A bipartisan proposal for a bill called the Stop Underrides Act of 2017 is making its way through Congress. If passed, it will mandate that all commercial trucks install side underride guards. Drivers in Mississippi may be aware that underrides are a frequent outcome of truck accidents. In 2016, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 295 car occupants were killed in side underride crashes, and 238 died in rear underride crashes.

The bill also calls for an updating of rear underride guard regulations, which were established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration back in 1998. The NHTSA, for its part, published a regulatory proposal to upgrade these same regulations in 2015. The goal was to align U.S. standards with Canadian standards, which are stricter. The agency is waiting for research results from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute before it prepares a report.

In the proposed bill, side and rear guards will be required to withstand a collision from a car traveling 35 mph. The IIHS has been conducting crash tests and has recognized truck manufacturers that are taking steps to strengthen its guards.

However, there are concerns that side guards, which weigh approximately 800 pounds each, will reduce gas mileage and the amount of freight that trucks can haul. Replacement and inspection costs also aggravate the problem.

When a side underride crash occurs because the trucker was negligent, the victim, or the family of the victim if he or she was killed or seriously disabled, may be able to file a truck accident claim with the help of a lawyer. The settlement might be high, and the trucking companies may have their own lawyers who will be aggressive in denying payment. A lawyer may hire accident reconstruction experts and other third parties to establish proof of negligence in an effort to secure a favorable outcome for the victim.

If an Uber or Lyft driver causes an accident in Mississippi, injured victims may have recourse. However, they will generally take action against the driver who caused the accident as opposed to the rideshare company. This is because rideshare drivers are generally classified as independent contractors rather than employees. Passengers who are hurt in an accident involving an Uber or Lyft driver are urged to call 911 and document as much about the crash as possible.

In many cases, this will include getting the name of the driver as well as a receipt showing the time and date when the ride took place. If a driver causes the accident while on duty, passenger victims are covered by a $1 million insurance policy. Both Uber and Lyft offer the same type of protection to those who are hurt by their drivers.

It is important to point out that an injured victim would likely sue the driver and then make a claim under the policies offered by Uber and Lyft. However, if a driver is using a vehicle for personal reasons, the policy generally does not cover damages incurred by a victim. The same may be true if a driver is active but does not have a passenger in the vehicle. In Washington and California, policies are active whenever a driver is active on a rideshare app.

Those who are in a car accident caused by a negligent driver may make a claim for medical expenses and other damages. This is generally true whether the driver is using the vehicle for professional or personal reasons. However, if a driver is using a vehicle for work, however, an employer or other parties may be liable for damages as well.

Fatalities on the road are increasing with deadly motor vehicle accidents going up 8 percent in 2015 and over 40,000 deaths in 2016. A car accident involving a person in Mississippi may be caused by one of six common scenarios. One of those is a driver drifting out of the lane or off the road. This accounts for about 33 percent of car accidents.

Rear-ending another driver is another common type of accident. Furthermore, these are not all harmless minor accidents as cars can flip and cause serious injury in this type of accident. Accidents are also caused by drivers who make blind maneuvers such as going around a vehicle too large to see past.

In more than 10 percent of crashes, people lose control of their vehicles. This includes 2 percent of crashes caused by drivers not slowing down on wet surfaces and 5 percent where drivers take turns at a high speed and maneuver aggressively. Driving while drowsy is a major cause of road fatalities with more than 20 percent of fatal crashes happening when a driver falls asleep at the wheel. Finally, coming to a rolling stop causes 6 percent of pedestrian fatalities. This creates a situation in which the driver is simply trying to do too much multitasking and may not see walkers, particularly children who account for 21 percent of those deaths.

Motor vehicle accidents that are not fatal can still lead to catastrophic injuries. People may miss work during recovery while medical expenses mount. It may also be necessary to replace or repair a vehicle after a crash. If another driver causes a person’s injury, that driver should usually pay compensation. However, this does not always happen, or the compensation may be insufficient. A person in this situation might want to file a lawsuit against the driver who caused the accident.

Far fewer Mississippi residents would be killed on the roads if complex intersections in the state were replaced with roundabouts according to a report published on Oct. 30. A research team from the Minnesota Department of Transportation studied how many accidents took place at 144 junctions in the North Star State before and after roundabouts were built, and they discovered that fatalities fell dramatically while property damage crashes soared when traffic circles replaced stop signs and signals.

The findings of the MnDOT team may have been expected by road safety advocacy groups who have long lauded the safety benefits of roundabouts. Deadly accidents occur at intersections when the front of one vehicle traveling at speed strikes the side of another, but roundabouts virtually eliminate T-bone crashes because all of the traffic on them travels in the same direction. Roundabouts also reduce serious collisions by forcing drivers to slow down when entering them.

According to the MnDOT study, fatalities fell by 86 percent after roundabouts were built, but minor accidents that caused only property damage increased by as much as 200 percent. Property damage collisions were highest at roundabouts that feature two lanes of traffic at each approach. While the safety benefits of roundabouts are well established, they have been criticized in some circles because they confuse drivers, are challenging to navigate for tractor-trailer drivers and have been linked with higher pedestrian injury figures.

Accidents at intersections often occur when drivers ignore red lights or stop signs. Police investigations into this kind of collision are sometimes perfunctory when injuries are minor, and experienced personal injury attorneys may conduct additional inquiries to gather the evidence they need to establish liability in car accident lawsuits. These efforts could include canvassing the area for witnesses that may have been overlooked by police and viewing the footage recorded by nearby surveillance and traffic cameras.

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that can usually be detected only by the symptoms it produces. Every year in Mississippi and across the U.S., about 250,000 people are hospitalized, and about 50,000 die because of traumatic brain injuries. Concussions lead about 1.8 million people to the emergency rooms every year while an estimated 2 million either do not seek treatment for their concussions or visit an outpatient clinic.

The danger of concussions, which can include physical disabilities and even death, became widely known in the field of competitive sports, especially football. Issues with members of the Pittsburgh Steelers, in particular, led to the development of many concussion detection tools and technologies.

Concussions are more widespread than sports. For example, military men and women in combat zones often suffer concussions from explosions. Car crash victims, victims of slip and falls, and even people injuring themselves during recreational activities like bicycling are all prone as well.

The awareness that developed in the sports field has trickled down to other areas. For instance, the auto industry has, over the years, reduced the number of injuries and fatalities through technologies like airbags, anti-lock brakes and traction control.

Concussions are a common result of car accidents, and the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome can affect daily life and work. Those who are injured through a driver’s negligence may wish to see a lawyer; he or she can consult with accident investigators and medical professionals to determine just how much the other driver will be liable for. A settlement might cover not only medical bills but also future medical care for long-term symptoms. A lawyer may be able to negotiate with the other driver’s insurance company for the settlement or litigate if negotiations are unsatisfactory.