Don't Let Your Guard Down

In my last Blog I wrote about how no matter how careful you are driving, you must keep a sharp watch out for other drivers. Never let your guard down. Reference a fatal accident on I-440 in Nashville. The crash occurred at the beginning of the rush hour when a when a westbound Toyota Corolla lost control, crossed the grass median and went airborne.

The Toyota landed in the cab of a pickup driven by a 50-year-old Nashvillian. The man never had a chance and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Corolla, 43-year-old Nashville woman received non-life threatening injuries and was taken to Vanderbilt Medical Center. Police have not determined why the woman lost control of the vehicle.

As an experienced Nashville personal injury lawyer, from the limited facts I have from local media reports, I suspect that the investigation will find that the woman was speeding and distracted while using a cell phone or other electronic device. Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes.

Distraction from the primary task of driving could present a serious and potentially deadly danger. In 2008, 5,870 people lost their lives and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police-reported crashes in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported on the crash report.

Drivers who use a cell phone – either handheld or hands-free, are four times more likely to be involved in a crash, according to a 1997 New England Journal of Medicine examination of hospital records, and a 2005 study funded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, linking injury crashes to cell phone records.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee car crash by a distracted driver or a case like the present one that will require an experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer contact the lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Why The Hurry?

A Nashville woman was killed when she hit a parked car and left the roadway shortly before midnight. Investigating officers said the Speed seems to be the cause of the accident and that there was no evidence of alcohol or drugs at the scene.

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. In 2007, speeding was a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes, and 13,040 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes.

The lesson of this incident for all Nashville drivers is obvious, respect the streets and the other drivers. Speeding is a dangerous game and can end in death for the speeder, the driver and passengers of the other vehicles and for innocent pedestrians.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a speeding driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies at no charge.

Speeding Driver Leaves The Road

Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation. Another thing that speed does, is it reduces the time from distraction to roadway departure.

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney we know that these crashes are referred to as “Roadway Departure Crashes” (RDCs). The Federal Highway Administration defines a RDC as a non-intersection crash that occurs when a vehicle crosses an edge line or a centerline, or otherwise leaves the traveled way. Roadway departure crashes are frequently severe and account for the majority of highway fatalities.

Tennessee State Troopers in Clarksville Tennessee say that speed was the cause of a fatal accident on I-24. The police report says that the 23-year-old male driver was traveling at “a high rate of speed” when he lost control, entered the median and slammed into a tree killing his passenger, a 42-year-old Clarksville woman.

Speed kills is not just a slogan it’s a fact and this Tennessee automobile accident proves it.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Tennessee car accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Tennessee personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Good Samaritan Pedestrian Killed

Only the most selfish, cold-hearted kind of person would drive by the scene of a Tennessee automobile accident and refuse to offer help. Providing aide could be as small a thing as calling 911 emergency and staying in your vehicle at the scene until help arrives. The Tennessee Rules of the Road suggests that if we stop to aide another driver that  we pull to the shoulder and activate our emergency signals. If we exit our vehicle to provide further assistance we should make every effort to be mindful of oncoming traffic.

On the other hand, as a driver we need to pay particular attention to vehicle flashing their emergency blinkers. We should slow immediately and engage our emergency blinkers as we slowly proceed upon the scene. Reference a terrible accident in McMinn County Tennessee in the early morning hours. It appears that Jeep had rolled over in the lane and another driver, a 25-year-old woman stopped to lend assistance. Enter a teenage driver driving a Camaro at a high rate of speed and hitting our Good Samaritan and killing her.

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. The economic cost of speeding-related crashes is estimated to be in excess of 40.4 billion dollars per year. In 2007, speeding was a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes, and 13,040 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes. The total economic cost of crashes was estimated at $230.6 billion in 2000.

If you or a loved is seriously injured or killed in a Tennessee motor vehicle accident caused by a speeding driver you ought to contact the experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.

Tractro-Trailer Fatality

We will probably never know what caused a Tennessee tractor-trailer driver to lose control of his blue International tractor on a busy Houston highway, the dead tell no tales. According to HPD Traffic Investigators the driver failed to control his speed and rammed into the rear end of another tractor-trailer. The second truck lost control after being hit and flipped over and caught fire. The second driver was treated at the scene and released.

As an experienced Tennessee tractor-trailer accident lawyer I can tell you there is nothing more dangerous on the highways of Tennessee as a speeding tractor-trailer. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation.

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. The economic cost of speeding-related crashes is estimated to be in excess of 40.4 billion dollars per year. In 2007, speeding was a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes, and 13,040 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes.

Another distinct possibility is that the driver was somehow distracted by one or more of the usual suspects, cell phones, texting, GPS, radios and in more and more cases, television and videos. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes. Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event.

If you or someone you love has been hurt in a serious Tennessee tractor-trailer accident due to somebody else’s negligence, then you may be feeling angry, frightened, or even alone in your suffering.

There is no reason for you to bear your burden alone.  The experience of a Tennessee tractor-trailer accident is traumatic enough and your recovery will bring its own challenges.  You don’t need the added stress of worrying about who will pay for the medical care you need, how your car will be repaired, and if the individuals responsible for your suffering will be brought to justice.  This is the time to call Phillip Miller & Associates, the law firm of local Tennessee personal injury attorneys and staff who for the past 25 years have dedicated their lives to protecting the rights of injured men, women, and children in Tennessee.

Speeding and No Seat Belts

According to Ohio State Troopers, Tennessee residents Nicholas and Beth Poe weren’t wearing their seatbelts when their Nissan Maxima slammed into a dump truck. Troopers also opined that speed appeared to play a part in the crash. The investigation is continuing and the Troopers preliminary report didn’t give enough information to get a complete picture of what happened, but as an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney, I can tell you without hesitation that the two identified factors of speed and no seatbelts never lead to a happy ending.

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. The economic cost of speeding-related crashes is estimated to be in excess of 40.4 billion dollars per year. In 2007, speeding was a contributing factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes, and 13,040 lives were lost in speeding-related crashes. The total economic cost of crashes was estimated at $230.6 billion in 2000. Motor-vehicle crashes cost society an estimated $7,300 per second. In 2000, the cost of speeding-related crashes was estimated to be $40.4 billion, $76,865 per minute or $1,281 per second. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while the driver reacts to a dangerous situation.

The use of seat belts are required by Tennessee and Ohio law. Seat belts help prevent injury five different ways, by:

1. Preventing ejection: Ejection greatly increases the chance of death or serious injury.  The chance of being killed in a crash by being ejected from a vehicle is one in eight.  Safety belts virtually eliminate ejection.  The belted driver stays inside the car and is better protected from injury.

2. Shifting crash forces to the strongest parts of the body’s structure.  To get the most benefit from a seat belt, be aware of the following points:

• The lap belt should be worn low over the pelvis with the bottom edge touching the tops of the thighs snugly.

• The shoulder belt should be worn over the shoulder and across the chest, not under the arm and over the abdomen.  Make certain that the shoulder belt is not worn so loosely that it slides off the shoulder.

• Pregnant women should wear the lap belt below the abdomen and the shoulder belt above the belly.

3. Spreading crash forces over a wide area of the body.  Safety belts reduce the possibility of injury from “hostile” surfaces inside the car (steering wheel, dashboard, windshield, controls, etc.).  Even if the belted driver collides with some of these surfaces, it happens with much less force and often results in less serious injury.

4. Keeping the body more closely in the “proper driving posture.” The belt keeps the driver “in the driver’s seat.”  The belted driver is better able to deal with emergencies and often avoids more serious trouble.

5. Protecting the head and spinal cord. The belted driver is less likely to be stunned or made unconscious by the crash and is better able to cope with the situation. Research has found that proper use of lap/shoulder belts reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent (for occupants of light trucks, 60 percent and 65 percent respectively)

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a speeding driver contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies at no charge.

Reckless Driving

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I can tell you for a fact that speed can cause an accident. Add slick tires and reckless driving and a driver not wearing a safety belt and you are just about assured that something bad is going to happen. Reference an article in the Knoxville News reporting on the death of a Morgan County Deputy Sheriff. The article quoted investigating State Trooper Scott Hines as saying that weather conditions played no role in the fatal Tennessee car crash. “It was all speed, slick tires and reckless driving,” the trooper said. “But if he’d been wearing a seat belt, he’d probably have walked away.” According to the Trooper the car ran off the road at a high rate of speed, hit some plastic pipe and a fire hydrant throwing the driver from the car.

This driver created a perfect storm for disaster and if you look for something good about this situation it’s that no other person did not draw another driver or pedestrian into the accident. If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a speeding reckless driver you owe it to yourself to contact the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and take advantage of a free consultation to find out about your rights and remedies.