May 28, 2018

Don’t Wave Me In!

Written By Andy Cogbill

Waving people in through stopped traffic, or driving through traffic when someone waves you in, creates a dangerous situation and can easily result in a crash. If you’ve been driving for very long, you’ve probably encountered this situation. You’ve just come through a light and you’re coming up to a left turn. Traffic on the other side of the road is backed up to the intersection from the light you’ve just come through. A driver in the opposite lane can’t go through the intersection, so they stop and don’t block the intersection – leaving a space for you to turn in. Should you make the turn? The stopped driver is waving you through, does that change anything?

Whether you make the turn depends on traffic and visibility. If you can see that there is no oncoming traffic, or that all oncoming traffic is stopped you can safely make the turn. You have to keep in mind that oncoming traffic has the right of way, regardless of whether someone is waving at you. The law requires the person making the left turn to yield to oncoming traffic. If a collision occurs you will most likely be found at fault for failing to yield – regardless of the person waving.                                  

The fact that the other driver is waving you through shouldn’t change your decision making on the turn, but it often does. People feel rushed to turn quickly while they have the chance, some may feel pressured to turn by the person waving, or they assume the other driver has checked traffic. Unfortunately, these feelings don’t make the turn any safer, and in fact tend to pressure the person turning to rush. Who knows whether the person waving has checked other traffic, they could be waving at a fly in their car. This can create a dangerous situation, particularly when turning across multiple lanes of traffic. The turning driver may be safe crossing in front of the driver waving – but a vehicle coming up in the far lane unseen can result in a bad crash.

As traffic gets busier in Fort Mill, Rock Hill, and particularly Charlotte, following the rules of the road becomes even more important. The rules of the road – yield to oncoming traffic with the right-of-way, stop at signs and signals, don’t follow too closely, and so forth – are designed to keep us safer on the roads and to let us predict what other drivers will do.  These rules are even more important with busy traffic because busy traffic means less time to make decisions, less visibility, and less room for error. When someone waves at you to come through stopped traffic remember you don’t have the right-of-way. Look for yourself, take your time and be sure that turning is safe – don’t rely on the other driver waving you through.

If you see me out there on the road, feel free to wave, but please don’t be offended if I just wait for traffic to clear.

 

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May 21, 2018

Coming Soon to a Car Near You?

Written By Andy Cogbill

In the news, you may periodically hear about testing on self-driving cars or trucks, but how soon can you expect to start seeing self-driving cars on the road near you? While it will depend on how testing on automated safety features goes, there are strong arguments that it will be as soon as possible. According to Department of Transportation statistics, 94% of serious crashes are due to human error[1], and if that number can be reduced, then there would be a corresponding reduction in deaths and serious injuries due to motor vehicle crashes[2].

The Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration predicts some time after 2025 for fully self-driving vehicles. In the meantime, driver assistance safety features like Rearview Cameras, Automatic Emergency Braking, and Blind Spot Alerts are becoming more available in a greater price range of vehicles. More manufacturers are starting to test partially automated safety features like Adaptive Cruise Control, Self-Parking, and sensors that allow the car to help the driver maintain their lane in vehicles on the market and not just in the lab.            

For example, Mazda has said that nearly all of their 2018 model vehicles will have forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking as standard safety equipment. Once one manufacturer starts to provide safety systems as features rather than options, other manufacturers often find themselves under a lot of pressure to do the same or risk being left behind by car buyers.

Newer technologies take greater advantage of more powerful computers and sensors able to be installed on vehicles. Rather than making vehicles stronger and more able to survive a crash, the goal with these technologies is to make a vehicle more able to assist a driver in avoiding a crash in the first place. Car manufacturers still have a way to go to reach truly self-driving cars, and 2025 may be an optimistic guess as to when they will hit the market. That being said, I believe we can expect to see more emphasis on automated safety features as standard equipment on new cars and steady progress towards fully self-driving cars in the not-too-distant future.

[1] See https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety

[2] That same website cites a statistic that 37,461 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, so approximately 35,213 of those deaths were due to human error. If new standard safety features could reduce human error crashes by even 10%, that would save over 3,500 lives each year.

 

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May 14, 2018

Thomas Jefferson’s Failure

Written By Brian R Murphy

Joy and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Monticello last May. Monticello is Thomas Jefferson’s plantation home in Virginia. Joy and I were in awe of this American landmark. However, we were also struck by competing emotions. One is reverence at being on the grounds of one of our Founding Fathers. The other is a much more ominous emotion.

It is obvious why Jefferson chose this spot to build his mansion. The view is one of the most amazing I have ever seen. The house is situated on top of a mountain, overlooking miles and miles of the country. The grounds are beautiful. The house is inspiring. However, slavery’s  impact on this place and in the building of our nation smacked me in the face.

How can someone write about the equality of all people while being a source of great cruelty? There is no other conclusion one can reach but to condemn Thomas Jefferson as a hypocrite. The non-profit that runs Monticello doesn’t sugar coat how slaves were treated. They point out this treatment and let Monticello’s visitors experience and reflect on those hypocrisies.

I began to consider whether Jefferson’s understood and battled his hypocrisy. I wondered if Jefferson concluded that his words should define a fundamental truth we could all work towards. That gave me hope: That even in the face of our own failings, we can look forward and see positive change. We all face hypocrisy in our lives. Our hope is that our failures can ignite growth.

Thomas Jefferson defined a fundamental truth that he failed to uphold. However, his words inspired generations of positive change.

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May 3, 2018

We Have Moved!

Written By Frank Bentley

I am pleased to announce that we have officially moved into our new office!

We have been bursting at the seams and in need of more space for a long time. We are finally able to say we are “home.” No more telling people to “park in this lot, then come in this door, then find the elevator, go to the third floor, take a right out of the elevator and come to the last door on the right.”

Now we can say “Come to 1926 India Hook Road in Rock Hill.” It just rolls off the tongue.

We understand that some of our clients may enjoy meeting with us in Fort Mill and we do still have that option; however, we want to welcome everyone to come visit our lovely main office in Rock Hill.

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April 30, 2018

Distracted Driving: Are We Making Progress?

Written By Frank Bentley

So all month I have been writing and researching distracted driving. I truly hope this helps to shine a light on how important this topic is to lots of people in the area.

While distracted driving continues to be an enormous problem, one promising statistic from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) indicates that more people are recognizing the dangers:

  • Distraction-related deaths decreased by 2.2% over 2015

When people see this statistic, I hope they pat themselves on the back, but remember that we still need to carefully consider our driving behaviors in all areas.

  • 3,450 people died due to distracted driving in 2016
  • 803 people died due to drowsy-driving in 2016
  • 10,497 people died due to drunk-driving in 2016
  • 10,111 people died due to speeding-related accidents in 2016
  • 10,428 people died due to being unbelted in a vehicle in 2016
  • 5,286 people died on motorcycles (the most since 2008) in 2016
  • 5,987 people died as pedestrians in 2016
  • 840 people died while bicycling on our roads in 2016

47,402 lives could have been saved with just a little bit of work.

Are you treating our roads with the respect they need?

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April 23, 2018

How Bad is Texting and Driving?

Written By Frank Bentley

After last week’s blog I was told that I really should have included some statistics on how texting and driving actually stacks up against driving under the influence. As a result, I scoured the internet and got some solid information about how bad texting and driving is for our country.

Something you should keep in mind is that it takes years for the Departments of Transportation in the various states to compile the information and make it available to the public, so all of the numbers below are based on the newest available information.

  • In 2014, 26% of all car crashes involved cell phone use.
  • In 2015, 391,000 people were injured by distracted driving.
  • In 2015, 42% of teens said they had texted while driving.
  • In 2016, 3450 people were killed by distracted driving.
  • At least 9 people are killed every day because of a distracted driver.
  • More than 1,000 people are injured every day due to a distracted driver.
  • Texting and driving is the leading cause of death in teens.

Distracted driving is a very important topic and the numbers don’t lie. Last week’s blog talked about the laws and what happens if you are caught texting vs drinking and driving. Do you think the statistics and the laws are balanced?  Do the laws regarding distracted driving make it important to the drivers to follow the safety rule?

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April 16, 2018

Making a Law is NOT Enough

Written By Frank Bentley

In South Carolina, it is illegal to text and drive. It is also illegal to drive while under the influence(DUI) of a substance. These two items are similar in that they both result in death and injury on our roadways. But they are extremely dissimilar in their punishments.

In South Carolina, if you are pulled over for texting the fine is $25 for one offense and $50 for every subsequent offense. That’s it. The consequence NEVER gets any worse than a $50 fine.

In South Carolina if you are pulled over for DUI there are lots repercussions:

1st Offense:

  • Loss of drivers license between 6 months and INDEFINITE
  • $400 fine
  • Possible 2-30 days in jail
  • Possible 48 hours in jail

2nd Offense:

  • INDEFINITE loss of drivers license
  • $2100-$5100 fine
  • Minimum 5 days in jail
  • Maximum 1 year in jail

3rd Offense:

  • INDEFINITE loss of drivers license
  • $3800-6300 fine
  • Minimum 60 days in jail
  • Maximum 3 years in jail

4th and subsequent Offense:

  • Fine determined by the court
  • Minimum 1 year in jail
  • Maximum 5 years in jail

The blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) needed to be considered a DUI is 0.08% or higher, but that number goes to 0.02% if you are less than 21 years old. Basically we put a higher standard on those that we don’t believe should be drinking.

When I read these punishments I was amazed that we don’t classify these problems in the same way. Technology that allows for texting and driving has been around for much less time than drinking and driving has been, but if we are serious about changing the problem, maybe we should put some real penalties in place.

What do you think?

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April 9, 2018

Distracted Driving 2018:

Written By Brian R. Murphy

We are continuing our message around distracted driving month. We thought that we would update an article I wrote in 2016 about distracted driving. Hopefully it helps shed some light on why this is such an important topic for our society!

Erica Forney, 9

Erica Forney was a 9 year old riding her bike around her neighborhood. She was killed by her neighbor who looked down at her cell phone. Here is Erica's story as told by her mother.

Casey Feldman, 21

Casey Feldman was killed by a distracted driver as she was crossing the street in a crosswalk in Ocean City, New Jersey. Here is Casey's story as told by her friends and family.

John Sligting, 56

John Sligting was killed by a teenage driver who was talking on her cell phone, rolled though a stop sign, and hit John's motorcycle. Here is John's story as told by his daughter.

Ashley Johnson, 16

Ashley Johnson was killed when she lost control of her vehicle, crossed the center line, and hit another car head-on. She was texting at the time of the crash. Here is Ashley's story as told by her father.

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April 2, 2018

Should Distracted Driving Be a Crime?

Written By Frank Bentley

            This month at the Brian R Murphy Law Firm we have decided to discuss the growing epidemic of distracted driving. April is Distracted Driving Month. What better way to use our voice online than by painting a picture of where our society is when it comes to distracted drivers and their impact on all of us?

            The question that came up in my research this month was “Can we really call distracted driving crashes ‘accidents’?” On the surface it seems like a simple question. If you are in a crash then it’s got to be an accident, right? What if that person purposefully stopped looking at the road and started to look at their phone? What if they were putting on makeup while going 80mph down the interstate? What if they were eating and barely holding on to the steering wheel?

            The more I thought about this problem the more I realized that I don’t understand why this is even a question. In 2015, there were 101,000 more injuries caused by distracted driving vs. drunk driving. Now think a minute: If you were the cause of a wreck while using your cell phone and someone was hurt how would you think about yourself? How would your friends react? Would they even know you were on the phone when it happened? Now do the same questions, but this time instead of being distracted you were drunk.

            In all states drunk driving will immediately land you in jail even if you didn’t hurt anyone. In almost no states are the same rules applied to distracted driving. You may get a ticket, and the civil case against you may be hard to win, but usually you are not going to jail. Is this right?

            Our society makes lots of decisions on what can be legal and what can’t be, what constitutes a crime and what doesn’t, what is right and what is wrong. I guess the question we should all be asking ourselves is: If we are injuring people 100,000 instances more than drinking and driving, is that ok?

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March 28, 2018

Accessible Parking and Why I Don’t Park There

Written By Frank Bentley

So, the short answer to why I don’t park in accessible parking spaces is simple:

Because it’s the right thing to do.

The long answer is this:

Almost 30 years ago one of the most important civil rights laws was passed and signed into law. This law made it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities. Now, I’m sure you are asking yourself “How does a parking space discriminate against someone?”  While it may be different than the usual way we think about discrimination, the root of the problem comes down to segregation.

Most people will not think that giving certain people a “better” parking space has anything to do with segregation, but I would challenge you to think about inclusion. We as a society have the ability to choose who we include in our activities. I feel that people with disabilities have a hard time including themselves in public activities.

People with impairments can be challenged and intimidated by the simple acts of going to the mall for shopping or going to a sporting event for recreation. The Americans with Disabilities Act mandated that we include more people into our day to day lives. However, I see daily acts that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act that prohibit people from being included.

How many times have you witnessed people parking in the blue spot to run into a store, or quickly drop something off, or just because it was more convenient. The blue spaces are mandated so a conversion van has enough room to lower a ramp, so that someone who uses crutches is not totally worn out by the time they get to the front door, and to assist parents who are helping children learning to walk many years after they were supposed to.

In 2012 there were 647,000 people in the state of South Carolina with a disability. That’s almost 14% of the population. I’d challenge you to look around the stores you visit, the events you attend, and churches where you worship and consider if 1 out of 10 people with you have a disability. In my experience, people with disabilities love all those activities the same way you do, but it’s just too hard for them to get out and do these things.

As a result, I’m going to do anything I can to make life a little more inclusive. I hope you will too!

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