Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog

Twenty-two year-old Rochelle Kay Lee of Plainfield, Indiana was killed yesterday when her vehicle flipped over the guardrail near mile marker 144 at the Stinking Creek exit and was struck by a tractor-trailer. The driver of the tractor-trailer, Paul Jenkins of Madisonville, Tennessee was not injured in the crash. No drugs or alcohol seem to have been a factor in the crash, which was reportedly caused by the fact that Lee lost control of her vehicle due to heavy rainfall. Both drivers were also reportedly wearing their seatbelts.

Continue reading "Indiana Woman Killed in Wreck on I-75" »

Forty-seven year-old Paul Rodgers of Knoxville died a few weeks ago when the van he was driving through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park reportedly drifted off of the right edge of the road, struck a tree, and then slid several feet down an embankment. According to reports, Rodgers was found dead at the scene, although he was properly wearing his seat belt and the van’s airbag deployed. There is no evidence that alcohol or drugs were involved, but the investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Continue reading "Knoxville Man Dies in Crash in National Park" »

Forty-Six year-old Louis Michael Haney of Clinton, Tennessee was arrested Sunday afternoon on suspicion of DUI after law enforcement officials spotted him driving his John Deere riding lawnmower along the shoulder of the Tri-County Boulevard in Anderson County heading in the opposite direction of traffic. Haney subsequently failed a sobriety test and was taken into custody and charged with felony DUI, driving on a revoked license, and violation of the implied consent law.

Continue reading "Clinton Man Arrested for Fifth DUI" »

Early this morning, a gas tanker overturned near mile marker 121 on I-75 North, causing the tank to puncture and gasoline to leak all over the interstate. I-75 near Callahan Road in Knoxville was closed for a few hours while crews worked to clean up the spilled gasoline, and one lane of I-75 was reopened at about 10:30 a.m. The accident was reportedly caused when a Pontiac Sunfire blew a tire and was unable to get out of the left lane before coming to a stop. The driver of the Sunfire tried to get the attention of the driver of the gas tanker, now identified as John Stepp of Gate City, Virginia, but was unable to do so before it was too late. The tanker crashed into the Sunfire, causing it to flip and begin leaking gasoline. The driver of the tanker was transported to UT Medical Center and his condition was unknown at the time. The driver of the Sunfire was not injured.

Continue reading "Gas Tanker Overturns, Closes Down Part of I-75" »

A member of the Tennessee Highway Patrol was charged with DUI last Friday after law enforcement officials spotted the pickup truck of Gregory Brown, age 40, driving erratically and weaving in and out of traffic. At one point, officials aw the truck briefly cross into oncoming traffic before swerving back over to the correct side of the road. Brown was stopped on suspicion of DUI and failed a good number of field sobriety tests including balancing, walking heel to toe, and counting backward. Upon making the stop, the officer also noticed that Brown was driving with a cup of beer in the console.

Continue reading "Tennessee Highway Patrol Pilot Charged with DUI" »

It usually doesn’t pay to get excited or even speculate about legislation making its way through Congress. After all, the legislative process seems to usually result in a lot of bickering among opposing politicians with nothing ever really coming to fruition. A new bill, however, is in the works (spurred by the recent series of defects that have plagued Toyota) that may prove to be huge in the field of personal injury law. Since the bill may prove so important, it may be worth discussing even if it never amounts to much.

The new bill proposes to tighten the safety standards applicable to vehicle manufacturers wishing to sell automobiles in the United States. Among other provisions, it contains proposals that would require carmakers to install systems that would give a car's brake priority over its accelerator and record data that could be used in crash or defect investigations. Both of these conventions would be noteworthy from a personal injury context. Giving a car’s brake priority over its gas could make the car drive differently, which would tend to increase the accident risk for drivers who are unfamiliar with how the car drives in such a condition. However, it would also prevent many accidents that are caused by unintended acceleration or negligent driving. Whether the pros of such a system would outweigh the cons could really only be determined after the system was put into practice.

The data recorder that would be placed in vehicles could potentially play a crucial role in many personal injury cases. Many of these cases turn on which version of two different sets of facts the jury believes. If the data recorder can clear up such disputes or support one side of the testimony, personal injury cases may settle with more frequency and may be avoided altogether when the liability of a party is clear. For anyone interested in the realm of personal injury law, this bill will be one worth watching.

Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20100720_Fight_looms_in_Washington_over_proposed_auto-safety_rules.html

George Michael made headlines yet again when he apparently mistook a local film developing store for a parking space and drove his car straight into the storefront. Police arrived at the scene and took Michael to the police station on suspicion of DUI. Reports indicate that the vehicle caused extensive damage to the photo shop, which may have to replace its entire storefront.

The first thing any reader should take away from this situation is that there indeed are still people in this world who do not use digital cameras and there are even shops that still develop film. The second is that situations such as the one described above happen daily around the world, including in Tennessee, and it is important to know, both as a victim and as the responsible party, what liability may be placed upon the responsible party when such accidents occur. Assuming Mr. Michael was intoxicated at the time of the accident, Tennessee law would label him as negligent per se. This essentially means that in a personal injury suit there would be no need for the plaintiff to prove anything other than the fact that Mr. Michael was intoxicated in order for him to be held responsible for all of the foreseeable damages that flowed from his actions.

In a situation like this one where an intoxicated driver causes the destruction of someone else’s property, damages can accumulate in a hurry. The driver in a similar situation to this one will be responsible not only for the damage that he caused to the store but also for the cost of repairing the storefront and restoring the shop to the condition it was in before he decided to turn the store into a literal drive-in. He would also be responsible for the destruction of the property of customers that occurred as a result of his actions. In this situation, such damage is likely to be minimal but the possibility for larger damages will exist in different situations. Whether you are the responsible party or the victim in such cases, it is important to know who can be held responsible for what damages. Consulting an experienced personal injury attorney can help parties on either side determine the best course of action.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/07/06/george-michael-arrested-driving-car-storefront/

Foreseeability is a concept that can greatly affect the outcome of any personal injury suit. The basic gist of the concept is that for a person to be found liable to a particular victim for negligence, it must be foreseeable that his or her negligence would impact or harm that victim. For example, assume a bus driver is texting while driving and negligently drives onto the sidewalk, causing a cyclist to swerve into a valuable statue that is sitting in the yard of a homeowner and ruing the statue. Since it was foreseeable that the driver’s negligence would affect persons on the sidewalk and potentially cause them to react to get out of the way, the homeowner will probably be able to recover from the bus driver (and his employer) to recover the amount of the real and personal property damage caused by the driver’s negligent actions. By that same token if the cyclist had swerved into the statue which had then fallen onto a shotgun, causing it to discharge and kill a cat sleeping in the window of the house next door, it is likely the damage caused by the loss of the cat would be recoverable against the bus driver since it is not really foreseeable that the bus driver’s negligence would affect the cat sleeping in the window some distance from where the negligence actually occurred.

Concepts like this one can make a substantial difference in exactly who a party can recover from, which may affect that party’s ability to be fully compensated for his or her injuries. In this situation, knowing that the bus driver and thus the bus company can be held liable will often prove much more favorable to the plaintiff than trying to recover damages from a random cyclist, especially if the amount of damages is large. Such situations show why it is often advantageous to hire an experienced personal injury attorney who can make sure that the plaintiff holds all possible parties responsible and can maximize the plaintiff’s recovery.

Around this time of year, roadside fireworks stands pop up all over East Tennessee in preparation for the upcoming July 4th holiday. Anyone who has ever lived in or traveled through East Tennessee around this holiday knows that you seemingly cannot drive half a mile without passing at least one fireworks tent. While there is absolutely nothing wrong, with buying, selling, or enjoying fireworks, drivers in Tennessee do need to realize the risks that the fireworks-selling season brings with it.

The predominant risk that this time of year poses for drivers is caused by the fact that these fireworks stands are literally set up right on the side of the road in some places or in small parking lots just off the highway. Such positioning increase the likelihood that cars will be exiting and entering the roadway with a much higher frequency than normal in these locations, meaning drivers will need to keep a proper lookout to avoid hitting others who may make sudden maneuvers in order to stop at a fireworks stand or who reenter the roadway unsafely. This is especially likely at very busy fireworks stands where lots of cars may be entering or exiting the roadway at a given time. In Tennessee, failure to keep a proper lookout in these situations may result in a driver being apportioned some responsibility for the resulting accident even though he or she was not primarily at fault for the wreck.

Defensive driving probably is not the first thing that comes to mind for most Tennesseans when they think about the July 4th holiday. However, it is a behavior that must be adhered to in order to minimize roadway danger and liability for accidents. Tennesseans who find themselves injured because of negligent driving in situations such as the one described above should contact an experienced personal injury attorney who can assist them in recovering for their losses.

Toxicology reports show that a twenty-nine year-old driver had a BAC of nearly three times the legal limit at the time he started traveling the wrong direction on the highway, leading to a fatal accident. The intoxicated driver was actually spotted driving erratically earlier in the evening by a law enforcement officer, but when the officer turned his blue lights on, the driver reportedly began to drive in an extremely reckless manner in an effort to evade the authorities. This led the officer to turn off his blue lights, fearing that continuing the chase would endanger the lives of other drivers. Unfortunately, this action did not eliminate the danger the intoxicated driver posed to others, as he then began traveling in the wrong direction down Highway 52, eventually hitting another motorist head-on. The intoxicated driver was found dead at the scene, and the victim later died at the hospital.

Situations like this serve to underscore the danger that drivers pose to themselves and others when they drive under the influence. Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, or otherwise unfit to drive, is negligent conduct that can give rise to liability in a personal injury lawsuit in Tennessee. In this situation, the driver, had he lived through the accident, would have been liable for much more than just the medical expenses of the victim, although they can be substantial. He likely would also have been liable for the wrongful death of the victim, which can lead to a large amount of liability if the victim has dependents, such as a spouse or children.

Tennesseans who find themselves or their families being the victims in alcohol-related accidents deserve to recover for all of the injuries they suffer as a result of the collision. Such recovery includes the types listed above as well as a possible punitive damages award if the conduct of the offending driver is found to have been sufficiently reckless or malicious by a jury. A skilled personal injury attorney can help victims recover for what they have lost as a result of such accidents.

Source: http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=144129&catid=57

As discussed in this site’s previous blog article, drivers can often look to the Tennessee Code in order to determine what types of driving behavior are likely to be considered negligent should the driver engage in such behavior and injure someone, leading to a personal injury lawsuit. Many of Tennessee’s standards for safe driving are codified in Chapter Eight of Title Fifty-Five of the Tennessee Code. This chapter is conveniently titled “Rules of the Road” and contains, you guessed it, Tennessee’s rules of the road.

T.C.A. Section 55-8-109 contains one of Tennessee’s most well-known rules of the road, which is that drivers are required to obey any official traffic-control devices that is properly placed in accordance with Tennessee law. The most obvious example of this is that drivers must obey stop lights when they come to them. A good example of what happens when drivers do not obey stop lights can be found here. When drivers fail to obey traffic lights, they pose a serious danger to themselves and other drivers around them. Should the driver’s negligent driving cause injury or damage to someone or something, there is a great chance that the driver will be held responsible since he or she violated one of the rules of the road and thereby fell below safe driving standards. Persons who have been injured as the result of another driver failing to obey a traffic signal should contact an experienced personal injury attorney in Tennessee that can help them recover for their injuries.

One possible defense these drivers may have is that the traffic-control device was not properly positioned and sufficiently legible to be seen by an ordinarily observant person. This basically means that the city or county cannot hide a stop sign behind a giant shrub and then give you a ticket for failing to stop at the stop sign. The test for this will be whether or not an ordinary driver would have noticed and obeyed the sign.

A bus rolled over on an Arizona freeway last week, killing six and injuring sixteen others. The bus was traveling from Mexico to Los Angeles when it struck a pickup truck on Interstate 10, causing the bus to flip. After conducting an investigation into the cause of the crash, authorities are now saying that the bus had multiple problems, including problems with its brakes and drivers. The brakes were reportedly so bad that the bus should have been taken off of the road, and one of the drivers of the bus may have been unable to read English well enough to navigate the roadways. Both of the drivers also failed to keep adequate logs of their previous seven days of activity.

As this situation demonstrates, there are often several different causes of an accident. Tennessee recognizes this principle and allows a jury to allocate fault among all of the parties to a suit, including the plaintiff or someone who is a non-party, in order to ensure that the each responsible party bears the adequate level of responsibility for its negligence.

Continue reading "Bus Crash Kills Six, Injures Sixteen Others " »

This blog has discussed many different methods of negligent driving, but today’s subject is one is a completely new one. A fifty-three year-old woman from England was pulled over this week by policemen who spotted that she was driving down the road while the hood of her car was unlatched and covering her windshield. The woman had reportedly been using the four inch gap between the hood and the dashboard to look out at the road while she was driving. As luck would have it, local law enforcement officers were conducting a safety campaign to educate people about bad driving when they pulled the woman over. The woman told police that she was trying to drive her car to the mechanic to be repaired, which was probably true, but it was to no avail.

Tennessee law determines that negligent driving occurs any time a person drives in a manner that a reasonably prudent driver would not. Thus, any time you are driving in a situation where you cannot see the road ahead of you, you are driving negligently because a reasonably safe driver would not drive in such a condition. It will probably be of little help to the driver in the situation above that she had a valid excuse, because that does little to change the fact that she was indeed driving her car even though it was in a condition that was unsafe for driving, posing a danger to herself and other drivers on the roadway. Had the lady caused an accident in Tennessee by driving in such a manner, she very likely would have been responsible for the damages and injuries sustained by those involved in the wreck, even in spite of the fact that she was attempting to take the car to get it fixed.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1258036/What-mean-I-road-officer-Woman-pulled-driving-VERY-faulty-bonnet.html

According to the Associated Press, the Transportation Department released a statement on Thursday saying that its projections showed that highway deaths in the United States totaled fewer than 34,000 in the year 2009, down nine percent from the previous year and the lowest total since the 1950’s. The reduction in deaths is at least partly attributable to increased seat belt use, less frequent drunken driving, and more stringent enforcement of traffic laws. According to the article, highway deaths have steadily declined since 2005.

This statistic may surprise some readers of this blog, which frequently focuses on traffic accidents in Tennessee and their causes by looking at developing technology and its tendency to create unsafe driving conditions. The reality is that these unsafe conditions have been mitigated by the factors listed above as well as ever-increasing vehicle quality that helps to protect passengers, but that it still only takes one accident to cause serious injury or death on the roadways.

Continue reading "Highway Death Totals Lowest Since the 1950's" »

There are many activities that have been discussed previously on this blog that do not mesh well with driving, such as texting, drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs, and sleeping. One such activity that has been little discussed but is equally as dangerous is grooming or primping while driving. On any given day in a heavy- or medium-traffic area, one is likely to see a multitude of derivatives of this behavior. It is not at all uncommon to see another driver putting on makeup, tweezing his or her eyebrows, styling his or her hair, generally checking his or her appearance etc. In some cases, one may even see another driver performing some routine bikini-line maintenance while her passenger steers the vehicle.

The issue with all of these forms of activity is that when a driver is focused on his or her hair, eyes, lips, eyebrows, or other assorted bodily locations, that driver is not completely focused on the road ahead, which, as luck would have it, is where all of the other vehicles and pedestrians who are using the roadway happen to be. This failure to keep a proper lookout is negligent in Tennessee and can result in an accident for which the negligent driver will be held responsible. Needless to say, the act of grooming or primping while driving is one that causes more than its fair share of accidents on the roadways, especially in high-traffic areas where people tend to perform a good chunk of their morning beautification ritual while in the vehicle on the way to work or school.

There is simply nothing a potential victim of such activity could do to try to avoid the accident, since there is no way to know the man behind you is trying to trim his goatee in the carpool lane until he rear-ends your vehicle. However, victims can recover for their damages by bringing a personal injury suit against the negligent driver, which would enable the victim(s) to recover for the damages and injuries caused by the negligent conduct.

Tennessee imposes many duties on drivers within the state in order to make sure that they are driving in a reasonably safe manner. One such duty is the duty to keep a proper lookout. This duty extends not only to keeping a proper lookout for vehicles and other obstacles in the roadway, but also extends to keeping a lookout for pedestrians as well. Unfortunately many drivers fail to drive in a safe manner in areas where they know or should expect pedestrians to be present. Such places include school zones, college campuses, heavily populated areas, and crosswalks. Failure to keep a proper lookout in these areas can lead to serious injury or even death and is also likely to lead to a personal injury lawsuit in East Tennessee should the driver’s negligent behavior result in injury to the victim.

A memorial service is reportedly being planned for a sixty-four year-old college student at the University of Central Oklahoma who was killed on Tuesday in an automobile-pedestrian accident. The woman apparently took the bus to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was stepping out into the street to board the bus on Tuesday morning near her apartment complex when she was struck by a vehicle. Law enforcement officials say it looked like she may have walked into the side of a moving vehicle, and the manager of the apartment complex said she may have gotten her suitcase used to carry her books stuck on something and was trying to get it unstuck as she stepped out into the road. There is no indication in the article of who was at fault for the accident.

The unfortunate truth is that sometimes there is simply nothing a driver can do to avoid accidents, even if he or she is keeping a proper lookout. For this reason, drivers should drive much more slowly and with a much greater degree of caution in areas where they know pedestrians are present just in case something out of the ordinary might happen. Failure to take extra care may result in the driver being liable for the damages should a scenario take place like the one described above.

Source: http://newsok.com/memorial-service-planned-for-uco-student-killed-in-auto-pedestrian-accident/article/3443570

Authorities are now releasing details of a bus crash in Florida that was responsible for the deaths of two people on board the bus. They say an eighty-one year old woman who was driving her car failed to yield and struck the bus on its side. The bus was carrying senior citizens who were on a cultural tour, and there were reportedly thirty-two people on board at the time of the crash. The collision caused the bus to run off the road, roll over twice, and eject some of its passengers. It took the efforts of several emergency response crews to attempt to treat everyone who was at the scene. The driver was not as unfortunate as most of the bus passengers, as she sustained only minor injuries as a result of the crash.

This situation demonstrates how dangerous failure to yield can be on the roadways. Wherever a driver sees a “yield” sign on the road, he or she must wait until no oncoming traffic would be affected by that driver entering traffic before making the decision to enter the roadway. While it is common to see drivers treat a “yield” sign in a similar manner to a stop sign, that is not a correct interpretation of the rule of the road requiring drivers to yield. Yielding has nothing to do with stopping or even slowing down your vehicle, but rather implies that a driver defer to all oncoming traffic before deciding to entering the road.

As seen above, the failure to yield can cause serious accidents and may very well result in a significant amount of liability being placed on the offending driver, who will likely be responsible for any damages and injuries (including, in this case, wrongful death or some similar claim) sustained by any victims should the decision not to yield cause an auto accident. Drivers should always be wary of yield signs and make sure the way is clear before they decide to enter the roadway.

Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/other/1110/02-23-2010/20100223052007_13.html

A Sevierville, Tennessee woman is making national headlines after she went in front of an investigative panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday to testify about the harrowing ordeal she underwent when her Lexus suddenly accelerated to speeds of over one hundred miles per hour. The woman tried everything she could think of (hitting the brakes, putting the car in neutral, reverse, etc.) to no avail before the vehicle miraculously slowed down, enabling her to avoid a car crash in Sevierville.

Incidents like this one have cause Toyota to millions of vehicles around the country. Toyota initially blamed the acceleration problems on sticking gas pedals and misplaced floor mats, but the House subcommittee is investigating whether or not the acceleration issues could be the result of an electronic malfunction that Toyota initially refused to acknowledge in instituting the recalls. Toyota does admit that the company may have grown too fast to enable them to maintain the proper focus on consumer safety but the company denies that there are any electronic problems of the sort alleged by the House subcommittee.

Continue reading "Tennessee Woman Tells Congress About Her Toyota Troubles" »

Employing the service of a designated driver is one of the most responsible actions that can be taken by a person who is unfit to drive. However, it is essential to make sure that your designated driver is someone who is actually capable of legally operating a vehicle and is also someone who is not intoxicated as well. Such was the lesson learned by a Texas man last week when he decided to let his niece drive him home because he was intoxicated.

Unfortunately his niece was only fourteen years old, and was also reportedly intoxicated. Officers initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and the vehicle drove into the yard of a nearby home while trying to stop near the curb. Both the uncle and the driver face a litany of charges.

Designating a driver is a great way to avoid irresponsible driving behavior and potential liability in a lawsuit arising from an auto accident. However, that driver must legally be able to drive and must be in a condition to operate a motor vehicle. Tennessee drivers who employ the tactic described above will be responsible for the damages suffered by any victims in a personal injury suit just as they would if they had actually driven the vehicle while under the influence.

Continue reading "Drunk Uncle Uses Teen, Also Drunk, as Designated Driver" »

Twenty-seven unlucky people at an auto auction in Ellijay, Georgia got more than they bargained for at a car auction on Tuesday night when a Volvo that was being driven into the building to be auctioned off suddenly accelerated and plowed through the crowd, injuring a host of spectators. Fourteen of the auction-goers had to be taken to the hospital as a result of the incident and thirteen more were treated on the scene. Authorities reportedly believe the crash to be an accident, although no specific cause has yet been revealed.

The biggest risk most people expect to face when attending an auction is that someone across the room will be just a little more enthusiastic about buying an item than they are. They certainly don’t expect to get hurt, and only in their wildest dreams would attendees consider the possibility that a rogue vehicle would do its best Horace the Hate Bug impression and mow down the crowd. However, this kind of scenario is one which Tennessee law sometimes expects the persons or companies that host the auctions to consider. Tennessee law demands that an owner or occupier of a space use reasonable care to prevent harm to the patrons, visitors, or other persons who could foreseeably be on the property. Failure to do so may be negligent, and may expose the owner or occupier to premises liability for the damages or injuries sustained should something like the above scenario occur.

Continue reading "Auto Auction Disaster Injures Dozens" »