I noticed an interesting roadway departure crash (RDCs) in Nashville that occurred at 5 AM last Saturday. A Metro police cruiser was traveling east on I-40 near Donelson Pike when it drifted from the road, hit a guardrail, and flipped into a ditch. The officer was hospitalized and released with stitches.

Lately, in my blog, “The Tennessee Auto Accident Attorney “ I have commented that I am seeing a lot of these RDCs all across Tennessee. The articles in the local media are thin on facts and the police investigation is not completed, but for experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys we know that there are several types of things that cause these types of traffic events.

Driver Inattention

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. With all of the electronic devices in a modern police cruiser investigators will look into the officers activities in the moments just prior to the accident to determine whether the officer was distracted.

Drowsiness

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving “is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.” But among all the major factors that cause or contribute to crashes, like speeding, alcohol use, and weather situations, drowsiness is the most difficult for police and other crash investigators to detect and quantify.

Sleepiness and driving is a dangerous combination. Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving but don’t realize that drowsy driving can be just as fatal. Like alcohol, sleepiness slows reaction time, decreases awareness, impairs judgment and increases your risk of crashing. It’s nearly impossible to determine with certainty the cause of a fatal crash where drowsy driving is suspected. However, there are a number of clues at a crash scene that tell investigators that the person fell asleep at the wheel.  Unlike alcohol-related crashes, no blood, breath, or other objective test for sleepiness behind the wheel currently exists that investigators could give to a driver at the scene of a crash. This makes police training in identifying drowsiness as a crash factor very difficult.

Medical Emergency

Incidences of drivers who had crashes precipitated by their medical emergencies while driving are relatively rare and account for only 1.3 percent of all road fatalities. Older drivers have relatively higher incidences of crashes precipitated by drivers’ medical emergencies when compared to young and middle-age drivers. Drivers in crashes precipitated by medical emergencies were more likely than other drivers to be severely injured or to die as a result of the crash.

The lesson here for Tennessee drivers is that you must keep all of your attention on the act of driving and avoid distractions. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and learn about your rights and remedies.

Sleeping Drivers Kill

As the economy begins it’s recovery, one of the first signs will be the increasing numbers of tractor-trailers on the highways and byways of Tennessee.  As an experienced Tennessee tractor-trailer accident attorney , I have handled dozens of cases involving tractor-trailer wrecks on Interstate highways and when investigating these accidents, drowsiness or drivers falling asleep as a cause, are the hardest to prove, unless the driver survives.

However, there are a number of clues at a crash scene that tell investigators that the person fell asleep at the wheel. For example, drowsy driving accidents usually involve only one vehicle where the driver is alone and the injuries tend to be serious or fatal. Also, skid marks or evidence of other evasive maneuvers are usually absent from the drowsy driving crash scene.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving “is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.” But among all the major factors that cause or contribute to crashes, like speeding, alcohol use, and weather situations, drowsiness is the most difficult for police and other crash investigators to detect and quantify.

Sleepiness and driving is a dangerous combination. Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving but don’t realize that drowsy driving can be just as fatal. Like alcohol, sleepiness slows reaction time, decreases awareness, impairs judgment and increases your risk of crashing.

Reference an article on the website of Knoxville TV station WVLT which reports on two men injured in an early morning tractor trailer accident in East Knox County. In this case the driver and his driving partner survived the crash and he told investigators that he had fallen asleep and as he veered off the road he awoke and over-corrected causing the trailer to overturn. Thankfully no one was killed or seriously injured.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile tractor-trailer collision you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Tennessee tractor-trailer accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Roadway Departure Crash

Two Tennessee automobile accidents this past week caught my attention and brought to mind a subject I have been wanting to write about. The Jackson Sun from Jackson Tennessee reported on these accidents. They are both single car accidents, the first one involved a driver on US 412 who, according to witnesses, simply drove off of the right shoulder of the road, rolled over down an embankment. The driver was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown free of the vehicle and was killed.

The second accident happened on I-40 when the vehicle simply drove off the North side of the Westbound lane traveling 350 feet before hitting a tree, killing the driver.

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney we know that these crashes are referred to as “Roadway Departure Crashes” (RDCs). The Federal Highway Administration defines a RDC as a non-intersection crash that occurs when a vehicle crosses an edge line or a centerline, or otherwise leaves the traveled way.

According to the Federal Highway Administration roadway departure crashes are frequently severe and account for the majority of highway fatalities. In 2008, there were 19,794 fatal roadway departure crashes resulting in 22,080 fatalities, which was 53 percent of the fatal crashes in the United States. FHWA uses the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to compute statistics on roadway departure crashes.

What causes a driver to simply drive off of the road and crash their vehicle? The two main causes are drowsy and distracted driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving “is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.” But among all the major factors that cause or contribute to crashes, like speeding, alcohol use, and weather situations, drowsiness is the most difficult for police and other crash investigators to detect and quantify.

Sleepiness and driving is a dangerous combination. Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving but don’t realize that drowsy driving can be just as fatal. Like alcohol, sleepiness slows reaction time, decreases awareness, impairs judgment and increases your risk of crashing.

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.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a drowsy or distracted Tennessee driver you owe it to your self to contact the experienced Nashville accident and injury lawyers at Philip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Tennessee Car Crash

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I have learned that the most difficult Tennessee automobile accident case to investigate is one caused by a drowsy driver who has fallen asleep at the wheel. Reference an article this past week in the Northwest Tennessee Today newspaper reporting the highway death of a Martin Tennessee resident whose car crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with the rear of a tractor-trailer hauling farm equipment. Although the accident investigation is ongoing, friends said that the deceased had gone hunting that day and that fatigue may have played a role in the collision.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving “is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.” But among all the major factors that cause or contribute to crashes, like speeding, alcohol use, and weather situations, drowsiness is the most difficult for police and other crash investigators to detect and quantify.

Sleepiness and driving is a dangerous combination. Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving but don’t realize that drowsy driving can be just as fatal. Like alcohol, sleepiness slows reaction time, decreases awareness, impairs judgment and increases your risk of crashing.

It’s nearly impossible to determine with certainty the cause of a fatal crash where drowsy driving is suspected. However, there are a number of clues at a crash scene that tell investigators that the person fell asleep at the wheel. Unlike alcohol-related crashes, no blood, breath, or other objective test for sleepiness behind the wheel currently exists that investigators could give to a driver at the scene of a crash. This makes police training in identifying drowsiness as a crash factor very difficult.

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

Alcohol & Medical Conditions

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney it’s essential that I keep up with all sorts of information relating to medical conditions that can lead to automobile accidents. On December 9, 2009, I wrote about elderly drivers and how medications may have a negative effect on their ability to maintain control of their motor vehicle. A recent article From The Sleep Foundation reports on a study about how people who suffer from sleep apnea may be in danger when they drive.

Drinking and driving is always dangerous. Add a life-threatening sleep disorder and you have a recipe for disaster. According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, patients with obstructive sleep apnea are more vulnerable than healthy people to the effects of alcohol while driving. The study, conducted by researchers at the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health in Australia, followed 38 untreated patients with sleep apnea and 20 control participants. Without getting into the particulars the study found that patients with sleep apnea experienced a 40 percent increase in steering deviation compared with the control group. Patients with sleep apnea also crashed more frequently than control participants after normal sleep and even more after restricted sleep or alcohol consumption compared with the control group. If left untreated, symptoms of sleep apnea can include disturbed sleep and excessive sleepiness during the day.

If you suffer from sleep apnea or have the symptoms, disturbed sleep and sleepiness during the day you ought to check with your doctor. If diagnosed you should be very careful about drinking any alcohol when you are going to operate a motor vehicle.

Situations like this make clear the importance of having a skilled Nashville automobile accident lawyer on your team. If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville car crash involving a drunk or impaired driver contact the attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free cpnsultation to learn about your rights and remedies

Don't Drive While Drowsy

This past Sunday I blogged about the dangers of driving while drowsy. The main point of the blog was to point out some troubling statistics gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the topic.  The NHTSA estimated conservatively that each year drowsy driving “is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.”

An article from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health caught my attention and I thought I might share the findings of their study:

First-year doctors in training, or medical interns, who work shifts of longer than 24 hours are more than twice as likely to have a car crash leaving the hospital and five times as likely to have a “near miss” incident on the road as medical interns who work shorter shifts. The article, “Extended Work Shifts and the Risk of Motor Vehicle Crashes among Interns,” is the third in a series of studies on the impact of extended work hours and fatigue on interns conducted by the Divisions of Sleep Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The study found that the majority of interns routinely worked more than 30 consecutive hours, and they reported that they were awake 96 percent of their time in the hospital on average. Also, during the 12-month study period, interns reported working an average of 80 hours or more during 46 percent of work weeks and 100 hours or more per week during 11 percent of work weeks.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems. Sleep deprivation is associated with injuries, chronic diseases, mental illnesses, poor quality of life and well-being, increased health care costs, lost work productivity and car crashes. Sleep problems are critically under-addressed contributors to some chronic conditions, including obesity and depression. This is a huge population of potentially dangerous drivers. If you are tired and over-stressed you should avoid getting behind the wheel. If you are going to get behind the wheel you should make sure that you are thoroughly rested and if you get tired while driving pull over and take a short nap.

If you or a loved one is killed or injured in a Nashville automobile accident by a drowsy driverNashville automobile accident lawyer’s contact the experienced at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Drowsy Drivers Kill

For experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s it’s no mystery when we hear of a one car accident simply leaving the highway and crashing into a ditch, crossing the median or ramming into another vehicle which was clearly visible. When the toxicology tests come back negative for alcohol or drugs, we right away know to investigate the victim’s sleep cycle in the 24 hours prior to the accident.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving “is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 71,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities.” But among all the major factors that cause or contribute to crashes, like speeding, alcohol use, and weather situations, drowsiness is the most difficult for police and other crash investigators to detect and quantify.

Sleepiness and driving is a dangerous combination. Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving but don’t realize that drowsy driving can be just as fatal. Like alcohol, sleepiness slows reaction time, decreases awareness, impairs judgment and increases your risk of crashing.

It’s nearly impossible to determine with certainty the cause of a fatal crash where drowsy driving is suspected. However, there are a number of clues at a crash scene that tell investigators that the person fell asleep at the wheel. For example, drowsy driving accidents usually involve only one vehicle where the driver is alone and the injuries tend to be serious or fatal. Also, skid marks or evidence of other evasive maneuvers are usually absent from the drowsy driving crash scene.

Unlike alcohol-related crashes, no blood, breath, or other objective test for sleepiness behind the wheel currently exists that investigators could give to a driver at the scene of a crash. This makes police training in identifying drowsiness as a crash factor very difficult.

There are many underlying causes of sleepiness, fatigue and drowsy driving. Including sleep loss from restriction or too little sleep, interruption or fragmented sleep; chronic sleep debt; circadian factors associated with driving patterns or work schedules; undiagnosed or untreated sleep disorders; time spent on a task; the use of sedating medications; and the consumption of alcohol when already tired. These factors have cumulative effects and a combination of any of these can greatly increase one’s risk for a fatigue-related crash.

Sleepiness or Fatigue Causes the Following:

* Impaired reaction time, judgment and vision

* Problems with information processing and short-term memory

* Decreased performance, vigilance and motivation

* Increased moodiness and aggressive behaviors

We all are responsible for driving, walking, and biking safely on our Nation’s roads. Drivers and pedestrians have the responsibility to always be alert and obey the traffic rules. If you are sleepy and nodding off you owe it to yourself and your family, as well as the other drivers on the road to find a safe place and pull over and nap. Take a half an hour or so and save your life. If you notice a driver acting erratically contact the Tennessee Highway Patrol by calling *847, reporting them may save their life and the lives of others.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident by a drowsy driver contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of our free consultation so you can understand your rights and remedies

Tennessee Car Tractor-Trailer Accident

A Pennsylvania soldier stationed at Fort Campbell died in a mysterious accident early Sunday morning on I-24 in Clarksville, Tennessee. It’s accidents like this one, reported on the website of WSMV Channel 4 in Nashville, that cause me to ponder possible causes. According to the report Eric Thomas Rothharpt, 24 died when his Toyota Scion smashed into the rear-end of a tractor-trailer parked on the ramp with it’s flashers turned on because of a previous wreck. Police reported that the victim was not wearing his seatbelt when the collision occurred. The staff and attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Rothharpt.

What causes an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney like myself to ponder an accident like this is the question of how such an accident could have happened. You have a huge tractor-trailer parked off the roadway with its emergency lights blinking and yet the victim drives off the road and rams into it. My first thoughts were focused on whether this young man had been drowsy, fallen asleep and drifted off the road. Any investigation of this wreck should center on where he had been and what he had been doing prior to the collision. Had he been traveling some distance, been working long hours, there are many areas that need to be probed.

According to studies done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sleepiness impairs driving performance. Sleepiness leads to crashes because it impairs elements of human performance that are critical to safe driving. Relevant impairments identified in laboratory and in-vehicle studies include:

Slower reaction time. Sleepiness reduces optimum reaction times, and moderately sleepy drivers can have a performance- impairing increase in reaction time that will hinder stopping in time to avoid a collision. Even small decrements in reaction time can have a profound effect on crash risk, particularly at high speeds.

Reduced vigilance. Performance on attention- based tasks declines with sleepiness, including increased periods of nonresponding or delayed responding.

Deficits in information processing. Processing and integrating information takes longer, the accuracy of short-term memory decreases, and performance declines.

Working the night shift, overtime, or rotating shifts is a risk for drowsy driving that may be both chronic and acute. In a New York State survey, nearly one-half the drowsy drivers who crashed (and more than one-third of those who drove drowsy without crashing) reported having worked the night shift or overtime prior to the incident. In addition, a higher reported frequency of driving drowsy was associated with working a rotating shift, working a greater number of hours per week, and more frequently driving for one’s job.

My next thought was that he could have been distracted as he drove up the ramp. I would focus here on his cell phone to determine whether he had made or taken a text message or cell phone calls. The task of driving requires full attention and focus. Cell phone use can distract drivers from this task, risking harm to themselves and others.  Therefore, the safest course of action is to refrain from using a cell phone while driving. Research shows that driving while using a cell phone can pose a serious cognitive distraction and degrade driver performance.  The data are insufficient to quantify crashes caused by cell phone use specifically, but NHTSA estimates that driver distraction from all sources contributes to 25 percent of all police-reported traffic crashes.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville car accident by a drowsy or distracted driver contact the experienced Nashville accident attorneys and Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.