Articles Posted in Car Wreck

According to a recent report by the Charlotte Observer, a factor often forgotten in discussions of the increasing number of trucking deaths is sleep apnea.

One top sleep expert said that drowsy driving kills more people each year on the road than distracted driving. Dr. Charles Czeisler of Harvard University Medical School says that while sleep apnea gets little attention in the media it is actually responsible for one in five crashes.

Sleep apnea occurs when a person ceases breathing during sleep. These interruptions disrupt deep sleep and lead to prolonged periods of sleepiness during the day. While treatment is easy with a breathing machine, the problem is that nearly 85% of cases go undiagnosed. Some commercial drivers are afraid of losing their jobs if they identify themselves as suffering from the disorder while others want to avoid paying for expensive diagnostic tests.

The results of this failure to treat weary drivers can be devastating. The number of people who died in commercial truck crashes saw another year of increases, now at nearly 4,000 last year, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator.

Just this summer in Anderson, South Carolina a semi jackknifed and crossed the median on I-85, killing the driver and two others, 38-year-old truck driver Clay LeShawn Johnson of Charlotte and attorney Jeremy Scott Wilson, 33. In that crash the coroner found that the truck driver, Eddie Wyatt, 69, suffered from sleep apnea and had only recently returned to work.

Again on October 13, 2011, along I-85 in Gastonia, one tractor-trailer slammed into the back of another, killing one driver. Gastonia Police released the accident report just this week, saying the surviving driver was travelling only 32 mph in the left lane when he was struck at 1:47 am, killing the oncoming driver. The company that operated the slow-moving truck, Saga Freight Logistics of Brownsville, Texas, received 64 fatigue-related violations in the last two years alone.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has tried to reduce driver fatigue by limiting hours of service to 11 hours each day. They have proposed that this decrease even further to 10 per day to allow the opportunity for more rest. The problem is that those with sleep apnea, due to the nature of the disorder, can spend a full eight hours in bed and get back behind the wheel as sleepy as if they got only a few hours of sleep.

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A Charlotte, North Carolina man has been charged with murder and with driving while intoxicated after a horrific accident on Sugar Creek Road. According to the Charlotte Observer, Eric Cox, the driver of an SUV ran a red light and struck another vehicle, a white Nissan Altima. The driver of the other vehicle, H’Luon Sin, was pronounced dead at the scene, suffering fatal injuries from the accident. Also in the car with her was her 4-year old son. He was rushed to a local hospital and is currently listed in critical condition. Cox, however, was not injured in the crash at all.

Sin was finishing her shift at a local greenhouse and had just finished picking up her son when she unknowingly crossed paths with Cox. She crossed the street at the intersection right when Cox’s SUV came barreling toward her. He then slammed into the side of Altima.

The judge in Cox’s case set bail at $350,000 after pleas from Cox’s family brought a reduction. Prosecutors were initially requesting a much higher amount, approximately $2 million. Cox had a previous DWI conviction in 2009 and was ordered by a judge to have no more than a 0.04 blood alcohol level. He also had a history of DWIs and other charges.

This case highlights the dangers of drunk driving and how an accident can have criminal consequences. Cox was a veteran and will now possibly spend a significant portion of his life in prison because he chose to get behind the wheel of his SUV while he was seriously impaired.

Even if you are a safe driver and smart enough to not drink and drive, you may not be safe from the bad decisions of others. According to www.dui.lifetips.com, more than 40% of accidents involving fatalities are alcohol-related. Someone is injured in a drunken driving accident every two minutes. All drivers should be on diligent on the road, looking for the classic sign of impaired driving: swerving and swaying between lanes.

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According to WBTV, an off-duty FBI agent was injured in a car accident when a speeding driver careened off the road and barreled into his SUV parked on the side of Interstate 485. In all, three individuals had to receive treatment for their injuries as a result of the reckless North Carolina driver. The driver responsible for the accident was driving a pickup truck and traveling at speeds in excess of 80 M.P.H. in a 65 M.P.H. zone.

Investigators say the driver was attempting to avoid another vehicle when she crashed into the agent’s SUV as it was parked on the shoulder with its blue lights flashing. The driver suffered life threatening injuries and had to be airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center-Main. The driver was accompanied by a passenger who was also injured, though not seriously. Investigators are still trying to discover the cause of the accident. They are attempting to determine whether texting or alcohol was involved.

It seems that the driver of the pickup truck was likely distracted. This is yet more proof of the dangers associated with distracted driving. Distracted driving has become a huge road hazard, enough that the federal government has gotten involved. It has devoted an entire website to telling the world about the dangers of distracted driving. According to http://www.distraction.gov, in 2009, 20% of the crashes that reported injuries involved distracted driving. Of accidents that involved fatalities that number was 16%.

Although the police are not certain what caused the accident in this case, if the driver of the pickup truck was distracted because of something she was doing in the car at the time of the crash, she will likely be liable for the injuries to the agent and her passenger. The FBI agent and the passenger will have a cause of action against her negligence. She failed to exercise due care in the operation of her vehicle. As a driver, she had a duty to ensure that the operation of her vehicle did not interfere with other drivers. Driving while distracted is a textbook example of negligence on the road.

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WNCT reports that a notoriously dangerous curve along Turkey Quarter Creek Road in Cove City, North Carolina has caused several accidents and recently claimed another life. A young girl, Jordan, and her father, Doug, were driving along that road when the tire on their car blew out. Doug lost control of the car and careened off the side of the road. The car landed in a concrete ravine and was obscured such that no one discovered the wreckage for two days. Doug was killed instantly, but Jordan, an incredibly resilient 9-year-old, managed to survive for two days trapped in the car with her dead father. A supply of PopTarts and Gatorade was all she had.

Jordan’s mother, Claudette Leohmann, believes that the accident could have been prevented. This is not the first accident on the dangerous stretch of road. According to Leohmann, there have been at least 20 on the same section of roadway over the past several years. This many accidents should have been sufficient for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to take notice. The DOT now says they are aware of the issue and have begun an investigation into the curve. Leohmann says that it’s too little too late. The lover her life is already gone and her daughter has been scarred by having to endure such a tragedy.

The question now becomes whether anyone can be held responsible for the dangerous curve at Turkey Quarter Creek. If any such claim arises it will be one of negligence on the part of the North Carolina Department of Transportation for failing to make the road safe for drivers. The problem will be in establishing the duty element of any negligence claim.

For a person or entity to be liable for negligence, there must have been a duty owed and a subsequent breach of that duty. There must also be actual and proximate causation and damages. It is unlikely that any North Carolina court would hold that the DOT owed a duty to the first accident victims. However, once it came to the Department of Transportation’s attention that the road posed a special danger to even the safest and most cautious drivers, the failure to do something to remedy the situation may rise to the level of a negligent breach of duty.

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