Drunk Driving Can Be Costly And Time Consuming

When you read about an accident that involves several totally stupid actions on the part of a driver, you can usually bet the guy is drunk or on drugs, and in many cases both. So it was with a Coffee County man who has already been convicted of DUI. This guy gets drunk and gets into his vehicle and heads out onto the interstate highway.

The guy is so drunk that he can’t keep the vehicle he is driving from running off I-24 around 3PM this past Monday afternoon. Somehow he got the car in a position to re-enter the interstate highway and without looking for oncoming traffic he pulls back onto the interstate and collides with an SUV carrying four children. The adult driver and a 9-month-old were not injured but three children, ages 12, 14, 17, had to be taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

So let’s count the stupid actions of this driver: 1. Got drunk, 2. Got behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, 3. Drove off the interstate highway, and 4. Pulled back on to the highway without making sure he was clear to do so. My, my, this guy might well be in line for the dumbest driver in 2012.

If you or a family member or friend, is injured in a Tennessee vehicular accident, take a minute and check out the experienced Nashville personal injury lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and learn about your rights and remedies. Call 615-356-2000

Friends Don't Let Friends Drink And Drive

Making an effort to stop a drunk from getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle is a good thing and we all ought to do what we can to avert a highway tragedy.   Sometimes the effort to prevent the driver can turn deadly as shown in a recent incident in Knoxville.

According to local media reports, A couple of local men had been drinking at a private residence, when one guy decides to leave at around 3 A.M. the other fellow argues with the man and warns him that he is drunk and doesn’t need to get a DUI. The argument escalated and the homeowner ended up being stabbed.

As police arrived they observed a car fleeing from the home and a short pursuit lead to the arrest of the suspect. Instead of sleeping it off at his friends house, he is now in jail facing charges of aggravated assault, DUI, driving on a suspended license and felony fleeing.

Whether it’s referred to as drunk driving, driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence, impaired driving simply means a person’s ability to safely operate a motor vehicle is compromised by alcohol and other drugs that change the function of the brain and body.

The experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates have handled hundreds of cases involving drunk drivers and can help you if you are unfortunate enough to be involved in such an accident. Contact us for the free consultation and find out about your rights by calling 615-356-2000.

Rear-End Collision

A Memphis man now faces identity theft charges for giving authorities a false name, in addition to four counts of vehicular homicide, DUI, reckless driving, speeding, resisting official detention, and two counts of reckless endangerment. Upon further investigation police learned that he is wanted in Tipton, Madison and Dickson counties on a variety of charges including driving offenses, forgery, theft and violation of probation.

This cascade of charges followed a Christmas Eve rear-end wreck he caused that ended in the deaths of four women. According to local media reports, at about 6:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve on Raleigh-Millington Road at the Loosahatchie River bridge, he was driving a Chevy Silverado pickup that struck the rear of a 2002 Chevy Impala in which the four women were riding, authorities.

The impact caused the Impala to swerve into oncoming traffic where it was struck by a second pickup truck whose two male occupants were injured and hospitalized. Our prayers go out to the family and friends of these young women.

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, a poll found.

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.

For this and other Tennessee automobile safety tips visit the web site of the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find lot’s of good information to help you remain a safe driver.

Blood Alcohol Tests

As an experienced 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.

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. In 2009 that number was down to 303 but we can’t rest on our laurels. In an attempt to continue the fight against drunk driving fatalities the legislature has enacted new laws that will take effect in January of 2010.

For the past several years if a driver is involved in a Tennessee personal injury accident no consent is needed to draw blood for a Blood Alcohol Test. Starting in January, there will be two other circumstances added to this. The first one is if a person is stopped for DUI and has had a prior DUI conviction and the second is, if the driver suspected of DUI has a passenger under the age of 16-years.

As an experienced Nashville personal injury lawyer, I applaud this effort to deal with drunk driving fatalities. 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.

Drunk Driver Runs Through Closed Garage

An intoxicated Baxter, Tennessee woman was arrested by Putnam County Sheriff’s deputies after she drove through the front garage door of a detached garage (not on her property) through the garage and out the back wall destroying the goarage and many of it’s contents.

Sheriff’s dispatchers received a 911 call at about 2 a.m. last Sunday from the homeowner and responded to find the driver dazed and confused. She told police she didn’t remember what happened. She failed a field sobriety test and was booked into the county jail pending a November court appearance.

On average, a human being is killed by a drunk driver every 45 minutes. In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk driving related crashes a decline of 9.8 percent from the 13,041 drunk driving related fatalities of 2007.

In Tennessee we are serious about keeping people like this lady off of the road. The legislature has made legal consequences for multiple DUI/DWI severe and can make for a serious change in your lifestyle.

Penalties can be:

* Fines range from $600 to $10,000

* Minimum jail time ranges from 48 days to 120 days

* Maximum jail time can extend to almost one year

* License revocation ranges from two to ten years

The statute also provides for vehicle confiscation and there will be no opportunity to get a temporary drivers license for school, work, hospital, doctor’s visits or church. Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. Here 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 Nashville automobile accident by a drunk driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation so that you can get a complete picture of your rights and remedies.

Drunk Teen Driver

An 18-year-old Johnson City teen driver will have to stand trial as an adult on charges that he injured two passengers in a crash while driving drunk. The teen was charged with two counts of vehicular assault, DUI, underage consumption of alcohol, and failure to show proof of insurance.

The crash, according to local media reports, occurred about 4 a.m. Sunday. The teen driver was injured in the crash and taken to Johnson City Medical Center, so police were unable to perform field sobriety tests. Police reported a strong odor of alcohol on the man at the crash scene, found a half empty bottle of Vodka in the vehicle and a nurse at the emergency room found a half empty bottle in his pants pocket.

The teen consented to a blood alcohol test and the results are pending. Impaired driving is a serious issue, and it affects many more than only those involved in drunk driving crashes. The misuse or abuse of alcohol greatly increases the chance of injuries in the workplace and beyond, and American businesses bear much of the costs in higher insurance premiums for employer-based health insurance tied to alcohol problems.

Whether it’s referred to as drunk driving, driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence, impaired driving simply means a person’s ability to safely operate a motor vehicle is compromised by alcohol and other drugs that change the function of the brain and body.

The experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates have handled hundreds of cases involving drunk drivers and can help you if you are unfortunate enough to be involved in such an accident. Contact us for the free consultation and find out about your rights. Call 615-356-2000.

Drunk Drivers Kill

Nashville police suspect a driver who roared through a service station parking lot, drove along a sidewalk almost hitting a pedestrian before slamming into several parked cars and then a tree, was drunk and passed out behind the wheel. According to media reports the police found no sign that the man had tried to stop his vehicle. The driver is in critical condition and if he survives he faces charges of DUI and Felony Vehicular Assault. Thankfully no one else was injured.

In support of their drunk driving theory of the case, police pointed out that they found a mostly empty liquor bottle on the floorboard of the car. Our prayers go out to the man for a speedy and complete recovery.

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. Here 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.

Every day, 36 people in the United States die, and approximately 700 more are injured, in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Nashville automobile accident by a drunk driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation so that you can get a complete picture of your rights and remedies.

I’m sure the 21-year-old Clarksville Tennessee man who crossed the centerline, almost hit a marked police car and slammed head-on into a pickup truck following directly behind the police car, will spend time thinking about whatever he was doing besides driving for many years to come. The driver of the pickup truck who died will never have a chance to consider anything ever again. Alcohol use has not yet been ruled out but if the trend holds, this driver was distracted by someone or something, as he drove down the street.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) distraction is anything that diverts the driver’s attention from the primary tasks of navigating the vehicle and responding to critical events. To put it another way, a distraction is anything that takes your eyes off the road (visual distraction), your mind off the road (cognitive distraction), or your hands off the wheel (manual distraction). So when you think about tasks that can be a driving distraction, you can see that they often fit into more than one category: eating is visual and manual, whereas using a navigation system is all three.

There are two basic components of the distraction safety problem: The attentional demands of the distracting task and the frequency with which drivers choose to multitask.  Task demands relate to the amount of resources (visual, cognitive, manual) required to perform the task.  The other issue is exposure, which is how often drivers engage in the task.  Putting those two concepts together, even an easy task can be a bigger safety problem if the person does the task 50% of their driving time.

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

Avoid Distractions

Drunk Drivers - Let's Take Them Off Tennessee's Roads

Tennessee auto accidents are often caused by “casual” or “social” drinkers, as well as drivers who drink and drive all the time. Those who drink and drive regularly and cause a Tennessee car accident, may spend some time in jail, and then the driver is back on the road. Not a good situation.

If you are victimized by a DUI driver and you would like to learn about your rights come to our website and get a copy of our book, “Victims of DUI Drivers – What you should know before you settle.” Victims of DUI Drivers – What you should know before you settle.”

The alternative? Let us sue the drunk driver who cause your car accident in Nashville or anywhere in Tennessee. A lawsuit can take away the means of a drunk driver to ever afford a car, and convince those around him/her that loaning a car will be bad news for them if a Tennessee car accident occurs.

If you or anyone you know has been killed or suffered a personal injury in Nashville, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here. No matter what you do, before you settle your case with an insurance adjuster, read our materials on dealing with insurance adjusters first!

Drive Drunk Drive Stupid

When it comes to criminals, stupid is as stupid does. I wrote about this topic this past week but it appears that we have an epidemic of criminals who will do anything to keep from being caught and that includes fleeing the police at high speed. For whatever reason, they somehow think they can successfully flee the police.

Metro Nashville police arrested a drunk driver early Wednesday morning after he crashed his car and ran into a wooded area. The accident happened around 1 a.m. in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 near the Stewarts Ferry Pike exit in Hermitage.

Police received reports of a crash and when officers arrived, a man standing outside the car took off running. When officers managed to track down the man, he briefly attempted to fight them. After his arrest he then told police he had been hunting. Police charged the driver with DUI, evading arrest and other misdemeanor charges.

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 Nashville automobile accident by a drunk driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation so that you can get a complete picture of your rights and remedies. Call 615-356-2000.