Don't Get Too Busy

I have been sitting on this story for a couple of days now and I can’t seem to get a handle on it. A woman was parked outside a South Nashville Laundromat waiting for her boyfriend to empty a couple of dryers. Apparently he was not progressing fast enough so she decided to help him. Trouble was, she had four children in the car, which she left running while she went inside.

You guessed it, a running car just sitting there, no adult in sight, and a guy comes along and sees a great opportunity to snag a new SUV, maybe make some money, or maybe he was just tired of walking. Did I mention she left her purse opened on the front seat? He quickly forced the two older kids out of the car and then he took off with two babies, a 3-year-old and an eleven-month-old in car seats.

Luckily for everyone involved, except the car thief, a stranger saw they event go down and followed the vehicle and found it three miles from the Laundromat. The kids were safe, her money from the purse was missing and the whole thing had a happy ending.

The lesson here is simple, always think of your children’s safety first. Leaving your children alone in a running vehicle can have all sorts of bad outcomes and car theft is not the worst of them. Over the several decades that I have been a personal injury lawyer I have seen cases where one of the older children got behind the wheel, changed gears and the vehicle lurched forward into an intersection where it was t-boned and the two children were killed.

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.

Nashvile Child Back-Over Accidents

As a Nashville automobile accident attorney with decades of experience I have seen children killed or injured in all sorts of traffic accidents. Today I’d like to address and important aspect of child safety; the back-over accident.

You place your children’s safety at the top of your priority list. You shopped for the safest car when you started a family. You read up on car seats for kids and figured out which one worked best for you and your family. You even took your car and car seat to a seat-checking station to let an expert check and approve of your handiwork.

But did you know there are other dangers in and around your vehicle that could seriously harm or even kill your child? Many children are killed or seriously injured in backover incidents. A back-over incident typically occurs when a car coming out of a driveway or parking space backs over a child because the driver did not see him/her.

To protect your child and assure their safety try these techniques:

• Teach children not to play in or around cars
• Supervise children carefully when in and around vehicles
• Always walk around your vehicle and check the area around it before backing up.
• Be aware of small children-the smaller a child, the more likely it is you will not see them.
• Teach children to move away from a vehicle when a driver gets in it or if the car is started.
• Have children in the area stand to the side of the driveway or sidewalk so you can see them as you are backing out of a driveway or parking space.
• Make sure to look behind you while backing up slowly in case a child dashes behind your vehicle unexpectedly.
• Take extra care if you drive a large vehicle because they are likely to have bigger blind zones. Roll down your windows while backing out of your driveway or parking space so that you’ll be able to hear what is happening outside of your vehicle.
• Teach your children to keep their toys and bikes out of the driveway.
• Because kids can move unpredictably, you should actively check your mirrors while backing up.
• Many cars are equipped with detection devices like backup cameras or warning sounds, but they cannot take the place of you actively walking around your car to make sure your children are safely out of the way. Do not rely solely on these devices to detect what’s behind your vehicle.

You can find these and other important traffic tips at the website of the full service Tennessee automobile accident law firm of Phillip Miller & Associates. Check out the site and learn the things you need to understand if you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Nashville automobile accident.

2-Yea-Old Pedestrian

As an experienced Tennessee auto accident lawyer I regularly write about child safety. The main topics are usually safety seats and school zone safety. Today I want to talk about another important topic under the heading of child safety, and that is unattended children playing near public streets and highways.

In 2008, an estimated 69,000 pedestrians were injured, 13,000 of those injured were age 14 and younger, and males accounted for 52 percent (7,000) of those 13,000 injured.

Reference a story from the web site of WBIR TV in Knoxville Tennessee in which a 2-year-old girl was crossing the street when she was hit by a car. The girl was treated at a local hospital and suffers from non-life threatening injuries to her head and foot. The driver and passenger of the car were questioned by investigators and released. Investigators say that the investigation is ongoing.

Now I don’t know anything more than I read in the article but it occurs to me that 2-year-olds playing outside in a non-fenced area where traffic is present should have parental supervision.

The stories and situations mentioned on this blog are for informational purposes only. Phillip Miller & Associates does not claim to represent any party referenced in this post. This blog exists to raise public awareness of the very real dangers we face every day and to serve as a central location where information and opinions can be exchanged with regard to the way that the incidents described in these Blogs are impacted by Tennessee law.

Child Safety

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I have spent several blogs over the last few days addressing issues of child safety. In my Blog, The Tennessee Auto Accident Attorney,  I have spoken to child pedestrian accidents and child safety seat statistics so today I would like to address two other types of child safety issues that are not regularly addressed.

Approximately 2500 children aged 1 to 14 years of age are treated in emergency rooms every year for non-fatal backover injuries. Nearly 50% of the children injured in backover incidents were1 to 5 years old, and  55% were males. Most backover injuries and deaths occurred at either home or in driveways or parking lots. These accidents are caused by adults who act in a negligent manner by failing to secure their children. There is very little that traffic authorities can do to protect the children.

Another major child safety issue and one that carries criminal penalties is the deadly area of heat-related incidents. Summertime temperatures in a parked vehicle with the windows rolled up can reach well over 130 degrees and children left inside a parked vehicle can lose consciousness and die in a very short period of time. Hyperthermia deaths to children left in closed vehicles average approximately 36 per year.

A child’s body does not have the same internal temperature control as an adult’s, and can warm three times to five times faster. Heatstroke occurs when the body core temperature reaches 104 degrees F, and a body core temperature of 107 degrees F is usually fatal. Within 10 minutes, the inside temperature of a vehicle will be almost 20 degrees hotter than the outside temperature, after 30 minutes the vehicle’s temperature will be 34 degrees hotter

If you witness a child left unattended in a closed vehicle in summer weather immediately call 911 in an urban area and in a rural area of Tennessee dial *847 and warn police. You may save the life of an innocent child. Child safety is an adult issue. We have to teach our children the dangers of playing in or near the streets, and it is our responsibility to see that they are safely buckled in safety seats. When we are driving we must always remember that we have a child on board and we must act accordingly.

For more helpful information from an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney check out the website of Phillip Miller & Associates, the things you learn there may save a life.

Watch Out For Children During Winter Weather

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I regularly find that it is important when talking about highway safety to restate the obvious. With freezing temperatures comes a host of new problems for Tennessee drivers. In another Blog I’ll address ice and snow issues, but today I would like to discuss child safety. Schools are in recess all over Tennessee and kids are out playing in the snow, and just doing what kids do when they are outside. Please be on the look out for kids playing and especially sledding.

Reference an article on the website of WBIR-TV in Knoxville about a 14-year-old who was sledding on a trash bag in a residential neighborhood at dusk when he slid into the road into the path of a pick-up truck. The street was a sheet of ice and the driver attempted to stop but to no avail. The teen was dragged for a short distance. At the time of the article there was no word on his condition.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008, there were nearly 61 million children age 14 and younger in the United States. This age group made up 20 percent of the total U.S. resident population in 2008. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for ages 3 to 14. In 2008, there were a total of 37,261 traffic fatalities in the United States.

Every day in the United States, an average of 4 children age 14 and younger were killed and 529 were injured in motor vehicle accidents during 2008. There were a total of 4,378 pedestrian fatalities in 2008, of which the 14-and- younger age group made up 18.8%.

In a time of hazardous weather it is even more important for Tennessee drivers to avoid distractions and stay off the roads unless it’s absolutely necessary. If you or a child in your family is injured or killed in a Nashville automobile accident in hazardous weather contact the experienced Tennessee accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Keep Car Keys Out Of The Hands Of Children

I read an interesting story from the Nashville Tennessean the other day about a wrecked truck ending up in the backyard of a Nashville woman. It appears that when the woman returned home from work she found a pick-up truck in her yard that had damaged a brick retaining wall and had crushed her BBQ pit.

The interesting thing about this story is that the driver of the truck was a 5-year old neighbor boy. It appears that the joy-ride was short-lived and included a drive through another neighbors yard leaving deep tire marks before it crashed and became stuck on the BBQ pit. The report went on to say that this was not the first time this child had taken a cruise in his father’s truck.

When, as experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys, we talk about child vehicle safety we usually focus on issues of safety for child pedestrians and safety measures for securing children in moving vehicles. This story dramatizes another safety issue that doesn’t often arise but can lead to death and serious injury and property damage and that is the issue of  keeping the car keys out of the hands of children. In this case in particular it appears that the parents of this boy had prior warning that he will, if given the chance, climb into the vehicle and take it for an adventure. Child safety is the responsibility of the parents and we need to be ever vigilant to those issues.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville car crash contact our experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.