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Three in ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related car accident at some point in their lives. Over 40,000 people in the United States die each year from alcohol related car accidents and mishaps. Alcohol was a factor in 31 percent of car accidents in 2010. And of alcohol-related deaths, a full six percent of victims are under 21 years old. In car-related deaths for people 16 to 20, one-third are alcohol related.

Georgia Is Not Immune From DUI Accidents

Our Atlanta DUI accident lawyers appreciate that our area is not immune from these accidents. For example, this week in Douglas County, a young man was convicted for his role in a fatal car accident in February 2011 that took the life of a 16 year old girl, Cheyenne Sauls. Twenty two year old Dustin Willis bought beer for her and their friends that night. Foolishly the teenagers got behind the wheel after drinking. The driver, Jason Lark, lost control of the car and crashed, throwing Miss Sauls out of the SUV. After the crash, Mr. Willis fled the scene. Mr. Lark pled guilty last year. Mr. Willis was only a passenger in the crashed car, but was still charged with homicide in the first degree and serious injury by vehicle. Yesterday the judge sentenced him to 15 years, nine of which will be behind bars, after his attorney reached a plea agreement for the young man. Mr. Willis wept in front of the judge and apologized to the victim’s family, but none of that will undo what a night of stupidity has cost.

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A scary story came out of California recently about an elderly woman who died even though a trained nurse was standing right next to her. Our Atlanta elder abuse lawyers know that Georgia’s seniors, as well as seniors across the country, are rightly concerned about this story.

The California tragedy occurred earlier this month. 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed in the dining room of her independent living facility, Glenwood Gardens, in Bakersfield, California. A nurse, an employee of Glenwood, got on the 911 phone call. The 911 operator pleaded with the nurse, named Colleen, to give Ms. Bayless CPR. Colleen told the dispatcher that company policy forbade her from performing CPR. The policy required her to wait with the hurt or sick person, but not provide any medical care. Repeatedly the dispatcher pleaded with her, and asked her to find someone else to help Ms. Bayless. The 911 call sounds horrifyingly cruel, with Colleen stating, “Not at this timein answer to the question of whether there was anyone around willing to help Ms. Bayless. At another point the dispatcher said that the lady will die, and Colleen responded “Yeah.Emergency personnel arrived seven minutes after the 911 call, but it was already too late for Ms. Bayless. The avoidable tragedy is heartbreaking, and it is understandable why Georgia seniors might be worried.

A Georgia news story on the incident points out that Georgia’s Good Samaritan law would protect people trying to help in an emergency situation from liability. This law applies as long the helper is not getting paid. But even without the Good Samaritan law, many retirement and nursing home staff were also shocked and upset by the incident in California. Greg Rowe, Director of Dougherty County EMS, said, “I’ve never gone anywhere that I can remember where they were just sitting, waiting on us to get there.And Dr. Graham Nichol, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, noted that CPR more than doubles the chances of survival, also noting, “If liability was a concern, I would suspect there is a greater liability if someone dies.

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In good news from our federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals this week, a girl will have another shot at justice in her product liability case.

Amber Wright was 13-years-old when she went to a hair salon in Carollton, Georgia. It was February 2005, and she wanted blonde highlights. The licensed cosmetologist used a product manufactured by a company called Farouk Systems named “Blondest Blonde. The cosmetologist had used the product before and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, although Amber told her about feeling a burning sensation on her head. Things got worse from there, and nine days later the 13-year-old was in the emergency room with second and third degree burns on her scalp. Doctors stated that Amber had chemical burns, which can develop over time. Eventually, her burns were so severe that surgeons had to do a skin graft on her scalp.

Amber sued Farouk Systems for a defective product and failure to warn about potential scalp burns. Her trial had problems from the start, however. A chemist hired to testify was excluded under a Daubert ruling, which means the court found it did not meet scientific evidence standards. Her lawyers did not challenge that exclusion in the trial court. The lower court found that thus Amber had abandoned her product defect claims and therefore all her other evidence was inadmissible, and granted Farouk Systems summary judgment.

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Our Atlanta product liability attorneys are following recent news about Honda’s recall of 126,000 motorcycles with malfunctioning brakes, the second such recall done. These vehicle recalls show product defects in vehicles could potentially cause accidents, injuries, and even deaths.

The recalled motorcycles include GL-1800 motorcycles from 2001 through 2010, and those from 2012. Honda issued an initial recall of these motorcycles in December 2011, but continued receiving complaints. Honda told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the reason for the problem was undetermined, and they were still investigating the cause.

Through July 24 of this year, Honda received 533 complaints about problems with the bikes. It turns out the secondary brake master cylinder can cause the rear brake to drag, which in turn can cause a crash or fire. The complaints include reports of eight small fires; luckily, no reports of crashes or injuries related to these brake problems were received.

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Dog bites have been in the news in recent weeks because of the video that went viral of a dog attacking a little boy, who was then saved by his pet cat. Our Atlanta dog bite lawyers read about another courageous little boy who is still recovering after being attacked by a pit bull dog. Jasper Poole, who is only four years old, was attacked by a relative’s pit bull when it was let outside. The dog bit the little boy’s leg and dragged him down stairs. Schley County Sheriff Shane Tondee said when police arrived, “We found a pit bull dog that had blood on him, blood on his face, and blood all over the door, the deck, and the ledge where the incident happened.

Recovery Included Surgery Physical Therapy

Two months later, Jasper still had a large wound on his leg, which required 300 stitches. The wounds included a severed calf muscle. The little boy has already gone through two surgeries. His mom, Lezlie Poole, said, “We come here three days a week, and we see a surgeon one day a week, we had to get a custom boot made for us that helps stretch his calf muscle so there’s a lot that goes into that.His parents say he’s in high spirits, but he has to learn to walk again. Of his physical therapy, his mom said, “It’s like play time for him, he calls it working out. He gets to go to the gym and work out so he gets excited to do that.

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When, as consumers, we count on products to work as they are supposed to, and they do not and cause harmful consequences, there is recourse in product liability law . Recent posts about this have involved medical products, but motor vehicles have the potential to be dangerous if there is something wrong, as well. A recent news story has highlighted the danger of a product for safety when driving that can be replaced with a fake, causing serious injuries or death in car accidents.

Airbags in cars have saved lives and lessened the severity of injuries in car accidents. However, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a warning about counterfeit airbags. NHTSA says the counterfeit airbags are being used as replacements for the proper product. So far they are not aware of any injuries or deaths relating to these fakes, but it is still dangerous to have them out there with the potential for injury or death. These fake airbags look nearly identical to the real ones, including the insignia and branding of major automakers, but NHTSA tested one and it showed consistent malfunctioning ranging from non-deployment of the airbag to the expulsion of metal shrapnel during deployment. The fact that there have been no injuries, with these factors, may amount more to luck than to anything else.

NHTSA has identified certain makes and models of cars for which counterfeit airbags may be available (see a list at the bottom of this article). However, NHTSA says that only 0.1 percent of the cars in the U.S. may be affected. You may be affected if you have had the airbag replaced in your car within the last three years and it was not replaced by a new car dealership. If you have had your airbag replaced, or if you have bought a new airbag online, it is recommended that you contact the call center for your car’s manufacturer. You can get further information about call centers here.

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Our Atlanta product liability attorneys know that companies often try to get away with having potentially dangerous products on the market, and when they are caught because someone gets seriously injured and sues, they want to “hide the balland get out of it.

That is why it is important to get legal help as soon as possible if you are hurt by a product.

Our Georgia products liability lawyers understand the many avenues of liability that are formed in the making of a product, because everyone in the chain of production of that product owes a duty of care to the end purchaser. There is also liability from a failure to warn of a dangerous aspect or potential harm that is not immediately apparent to the user of the product.

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Car and tractor trailer accidents are too common in Georgia, and this blog has discussed numerous reasons why tractor trailers are particularly dangerous vehicles on the road. The Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety states that one in six deaths from vehicle crashes involve a large commercial truck. In 86 percent of those fatal tractor trailer crashes, it is the person in the passenger vehicle, not the truck, who dies.

Unfortunately, there was another instance of this type of fatal crash last week on Ga. 316. According to news reports, 68-year-old Anvir Karim of Dacula was driving westbound on Ga. 316 in his 1997 black Nissan Maxima when the accident occurred at 6:45am last Thursday. A tractor trailer heading eastbound, driven by 34-year-old Latora Barrett of Columbia, South Carolina, turned left suddenly onto Hurricane Trail in Lawrenceville. He turned in front of Mr. Karim's car, causing the Maxima to slam into the side of the trailer. The car then wedged underneath the trailer, according to Gwinnett police Cpl. Edwin Ritter. The preliminary investigation of the crash has found that Mr. Karim did not have sufficient time to stop and avoid the crash.

Captain Eric Eberly, of the Gwinnett fire department, said the department's Technical Rescue Team used air bags and large timbers to lift the tractor trailer off the ground and stabilize the truck. Then they dragged the Maxima out from under the truck and cut Mr. Karim out of the severely mangled car. Cpl. Ritter noted, "It took well over an hour, maybe almost two hours for fire and EMS to extricate him from the vehicle.He was taken to Gwinnett Medical Center in critical condition, but later died of the injuries he sustained in the accident. As is the case most of the time, shown by the statistic above, Mr. Barrett, the driver of the truck, was not injured. Cpl. Ritter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in an email, that Mr. Barrett is facing charges for this fatal accident. Gwinnett County Detention Centers show that the uninjured Mr. Barrett was booked the afternoon of the day of the accident on charges of failure to yield and vehicular homicide.

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In 2011, 277 people died in drunk driving accidents in Georgia. The Georgia Governors’ Office of Highway Safety reports 23 percent of deadly car crashes in the state occurred because of impaired driving. Nationwide, drunk driving causes as many as 10,000 deaths each year. refreshing-beer-1267279-m

When a driver makes the dangerous choice to be impaired behind the wheel, an Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyer at Van Sant Law, LLC can provide legal assistance to the victims injured or killed by the impaired motorist. Even when victims are compensated for losses, unfortunately nothing can undo damage done when injuries are permanent or when death results from drunk driving. Prevention is always the goal and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced new technologies that could one day perhaps make drunk driving a thing of the past.

Can Technology End Atlanta Drunk Driving Accidents?

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Driving under the influence of drugs causes around 18 percent of motor vehicle deaths in the United States. Driving under the influence of alcohol is also extremely dangerous, with Mothers Against Drunk Driving indicating that thee are more than 10,000 fatalities each year as a result of impaired motorists. Drug Use in Car Accidents Atlanta Georgia

An Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyer should be consulted in situations when a driver is impaired by alcohol, cannabis (marijuana), or other prescription and non-prescription medications. Motorists who make the unsafe choice to operate a vehicle while impaired should be responsible for paying for all losses and damages incurred by innocent victims who are harmed as a result of the illegal and unsafe acts.

Now, recent evidence suggests that drivers who use cannabis and alcohol may have a greater chance of getting behind the wheel when impaired as compared with people who do not use both of these substances. Since marijuana use is becoming much more widely accepted throughout the United States as laws are relaxed and public opinion shifts, this new evidence is bad news when it comes to accident prevention.

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