As an experienced Nashville auto accident lawyer, I often come into contact with the EMS folks who respond to Tennessee automobile accidents. Over the several decades I’ve been in this business I’ve interviewed hundreds of these brave and often unappreciated lifesavers.

The dangers they face everyday are not the kind the things that a normal Joe or Jane could handle. When we think about the normal dangers of accident scene work, like being hit by a car, extracting injured drivers and passengers,  back injuries from lifting heavy people as well as the emotional trauma associated with seeing dead and badly injured fellow human beings.

They are especially vulnerable to injuries from crashes themselves caused by inattentive drivers who ignore the lights and sirens. There is another type of danger that we seldom think of when we ponder this situation and that is physical assaults by the patients, passengers and onlookers.

A study conducted in 1999 concluded that during 12-years in EMS, those paramedics received an average of 9 assaults per paramedic. Assault injuries resulted in 170 cases of blunt trauma, 73 lacerations, 2 gun shot wounds, 10 stabbings, 1 burn, 8 fractures, 9 dislocations, 1 choking, and 56 cases of miscellaneous body injuries. And then there is always the possibility of being contaminated by blood from people infected by HIV/AIDS.

Thanks To All Emergency Responders

At Philiip Miller & Associates the experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys are ever grateful to the men and women who do this essential service. For information about automobile accidents check us out online.

Ten Year Old Killed

According to local media reports a medical emergency was the cause of a crash that claimed the life of two people, one of them a 10-year-old girl.

The reports said that a man and two children were driving in a Ford Expedition when they were struck by on the passenger side by a Honda Accord. Apparently, the Honda driver didn’t have a history of medical problems but something caused him to lose consciousness. The report went on to say that the man had just spoken to his wife by cell phone and told her he wasn’t feeling well.

After passing out, his car accelerated through the parking lot of a market, and according to several witnesses went airborne before slamming into the SUV. My prayers go out to the family and friends of the deceased and the two other passenger who were injured.

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.

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.

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.

Elderly Drivers

As our population ages we might expect to see more Tennessee automobile accidents caused by drivers who suffer medical emergencies while they are driving. 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 Tennessee 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.

Reference a recent fatal one-car accident near Chattanooga Tennessee the other day. A vehicle was driving along the roadway when for some reason it ran a red light, crossed an intersection left the roadway and into a bank parking lot at which time it crashed in a parked vehicle. The driver was pulled from his vehicle almost immediately but he was already dead.

An autopsy will probably be able to determine whether the driver died behind the wheel and then crashed the car, or whether he was killed by the collision. As with most driving problems, education is the key to preventing fatal crashes. 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.

Drunk Driver On Trial

In some Tennessee automobile accidents an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney will be able to identify entities other than a drunken driver who may be liable for damages because of their actions leading up to the collision. A good example is exemplified by a lawsuit filed the other day in Davidson County, Tennessee Circuit Court filed by members of the family of a newly wed couple who were killed when their vehicle was hit by a car driven by a drunk man.

The lawsuit names the drunk as well as the bar he was drinking in, Sam’s All American Sports Grill in Hendersonville. The suit claims that agents of the bar knew, or, through the exercise of due care, should have known that the guy was way past drunk and yet they continued to served him alcoholic beverages and that they were responsible for the loss to the Plaintiffs.

The Tennessee Dram Shop law establishes liability arising out of the irresponsible sale or provision of alcohol to obviously intoxicated persons or minors who subsequently cause death or injury to third parties as a result of alcohol-related car crashes and other accidents. I will keep up with this case and report later on the outcome.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a drunk driver and you hope to recover all of the damages the law allows you need to consult with an experienced Tennessee automobile accident attorney like those at Phillip Miller & Associates. We offer a free consultation so that you can gain the information you will need to face this odyssey through the legal system.

Get This Guy Off Of The Street

I’ve been a Tennessee automobile accident lawyer for several decades and I’m still amazed at the stupid things people do when they are behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

Before I get into the facts of the accident I need to point out that the driver of the offending vehicle has had his driver’s license suspended and is a habitual motor vehicle offender for his past transgressions.

So, here is this habitual motor vehicle offender, and in Tennessee we have far too many of them, fails to keep his pickup truck under control and slams into the rear-end of a stopped vehicle. This crash set into motion a six-car wreck. Fortunately no one was seriously injured.

To compound his problems this fellow then jumps put of his vehicle and flees the scene of this motor vehicle accident. Is this guy going to ever make a correct decision? He is prohibited from operating a motor vehicle yet he gets behind the wheel. He fails to maintain control of his motor vehicle and wrecks some cars and then flees the scene, all really stupid decisions.

Finally he decides to turn himself into the authorities, a good decision, so maybe all is not lost. It’s time for this guy to be taken off of the road for good and if that means jailing him, so be it, but get him off the road.

The problem that arises in Tennessee automobile accidents like this is this guy, and others like him will not have insurance, and in order to recover damages from him an innocent driver will have to rely on their own uninsured motorist policy to collect.

There are things that can be done and if you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee motor vehicle accident like this one contact the experienced Tennessee auto accident lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation.

Red Light Runners Watch Out

According to an article in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, as of this past Tuesday night the city of Millington has become the latest Tennessee city to approve using Red Light Cameras (RLC) to help reduce intersection accidents.

Intersection and intersection-related crashes consistently make up a high proportion of total fatal crashes, up to 23 percent. More than 50 percent of the combined fatal and injury crashes occur at intersections. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that in 2005 alone, nearly 9,200 people died and approximately one million people were injured in intersection-related crashes which account for approximately 40-45 percent of all crashes. According to 2005 data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, crashes caused by red light running (RLR) resulted in an estimated 805 fatalities.

Based on national data, the typical red light runner (RLR) is younger, is driving alone, has no children, and is in a rush to work or school in the morning hours on weekdays.  If a parent, the RLR most likely has children less than 20-years-old, is employed in jobs requiring less education (i.e., blue collar, lower technology), or is unemployed. The RLR is more than two miles from home and is more likely to have been ticketed for red light running in the past. RLR is a dangerous form of aggressive driving. Based on self-reported behavioral surveys, RLR is a result of people wanting to save time. However, several factors can lead to RLR such as impatient and inattentive drivers, improperly timed traffic signals, lack of enforcement efforts and the attitude that no harm will come from running a red light.

Additional Program Efforts

In addition to the RLCs the city should also hold press conferences to announce the RLC program and educate drivers on the statistics of injuries and deaths due to RLR and speeding. Accompanying the public announcement they should encourage radio and TV stations to warn people of the danger of RLR and educate them on the new RLC system. Radio stations can do live broadcasts from high-crash intersections in town. Stations can give away promotional items in support of the goal of reducing injuries and deaths at intersections. Strict and effective enforcement by local police at all intersections would also help solve this problem.

Pedestrian safety is also an important issue related to intersection crashes. Approximately one out of five accidents at signalized intersections involve a turning vehicle hitting a pedestrian. The split between left-turning and right-turning accidents is about 60/40.  Furthermore, the proportion of accidents involving pedestrians and left-turning vehicles varies from 17 to 32 percent of all pedestrian accidents at the intersection. Thus, left-turning movements at signalized intersections represent a considerable safety problem to pedestrians.

In Millington there was one dissenting Alderman who says he is not convinced that the data shows that the cameras are effective. Economic analysis showed that RLCs saved society $39,000 to $50,000 annually at each intersection where they are installed. (The costs considered include: hospital bills, property damage to vehicles, insurance expenses, value of lost quality of life, and other costs.) Analysis of data in the most comprehensive study to date (Safety Evaluation of Red-Light Cameras (FHWA-HRT-05-048, April 2005)) from seven jurisdictions (Baltimore; Charlotte; El Cajon, CA; Howard County, MD; Montgomery County, MD; San Diego; San Francisco) at 132 intersections using RLCs found:

* 25% decrease of total right-angle crashes

* 16% decrease of injury right-angle crashes

* 15% increase of total rear-end crashes

* 24% increase of injury rear-end crashes

If you or a loved one is injured in a Nashville intersection collision contact our experienced Nashville automobile accident attorneys at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies. We offer a free consultation to victims of Tennessee automobile accidents as well as the families of the victims.