Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog

As is usually the case with truck accidents, bus accidents on Georgia roads and highways many times result in serious injury and sometimes death for passengers. The sheer size and weight of theses vehicles make them inherently more dangerous than lighter vehicles.

Just this week, the NY Daily News reported on a bus accident. They reported that the New York City Transit has been ordered by a jury to pay two women a total of $7.5 million in damages after finding that the bus ran a red light and careened into the women’s car seriously injuring both. Interestingly, the bus company could have settled the case prior to trial for $3 million dollars but chose to take their chances with the jury.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured as a result of being involved in an automobile accident, a truck accident or a bus accident, call the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP to discuss your rights. We have been representing clients in personal injury and wrongful death cases for over 45 years.

Bus accidents on Georgia roads and highways many times result in serious injury and sometimes death for passengers. Many people do not realize that under Georgia law, common carriers such as bus companies and airlines owe their passengers the duty to exercise extraordinary care in the operation of the bus or airplane which is a higher legal duty than is normally owed. Specifically, the Official Code of Georgia Annotated §46-9-1 provides as follows:
“Carriers as such are bound to exercise ordinary diligence. Common carriers as such are bound to use extraordinary diligence, and in cases of loss the presumption of law is against them, and no excuse avails them unless the loss was occasioned by the act of God or the public enemies of the state.”
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured in a bus accident, as a passenger on a bus or any other common carrier, call the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP to discuss your rights. We have been representing clients in personal injury and wrongful death cases for over 45 years.

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP commute into the City of Atlanta everyday. In doing so, it is astounding to see how many people are sending text messages on cell phones, Blackberries and other PDA’s while driving. Many of these drivers cause automobile accidents, truck accident, bus accidents and even motorcycle accidents which result in serious injuries and sometimes the wrongful death of innocent victims.

Texting while driving is a rising problem among teenagers and adults and is a leading cause of traffic accidents. When someone texts while driving, they are endangering their own lives as well as other drivers and pedestrians they may pass. Last week two members of the Georgia House of Representatives introduced Bills that would ban the practice of texting. If a Bill passes, Georgia would be the 20th state in the nation including North Carolina and Tennessee, to ban texting while driving. Just today I read that similar legislation is being proposed in South Carolina and it is expected to pass.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a motor vehicle accident as a result of the negligence of a driver who was texting or operating other communication devices, call the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP who have been representing injury victims for over 45 years.

Dangerous passenger buses that do not meet United States safety standards are currently traveling the roadways of this country endangering the passengers and the motoring public. Yesterday, the National Safety Transportation Board issued a call for these dangerous vehicles to be taken off the roadways.

The recommendation is part of a long list of proposals issued by the NTSB following its investigation of a deadly bus crash which occurred in January 2008 in Texas.

NTSB investigators determined that the bus driver who had only three and a half months of experience driving a bus, fell asleep about eight hours into a 10½-hour trip from Monterrey, Mexico to Houston, Texas.

The NTSB staff ruled out the bus and weather as factors, but they uncovered legal loopholes and enforcement failures that allowed the substandard bus to be on the road. The bus did not meet regulations governing safety features that should be included when the bus is manufactured. The board recommended three agencies identify the companies operating substandard buses, put the buses out of service and require the companies to cease operations or face losing authority to operate.

The NTSB found fault with Federal Motor Carrier Administration. Among other things, it could have done a compliance review of the bus operator, Capricorn Bus Lines of Houston, but failed to do so.

Capricorn Bus Lines Inc. leased buses from International Charter Services Inc., to operate in the U.S., but Capricorn had lost its insurance in 2003 because of a fatal accident a year earlier in Mexico.

Capricorn avoided oversight by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration because the lease arrangement allowed it to operate through International Charter. The NTSB faulted the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration allowing such leases which allow unsafe operators to continue operation.

The NTSB also recommended the following safety proposals:

1. Create databases to help state law enforcement identify out-of-compliance buses and take them off the roads.

2. Require carriers to certify when they apply for operating authority and once a year thereafter that all owned or leased buses comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

3. Update safety videos for night time driving and use latest media, such as the Internet, to distribute them more widely.

Our Atlanta wrongful death attorneys have represented the families of children seriously injured or killed while exiting school buses. Just today, the Atlanta media is reporting that a five year old child was killed when an elderly driver attempted to pass a stopped school bus.

The law in Georgia governing driver actions when approaching or overtaking a school bus is very clear. Ga. Code Ann., § 40-6-163 provides as follows:

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this Code section, the driver of a vehicle meeting or overtaking from either direction any school bus stopped on the highway shall stop before reaching such school bus when there are in operation on the school bus the visual signals as specified in Code Sections 40-8- 111and 40-8-115, and such driver shall not proceed until the school bus resumes motion or the visual signals are no longer actuated.

(b) The driver of a vehicle upon a highway with separate roadways need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus which is on a different roadway, or upon a controlled-access highway when the school bus is stopped in a loading zone which is a part of or adjacent to such highway and where pedestrians are not permitted to cross the roadway.

(c) Every school bus driver who observes a violation of subsection (a) of this Code section is authorized and directed to record specifically the vehicle description, license number of the offending vehicle, and time and place of occurrence on forms furnished by the Department of Public Safety. Such report shall be submitted within 15 days of the occurrence of the violation to the local law enforcement agency which has law enforcement jurisdiction where the alleged offense occurred.

What may not be clear to some is that all vehicles on a four lane road must stop when the bus has activated the visual stop signals. This is true for driver going in both directions. The only exception is for traffic flowing in the opposite direction on highways divided by a concrete barrier or grass median.

If you have any doubt as to stop or not, please err on the side of caution and stop. The tragic consequences are not worth a few minutes saved in travel time.

http://www.georgiainjurylawyers.net/Truck-Accidents.cfmWhen a truck accident or automobile accident causes serious personal injuries or wrongful death, you may have a tort or wrongful death claim that you can bring against the vehicle owner and driver. In some cases, you may have a claim you can bring against a negligent third party such as a tire manufacturer. As Georgia injury lawyers, we always investigate motor vehicle collision cases carefully to determine whether there is a negligent third party to sue. We recently read that on September 10, 2009, a jury in Willacy County, Texas, returned a verdict against Michelin and awarded $11,964,000.00 in damages. The care arose out of an incident when a Ford F-250 pickup suffered a partial left front tread belt detachment of a BF Goodrich All-terrain TA Tire. The tire had been built in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The tread belt detachment caused the F-250 to travel into oncoming traffic causing a head-on collision with a Chervolet Suburban. All six (6) people in the Suburban were killed and a young passenger in the F-250 was left a paraplegic. Several manufacturing defects, which allowed moisture and other contaminants into the time components prior to manufacture, were alleged by the plaintiffs. It appears the moisture came from a leaky roof in the Tuscaloosa plant. Testimony revealed that moisture created a blister of trapped air or steam that caused a defect in the finished tire and caused the tread to separate. Evidence at trial also showed that misplaced or poorly spliced belts affected the real world performance of the tire and in this case caused the tread to separate.

If you are a victim of a truck accident or an automobile accident, you may be entitled to compensation for loss of wages, pain and suffering and medical bills. Contact Georgia injury lawyers Finch McCranie, LLP Toll Free 1-800-228-9159 to learn about your options for your truck accident or automobile accident injury recovery.

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have handled many tractor trailer truck accidents and bus accidents, many of which were caused by defective equipment, including tires and brakes. Although there are plenty of federal regulations designed to force owners and operators of such vehicles to maintain safe vehicles, the regulations are often ignored. The Associated Press obtained a recent study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found that hundreds of tractor-trailer and bus companies which had been order to shut down because of federal safety violations ranging from suspended licenses to possible drug use have stayed on the road by using different names. The GAO report found that a number of the commercial bus companies that had been fined and ordered out of service in 2007 and 2008 by federal regulators evaded compliance by setting up business under a new name. Unfortunately, the investigation found offenders in at lease nine (9) states, including Georgia. Accordingly to the GAO’s investigation, violators owe tens of thousands of dollars in past due fines and had many violations. Another 1,073 commercial trucking firms are also believed to have evaded compliance by reorganizing the company under a new name, often using the same address, owner’s name, employees and contact numbers. According to the report, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says that it has put in place new oversight measures, including a computer matching process to compare new applicants to various motor carriers dating back to 2003. The study by the GAO came about a year after an unlicensed charter bus carrying a Vietnamese-American Catholic group blew a retreaded tire installed on a steering axle and skidded off a Texas highway resulting in the death of 17 people. The use of recapped tires on the steering wheels is a violation of federal regulations. Tractor-trailer and bus companies that operate in violation of federal safety laws pose a significant threat to the motoring public. It is believed that at least 300 wrongful deaths occurred last year from bus crashes alone.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a tractor trailer truck accident or a commercial bus accident, call the experienced Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP for a free consultation.

Georgia injury lawyers handling tractor trailer accident cases involving serious injury or wrongful death cases are well aware of the dangerous trucks on Georgia highways. Recently, the Associated Press obtained a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found that hundreds of tractor-trailer and bus companies which had been order to shut down because of federal safety violations ranging from suspended licenses to possible drug use have stayed on the road by using different names. The GAO report found that a number of the commercial bus companies that had been fined and ordered out of service in 2007 and 2008 by federal regulators evaded compliance by setting up business under new names. Unfortunately, the investigation found offenders in at least nine (9) states, including Georgia. Accordingly to the GAO’s investigation, violators owed tens of thousands of dollars in past due fines and had many violations. Another 1,073 commercial trucking firms are also believed to have evaded compliance by reorganizing the company under a new name, often using the same address, owner’s name, employees and contact numbers. According to the report, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says that it has put in place new oversight measures, including a computer matching process to compare new applicants to various motor carriers dating back to 2003. The study by the GAO came about a year after an unlicensed charter bus, carrying a Vietnamese-American Catholic group, blew a retreaded tire installed on a steering axle. As a result, the bus skidded off a Texas highway resulting in the death of 17 people. The use of recapped tires on the steering wheels is a violation of one of many federal regulations. Tractor-trailer and bus companies that operate in violation of federal safety laws pose a significant threat to the motoring public. It is believed that at least 300 fatalities occurred last year from bus crashes alone.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured or lost a loved one as a result of a truck accident, call the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP at 1 (800) 228-9159. We have over 40 years experience pursuing wrongful death lawsuits.

The first scientific study of car and truck crashes which occur while drivers are texting has revealed surprisingly data that indicates the risks far exceed previous estimates. Furthermore the risk posed by texting drivers far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions.

The new study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, involved outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months. It found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.

In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices. That is enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.

Even though trucks take longer to stop and are less maneuverable than cars, the findings generally applied to all drivers, who tend to exhibit the same behaviors as the more than 100 truckers studied, the researchers said. Truckers, they said, do not appear to text more or less than typical car drivers, but they said the study did not compare use patterns that way.

The trucks were equipped with video cameras and tracked for three million miles as they hauled goods across the country. Even as frightening as the results is the fact that the truck drivers knew they were being recorded and continued to text while driving.

Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech institute, said the study’s message was clear. Texting should never be done while driving.

Thirty-six states do not ban texting while driving;

Georgia truck accident lawyers know that many times a tractor-trailer truck accident occurs as a result of defective equipment, including truck tires. Just this week, the executrix of the estate of a Tennessee man killed in a tractor-trailer accident filed a $10 million wrongful death suit against the employer of the man driving the a truck involved in the accident. It was reported that the victim was driving a southbound on Interstate 75 when a northbound tractor-trailer blew out a tire and collied with the center median wall. The collision sent the trailer flying over the median where the victim struck it head-on and was killed. The lawsuit alleges that the driver and his employer, the owner of the truck, had been negligent for not maintaining the truck and trailer, specifically inspecting and replacing the tires on the vehicle, including the tire that failed and caused the crash.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations provide that no commercial vehicle may be operated on any tire that (1) has body ply or belt material exposed through the tread or sidewall, (2) has any tread or sidewall separation, (3) is flat or has an audible leak, or (4) has a cut to the extent that the ply or belt material is exposed. Any tire on the front wheels of a bus, truck or truck tractor must have a tread groove pattern depth of at least 4/32nd of an inch at any point in a major tread groove. All other tires must have a tread groove pattern depth of at least 2/32nd of an inch when measured in a major tread groove. Motor vehicles cannot be operated with loads that exceed a weight greater than the tire’s capacity.

If you have been in a Georgia truck accident, it is important to make sure that you understand your legal rights. You may be able to recover money for medical bills, lost wages, funeral costs, as well as compensation for wrongful death or permanent disability. Contact the experienced Georgia truck accident attorneys at Finch McCranie, LLP for a free evaluation of your case at 1-800-228-9159.

Georgia injury lawyers have long since known that driver fatigue may be the number one safety problem in the trucking industry today, and is a factor in nearly 40% of all crashes nationwide. Unfortunately, it is routine practice for many trucking companies to violate the hours of service and related FMCSR safety rules. In our investigation of tractor trailer truck accident cases involving serious injuries or even death that some truck drivers keep “dual” log books. Greedy, profit-driven motives have made driver fatigue in the trucking industry a vast, largely unchecked problem resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children each year.

Tractor trailer accident victims often sustain very severe injuries and incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, not to mention thousands in lost wages. In these cases, it important to retain legal counsel as soon as possible so that a very thorough investigation can be done to discover and document crucial evidence.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a accident or wreck involving a truck, call one of the experienced truck accident lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP.

Georgia injury lawyers know that many times automobile accidents and tractor trailer truck accidents result from defects in either the design of a roadway or the existing dangerous condition of a roadway. This is particularly true if the roadway is under construction. Last week in Georgia, it was reported that a woman driving southbound on Interstate I-85 near Newnan, Georgia got a wheel off the edge of the pavement resulting in her losing control of her vehicle, crossing the highway median and hitting a tractor-trailer rig head-on. Sadly, the accident resulted in the woman’s death. Depending on the facts, the Georgia Dept of Transportation can be held liable for highway defects which cause injury of death.

The LA Times recently reported that a jury has ruled that the California Department of Transportation was partially negligent in a crash that killed two teenagers. According to the lawsuit, the agency knew that the rolling mountain road was unsafe prior to the accident. The jury agreed and awarded $6.3 million in damages to the families of those killed and a survivor injured in the accident.

The Georgia Injury Lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have over 40 years of experience pursuing wrongful death lawsuits, some of which have involved highway and road defects. If you have lost a loved one and feel you have a wrongful death claim, call our experienced attorneys at 1-800-228-9159 for a free consultation.

A 70-year old north Georgia man burned to death Saturday after his tractor-trailer left the roadway and caught on fire. Rescue workers attempted to pull the man from the burning truck but were unable to do so in time to save him. Authorities did not know why the truck ran off of Interstate 85 and did not know whether the driver fell asleep .

Many tractor-trailer accidents are caused by a driver’s inattentiveness or fatigue resulting from the operation of a tractor-trailer for an excessive amount of time. Federal regulations prohibit a trucking company from allowing a driver to operate a tractor-trailer while the driver’s ability or alertness is impaired by fatigue, illness, or any other cause which would make it unsafe for the driver to operate the vehicle. These regulations also prescribe a maximum number of hours that a driver can be on duty during any day or week and require a driver to maintain a daily log of his work status. Georgia lawyers who handle serious personal injury and wrongful death cases against tractor-trailer companies know that a complete investigation of such a case involves the careful scrutiny of these log books.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an automobile accident or a tractor-trailer accident, consult the Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP who have been handling serious injury and wrongful deaths for over 40 years.

Georgia citizens continue to suffer serious injuries and death in ever increasing numbers on a stretch of Interstate 85 near Newnan, Georgia. Most of these accidents involve tractor-trailers. According to authorities today, one person was killed and another person seriously injured on Monday afternoon in an accident on the northbound side of Interstate 85. Shortly after the initial fatal accident, a second major accident with injuries occurred when a northbound tractor-trailer rear-ended another that had stopped for the first wreck. Many of these accidents have occurred as a result of dangerous conditions existing upon the roadway which has been under construction for at least the last two years. The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP currently represent the family of an individual in a wrongful death case that resulted from vehicles hydroplaning on that stretch of road. The three most common reasons for hydroplaning are speed, condition of tires and excessive water on the roadway.

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have been handling serious injury and wrongful death cases for over 40 years. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured as a result of the negligence of someone else, call us for a free consultation.

Bus accidents have been a problem in Atlanta and Georgia for many years. Recently, the lawyers of Finch McCranie LLP were able to secure a very favorable settlement for the most seriously injured survivor in the Bluffton Bus crash which occurred here some years ago.

Now, in an encouraging move, the National Transportation Safety Board is recommending charter bus companies come up with better plans to deal with crashes in remote areas. Last Friday, the NTSB sent recommendations to the American Bus Association and the United Motorcoach Association. The list suggests detailed contingency plans and information about driving through remote areas where there is no wireless telephone coverage.

In January 2008, nine people died and 43 others were injured in a bush crash near Mexican Hat, Utah, as they returned to Phoenix, Arizona from a weekend ski trip in Telluride, Colo.
The NTSB said the accident was most likely caused by the 71-year-old driver's fatigue, which slowed his reaction time. The bus also had to take a longer route than normal because a mountain pass had been closed by heavy snow.

The NTSB recommendations said the charter company should have considered overnight accommodations or provided relief drivers somewhere along the 550-mile drive between Telluride and Phoenix.

The NTSB also criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to implement motorcoach safety recommendations made a decade ago.

These recommendations included stronger roofs on buses, that buses should have easy-to-open, shatterproof windows and that steps be taken — including possibly requiring seat belts — to prevent passengers from being ejected in rollovers.

We are hopeful that with a new administration in Washington, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will act on these common sense recommendations which will most likely save lives and prevent injuries.

Bus accidents (or motorcoach accidents) can multiply the loss of life and life-changing injuries. Our Bluffton University baseball team client will never be the same as a result of the bus accident in 2007 that left him permanently injured, and several of his teammates dead.

A bus accident in Utah in January 2008 that left nine dead likewise shows how bus safety has been a neglected issue. Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation finally took the step of ordering a "full review" of bus safety. The government's announcement is below:

U.S. DOT Orders Full Review of Motorcoach Safety

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today ordered a full departmental review of motorcoach safety. A Departmental Motorcoach Safety Action Plan will be created from the review’s findings. The plan will outline the additional steps needed to improve motorcoach safety for the millions of Americans who rely on these vehicles for safe transportation.
“Motorcoaches have been a safe form of transportation in the United States for many years, but even a single crash or accident is unacceptable” said Secretary LaHood. “We will continue our efforts to make them as safe as possible. As Secretary of Transportation, safety is my top priority.”

U.S. DOT agencies participating in the creation of the Action Plan include the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The review will also consider outstanding recommendations to U.S. DOT from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The full departmental review follows a recent NTSB hearing concerning the motorcoach crash in Utah in January 2008 that resulted in nine fatalities. The report is expected to be completed and released by August 2009.

Bus accidents were the subject of action taken by The National Transportation Safety Board this week. The NTSB is the federal agency charged with investigating major transportation accidents. On Tuesday, it strongly criticized regulators at the Department of Transportation for lax oversight of the commercial bus industry.

The NTSB voted to cite the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to implement recommendations that could lead to new safety equipment on buses, including seatbelts and stronger roofs and windows. They have been urging NHTSA to enact their recommendations since 1999.

The vote came after investigators for the NTSB disclosed findings from an investigationof a Jan. 6, 2008, rollover bus crash in Utah that killed nine passengers and injured 43. It was one of a string of deadly commercial bus accidents involving passenger ejections over the past two years. Included was the Bluffton University bus crash here in Atlanta. Our lawyers represented one of the seriously injured students in that crash.

The NTSB identified driver fatigue as the primary cause of the Utah crash, but stated that NHTSA's delay in developing standards to protect people on buses contributed to the severity of the crash.

Board members expressed frustration at the delay of NHTSA in developing and enacting safety measures for buses.

In the NTSB report, investigators revealed details about the condition of the 71-year-old driver in the Utah crash. They concluded that he was fatigued on the night of the accident, causing him to speed and lose control of the bus, which was moving between 88 and 92 miles per hour when it crashed. In the days before the accident, the driver reported suffering from a head cold, may have experienced altitude sickness and was losing sleep nightly, possibly as a result of sleep apnea, the investigators said.

The NTSB also had harsh words for the medical oversight by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, another agency within the transportation department. That agency is responsible for drivers' medical certifications. Board members complained that the agency had yet to act on medical recommendations issued by an outside advisory board, including a suggestion on sleep apnea, a condition where a sleeper stops breathing.

As a Georgia injury lawyer, I have represented a lot of truck drivers over the years in workers compensation claims, usually involving back injuries. Many of these drivers were well into their sixties and many had significant health problems which probably put the public at risk of serious injury and death had they become involved in a tractor trailer accident. It was always surprising when these older truck drivers who were clearly in bad health were able to pass a DOT physical examination. Last summer the Associated Press released a report which talked about this growing problem. Tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the Unites States are driving our highways with commercial licenses even though they qualify for full federal disability payments. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has admitted that it has fallen short in implementing the 8 recommendations that U.S. Safety Regulators have proposed since 2001. One of these would set minimum standards for officials who determine whether truckers are medically safe to drive. Truckers who have violated the medical rules set out by the government are every where but 12 states have proven to be leaders in producing violations. Texas, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota and Ohio were all states where drivers broke the rules most often. The AP article lists several appalling cases where truck drivers have caused fatalities as a result of their medical violations. In some cases, morbidly obese truck drivers had heart attacks while others admitted to occasional blacking out and forgetting things. If you or a loved one have been injured as a result of being involved in a tractor trailer truck accident, call the trucking accident injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP for a free consultation.

As the lawyers who represented the most seriously injured survivor of the March 2007 Bluffton University bus accident on I-75 in Atlanta, we were greatly disturbed today to hear that two charter buses from Detroit reportedly have crashed at exactly the same location on I-75 in Atlanta.

WSB-TV reports that the two buses mistakenly took an "HOV-only" left exit ramp from I-75 southbound in Atlanta at Northside Drive, instead of staying on I-75's regular HOV lane. The buses were carrying a high school band. The exit on the left side of the road has confused other drivers.

We and other attorneys for the Bluffton bus accident passengers settled the Bluffton claims with the State of Georgia recently for the maximum amount available under the law.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and their families of the most recent bus accidents at this ramp.

Finch McCranie, LLP is one of the most established law firms in Atlanta, Georgia. Our personal injury attorneys serve those persons and families who are the victims of serious personal injury or wrongful death. For a free consultation, call 404-658-9070, 800-228-9159, or click HERE to email us.

As Georgia injury lawyers we have seen automobile accident and tractor trailer or trucking accidents that occur for a multitude of reasons. Lately however, we have seen a number of serious accidents that have occurred on Georgia highways or roads that are under construction. Just last week I read about a truck driver that lost control of his tractor trailer rig on Interstate 85 south of Atlanta. It veered over onto the shoulder, came back onto the roadway, overturned and skidded at least 100 feet down the interstate according to witnesses. This accident was the last in a series of three (3) accidents where large trucks have overturned on I-85 between Atlanta and Newnan where road construction has been underway for over two (2) years. One of many possible reasons for these accidents may be the accumulation of water on the roadway. When this occurs, drivers often lose control of their vehicles and the vehicles hydroplane. Generally there are three things that cause or contribute to a hydroplaning accident. One is water on the roadway, another is the speed of the vehicle and another is the condition of the tires. Any time there is an accident involving the wrongful death or serious injury of someone who has been involved in a collision on a wet highway, it is crucial that the families of the victims seek competent legal counsel immediately. This is so because experts can be dispatched to the scene to evaluate, document and preserve evidence before any of it changes or is destroyed. This is particularly true when the accident occurs on a roadway which is under construction. Many times the reason for water accumulation on the roadway may be that the road’s drainage systems may be inadequate or even blocked by construction debris. A timely on-scene investigation by good experts will usually pay off. Possible negligent parties may include road contractors, local governments, state governments and anyone else who may be responsible for maintenance of the roads.

The Georgia injury lawyers at Finch McCranie, LLP have been handling serious injury and wrongful death cases for over 40 years. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured as a result of the negligence of someone else, call us for a free consultation.