Tennessee Habitual Traffic Offender

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer I can tell you that when you have achieved the status of an habitual traffic offender for having multiple DUI convictions you might want to pay attention and accept the possibility that you have a problem with alcohol and drugs. At the very least you ought to consider not driving until you ahave your license reinstated some years down the line.

That lesson was apparently not learned by a Johnson City Tennessee woman, who chose to continue to drive. The action started when she was involved in a fender bender in the parking lot of a Methodist church. When police arrived to do an accident report the jig was up for the 45-year-old woman.

In Tennessee we are serious about keeping people like this lady off of the road. The legislature has made legal consequences for multiple DUI 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.

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 crashe a decline of 9.8 percent from the 13,041 drunk driving related fatalities of 2007.

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.

Combine a high-powered motorcycle, alcohol and high speed and the outcome isn’t going to come under the category of pretty. A Knoxville Tennessee man was speeding along at 1:30 in the morning when he lost control of his motorcycle as he rounded a curve. His bike crossed the median, went through a fence onto the property of a Mercedes Benz dealership. The biker was killed when his body crashed into the front-end of a new Benz, while his bike continued on damaging five other vehicles.

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.

Motorcycle Fatlity

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 automobile 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.

Driving Drunk And No Seatbelt

It was 2 AM and he tried to do the right thing, turning his car keys over to another person when he realized that he had had too much to drink, but his good intentions cost him his life. You see, the 39-year-old Sevier County Tennessee man gave his keys to the woman he had been drinking with, and who was, according to local media reports, as drunk or drunker than he was.

His second, and probably his most fatal mistake, was that he failed to use his seatbelt, so when his friend veered off the road, overcorrected and hit a tree, he was killed.

As an experienced Nashville 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. 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 a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee car accident caused by a drunk driver you owe it to yourself to contact an experienced Nashville auto accident lawyer like those at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Report Dangerous Drivers

As an experienced Tennessee auto accident attorney I often suggest to my clients and readers that they make good use of their cell phones when they see a problem driver on the highway. If you see someone who drives as if they were drunk, an aggressive driver, or a road rage incident, get the tag number and description of the car, pull over and call 911 in urban areas and *847 in rural areas for the State Troopers and report what you saw.

Reference a recent incident in Rogersville reported in local news media where a citizen reported a woman at a filling station who appeared to be drunk and had a small child in her vehicle. Police responded and indeed, she was under the influence, in the drivers seat with the keys in the ignition. She failed the field sobriety tests and submitted to a blood test.

There’s no telling whether the called saved the life of the child or some other innocent driver, but keep in mind that 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.

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.

Drunk Driving

Stupid is as stupid does, and getting loaded and then getting behind the wheel of your car requires a whole lot of stupid. Reference a couple of recent drunk driving escapades, the first involves a 24-year-old man who took drunk and drove his car out onto a railroad bridge and got stuck several hundred feet from the shore. The driver claimed he was passed out and another guy was driving. Believe that one and I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

The second incident involves another 24-year-old, a woman who ran a red light at half past midnight in downtown Nashville and t-boned a Metro Police officer in an unmarked DUI enforcement car. Wow, how convenient, she came to him. Unfortunately the officer suffered injuries and had to be cut from the vehicle before being taken to the hospital. Our prayers go out to him for a quick and complete recovery.

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.

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 a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee car accident caused by a drunk driver you owe it to yourself to contact an experienced Nashville auto accident lawyer like those at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Drunken Driver Kills Pedestrian

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I am well aware of the statistics on pedestrian fatalities. A collision between a human being and moving motor vehicle almost never comes out well for the pedestrian. This was the case in 2007 for a Chattanooga man who was run down and killed by a drunk driver. The drunk driver finally had his day in court and was sentenced to serve two years in the state penitentiary for reckless homicide.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) A pedestrian is defined as any person not in or upon a motor vehicle or other vehicle. In 2007, 4,654 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States, a decrease of 13 percent from the 5,321 pedestrians killed in 1997.  On average, a pedestrian is killed in a traffic crash every 113 minutes and injured in  a traffic crash every 8 minutes.  There were 70,000 pedestrians injured in traffic crashes in 2007.

As an experienced car/pedestrian attorney I’d also advise you that the best way to reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths in Tennessee is to obey existing traffic laws and exercising caution when you are behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Stay alert and avoid distractions like cell phones and loud music. Keep your eyes on the road and save a life.

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

Booze It And Lose It

This years leading contender for the Tennessee driver who should never be allowed behind the wheel of a motor vehicle is a 43-year-old Johnson City woman who was arrested and charged with her third DUI after she fled from the scene of a motor vehicle accident. Add a reckless driving, leaving the scene and violation of the implied consent law and we can hope that she will be off the street for a lengthy period of time. Additional charges, having to do with the fact that she had an eight-year-old child with her during this escapade, may follow the investigation

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 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.

If you or a loved one is killed or injured in a Tennessee automobile accident involving a drunk driver you might want to check out the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to determine your rights.

Drunk Driving Makes You Stupid

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I can tell you for a certainty that when it comes to drinking and driving,  that stupid is as stupid does. First of all, for people who haven’t been paying attention, it’s really stupid to get behind the wheel when you have been consuming alcohol. It’s stupid to get behind the wheel under the influence and speed. And stupider and stupider, when you get behind the wheel drunk and speed and have sex all at the same time.

Reference an article on the web page of Nashville WSMV TV. A couple had been out on the town, took drunk and came to the conclusion that it might be a good idea to engage in sex while they sped along into the night. Unfortunately the driver got somewhat distracted and left the road and rammed, at high speed, into a house.

The collision literally tore the kitchen off of the house. The homeowners and the driver lucked out. Only moments before the climax they had been sitting in the kitchen talking. Had they not moved to the living room they would have been killed and Loverboy and his princess would have been looking at some serious prison time.

The article went on to say that the driver’s blood alcohol level was double the legal limit. He told officers that he lost his concentration while having sexual relations with the woman in his truck while he was driving.

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.

Drunk And Stupid

Many of you who read my Blog, “The Tennessee Auto Accident Attorney”, are familiar with my focus on the worst driver of the year. To qualify for this honor a driver has to show the least amount of concern for the lives of others on the road. The first nominee for the 2010 award is a fellow named Fred Campbell from down Chattanooga way.

Fred was pulled over by the police for a broken tail light and when the police officer approached him he realized that Fred was driving with his two-year-old Grandson on his lap. The officer observed an open container of cold beer and Fred admitted that he had consumed “…six or seven…” beers. Fred blew a 1.3 which in Tennessee is one and a half times the legal limit.

Fred plead guilty to DUI and reckless endangerment and is expected to serve at least a year behind bars for his actions. But the problem for Fred doesn’t stop there. It appears that Fred was on parole for a murder charge and still had 10 months on that parole. The child is now with his mother but Child Protective Services is investigating the circumstances and the mother’s knowledge.

Fred Campbell is my number one candidate for the 2010 driver who should be banned from the road forever. If you are the victim of a Nashville or Tennessee automobile accident caused by a drunk driver like Fred we urge you to contact our experienced 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.

Distracted Driving Fatlities

Any experienced Tennessee auto accident lawyer will tell you that U.S. Highway 43 in Lauderdale County Alabama just South of the Tennessee line is a deadly strip of highway. Between Friday January 29 and February 2 four people died and several others were seriously injured on a three mile strip of this road. Another accident during that same period that did not result in a fatality mirrored the latest fatal accident.

A 51-year-old Tennessee man was driving North on U.S. 43 when for no apparent reason he veered across the centerline and smashed into a Tractor-trailer truck heading the other direction. He was dead at the scene. The truck driver was not injured. In the earlier non-fatal accident the same thing happened, a driver spilled coffee on his lap and his cup tipped over on the floor of the car. He was distracted and reached to pick it up and in a second or two he drove across the centerline and struck a tractor-trailer.

What could have caused the distraction in this tragic accident? Investigators will inspect the car for signs of alcohol or drugs. They will retrace his steps to determine whether he had been drinking or had been having trouble sleeping and became drowsy. They will look at his cell phone records to determine whether he was using his phone to talk or text. Doctors will probably conduct an autopsy to determine whether he suffered a medical emergency that made it impossible to keep control of his car.

Driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes, according to a landmark research report released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). 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 by a distracted or drunk driver you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies,