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An investigation by CBS, Atlanta in April exposed a Roswell-based car dealership that concealed accident damage on the vehicles they sold, with sometimes disastrous consequences.

The dealership Ultra Cars, the investigation found, used to purchase cars that had frame damage at auctions, and sell these to customers. Those earlier car accidents were not reflected in Carfax reports, and gullible customers who walked into the dealership had no way of knowing that the car they were buying had earlier been in a major wreck. Frame damage can affect the structure of the car, and consequently its safety. The damage can decrease the value of a car and investigations revealed that salesmen at Ultra Cars didn’t reveal to customers the fact that the car had suffered accident damage earlier. At least one Ultra Car customer who was sold an accident-damaged-car has been involved in an accident. Keith Newton survived the crash, but the accident could have had fatal consequences. Later, he found that the car he had been sold had only been given a cosmetic patch-up job to cover major damage sustained in an accident.

The dealership has now closed down, but not before selling their vehicles to another dealership nearby. With most of Ultra Car’s vehicles sold to a new owner, the dangers from these cars haven’t disappeared yet.

A tragic car accident on Rockbridge Road in DeKalb County has killed two people, including a teenager.

According to this report, a car carrying six teenage boys crossed the center line and crashed into a Toyota Corolla, driven by 43-year-old Lisa Hutchinson. She died instantly. Her daughter was in the car with her, and suffered a broken collar bone and at least two fractures. The driver of the other car, a Honda Accord, also sustained injuries. One of the occupants of that car, 16-year-old Benjamin Bynum was also killed.  All the teenagers, students at Stephenson High School, have suffered minor injuries.

The 16-year-old driver is likely to face charges. According to police, alcohol doesn’t seem to have been a factor in the car accident.

Police in Fulton County arrested the driver of BMW that was involved in a fatal car accident on Easter Sunday. The car accident killed Robert and Delisia Carter, their nine-year-old daughter Kayla, and their two month old son. A six year old child in another car was also killed in the multi vehicle accident.

The Carters had been out for an Easter Sunday drive when a BMW crashed into their car, and then struck a Volkswagen. The Mercedes burst into flames, killing the family inside. The driver of the Volkswagen, Tracey Johnson sustained serious injuries in the accident. Her six-year-old daughter was also killed.

The BMW fled from the scene of the accident. Fulton police had been looking out for the driver since Sunday. This morning residents of Walden Park in south Fulton County woke up to find that one of their neighbors, 22-year-old Aimee Michael was the driver of the BMW involved in the tragic Easter crash.

Raging storms lashed Atlanta and much of north Georgia over the weekend, and several accidents were traced to the poor weather, including one fatal car accident that left one man dead.

Pickens County resident, Raymond Jones was killed when a tree fell on a car on Nacoochee Drive in Atlanta. The car quickly caught fire, and Jones was killed at the scene. Across metro Atlanta, trees and power lines collapsed, creating scenes that were ripe for automobile accidents. Other accidents were reported from Cobb County where a car was struck by a falling tree. Forsyth County saw several boats damaged during the storm, and a collapsed dock. However, there were no serious accidents reported. Power outages were widespread across North Georgia, and with a forecast of more rain in the next couple of days, we can expect the bad weather to continue.

Driving in adverse conditions is one of the most series challenges for a motorist. The existing problems involved in negotiating heavy traffic and avoiding pedestrians and bicyclists, are only compounded when you have to deal with strong winds, heavy rains, snowfall, hail or fog. Wet and slippery road can leave vehicles at risk for skidding accidents or rollovers that can lead to serious injuries. Howling winds and the sound of the rain can make it harder for a motorist to hear the horns of other drivers nearby. Water on the road can spray on the windshields of other vehicles nearby, impacting their ability to see clearly. The risk of hydroplaning increases when you are driving at excessive speeds on a wet highway. When there is excessive water on the road and you are driving at 55 mph – which could be the normal posted speed limit on the road – you run the risk of the tires losing contact with the road surface.

In February, we had expressed hope on this blog that a bill to make seatbelt use mandatory for pickup truck drivers would be passed by the House. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. For the third consecutive year, the House has rejected the measurethat would prevent several accident related deaths every year, with the House Consumer Affairs Subcommittee voting 4-3 against the bill.

With this, Georgia continues to remain the only state in the country that exempts pickup truck drivers from buckling up.This has meant that the seat belt use rate for pickup drivers in Georgia has remained at around 79 percent, much lower than it is for other passenger vehicles. Pickup trucks are used extensively in rural Georgia, and the seat belt exemption has also contributed to higher fatality rates in rural areas than urban centers.Close to 57 percent of all road traffic fatalities in the state occur on rural roads.In fact, the fatality rate in rural areas is twice that in urban areas, and pickup truck drivers form a large percentage of these fatalities.Even worse, of these pickup truck fatalities, more than 67 percent were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.Experts estimate that at least 26 lives could be saved in Georgia every year, and more than 400 injuries could be prevented if pickup truck drivers too were covered under seat belt laws.

Even in the face of such data, Georgia has delayed making seat belts mandatory for pickup drivers above the age of 18.The bill’s supporters, including Georgia personal injury lawyers have been vocal in their support for such a measure, but these voices have gone unheard by the House. There has been widespread support of seat belt laws for pick up truck drivers. In fact, surveys have shown that more than 88 percent of the population of the state supports making seat belt use mandatory on pickup trucks.In fact, the support for such a bill is strong even in rural areas, with truck drivers voicing support for such laws. Yet, the state has failed to act.

Electronic stability control, side impact airbags, neck restraint systems – these are just some of the high tech, innovative, auto safety features that manufacturers have developed and improvised to near perfection in recent years, in an effort to reduce the number of car accidents and injuries caused by vehicle collisions. Although these are becoming popular with car buyers, they are far from standard on all passenger cars, which means that motorists who wish to have these features in their vehicles should be prepared to shell out extra dollars for them.

The New York Times has this story on how some of the most ballyhooed car safety features continued to be optional on several car models. Electronic stability control (ESC) systems are one of the most impressive new auto safety technologies to make it out of R&D facilities in recent years. The system makes use of computerized sensors that can tell when a car is in danger of losing grip of the road. When a potential loss of traction is detected, the system automatically applies the brakes so there is no loss of control. Cars may be especially prone to skidding or loss of control when they turn at high speeds, or accelerate or brake suddenly. Loss of control in such instances can cause the car to roll over, exposing occupants to serious injuries. With an ESC system working in your car, the risk of an accident is dramatically reduced.

ESC systems will be standard on all vehicles by 2012. They are currently very popular with buyers who will pay extra for an ESC system if it is not included as part of a standard features package. However, in times of a recession, paying extra, sometimes up to $ 2,000 extra for a package that includes an ESC system may not be in every buyer’s budget. In times of economic turmoil, it’s more important than ever that automakers design their cars with a view to minimizing accidents and injuries that take a heavy economic toll. Like David Champion who is the senior director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports says, manufacturers shouldn’t be making it more expensive for buyers to access proven safety gear like ESC systems or side impact airbags.

Blame the economic meltdown if there are more automobile and pedestrian accidents in DeKalb County in the coming years. The County is facing a severe funds crunch, and road repair and building projects are expected to suffer as a result.

DeKalb County last year spent $19 million on construction of new roads and sidewalks, and undertaking bridge repair. This year, that amount has been drastically slashed to $5.5 million. Every year, the County invests heavily in street repavement efforts that ensure that motorists drive not just efficiently, but also safely. Investments in previous years have gone into building sidewalks, so pedestrians can walk safely without fear of accidents, and constructing of new medians that can allow vehicle movement on roads to flow smoothly and prevent crashes. In previous years, funding from the road building budget has been used to install new streetlights that can reduce nighttime accidents. All these efforts are expected to suffer this year as the County struggles with balancing the shortage of funding, with numerous road and sidewalk repair, construction and improvement projects that it needs to undertake.

It seems like the financial meltdown and the economic crisis will begin pinching DeKalb County residents where it really hurts – their safety on county roads. You know there’s a meltdown in full swing not only when unemployment figures are up, but also when a cash shortage is obstructing efforts to make our cities and roads safe for all. Road building and repair efforts are necessary every year to repair eroded and battered stretches of road that can expose motorists to risk for automobile accidents. For instance, when traffic safety programs are cut because of funding shortages, you end up with battered and faded street signs malfunctioning street lights, uneven road surfaces that pose a risk of loss of control and rollovers, and other road defects that can cause accidents. Besides, during a recession, county authorities are also forced to cut down funding for the redesign of dangerous roads that may place motorists at an increased risk of collisions.

There’s a string of seatbelt laws all relating to the impact of seatbelts on car accident -related injuries pending in the legislature, and each one of them is at varying stages of approval. One such bill is currently in the Senate, and it could have potential implications for an accident victim’s right to recover damages after a car accident.

According to bill SB23, if the victim of an accident was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, then the defendant’s lawyer would be able to bring up this fact during trial. Currently, Georgia law does not allow a victim’s failure to buckle up to be mentioned during trial proceedings. Jurors are not allowed to consider if failure to wear seatbelts could have contributed to the severity of the injuries. If the bill becomes law, then that fact can be used as evidence that the plaintiff or the victim contributed to the severity of his injuries by not buckling up. Obviously, this would have an impact on any damages that the plaintiff would be eligible for as the result of the accident. Georgia personal injury lawyers are expectedly displeased about the bill, and the repercussions it would have on a victim’s right to compensation after an accident. The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association has opposed the bill because it allows the jury to develop a negative perspective of the victim. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has voiced its approval of bill.

A civil trial is all about compensating a victim for another person’s negligence. A victim’s failure to wear a seatbelt cannot be used as an excuse to forgive or lesson the severity of the defendant’s negligent driving behavior. The bill amounts to letting a defendant get away with a possible rap on the wrist, if the victim has failed to wear a seatbelt. If the bill passes, we risk making a civil trial all about the inadequacies of the injured plaintiff, and not the negligence of the defendant.That defeats the purpose of civil justice.

Georgia’s pickup truck drivers look set to begin buckling up compulsorily as the state’s senate passed a seatbelt law last week that will require all pickup drivers to wear seatbelts while they are driving. The senate passed the bill by a vote of 49-4. It will now move on to the House, where it hasn’t fared too well the last few times it made it there. Rural and agricultural interests have long argued that the seatbelt law is unnecessary, and that it will "hinder farmers." Legislators who support the law say that any concerns about farmers and the inconvenience to them are simply overblown.

Legislators who support the bill estimate that it could possible save as many as 105 lives a year in automobile accidents.Besides, there’s the little matter of a grant of $4.6 million that the state would be eligible to receive from the federal government if the bill actually becomes law.Georgia is grappling with a massive budget deficit, and the lure of a grant could be the deciding factor when House members vote for or against the bill.For now, House members have been non committal about their response to the bill.Governor Purdue too hasn’t made a commitment to supporting it

Georgia still remains behind most states as far as mandatory seatbelt laws are concerned, even though pickup drivers themselves have been vocal in their support of any such law.So far, these drivers have been exempt from having to buckle up compulsorily, and this has not only cost the state that $4 million grant, but also hundreds of lives that could have been saved every year by the simple act of buckling up.These pickups can cause their unrestrained occupants serious injuries in the event of an accident. Across the country, states have adopted mandatory seatbelt laws, and the impact on their fatality rates has been clear to see. The increasing rates of seatbelt use and stricter enforcement of seatbelt laws by traffic police has been cited as a possible reason why the accident fatality rate across the country is declining the way it is.

In a tragic pedestrian accident, 7-year-old Cameron Dunmore was struck and killed by an SUV, while he was crossing on a crosswalk near his school, Princeton Elementary School in DeKalb County on Monday.The second grader was at a marked school crossing, and the guard even had the Stop sign out for drivers to see. The SUV driver, a parent of another child at the same school, failed to stop for unknown reasons, and struck Cameron. Now, reports suggest that a missing traffic light which was recently removed from near the school could have played a preventive role in the accident.

According to residents of the area, they had written a letter to County authorities about the missing traffic light, and the need to have it installed back at the spot as quickly as possible. The area is a school zone, and can be extremely busy, especially during school opening and closing hours.The Country authorities seem to have slept on the matter. There was an assessment made of the zone, and not much happened after that.Even the principal of the school had been contacted by parents who were afraid that speeding cars and high traffic at busy times could cause an accident. County officials have not yet confirmed if they received any complaints from parents about the lack of a traffic light near the school, or whether they plan to install a light at the spot.

Investigations into the crash will likely look at several factors that may have contributed to the accident.For instance, why didn’t the SUV driver stop at the crossing?Did the County receive a petition to install a light, and if yes, why were these pleas ignored?Depending on the answers to these questions, liability for this pedestrian accident fatality can be ascertained.