Distracted Tennessee Driver Runs Stop Sign And Dies
Distracted Driver Runs Stop Sign
These days, drivers are faced with so many distractions both outside the car as well as devices inside the vehicle that are supposed to help us accomplish more tasks and save us time. Often other activities, including talking to your passengers, eating dinner, talking on the cell phone, adjusting the radio, lighting a cigarette take place behind the wheel. Experts estimate that drivers are doing something potentially distracting more than 15 percent of the time their vehicles are in motion. Multi-tasking is not our friend when we are driving on the highways and by-ways of Tennessee.
At a minimum you are: operating a piece of heavy machinery at high speed; navigating across changing terrain; calculating speeds and distances; and responding to all the other drivers and obstacles around you. Adding one more activity in the mix can be enough to make you lose control of your vehicle or fail to respond in an emergency.
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.
We will probably never know what Mr. Larry W. Lynch, 64, of Bethel Springs was doing when he failed to stop at a stop sign and drove his pickup truck directly into the path of a tractor-trailer at the intersection of Highway 45 and Hopkins Road. The tractor-trailer driver, Jesse L. Greene, 38, of Kenton, who was wearing his seatbelt, was injured in the wreck, the extent of his injuries were not reported in the article in the Jackson Sun. My sympathy goes out to the family and friends of Mr. Lynch and my hopes for a quick and complete recovery go out to Mr. Greene.
In the case of Mr. Green it’s critically important that he contact an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney because he has two important issues to deal with. He was probably an employee of the company for which he was driving so he has to go through the worker’s compensation issues and then he has to take a careful look at a personal claim against Mr. Lynch’s insurance carrier.
Think carefully about the statistics, 80% of all crashes are caused by a driver who was distracted within three seconds before the collision. This means that it up to us to keep our eyes and our minds on the task at hand when as we pilot a three thousand pound deadly weapon down the road. If you want to read some guidelines for becoming a safe driver, check out my blog of November 21, 2009.
If you or a loved one are injured in a Nashville automobile accident involving a distracted driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.
Phillip Miller is a Tennessee Accident Attorney specializing in
Phillip has an AVVO rating of 10.0 (Superb), has been designated as a “Superlawyer”, and is the President Elect of the Tennessee Association for Justice.
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