Murfreesboro Auto Accident Blog

If you're attending a four-year degree university in Tennessee, you'll likely encounter numerous academic and personal challenges as you work toward earning your diploma. College life can be exciting, stressful, memorable and a bit frightening at times. If it's the first time you've ever been away from home, you might feel homesick for a while, but such feelings may greatly subside once you settle into a routine and become acquainted with a new group of friends.

The latter can be a great source of encouragement and support in college. Depending on which friends you choose, it can also lead to some serious legal problems, especially if you're hanging out with a party crowd. There are several reasons many college students drink. Careful consideration ahead of time can help you stay safe and prevent legal trouble, as well, especially concerning possible criminal charges for driving under the influence of alcohol.

As spring approaches, many Tennessee drivers look forward to hitting the open road on their motorcycles. Along with the newfound freedom they enjoy, they also face additional risks from drivers who are not used to sharing the road with motorcyclists. According to the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security, the rate of fatalities from motorcycle accidents has increased since 1998, and 134 people were killed in 2017 alone. The Tennessee Highway Safety Office estimates there were 357 crashes involving motorcycles in 2017.

A large part of keeping motorcyclists safe on the road is teaching truck and car drivers how to safely watch for them. Drivers can follow a few simple rules to help avoiding accidents with motorcyclists. First, they can abide by the 4-second rule, which requires drivers to stay at least 4 seconds behind a motorcycle. This provides a cushion for reaction if the unexpected occurs.

Taxi services and ridesharing options are prevalent in many parts of Tennessee as they are all throughout the United States. While convenient, people do have to place a large amount of trust in their driver to follow traffic laws and drive responsibly in order to get them to their destination safely and efficiently. However, there are times when due to human error, a commercial vehicle driver may make a mistake that compromises the safety of his or her passengers. 

This is what happened in Iowa when a taxi accident claimed the life of one passenger and left another seriously injured. An initial investigation into the accident found that the taxi driver was not sober when the vehicle he was driving abruptly left the roadway and crashed. Immediately following the accident, a trial was suspended because the driver was found to be incompetent. After another analysis at a later time, he was found to be competent and a new trial date was set. In response to the multiple charges the driver was facing, he was recently sentenced to serve nearly 20 years in prison. He is set to be transferred to the facility where he will serve his sentence in the next several weeks.

Of all the different ways to increase safety while riding on a motorcycle, from checking your motorcycle brakes to taking bike riding courses, the idea that the clothes you wear can make you safer might seem out of the ordinary. Yet the wrong set of clothes could make your motorcycle ride more hazardous or even deadly. There are a number of reasons why you as a Tennessee motorcyclist should watch what you wear.

Consumer Reports cautions that wearing loose, non weather resistance clothing like a T-shirt, jeans and sandals can end up causing disaster for you on your bike. These garments do little to protect you from a wind chill or debris that may fly your way on the wind. You can also be exposed to bugs, which is not something many motorists notice on the road since they ride in sheltered vehicles. Yet if insects hit you in an exposed area at a high speed, they can hurt and possibly distract you as you are riding.