Roadway Departure Fatality

Five Tennessee teenagers riding in an SUV, several of the passengers were not wearing their seatbelts and the driver was speeding. Does this sound like a recipe for disaster? A disaster it was. One teen, a female, was ejected from the vehicle and killed upon impact, three others were hospitalized.

According to an article on the website www2.tricities.com/ it appears that this was another in an epidemic of fatal roadway departure crashes that are becoming an everyday occurrence in Tennessee. Bristol Tennessee police investigators said the driver lost control on a curvy stretch of roadway, lost control and over-corrected sending the already top-heavy SUV into a tumble.

As an experienced Nashville automobile accident attorney I always pay particular attention to accidents involving teenagers, especially teenage boys. According to The Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for more than one in three deaths in this age group. In 2005, twelve teens ages 16 to 19 died every day from motor vehicle injuries.

The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash. In 2005, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers and passengers ages 16 to 19 was more than one and a half times that of their female counterparts.

In the United States during 2005, 4,544 teens ages 16 to 19 died of injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes. In the same year, nearly 400,000 motor vehicle occupants in this age group sustained nonfatal injuries that required treatment in an emergency department. Overall, in 2005, teenagers accounted for 10 percent of the U.S. population and 12 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths.

Young people ages 15-24 represent only 14% of the U.S. population. However, they account for 30% ($19 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among males and 28% ($7 billion) of the total costs of motor vehicle injuries among females.

if you or a loved one is involved in a serious injury caused by a teen driver contact the experienced Nashville auto injury lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates.

Allstate Insurance Co. a major player in the car accident insurance business has recently released a report ranking Nashville 35^th among the 200 biggest U.S. cities for safe driving. Gannett Tennessee in a recent article noted that the report shows Nashville drivers average 10.6 years between collisions based on insurance claims in 2006-2007.

Unfortunately Nashvillians are trending upward and are a bit more accident prone than they were four years ago, when the average was 11.4 years between collisions.

The bad news is in the area of teen drivers (as opposed to older drivers who have far fewer fatalities). The report showed that the Nashville ranked fourth in the nation for driving deaths among 50 metropolitan areas. The article quotes Elizabeth Hosmer of the Governors Highway Safety Office as saying that, “A lot of it’s speed, and their driving skills aren’t as good as they should be.” As Tennessee car accident lawyers we see too often that teen drivers don’t understand the responsibility that they have when they get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. All too often the death of a friend or family member has to occur before it gets their attention. 4th in the Nation for teen fatalities? Nashville drivers and parents should be concerned.

Although conditions for driving are worse at other times of year, it’s the summer when we are all at more risk of being in an car wreck. The principle reason? Teenagers. Although we are entitled to assume all drivers will follow the rules of the road and obey traffic signals, being paranoid is probably the best policy during the “high teen driving months”.