The  month of April is designated as Distracted Driving Awareness Month,  and national as well as Georgia transportation agencies will pay special attention to raising awareness about the dangers of driving while not focusing on the road, in the weeks ahead. Distracted driving is a significant cause of car accidents, personal injuries and wrongful deaths. Distractions while driving can include a number of activities that take your attention away from the task of driving.  These  activities can include commonly known ones involving the use of electronic devices while driving ..read more

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that partially automated driving systems in several vehicles are not very effective in helping prevent distracted driving. In fact, automated driving systems are likely to increase distracted driving auto accidents. Partial automated driving systems are present in several automobiles these days.  These are not technically self -driven cars, although manufacturers sometimes do position these as self -driven vehicles. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, its researchers analyzed a number of vehicles manufactured by major au ..read more

Persons who have suffered a spinal injury in car accidents or motorcycle accidents are at a much higher risk of suffering heart disease down the line. That information comes from a study conducted in Korea where researchers analyzed data on more than 5,000 patients who had suffered lumbar, cervical or thoracic spinal injury. They were looking at how many of these spinal injury survivors developed heart conditions including myocardial infarction, heart failure and atrial fibrillation.  They found that persons who had suffered lumbar and cervical spinal injury had a greater risk of myocardi ..read more

New research provides yet more evidence that the bodies of women and men react differently to car accidents.  According  to a new study, women who have been involved in a car accident  are more likely to suffer from shock  after the crash. Several studies in the past have established  the different ways in which male and female bodies respond to the trauma of a car accident.  Overall, while men are  more likely to be involved in auto accidents, women are much more likely to suffer personal injuries in a car accident, with the rate being approximately 73 ..read more

An analysis of traffic data from the last total solar eclipse in 2017 predicts an increase in auto accident rates during the next eclipse expected on April 8. Astronomers have predicted a total solar eclipse on April 8.  This  eclipse is likely to be similar to the Great American Eclipse of 2017.  According  to a new study,  the 2017 total solar eclipse was accompanied by an increase in the number of car accidents during the eclipse.  The  researchers  warn   that a similar surge in car accident numbers is to be expected during this eclipse as ..read more

Federal transportation officials as well as state officials met in the nation’s  capital recently to discuss ways to reduce car accident wrongful deaths. Most states were represented at the gathering with 17 states declining  to participate, and out of these, 10 of those states had traffic accident death rates that were higher than the national average in 2021.  For most transportation officials, the past couple of years have been frustrating to say the least. After several decades of declining traffic accident deaths,  the years  since the pandemic  have actually ..read more

The  United States recently crossed a  painful  milestone as it recorded 4 million car accident wrongful deaths since the first fatality was recorded in 1899. The milestone is especially poignant because it comes as transportation authorities are grappling with the problem of increasing car accident deaths across the country, especially since the pandemic.  While there has been a slight progress in helping reverse that trend, car accident deaths, especially those related to distracted driving and speeding have simply skyrocketed over the past 2 years,  undoing much of ..read more

Several studies have confirmed that speeding rates  increased during the pandemic, but disturbing new data from a mobile analytics company finds that  American motorists have also been engaging in  other types of dangerous behaviors at higher rates since the pandemic. New  data by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company that offers apps that can be downloaded to lower motorist insurance rates finds that the rates of distracted driving actually increased during the pandemic. What is worse  is that those distracted driving rates have actually continued even after the ..read more

Emory University will kick off a study later this year that will focus on the rates of seatbelt use as well as distracted driving rates among motorists in Georgia. The study is extremely important because the failure use a seatbelt and distracted driving account for a significant number of the personal injuries and wrongful deaths suffered in car accidents. The  study is courtesy state funding for the  Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory. The Georgia Governor’s Office of  Highway Safety  has announced a grant of more than $296,000 for the division.  The  mo ..read more

In 2022, an average of 5 people died in car accidents in Georgia every single day.  The state is now making strong efforts to help reduce those numbers and keep people safe on the roads. There is not one solution to the issue, which requires a multifaceted approach. The Georgia Department of Public Health recently received funding of approximately $2.5 million specifically to be used in road safety initiatives.  The  grant by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be used to fund initiatives like the distribution of child car safety seats to motorists in Georgia ..read more