Atlanta, Georgia Personal Injury - Plaintiff Blog

People in Atlanta hear it all the time. Whether it's your mom or a poster in the restroom, the message is everywhere: Wash your hands after using the bathroom and before eating. Use soap and hot water. And make sure you wash your hands long enough. If anyone asked you, you could tell them all of these things without having to think twice.

So, one would think that doctors would also know when to wash their hands. After using the bathroom, before eating and before going into surgery, right?

Not so fast. A recent study shows that doctors-in-training may not know everything there is to know about hand washing while practicing medicine and operating on patients. Questions posed to medical students in the survey included whether to wash after touching vomit, removing gloves and touching a patient's bed. Of the medical students questioned, only one-fifth were able to get them all right.

The motorist who crossed the center line and was killed on Mike Padgett Highway has continued to draw attention to the issue of poorly kept roads in Georgia. Because of the highway defect, much-needed improvements to the highway have been scheduled.

The female-driver, age 30, died in the early evening after pulling out of a mobile home park, crossing the double-yellow lines, and striking a logging truck traveling in the opposite direction. According to the coroner, the driver died of blunt force trauma from the collision.

The second passenger in the vehicle was a young child, age 7, who was treated at a local hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.

When someone gets hit by a driver who ran a red light, it's pretty clear who was at fault. The same goes for drunk driving accidents or distracted driving accidents caused by texting while driving.

But what happens in a multi-car pileup? Who takes the blame when multiple vehicles are involved in a collision?

Like most accidents, multi-car pileups are governed by the law of negligence. This means that liability is determined by the facts, not by some hard and fast rule.

When we take medications, we trust that they have been safely manufactured. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes the negligence of a pharmaceutical manufacturer can cause otherwise safe medications to become dangerous prescriptions.

Recently, concerns of this nature were raised about the cancer drug Doxil.

The aftermath of any catastrophic personal injury can present tremendous challenges for both the injury victim and family members. Spinal cord injuries, amputations and burn injuries can all require long-term care and related medical expenses, but brain injuries can be particularly frustrating.

While the effects of some brain injuries are immediately apparent due to a severe reduction in cognitive abilities and motor function, other injuries can be very difficult to detect and properly diagnose. Post-concussion syndrome is a good example of a brain injury that could be missed without expert medical attention and a thorough review of the circumstances of the accident.

Medical experts define post-concussion syndrome as a "mild" traumatic brain injury caused by a blow to the head. Its primary symptoms - headaches and dizziness - may not develop until up to ten days after a motor vehicle accident, slip-and-fall or construction accident.

Commercial truck accidents can be deadly, and are a major concern for both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the trucking industry alike. Both agree that improving safety on the nation's roads and highways is a top priority.

While the number of fatal accidents caused by semis and 18 wheelers has declined recently, federal regulators believe the decline is due to a decrease in trucking traffic brought on by the state of the economy. Once the economy begins to rebound in earnest, the number of truck fatalities is likely to climb once again.

Trucker Fatigue Can Be Fatal

Data collected by the NTSB indicates that driver fatigue cause at least 33 percent of commercial motor vehicle accidents. As a result, new safety rules and regulations have been proposed by federal safely regulators in the hope of keeping unsafe drivers off the nation's roads. Proposals include installing recording devices on commercial trucks that track the amount of time drivers are behind the wheel. Other options include mandatory rest breaks and reducing driver workdays to a 14-hour maximum.

Traffic fatalities are a horrifyingly common occurrence in the United States. In 2009, the last year where statistics are available, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported 30,797 total traffic deaths across the country. Although this is the lowest mark since 1950, motorists must still remain vigilant employing every defensive measure possible to avoid becoming one of these statistics whenever taking to the road.

What Human Factors Cause Fatal Auto Accidents?

A variety of factors can contribute to a serious motor vehicle accident. Sometimes, these factors are beyond a driver's control. Other times, however, driver negligence is to blame. Typically, driver negligence can include behavior such as:

• Driving while texting, talking on a cell phone, or using another electronic device behind the wheel
• Driving while intoxicated
• Failing to stay alert to road conditions

If a driver's negligence causes a fatal accident, he may be responsible not only for property damage, but also for the deaths and injuries his actions caused.

At the end of December, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, launched a new program intended to improve commercial truck and bus safety. The Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program compiles safety violations in an effort to help reduce accidents involving commercial vehicles and to provide consumers with information about how safe specific commercial motor carriers are.

The main part of the CSA is the Safety Measurement System (SMS) which collects inspection and crash data for each motor carrier to get a holistic picture of how their commercial trucks and buses are performing on the roads. By tracking this information, the FMCSA can specifically address safety concerns and target corrective actions for each individual commercial motor carrier company.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood noted that "The CSA program will help us more easily identify unsafe commercial truck and bus companies. Better data and targeted enforcement will raise the safety bar for commercial carriers and empower them to take action before safety problems occur."