Roadway Departure Crash

The Times Free-Press of Chattanooga reported that a woman was killed in an early morning crash on Highway 58. She died after the car she was driving ran off the roadway, went through a yard and crashed into some trees before catching on fire.

According to the Times, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the crash that occurred at approximately 2:36 a.m. and when they arrived the vehicle was on fire. Deputies and by-standers attempted to remove the driver but due to heavy smoke and flames, were not able to approach the car, according to Janice Atkinson, public information officer with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. The article went on to say that alcohol may be a factor in the crash, the investigation is still on-going by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Division,

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney we refer to crashes such as this as “Roadway Departure Crashes” (RDC). The Federal Highway Administration defines a RDC as a non-intersection crash that occurs when a vehicle crosses an edge line or a center-line, 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.

The FHWA’s Roadway Departure Safety Program provides important information for transportation practitioners, decision makers, and others to assist them in preventing and reducing the severity of roadway departure crashes, but no matter what steps they take this problem will never be successful if drivers refuse to observe the speed limits, avoid distractions and continue to drink and drive.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville car crash contact our experienced Nashville automobile accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies. If you are not sure you need a lawyer to handle your claim, at least check out our website for helpful information that will help you with this complex and confusing adventure.

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.

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.