Athens Car Accident Lawyer Warns Georgians to Drive Carefully This Memorial Weekend

Athens accident attorney, Michael Terrell, warns Georgians to drive carefully this Memorial Day weekend.  Many of you probably spent last night or this afternoon packing your car in anticipation of the season's first trip to the beach or some other getaway destination.  The kids were then loaded into the car with the latest DVD of Bolt, or Cars to entertain them.  And now the countdown is on to see how far you can get before you have to stop for your first bathroom break. 

Memorial Weekend is a great weekend, but please be careful.  Historically, Memorial Day Weekend is among the worst traveling weekends for car wrecks and auto accidents, ranking third behind only Thanksgiving and July 4th.  Here in Georgia, State Troopers and public safety personnel are making their preparations for what will certainly be a busy weekend.  In particular, our finest will be looking for seatbelt violations and impaired drivers.

The Georgia State Patrol estimates that as many as 2,275 traffic crashes resulting in 875 injuries and 18 deaths could occur in the 78-hour period beginning Friday at 6 PM and ending at Midnight on Memorial Day.

In 2008 the Memorial Day travel period produced 2,480 traffic accidents which resulted in 721 injuries and 14 fatalities.  Of the car wrecks producing wrongful deaths, alcohol and failure to wear seatbelts were significant contributing factors.  Five deaths were attributed to alcohol intoxication more commonly referred to as DUI.  One death was related to illicit drugs (also considered a DUI) and four deaths involved victims not wearing seatbelts.

I have written about 10 of the most common mistakes drivers make that contributed to traffic accidents.  Among the most common are failure to maintain lane (or swerving), speeding or reckless driving, and driving while intoxicated.  The article can be found here: Most Lethal Driving Mistakes That Cause Auto Accident Injuries