Teach Your Children Well

In 2008, 125 families buried a teenager following a crash on a Tennessee roadway. October 26 – 31 is National Teen Driver Safety Week and the Governor’s Highway Safety Office is working to save the lives of teens by asking Tennesseans to step up and talk to teens about important issues like wearing a safety belt, avoiding distracted driving and discouraging underage drinking.

“Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in America and it is up to all of us to work to reverse this trend,” said TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely. “TDOT and the Governor’s Highway Safety Office are out in schools talking to teens about safe driving practices and these efforts are working and saving lives, but we need parents and friends to do their part and talk with teens about safety behind the wheel.”

In 2006, 185 teens died on Tennessee roadways. In 2007, that number was reduced to 168 and dropped to 125 in 2008. Still, mile for mile, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.

Several initiatives have been forged to battle these senseless losses. Between the Barrels,Thinkfast® Alcohol Awareness Interactive Game Show, the ‘Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Associations (TSSAA) DUI Highway Safety Education Team presentations, the Blake McMeans’ Alive to Tell the Story, the Ford Motor Company Fund’s Driving Skills for Life, and an annual Lead and Live Youth Conference are all projects conducted in Tennessee to educate teens.

TDOT’s Between the Barrels delivers a powerful message about the importance of safe driving, especially in highway work zones, to thousands of Tennessee high school students each year. Thinkfast® combats underage drinking and drug abuse through hundreds of events annually for high school and college students. TSSAA’s Stephen Bargatze uses magic to get the attention of the students and discuss highway safety issues with them, while Blake McMeans travels the state sharing his story with high school and college students about how drinking and driving changed his life forever. Ford’s Driving Skills for Life teaches newly licensed teens about vehicle handling, speed management and space management and the Lead and Live Youth Conference is held annually to focus on numerous driver safety issues.

“It is the mission of the Governor’s Highway Safety Office to keep families safe on Tennessee’s roadways,” said Director Kendell Poole, GHSO. “It’s a big job and it’s going to take the entire community – parents, teachers, neighbors, friends and teens themselves – working together to drive the message home to ensure the health and safety of all Tennessee teens.”

Teens should avoid alcohol and parents should never promote underage drinking. Underage drinking is against the law and comes with adult consequences. Teens also need to remember whether driving across town or just around the corner, wearing a seat belt is the best protection from severe injury or even death in the event of a traffic crash. It’s also the law in Tennessee. Wearing a seat belt costs nothing, but not wearing one can cost a life. Also, TDOT reminds teens and all drivers that distracted driving, like texting while driving, is a dangerous practice. Texting may be a convenient way to communicate but it can be deadly when done from behind the wheel of a vehicle. Texting while driving is also against the law in Tennessee.

The Nashville staff and attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates urges all adults to be mentors and good examples to teens. Remember, they learn from us and that means the bad habits as well as the good.

If you or a loved one is involved in an Nashville automobile accident involving a teen driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out out about your rights and remedies.

Intersection Safety Saves Lives

If you ask most people to define an intersection they will tell you it’s a place where two or more roads or streets come together. In reality, it’s far more complicated than that. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration an intersection is a planned point of conflict in the roadway system. With different crossing and entering movements by both drivers and pedestrians, an intersection is one of the most complex traffic situations that motorists encounter.

Dangers are compounded when we add the element of speeding motorists who disregard traffic controls. Despite improved intersection design and more sophisticated applications of traffic engineering measures, the annual toll of human loss due to motor vehicle crashes has not substantially changed in more than 25 years. In 2008, there were 37,261 fatalities on our Nation’s roadways. Of these, 7,772 (20.8% of total fatalities) were intersection or intersection related.

The rules in Tennessee for intersections include issues such as the right-of-way, pedestrians, right turns, left turns and turn signals. Intersections include:

• Cross streets,

• Side streets,

• Driveways,

• Shopping center or parking lot entrances.

If you have read my blog in the past you know that I often refer to the concept of “traffic checks” which is the practice of looking frequently and carefully for vehicle traffic approaching from each direction. “Traffic checks” are especially important when merging or changing lanes and when approaching and crossing intersections. Below are five things to remember to navigate an intersection safely:

1. Look both ways as you near an intersection. Before you enter an intersection, continue checking traffic from both the left and right for approaching vehicles and/or crossing pedestrians. Look first to the left to make sure cross traffic is yielding the right-of-way. Then look for traffic from the right. If stopped, look both left and right just before you start moving. Look across the intersection before you start to move to make sure the path is clear through the intersection.

2. Watch your speed and be prepared to brake or stop unexpectedly at intersections if your traffic checks alert you to a possible hazard. You should slow down before reaching the intersection, drive at your slowest speed just before entering the intersection and gradually increase your speed as you cross the intersection.

3. You should be in the proper lane for the direction you intend to travel before you reach the intersection. Do not make last minute lane changes as you start through an intersection. Do not pass a vehicle in an intersection.

4. Do not move into an intersection and block it after the traffic lights have changed. This is not only common sense, but it’s also illegal to block an intersection after the light has changed.

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney I often recommend to my clients and blog readers to make the effort to contact the Department of Safety and review the Rules of the Road. If you or a loved one is injured in an intersection automobile accident, call our experienced Nashville accident attorneys and find out about your rights and remedies.