Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

For my regular readers, you know how long I have been writing about the need to make texting while driving (TWD) illegal in the State of Georgia. I am glad to report the rest of America seems to be catching on. First, Oprah introduced her "No Phone Zone" pledge. This is a pledge that you can print out and sign which says you swear not to text while you are driving. Tens of thousands of people have taken the pledge. If you have a teenage driver I urge you to visit this No Phone Zone page with your teen to watch numerous videos on the dangers of driving while texting. It is extremely informative and scary.

Now even automobile insurance companies are jumping on the bandwagon and urging their insureds and the motoring public in general not to text while driving. Progressive Insurance is supporting Oprah in her no texting pledge. I noticed Melbourne Insurance out of Florida is emphasizing not to text while driving.

One neat potential solution is a smartphone app called Drive Safely that apparently will read your text voices outloud to you while you are driving. Unfortunately, although it will convert a text to voice, it does not yet convert voice to text, so it will not eliminate the oh-so-uncontrollable urge to respond ASAP to that text you just got! That will take some self-discipline!

The State of Florida appears to be poised to pass legislation banning TWD and Florida Governor Crist is supporting it. Likewise for the State of Massachusetts. And now NHTSA, the National Highway and Traffice Safety Administration is even urging states to pass a ban on TWD. Where is Georgia Governor Perdue on this issue? Shockingly silent. Where is the leadership the State of Georgia needs NOW on this issue? What about the Georgia General Assembly? Yes, bills have been filed, but have they made any progress in the intricate procedure of getting legislation in Georgia passed? Not yet and we begin the second half of the General Assembly session on March 8. I urge Georgia lawmakers to make texting while driving illegal, for the sake of all Georgia citizens. It will save the lives of thousands of Georgians.

Finally! Toyota apologizes to the American public for selling us dangerous cars and keeping it secret from us when Toyota KNEW they were accidents looking for a place to happen.Yet Toyota still has yet to come 100% clean, in denying anything is wrong with their cars' electronic throttle system, when all evidence points to the contrary.

Added to the misery created by Toyota's cavalier conduct is the revelation that there may be some Americans wrongly convicted of vehicular homicide when their runaway Toyotas killed someone. This issue has arisen in Minnesota, where Koua Fong Lee is serving an eight year prison sentence for vehicular homicide in 2006 when his 1996 Toyota careened out of control and he was unable to stop it. With this late confession by Toyota executives about their out-of-control cars, it may be that Mr. Lee was wrongfully convicted and that it is Toyota, not poor Mr. Lee, that is responsible for the Minnesota deaths.

Things that make you go hmmmmm...another episode of Corporate Malfeasance, and it will be left to the trial lawyers of America to seek any justice for Toyota's victims.

This was a terrible headline to read today, that a child was killed in Fayetteville, Georgia when a car rolled over him. The car, a Chrysler Sebring, apparently rolled over him even though the car was in park and no key was in the ignition at the time. Sounds like another car manufacturing defect to me.

Child Killed By Rolling Car

Posted: 7:41 am EST February 18, 2010
Updated: 8:43 am EST February 18, 2010

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- Investigators will be checking out a Fayette County family's car on Thursday after the vehicle apparently slipped out of park, hitting and killing the family's 6-year-old boy.

The Chrysler Sebring was parked in the driveway of the home in the 500 block of Westbridge Drive in Fayetteville Wednesday afternoon when it began rolling, according to investigators.

The car stopped against a tree after hitting the child.

"The Chrysler was found without the keys in the ignition," said Major Bryan Woodie of the Fayette County Sheriffs Office.

The victim's 9-year-old sister was in the car during the incident, but "her presence is not believed to be a factor," said Woodie.

No charges are expected to be filed, officials said.

It was bad enough that Toyota had recalled hundreds of thousands of newer models of their best-selling Camry and the Corolla and Tundra and certain Lexus models for sudden uncontrolled accelleration. That recall, blamed by Toyota executives as being caused by defective rubber floormats, affected 3.8 million vehicles that contained certain all-weather floor mats. Then Toyota issued another recall for 2.3 million Toyota vehicles, including 600,000 that were not subject to the prior floor mat recall due to an actual mechanical problem that was causing some gas pedals to stick. Which begs the question: was the TRUE problem with the first 3.8 million cars really to blame on the floor mat? Or was this a convenient excuse for what was really an accellerator problem from the get-go? Knowing Toyota Execs, count on the latter.

But now, in the MackDaddy of all Recalls, Toyota has recalled its Star of the Show, the Prius, Toyota said Tuesday it would recall 437,000 of its 2010 flagship Prius hybrid and other gas-electric models worldwide to fix a glitch in the braking system, as the Japanese automaker moved to contain a crisis over defects in a range of its vehicles. Toyota says its only a software problem, which may be true, but are we to trust them?

I have found myself in the last couple of weeks avoiding driving near or around Toyotas on the street. I will switch lanes rather than dare be behind one. I do not own a Toyota, but I can imagine Toyota owners faced with the moral dilemma: "Do I drive my Camry to work and risk killing myself, a loved one or another person? Or do I put it in the garage, continue to make monthly payments on a car I cannot drive and try to find alternate transportation?" Toyota, you've got some explaining to do!

And it's not just ONE problem. There are complaints of power steering problems, braking problems, sudden acceleration problems, and other problems. Which one does your Toyota have? The vast array of complaints is in and of itself scary.

Probably the wreck that first made many of us plaintiff's personal injury lawyers suspicious of the Toyota/Lexus Corporate line that it was merely a "floormat" problem causing sudden, uncontrollable accelleration was the horrible wreck in Santee, California, in which a family of four was killed, including a California Highway Patrol Officer who was driving a Lexus ES 350. He called 911 to report his car was accellerating out of control, they could not get their brakes to work and they could not stop the Lexus. At first, after this tragedy, Toyota blamed it on a floormat causing the accelerator to stick. But immediately I thought that CAN'T be right, because if anyone would know how to pull out a floormat to get the accellerator unstuck it would be a State Highway Patrol Officer. It just didn't make any sense what Toyota wanted us to believe.

There are allegations that Toyota knew of these problems long ago but kept its corporate mouth (so to speak) shut, and their corporate fingers (so to speak) crossed, that "hey, maybe we'll get lucky and no one will say anything while we continue to makes hundreds of millions of U.S. Dollars off the back of American workers!!!" There are also allegations raised that NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration knew about the Toyota problems a long time ago. If true, this raises the old question of whether NHTSA is too closely alligned with car manufacturers to consider doing anything that's in the best interests of the American Motoring Public.

Well, I watch with great interest. My guess is for there to be any justice gained in this whole mess, it will be up to a trial lawyer to achieve it.