Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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While many teen drivers operate their cars safely, other teen  drivers have an enhanced  risk of auto accidents. Therefore, parent must be careful  when it comes to buying a car for their teenager.

Whether you are buying a car for a newly licensed teen driver or a car for a teen driver with a couple years driving experience under their belt, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Consumer Reports have a list of the safest cars to buy for teen motorists in America. The list contains both used as well as new cars, and the researchers have gone to great lengths to find affordable cars considering the high price of cars in the market right now.

So what do you look for when you buy a car for your young driver?  For most parents, the biggest considerations are price and safety.  The list provides several options of care that should be within your budget, but also relatively safe.

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One of the most underestimated and neglected effects of a motor vehicle accident is posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD,  an anxiety- related condition that can severely limit a person’s recovery after being involved in an auto accident.

Several American organizations including veterans’ organizations are marking June 27 as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day.  The day is being commemorated to make more people aware about the disorder and its effects on a person’s ability to lead a normal life after experiencing a traumatic life event.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that emerges  after a person has suffered a terrifying or life-threatening event like a natural disaster,  terrorist attack,  and even an auto accident.  The  condition may arise   if a person  has undergone a terrifying  event in which  his or her very life or physical wellbeing is threatened or at risk.

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After  7 consecutive  years  of year- to -year increases in auto accident wrongful deaths, the federal administration has been recording slow, but perceptible drops in these numbers for four consecutive quarters.  Latest  estimates by the administration shows that the first quarter of 2023 has been no different.

The  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released its auto accident death projections for 2023.  The  estimates for the first quarter of 2023 show a 3% decline in the number of people killed in car accidents compared to the same period of time in 2022. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that a total of 9,330 people were killed in auto accidents in the first quarter of 2023. That was a drop from the 9,645 accident deaths recorded during the same period of time last year. The fatality rate for the first quarter of this year was 1.24 traffic accident deaths compared to 1.32 fatalities during the first quarter of last year.

The same trend could also be seen in Georgia where there was a drop in the number of people killed in auto accidents in the first quarter of 2023, compared to last year.  During  the first quarter of 2022,  a total of 468 people were killed in car accidents in Georgia, and that number dropped to 410 fatalities this year.  That was a significant 3.7% drop. The fatality rate in Georgia dropped from 1.62 fatalities  in 2022  to 1.36 deaths this year.

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The Georgia State Patrol has been steadily losing staff numbers, and there are fears that an understaffed agency could mean a higher risk of auto accidents on our already dangerous highways. When there are less police officers on the road to deter speeding and reckless driving, this conduct will only increase leading to more car accidents and pedestrian accidents.

According to reports, the Georgia State Patrol has been steadily and consistently losing staff members over recent years.  In April 2022, the Georgia State Patrol had a total of 828 troopers.  However, just a few months later in January 2023, that number had dropped to just 783.

This decline in staffing numbers at the Georgia State Patrol has been evident for a while now. Even as the number of vehicles on Georgia highways has increased exponentially, the number of troopers responsible for keeping these highways safe  and responding to car accidents has not kept pace. For example, in 1977, 524 Georgia State Patrol troopers were assigned to keep motorists safe on the highways  and respond to accident crises. In 2023, at one point, there were just 497 Georgia State Patrol troopers assigned to the highways,  lower than they were at least 45 years ago.  These 497 troopers were in charge of maintaining safety on highways that have a far denser population of motor vehicles than they had in 1977.

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Traumatic  brain injuries like those that typically result from auto accidents, pedestrian accidents and slip and falls can have a number of long term consequences.  A new study finds that the risk of criminal behavior increases after even a mild brain injury. This increased risk is something that has to be considered when litigating personal injury claims.

The study was conducted in New Zealand, and found that a brain injury does not have to be severe in order to have effects that result in criminal behavior.  Even a mild brain injury like a concussion can significantly increase a person’s risk of engaging in criminal behavior.

The analysis found that people with a brain injury had a higher rate of criminal convictions and arrests, compared to persons who had not suffered a brain injury.  Further, the risk of criminal behavior seemed to increase with the number of brain injuries the person had suffered.  A  higher number of concussions translated into a higher risk of criminal activity.

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Persons who have suffered spinal injuries in car accidents or fall accidents may suffer from dangerous drops in their blood pressure.  A  new implant can help circumvent this problem.

A person who has suffered a spinal injury may suffer from dangerous drops in blood pressure when he tries to move from a sitting to a standing position.  In  such cases, the person may feel dizzy or nauseous when he moves or stands. In some cases, the person may even faint as a result of the drop in blood pressure.  An extremely severe drop in blood pressure can even have possibly fatal consequences.

The conservative approach to treating this  problem of dips in blood pressure in spinal injury victims has been to prescribe a high – salt diet or compression stockings.  However,  even with the use of such methodologies and aids, victims continue to complain of dizziness and other problems.

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The  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released new statistics that show that the total number of people killed in car accidents in the United States dropped last year compared to the previous year.  However,  it may be too early to celebrate.

According to the latest statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a total of 42,795 people were killed in auto accidents in the United States last year.  That  translated into a minute  0.3% drop from the previous year.  In 2021, a total 42,939 people had been killed in auto accidents. However,  the toll for 2022  still remains 18% higher than the figures in 2019.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calls this a “national crisis of traffic safety” on our roads,  and says that Americans need to do their part in helping reverse this rising trend of auto accident deaths.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted a comparison of the United States with at least 29 other industrialized countries and found disturbing results.  The  study found that the United States fares very poorly on traffic safety parameters, compared to other wealthy nations. In fact, most Western countries did not record dramatic rise in wrongful deaths in car accidents the way the United States did during the  pandemic.

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While there have been many theories for the disturbing rise in auto accident wrongful deaths across the country,  one under examined factor is now under the scanner.  Experts  believe that a drop in police enforcement since just before the pandemic is possibly partly responsible for a spike in car accident deaths.

Car accident deaths in 2022 were as much as 18% higher than the numbers in 2019.  They have continued to increase, spiking even during the pandemic when vehicular traffic volumes were at all time lows.  During  a time when American roads should have been safest, they were actually even more dangerous than before the pandemic with normal traffic volumes.  This   phenomenon was also uniquely American.  Most Western countries did not report increases in car accident deaths during the pandemic.  Many, in fact, actually saw a drop in car accident rates as a result of lockdowns and lower traffic volumes.

There have been a number of theories that have been espoused as reasons for the increase in car accident deaths in the United States.  From  an increase in speeding to larger volumes of distracted drivers, experts believe that a combination of factors has led to a spike in the number of people being killed in car accidents.  However, one particular factor has not received a lot of attention and NPR recently addressed this.  The report by NPR says that a drop in police enforcement across the country is at least partly responsible for the spike in car accident deaths.

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Statistics by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that more than 3500 people were killed in car accidents caused by distracted drivers in 2021.  This  April, the federal administration  plans to raise awareness about the dangers of driving while distracted.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is making the month of April — Distracted Driving Awareness Month.  As  part of its campaign, the agency released statistics which show that a total of 3,522 people were killed in auto accidents caused by  distracted drivers in 2021. The statistics show that  an ongoing effort against distracted driving is absolutely necessary.  As  part of the campaign, there will be increased enforcement on Georgia roads as law enforcement officers look out for persons using cell phones while driving.

The campaign will also focus on friends and families of drivers  and their role in helping prevent distracted driving.  If  you are driving and need to answer a phone call or have to respond to a text message, get your passenger to do so for you. If you are driving alone and need to respond to a text, pull over somewhere safe and return the call or the text message.  Under no circumstances should you be typing a message or making a phone call as you drive.

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Georgia gets a mention in a new list of some of the worst driving states in the country, thanks to a new study which considered a number of factors including car accident rates while assigning rankings.

The rankings come from research conducted by Quote Wizard.  The Quote Wizard team analyzed more than ten million insurance quotes before arriving at these findings. The company releases its list of the worst driving states in the country every year and this year, Georgia is mentioned in the top 25 worst driving states in the United States. The state ranks at number 17 on the list.

The research team used several parameters, including the number of auto accidents, DUI violations,  number of speeding tickets issued in each state and the citations for violations for running a red light or using a cell phone while driving.  According to the research team, states that were ranked in the top 25 worst driving states had high auto accident rates compared to the states that were ranked at the bottom of the list which had lower car accident rates in comparison.

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