Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Summer is road trip season for Atlanta drivers. CBS reports an estimated 38 percent of travelers taking a road trip bring their pets with them on the vacation. While it may be fun to take your furry friends with you, however, your pets can present a signifiant risk behind the wheel. The problem is, drivers tend to become distracted by pets in the car. This distraction can be just as dangerous as using a smart phone or electronic devices.

A driver who is paying attention to a pet and not the road can become responsible for any resulting motor vehicle accident that occurs due to his negligence. An Atlanta distracted driving accident lawyer can provide legal assistance to victims injured by a motorist who has a pet with him and who is focused on the animal instead of on road safety.

The Risks of Pets in Atlanta Distracted Driving Accidents

Many victims of car accidents wish to pursue a claim to recover compensation for losses. If you or someone you love has been involved in a collision, you must know what has to be proved in order for you to get the money you need to move on after the crash.

Determining what the law requires you to prove can be complicated, as can actually conducting investigations to discover evidence. An Atlanta car accident lawyer will help you to make your case. We can explain the law to you and our legal team can get to work on putting together a strong damage claim. Give us a call today to find out more about how we help you to fight for full compensation.

What Has to be Proved in an Atlanta Car Accident Claim?

If you have ever had to handle a property damage claim to get your car, truck or motorcycle repaired after a minor fender bender, you will have dealt with the insurance claim by yourself. Generally, most insurance companies are fairly accommodating when it comes to property damage claims. If their driver was obviously at fault, they’ll settle the claim and get you back on the road fairly quickly. Sadly, this is rarely the case when dealing with a personal injury or wrongful death claim. You will need to hire an experienced Atlanta car accident attorney if you want to have any hope of recovering the full and fair compensation you are entitled to under Georgia law.

Auto collisions resulting in bodily injuries or fatalities are expensive. Never forget that €“ despite their promises to take care of you should the worst happen €“ insurance companies are a business. They exist to make a profit. Any claim against them is a loss. Even if you’ve had an easy time recovering compensation for a property damage claim in the past, it is worth remembering that insurance companies expect to take some losses €“ after all, that is the nature of the business they are in.

A personal injury or wrongful death claim on the other hand represents a substantial loss compared to smaller property damage claims. It is far more expensive to reimburse someone for their medical care, lost wages and other accident-related costs than it is to fix or replace a damaged vehicle. As a result, you will find it is often impossible to recover adequate compensation in an automobile accident case without the aid of an Atlanta car accident attorney.

Sudden acceleration can cause dangerous collisions. Sudden acceleration is described by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as “unintended, unexpected, high-powered acceleration, accompanied by an apparent loss of braking effectiveness that typically occurs from a very low initial speed when the driver is attempting to stop the vehicle.

Over the past 40 years, NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have received numerous reports of sudden acceleration and have launched myriad investigations. No vehicle defect has been identified during this time to explain the sudden failures of both the braking system and throttle. Instead, pedal application data from vehicle event data recorders over the past five years suggests accidents in which sudden acceleration has occurred likely happened because a driver accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes. These investigations have led NHTSA and NTSB to conclude reports of sudden acceleration were all likely caused not by a vehicle problem but by pedal error.

A driver who accidentally hits the gas instead of the brake can cause a dangerous high-speed collision. Innocent victims should consult with an Atlanta car accident lawyer at Van Sant Law, LLC for assistance in pursuing a case for damages when pedal error has occurred.

Halloween night is a high-risk night of the year for pedestrian accidents, with many crashes causing serious injuries or fatalities to children. Halloween is dangerous because there are many kids out trick-or-treating at the same time as people attend parties where they may consume alcoholic beverages. Parents and drivers need to be aware of Halloween pedestrian accident risks and must do everything they can to try to prevent a tragic accident from happening on October 31.

If a driver is careless or intoxicated and a crash happens on Halloween, victims of the accident need to know what their options are for using the Georgia legal system to recover damages. An Atlanta pedestrian accident lawyer can provide legal representation and assistance to victims and to family members of those who lose their lives to deadly accidents.

Staying Safe from Atlanta Pedestrian Accidents on Halloween Night

According to a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, around 25,000 collisions occur in the United States each year as a result of debris on the road. Accidents caused by debris cause anywhere from 80 to 90 deaths annually on average, and cause a significant number of property damage only crashes or collisions where injuries happen. Road debris can come from a lot of different sources, but debris commonly ends up falling off of or out of trucks or other vehicles.

Truck drivers are obliged to follow cargo-loading rules set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and truckers and their employers can be held responsible when unsecured or unbalanced cargo causes a car crash to happen. These professional drivers, however, are not the only ones with safety obligations when it comes to securing cargo. An Atlanta car accident attorney can provide assistance to victims involved in accidents caused by debris on the roadways, even if the debris was left by a regular driver. If you can prove negligence led to the debris that caused your crash, you should be entitled to compensation for all resulting economic and non-financial losses.

Responsibility for Atlanta Car Accidents Due to Improperly Secured Cargo

Car accidents resulting from road debris are becoming more common. Road debris can make its way to the roads for lots of different reasons. One common cause of road debris is when drivers have items fly out of their vehicles or off their vehicles. Road debris and flying object should be a concern for every motorist, especially in light of new reports revealing thousands of accidents happen as a result of items that fall onto the road.

When a collision occurs due to road debris or flying objects, determining the crash cause becomes very important. A person who is responsible for causing an accident to happen can be held liable for losses, even if that person caused the crash because something flew off his car. An Atlanta car accident lawyer can provide help in determining the cause of a collision and in pursuing a claim for compensation against the driver who was responsible.

Road Debris and the Risk of Atlanta Car Accidents

Atlanta drivers, like most drivers throughout the United States, respond to road and environmental conditions when deciding how fast to go. Although speed limits serve as a guide (and are legally enforced), drivers will typically go slower than the posted limit during poor conditions and will exceed the speed limit and drive at a speed that feels safe when road conditions are more optimal. An Atlanta car accident lawyer knows that if a driver is operating his vehicle in an unsafe way and going too fast for the road he is on, those who are harmed as a result can pursue a claim for compensation.

One of the factors that impacts how fast a driver will go is how wide the roads are. Road widths need to be designed with a variety of different safety criteria in mind, but some recent evidence from Streets Blog suggests roads are being designed to be too wide based on faulty and outdated research. These wide streets lead to excess speeds that increase collision risk and put all motorists, especially pedestrians, in danger.

Wide Streets Endanger Atlanta Motorists and Increase Collision Risks

The population is getting older, and young people are getting their licenses later. Because of these two factors, the average age of people who drive is rising. Older drivers are safer, in some ways, than other motorists. However, there is a substantial risk that older drivers will continue to operate their vehicles past the point where it is safe for them to do so. Older drivers tend to experience physical and mental impairments at some point in the aging process that affect their abilities to be safe drivers. If they do not voluntarily stop on time, they could hurt themselves or others.

If an accident is caused by a senior driver, victims should consult with an Atlanta auto accident attorney to get help pursuing a claim for compensation. States have some laws aimed at preventing senior driving collisions, but unfortunately these restrictions may not be enough to address the realities of the aging population. The problem is, there are various factors in place that are making it harder for legislatures to make new rules for senior drivers, even though passing stricter regulations could be important to public safety and health.

Senior Driving Accident Risks in Atlanta

If you or someone you love has been hurt or killed in a car accident, you may be facing substantial costs for the injuries incurred or you may be facing substantial financial loss due to your loved ones death. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates the total annual costs from car accidents is around $277 billion, including costs for medical expenditures as well as loss of productivity and other losses. Victims and their families who bear the burden of these costs need to be compensated for their damages.

An Atlanta car accident lawyer can represent victims or surviving family members after a fatal crash. The goal is to get you the maximum compensation for damages so you can be fully and fairly compensated for all losses.

In many situations, victims are able to get a fair amount of compensation for damages by settling their claims outside of court. In other situations, however, a civil lawsuit will need to proceed to a trial for the victim to receive fair compensation and be “made wholefor all crash losses.