Drinking Driver

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I try to keep my readers up to date on new information on highway traffic safety. New data recently released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that one in ten drivers reported having driven when they thought that their alcohol level might have been close to or possibly over the legal limit within the past 12 months, and just over half of those (5.5 percent of all drivers) reported having done this more than once within the past 12 months.

The AAA Foundation’s study also found that nine out of ten Americans support requiring all drivers who have been convicted of DWI more than once to use a device that won’t let their car start if they have been drinking. And, 69 percent of Americans support requiring all drivers convicted of DWI, including first-time offenders, to use such a device.

Drunk drivers put everyone on the road in danger, especially during holiday season which often combines travel with multiple opportunities to consume alcohol. Driving is both a privilege and a responsibility. Exploring new technologies, such as interlocking devices, are important to ensuring public safety in conjunction with personal responsibility and law enforcement.”

Every alcohol-related fatality is preventable, and it is everyone’s responsibility to make the right decision before getting behind the wheel.

If you are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident we urge you to contact our 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 Kills

Whenever I read about a driver losing control of her SUV and flipping over before hitting something solid, I have to think speed was involved. When the driver or passenger, in the case in point a child , are ejected from the vehicle, I immediately think, and an investigation into this matter will probably determine, that they were not wearing their seat belts.

Lawrenceburg, Tennessee police are investigating a fatal accident that fits these facts. The ejected driver, an 18-year-old woman was killed and for some unknown reason the child passenger that was ejected was survived. My prayers go out the the family and friend of the deceased young woman as well as my prayers for a speedy recovery to the child and another passenger who were injured.

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. The lesson of this incident for all Nashville drivers is obvious, respect the streets and the other drivers. Speeding is a dangerous game and can end in death for the speeder, the driver and passengers of the other vehicles and for innocent pedestrians.

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 are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident we urge you to contact our 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.

Hit & Run

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney I would bet you the ranch that the driver of a red truck that hit a Bradley County Tennessee school bus and fled the scene was driving drunk, or without a driver’s license. The bus was for special needs children and fortunately no one was injured.

Each day, some 480,000 school buses transport more than 26 million children to and from school and school related activities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. An average of 19 school-age children die in school transportation-related traffic crashes each year – five occupants of school buses and 14 pedestrians. Most of those killed are children five to seven years old.

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 are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident 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.

Quick Response Saves Lives

I ran across an interesting article in the business section of a local Nashville media source the other day regarding a startup business that focus’s on quick notification to emergency responders in the event of an automobile accident. Most people are aware that this technology exists within several of the major car manufacturers and that they appear to work well.

The new business called SPLIT/SECND hopes to fill the niche created by the car manufacturers and bring automatic crash notification to every car on the road. According to the company there are 240 million cars on the road that aren’t covered by the manufacturers systems.

The hardware that is the center piece of their program is a small adaptor that plugs into the cigarette lighter. When the vehicle is involved in a collision the device notifies a call center that in turn contacts the driver and then the emergency responders.

Experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys understand that these devices won’t prevent collisions but we also know that how quickly emergency responders get notified and manage to arrive on the scene of an automobile accident can mean the difference between life and death.

If you or a loved one is seriously injured or killed in a Tennessee auto accident by a negligent driver contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Teen Girl Killed

A teenage girl was killed and two other people were injured Saturday night in a two-vehicle wreck on U.S. Highway 231 South just outside Murfreesboro. The 17-year-old suffered fatal injuries when the car she was riding in crashed into a tractor-trailer. The compact car in which she was a passenger made a left hand turn into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer

She was wearing her seatbelt but the driver wasn’t and he was transported to Vanderbilt Hospital, his condition is unknown at this time. Police have ruled out drinking and drugs as a contributing factor. It appears that the driver was distracted and not paying attention to the road ahead. My prayers go out to the family and friends of both of these two young people.

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 are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident we urge you to contact our 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.

One Died At The Scene The Other In Prison

In many jurisdictions around the country, Tennessee included, the people are well over people who drive drunk and injure or kill others. As an experienced Tennessee car accident lawyer I want to remind you that driving with a BAC of .08 or higher is illegal in every state. If you follow my Blog you will see that in Tennessee we continue to see a tragic number of people with debilitating injuries and deaths as a result of impaired driving. This careless disregard for human life must stop.

A recent article from a Louisville media source reports on the case of a 25-year0old man driving drunk when he made an illegal pass and rammed another car head-on killing a 48-year-old woman. The authorities have charged him with Murder. His decision to drink and drive was one that will cost him his life, behind bars. Wake up people and pay attention.

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. Over the 2008 Labor Day holiday, 12 people were killed in 10 fatal crashes on Tennessee roadways, down from 17 people killed on Tennessee roadways in 2007.

If you are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident we urge you to contact our 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.

Hit & Run Driver

When a Tennessee driver is involved in an automobile accident the law requires that he stay at the scene until released by emergency responders. An Elizabethton man was involved in a serious auto accident that left his passenger in critical condition and he ran off leaving his friend to fend for himself. He was speeding and driving at 1 AM without headlights. The passenger had not buckled in his seat belt.

The next day he turned himself in to authorities who charged him with aggravated assault, felony reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident involving death or injury.

The majority of cases of Hit & Run involve someone is a car hitting a pedestrian. This man added a different twist. 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 are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident we urge you to contact our 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.

Neck Strains Common In Car Accidents

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney the most common injury I  see in car accidents is the neck sprain, also referred to as hyperflexion. When two or more vehicles collide the occupants are jarred, the extent of which is determined by many different factors, but for our purposes let’s talk about a rear-end collision. The injury is commonly known as a “whiplash injury“.

I recently read an interesting and very informative article by Elizabeth Quinn in about.com. In the article she describes the cervical vertebrae which are connected to each other by ligaments and how, when in a whiplash situation, they are stretched or torn beyond their normal range of motion. She then goes on to describe the symptoms of a sprain, such as pain in the neck, especially on movement, muscle spasms in the nexk and upper back and shoulders, and headaches that center in the back of the head.

She makes an important point that is essential knowledge if you are in such a collision and that is, the pain is oft times delayed for 24 to 48 hours. This is why it is important to have yourself checked out by an MD or Chiropractor, even with light impact collisions. Follow their treatment plan and in most situations the pain and symptoms will subside in a month or so. Self diagnosis and treatment might miss a more serious injury and make it more difficult to treat successfully.

As an automobile accident attorney I want to reiterate, the pain and other symptoms may not manifest themselves for a day or so and you should not make any rash decision to settle your case or make any kind of statements about your condition until you have had the opportunity to see a doctor.

If you or a loved one sustains a neck sprain in a Nashville automobile collision contact our experienced Nashville auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associate

s and find out about your rights and remedies

Dangerous Drivers

Jordon Royce Pumphrey, 22, of Rogersville, Tennessee is a good example of why I counsel my readers to be constantly vigilant for the dangers lurking on the highways of Tennessee. It seems Mr. Pumphrey makes bad decisions, decisions that can be fatal to others who happen to cross his path. According to the Kingsport Times-News Mr. Pumphrey was arrested Saturday for DUI and drug charges. He was already awaiting trial and out on bond on felony charges for aggravated burglary and theft.

According to the article, police clocked Mr. Pumphrey driving 71 mph in a 55 mph zone all the while weaving erratically. During the conversation with the driver police noted that he seemed disoriented and he admitted to taking Lortab , a narcotic, for pain. While the police were sobriety testing him they noticed that he had something in his hands. That something turned out to be pills that he immediately popped into his mouth and swallowed.

Now, I’m no psychologist, but judging by his actions this night, I’d venture to say that there is something wrong with Mr. Pumphrey. As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I have spoken with many police officers from around the state and they tell me that there are thousands of people who fit into the same category as this man in every corner of the state.

So, how do we protect ourselves from people like this? The first thing we can do is for each of us to obey the Tennessee Rules of The Road so that the police can concentrate on these dangerous types. Obey the speed limit, stop at red lights and stop signs, yield the right of way and by all means, avoid distractions and pay attention to what you are doing when you are behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. If you see someone driving dangerously pull over and use your cell phone and call *847 and report the driver to the State Troopers. As individuals we also need to become involved in our community and, along with our friends and neighbors, make sure that our public officials know that we want them to do everything they can to keep these people off of the streets.

If you or a loved one is injured in an automobile accident contact our experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out everything you need to protect your rights and remedies.