My Alabama Injury LawyerDriver Safety | My Alabama Injury Lawyer

Lights On When It Rains

Rick — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:47:12 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Today, it’s a rainy, dark dreary day. Just because you can see someone else when you are driving, don’t assume they can see you! WHEN IT RAINS, DRIVE WITH YOUR LIGHTS ON!

Look in this photograph, it’s hard to see the oncoming car, even though they do have their lights on. Think about how much harder it is to see them it they (or you) don’t have the lights on. This was reinforced to me today when I saw mothers who had dropped off their children at a day school for preschoolers. They were driving down a narrow street and most of them did not have their lights on after dropping off their kids. We both know that a good mother will do anything for the safety of their children. Taking care to have their lights on when it rains protects both their children and themselves from being in an accident.

Also, when getting ready to go out into traffic look twice, before going out into traffic. Someone else who is driving without their lights on may be just about to drive in front of you. If you are looking for drivers who don’t have their lights on, you are more likely to see them. If you aren’t looking for them, then they may not register in your brain. When there is bad weather take extra care. Please drive with your lights on.

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Let It Snow, Let it Snow, Let It Snow

Rick — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 19:31:37 +0000

(Jeff Hamilton of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra is playing the drums on this Diane Krall version of “Let It Snow.” Jeff and I grew up in the same town and we both played in the High School Band. Obviously, Jeff is a far better musician and I’m a big fan of him.)

Okay, enjoy the music! We’ve had snow Thursday of this week and even just a bit today that did not accumulate. So, careful driving or no driving is the smart thing to do here in Alabama when we’ve got snow!

Yesterday, I drove to Tuscaloosa for mediation. The snow covered icy roads had melted during the night in the rain. Before then, I stayed off the roads. The case involved a drunk driver who hit my client at about 90 mph from the rear. My client had just started moving after the stop light turned green. Unfortunately, one passenger was killed in the wreck.

The driver had the minimum amount of insurance, not enough to even pay the hospital bills. Check you insurance policy and raise the amount of coverage that you have. (I cover this in detail in my book. I’ll send you a complimentary copy.) Also make sure that you have uninsured /underinsured coverage. Tragedy can strike in a moment. For your protection and the protection of others you need insurance coverage that will cover the amount of damage that can be caused by a wreck. No one is smiling when someone has died in a wreck and others seriously injured. Being responsible means having adequate insurance coverage. Being responsible also means not driving when there is snow in Alabama. Instead stay home and remember to “Let It Snow.”

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Merry Christmas – Be Safe

Rick — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:44:23 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Over the holidays we enjoy seeing family and friends. Also, children get new toys. Ralphie, in A Christmas Story, wanted a Red Ryder BB Gun. Everyone told him, he would shoot his eye out. The irony is that after he got his BB Gun, he almost did shoot his eye out!

Many children get new toys and parents need to be sure that they will safely use them. Children have a tendency to find the weak point when it comes to safe operation of things. So, do teenagers whom I have written about concerning driving safety. Remember also that this time of the year when it gets dark early that it’s hard to see and there is driver fatigue.

I hope that you have a Merry Christmas and remember the celebration is the birth of Jesus, Savior of the world. Have a safe holiday.

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Careful Driving – Don’t Do this on the Highway

Rick — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:26:45 +0000

I’ve already written about the change in season and how difficult it can be to see. Driving is fun as this old commercial shows. (These are real stunts done about 20 years ago.) The weather had been great for football and weekend drives. Be careful and enjoy the journey. Yes – don’t try these on the road (at home as they always say on TV). Cars are not toys and accidents can change a perfect day into a tragedy. So, enjoy your ride and drive carefully.

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Roll Tide and Drive Carefully!

Rick — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:20:09 +0000

: Image by anearthling via Flickr

Last night we enjoyed watching Alabama win the National Football Championship – Roll Tide!!!!! Today, it is snowing in Birmingham. People in Alabama are good at cheering on their football team. However, driving in the snow is not one of our strengths. Please stay off the highways and stay safe at home. Regardless of whether the snow accumulates, bridges quickly freeze and you can easily lose traction. If you do drive in this weather, be extra careful, slow down, and allow extra distance to stop. Roll Tide!

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Strange But Really True

Rick — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:09:59 +0000

Okay, I hope that I got your attention. Pretty cool video about the white deer, isn’t it? Sometimes in lawsuits, people think something is strange and not true. One of the biggest misconceptions the public has is that you cannot be seriously hurt from a low impact rear end wreck (what people call whiplash). “Strange” but true that between 15 and 40 percent of patients may develop chronic neck pain (lasting more than six months) after having whiplash according to an article in the October 2007 Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. It has been estimated by some researchers that between five and seven percent of those injured become partially or totally disabled from this type of injury.

Most defense attorneys will want to show how little damage was done to your vehicle. Remember that your vehicle was designed to withstand various levels of impact, your neck whipping forward, however, was not protected from the impact.

I saw a client today who had been a passenger in a car that was hit from behind because the driver was text messaging on her cell phone while driving. The pain, headache, and other harms and losses were strange but really true, because before the accident the was not having any pain. She now has had a headache since the accident that has not gone away.

We have the Thanksgiving Holiday coming up and there will be a lot of people on the highways. Be sure you have your seatbelt on and you will be careful, won’t you? Strange but true injuries can quickly happen in the blink of an eye.

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Accidental Death | Cell Phone

Rick — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:01:16 +0000

: Image by Colin Purrington via Flickr

The Birmingham News Saturday on page 8B had a sad story, a person on a bicycle was hit and killed by a driver reaching for her cell phone. I recently wrote about this problem in my post accidents and cell phones. Kimberly Kelsey Drawbaugh in Scottsboro did not see Carlos Serrano Sr., an exercise enthusiast, who was killed by the impact. The police report said that she didn’t see him as she was reaching for her cell phone. Serrano was thrown 200 feet from the point of impact.

The newspaper article goes on in some detail about Mr. Serrano and his competitions in marathons and triathlons. (It’s ironic that the company he was the president of made the nylon fibers for air bags.) He had a son and daughter who were both successful athletes. What a sad day for that family. Their lives have been changed forever. They have begun the journey of grief. The holidays will never be the same. Mr. Serrano won’t be at the weddings of his children nor will he be there to teach important life lessons to his future grandchildren.

Drivers talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content (legally drunk). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration researchers estimated that cell phone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in 2002.

Each of us as human beings have a tendency to believe that “it” (something bad) won’t happen to me. For the driver of the car reaching for their cell phone, they don’t think that they are taking someone’s life into their hands. Think again and reconsider what you do when driving.

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Things Your Should Not Have to See

Rick — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:03:17 +0000

One thing that you should not have to see is the death of your son, daughter or loved one because of an accident. No parent expects to see their child die before them. I previously wrote that in Alabama, we are the fourth highest in Teenage Deaths. I discussed in another post which is the Anatomy of a Teen Car Accident that a teenage driver adding one teenage passenger increases the risk of a FATAL ACCIDENT BY 48%. I pointed out in Teenage Death that wearing a seatbelt reduces a person’s chances of dying in a crash by forty-five percent and being injured by fifty percent according to traffic safety researchers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. I’ve also previously written about what it’s like to lose a family member when they die from an accident.

I’ve written before about teenagers are at a high risk of being in an accident and seriously injured. Climbing into the back of a truck or jeep in the cargo area and riding without a seatbelt is extremely dangerous. (The last case I worked on over thirty years ago as a law clerk was a paraplegic case where the rider in the back of a truck was thrown out of the truck during an accident. The wreck was due to a defect in the truck. The client was paralyzed from the waist down. Don’t ride in the back of a truckbed, jeep, or any vehicle where there is not a seatbelt!)

So, how do you talk to your children in a way that helps them use seatbelts instead of forgetting about them when they ride with friends? An excuse you are likely to hear from them if you catch them getting into a vehicle like the back of a jeep or not putting on a seatbelt is that they were just going to go a short distance. Taking a concept from Dave Frees’s book, The Language of Parenting: Building Great Family Relationships at all Ages, is to state things in a positive manner as opposed to stating it in a negative manner. The idea is that if you tell your teenager not to think of the color blue, they (and you) cannot help but think of the color blue. So, you might say to them, “To keep safe, put on your seatbelt” or “Can you imagine feeling good by the keeping yourself safe when you always put on your seatbelt? Dave goes into detail on this in his book in Chapter 9.

No one should have to see the death or serious injury of a child, spouse or loved one. There is action you can take. Can you imagine how good you will feel stating things in a positive way so that your family members respond and are safe? Doing that shows your love for them, doesn’t it?

________________________
Questions? See my Frequently Asked Questions page. You can also Order FREE my book,

“Seven Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Alabama Injury Claim” for more in depth information.

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March Madness – Death on the Highway

Rick — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:57:15 +0000

Yes, it’s March Madness when we have the contest to determine who has the best basketball team. I was commenting to my friend last night as we were watching a game that I could remember when they put in the 3 point rule. Back then, few could consistently make the shot. However, last night guys were shooting 3 pointers like it was nothing special.

Well, you are probably now asking what the heck does that have to do with death on the highway and March Madness. This week in Alabama we have our own special kind of madness, AEA week. Lots of people head to the beach or out of town. There is lots of traveling. Some have gotten to think of it as nothing special. However, whenever someone gets behind the wheel, there is the risk of getting into an accident. Serious injury, pain, and unfortunately death are possible, you and other drivers have put to the back of your mind the potential dangers. You take on a special responsibility when you get behind the wheel and so does the other driver. Patience, caution, and courtesy, not madness should be the actions of any driver whether it’s March or any other month of the year. We think there is nothing special about driving from place to place. There is, one hundred years ago people went by horse and buggy not by 100 or more horsepower engines. Back then people died from falling off their horse, not someone running into them.

Play defensively, drive defensively and take a free throw, put on that seat belt and slow down.

________________________

Questions? See my Frequently Asked Questions page. You can also Order FREE my book,

“Seven Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Alabama Injury Claim” for more in depth information.

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This is a Post I Didn’t Want to Write

Rick — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:15:55 +0000

You remember from school classes or tests that you didn’t want to take. This is a post that I didn’t want to write. A friend’s father was killed in a crash in another state last night. One minute he was here and the next minute, life forever changed. No more conversations or holidays to share.

I’ve pointed out in my book which you can order for FREE that each year in America more people are killed on the highways than we lost in 9/11 or any year in the Iraq war.

I have another friend whose daughter had a severe brain injury from a wreck she was in. They are caring for her everyday trying to help her recover. Members of their church and their friends continue to pray for her recovery and for them as they care for her and try to help her recover.

I’ve seen first hand how lives are changed by a wreck. So, though a post I didn’t want to write, I thought you should know that injures, pain, daily struggles to regain health, and death occur from wrecks each day. Life can suddenly change in an instant, for the victim and their families.

________________________
Questions? See my Frequently Asked Questions page. You can also Order FREE my book,

“The Seven Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Alabama Injury Claim” for more in depth information.

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