Atlanta Injury Law Blog

Many people in Georgia are deeply troubled by the growing number of traffic fatalities found on the roads. This is far from a local concern, however; global health experts at the World Health Organization have identified traffic-related deaths as a major worldwide problem. Across the globe, motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 5 and 29. Across all age groups, crashes are the eighth most common cause of death, outstripping HIV and tuberculosis on the list of fatal global health concerns. In 2016 alone, 1.35 million people lost their lives in car crashes, a statistic cited by the WHO in its 2018 Global Status Report on Road Safety.

The WHO urged countries to beef up their programs to improve roadway safety, identifying traffic fatalities as a major concern. It noted that the United Nations' goal of reducing collision deaths by half between 2016 and 2020 is unlikely to be achieved. However, the WHO also said that while the number of fatalities is growing in the absolute, the death rate in terms of the world population has remained stable. For the past 15 years, that rate has hovered at around 18 traffic deaths per 100,000 people.

Car accidents are a common cause of injuries in Georgia and around the country. Data from the National Safety Council suggests that states are falling short on collecting information about the causes of most crashes. Police reports may contain inadequate or inaccurate information about the incidents.

The study found that no state police report forms contained sections to record information about driver fatigue. All 50 state reports lacked fields to record information about driver-assistance technology. Cellphone data is also inadequate - 26 state forms lacked fields about texting while driving and 32 lacked fields to record information about hands-free cellphone use.

The purpose of the guidelines enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to keep workers in Georgia and other parts of the nation as safe as possible. During an annual National Safety Council Congress event, OSHA officials revealed their 2018 list of the most common workplace violations. The majority of issues that warranted citations involved fall hazards and failure to provide sufficient safety-related training.

While OSHA didn't factor workers' compensation claims into their stats, many of the common violations are ones that often lead to serious injuries and missed days of work. Failure to provide fall protection tops the list. According to OSHA's deputy director, issues of this nature typically involve insufficient fall protection for roofers and other contractors who normally work from significant heights. No. 2 on the list was hazard communication. More than 4,500 communication citations were issued because of failure to inform employees at places like auto facilities about potential workplace hazards.

Georgia residents who frequently find themselves driving in urban areas or alongside large trucks should learn about what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has discovered about 2017 car crash trends. It turns out that there was a decrease in every type of fatal accident except large truck crashes and wrecks in urban areas.

The total number of traffic fatalities went down nearly 2 percent with pedestrian deaths, in particular, decreasing for the first time in five years. Fatal crashes involving vans, light pickup trucks and bicycles saw a significant decrease of 5.8, 4.5 and 8.1 percent respectively. Speeding-related deaths went down by 5.6 percent. Preliminary estimates show that the first six months of 2018 continue this downward trend.