Reckless driving is something that we’ve all seen when on the road. Someone whizzes by, and you think, “Jeez, they’re just asking for an accident.” Inevitably it happens. The high rise in reckless driving will only lead to more accidents, more deaths, and more injuries. For the crash survivors, there is nothing but a long path of struggle in recovering physically, mentally, and financially.
When we’re facing such a wave of destruction, it’s important that you understand the elements involved in these accidents and what it means when you’re facing off against a reckless driver in court. Although it’s clear who was at-fault, you may have trouble getting full compensation without the help of an Atlanta car accident lawyer. What will another driver’s reckless behavior mean for you?
Reckless Accidents and Fatalities
Across the country, city and state police, along with County Sherriff’s offices are overwhelmed with high volumes of speeding tickets. Not just your standard ten or fifteen miles over the limit, we’re talking about substantially more than twenty or even thirty miles over the speed limit. In major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, speeding tickets are up by 30%, and in New York City, speeding tickets doubled from February to March.
Reckless driving, including speeding and even street racing, are up substantially since the shelter-in-place orders. Now that many things are reopening; however, people aren’t backing down from this new dangerous habit. Instead, they’re still driving at exceptionally high speeds while dealing with more traffic congestion, which is only resulting in more accidents and more injuries.
Injuries From Reckless Driving
Among the most common injuries from reckless driving, accidents include whiplash, spinal cord injuries, and brain damage. The force of an impact from reckless driving is often much more severe than other crashes. This likely wasn’t a low-speed impact in a parking lot or a sideswipe when someone was turning onto a road. No, reckless driving accidents may have been an accident, but someone was clearly behaving in a way that was likely to cause severe injuries.
Speeding and racing accidents, in particular, are associated with broken bones, skull fractures, and worse.
What Counts as Reckless Behavior Behind the Wheel?
Reckless driving is already responsible for countless accidents, and speeding is directly responsible for about a third of all fatal accidents. Speeding is one element of reckless driving. But aside from speeding, distracted driving, road rage, DUIs, and tailgating are also reckless behavior. Tailgating is perhaps the least demonized type of reckless driving.
People see tailgating as the only effective way to get the person in front of you to speed up. Now you’ve likely been the victim of tailgating, but there are times when it’s slightly worse than others. For example, someone tailgating you at a stop sign is much less of a risk than someone tailgating on a freeway at high speeds.
Why is Reckless Driving on the Rise?
Part of the issue that came with the rise of reckless driving was the lack of people on the street. When you go from very congested Atlanta streets and freeways to open roads, it calls. People want to just jet down the freeways and get wherever they’re going as fast as possible. Then you have people doing that for a few weeks, and suddenly it feels safe, and traveling slower feels like it’s taking twice as long as usual.
Reckless driving was not born out of the response to COVID-19, but that response certainly fostered a new breed of speedy drivers. These are the people that otherwise would have easily obeyed the speed limit and all other traffic laws. But with no one around the question became, who was at risk? The answer that most people took from this experience was that no one was at risk, but themselves, and that’s not true.
Finding an Atlanta Car Accident Attorney is Easy
Georgia attorneys are readily available and able to help right here at the Law Office of John B. Jackson. Our offices focus on the full resolution, preferably through settlement negotiations, but if necessary, we’ll take your claim with all of your damages to court for a fair resolution. Reckless driving is a vital part of your case, and it’s critical that the person responsible for your crash feel the full repercussions of their behavior.
Find support, guidance, and relief through the Law Office of John B. Jackson. Let our skilled attorneys manage your case while you focus on more important things, such as your physical recovery.
