Head On Crash Takes Two Lives

A tragic late night roadway departure crash claims two lives in Scott County Tennessee this past weekend. Local media, citing a Tennessee Highway Patrol accident report, says just before 10:30 on Sunday, a 27-year-old Huntsville man, was driving a Ford Fusion north on Highway 27 in Helenwood. The report goes on to say that the man crossed the center lane- smashing into a Mercury Cougar being driven by an 18-year-old driver who was heading south. Such a tragic loss of life.

Investigators and grieving family and friends will probably never know what so distracted the first driver and caused him to cross the centerline. Our prayers go out to all of the people involved in the lives of these two young men.

It seems to me, that distracted drivers cause most Tennessee car accidents. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes. Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event.

In studies by the NHTSA the most common distraction for drivers is the use of cell phones.  However, the number of crashes and near-crashes attributable to dialing is nearly identical to the number associated with talking or listening.  Dialing is more dangerous but occurs less often than talking or listening.

Reaching for a moving object increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by 9 times; looking at an external object by 3.7 times; reading by 3 times; applying makeup by 3 times; dialing a hand-held device (typically a cell phone) by almost 3 times; and talking or listening on a hand-held device by 1.3 times. Drivers who engage frequently in distracting activities are more likely to be involved in an inattention-related crash or near crash.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Nashville automobile accident by a distracted driver contact the experienced Tennessee car crash lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates and find out about your rights and remedies.

Distracted Drivers Die

A 24-year-old Adamsville, Tennessee woman was killed in a roadway departure crash the other day, another in a growing epidemic. Her car went off of Michie Pebble Hill Road in Michie and collided with a tree, according to a report from the Tennessee Highway Patrol. My prayers go out to the family and friends of this young woman.

A local media report said the woman was headed south on Michie Pebble Hill Road when her car slid off the roadway while attempting to negotiate a curve. No one else was injured in the one-vehicle crash.

Traffic investigators will have a hard time trying to determine what caused the woman to lose control. Speed may be the culprit or it might have been that she was somehow distracted from the task at hand.

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.  Primary causes of driver inattention are distracting activities, such as cell phone use, and drowsiness.

If you are involved in a Tennessee automobile accident caused by a distracted driver you are going to need an experienced and sophisticated Nashville auto accident attorney like those you will find at Phillip Miller & Associates

Deputy Dies In Roadway Departure Crash

As an experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer I regularly mention in my Blog my gratitude for the brave men and women who patrol our highways and byways. Last week I wrote about a serious crash involving a Union County, Tennessee deputy. I am very sorry to report to you that the deputy passed away over the weekend. My prayers go out to his family and friends.

Deputy Derrick Whittle was responding to a domestic call when his patrol car left the highway and slammed into a tree. Local media reports don’t mention the circumstances that led to the wreck. The lesson for all Tennessee drivers is that no matter who we are or what we are doing, we must remain alert, avoid distractions and more speed than the road can handle.

Have you or a loved one been injured in a Nashville motorcycle accident or auto accident as a result of distracted driving or other negligent driving?  If so, you should call the experienced Nashville personal injury lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates, a Nashville motorcycle accident lawyer from our law firm will fight to help you win. We will treat you with the utmost compassion and respect. Call us today and speak with an experienced Nashville personal injury lawyer to discuss the details of your case. Call (615) 356-2000.

Constable Dies From Injuries

Several weeks ago I wrote about a deadly roadway departure crash that took the life of a female passenger in a vehicle driven by a Carter County, Tennessee. Local media reports today indicate that Constable Ross Potter died from injuries sustained in the August 4th car crash.

Constable Potter, 81, was driving his department vehicle when he crashed into a light pole off Tenn. Highway 91. The vehicle left the highway, traveled some distance before re-entering the highway, and then crossed all lanes before crossing Blue Springs Road and striking a utility pole head-on, the paper reports. Our prayers go out to the family and friends of both of these victims.

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.

According to the Federal Highway Administration roadway departure crashes are frequently severe and account for the majority of highway fatalities. The lesson here for Tennessee drivers is that you must keep all of your attention on the acting of driving and avoid distractions. You never know when another driver is going to fall asleep, have a medical emergency or get distracted and leave their lane and initiate a deadly collision.

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

Pay Attention

When something has you upset it might be best to pull over and wait until you have composed yourself before you start to drive again. This was the lesson a Johnson City woman wishes she would have heeded. She did not, and she and her vehicle ended up going out of control and crashing into the front of Knight’s Food & Sports, 1701 W. State of Franklin Road.

The woman told local police investigators that she was upset and was driving too fast when she lost control and hit the building. The woman is lucky that she didn’t hit a pedestrian or another vehicle and end up facing serious criminal charges.

We talk a lot about distractions being the number one cause of vehicle accidents and for the most part the distraction is a cell phone or the driver is not paying attention while talking to a passenger or eating something. Being angry or upset with someone or something can be just as big a distraction. Remember, it only takes a minute or less lose control and hit something.

If you or a loved one is injured or killed in a Tennessee car crash caused 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.

Avoid Distractions

Even the most well trained drivers can become victims of distracted driving if they don’t keep their eyes and their attention on the road ahead. Law enforcement officers see the direct result of distracted driving every day as vehicles leave the roadway and hit something hard. Many times the driver over corrects and the vehicle goes out of control and crashes.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) distraction is anything that diverts the driver’s attention from the primary tasks of navigating the vehicle and responding to critical events. To put it another way, a distraction is anything that takes your eyes off the road (visual distraction), your mind off the road (cognitive distraction), or your hands off the wheel (manual distraction). So when you think about tasks that can be a driving distraction, you can see that they often fit into more than one category: eating is visual and manual, whereas using a navigation system is all three.

There are two basic components of the distraction safety problem: The attentional demands of the distracting task and the frequency with which drivers choose to multitask.  Task demands relate to the amount of resources (visual, cognitive, manual) required to perform the task.  The other issue is exposure, which is how often drivers engage in the task.  Putting those two concepts together, even an easy task can be a bigger safety problem if the person does the task 50% of their driving time.

In the case at hand the accident involved Carter County Tennessee Sheriff Chiris Mathes who was reaching for a set of keys that he dropped and while he took his eyes off the road, he slammed into a bridge railing causing his car to overturn. On second thought the Sheriff might have waited to perform the task until after he had stopped the vehicle.

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 and experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer contact the lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Interstate Roadway Departure Crash

Nashville Police investigators believe excessive speed played a role in an early morning car accident that killed one person just before 3 a.m. on I-65 northbound, near the Trinity Lane exit.

For some unknown reason the driver the driver lost control, left the road and struck a guardrail then hit a support beam of an overhead traffic sign, causing the sign to fall onto the interstate. The 36-year-old Nashville man was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident and was ejected from his vehicle.

An autopsy will determine whether the man suffered a medical emergency and a toxicology screen will be conducted to determine if alcohol or drugs also played a role in the fatal accident. Other causes such as falling asleep and driver distraction will be harder to prove, but tire marks and cell phone record might shed some light on the issue.

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.

According to the Federal Highway Administration roadway departure crashes are frequently severe and account for the majority of highway fatalities. In 2008, there were 19,794 fatal roadway departure crashes resulting in 22,080 fatalities, which was 53 percent of the fatal crashes in the United States. FHWA uses the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to compute statistics on roadway departure crashes.

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.

Distractions Can Kill

Nashville traffic investigators will certainly be interested to find out what distracted a Nashville mother to such an extent that she lost control of her automobile, hit a utility pole, left the road and ended up in a creek. First Responder crews were able to extract the woman and her two children. They were taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Whenever you see an accident, usually involving one car that leaves the road, an experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer starts thinking about driver distractions. Just what was the driver doing moments before the crash that caused his/her vehicle to go off the highway? What caused the driver to change focus from driving to other things?

The lesson here for Nashville drivers is that you must keep all of your attention on the acting of driving and avoid distractions.

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 and experienced Tennessee automobile accident lawyer contact the lawyers at Phillip Miller & Associates for a free consultation to learn about your rights and remedies.

Tennessee Child Fatality

The 24-year-old Columbia Tennessee woman did the best she could under the circumstances, but in the end, she crashed head-on into another vehicle. According to local media and Tennessee Highway Patrol reports, the woman and her four-year-old child were driving along State Highway 431 at the Franklin Highway Bridge when an oncoming car driven by 28-year-old Brandon Woods for some unknown reason crossed into her lane.

According to the report she tried to avoid a head-on collision by turning into his lane, but the corrected, returned to his lane and slammed into her car. The tragic news is that her 4-year-old child was killed in the crash.

The young mother didn’t have any real options, for some reason the other vehicle crossed the centerline and was traveling directly at her, she did what any other driver would have done, unfortunately the other driver, having initially made the wrong move, put himself directly in their path. My prayers go out to the family and friends of this mother and child. We pray that she makes a speedy and complete recovery.

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. According to the Federal Highway Administration, roadway departure crashes are frequently severe and account for the majority of highway fatalities.

Just what the other driver was doing that caused him to take his eyes off his driving and cross that centerline will be the big question when he is called before a jury of his peers and asked to explain himself. Statistics show that the distraction was probably a cell phone and I’m sure the investigators will secure and review his cell phone record to determine use at or near the time of the crash.

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.

Teen Driver Dies Behind The Wheel

Since the 16-year-old Gibson County teen driver was driving alone we will probably never know what it was that distracted her and caused her to lose control of her vehicle on Tennessee Highway 420. According to local media reports the 16-year-old was driving along and her car went out of control in a turn and slammed into a Honda Pilot traveling in the opposite direction.

The 33-year-old Honda driver was injured as were his 28, 5, and 8-month-old passengers. Luckily, all of the others involved in the crash as well as the deceased were wearing their seatbelts.

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. While these numbers are signi!cant, they may not state the true size of the problem, since the identification of distraction and its role in the crash by law enforcement can be very difficult.

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.  Primary causes of driver inattention are distracting activities, such as cell phone use, and drowsiness.

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.