Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

Photo 01  Belize photo

Over Spring Break, we were blessed to get to vacation in Belize. On our last day of vacation, we took a catamaran to Caye Caulker.  While walking through the village, we noticed the island’s traffic laws posted on the wall.  While Title 55 of the Tennessee Code dealing with motor and other vehicles has 53 Chapters, Caye Caulker on the other hand has a very limited set of regulations.  Beyond requiring a license, registration and insurance, drivers are prohibited from driving on the airstrip runway, the beach, the football field and any unauthorized piers.  The Tennessee Legislature might take a tip or two on brevity from the Caye Caulker Traffic Control Committee.

Some other interesting fact about driving in Belize: Continue reading

insurance

Last week, a question was posted on Avvo (a legal Q & A site) seeking advice about what should be done following a car accident. The questioner was worried about getting sued, and the primary source of his anxiety was because he had substantial assets including investment accounts but he only had $100,000 in automotive insurance coverage. In particular, he wanted to know if he should  hire his own lawyer separate and apart from any lawyer hired by his insurance company?   Before I get to that, let me start with something more important.   Continue reading

SONY DSC

Earlier this month, a Shelbyville woman was arrested for her 17th DUI. No, that is not a typo– seventeen DUIs.   According to reports, the habitual drunk driver was arrested yet again after she crossed the center-line and crashed head-on into another vehicle injuring the other driver.

Of course, given her driving record, this woman should not have been driving and, in fact, her license was suspended. But she was nonetheless out on the roadways again and almost certainly she was not insured. Tragically, this is not an isolated occurrence. Fifty to seventy-five percent of drunk drivers will continue to drive on a suspended license.  If the drunk driver does not have any insurance, where does it leave the innocent victim injured by this woman’s criminal conduct? Continue reading

Wheelchair pedestrian

Being a pedestrian is dangerous. Each year in the United States roughly 5,000 people are killed in pedestrian accidents and another 76,000 are injured.  But recent data shows the risk to pedestrians using wheelchairs is even more profound as those individuals are 36% more likely to die in an accident with a vehicle. The majority of these crashes occur while the wheelchair user is properly within the crosswalk, and about 18% of the crashes occur where no crosswalk was available.  Why is this happening? Continue reading

drowsy driving

More than 1/3 of Americans have reported following asleep at the wheel, and drowsy driving causes roughly 100,000 accidents each year, claims roughly 1,500 lives and results in 71,000 injuries.  In fact, driving while sleepy can impair your performance as much as alcohol.

While drowsy driving can affect anyone, some folks are more at risk than others and include: Continue reading

Ironic door sign

Some people are natural born complainers. Like this one from Middle Class Problems on Twitter: “A pecan from my maple and pecan slice has tragically fallen into my fresh coffee. Worst day ever.” (If you have never checked out Middle Class Problems, you should.) But some of us are loathe to complain. We do not want to be perceived as demanding, obnoxious, whiny, needy, etc. Or, we don’t complain because we think it will not do any good. But from my perspective as a personal injury lawyer, there are times when it is critical to complain. Below are 5 times you should complain freely and without hesitation. Continue reading

truck

This seems to be Congress’ position on the issue. Because in the past year, they have decided to weaken a number of important safety measures despite the fact that the death toll in truck-involved crashes has risen 17 percent from 2009 to 2013 (which is the most current data) and despite the estimated cost of tractor-trailer and bus accidents is roughly $99 billion dollars a year. Yes, that is billion with a B. And, that is just economic cost.  It does not reflect the emotional suffering the victims and their families suffer as a result of these accidents. So, let’s take a look at just a few steps that Congress has taken in favor of the trucking industry and against the rest of the motoring public. Continue reading

brain photo

Each year, more than 1.4 million people will suffer a brain injury from a car accident, fall, assault or some other cause. The brain is incredibly complex and so is the treatment of brain injuries. Primarily, physicians have relied upon CAT scans and physical symptoms such as loss of consciousness, dizziness, nausea, slurred speech, confusion and the like to determine the severity of the brain injury.

But both of those methods have their limitations. For instance, CAT scans can only detect if there is cranial bleeding. They are unable to detect damaged brain cells that are not bleeding. As for the physical symptoms, they may not always be detected or reported. For instance, in a car accident, a person may lose consciousness for a short period of time and regain it before any emergency medical personnel reach the scene. Or with a young infant who has not yet learned to talk, it would be difficult to know if the child was slurring its speech or was dizzy, etc. Continue reading

teen driver

Car crashes are the number one cause of death for teenagers.  And according to AAA, the deadliest days of driving for teens are the 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  With teens out of school, they are on the roads much more and often have other passengers in their vehicles with them.  Below are some statistics for teen drivers in Tennessee and some tips on how to keep your teenager safe during this peak accident time.

First, let’s look at teen driving statistics for some Tennessee counties.  Listed below are the counties with the highest young driver (ages 15-24) crash rate rank for 2014 and the number of crashes for each county:   Continue reading

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