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Recently, it was announced that lawmakers are considering taking action to deal with a sharp increase in the number of Americans killed in commercial truck accidents.  This increase in the number of people killed in truck wrecks is particularly concerning since the number of motor vehicle accidents in general have declined.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), fatalities from collisions involving large trucks increased 8.7 percent in 2010 compared to 2009.  Motor vehicle accident fatalities in the U.S. as a whole decreased during that same period, falling 2.9 percent from the number of reported fatalities in 2009.  In 2010, the number of motor vehicle deaths actually dropped to its lowest point since 1949.  Lawmakers seem focused on implementing preventative measures calculated to stop the dangerous trend of higher deaths related to trucking accidents.

While the debate rages about the real causes of these increased number of deaths related to large trucks, safety advocates believe that tighter restrictions on commercial vehicle companies and drivers is needed.  Recently, regulators enacted a ban on the use of hand-held cell phones by truckers when driving.  This prohibition on the use of cell phones became effective January 1, 2012, and makes it illegal for truckers to use cell phones for either texting or talking.  Violators will be fined heavily and repeat offenders could suffer a suspension of their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).

Some believe that banning the use of cell-phones while driving commercial trucks is only a start, and that more regulation is needed to make the trucking industry safer for all motorists.  In this vain, The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act of 2011, also known as the "CMV bill," was recently proposed.

The CMV bill is sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) who chairs the Senate's Surface Transportation Subcommittee.  It proposes several new safety regulations for truck and bus operators, and will:

- Require commercial drivers to use electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs), which will make it more difficult for a truck driver to misrepresent his “hours of service” (HOS).  Presently, truckers are required to hand write in a “log book” the number of hours driven in a day.  This enables a truck driver to record inaccurate entries in his log book, especially when driving more hours than allowed in a day.  EOBRs will make it harder for truck drivers to misrepresent their HOS since they will be required to type the data into the electronic device where it will be stored digitally, and transmitted to the truck driver’s employer.  The trucking company will have more incentive to ensure that its drivers comply with Federal HOS rules since the company can be held responsible for not properly monitoring and stopping its drivers that are violating these rules.  Overall, the use of EOBRs should improve the ability to verify a truck driver’s actual HOS, and assist in regulatory compliance.  With more accountability, drivers will be less likely to try to exceed the maximum permitted HOS, and trucking companies will be less likely to over-look such violations.  This should help to prevent truck driver fatigue, a primary cause of trucking accidents;

- Increase the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) power to implement and enforce rules designed to stop trucking companies and carriers from reopening illegally after being closed down due to safety issues.  This will help prevent an unsafe company that is closed by regulators to re-open under a different name, enabling the owners to continue doing the same unsafe trucking practices through the “reincarnated carrier”;

- Require the establishment of a central clearinghouse that would maintain records reporting the results of alcohol and drug testing done on commercial truck drivers.  This will enable trucking companies and employers to readily obtain this important information about truck drivers when making employment decisions;

- Fund research on how to make larger and heavier trucks safer, and also study the impact of these trucks on the infrastructure;

Naturally, those pushing for passage of The CMV bill say it will improve the safety of the trucking industry; yet, its opponents say further regulation is unnecessary.  Some in the trucking industry claim that it is the actions of motorists in passenger vehicles which cause the majority of collisions involving trucks and cars.

As trial attorneys that routinely represent the surviving family members and victims of trucking wrecks, we believe that only good things will happen when measures are implemented such as those proposed in The CMV bill.  We cannot imagine how can it ever be a bad thing to eliminate a truck driver’s ability to misrepresent the actual number of hours he has driven in a day, and the fact that he is driving an 18 wheel tractor trailer truck for more hours than allowed by federal law.  Likewise, how could it be bad to enable an employer (trucking company) to easily discover that the applicant (driver) was just fired from his last job for driving a commercial truck while drunk or high on drugs?  And what harm could come from stopping “bad apples” from being able to re-open new trucking companies, again and again, which are consistently run in an unsafe manner?  Most rational minds will agree, implementing these measures should be good for all motorist and make our highways a safer place to drive.

Everyone knows that traffic accidents involving large commercial trucks, such as a semi truck or tractor trailer or an 18 wheeler, can have tragic consequences for an automobile driver and passengers.  This is really nothing more than the results of the basic law of physics involved.  Whenever a lighter weighing object (mass) impacts a heavier object, the momentum of the heavier object is always going to decelerate and be slowed less than that of the smaller object.  So, when a fully loaded large commercial truck weighing over 80,000 pounds collides into an average passenger automobile weighing 3,000 pounds, the force of the impact will be greater on the smaller car and its occupants.  This is true even if the two vehicles are moving at the same rate of speed. These laws of physics can be simply stated: the heavier the truck, the greater the energy and momentum it will have on impact and the harder it will be to stop.  So, trucks with greater mass (weight) and momentum will cause a smaller and lighter vehicle to have the greater change in speed (deceleration) on impact.  In fact, the car may even be pushed in the reverse direction of travel. The sheer weight of these large trucks means any collision between a commercial truck and another vehicle is likely to result in serious, even fatal, injuries.

While the consequences of truck wrecks are well known, less obvious are the reasons why these accidents occur.  A recent study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) examined the reasons for serious crashes involving large trucks (trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating over 10,000 pounds). From the 120,000 large truck crashes that occurred between April 2001 and December 2003, a nationally representative sample was selected.  Each crash involved at least one large truck and resulted in a fatality or injury.  The sample of 963 crashes involved 1,123 large trucks and 959 motor vehicles that were not large trucks. The 963 crashes resulted in 249 fatalities and 1,654 injuries. Of the 1,123 large trucks in the sample, 77 percent were tractors pulling a single semi-trailer, and 5 percent were trucks carrying hazardous materials. Of the 963 crashes in the sample, 73 percent involved a large truck colliding with at least one other vehicle.

The FMCSA study indicated that the cause of most trucking accidents can be evaluated by analyzing the Critical Events, Critical Reasons, and other Associated Factors.  Critical Events are the actions or events that put the vehicle or vehicles on a course that made the collision unavoidable. The FMCSA assigned responsibility for causing the Critical Event to the vehicle that took the action that made the crash inevitable.  The Critical Reason is the immediate reason for the critical event (i.e., the failure leading to the critical event), such as driver error, vehicle failure, or environmental condition (roadway or weather).  Associated Factors also were considered, and include the person, vehicle, and environmental conditions present at the time of the crash, although no judgment is made as to whether any factor is related to the reason for a particular crash, just whether the factor was present.  Basically, the Critical Events were defined by the FMCSA to fall into 3 major types: (1) running out of the travel lane, either into another lane or off the road (32 percent of the large trucks were found to have this critical event), (2) vehicle loss of control due to traveling too fast for conditions, cargo shift, vehicle systems failure, poor road conditions, or other reasons (29 percent), and (3) colliding with the rear end of another vehicle in the trucks travel lane (22 percent).    Critical Reasons, on the other hand, usually depended on the type of crash, and 55 percent of trucking accidents were determined to be caused by the critical reason for single-vehicle and multi-vehicle collisions.  Yet, 44 percent were found to be caused by the critical reason in two-vehicle crashes between one truck and one passenger vehicle (a car, van, pickup truck, or sport utility vehicle).

As trial attorney experienced in handling trucking accidents, we have learned to look at all the factors that can cause truck accidents.  We routinely investigate many variables, and often find that there were multiple factors that combined to cause the crash.  Things to look for include driver training and experience, vehicle design and manufacture, highway condition and traffic signaling, and weather conditions, as well as things that occurred immediately before the crash, such as a decision to turn in traffic, a tire blowout, or snow.  Routinely, crash reconstruction experts are hired early to help investigate and preserve the evidence for these factors.  Sometimes the cause can be less obvious, and only discovered after careful analysis of driver’s logs, the truck’s on-board computer information systems, and the truck company’s records.  When truck accident investigation is thorough and detailed, important evidence may be found proving safety violations, such as driver fatigue, consumption of alcohol or drugs, or that the truck was being driven at excessive speed.  Discovering factors such as these early in a case, can greatly benefit our clients and their surviving family members, because it is harder for the truck company to continue denying responsibility, and may lead to a settlement instead of a long court trial.

Experiments in brain-injured rats show that stem cells injected via the carotid artery travel directly to the brain, where they greatly enhanced functional recovery, reports a study in the February issue of Neurosurgery.  In this study, after (4) four weeks, rats treated with stem cells had significant recovery of motor function (movement), while untreated rats had no recovery. Examination of the rats with treated brains confirmed that the stem cells had transformed into different types of brain cells and participated in healing of the injured brain area.

This is an important discovery, and while Stem Cell Therapy is far from being approved for use in humans, it is likely to become an important new treatment for patients with brain injuries, including Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and stroke.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/encouraging-results-with-stem-cell-transplant-for-brain-injury?ret=/articles/list&category=medicine&page=1&search%5Bstatus%5D=3&search%5Bsort%5D=date+desc&search%5Bsection%5D=10&search%5Bhas_multimedia%5D=

Many people do not receive needed care for mild traumatic brain injuries because the patient or their primary care physician did not recognize subtle, but common symptoms.  For this reason, we are inspired to educate our friends and clients about what symptoms they should be looking for are many times not identified as common problems associated with “concussions” or mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

First, the medical field widely recognizes that legitimate brain injuries have been documented and diagnosed even when the patient did not strike his head against any object.  In fact, the sudden acceleration-deceleration of the head, such as when the head is thrust back and forth in a “whip-lash” situation, can cause the brain to bounce against the inside the skull, causing brain bruising.  This can also damage delicate axons inside the brain, and sometimes can result in permanent brain injuries.  Since the brain controls our movements, behaviors, thoughts and sensations, a traumatic brain injury can have wide-ranging physical and psychological effects.  In most cases, expensive diagnostic testing by properly trained experts is necessary to assess and diagnosis these conditions.

We have handled many such cases, and am familiar with the testing required in assess accident victims for any possible brain damage, and many qualified medical experts who can objectively assess patients for such problems.  In that regards,   we have outlined below some of the symptoms commonly associated with brain injury.  While the list is not exhaustive, it may be helpful when screening patients for potential problems.

Mild traumatic brain injuries

he signs and symptoms of a mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) may include:

- brief period of unconsciousness (knocked out after accident even for a SHORT TIME)

- amnesia for events immediately before and after the injury (can’t remember what happened during the accident, or for part of the time)

- headaches

- confusion (seems slow talking, not able to talk coherently, etc.)

- dizziness or loss of balance

- sensory problems, such as: blurred vision, ringing in the ears, bad taste in the mouth

- mood changes (more easily angered, or crying, etc)

- memory loss (more forgetful, misplacing things, forgetting appointments)

- concentration problems (unable to focus-feeling scattered)

Moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries

If the injury is moderate to severe, the list of signs and symptoms grows to include:

- persistent headache

- repeated vomiting or nausea

- convulsions or seizures

- inability to awaken from sleep

- dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes

- slurred speech

- weakness or numbness in the extremities (arms, legs, hands, or feet)

- loss of coordination

- profound confusion

- agitation, combativeness

Children’s symptoms

Children with brain injuries may lack the communication skills or report headaches, sensory problems, confusion and similar symptoms.  Instead, they may:

- refuse to eat

- appear listless and cranky

- experience altered sleep patterns and school performance

- lose interest in favorite toys or activities

Potential brain injury can result in permanent disability or requiring surgery.  If someone you know has a brain injury, it is important to be represented by a law firm that has experience in these matters.  We have handled many brain injury cases, and stay current on the latest diagnostic science and technology, including DTI, PET, SPECT, and other neuro-imaging available.  Feel free to contact us to discuss possible treatment options and medical doctors who specialize in evaluating and treating brain injuries.  Of course, our consultations are always free.

As we all know, texting while driving is extremely dangerous, yet many of us still perform this task.  It is estimated that individuals who text and drive are twice as likely to cause automobile accidents as those who drink and drive.  Obviously, texting while driving diverts an individual’s attention to type out a message, taking his or her eyes off the road, but some drivers are able to perform this task better than others.  In any event, taking eyes off the road completely to perform this task increases the risk of a serious automobile accident.

Due to these risks, Govenor Perdue has signed two new distracted driving bills into law, which have gone into effect July 1^st, 2010.  The first law, Senate Bill 360, is the Caleb Sorohan Act.  This bill was named after Caleb Sorohan, a freshman in college, who died instantly in a car accident due to texting behind the wheel.  Senate Bill 360 specifically states:

“No person shall operate a motor vehicle on any public road or highway of this   state while using a wireless telecommunications device, including but not limited to text message, instant message, electronic mail, or internet data.”

Violators of this bill will face a $150 fine, along with one point against their driver’s license.

The second law, House Bill 23, prohibits drivers under the age of 18 from using a wireless communication device.  House Bill 23 specifically states:

“prohibits use of wireless telecommunications devices by persons under 18 years of age with an instruction permit or class D license while operating a motor vehicle.”

Under this bill, any teen driver that causes an accident while using a cell phone to talk or text would be suspended for 90 days, or until the offender turns 18 for a first offense.

Unfortunately, we have had several cases involving very serious injuries that we were able to prove were probably the result of texting while driving.  To encourage your teenaged kids’ compliance with this law, it may help to explain to them that attorneys routinely subpoena the cell phone company’s records to obtain the calling and data transmission (texts) of the “at-fault” driver.  If there were phone calls or texting messaging around the time of the collision, these phone records may be admitted as evidence proving the driver was distracted when driving at the time of the wreck.

In some instances, making the conscious choice to engage in texting can be considered to be “conscious indifference”, and can justify an award of punitive damages, which is in addition to the money awarded for the actual injuries and medical expenses caused in the collision, and may not be covered under many auto insurance policies.

As trial attorneys who routinely handle truck and motor vehicle accident cases involving serious injuries or death, we attempt to educate our clients and friends about important issues that might be helpful to them. Lately, we have seen more cases that are “un-insured” (abbreviated as “UM”) and “under-insured” (abbreviated as “UIM”). In either instance, the guilty “at-fault” (careless) driver does not have enough automobile liability insurance coverage to compensate the innocent person for all his or her injuries and financial losses. When this happens, the injured innocent person is many times left with serious, permanent injuries as well as unpaid medical bills and lost earnings. As unfair as that sounds, it is the sad reality for many who never thought a serious accident would happen to them.  Most people simply do not think they could be financially devastated in an automobile wreck if they did absolutely nothing wrong to cause the wreck. Unfortunately, it does happen.  So, we will explain how this could happen to even good drivers, and more importantly, how it can be avoided.

First, it is important to know that Georgia law only requires minimum liability insurance of $25,000.  "Liability insurance" is what the law requires all drivers to have for the protection of the OTHER car's driver (and its passengers). Yet, a serious motor vehicle wreck causing surgery, death or catastrophic injuries can easily result in medical bills for the innocent “victim” that greatly exceed $25,000. This means that if a driver chooses to have only the minimum liability insurance coverage, and then seriously injures someone else in an auto wreck, the injured person will only get $25,000 from the “at-fault” driver’s insurance company. This is true even if the medical bills are enormous, say more than $1,000,000, since the insurance company is only contractually obligated to pay the amount of its “policy limits” regardless of how much damage its insured driver actually caused. Once the $25,000 insurance limit is paid to the innocent injured driver, the insurance company has satisfied the requirements of its policy, and is not required to pay anything more.  Furthermore, there is usually nothing more that can be recovered since drivers who get minimum insurance typically do not have any assets that can be sought to make up the difference, and any attempt to recover a judgment generally ends with the "at fault" driver filing bankruptcy. This leaves no other meaningful sources of recovery, and always seems terribly unfair and inadequate to the injured person who inevitably says “but it wasn’t my fault!”

In Georgia, there are many drivers who only have the “minimum” required insurance, which means we are all exposed to the risk that we could be hit by an "uninsured" or “underinsured” driver, severely injuring us or a family member. The lack of insurance does not stop some people from driving, since they seem to rationalize that they have to drive to get to work, school, etc., as justification for breaking the law. As a practical matter, it matters very little whether the at-fault driver is technically “uninsured” or just “underinsured”, since the result is nearly always the same for the innocent person injured. Many times it causes them to have to file for bankruptcy to avoid being forever indebted to pay the hospital medical expenses and liens.

But the risk of an uninsured tragedy can be avoided if the injured driver has his own insurance in place to insure against the risk of being injured by a driver who is underinsured or uninsured.  This is exactly what Uninsured (UM) and Underinsured (UIM) insurance coverage is designed to do. If you have UM/UIM insurance coverage, then after the at-fault driver’s liability insurance pays its policy limits, then YOUR UM insurance steps in and is suppose to pay any remaining expenses, including unpaid medical bills, lost earnings, as well as pay you compensation for any permanent and/or painful injuries.

What do the UM laws allow today, and how does UM work

On May 14, 2008, Governor Sonny Perdue signed Senate Bill 276 amending Code Section 33-7-11 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) by revising subsections (a) and (b) relating to Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage under automobile liability policies. These changes significantly affect the insurance coverage now available to Georgia drivers, but the UM insurance company will only pay the amount of coverage you selected - even if you did not understand at the time how much UM insurance coverage you were buying. So, it is important to understand how Underinsured Motorist coverage works, and to actually get the coverage needed before an automobile wreck occurs. To help you understand the ramifications of this important area of motor vehicle insurance coverage, we have briefly summarized below some of the changes to Georgia’s UM law which could impact Georgia drivers:

Stacking UM Coverage above Liability Limits of an Underinsured Motorist.

A significant issue addressed by the new statute is the ability to stack the full limit of coverage when a claim arises out of an underinsured motorist accident.

Old law. Before January 1, 2009, under the old law, a driver who was injured in a car wreck could recover for his losses and injures from the at-fault driver’s liability insurance policy, and then could recover from his own Underinsured Motorist policy up to the difference in the liability insurance coverage provided by an at-fault driver’s liability policy limits and the UM limit provided under his/her uninsured motorist coverage. So, if the at-fault driver had a $50,000 liability limit and the injured innocent driver had UM coverage of $100,000, the maximum protection for the injured driver from his/her uninsured motorist coverage is only $50,000. Thus, under the old law, the injured driver was not entitled to the full amount of his UM insurance coverage, even though he paid a premium for it.

In the same loss situation above, if the at-fault driver had a $50,000 liability limit and the innocent injured person had a $50,000 uninsured motorist limit, the injured person would not be entitled to any payment under his/her uninsured motorist coverage.

At-fault driver = $50,000 Liability policy limit

Innocent injured person = $50,000 UM policy limit

Excess UM coverage available = $50,000 - $50,000 = 0*

* Total insurance available is only $50,000, even though the innocent driver purchased $50,000 UM

New law - “add on” or “stacking” UM coverage. Beginning January 1, 2009, Georgia drivers are now able to get the benefit of the full UM coverage they purchase. Now if you get “add-on” UM coverage it will “stack” on top of the liability policy limits of the at-fault “uninsured” or “underinsured” driver that caused the wreck. This change simply means that the full amount of selected UM insurance limits can be used by an innocent injured person, and is in addition to the liability limit of the “underinsured” at-fault driver. This allows the innocent injured driver’s UM policy limits to be “added-on” to the at-fault driver’s liability insurance limits, and the total “stacked” or combined insurance coverage is available to compensate the injured person.

For the example above the formula would change when the injured person has “ADD-ON” UM insurance:

At-fault driver = $50,000 Liability Payment

Innocent injured person = $100,000 UM Limit (Add-On)

UM coverage available to pay injured person’s losses = $100,000

* Total insurance available = $50,000 liability coverage + $100,000 add-on UM = $150,000.

The amended statute allows all drivers in Georgia to have the right to have expanded “add-on” UM insurance coverage if they desire it. However, once they reject it in writing once, it will continue to be rejected. Thus, if you properly rejected UM coverage in accordance with the statute, a new rejection is not required every year when your automobile insurance policy is renewed. IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHECK WITH YOUR INSURANCE AGENT TO SEE IF YOU REPECTED UM COVERAGE, OR REJECTED “ADD-ON” UM COVERAGE, and make any desired changes before you need UM coverage.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN EVALUATING YOUR UNINSURED & UNDERINSURED COVERAGE

-Be sure to discuss with your automobile insurance agent these recent changes in Georgia’s Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist law;

-Thoroughly understand the amount of UM insurance coverage you presently have available to pay for your losses should you or a member of your family be seriously injured in a motor vehicle wreck caused by an Uninsured or Underinsured driver;

-If you had previously rejected UM coverage, or declined having “add-on stacking” UM coverage, ask your insurance agent how much more it would cost to have this coverage added to your existing auto policy. Usually, the additional cost to have the “add-on stacking” UM coverage is minimal, yet the additional protection it provides will be very welcome if needed; and

-If you have multiple cars with the same insurance company, ask if the UM coverage for each of your cars will “stack” to provide more coverage. For example, if you have 4 cars that all have UM coverage of $100,000, some insurance companies will allow those policies to stack to provide $400,000 of UM coverage. However, other insurance companies will require you to have each car insured on a separate policy (i.e., they will not allow them to be listed as additional insured cars on the same policy) for the UM coverage to stack. If the cost is not excessive, you may decide to have each car insured on a separate policy in order to get any additional UM coverage this may provide.

Since we regularly see the adverse consequences for people who do not have adequate insurance protection, we encourage everyone to think about this before an accident happens. It may make sense to consider adding (or increasing) Underinsured/Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage for the protection of you and your family.   Usually it is not excessively expensive to add UM coverage, especially compared to the risk of being stuck paying enormous medical bills and suffering from life-long injuries with no hope of recovery or compensation.

We never represent insurance companies that can cause a conflict of interest. If you have a question, or if someone you know was seriously injured or killed in a motor vehicle wreck, feel free to contact us if we can help in any way.

A breakthrough drug therapy has been developed that could be the first to treat traumatic brain injury. Dr. Don Stein, director of Emory University's Department of Emergency Medicine, Brain Research Laboratory, has been developing the therapy for the past three decades. The therapy targets a large population, with 1.5 to 2 million Americans suffering head injuries every year, resulting in 50,000 deaths and 80,000 new long term disability cases.

When an individual suffers head trauma, the brain is flooded with chemicals, triggering a negative chain of events and causing inflammation in the brain. That pressure builds up in the brain and causes brain injury and death. Progesterone, a hormone naturally found in the brain, is a powerful developmental hormone. Studies have shown that progesterone protects damaged brain tissue and is essential for the development of brain neurons. The goal of the therapy developed by Dr. Stein is to use progesterone to stop that negative chain of events that is set in motion following a brain injury.

Early-stage trials of the therapy have shown that progesterone cut traumatic brain injury related deaths almost in half. The trials also exhibited cognitive, sensory and motor improvement within one month of injury, as well as , and diminished disability in moderately brain injured individuals. The Phase III trial, spearheaded by Grady Memorial Hospital, will enroll 1,140 patients in 15 states. If the trial is successful, it is anticipated that the therapy could become the standard of care for individuals with traumatic brain injury.

Read more about this story at the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Strong and effective product liability laws remain essential as product liability litigation is becoming an even more important channel in keeping consumers safe.

A great example of this is the current Toyota Motor Corporation recalls, in which dangerous defects went uncorrected for years. Consumer complaints were repeatedly minimized and/or ignored by Toyota and overseeing regulatory agencies for nearly a decade. Now, after the failure of Toyota and regulators to address the defects, Toyota will likely face a mass of class action product liability lawsuits.