Articles Posted in Automobile Accidents

Published on:

By

Buying a new car for a teenager is a momentous decision. You are concerned about safety, while your teen wants a car that’s high on horsepower and style. How do you make the right choice?

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently released its top car picks for teenagers. The list provides a comprehensive range of makes and models that parents can choose from. A look through the list will identify a few common factors that each of these models shares such as limited horsepower, large size, and a focus on safety features.

Here are some useful tips on what to look for when buying a car for your teenager:

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Car accident fatality rates are often linked to the state of the economy. As the US economy improves, experts are already identifying a perceptible increase in the number of people being killed in accidents.

The logic linking a higher risk of accidents to an improved economy is fairly simple. When the economy is good, people tend to drive more, and more numbers of vehicle miles traveled simply translates into a higher risk of accidents.  With more vehicles on the road there is a much higher risk of collisions.

It is not just the higher number of people on the roads that increases crash risks, however. It’s also the fact that people tend to drive more for recreational purposes when the economy is doing great. For instance, people are likely to travel more on holiday or go out for dinner in a good economy, compared to a distressed economy. Interestingly enough, people are also likely to drive faster when the economy is good.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

More and more accidents would be prevented every year in the U.S. if motorists would simply do the one thing that they’re supposed to do behind the wheel-focus on the task of driving. Unfortunately, far too many American motorists are engaged in a variety of different tasks while driving, increasing their risk of an accident and threatening the safety of other motorists, passengers, and pedestrians.

The National Safety Council last month delivered the results of new findings which once again underscored how serious the problem of distracted driving is. April was National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and to mark this month, the National Safety Council compiled the results of earlier surveys. The exercise yielded some very startling facts.

As many as 50% of all drivers believe that it is acceptable and perfectly safe for a person to text either using a manual device, or a voice-activated system. About half of all drivers also confirm that they are under constant pressure from their employers to remain accessible while driving.  Forty four percent admit that they have been involved in an accident during the past three years while traveling to work.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Sleep experts have long believed that drowsiness or lack of sleep contributes to a higher accident risk involving drowsy drivers. A new study strongly confirms the link between less sleep and a higher accident risk.

Earlier research conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety had estimated that a total of 7% of all accidents, including 21% of all fatal accidents involve drowsy driving. However, clear data about the exact link between less sleep and higher crash risk was not available. Recently, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety conducted another study in which it examined data involving accidents that occurred between 2005 and 2007.  This time, researchers found a strong relationship between the number of hours of sleep a driver had in the previous 24 hours and their accident risk.

Specifically, they found that drivers who had slept for less than four hours had their accident risk increase by 11.5 times the crash rate, compared to drivers who had slept for seven hours or more in the past 24 hours. Similarly, drivers who had slept for 4 to 5 hours, 5 to 6 hours, and 6 to 7 hours had a crash risk that was 4.3, 1.9 and 1.3 times the crash rate, respectively, of a person who had slept for more than seven hours.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

As the bad news on distracted driving continues to grow, there is some good news in the war against drunk driving. A new study indicates that the popularity of ridesharing apps like Lyft and Uber is contributing to a drop in drunk driving collisions.

The study was conducted in New York, and focused on those areas of the city that had been very quick to adopt Uber. Researchers compared accident rates in each of the city’s five boroughs, and found that the rate of alcohol-related car collisions dropped significantly in those boroughs which had quickly adopted Uber. In Staten Island, where Uber took a longer time to gain popularity, the rate remained the same. Earlier reports have also indicated some impact of ridesharing apps on people’s decisions and actions related to driving after consuming alcohol.

However, another study conducted last July yielded vastly different findings. According to data collected from around the country, ridesharing seems to have no effect on the number of people killed in drunk driving accidents on weekends or major holidays. Those researchers point to the fact that there still aren’t enough ridesharing drivers on the road to actually make a dent in the high rates of intoxicated driving on major holidays and weekends.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Millennial drivers between the ages of 19 and 20 are most likely to engage in dangerous driving behaviors, and those behaviors expose them to increased accident risks.

Those are the results of a new study that was published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The study found that 88% of young millennials admitted to engaging in at least one risky driving activity over the past month.  Some of these driving behaviors included texting while driving, running red lights, and driving at excessive speeds.

The increasing number of millennials on our roads could, therefore, partly explain the significant increase in traffic accident fatalities recorded in 2015. That year, there were 35,092 traffic accident fatalities, an increase of more than 7%, coming after years of declining fatalities. Those disturbing statistics indicate that there are other factors in play, besides non-adherence to distracted driving laws and speeding, which are contributing to this spike in fatalities.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Apple is at the center of a class-action lawsuit filed by a man who claims that the company was negligent in its failure to implement an anti-distracted driving safety feature that it had patented.

The California man was involved in an accident in which he was rear-ended by a motorist, who was using her iPhone while driving. He suffered back injuries, and also suffered extensive damage to his vehicle.

He has now filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the smart phone maker had patented a lockout mechanism which would have helped prevent an accident like his. This lockout mechanism disables smart phones, preventing a motorist from performing functions like texting while driving.  While Apple has patented the technology, it has not added the lockout technology to its best-selling devices.  This decision by Apple was made even though the company was very clearly aware of the dangers of distracted driving.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

By September 2019, all new hybrid and electric vehicles in the United States must come with a sound-emitting device that will help reduce the risk of pedestrian accidents.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new rule requires that all hybrid, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles be equipped with an acoustic device to help prevent pedestrian accidents. These quiet vehicles pose a potential hazard because pedestrians, both blind and sighted, very often fail to realize that they are in the path of an oncoming quiet car.  NHTSA estimates that there are as many as 2,400 pedestrian injuries every year that occur as the result of collisions involving these cars.

The agency clearly lays out the minimum sound requirements for both electric and hybrid vehicles with a gross weight of 10,000 pounds or less.  The requirement asks manufacturers to ensure that these devices produce sounds that meet the minimal requirements of the standard, and which are high enough so that both blind as well as sighted pedestrians can recognize the danger of an accident and can easily move to avoid one. The noise must be audible, and must be produced when the car is traveling at a speed of less than 19 mph. Vehicles that are moving at greater than this speed do not need to emit the sound, because the wind noise generated by the car traveling at high speeds, is deemed sufficient to alert pedestrians.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

One of the most distracting activities behind the wheel does not involve any kind of electronic device. The simple act of eating or snacking while driving can significantly increase your risks of being involved in a motor vehicle collision.

According to researchers, a person’s crash risk increases by as much as 70% when he’s driving while eating or drinking.  Any kind of behavior that takes your hand away from the steering wheel and your eyes off the road, constitutes a distraction while driving.  Avoiding these behaviors is one important way to keep safe while traveling.  Whether you are chowing down a breakfast during the morning rush hour, or snacking on the way home, your risks of an accident are magnified.

Unfortunately, while many motorists seem to appreciate the dangers of using a cell phone or texting while driving, they may not fully understand the dangers of snacking while driving. Let’s face it. We have all snacked or sipped a beverage while driving at some point.  According to one study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers between the ages of 40 and 50 are much more likely to snack while driving, compared to drivers of other age groups.  Drivers between the ages of 20 and 30 are next on the list, followed by drivers between the ages of 16 and 17. People also tend to snack and drive more frequently when they are alone, compared to when they are with other passengers.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Georgia personal injury law allows victims of accidents to recover compensation for injuries caused by the negligence of other persons and companies.  If you have been involved in an accident, it is important to not only learn about our State’s laws, but also understand specific doctrines, like comparative negligence, that may affect your claim.

Accident victims are sometimes surprised when they are blamed for their own injuries. However, that does happen and in many more cases than most people realize.  The other party in your claim could attempt to point the finger at you, claiming that you were responsible for your own injuries by your own negligence.  For example, if investigations find that you were also negligent because you were on your cell phone at the time, or because you were also speeding, then Georgia’s comparative fault laws may apply to your claim, making it difficult for you to recover the full amount of your damages.

In a case like this, the courts will reduce the damages that you are eligible for by the percentage that you are at fault in the accident. For instance, if the court decides that the other person was 80% at fault in the accident, while you were 20% at fault, it will reduce the damages that are recoverable by you by 20%.

Continue reading →
Contact Information
Atlanta Office
945 East Paces Ferry Rd #2230
Atlanta, GA 30326
Toll Free: (888) 636-6700
Decatur Office
150 E Ponce De Leon Ave, #300
Decatur, GA 30030

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2021, ROBERT N. KATZ, ESQ.
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design