A good example of how state and local governments can work together to prevent highway traffic injuries and deaths is the recent grant from the Governor’s Highway Safety Office that will pay for four mobile radar units for the Obion County Sheriff’s Department.  Of the department’s 12 cars, eight already have radar, thanks to the same grant, which the department has received the previous two years.

WBBJ TV in Jackson Tennessee reported on the grant and quoted Chief Deputy Kent Treece as saying, “As big as the county is, and as many calls as we get, traffic enforcement has never been a real big priority for the Sheriff’s Office. As the population has grown”, Treece said “traffic enforcement has been a growing concern for the department, but not because of revenue but because traffic enforcement is a simple issue of safety. The secondary roads in Obion County are somewhere in the vicinity of 700 miles, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff’s Department, and without proper tools, it makes traffic enforcement very difficult,” Treece said in the article.He also pointed out that probable cause stops based on speeding will lead into DUI, drug and other arrests, which in turn, they believe, will make the county safer.

According to the Federal Highway Administration local highway agencies often do not have the resources needed to adequately address safety problems on the roads they maintain. The FHWA Local and Rural Safety Program provides national and state  leadership in identifying, developing, and delivering safety programs and products to local governments to improve highway safety on local and rural roads.

Rural Road Safety Facts

Rural road safety is a particular concern, because the majority of highway fatalities take place on rural roads. Rural roads account for approximately 40 percent of the vehicle miles traveled in the U.S., but almost 57 percent of fatalities. According to recent data, 23,260 people were killed in rural crashes in 2007 and the fatality rate for rural crashes is more than twice the fatality rate in urban crashes.

In 2007, there were 37,248 fatal crashes resulting in 41,059 deaths. Where land use was known, rural areas accounted for 56 percent (20,347) of the fatal crashes and 57 percent (22,866) of the fatalities as compared to urban areas which accounted for 44 percent (16,251) of the fatal crashes and 43 percent (17,497) of the fatalities.

According to recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, people killed in speeding-related crashes represented almost one-third (13,040) of the fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes.  NHTSA considers a crash to be speeding related if the driver was charged with a speed-related offense or if an officer indicated that racing, driving too fast for conditions, or exceeding the posted speed limit was a contributing factor in the crash. In rural areas, 33 percent (7,509) of the fatalities occurred in speeding-related crashes as compared to 31 percent (5,372) in urban areas. It appears that this grant will allow

Reduce Speed Related Deaths

the department to step up speed enforcement and save lives and reduce injuries in Obion County.

If you or a loved one is injured in a loved one is injured in a Nashville automobile accident involving a speeding driver, contact the experienced Nashville car crash attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights. If you have been involved in a Nashville car crash and are thinking of handling the negotiations with the other person’s insurance adjuster on your own, you owe it to yourself to at least check out our web page and our free publications before you make a serious mistake.

Head On Fatality

Knoxville TV station WBIR reported on a two-car collision in Madisonville, Monroe County, yesterday. William C. Kile, 76 of Sweetwater was driving along on Highway 68 when he was hit head on by a vehicle driven by a Utah man. According to the article citing Tennessee Highway Patrol Troopers, the Mazda driven by the man from Utah crosses the center-line and crashed into the vehicle driven by Mr. Kile who was pronounced dead at the scene. Unfortunately, Mr. Kile was not wearing his seatbelt. The investigation is continuing and the Utah man faces charges of failure to exercise due care. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr. Kile.

This collision happened in a rural area and according to the Federal Highway Administration, rural road safety is a particular concern, because the majority of highway fatalities take place on rural roads. Rural roads account for approximately 40 percent of the vehicle miles traveled in the U.S., but almost 57 percent of fatalities. According to recent data, 23,260 people were killed in rural crashes in 2007 and the fatality rate for rural crashes is more than twice the fatality rate in urban crashes.

This moral of this story has two important aspects, the first is that all drivers are required to exercise due care when driving a motor vehicle on the highways of Tennessee. Due care in this situation requires a driver to keep his eyes on the road and to avoid distractions as he drives. From the facts given in the article it’s clear that either the driver intended to crash into Mr. Kile’s car or that he failed to exercise due care and allowed himself to be distracted and drifted into the other lane.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the primary responsibility of the driver is to operate a motor vehicle safely. The task of driving requires full attention and focus. Anything that distracts drivers from this task, risking harm to themselves and others, should be avoided. Distractions can be from cellphone, talking and not watching, trying to reach inot the rear seat, adjusting the radio or fooling with a GPS device.

The second item is that no matter where we are driving we should use our seatbelts. Seatbelts help prevent death and injury in a number of different ways. They prevent you from being thrown from the car, they shift crash forces to the strongest part of the body structure and they spread crash forces over a wide area of the body and last but not least they keep the person colliding with hostile surfaces inside the vehicle. (ie. Steering-wheel, windshield and dashboard.)

Rural drivers are less likely to wear their seatbelts. 56 percent of rural passenger vehicle occupants killed were unrestrained as compared to 51 percent of urban passenger vehicle occupants killed.  Over two-thirds of rural pickup truck occupants killed were unrestrained – the highest percentage of any passenger vehicle occupants killed among both rural and urban areas. The lesson here is that safety starts when you get into the car and ends when the car is parked and the motor is shut off.

If you or a loved one was injured in a Nashville car crash, by a distracted driver, contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights.

Rural Roads Are Deadly

As an experienced Nashville car accident attorney I can assure you that high speed, alcohol, a winding 30 mph rural road and add a dash of no seatbelt and the end result is definitely going to add up to a dead driver. According to the Kingsport Times-News that’s just what happened to a Church Hill man injured in a single-vehicle accident Friday evening who died Saturday from the injuries. The article quoted Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Billy Collier as saying “extremely high speed and alcohol were the main contributors to the accident.”

Wesley W. Mabe, 22, was driving under the influence of alcohol at a high rate of speed when he was unable to negotiate and curve in the rural road. According to the Trooper he left the road “struck a tree, a fence and another tree before coming to a final rest.” The Trooper said he was not wearing a seatbelt but that since there was no intrusions on the driver’s side of the car, a seatbelt might well have saved his life.

Rural road safety is a particular concern, because the majority of highway fatalities take place on rural roads. According to the Federal Highway Administration rural roads account for approximately 40 percent of the vehicle miles traveled in the U.S., but almost 57 percent of fatalities, even though just 23% of the US population live in rural areas. According to the latest data from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), the fatality rate for rural crashes is more than twice the fatality rate in urban crashes. In 2007, 23,260 people were killed in rural motor vehicle crashes, accounting for 57 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Tennessee automobile accident contact our experienced Tennessee accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies. Don’t try to take on the other persons insurance company on your own.