Marietta Injury Lawyer Blog

Injuries Can Happen in Any Workplace

December 25, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

While some jobs appear to be extremely hazardous and others appear to be pretty safe, workplace injuries happen all the time, regardless of how dangerous the work “appears” to be. Loggers and professional fishermen work in the most dangerous jobs, but farmers, delivery drivers, garbage collectors, and septic tank workers also hold jobs that rank in the top 20 most dangerous. While those jobs are ranked by frequency of fatalities – virtually all jobs hold the potential for workplace injuries. The vast majority of workplace injuries are not fatal, and while many arise from the inherently dangerous nature of the particular job, others are far more subtle but no less debilitating.

Common Work Injuries Might Not be What You Expect

Workplace injuries happen in many different ways. Some are sudden and violent, as you might expect. Others, though, are caused by factors you might not see coming. Among the leading causes of on-the-job injuries are:

Spinal Cord Injuries Often Severe and Costly

December 18, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Spinal cord injuries have many causes, but at its most basic, a spinal cord injury is an injury to the spinal cord as a result of trauma leading to some level of loss of function of the spinal cord. This usually translates into a loss of body functions, as the nerves that control the body all pass through the spinal cord. Such loss of function can include anything from loss of feeling in the extremities – anything from temporary numbness in a finger or two all the way to permanent loss of feeling in an arm or a leg – all the way to paralysis, where you lose the ability to move parts of your body. Further, nerves do not heal, particularly in the case of a break in the spinal cord, meaning that spinal cord injuries are considerably more likely than other types of injuries to lead to long-term or permanent disability. These kinds of injuries can be both debilitating and expensive. The legal and health care legal costs related to spinal cord injuries are more than $29 billion each year and rising.

Traffic Accidents are the Main Cause of Spinal Cord Injuries

Traffic accidents, including passenger vehicle and motorcycle accidents, are the leading cause of spinal cord injuries each year in the United States. Traffic accidents account for almost half of all spinal cord injuries in the U.S. annually. This unwelcome distinction falls disproportionately upon motorcycle riders, who are easily the least well-protected users of the nation’s roads and highways. Even with a helmet on, a motorcycle rider is more exposed than anyone in the smallest, lightest passenger vehicle. In a collision with another vehicle, or even a single-vehicle accident, the motorcyclist almost always incurs worse injuries than the occupant of a passenger vehicle. Motorcycle riders have no steel cocoon surrounding them, nor anything to keep them from flying from their vehicles – rather, they are practically certain of being thrown from their bikes in an accident. This leaves motorcycle riders especially vulnerable to spinal cord injuries. In addition to colliding with another vehicle, they all too frequently are thrown from their bike and hit some other object, whether it be a tree, sign, telephone pole, another vehicle, or even “just” the pavement.

Riding a Motorcycle Can be Fun and Deadly

December 11, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

There is something about riding a motorcycle through the countryside, with the wind in your face, that is exhilarating. Motorcyclists say the ride feels like freedom, and they might have a point. On the other hand, freedom comes with a price, even when you are just talking about riding a motorcycle. While deaths from motorcycle accidents are declining, dropping 5% from 2017 to just under 5,000 deaths in 2018, riding a motorcycle is a highly hazardous activity, particularly compared to riding in a passenger vehicle. Riders on a motorcycle – drivers and passengers – are approximately 28 times more likely to be killed in a traffic accident than are the occupants of passenger vehicles per passenger miles driven. Only 3% of the registered motor vehicles in the U.S. – of all kinds – are motorcycles. Motorcycles account for only about .6% of vehicle miles traveled each year, and yet motorcycle riders and their passengers total about 14% of all road deaths annually.

Motorcycle Accidents are Far More Likely to End in Injuries

Federal statistics indicate that more than 80% of traffic accidents involving motorcycles lead to either the motorcycle’s driver, passenger, or both dying or being injured. In many ways, it is not a surprising statistic. There are no “minor” accidents for a motorcyclist. With only two wheels and no protective steel body around them, a traffic accident for motorcyclists virtually guarantees two things – the bike will end up sliding along the ground on its side and the motorcyclist will either be sliding along half under the bike or sliding along the ground without the bike. If the cyclist is lucky, there will not be a trip through the air before the sliding starts, and the slide will not end with a sudden impact into a stationary object. Needless to say, motorcyclists can be severely injured in an accident that leaves passenger vehicle occupants unscathed.

T-Bone Accidents Result in Severe Injuries

December 4, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Side-impact crashes – commonly referred to as “T-bone” collisions – are among the most dangerous of car accidents for occupants of the vehicle being T-boned. A T-bone accident is one in which one vehicle strikes another straight into the second vehicle’s side at a perpendicular angle, hence the popular nickname. The car being struck in the side forms the cross of the “T,” while the striking vehicle forms the stem. T-bone accidents frequently are the result of one vehicle or the other running a stop sign or running the red light at a traffic signal. No matter how they occur, side-impact crashes can have devastating consequences for the occupants of the car on the receiving end of the side impact.

Side-Impact Collisions are Especially Dangerous

According to federal statistics, more than half of all traffic deaths from accidents involving passenger vehicles result from head-on collisions. That makes sense given the impact speeds involved in head-on crashes. Much more surprising, though, is that a quarter of all traffic fatalities occur in side-impact crashes – or T-bone accidents. Unfortunately, the lethality of side-impact collisions also makes sense. Many cars still on the road do not have side airbags, and a car hit from the side does not enjoy the protection of the front-end automobile architecture that has reduced the lethality of head-on collisions. There is no crumple zone on the side of a car. Side airbags were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Chrysler and Volvo on some models, and have become common in all passenger vehicles since the early 2000s, but they are not mandated by the government except for front-seat side air bags.

Have You Been Injured By a Hazard on Another’s Property?

November 30, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

The basics of premises liability in Georgia – the laws that apply when you are injured on someone else’s property – are largely the same as in most jurisdictions across the United States. However, Georgia premises liability law has some interesting differences that make it possible you might not be able to recover for an injury caused by a hazard on another’s property. Even with those differences, though, in general a Georgia property owner owes a duty of care to people on the owner’s property with permission, opening the door for potential recovery for injuries suffered there.

What is Premises Liability?

Georgia law on premises liability applies where the owner or occupier of a property owes a duty of care to someone who comes on the property, breaches that duty of care, resulting in injuries, and that the injured visitor experiences damages. The owner’s invitation to enter the property can be expressed – such as where a homeowner invites friends or neighbors to come onto the property – or implied, such as where the owner operates a business that is open to the public. Any property owner or legal occupier can be liable for injuries occurring on the property because of their negligence. That includes homeowners, business property owners, business operators who are leasing their business premises, landlords, property managers, homeowners’ associations – for community-owned common spaces – or even government agencies. The common thread is they are responsible for the safe upkeep of the property and failed to keep the property safe due to their own negligence.

Have You Been Injured by a Drunk Driver?

November 27, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Accidents happen, perhaps especially on the roadways. When drunk drivers are present, accidents – often serious, sometimes fatal – are that much more likely to happen. Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is among the top causes of traffic accidents in the United States every year. In 2018, drunk drivers were involved in 29% of all traffic fatalities. That percentage has been consistent for many years. More than 10,500 people died in 2018 in traffic accidents in which at least one driver had a blood alcohol content of .08% – the legal limit in every state. On average, an alcohol-related traffic death happened more than once per hour in 2018, at an economic cost of more than $44 billion.

While driving under the influence usually is the result of drinking alcoholic beverages, times change, and both legal and illegal drugs now are a factor in about 16% of all traffic accidents. These drugs can include prescription drugs, especially painkillers, that impair performance as well as illegal drugs ranging from marijuana to heroin or fentanyl or other opioids, whether legally or illegally obtained.

The Holidays Only Enhance the Risk of Being Hurt by a Drunk Driver

Marietta Truck Accident Lawyer

November 20, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

If you have driven on an interstate highway or other major multi-lane roads, then you know that large commercial trucks can be a hazard to other vehicles simply because they are so large. These tractor-trailer rigs, also referred to as semis or 18-wheelers, often consist of a large truck towing a trailer as much as 53 feet long, and rarely less than 48 feet long. These vehicles travel the nation’s roads and highways right alongside passenger vehicles every day, usually without incident. But when a tractor-trailer and a passenger vehicle collide, there is no mistaking which vehicle is going to get the worst of it. If injuries or deaths occur in such an accident, odds are that the occupants of the passenger vehicles will be the victims.

Truck Accidents Rarely Go Well for the Occupants of Passenger Vehicles

In 2018, nearly 5,000 people died in accidents involving large trucks, and another 151,000 were injured. Roughly 80% of the deaths were the occupants of passenger vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists. A majority of the injuries likewise were suffered by people other than the occupants of the large trucks.

Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Snapchat in Car Accident Case

November 13, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

On October 30, a Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed an order granting a motion to dismiss in the lawsuit against the instant messaging app for breach of duty of care in designing the app’s speed filter.

Maynard et al. v. Snapchat, Inc.

The plaintiffs sued Snapchat, Inc., and the other driver involved in the accident to recover damages for injuries resulting from a car accident. Plaintiff alleged that said injuries resulted from the other driver’s use of a feature on the Snapchat application on her phone. The district court granted Snapchat motion to dismiss. In their appeal, the plaintiffs contend that their complaint is sufficient; Snapchat violated its duty of care by poorly designing its application.

Man Arrested for Death of Teenager and Baby in a Car Accident

November 6, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

A Marietta man was charged with two counts of felony murder, two counts of serious injury by vehicle, felony fleeing, felony hit-and-run, reckless driving and speeding after leaving the scene of an accident in Midtown where an 18-year-old and a baby died.

Hit-and-Run

In Georgia, a driver’s obligation to stop after being involved in a car accident is contemplated in the Georgia Code. Under Section 40-6-270, the driver of a vehicle that has been involved in an accident that results in injuries, death of a person, or damages to another vehicle has the obligation to stop at the scene and stay there until he or she fulfills the following:

Marietta Man Killed Crossing I-75

October 30, 2020 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

On October 17, a man was struck by a motor vehicle while crossing I-75 on foot. The victim was pronounced dead on the scene, and the driver of the car that struck him indicated that the victim walked out into the lane in front of his vehicle. In Georgia, there were 261 pedestrian fatalities in 2018, and 253 in 2017. Pedestrian deaths in Georgia increased by 60% between 2013 and 2018. Authorities are still investigating the circumstances of the incident and the cause of the pedestrian crossing the highway on that point.

Pedestrians who suffer injuries after being struck by motor vehicles may be entitled to recover damages by filing a personal injury claim.

Negligence and Personal Injury Claims