Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

It is a morbid statistic to keep up with, for sure, but one the Georgia Department of Public Safety has been keeping for years, that it the number of Holiday Fatalities on Georgia Roads. This Thanksgiving Holiday (from Wednesday to Sunday) eleven Georgia citizens lost their lives on Georgia roads. As a plaintiff's personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, who has represented many, many Georgia families who have lost loved ones in car wrecks, I know the pain these Georgia families are suffering right now, especially during the Holiday Season.

The Georgia state patrol reported 520 wrecks resulting in 231 injuries this year during the Thanksgiving Holidays, but that does not include reports of wrecks from other police agencies, e.g., municipal police departments. More people are on our roads for Holiday travel, so statistically, more people are going to be in wrecks. We don't know how many Georgians suffered personal injuries from the 520 wrecks reported by the Georgia State Patrol, but we can pretty much assume there were numerous injuries. Many states launched a safe driving campaign just before Thanksgiving, but I didn't see one for Georgia this year. Even other countries are ahead of the United States in this effort. For example, in 1997, the Swedish Parliament adopted the "Vision Zero" policy, which sets a goal of reducing roadway fatalities and serious injuries to zero. According to some knowledgeable commentators, when it comes to preventing death and serious injury, we too often focus on individual behavior and vehicle safety but ignore the crucial role of roadway design, which leads to one of the deadliest ingredients in any crash: speed. This is why I have brought numerous cases against the Georgia Department of Transportation, because Georgia Citizens shouldn't let their DOT off the hook on state roadways that are inherently hazardous and that are killing people through no fault of their own.

Perhaps one Monday after Thanksgiving I will write here that the Georgia State Patrol reports no Holiday Deaths on Georgia roads. Wouldn't that be something?

Monday, November 22, 2010
$750K deal reached in 'Joshua's Law' case
By Greg Land, Staff Reporter

The parents of Joshua Brown, the 17-year-old driver killed in 2003 when he lost control of his car on a stretch of wet highway north of Cartersville, reached a $750,000 settlement with the Georgia Department of Transportation just before the case was to go to a jury Friday.

Attorney Robin Frazer Clark, who represents Alan and LuGina Brown, hammered out the deal with lawyers from the office of Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker in the closing hours of a week-long trial described by Fulton County State Court Judge Susan B. Forsling as a "difficult case on a number of levels" because of the emotional tenor of the testimony and the technical details related to the highway's engineering.

Following Joshua's death, Alan Brown established a foundation in his son's name and lobbied the Georgia General Assembly to require 16-year-olds to pass a driver's education course before they can get a license and to add a 5 percent surcharge to traffic fines in order to fund driving simulators in the state's high schools. Known as "Joshua's Law," the legislation passed and was signed into law in 2005.

The Browns sued the DOT in 2005, claiming that the stretch of road on which the accident occurred was poorly engineered and allowed water to pool on its surface rather than run off, among other defects.

Jurors, most of whom stayed behind to chat with the judge, attorneys and plaintiffs, said they had been leaning toward a defense verdict until word was sent to the jury room that the case had settled.

"It's been my calling to get 21st century drivers' education back in high schools," said Alan Brown afterward. "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about Josh. … I don't think there's ever closure in something like this, but at least this part is behind us."

Staff Reporter Greg Land can be reached at gland@alm.com

$750K settlement reached in “Joshua’s Law” case

1:17 pm, November 19th, 2010
The parents of Joshua Brown, the 17-year-old driver killed in 2003 when he lost control of his car on a stretch of wet highway north of Cartersville, reached a $750,000 settlement with the Georgia Department of Transportation just before the case was to go to a jury Friday.

Attorney Robin Frazer Clark, who represents Alan and LuGina Brown, hammered out the deal with lawyers from the office of Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker in the closing hours of a week-long trial described by Fulton County State Court Judge Susan Forsling as a “difficult case on a number of levels” because of the emotional tenor of the testimony and the technical details related to the highway’s engineering.

The Browns sued the DOT in 2005, charging that the stretch of road where Joshua’s accident occurred was poorly engineered and allowed water to pool on its surface rather than run off, among other defects. But jurors, most of whom stayed behind to chat with the judge, attorneys and plaintiffs, said they had been leaning toward a defense verdict until word was sent to the jury room that the case had settled.

Following Joshua’s death, Alan Brown established a foundation in his son’s name and lobbied the Georgia General Assembly to require 16-year-olds to pass a driver’s education course before they can get a license, and to add a 5 percent surcharge to traffic fines in order to fund driving simulators in the state’s high schools. Known as “Joshua’s Law,” the legislation passed and was signed into law in 2005.

“It’s been my calling to get 21st Century drivers education back in high schools” said Alan Brown afterward. “There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about Josh … I don’t think there’s ever closure in something like this, but at least this part is behind us.”

Contributor: Greg Land in Verdicts & Settlements | subscribe to rss | share

How many Georgians have to die before the Georgia Department of Transportation does something to fix hazardous roads? At least more than one appears to be the answer to that question. In Chatham County, the interchange of I-95 and Georgia Highway 21 has been a hazardous road known to the GDOT for a long time, but it took a fatality last week finally to get the GDOT to act to try to protect the lives of Georgia citizens.

Here are the statistics for this hazardous stretch of road in South Georgia:Georgia Highway 21 off ramp

Total Accidents: 106
Total Vehicles: 221
Pedestrian: 0
Injuries: 42
Fatalities: 0
I-95 Port Wentworth reports

Total Accidents: 244
Total Vehicles: 685
Pedestrian: 1
Total Injuries: 98
Fatalities: 2

This is simply unacceptable. Georgia drivers deserve better. State Senator Lester Jackson said about the hazardous road "It's just sad that a fatality had to happen for us to start moving on this project, "said Senator Jackson. But that's what it took to get the GDOT to do something to fix a known hazardous situation, getting the State Senator (Sen. Jackson) involved. The Georgia Department of Transportation should be ashamed of its self. Georgia citizens deserve better.

The Georgia Department of Transportation recently settled a wrongful death claim by agreeing to pay the Plaintiff $600,000.00 for the death of his wife. The Georgia DOT delayed resolution for several years and finally agreed to pay the settlement just before trial in Fulton County, Georgia. The claims in this case, Heller v. DOT, which was pending in Fulton County State Court, involved allegations that the Georgia DOT had allowed trees to grow up too closely to the roadway, presenting a deathly hazard for any member of the motoring public who, for whatever reason, happened to leave the roadway. This is what happened to the taxi Mrs. Heller was a passenger in when it hydroplaned during a rainstorm, causing the cabdriver to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a tree, killing Mrs. Heller.

Georgia DOT has a mandatory clear zone requirement, as set forth in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Roadside Design Guide, which Georgia has officially adopted. DOT cut down the trees by the side of I-85 in 2006 and has a larger tree-clearance program, DOT spokesperson David Spear said. "The principal concern relative to the DOT in this issue was the tree," Spear said. "Relative to drainage and slope design we’ve not made any changes, nor are any warranted."

The Georgia DOT even apologized to Mr. Heller for the death of his wife, an extremely rare gesture by the DOT.

There is no question that the concept of a "clear zone" adjacent to a road way is for enhancing the safety of the motoring public. It is also readily apparent, from the Heller litigation, that the DOT ignores these safety enhancements that are in place to save the lives of Georgia citizens. It is also obvious that until a courageous plaintiff and a trial lawyer willing to fight for what is right takes the Georgia DOT all the way to the mat, i.e., a jury trial, the DOT will continue to refuse to accept responsibility for their role in causing highway deaths.

If you think the Georgia DOT wouldn't knowingly subject Georgia citizens to a hazardous road condition, think again.

Monday, October 25, 2010
GDOT agrees to second settlement
Family of woman killed on same stretch of highway that was cited in separate settlement to receive $1 million
By Katheryn Hayes Tucker, Staff Reporter

Randy Edwards, for the family of Jamie Webb: The road was resurfaced at a cost of $1.8 million, but the short strip that was the source of the problem could have been fixed for about $200,000.

For the second time this month, the Georgia Department of Transportation has agreed to pay a seven-figure settlement because of an accident caused by the same stretch of dangerous roadway in Cherokee County. Together, the two settlements total $2.5 million. Plaintiffs' lawyers say the DOT was warned by county officials before the accidents that the roadway was dangerous and could have made repairs for $200,000.

The latest settlement, negotiated before a lawsuit was filed, pays $1 million to the family of a 21-year-old mother who was killed on Highway 20 west of Canton, according to the family's attorney, R. Randy Edwards of Cochran & Edwards in Smyrna.

Edwards said the DOT agreed to the settlement with the estate of Jamie Leighann Webb, who was killed when her westbound car hydroplaned on a slick, wet stretch of pavement known as Knox Bridge Highway between Knox Bridge and Fields Chapel Road and hit a tractor-trailer truck headed east.

She was rushed by ambulance to Kennestone Hospital. "She lost control of the vehicle because the condition of the roadway is unreasonably dangerous and slick in that area," Edwards said in a letter to the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Risk Management Division. "Mrs. Webb was ejected from the vehicle and suffered grievous injuries which resulted in her death."

The settlement does not include the injuries to Webb's infant son, then 6 months old, who was "partially ejected from the vehicle and suffered life-threatening injuries," the letter said. The crash fractured the baby's neck and femur, according to Edwards, who plans to proceed with a lawsuit for the child when he is older and more is known about how the injuries affected him. Edwards' letter claims another $1 million of loss for the child.

Webb also had a 2-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old husband who were not in the car.

Webb was killed on April 10, 2009, nearly a year after another crash in the exact same stretch of roadway that recently led to a $1.5 million settlement with the Georgia DOT, according to the attorneys in that case, David M. Zacks and Melinda C. "Mindy" Pillow of Kilpatrick Stockton. (The first case was described in the Daily Report Oct. 15.)

The Kilpatrick Stockton client is Tameche Brown. She was traveling east on the same road headed to work when a westbound truck driven by Dr. Gregory Crawley hydroplaned and crossed the center line on a slick wet, curved slope, just as Webb's car did a year later. When Tameche was hit, she was seven months pregnant. Her injuries led to premature emergency delivery and neurological damage to her child, Miracle, who survived but suffered disabling effects.

The attorneys in both cases also cited a 2007 crash in the same spot in which a 9-year-old girl, Taylor Rainey, was killed when her mother's Mercedes SUV hydroplaned in front of a dump truck.

"It all stemmed from a defective patch that the Department of Transportation put on the road in 2006," said Edwards. Traffic wore down the rocks in the patched pavement within a few months, leaving nothing but tar on an uphill, curved road, according to Edwards, who called it "an accident waiting to happen."

"During wet and rainy conditions, when vehicles are traveling up hill from the Knox Bridge in the right, or outside, westbound lane of the Knox Bridge Highway heading towards Fields Chapel Road, there is an excessively slick portion of that lane which causes them to lose traction in their drive-side wheels, resulting in a spin-out and loss of control of the vehicles. Since the vehicles are already turning to the left as they round the curve in the roadway, the loss of control results in the vehicles crossing into the oncoming traffic lane, resulting in collisions," Edwards' letter to the DOT said.

Edwards' letter to the state also included a letter detailing the problem that Norman Hall, commander of the Cherokee County Traffic Enforcement Unit, sent to the DOT May 29, 2008, following the Brown wreck but nearly a year before Webb's fatal crash.

Hall's letter described "one of the deadliest roads in the county," scene of several fatal and many serious wrecks. The commander went on to report, "The aging of the roadway creates extremely hazardous travel conditions, especially when the surface becomes wet. The surface has worn down to the stones, which are polished, and when wet, results in a surface that is highly slippery, and the resulting vehicle accidents are normally very severe, with fatalities and serious injuries being the end result, not to mention the enormous amount of damage. Hydroplaning under wet conditions is the leading factor in these accidents."

Hall requested the "immediate re-surfacing" of the road.

DOT District Engineer Kent L. Sager wrote a letter in response to Hall's request on June 8, 2008, saying the section of State Route 20 was scheduled for bids in July 2008. Sager's letter went on to say, "Please be aware that although these sections are of top priority to the district, they also compete statewide against other resurfacing projects and with limited financial resources to accomplish all the resurfacing needs."

Edwards said the road was finally resurfaced this year, under a contract awarded in February 2010, at a cost of $1.8 million for a nine-mile stretch of highway. However, Edwards said the much shorter strip of pavement that was the source of the problem could have been resurfaced for about $200,000.

The two settlements total $2.5 million.

The attorney who represented the DOT in the settlements, G. Michael Banick of the state attorney general's office, said he could not talk about any cases and referred the call to the attorney general's press contact, Russell Willard. Willard did not return the call, but in an e-mail suggested calling the DOT. DOT press secretary David Spear has not responded to calls.

Edwards concluded: "The department of transportation needs to act responsibly when they have knowledge of a serious, dangerous situation on one of its roads. In this case, the DOT completely failed."

Staff Reporter Katheryn Hayes Tucker can be reached at ktucker@alm.com

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