Atlanta Personal Injury Attorney Blog

In driver's ed, most of us learned to follow four steps before changing lanes: turn on your blinker, check your rear-view mirror, check your side-view mirror, then check your blind spot. Only then can you know that it is safe to move over.

According to a new study by the Society of Automotive Engineers, almost half of us are getting that first step wrong. It found that, when changing lanes, 48 percent of drivers either fail to engage their turn signals or forget to turn them off. When turning, drivers make signal mistakes approximately 25 percent of the time.

Whatever this is - forgetfulness, laziness or something else - it's having a major impact on driving safety. All told, improper blinker use causes about 2 million traffic accidents every year. By comparison, distracted driving causes around 950,000 crashes each year.

So-called "chameleon" truck carriers may have a new reason to follow the rules they have so blatantly ignored. The Interstate Commerce Commission has joined the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in proposing a new information system to keep track of trucking companies shut down for safety violations. This new registration and identification system aims to keep carriers from reinventing themselves in an attempt to thwart enforcement.

Every year, a striking number of trucking companies are shut down for safety violations and simply reopen under a new name. For example, in 2010, carrier Hester Inc. was put out-of-service for failing a compliance review. The president of the company signed a new operating application for different carrier, on which he stated that he had no previous association with a motor carrier. He was not detected.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited a Jackson truck wash with 14 safety and health violations earlier this month. A number of the citations stemmed from concerns that employees could be subject to harmful chemical exposure.

OSHA found that the truck wash operators failed to identify permit-required confined spaces where workers could safely clean out chemical tanks. The truck wash was also cited for failing to provide hazard training regarding exposure to corrosive chemicals. In addition, OSHA found that the operators had failed to provide appropriate respirator protection programs.

A Georgia grandmother and her three grandchildren were hospitalized over the weekend after suffering serious injuries in a car accident on Friday evening.

The grandmother was driving a Honda Civic with one child in the front passenger seat and two in the back seat. As she attempted to turn on to Highway 54, the vehicle was t-boned by a pickup truck.

Witnesses on the scene said that the force of the collision was enough to send the Civic flying through the air. Both side airbags deployed, and the vehicle ended up far off the roadway.