Georgia Personal Injury Law Blog : Atlanta Georgia Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Jason R. Schultz Law Firm : Wrongful Death, Malpractice, Car Accidents : Georgia

A study by the National Research Council indicates that in spite of record lows in accident fatalities in 2009, the US continues to fare very poorly in preventing accidental deaths, compared to other countries.

The NRC specifically compared the US and other countries, including Britain, France, Japan and Australia. The study had some very disturbing facts for Atlanta car accident lawyers.   Although it does seem like we have made great advancements in minimizing fatal traffic accidents in our country, progress has been slow. For instance, since 1995, France has been able to reduce its traffic accident fatality numbers by 52%, while in the US, those numbers have declined by just 19%. Countries like Japan, Australia and Britain also fared much better than the US when it comes to progress in reducing accident fatalities.

According to the NRC, we could make more progress in saving lives if we implemented tougher drunk driving laws and enforced them.  For instance, sobriety checkpoints are almost a fact of life in many European countries. In the US, the beverage industry and other vested interests have been successful in lobbying for restricted use of sobriety checkpoints. This in spite of the fact that these checkpoints have been found to reduce the number of drunk driving accidents in Georgia and around the country.

The NRC also credits widespread use of speeding cameras in other developed countries for their lower fatality rates. In this country however, the use of speeding cameras has been a matter of controversy and debate.

As an Atlanta auto accident lawyer, I don't believe that serious injuries or fatalities should be the price that we pay for driving. Fatal accidents don't have to be a fact of life of transportation in this country. Simple steps like increasing sobriety checkpoints, using speeding camera systems and strict enforcement of distracted driving laws will save hundreds of lives every year.

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According to the results of a new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, one out of every 10 drivers admitted to driving while sleepy over the past year. More than a quåarter admitted to being so sleepy that they had trouble focusing. That should be enough to wake up Georgia’s state agencies to this public threat.

The study looked at crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It found that approximately 17% of all motor vehicle accidents in the US are the result of sleepy drivers. As many as one in every six fatal car accidents in the US are the result of drowsy driving compared to three out of every six fatal accidents that are linked to drunk driving.

While every state has laws against drunk driving, only one state - New Jersey - bans drowsy driving. Maggie's Law was enacted after a 20-year-old woman was killed in an accident caused by a driver who fell asleep behind the wheel. The National Sleep Foundation has been campaigning heavily for more education and awareness about the effects of lack of sleep on driving.

Driving while sleepy impairs a person's judgment, slows down reaction times, and delays response time. Sounds familiar? Those are also the effects of intoxicated driving. According to the National Sleep Foundation, driving while sleepy has the same negative impact on a person's driving abilities as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. 

As a Georgia wrongful death and personal injury attorney, I don't expect legislation against drowsy driving very soon in Georgia. However, Georgia State Patrol and local law enforcement agencies should conduct more awareness campaigns to educate drivers about not driving when they are sleepy.

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A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that there is a need for greater enforcement of laws that prevent bars and other drinking establishments from serving customers who are too intoxicated to drive. Binge drinking is a problem, and a factor in most of the 11,000 fatalities that occur every year in drunk driving accidents.

The CDC study focused on 14,000 binge drinkers - people who admitted that at least once a month to drinking more than 5 alcoholic beverages on a single occasion. 12 percent of the respondents in the survey said that they had driven a car within two hours of their last binge. That is one in 8 binge drinkers who saw no problem getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. The study also showed that half of the drove off after drinking at a bar or club had consumed 7 or more alcoholic drinks, while 25 percent of those had at least 10 drinks.

CDC researchers are calling for stronger enforcement of laws that prevent establishments from serving drunk customers. Georgia’s dram shop liability laws hold restaurants, bars and nightclubs liable for providing alcohol to a patron who later causes injury to others, who was noticeably intoxicated and the establishment knew or should have known they were about to drive. Proving those elements can be very difficult unless the drunk driver has receipts and there are eyewitnesses who corroborate that the person was drunk and about to drive. 

However, as Fulton County car accident lawyers often see, such dram shop laws are some of the most under enforced laws in the country. It obviously suits the restaurant or bar to continue to serve alcohol to its customers, even when they have had too much to drink. Unfortunately, enforcement of these laws are difficult and far too little consideration given by those establishments serving alcohol as to what will likely happen once the drunk driver gets behind the wheel.

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