age” (generally 15) much later than they talk to them about other issues like smoking, drugs, sex. Given the potential deadliness of unsafe driving, parents should initiate the dialog about safe driving sooner certainly by the junior high years and maintain an ongoing dialogue. Following are some tips for starting this discussion:

* Celebrate the accomplishment of getting a drivers license. Getting a license is a big step in the life of a teen; seize the opportunity to acknowledge this accomplishment and your teen’s growing independence, while pointing out the responsibility that comes with the privilege of driving.

* Don’t stop talking about driving once they have their licenses. Don’t succumb to the “well, you just have to let them go and hope you raised them right” philosophy of parenting once they are actually on the road. Find ways to keep the conversation active, especially during the first critical months after they begin to drive on their own.

* Make your talks a dialog about driving. Remember: teens are excited about driving itself – it’s a fun topic for them. So don’t turn your talks into lectures; instead, make them open dialogs that show you understand the positive side of getting behind the wheel, and let your teens share their views and experiences at the same time.

* Speak to their desire to be smart. As we have learned in our research, being a “safe driver” is not something teens aspire to become. Smart driving, on the other hand, combines skill and safety, and is something teens can attain.

* Be Parental. Express Your Authority. Your teens want to know your values and expect you to provide structure for them. They need you to be a parent, not another friend. Provide guidelines that you require they follow. And, consistently enforce your guidelines. If your teen violates your guidelines, deliver on consequences!  Though taking away the driving privilege for a period of time might not be convenient for you, it might end up saving your teen’s life.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a teen driver contact the experienced Tennessee car accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.