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.

Speeding And Alcohol Use

Two late night car crashes in Chattanooga leave one dead and another seriously injured. Chattanooga TV station WRCB reported that the accidents occurred within hours of each other, the cause of the first accident is unknown but Police sources believe that alcohol and failure to utilize a seatbelt were involved. The driver’s car left the roadway and flipped into a shallow ditch and the driver was thrown from the vehicle a sure sign that he was not wearing his seatbelt. He was transported to Erlanger Medical Center where he died from his injuries.

The other Chattanooga man Viengsamay Moungsiharath age-29, was found trapped in his overturned vehicle that, according the traffic investigators, had been traveling at a high rate of speed. Apparently the car crossed into the oncoming lanes struck several light poles before coming to a rest. Emergency responders pulled Moungsiharath from the wreckage and took him to Erlanger where he’s listed in critical condition with life threatening injuries.

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. But there are effective measures that can help prevent injuries and deaths from alcohol-impaired driving.

How big is the problem?

*In 2006, 13,470 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (32%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.

*In 2007, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. That’s less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.

*Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol.

*Half of the 306 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-related crashes in 2006 were riding with drivers who had a BAC level of .08 or higher.

Speeding is one of the most common contributing factors of traffic crashes. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) show that the driver-level attribute “driving too fast for conditions or in excess of posted speed limit” is the critical contributing factor in more than 99% of all fatal crashes. In fatal crashes, about 55% of all speeding related crashes were due to exceeding the posted speed limit.

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville car accident involving a speeding driver or one under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol contact the experienced Nashville car accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.