Phoenix-Mesa, AZ Personal Injury Blog

The holidays can be a wonderful time to catch up with family and friends - but it's also considered among one of the most dangerous times of the year to travel by car as well.

With so numerous motorists on the road, there are many dangers that are associated with holiday travel. Factor in higher alcohol consumption and it gets even more dangerous.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Thanksgiving is the most deadly holiday for travelers. It may be surprising to some that it is not New Year's Eve or Christmas.

While not the deadliest, Christmas and New Year's are two holidays that see a massive increase in the number of automobile accidents, especially since alcohol consumption is often a huge part of these celebrations. This can make for dangerous road conditions and even more accidents than on any other single day. Nearly half of all fatalities on New Year's Eve involve alcohol. According to a Forbes report, Christmas day is the fifth most dangerous holiday with an average of 414 deaths per year since 1982.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance recently partnered with the Arizona Trucking Association to put on Safe Driver Week in Arizona. A large number of both commercial and passenger vehicles traveling on interstate highways were inspected during the middle of October. Highway patrol officers and ATA staff also taught safety courses warning of the causes and dangers of distracted driving.

During the campaign, patrol officers inspected over 1,400 commercial vehicles and issued 224 citations. In addition, 12 percent of the inspected commercial vehicles were taken out of service as well as 14 percent of the drivers.

Being in a car accident brings all manner of physical, emotional and financial stress. If another driver caused the accident and he or she does not carry auto insurance, the stress can rise quickly.

No driver should be without insurance. Indeed, Arizona law requires drivers to carry minimal auto insurance. Unfortunately, however, not all drivers abide by the law, and this can leave the victims of those drivers without traditional methods of recovery.

Distracted driving - which occurs when people take their hands off of their steering wheels, take their eyes off of the road or think about something other than driving - is increasingly becoming a problem on America's roads. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, someone is killed in a distracted driving related accident every 23 seconds.

Distracted Driving and Employers

The cost of distracted driving is not just personal. Over the years, accidents caused by distracted driving have become the number one reason for occupational fatalities - and for this reason, companies needs to take this trend seriously.

Data included in Transportation for America's 2011 Dangerous by Design report reveals that 19 of the 20 most-dangerous cities for pedestrians are in the southern U.S. Nationwide, there are an average of 1.6 deaths for every 100,000 walkers caused by pedestrian-car accidents.

Comparing the number of pedestrians who die in motor-vehicle crashes to the number of people who walk, Transportation for America calculated the Pedestrian Danger Index for 52 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale region ranks 8th-highest on the Pedestrian Danger Index.

The organization also found that men are more likely than women to die in pedestrian accidents, and people over age 65 die at twice the rate of their younger counterparts.

A pedestrian is injured every nine minutes and is killed every two hours in the United States, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

In 2003, the highway safety agency reported that about one in five pedestrian fatalities was linked to hit-and-run drivers, and hit-and-runs represented 18 percent of all pedestrian deaths. Unsafe or distracted drivers are placing walkers, joggers and runners at risk when sharing our roadways.

The case involving Jose DeJesus Padilla-Rodriquez illustrates just how gruesome and tragic a hit-and-run accident can be.

On June 19, 2011, two men were heading home after leaving a bar in Mesa, Arizona. A green Toyota Celica, traveling eastbound on the West Broadway Road, hit the two men. The Celica driver did not stop. One man was killed and another was severely injured. The impact was so forceful that the dead man's leg was torn from his body and was later found 160 feet from the point of impact on the roof of a storage facility. The car was later found, and the driver, Padilla-Rodriquez, age 23, was arrested on two felony counts of failure to stop at a serious injury or fatal collision as well as two felony counts of failure to remain at a serious injury or fatal collisions.

Most teens see summer as a period of freedom, including the freedom to drive aimlessly with their friends. Unfortunately, statistics show that this is also a very dangerous period for teen drivers.

Parents can take an active role in educating their teens about the dangers of summertime driving and provide some tips on staying safe.

Dangers for Young Arizona Drivers in the Summer Months

The months between Memorial Day and Labor Day are some of the riskiest for teen drivers. With car crashes causing more teen deaths than violence, suicide, drugs and alcohol combined, it is little wonder that the lazy days of summer can produce alarming rates of injury and death.

In addition to being relatively new drivers, teenagers may take risks that older adults would not. Teens are also vulnerable to distracted driving and may not have the experience to know when to turn off the media devices that demand their attention.

People often think of personal injury law as a matter of plaintiffs seeking damages for harm that results from negligence that causes accidents. But intentional acts, including criminal attacks, are also subject to civil litigation when they cause injuries or wrongful death.

Such is the case with a Michigan college student who recently filed a lawsuit against employees of an Ann Arbor nightclub. Geoff Gaylor alleges that he was left unconscious on the street with a traumatic brain injury and severe cuts to his head after they threw him out of The Fifth Quarter in early February. The bouncers, Timothy Phillips and Dominik Gumul, are facing trial after being charged with aggravated assault and assault and battery for the incident