High Powered Motorcycle + Speed = Death

Combine a high-powered motorcycle, a sharp turn and high speed and the outcome isn’t going to come under the category of pretty. In what has come to be an all to familiar situation, a 37-year-old Nashville man was riding his 2005 Yamaha down Pettus Road when he failed to negotiate a curve and lost control. The man and the motorcycle landed on a concrete culvert.

As an experienced Tennessee motorcycle accident attorney I am concerned that while all other types of fatal crashes involving cars, trucks and pedestrians are on the decrease, motorcycle fatalities continue to rise. What lies at the cause of this phenomenon? Several things come to mind.

First of all manufacturers continue to make motorcycles bigger and faster. Sometimes known as “crotch rockets” these high-powered bikes require more skill and unfortunately anybody with the money or credit can buy one and without any specialized training, take to the highway.

As is the case here, motorcycles are more likely to be involved in a fatal collision with a fixed object than are other vehicles. In 2007, 25 percent of the motorcycles involved in fatal crashes collided with fixed objects, compared to 18 percent for passenger cars, 13 percent for light trucks, and 3 percent for large trucks.

Motorcycles made up nearly 3 percent of all registered vehicles in the United States in 2006 and accounted for only 0.4 percent of all vehicle miles traveled. Per vehicle mile traveled in 2006, motorcyclists were about 35 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a motor vehicle traffic crash and 8 times more likely to be injured.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee motorcycle accident caused by a careless motorcycle rider, contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

A Clarksville man finally finds out that he has to pay for his irresponsibility. The lesson not to drink and drive didn’t stick when he was first convicted of DUI. As the result of his failure to learn he left a 5-year-old girl with a torn trachea, torn colon and permanent damage to her spinal cord that has left her paralyzed from the chest down. I mean, 5-years-old and her life is irreparably changed.

The 25-year-old man was out with friends took drunk and ignored the pleading of friends for him not to drive. He convinced them that he could drive and took them up on the offer to follow him home. To the horror of his friends, he began to speed up and they dropped off when he reached speeds over 100-miles-per-hour. Moments later they were stunned as he crossed the centerline and slammed head-on into the vehicle carrying the child and her 20-year-old aunt. Our prayers go out to these two young women and their family and friends.

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. At a sentencing hearing this past week the man pleaded guilty to numerous charges and was sentenced to serve eight years in the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

If you or a loved one is involved in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a drunk driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies. Call 615-356-2000.

Prison For Drunk Driver

It's Big and Yellow and has Blinking Lights

A Memphis man, the driver of a Jeep Cherokee, told police he was distracted and didn’t see the emergency lights, or the stop sign on a huge yellow school bus, nor the hearing impaired child prior to striking the child. According to local media reports the driver of the school bus activated the red lights and stop sign at which time the 13-year-old left his driveway and proceeded to board the bus.

The young man suffered injuries to his head and was transported by ambulance to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. He is in critical but stable condition. Our prayers go out to him for a speedy and complete recovery.

He did not tell the police what had distracted him, but I’d bet a dollar to a donut he was using his cell phone. 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. Investigators will most probably review her cell phone records and find that she was engaged in a conversation with someone.

Come on people, it’s up to us to change the culture of distracted driving. Education is the first step and enforcement is the next. The distracted driver was charged with Failure to Maintain Control and Safe Lookout along with Overtaking and passing a school bus. Alcohol and speed were not factors in the accident.

If you or a loved one are involved in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a distracted driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies. Call 615-356-2000

Driving while drinking and not wearing your seatbelts is a recipe for disaster. I’m sure that the 49-year-old Dandridge Tennessee man who died in a one-vehicle roadway departure crash on Interstate 40 (mile marker 433) would agree if he had the opportunity to do it all over again, but in life, there are no do-overs. The passenger was not injured.

The four-door Honda was traveling eastbound on I-40 when the driver lost control, it crossed lanes and then went onto the shoulder before it went into an embankment and rolled several times. Both men were ejected from the car.

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 caused 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.

Governmental Negligence

Under the common law, governments were immune from lawsuits for some negligent actions of government employees, leaving injured parties with no recourse in the event of an injury. The Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act removes those restrictions. The Act applies to all local governmental entities, which are defined by T.C.A. § 29-20-102(3) to include any:

· Municipality;

· Metropolitan Government;

· County;

· Utility District;

· School District;

· Nonprofit Volunteer Fire Department receiving funds from a county or city;

· Human Resource Agency; and

· Development District.

The reason I bring this up is that I read a report in a local media source from Chattanooga that covered an incident in which seven vehicles crashed inside the Wilcox Tunnel. The cause of the crashes was identified as ice forming inside the traffic tunnel. Fortunately no one was injured but two of the vehicles were totaled.

How does the Act come into play, you ask? An experienced Nashville personal injury lawyer would ask a threshold questions: Did, or through the exercise of reasonable care, should agents of the city have known that this condition would occur? The next question is: If the traffic lane in the tunnel ices over is it foreseeable that When ice forms that vehicles will crash? And the final questions is; Knowing the danger, did the City act was with due care in remedying this problem?

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a negligent governmental official recovering damages can be a tricky proposition and that’s why, in cases like this, you need an experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyer to handle your case. The lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates have handled dozens of Governmental Tort cases over the years and can guide you skillfully through the process. Call 615-356-2000.

Teen Drivers

According to witnesses the facts are simple, a 2009 Pontiac G-3 Hatchback, driven by a 19 year old, made a left turn out of KFC’s parking lot, headed east on Madison Street, the vehicle hit a curb, left the roadway, and struck a utility pole. Any questions? Was he speeding or hot-rodding, or was he distracted by the other teens in the vehicle?

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney, I’d bet that he was hot-dogging, and because of his inexperience was unable to maintain control of the car. Fortunately the driver and three passengers were uninjured, but unfortunately, the bad news is that the 19-year-old passenger in the middle backseat, the one not wearing his seatbelt, slammed forward into the windshield and suffered serious head injuries.

Among experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorneys, the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), it is generally agreed that teen drivers have the highest crash risk of any age group. Per mile, the crash rate for 16 year-old drivers is 10 times the rate for drivers between 30 and 59. The basic reasons behind this statistic are obvious, teen drivers have no experience with the myriad issues faced by drivers with experience, furthermore, they are immature and often takes risks, most often speeding, and are easily distracted which contribute to the increased death rate.

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

Avoid Road Rage

Road rage isn’t something we usually find police officers involved in but an interesting story out of Knoxville seems to show that no one is immune if they don’t keep their emotions under control while driving. According the local media reports two off duty Oak Ridge police officers were pulling out of a local Waffle House and failed to yield to oncoming traffic. When the driver of the other car failed to allow them to cut him off the officers flipped him the bird, he flipped back.

When the two vehicle stopped at a stopped light the men jumped out of their car and approached the man’s car. He got out of his car and confronted the men when one of the police displayed a .40 cal. Glock handgun.  The man jumped back into his car and fled the scene, followed the car, took down it’s tag number and called 911. A witness also called 911 and described the men and their car.

Investigating officers stopped the men but no charges have been filed. The victim told local media that he intends to prosecute the off-duty police officers. The City of Oak Ridge needs to take action or lose the confidence of the people they are to protect and serve.

Many road rage incidents have resulted from drivers overreacting and allowing their egos to stand in the way of common sense and good judgment rather than safely reporting aggressive driving incidents. A simple display of common courtesy will often be appreciated and may even become contagious. Try it! It might work for you.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by an aggressive or raging driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out all about your rights and remedies.

Drunk, Drugged or Both?

It was 2 AM this past Saturday and a 38-year-old Lebanon, Tennessee man was driving the wrong way on State Route 840, an interstate like highway. Those facts alone tell this experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney that something was wrong with this driver and my first thought is that he was under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

Unfortunately for two innocent human beings, a 39-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man, this jerk slammed head-on into their vehicle and killed them both. Authorities will autopsy the man to determine if drugs or alcohol were present. I suspect that the tests will run to the positive side.

The principal concern regarding drugged driving is that driving under the influence of any drug that acts on the brain will impair one’s motor skills, reaction time, and judgment. Drugged driving is a public health concern because it puts not only the driver at risk, but also passengers and others who share the road.

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. Alcohol was a factor in 10,839 highway deaths in 2009. In the past two decades, it accounted for 268,442 deaths. And 10 percent of people in the United States recently admitted to being drunk behind the wheel in the past year.

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

Teen Driver Dies

Over the last several Blogs at “The Tennessee Auto Accident Attorney” we have talked about younger drivers and the hazards they face as the travel the highways and byways of Tennessee. As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney, I regularly speak to parents of teen drivers, and on every occasion I remind them that simply telling their children to act in a safe manner when they are behind the wheel, it is the duty of the parents to teach them by example.

One teen died and two others were injured in a single vehicle crash in Grundy County, Tennessee when a teen driver lost control of the car when she attempted to negotiate a curve. The car went off the left side of the road and hit a tree, according to local media reports. From the media report is impossible to say whether speed or distraction, or both were the cause of the crash.

I also share some sobering statistics. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of teen fatalities, accounting for 38% of all teen deaths in the United States. 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.

Most Americans typically learn to drive during the teen years, when the brain is not fully mature yet. Recent research is beginning to give us insight why many teens have difficulty regulating risk-taking behavior:

* The area of the brain that weighs consequences, suppresses impulses and organizes thoughts does not fully mature until about age 25.

* Hormones are more active in teens, which influence the brain’s neuro-chemicals that regulate excitability and mood. The result can be thrill-seeking behavior and experiences that create intense feelings.

Chances are, your community has been struck by a tragic accident involving a teenage friend, classmate or family member. Tennessee parents have an excellent resource available at the website of the National Safety Council. Check out http://teendriver.nsc.org/ for helpful tips and suggested study materials.

My experience investigating and trying Tennessee teen driver accident cases tells me that it is never too early to start training your child for the day he or she gets behind the wheel and you watch them drive off into the real world.

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

Yield To Emergency Vehicles

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney I regularly critique other drivers as I travel on the highways and byways of Tennessee.  One of the things that I observe on a regular basis is drivers who fail to yield to emergency vehicle. You know the guy, you pull over to yield to an ambulance and he whips around you to get ahead.

In Tennessee we have what is called the “Move Over Law” which is part of the “Failure To Yield To Emergency Vehicle” statute. In a nutshell, the law requires a driver to take certain actions when an emergency vehicle is present. The driver of every other vehicle shall yield the right-of-way and shall immediately drive to a position parallel to, and as close as possible to, the right-hand edge or curb of the roadway clear of any intersection, and shall stop and remain in such position until the authorized emergency vehicle has passed, except when otherwise directed by a police officer. A driver must also keep clear of any intersection in the event that the emergency vehicle needs to turn.

When the emergency vehicle is stationary, and off to the side of the roadway,  the driver shall proceedwith due caution, yield the right-of-way by making a lane change into a lane not adjacent to that of the authorized emergency vehicle, if possible with due regard to safety and traffic conditions, if on a highway having at least four (4) lanes with not less than two (2) lanes proceeding in the same direction as the approaching vehicle

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.