Elderly Drivers

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney, I try to keep my readers up on important issues. The other day I wrote about having “The Conversation” with our elderly parents. Studies have shown that older drivers have high death rates and lower rates of involvement in crashes that kill others. Relative to other age groups, drivers aged 85 and older face the highest risk of their own death, whereas teens pose the greatest risk to passengers, occupants of other vehicles, and non-motorists.

Reference a recent auto accident in which an 84-year-old woman drove her vehicle into a thrift store and ran over toddlers. Witnesses pulled the toddlers out from under the vehicle and they are both going to survive this ordeal. The woman refused to say what caused the accident.

In hindsight there were probably a number of signs that her family might have noticed that might have warned them that it was time to consider the possibility that she might need to relinquish her car keys. My prayers go out to the family and friends of this lady and the two children..

The lesson here is that families need to be proactive and avoid the inclination to bring up the topic with the ones we love. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by an elderly driver contact the experienced Nashville auto accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Medical Emergencies Often Prove Fatal

A 72-year-old Lawrence County, Tennessee man died in a one-vehicle crash at the intersection of Tennessee 20 and Railroad Bed Pike–an area near Summertown this past Saturday afternoon. According to local media reports a witness saw the man slumped over his steering wheel, before his vehicle hit a tree. Our prayers go out the the family and friends of this poor man.

Incidences of drivers who had crashes precipitated by medical emergencies as the victim is driving are relatively rare and account for only 1.3 percent of all road fatalities. Older drivers have relatively higher incidences of crashes precipitated by drivers’ medical emergencies when compared to young and middle-age drivers. Drivers in crashes precipitated by medical emergencies were more likely than other drivers to be severely injured or to die as a result of the crash.

Patient education by health care providers on early warning signs of a health crisis, such as warning signs before seizure attacks, diabetic or hypoglycemic comas and potential side effects of medications are recommended as the most effective countermeasure.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile traffic accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies. Call 615-356-2000

Elderly Drivers

Last Saturday in Franklin, Tennessee an 87-year-old man from Jackson, Tennessee was exiting Interstate-65 onto highway 31W when he failed to stop at the light and slammed into another car that had the right of way.

The man died on the way to the hospital and his 87-year-old wife is in critical condition at Vanderbilt Medical Center. The other driver was not injured. My prayers go out the family and friends of these two people.

Getting older does not necessarily mean a person’s driving days are over. But it is important to plan ahead and take steps to ensure the safety of your loved ones on the road. NHTSA offers free materials to help you learn more about how to recognize and discuss changes in your older loved one’s driving.

Talking with an older person about their driving is often difficult. Most of us delay that talk until the person’s driving has become what we believe to be dangerous. At that point, conversations can be tense and awkward for everyone involved. But there are things you can say and do to make those conversations more productive and less tense.

For most of us, driving represents freedom, control, and competence. Driving lets us go to the places we want or need to go. For many of us – even as we get older – driving is important economically. We drive to get to and from work, and sometimes as part of our jobs. Driving is important socially; it lets us stay connected to our communities and favorite activities.

Driving or riding in a car is how most older adults get around. Most people 65 and older change how they drive as they age, choosing to drive only during daylight hours, for example, or limiting where they drive, or cutting back on how often they drive.

In 2008, older people accounted for 15 percent of all traffic fatalities and 18 percent of all pedestrian fatalities. Most traffic fatalities involving older drivers in occurred during the daytime (80%), occurred on weekdays (72%), and involved other vehicles (69%).

If you or a loved one is seriously injured in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by an older driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Stop Means Stop

According to a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, older drivers face substantially elevated risk of being involved in and responsible for crashes in which they themselves die, and they pose more risk to other road users than the lowest-risk drivers do; however, the degree to which older drivers’ risk to other road users is elevated depends strongly upon whether risk is being measured on a per-driver, per-trip, or per-mile basis.

For example, the results of this study suggest that if a randomly-selected driver in his or thirties and a randomly-selected driver aged 85 or older were to drive equal numbers of miles, the older driver would be over 1500% more likely than the younger driver to be responsible for and die as a result of a crash, and about 220% more likely than the younger driver to kill an occupant of another vehicle or a non-motorist.

This topic was brought to mind when I read an article in the Phoenix Arizona newspaper while on was on a recent road trip. According to the reports, an elderly woman is dead after an early-morning car accident in Buckeye AZ. The 90-year-old woman ran a stop sign and her car collided with a pickup truck about 7:40 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of Highway 85 and Rainbow Road. She was dead at the scene.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident involving an elderly driver you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Tennessee car accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

A recent study done by the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, found that drivers older than 65 were half as likely to notice pedestrians near or moving toward the street as were experienced drivers between the ages of 28 and 45. Even though older drivers have much more experience behind the wheel, apparently older drivers, according to the study, have a narrower field of vision than younger drivers and this causes them to miss developments at curbside and on sidewalks that could negatively impact their relationship with pedestrians.

The difference is significant, with drivers 65 and old being half as likely to see pedestrians moving toward the street than younger drivers. Using a driving simulator, researchers found that those older than 65 tapped on their brakes in response to a “roadside hazard” about half as often, suggesting either that they did not see it or that they did not consider it something they needed to attend to.

On a positive note the study found that older drivers drive more slowly — about 20 percent more slowly, perhaps to compensate for shortcomings in their peripheral vision and attention. The lesson for Tennessee drivers is that we should recognize that older drivers see the road differently and that we should give them plenty of road room when we encounter one.

If you have parents or loved one you might want to discuss this study with them and encourage them to take due precautions when they drive. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee roadway accident caused by an elderly driver, you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Tennessee auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Medical Emergency?

It only takes a second when you are somehow distracted while driving and you find yourself off the road and hitting something that doesn’t move. The distracted roadway departure crash has reached epidemic proportions in Tennessee over the past several years and the problem only seems to be getting worse.

A 48-year-old Nashville man and his girlfriend were driving along Buena Vista Pike in north Nashville when the car veered from the road hit a tree and rolled over. Police investigators say that both people were wearing their seat belts and that a medical emergency may have been the cause of the accident.

Incidences of drivers who had crashes precipitated by their medical emergencies while driving are relatively rare and account for only 1.3 percent of all road fatalities. Older drivers have relatively higher incidences of crashes precipitated by drivers’ medical emergencies when compared to young and middle-age drivers. Drivers in crashes precipitated by medical emergencies were more likely than other drivers to be severely injured or to die as a result of the crash.

Patient education by health care providers on early warning signs of a health crisis, such as warning signs before seizure attacks, diabetic or hypoglycemic comas and potential side effects of medications are recommended as the most effective countermeasure.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile traffic accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies.

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney, when I hear about an accident like the one that took the life of a 72-year-old Greenville, Tennessee man I immediately wonder if the accident was caused by a medical emergency.

The facts are simple, the man was driving in one direction on US Highway 321 and for some unknown reason he crossed the centerline and slammed head-on into a car traveling in the other direction. The driver and his passenger who were hit were injured and transported to a local hospital.

Incidences of drivers who had crashes precipitated by medical emergencies  while driving are relatively rare and account for only 1.3 percent of all road fatalities. Older drivers have relatively higher incidences of crashes precipitated by medical emergencies when compared to young and middle-age drivers. Drivers in crashes precipitated by medical emergencies were more likely than other drivers to be severely injured or to die as a result of the crash.

Patient education by health care providers on early warning signs of a health crisis, such as warning signs before seizures, diabetic or hypoglycemic comas and potential side effects of medications are recommended as the most effective countermeasure.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile traffic accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates

Medical Emergencies

and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies.

Elderly Drivers

I’m sure the family and friends of an 88-year-old St. Joseph, Tennessee man who was killed in an automobile tractor-trailer accident this past Thursday, are saddened beyond words, and along with investigating officers are wondering why the collision occurred. My prayers go out to his family and friends, I hope they find peace.

The question on everyone’s mind is why did he pull out directly in the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer. Was his view of the road blocked? Was he distracted by something, the radio, cell phone, or was he just not paying attention to what he was doing? Did he have a medical emergency or a medication emergency that rendered him incapable of controlling his vehicle? The investigators have their work cut out for them.

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney, I have watched with interest as the accident rate among older drivers has continued to drop. Since 1997 the trend has been on a downward slide. I asked myself, “…why is this happening?” One would think that older drivers would have more problems as they aged.  With that in mind I wondered out loud to several of my colleagues, “What is going to happen to this trend in the next six to ten years when the older population, the “Boomers”, grows?”

My search took me to The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent, nonprofit, scientific, and educational organization dedicated to reducing the losses — deaths, injuries, and property damage — from crashes on the nation’s highways. In a recent study the Institute answered my question. Instead of interpreting the study for you I have reprinted the introduction below.

The US population is expected to experience a major shift such that older people will become a much larger proportion of the population. According to the US Census Bureau, people 70 and older were 8.5 percent of the population in 1990, compared with 9.1 percent in 2008. The increase in the older population is expected to accelerate sharply starting in 2016. The population 70 and older is expected to rise from 27 million in 2008 to 67 million in 2050, representing a 145 percent increase. The population 85 and older is expected to more than triple, from 6.4 million in 2008 to 19 million in 2050. By 2050, people 70 and older are expected to compose 15.3 percent of the population.

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

Medical Emergency

Wade Arlyn  (BoomBoom) Crane, a well known 66-year-old pro billiards player from Acworth, Ga. was killed early Sunday in a one-car crash in Knoxville, Tennessee. My sympathy goes out to the family, friends and fans of Mr. Crane.

Local media reports said that his car suddenly swerved across three lanes of traffic and hit a concrete wall on the right side of the roadway and then back across five lanes to slam into the left side wall. Police investigators believe that Mr. Crane suffered a medical emergency before his car went out of control. Fortunately, no other vehicles were involved in the crash.

According to a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, older drivers face substantially elevated risk of being involved in and responsible for crashes in which they themselves die, and they pose more risk to other road users than the lowest-risk drivers do; however, the degree to which older drivers’ risk to other road users is elevated.

In 2008, older people accounted for 15 percent of all traffic fatalities and 18 percent of all pedestrian fatalities. Most traffic fatalities involving older drivers in occurred during the daytime (80%), occurred on weekdays (72%), and involved other vehicles (69%).

If you or a loved one is seriously injured in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by an older driver, contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Elderly Couple Perish In Roadway Departure Crash

Metro Nashville police are investigating whether a medical emergency contributed to the death of an elderly husband and wife couple from a single car crash Tuesday afternoon. Local media reports said that the 79-year-old driver had a history of heart disease.

Witnesses said that the man and his 84-year-old wife were driving west on Charlotte Pike when their car swerved and left the roadway and slammed into a utility pole. Incidences of drivers who had crashes precipitated by medical emergencies while driving are relatively rare and account for only 1.3 percent of all road fatalities.

Older drivers have relatively higher incidences of crashes precipitated by drivers’ medical emergencies when compared to young and middle-age drivers. Drivers in crashes precipitated by medical emergencies were more likely than other drivers to be severely injured or to die as a result of the crash.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile traffic accident contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney’s at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to determine your rights and remedies