Auto Accidents

Published on: November 20, 2010

Underriding involves one vehicle driving under a semi

Don’t confuse underriding with underwriting. These are two different things, and one will kill you.

Just when you think you may have heard everything, you hear about a fairly graphic term that happens in certain accident cases called underriding. Underriding refers to a wreck where a vehicle or a motorcycle drives under the trailer of a big rig. These accidents are not pretty, are mostly fatal and if they aren’t, the survivors sustain catastrophic injuries such as brain injury, spinal cord injury, shattered bones and severe crush injuries.

In underriding cases, there is no question you will need a highly experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyer to help you get the proper compensation to care for you for the rest of your life. If you do not survive your injuries, then that same lawyer may help the family file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Published on: June 30, 2010

Marine Dead in Head-On Collision in Georgia

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

When servicemen are killed in the U.S. in car crashes, it’s hard to accept. They survived Iraq only to come home and wind up dead.

“This case was really hard for the family,” said Stephen Ozcomert an Atlanta personal injury attorney. “The 21-year-old Marine hadn’t been home all that long when he and his wife were hit head-on by a wrong way driver,” he explained.

The wrong way driver was a 71-year-old man who was heading east in the westbound lane where the Marine and his family were driving. They met head-on. When EMS crews responded to this accident call, they immediately transported the young Marine, his wife and the other driver to the nearest hospital for treatment. Unfortunately, the Marine died at the hospital and his wife was flown to another hospital to be stabilized. The driver of the other car was also stabilized at the hospital.

Published on: June 18, 2010

Product Safety Issues Prompt Product Recalls

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

Generally speaking, products are safety tested before they hit the marketplace. Now and then, something goes wrong.

“While it’s true that most products are safety tested before they are put on the market, there are cases where something goes wrong – either intentionally or unintentionally. When that happens, consumers may be at risk for serious injuries or death. Nowhere is this more critical than when it comes to products for babies and children,” remarked Stephen M. Ozcomert who handles personal injury cases, accidents, and malpractice law in Atlanta, Georgia.

“In many cases of product recalls, you might see the news release saying that there have been no reported injuries at the time of the recall and that the company was voluntarily recalling the product. That ‘may’ happen in rare cases, but frankly, most product recalls are product recalls because someone was hurt, and in reality, a product has to hurt someone before the maker recalls it,” observed Ozcomert.

Published on: June 1, 2010

Super Speeder Laws Support Trauma Care

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

Georgia has new penalties for dangerous drivers that support trauma care in the state.

This is quite possibly a groundbreaking development in terms of trying to handle the number of dangerous drivers in the State of Georgia. The “Super Speeder Law,” also formally recognized by the designation HB160, went into effect January 1, 2010. Its main thrust is to try and cut down on the number of speed-related accidents.

The new law dings all drivers convicted of doing speeds of over 75 mph on two lane roads and all drivers convicted of doing speeds of 85 mph and over on other Georgia roadways. This isn’t the end of the fines though. In addition to paying local fees, illegal speeders will have to fork out an additional $200 state fee for driving like demons.

Published on: April 25, 2010

Kids’ Toys, Jewelry and Slings Dangerous

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

When will the product recalls stop? This time, baby sling carriers are in question.

First it was kids’ toys, then jewelry and now, baby slings. What is the world coming to with all the dangerous products on the market lately? It isn’t just kids’ products either. Witness the massive recalls of blinds that are known to strangle children, cars that suddenly accelerate for no reason and cause accidents and death, Blue Bird school buses with wiring harness problems and All Tom’s BBQ potato chips for the risk of salmonella.

The latest flap involves two baby slings made by Infantino in San Diego, California. Although, this may be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to baby slings in general. “These sling style carriers were recalled after three babies suffocated in them, prompting a massive recall of over 1 million slings,” outlined Stephen M. Ozcomert, who handles personal injury cases, accidents, and malpractice law in Atlanta, Georgia.

Published on: March 1, 2010

Cell Phone Convo Distracted Driver and Seriously Injured Police Officer

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

People just don’t seem to realize that being on a cell phone while driving is a deadly distraction. This case demonstrates that clearly.

This car crash happened on an expressway where vehicles were traveling at high rates of speed. A state trooper was seriously injured as a result of this collision caused by a 19-year-old woman talking on her cell phone.

The details of this case indicate that the 19-year-old Kimmy Buetel (name has been changed to protect the victims) was on the local expressway and busy talking on her cell phone; so busy in fact that she didn’t pay attention to the state police cruiser parked on the right shoulder of the road. The officer was handling a traffic stop.

Published on: February 27, 2010

Keeping Eyes Forward Not on a Cell Phone Prevents Accidents

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

There is only one cell phone law in the State of Georgia; the one relating to school bus drivers. That may change if the Bill in the House dealing with this is passed.

Who hasn’t been behind a person on cell phone trying to drive at the same time and making a total mess of it? Cell phone use while driving and texting while driving are two new additions to what makes driving a real hazard in the 21^st century. That last brutal car crash on the Interstate, the one that took the life of a young teenage boy, was the result of the teen texting while driving. He never saw the 18-wheeler he slid under.

“While it may seem to be a no-brainer that people who use cell phones and drive at the same time are accidents looking for a place to happen, this isn’t easy to prove statistically speaking. I just recently read a study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that indicated bans on handheld cell phone usage while driving didn’t make a different to accident rates. This piqued my interest and I did some further research, knowing Georgia was about to pass a ban into law,” commented Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury and malpractice attorney.

Published on: January 20, 2010

Georgia Insists on Car Insurance

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

Just in case you don’t know this, you should if you live in the state of Georgia. Everyone must have car insurance.

If you’re a newbie just arriving in Georgia from another state or out of country, one of the first things you will want to know is that you need car insurance. If you think no one will know whether you have it or not, think again. In 2003, Georgia made an arrangement where the state police have access to the Department of Motor Vehicle Safety database. This information clearly shows the police who has expired insurance or no insurance.

Now you may be thinking that if you happen to be carrying an insurance card and have an accident that this is proof enough. It isn’t, and can’t be used as proof of valid insurance. Unfortunately, having the card could mean the driver is trying to pull a fast one on the police. While the vast majority of car owners would be honest enough to actually “have” the required insurance, there will always be exceptions to the general rule.

Published on: October 1, 2009

Hands-Free Yakking Still Deadly

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

It doesn’t matter if you hold the cell phone in your hand and talk while driving, or have hands-free access to talk all you want; both ways may cost you your life.

No matter which way you add it up, yakking on a cell phone held in your hand or one that happens to be hands-free still amounts to a deadly distraction. All it takes is one split second of not paying attention to your driving and you could wind up in a very nasty accident.

Consider the case of young John Stenner, on his way home from picking up a car with his tow truck. He had hands-free cell phone access in his truck. While talking on the phone to his base office about his next pickup, he was too distracted to see the semi heading his way and coming through the intersection. John died at the scene of the accident.

Published on: September 4, 2009

Personal Injury Car Crashes and Assessing Damages

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

It’s hard to try and set an amount of damages that you may have sustained in a car crash. The sheer overwhelming number and type of wounds may totally confuse you, not to mention having to repair your vehicle.

During the summer the highways and by-ways across America are jammed with holiday and regular travelers, add into this mix 18-wheelers, road construction, detours and unpaved roads waiting for upgrading, and you have the potential for accidents. It’s often bad enough traveling in an area you are familiar with, never mind going out of state to a place you have never been to before and have no idea how their traffic patterns will affect you. This makes it tough to know if you have enough insurance to take long distance road trips.

The inevitable may strike your first trip or your fifteenth trip, and when it happens those injuries are put into a category that will tell you the approximate dollar amount that may be awarded for those injuries. There are so many factors that need to be dealt with, not the least of which is determining who is at fault in the accident, the percentage of culpability, medical bills, down time from work, pain and suffering, the continual stream of medical rehab expenses you may face and yes, vehicle repair costs.