Motor Vehicle Cases

July 1, 2010

Tennessee Court of Appeals Uses Photographs in Opinion

Judge Susano and his colleagues on the Eastern Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals issued an opinion yesterday in Usher v. Charles Blalock & Sons, Inc. The opinion addresses some important issues of Tennessee law, but is mentioned here because it utlizies photographs scanned into the body of the opinion to help the reader understand how the wreck occurred.

From time to time, I have seen drawings (and maybe even a photograph) appended to court opinions but I do not recall seeing a photograph inserted into the text of a Tennessee appellate opinion. The photographs help tell the story in this case, and Judge Susano and his colleagues are to be congratulated for using them.

Usher has been assigned Case No. E2009-00658-COA-R3-CV. The opinion was released on June 30, 2010.

May 20, 2010

Tennessee County Maps

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Can’t quite figure out if that automobile accident case happened in Davidson or Wilson County, Tennessee? This website has a detailed map of every Tennessee county that you can use to start your investigation into this issue.

May 3, 2010

Oprah Lends Support to Safe Driving Practices

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

PC Magazine Oprah Winfrey has been urging her viewers to promise not to text or make telephone calls while driving. Last Friday she dedicated her show to the subject.

Some 23 states, including Tennessee, have laws banning texting while driving. Eight other states have partial bans on texting while driving. This chart summarizes the law of those states.

A July 2009 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute concluded that texting while driving increases the risk of a crash by 20 times. A recent University of Utah study reached a similar result. The Secretary of Transportation has testified that distracted drivers caused the death of nearly 6000 people in 2008.

April 26, 2010

FHWA Adopts the 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Federal Highway Administration has ruled that the 2009 Edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices must be adopted by the states as their legal standard for traffic control devices within two years. Here is an excerpt of the Federal Register discussing the rule change.

The MUTCD contains all national design, application, and placement, standards, guidance, options, and support provisions for traffic control devices. The purpose of the MUTCD is to provide uniformity of these devices, which include signs, signals, and pavement markings, to promote highway safety and efficiency on the Nation’s streets and highways. The MUTCD is adopted by reference in accordance with Title 23, United States Code, Section 109(d) and Title 23, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 655.603, and is the national standard for all traffic control devices installed on any street, highway, or bicycle trail open to public travel.

The 2009 edition supersedes all previous editions and revisions of the MUTCD. Here is the PDF version. There is already a change proposed to the 2009 edition.

April 22, 2010

Motorcycle Deaths Decline

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Governors Highway Safety Administration has released a preliminary report indicating the motorcycle deaths have decreased on our nation’s highways. If the final numbers are substantially similar, deaths will have dropped for the first time in over a decade.

Based on preliminary data gathered for the first nine months of the year, GHSA is projecting that motorcycle fatalities declined from 5,290 in 2008 to 4,762 or less in 2009. The projection is based on data from 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Tennessee had a substantial decrease in motorcycle deaths. During the first nine months of 2008 the number of motorcycle deaths was 132. In 2009, it was 101.

March 4, 2010

Online Accident Reports

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Getting motor vehicle accident reports is a hassle, but is appears that it will be getting easier.

BuyCrash.com makes accident reports from Georgia, Indiana, and Kentucky available for purchase over the Internet. Accident reports from Tennessee will be available in the future.

Thanks to Chris Simon and the Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog for making me aware of this service.

January 27, 2010

Truck Drivers – No More Texting

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Truck drivers who text while on the road are now violating federal law. On January 26, 2010, the federal Transportation Department said it is prohibiting truck and bus drivers from sending text messages on hand-held devices while operating commercial vehicles.

Tennessee banned texting while driving effective July 1, 2009.

The Transportation Department said that "FMCSA research shows that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting. At 55 miles per hour, this means that the driver is traveling the length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the road. Drivers who text while driving are more than 20 times more likely to get in an accident than non-distracted drivers."

January 18, 2010

Distraction.Gov – A Website About Distracted Driving

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has set up a website called "Distraction.Gov."

The website reveals some interesting statistics:

In 2008, there were a total of 34,017 fatal crashes in which 37,261 individuals were killed.
In 2008, 5,870 people were killed in crashes involving driver distraction (16% of total fatalities).
The proportion of drivers reportedly distracted at the time of the fatal crashes has increased from 8 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2008.
The under-20 age group had the highest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal crashes (16%). The age group with the next greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the 20- to-29-year-old age group (12%).
Motorcyclists and drivers of light trucks had the greatest percentage of total drivers reported as distracted at the time of the fatal crashes (12%).
An estimated 21 percent of 1,630,000 injury crashes were reported to have involved distracted driving.
Nationwide, those drivers observed visibly manipulating hand-held electronic devices increased from 0.7 percent to 1.0 percent.
Some 1.7 percent of drivers 16 to 24 years old were observed visibly manipulating hand-held electronic devices, up from 1.0 percent the previous year.
More drivers in Western States were observed manipulating hand-held electronic devices (2.1%) than in the other regions of the country (from 0.4% in the Northeast to 0.8% in the Midwest).
The use of hand-held devices increased the most in the West, from 0.6 percent in 2007 to 2.1 percent in 2008.
The observed use rate of hand-held electronic devices was higher among females (1.2%) than among males (0.8%).

The site also contains a list of states which ban driving while using cell phones or while texting.

January 13, 2010

1,600,000 Crashes From Cell Phone Use and Texting While Driving

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The National Safety Counsel announced yesterday that it estimates at least 28% of all traffic crashes – or at least 1.6 million crashes each year – are caused by drivers using cell phones and texting.

From the organization’s press release:

The estimate of 25% of all crashes — or 1.4 million crashes — caused by cell phone use was derived from NHTSA data showing 11% of drivers at any one time are using cell phones and from peer-reviewed research reporting cell phone use increases crash risk by four times. The estimate of an additional minimum 3% of crashes — or 200,000 crashes — caused by texting was derived by NHTSA data showing 1% of drivers at any one time are manipulating their device in ways that include texting and from research reporting texting increases crash risk by 8 times. Using the highest risk for texting reported by research of 23 times results in a maximum of 1 million crashes due to texting; still less than the 1.4 million crashes caused by other cell phone use.

December 30, 2009

Ambulance Driver Crashes Into TDOT Help Truck – Is There an Incapacitated Driver Defense?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

David Cline, the paramedic who was killed when the private ambulance he was driving slammed into the back of a TDOT roadside help truck on Interstate 65 on October 22, 2009, had a history of medical problems, including narcolepsy and epilepsy. Investigators are unsure why Cline left the highway but believe that the he suffered a "seizure or some type of medical condition that [incapacitated] him and led to the fatal crash, according to the final report released by Metro Nashville Police Department on December 28, 2009. The story was reported in The City Paper.

The article reports that "after performing a toxicology examination, police determined Cline had an elevated level of amphetamines in his bloodstream from his prescribed medication for narcolepsy, Adderall. The same report did not find indications his prescribed epilepsy medication, Depakote, was in his system." The article also reports that

Cline did have previous incidents involving seizures and car crashes. On Christmas Day 1999, Cline ran off the road and struck a utility pole after he had a seizure, and following the incident, his driver’s license was suspended. His credentials were reinstated in March of 2000. He suffered another seizure while working his day job as a Franklin firefighter, "three or four years prior" to the deadly crash.