car accidents

Whose Insurance Applies in Rideshare Accidents?

September 30, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

If you are injured in an accident while traveling in an Uber, Lyft, or other rideshare service, you may question whose insurance policy applies. Should you attempt to seek coverage from the rideshare company’s insurance or from the driver’s personal car insurance? The answer will depend on the type of insurance the driver possesses and the status of the driver when the accident occurred. The following article will discuss situations where a rideshare company’s car insurance applies to an accident, as well as situations where a rideshare driver will have to use his own auto insurance after an accident.

When Does the Rideshare Company’s Car Insurance Policy Apply?

In order to determine if the rideshare company’s car insurance applies, you must first determine the status of the rideshare driver at the time of the accident. For example, if the rideshare driver’s app is on and that driver is waiting for a customer to request a ride when an accident occurs, Uber and Lyft both provide the following types of liability coverage for the driver:

Should I Hire a Car Accident Attorney?

September 10, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

If you were recently injured in a car accident and plan to sue the other driver, you may consider hiring a personal injury attorney who has experience litigating these kinds of accidents. This article will provide some information regarding the role of car accident attorneys.

What Does a Car Accident Attorney Do?

A car accident attorney is a personal injury attorney who typically engages in some of the following duties:

How Motorists and Cyclists Can Prevent Bicycle Accidents

August 31, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

According to the National Safety Council, there were approximately 1,089 bicycle deaths that occurred in 2019. Furthermore, 712 of these deaths were the result of motor vehicle accidents. The National Safety Council has classified these as preventable deaths, meaning that if motorists and cyclists take the proper precautions, these deaths would be less likely to occur. The following article will provide some helpful tips for both motorists and cyclists to avoid the occurrence of bicycle accidents in the future.

Tips for Motorists

Obey all posted speed limits. By adhering to the posted speed limits, you can help ensure that you are able to safely avoid hitting a cyclist in an emergency. Additionally, you should also ensure that you adjust your speed accordingly when there are dangerous road conditions, such as ice or rain.

How to Deal With Aggressive Drivers in Georgia

July 9, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Road rage has been on the rise lately in the state of Georgia. In fact, just this year there have been over a dozen road rage shootings in Atlanta alone. The Georgia State Patrol has indicated that it is working diligently to deal with these road rage issues. Georgia State Patrol Sergeant Jay Trawick has asserted that there are things drivers can do to safely avoid a road rage accident. The following article will address some ways to deal with aggressive drivers and minimize the occurrence of road rage accidents.

What is road rage?

Road rage occurs when a driver commits an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon on the driver or passengers of another motor vehicle. This conduct can endanger other people and property. A driver typically engages in road rage when the conduct or actions of another driver enrages him enough to respond with aggressive behavior.

Don’t Snap and Drive: Social Media Companies Face Accountability for Their Role in Car Accidents

May 14, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Social media can be a valuable tool in our modern society. It helps keep us connected and updated on what is happening around the world. However, sometimes the use of technology can be dangerous, especially while driving. Can social media companies be held responsible when drivers are injured while using their apps? The following article will discuss two recent cases in which plaintiffs attempted to hold Snapchat (Snap, Inc.) responsible for its alleged role in contributing to car accidents.

Lemmon v. Snapchat

In 2017, three young men in Wisconsin were killed in a car accident while using Snapchat’s “speed filter.” The driver of the vehicle was traveling at speeds of up to 123mph and attempted to document his actions on Snapchat. In the process, he ran the car off the road and crashed into a tree, killing himself and the other passengers.

What to Do Immediately After a Car Accident

April 30, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Unfortunately, car accidents are an inevitable part of life. In Georgia, car accidents are the leading cause of injury deaths and the second-leading cause of hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Even if you are a cautious driver, you may be involved in an accident with another driver. Being in a car accident can be a traumatic experience, and if you have never been in a car accident before, you may not know what steps you are supposed to take afterwards. The following tips will provide you with the necessary steps to take if you are ever involved in an accident.

Move your vehicle

If your accident is minor and there is no major structural damage to the vehicle, move the vehicle out of traffic, preferably to a well-lit area. This will help minimize the risk of other vehicles colliding with your car while it is sitting in traffic and will ensure that you and your vehicle are safe from oncoming vehicles.

Rear-End Accidents are a Fact of Life

March 30, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

Rear-end accidents happen all the time, and they can be a pain in the neck, often quite literally. Whiplash, a neck injury caused by rapid movement of the neck back and forth, resembling the cracking of a whip, is a common result of being in a vehicle that is struck from behind. Whiplash is bad enough, but rear-end accidents can cause any number of other injuries, as well, particularly at high speeds. Such accidents are, unfortunately, fairly common. In fact, rear-end crashes happen more often than any other kind of traffic collision. Nearly 30% of all traffic accidents involve a rear-end collision, leading to a considerable number of injuries and deaths every year. In fact, reports indicate that there are about 1.7 million rear-end traffic accidents per year, resulting in about 1,700 fatalities and another 500,000 injuries.

Drivers Usually are the Cause of Rear-End Collisions

When one vehicle strikes another vehicle from behind, the odds are pretty good that the driver of the vehicle hitting the vehicle from the rear has messed up and is at fault. It is not always true, but it is a pretty good bet. Tailgating contributes to more than a third of all traffic collisions, making it an obvious cause of the majority of all rear-end collisions. In a more general sense, federal statistics blame 87% of rear-end accidents on drivers simply not paying attention to traffic and what is in front of them. Other sources identify more specific causes, but many seem to be rooted in driver inattention or error, including:

T-Bone Accidents are Extremely Dangerous

March 5, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

People talk about head-on collisions as being the worst – and with good reason – but head-on crashes are by no means the only kind of car collision that carries with it a high risk of injury or death. Another type of collision that ranks among the most dangers is what is commonly referred to as a “T-bone” accident – the side-impact crash. Named for the popular steak, a T-bone crash is when one vehicle is struck in the side by a second vehicle at a perpendicular angle. Picture a car moving through an intersection when another vehicle enters the intersection on the crossing roadway, entering the intersection from one side or the other of the first car and striking the first vehicle full in the side. Most common at intersections, T-bone crashes can be deadly.

T-Bone Accidents are a Leading Cause of Traffic Fatalities

Traffic accidents can be deadly affairs – they cost more than 36,000 Americans their lives in 2019. More than half of traffic deaths involving passenger vehicle occupants happen in head-on collisions – full frontal impacts, nose to nose. However, more than a quarter of all traffic fatalities in crashes involving passenger vehicles occur in side-impact collisions – in other words, the classic T-bone accident. When a vehicle hits another vehicle from the side, the struck vehicle does not have the crumple zone that provides protection in frontal collisions. Cars are designed to absorb impacts from the front and from the rear, using the trunk for rear-end accidents and the engine compartment, among other features, for front-end accidents to help absorb the force of the collision. When it comes to side-impact collisions, no such crumple zone exists to prevent the exterior of the vehicle from being pushed into the passenger compartment by the force of the collision. One study contends that vehicles struck from the front have five times the energy absorption as vehicles provide in a side impact. The lack of crumple zones on the side of vehicles simply adds to the lethality of side-impact collisions.

Distracted Driving is a Constant Problem on the Roads

January 15, 2021 | Benjamin S. Persons, IV

No one who has ever driven a car is a stranger to distracted driving. Pretty much every single driver out there has driven while distracted at some point. Making adjustments to you climate controls, fiddling with your sound system, even eating some fast-food take-out – it is all distracted driving. Because everyone does it, and almost everyone does so without any serious consequences, many people tend to downplay the risks associated with distracted driving. Just because you have not been harmed by distracted driving, though, just means it has not happened yet. You have probably never been hit by lightning, either, but deaths and injuries from distracted driving are far more common than being hit by lightning. If you are on the road, you are at risk.

Distracted Driving is Deadly

More than 2,800 people died in the United States in 2018 in traffic accidents involving distracted drivers, and that number only reflects the number that we know about. Countless other accidents may have been caused by distracted driving but not reported as such. Another 400,000 people were injured in such accidents. Roughly 20% of those deaths were among people who were not even in a vehicle on the road – they were pedestrians, bicycle riders, or just close enough to a roadway to be killed in a traffic accident.

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.