Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog

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.

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" »

As technology has advanced, drivers have found an increasing number of ways to distract themselves while attempting to travel America’s roadways. One of the latest examples comes from Illinois where a man rear-ended the squad car of an Illinois State Trooper who had just pulled onto Interstate 80 from the median. The man, who was reportedly speeding at the time of the incident, was trying to change the ringtone on his mobile phone, which caused him to divert his attention from the road and made him unable to spot the trooper in time.

Luckily no one was injured in the collision, which occurred just days before a new law prohibiting Illinois drivers from using electronic devices while driving was to take effect. To help combat similar incidents in the future, Illinois police have placed the car in the median with a sign that informs passers-by that the car was struck while texting.

This scenario is becoming ever more likely as distracted driving has become the leading cause of roadway accidents. Public service announcements in Tennessee are now citing that distracted driving accounts for 80% of all roadway accidents, meaning that if you are the victim of an auto accident in Tennessee then there is a good chance that the party at-fault was engaged in some fort of distracted driving at the time the accident occurred.

Continue reading "Man Rear-Ends Squad Car While Trying To Change Ringtone" »

Intoxication often leads individuals to make less than optimal decisions, which is exactly what an Indiana man did early Sunday morning when he decided it might be a good idea to try to steal a backhoe. The man apparently climbed over a fence to get to the backhoe and then crashed the backhoe through the fence to make his escape. A host of witnesses reportedly saw the man try to make his escape and called the police, with one even following him down the highway while talking to police on his mobile phone. To make matters worse for the man, he reportedly attempted to make his escape by zig-zagging between his own lane and oncoming traffic on the backhoe. Police said he showed signs of intoxication. The criminal consequences of this situation are discussed here.

As is often discussed on this blog, operating a vehicle while intoxicated is a frequent source of negligent driving that can result in liability in personal injury lawsuits. In this scenario, the driver made several unfortunate decisions, all of which constitute negligence in Tennessee. The first such decision was driving a backhoe down the highway, since the highway probably isn’t a proper or safe place to drive such a low-speed vehicle. The second poor decision was the decision to try to evade the police, since other drivers can easily be injured in a police chase and the driver who is the cause of the chase can be held responsible for the damages. The third unfortunate decision in this case was the decision to weave between the proper lane of travel and oncoming traffic. This decision, maybe more than any other, could result in the driver or someone else being seriously injured or killed. This decision could also constitute conduct that a jury could find was reckless enough to warrant the imposition of punitive damages.

Driving while intoxicated is never a good idea, and newspapers and websites are filled with examples of why that is the case. That decision often leads to serious accidents and personal injury suits, which often result in large damages awards against the person responsible for the accident.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/02/09/20100209man-flees-in-backhoe.html

Authorities are still searching for the cause of an automobile accident that occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this week which involved a Pontiac Vibe crashing into the Edgewater Hotel & Casino, killing two people and injuring eight others. Witnesses reportedly saw the vehicle speed through a red light and down the casino’s driveway at speeds of over sixty miles per hour before running into the casino. The seventy year-old driver of the vehicle said that he fainted before the vehicle crashed into the casino, but investigators are not ruling out mechanical problems with the Vibe as being the cause of the accident. Although the Vibe is a joint venture between Toyota and GM, the potential problems with this vehicle are reportedly not linked to the recent Toyota recalls.

Although authorities have not been able to determine the cause of the accident, their eventual findings will be critical to the victims of the case. The party responsible for the accident will potentially be facing personal injury and product liability claims from ten different parties, which more than likely will consist of a couple of wrongful death suits and numerous claims for medical expenses and damages depending on the circumstances. If the automakers are found liable for a mechanical defect in the vehicle, the victims will have a greater chance of recovering the full amounts of the damages and medical expenses that would potentially be awarded since automakers generally have a greater capacity to compensate victims than does your average seventy year-old man.

Continue reading "Police Searching for Cause of Deadly Casino Crash" »

An exotic dancer received a jury award of approximately $100,000 against her former employer, a gentleman’s club, on Tuesday after the jury found that the club was negligent in failing to stop her from driving home after she drank too much while at work. The dancer apparently had enough to drink while at work one night in October of 2007 to cause her blood-alcohol level to rise to almost three times the legal limit in Alabama. Security pulled her off of the dance floor due to her intoxication and then tried to stop her from driving home three times before letting her go. She then tried to drive home and got into an accident, breaking her nose and her back.

At trial, she maintained that these injuries would prevent her from pursuing her profession in the future. She claimed that the club had recklessly disregarded its own safety rules, including limiting dancers to two drinks per night and taking the keys from drunken employees or arranging transportation to escort them safely home, and that such disregard for the rules led to her accident and injuries. The jury agreed with her side of the story and awarded her the six-figure compensatory damage amount.

This story illustrates an important aspect of which plaintiffs in personal injury suits should be aware, which is that establishments who sell, distribute, or otherwise encourage the consumption of alcohol may be held liable for accidents caused by letting drivers leave the premises when they are too intoxicated to drive. It is noteworthy that in this case the club was held liable for the accident despite the club’s policy and procedures designed to prevent drunk employees from driving home, because they failed to actually prevent her from getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. This principle can apply not only in this type of situation but also to a restaurant or other establishment that allows a customer to continue drinking when it is clear he or she has had enough or when a business allows a customer to leave in his or her vehicle despite the fact that the business knows the customer is intoxicated. This principle is even more significant in Tennessee, because Tennessee is a contributory negligence state, which would allow the restaurant or business to be held liable for the portion of the damages that stems from its own negligence, no matter how great or small that may be.

Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/02/former_stripper_gets_100000_in.html

If you are like me, you can remember a lot more instances where some “idiot” almost ran you off the road or caused you to wreck than you can recall times that you were the “idiot” who almost ran over or into someone else’s vehicle. The good news is we are not alone in this method of thinking. The bad news is that we, like everyone else, tend to overestimate our own driving ability. A Canadian study recently found that every single one of the approximately 400 drivers surveyed rated themselves as above-average drivers.

The survey asked the drivers to rate how well they could drive in a number of different driving conditions, including adverse weather and heavy traffic. It also asked the drivers to indicate how they matched up against other drivers that were the same age, younger, older, or the opposite gender. The results were not terribly surprising, with young men being the most confident in their driving abilities and, as mentioned previously, everyone rating their own driving prowess at least above-average.

Continue reading "Study Shows that Most Drivers "Feel Superior Behind the Wheel"" »

Most of Tennessee and part of Kentucky is bracing for a massive winter storm expected to arrive within the next 24 to 48 hours. The storm is expected to dump up to a foot of snow in some locations and is also supposed to produce sleet and freezing rain. All three of these wintry forms of precipitation can make the roadways dangerous to navigate. However, simply staying home may not be an option for many Tennesseans, so some will simply have to brave the conditions to get where they need to go. The biggest danger in such situations is icy roads, but snow can also be a problem, especially when it falls in large amounts. There are several snow-related concerns of which Tennesseans should be aware before embarking in such conditions.

The most obvious safe-driving tip in snowy and icy conditions is to drive at a reduced rate of speed. Driving too fast in adverse conditions is a recipe for disaster, and in conditions such as those expected over the weekend, driving at the posted speed limit is often far too fast for the road conditions and can be considered negligent driving. Driving too fast also puts the driver at the risk of having to come to a sudden stop or slam on the brakes. Such maneuvers are unadvisable in wintry conditions, and can cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. Another overlooked but important concern is making sure that all of the windows and mirrors are free from ice and snow before driving. Snow can obviously obstruct one’s vision, which may lead to an auto accident if the obstruction is not fixed quickly.

Continue reading "Tennessee Braces for Huge Winter Storm" »

As many of our blogs have discussed recently, texting while driving is becoming an increasing source of negligence-based accidents on America’s roadways. Recognizing that such activity has become a problem nationwide, the United States Department of Transportation issued a press release today stating that texting while driving is banned nationwide for drivers of commercial vehicles, which includes vehicles such as tractor-trailers, trolleys, and buses. While many states already had some form of this ban, this ban covers commercial vehicles nationwide, and is part of a concentrated effort by the U.S.D.O.T. to combat distracted driving according to the press release.

The press release notes that drivers who text while driving take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, meaning that at a speed of 55 miles per hour they travel more than the length of a football field without looking at the road. The press release also notes that more regulations are likely forthcoming in this area.

Continue reading "United States D.O.T. Bans Texting by Commercial Truck Drivers" »

For the second time in the past year, Toyota is issuing a major recall due to problems with accelerator pedals. The first recall affected four million vehicles and was due to an issue that caused the accelerator pedals to become stuck under the floor mats, causing sudden acceleration of the vehicle. The latest recall affects over two million Toyota-made vehicles and is also due to an issue with the accelerator becoming stuck, even in models that do not have floor mats. Toyota believes the problem is related to the potential build-up of sliding surfaces in the accelerator system that help the driver push down or release the accelerator pedal. This recall affects eight particular Toyota models. Both of the aforementioned recalls by Toyota have been among the largest in United States’ history.

Accidents caused by the negligence of the automobile manufacturer typically fall into the realm of product liability suits. These suits basically seek to impose liability on the manufacturer of the vehicle for negligently designing or manufacturing a product or part of a product which was responsible for causing injury to one or more victims.

Continue reading "Toyota Issues Second Major Recall in a Year" »

It just isn’t safe to walk the streets of Madison, Wisconsin anymore. Well, technically speaking, it just isn’t safe to cross the street, because drivers in that area are not particularly pedestrian-friendly as revealed by the results of an undercover operation recently conducted by the Madison Police Department. The operation involved an undercover officer posing as a pedestrian and crossing the street repeatedly over a four-hour period in a crosswalk. The location was chosen because it is a high-traffic area that also has a high number of pedestrians. The high number of pedestrians may not serve to deter drivers in the area, however, as some drivers reportedly almost ran over the officer despite the officer being in a crosswalk. Thirty-five drivers were cited in all for failure to yield.

Failure to yield is increasingly becoming a problem as drivers get busier and more distracted every day. This blog has discussed the causes and effects of distracted driving, which may be a major factor in why drivers are unaware of pedestrians. After all, it is hard to notice that a human being is in the road in front of you if you aren’t actually looking at the road. This phenomenon has increased in scope and potential effect since the advent of text messaging, which causes many drivers to completely divert their attention away from the road in front of them, even if only for a second, to immediately answer such pressing questions as “Wut r u doin 2day?.” Another potential reason for the failure to yield violations may simply be that the drivers are driving too fast to stop for the pedestrians, whether it be because they are in a hurry or because they do not care about the presence of pedestrians.

Continue reading "Undercover Operation Nets Thirty-Five Citations for Failure to Yield" »

As this personal injury blog has shown as of late, there are a myriad of different ways to drive negligently. Some methods of negligent driving, like driving under the influence and distracted driving, are fairly common while some are extremely rare. Falling into the “extremely rare” category would be driving while intoxicated after being shot in a drive-by shooting. This is exactly the scenario that played out in Syracuse, New York on Monday after a man was shot in a drive-by shooting while standing on a street corner. The man, apparently intoxicated at the time of the shooting, attempted to get in a car and drive himself to the hospital. Unfortunately, his condition caused him to drive on the wrong side of the road and he collided with another vehicle. He was charged with DWI. One of the potential criminal law issues involved in this case is discussed here.

Perhaps most notable about the story is how extremely lucky the man was that day. It is not every day one can manage to get randomly shot, be involved in a head-on collision, and be charged with DWI. Most notable from a personal injury standpoint, however, is that the man committed three different forms of negligent (and potentially reckless) driving that could potentially subject him to liability for the collision. The most obvious forms would probably be a toss-up between DWI and driving on the wrong side of the street. DWI has been discussed at length in our personal injury blog, and such conduct is automatically considered negligent in Tennessee and has the potential to be considered reckless and warrant the imposition of punitive damages. Victims of DWI-related accidents in Tennessee may thus be able to recover a substantial amount from the party or parties at fault, far in excess of the actual medical expenses. Driving on the wrong side of the street is also negligent, as reasonable drivers are generally aware of the correct side of the street on which to drive and do not continue to drive down a street where dozens of other cars are coming at them head-on. However, such driving does occur and has a tendency to result in the offending party being held liable for the expenses and damages caused by that decision.

Continue reading "Man Gets Shot, Tries to Drive Himself to the Hospital" »

While advances in communications technology have been great for a lot of aspects of life like business, family, and even the military, such advances have not been equally beneficial to America’s roadways. Increasing reliance on mobile phones and other entertainment or communications devices is making the roads increasingly more dangerous. Many drivers now participate in a form of negligent driving known as “distracted driving,” which involves a driver being so distracted by something, in this case some sort of mobile device, that he or she does not keep a proper lookout and pay attention to the roadway. One would think this problem has been remedied somewhat by the various types of “hands-free” devices that have hit the market which purportedly enable the driver to carry out certain functions while never diverting their eyes from the roadway or taking their hands off the wheel. A California man recently proved that such devices may not have helped cure negligent driving at all.

There is something especially terrifying about being surprised by an unexpected noise, occurrence, or living creature. The reactions to such scary surprises are often spontaneous and uncontrollable and can lead the terrified victims of such surprises to act in an irrational manner. Such was the case with a twenty-eight year-old man in California whose terror recently caused him to drive through a guardrail and into a creek after being ambushed by the unexpected activation of his hands-free communications device. Luckily for the man, he is an armed security officer at a California casino and was able to use his gun to shoot out the windows of his SUV and escape the situation unharmed although his pride may have suffered fatal injury.

Continue reading "Technology Can Prove Dangerous to Drivers" »

In a program similar to others that are used to target various types of unsafe drivers such as drunk drivers and drivers who are not wearing seatbelts, the Tennessee Highway Patrol plans to turn its attention to commercial vehicles that are driving in an unsafe manner. The program will reportedly crack down on commercial vehicles who speed, drive recklessly, follow too closely, and change lanes improperly. The program will be known as Operation Speeding Trucks and Negligent Drivers (STAND).

The same types of driving for which the Tennessee Highway Patrol will be on the lookout are the same types of driving that constitute negligent or reckless driving in Tennessee. Driving in such a manner in a commercial vehicle usually poses a greater danger than driving negligently or recklessly in a personal vehicle because commercial vehicles are generally larger, longer, taller, heavier, and harder to control than personal vehicles. It is for these reasons that many commercial vehicles have special licensure requirements.

Continue reading "Tennessee Highway Patrol Cracking Down on Unsafe Commercial Vehicles" »