Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

Most people don’t realize this, but your own car insurance company, the one you pay premiums to to protect you, is your adversary, not your friend. You must treat them like an adversary whenever you are involved in a car wreck, even when it is not your fault. If you have purchased a non-mandatory type of coverage called “uninsured motorist coverage,” the minute you attempt to file a claim under that coverage your own insurance company and even your own insurance agent become your adversaries. Their sole goal at that point is not to pay you one cent under the uninsured motorist coverage. It doesn’t matter that you may have been an insured with that particular company for 40 years; these insurance companies have no loyalty whatsoever. How else do you think the insurance company has made literally billions of dollars in a down economy?

For example, State Farm, one of Georgia’s largest car insurers, managed a $777 million profit nationally in 2009. In just one month, February 2012,Progressive made $106.3 million in profit for the company, up 41 percent from the month before. Profits at GEICO were $587 million in 2011. These numbers are, obviously, nothing to sneeze at.

One way in which car insurance companies build up their other-worldly profits is through denial of claims, especially uninsured motorists claims. This type of coverage is insurance you buy to protect yourself in case you are injured either by another motorist who has no insurance at all (uninsured) or a motorist who has minimum mandatory insurance which is not enough to cover your medical bills. Little do you know that when you voluntarily pay those extra insurance premiums, the car insurance carrier will do everything in its power to avoid having to pay you even a dime. It becomes all out war and nasty litigation.

Many of you know one of my favorite topics to opine upon as a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney in Atlanta, Georgia is distracted driving. I have seen too many families lose loved ones in car wrecks because of another driver’s ridiculous insistence on texting while driving. It is rampant in Atlanta and all over the State of Georgia. On nearly a nightly basis as I drive home from my Midtown office, stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I see at least one driver texting while driving (TWD). I have lately even seem almost defiant drivers holding their IPhone or Blackberry in the same hand that is holding the steering wheel and texting while driving. This is NOT just a teenage driving problem; the violators I see on a daily basis almost all seem to be adults.

And now we receive a report that the tool Georgia legislators gave law enforcement officers to help reduce or eliminate texting while driving is not being used. In the two years after a ban on texting while driving in Georgia took effect on July 1, 2010, state records reveal that fewer than 50 people a month have been convicted of the offense, for a total of 1,281 convictions as of Sept. 17. Last year, there were 3,840 crashes attributed to cell phone use/distracted driving in Georgia, according to the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Nine were fatal and 955 resulted in serious injuries. So we know it remains a safety issue for Georgia’s motoring public.

There is no question that the message not to text while driving is being conveyed by various groups or corporations as public service messages. Three years ago, before a law was enacted against it, there was not public messaging about the evils of texting while driving. Now they seem to be everywhere, both in the private and public sector. For example, AT&T is campaigning across the country through its “Txtng & Driving … It Can Wait” program. Most news stations have public awareness campaigns against texting while driving, e.g., the “No Text Zone.” Car insurers, like State Farm Insurance Company, have joined the fight to reduce texting while driving, which makes sense given the fact that as one of Georgia’s largest car insurers, it must often have to pay for the mayhem caused by texting drivers. Billboards all over the state of Georgia implore you not to text while driving. One I saw recently said “TWD has G2G.”

There has been a frightening number of wrong way car wrecks in Metropolitan Atlanta lately, four since August 15, and all involving fatalities. This is extremely alarming on numerous levels. First, at least two of these involved alcohol. There is evidence the wrong way driver, the “at-fault” driver, had consumed alot of alcohol before driving the wrong way on the Atlanta road. It is easily understandable how an intoxicated person can confuse entrance and exit ramps to a highway or interstate. But the other two, ostensibly, didn’t involve alcohol. So how does a driver who is not impaired in any way make the fatal mistake of driving the wrong way on Georgia roads?

These wrong way crashes in which the “at-fault” driver was not impaired is indicative of a deeper problem, that of roadway design and adherence to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). These wrong way crashes may have very well have been prevented with better warning signs or directional signs, or warning markers actually on the roadway itself that would alert an impaired driver he is going the wrong way. The Georgia Department of Transportation is responsible for maintaining our state highways, including Federal Interstates. Georgia, like all other states, has adopted the MUTCD as its policy for proper traffic control devices, which includes not only traffic signals, but all other kinds of roadway signage, markings, paintings, tapings, or actual physical barriers to roads. Supposedly, on a Georgia highway that is properly marked pursuant to the MUTCD, wrong way collisions simply would never occur. The fact that they have suggests the DOT is failing the motoring public with lack of adequate markings or signage or warnings.

Suggestions include glass beads in the road that show up as red for the wrong way driver, or sensors that detect a wrong way driver and alert policeman in the area, or sensors that would automatically disable a wrong way driver’s car, or even spikes that would cut only a wrong way driver’s tires to stop him before he can get very far down the road. You see these spikes often in rental car lots. The GDOT has declined using them on exit ramps, however, claiming they aren’t designed for car speeds of 40 m.p.h.

Despite attempts by numerous State Legislatures, including the Georgia General Assembly, to reduce distracted driving by making it illegal and imposing heavy fines on those who violate those laws, distracted driving continues to cause wrecks and personal injuries. The Georgia Legislature made illegal texting while driving (TWD) and yet I personally observe many Georgia drivers still holding their phones or Blackberries at the top of their steering wheels texting while driving, often at high rates of speed, on Ga. 400, the Downtown Connector, I-75 and I-85. It is infuriating.

A study by Virginia Tech Driving Institute revealed that those who resort to texting while driving are 23 times more likely to meet with an accident. A comparative study of texting while driving versus drunk driving statistics published in a leading car magazine in the United States revealed that texting while driving is even more dangerous than drunk driving. Studies reveal that a person who is texting while driving at the speed of 35 mph will cover 25 feet before bringing the car to a complete halt as compared to a distance of 4 feet which a drunk driver would cover at the same speed. According to the texting while driving death statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 5,870 people died in car crashes in 2008 alone. The same statistics revealed that 515,000 people were injured in various car crashes in the United States. Around 28 percent of all crashes in 2008 were caused by drivers in the age group of 18 and 29, who admitted to texting while driving. The popular belief, that the number of teenagers texting while driving is more as compared to adults, got a major blow when the texting while driving statistics 2010 compiled by Pew Research Center revealed that 47 percent of the adults resort to texting as compared to 34 percent of the teenagers. The same stats revealed that 75 percent of the adults resort to phone conversation while driving as compared to 52 percent of the teenagers.

There are numerous tools a driver has at his or her disposal now to prevent distracted driving. One such tool is an application you download on your phone that reads an incoming text to you, either on your phone’s speaker or your bluetooth device. For example, I have downloaded on my Blackberry an app called “Txt U L8r.” It is a free app created by Car and Driver and Chrysler that reads any incoming text to you while you are driving. I use a Bluetooth hands free device while driving and so this app reads an incoming text to me through my Bluetooth device. The app turns on automatically whenever I turn on my Bluetooth. I have to listen to a brief advertisement first that simply says “This message is brought to you by Chrysler” and then a nice voice reads the text. Then that same app sends an automatic reply text that reads: “I heard your message read by the Car and Driver Txt U L8r app and will get back to you when I’m done driving. Drive Safely. Sponsored by Chrysler.” I have received many compliments about using this app. Every time a friend of mine receives it in response to a text they send me, it sets a good example and makes folks think about what they are doing to eliminate distracted driving.