Halloween is a wonderful holiday for kids: costumes, trick-or-treating with friends, candy. But, it can also be a very dangerous holiday. A child is twice as likely to be hit and killed by a car on Halloween. Here are some steps to help avoid a tragic accident that will affect the lives of everyone involved forever:
Motorists:
1. Slow down and be vigilant in residential areas especially between the hours of 5:30 to 9:30.
In Nashville and other cities across Tennessee, pedestrian traffic has increased as more and more people have chosen to live in an urban environment that allows for easy walks to work, restaurants, bars, museums, and retail centers. Tennessee is also blessed with many beautiful roadways which walkers, joggers and runners use for exercise.
Now that the lovely fall weather is here and more people are getting out and about, let’s familiarize ourself with our basic rights and responsibilities as motorists and pedestrians:
1. Pedestrians have the right of way at all intersections and driveways.
With summer’s sweltering temperatures coming to an end, more Tennessee bicyclists and runners will take to the streets. So, it is a good time for all of us to remember our respective rights and responsibilities on the roadway. In Part One, we will start with bicyclists and Part Two will cover pedestrians.
Under Tennessee law, every person riding a bicycle is granted the same rights as operators of motor vehicles. Of course, bicyclists also owe certain duties. For instance, bicycle operators and passengers under age 16 must wear a helmet. All bicyclists must obey traffic signs and signals and the bike must be equipped with a head lamp and rear reflectors if riding at night. In addition, if a bicyclist is traveling at less than the normal speed of traffic, the bicyclists should ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of roadway.
Conversely, motorists must respect the bicyclists right to be on the roadway and treat the bicyclist in the same manner it would another motor vehicle. This means using proper signals, passing only where it is permitted and when it can be done safely, not tailgating or following too closely, etc.
Sports bars can be a great place to watch a football game: huge televisions, multiple games on at one time, wings, pizza and beer. In the fall, it is easy to see how an entire Saturday or Sunday afternoon can be spent at the bar watching college or professional football. Of course, if you have spent the day drinking, you have no business driving yourself home. Unfortunately, people do so, and innocent people become victims of drunk drivers and the bars that over-serve them.
In our last blog post, we discussed the criminal penalties for first time DUI, which is a misdemeanor. But if a drunk driver harms someone, in many circumstances, the conduct can rise to a felony. If a drunk driver is found guilty of vehicular assault (serious injury to another person by a DUI driver), then the offender has committed a Class D Felony which can result in license revocation from 1 to 5 years (a restricted license is not available), jail time of 2 to 12 years, a $5,000.00 fine and other costs such as attorney fees, bail, etc. Vehicular Homicide (a fatal crash caused by a DUI with a .08 BAC or more) is a Class B felony and is punishable by 8 to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.00. Aggravated Vehicular Assault While Driving Intoxicated is a Class A Felony (requires proof of prior DUI offenses) and is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.00.
In addition to criminal penalties for the drunk driver, the bar or restaurant faces misdemeanor charges if it serves alcohol to someone who is visibly intoxicated. The bar or restaurant that serves who over-served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person who gives into a car and hurts others may be responsible for any harm caused by the drunk driver such as the victim’s medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, etc. This area of the law is called dram shop or liquor liability law. To learn more about the legal liability of bars and restaurants , follow the link.
Pedestrian deaths in traffic accidents nationally increased from 4109 in 2009 to 4432 in 2011, according to the United States Department of Transportation.
Deaths to men numbered deaths to women (3086 versus 1345) and 19% of the deaths were a result of hit and run accidents.
In Tennessee, 1221 pedestrians (including skateboarders, people on roller skates, etc.) were injured or killed in traffic accidents in 2010. Davidson County, Tennessee had 275 of those injuries and deaths. There were 83 pedestrian deaths in Tennessee in 2011; the number actually dropped to 68 deaths in 2012. Unfortunately, the 2013 death rate for Tennessee pedestrians in increasing. As of the date of this blog post, 46 pedestrian deaths have occurred. At this same time in 2012, only 35 deaths had occurred.
The recent train derailment in Quebec, Canada caused me to investigate how many train accidents we have had recently in Tennessee.
In the first four months of 2013, there have been twelve incidents involving trains in Tennessee. Seven of those incidents involved derailments, the largest of which occurred in Lawrence County shortly after the first of the year. Fortunately, no personal injury occurred, but the estimate of property damage was $175,000. Only one locomotive and four cars derailed in that incident, which occurred at a relatively low rate of speed.
Two collisions of railroad cars have occurred since January 1, 2013, but each of them occurred in railway yards.
The horrible train derailment in Quebec, Canada resulted in the deaths of as many as fifty people and untold property damage.
The Canadian authorities are still investigating the cause of the incident, but several things seem to stand out. First, the 72-car train was parked and unattended at the time the incident began to occur. Apparently, there was only a one-person crew assigned to the train. A supervisor for the railway has accused the employee assigned to the train as failing to set a sufficient number of hand brakes to hold the train in place after the employee left the site and went to a local hotel to sleep.
The parent company of the owner of the train that derailed and set off a series of explosions is Rail World Inc. The actual owner of the train is Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA). MMA, which is headquartered in Chicago, has a long history of accidents in Canada, according to Transportation Safety Board data, which shows 129 accidents, including 77 derailments — some of them minor — since 2003.
A shocking number of pedestrians – 67 – died in Tennessee accidents in 2012, according to a report prepared by the Tennessee Highway Patrol that gave details on the number of motor vehicle accident deaths in Tennessee for the entire year.
Although the law protects pedestrians who cross the street in crosswalks, every adult pedestrian has the legal responsibility to exercise care for his or her safety. Likewise, drivers have the responsibility to be on the lookout for pedestrians and to exercise reasonable care to avoid striking them.
How can pedestrians avoid becoming injured or killed by motor vehicles? Follow these tips:
Most people are shocked to learn that people can catch on fire in an operating room. However, several hundred operating room fires occur every year. True, the odds of being involved in an operating room fire are quite small (there are 28 million surgeries per year) but the consequences of a fire in the operating room can be significant for the patient who happens to be involved.
Readers will find this article about operating room fire prevention to be very interesting. Here is an abstract of the article:
Operating room fires are a rare but preventable danger in modern healthcare operating rooms. Optimal outcomes depend on all operating room personnel being familiar with their roles in fire prevention and fire management. Despite the recommendations of major safety institutes, this familiarity is not the current practice in many healthcare facilities. Members of the anesthesiology and the surgery departments are commonly not actively involved in fire safety programs, fire drills, and fire simulations that could lead to potential delays in prevention and management of intraoperative fires.
Deaths of bicyclists increased 8.7 percent in 2011 according to data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The death total was 677. Another 48,000 bicyclists were injured.
The increase in bicycle deaths probably reflects more people riding bicycles to work and for pleasure, said Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies.
Motorcycle deaths also rose 2.1 percent, marking the 13th time in the last 14 years that motorcycle rider deaths have risen. Total deaths were 4612.
Tennessee Injury Law Center