I met a corpse* today.
Knoxville man killed in single-vehicle wreck
A Knoxville man was killed in a single-vehicle crash along Gov. John Sevier Highway this afternoon, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
James S. Hazenfield, 25, died when his 2006 Nissan Pathfinder veered off the eastbound lanes of Gov. John Sevier Highway, also known as state Highway 168, shortly before 3 p.m., jumped a small embankment, struck a guardrail and then, while still airborne, struck a tree as well, according to the THP incident report. The SUV continued down the embankment before it came to a final rest.
The victim was wearing a seat belt at the time, the report states. Blood tests for drugs and alcohol were requested as a matter of routine procedure.
More detail as they develop online and in Friday’s News Sentinel.
*The purpose of this word is to shock the conscience into consciousness. No disrespect intended. It's the opinion of the Dragonater that all 40,000 annual highway death photos be published, for the purpose of reducing the number of deaths. Same for faces of death from the 1-million murders by medical malpractice per year, plus the 10-million medical abortions per year in USA.
I respectfully request that you remove the statement, “I met a corpse today" from your blog on November 18, 2010. That corpse was my brother, Stewart, and he is terribly missed. I appreciate your interest in posting information on less than adequate safety measures on our roadways. In fact, had a more substantial guardrail been present, he may have been injured, at best, since he was wearing his seat belt. Also, had the grassy shoulder been maintained to be an even surface, his car may not have been launched in the first place. The police report states that he veered off the road, hit a dip or divot of some kind, became airborne, and then made contact with the guardrail. The guardrail tipped his vehicle’s windshield in direct line of the tree which is now obliterated. He was killed instantly and was so badly injured, that we were not allowed to see him. In short, I wish you the best in helping to make road travel safer for all, but hope that blogs regarding fatalities can be addressed with sensitivity.
Thank you for your time,
Audra Hazenfield Huffstetler
I was forced to see your brother in a body bag on a gurney on the side of the highway. I wanted to know who this corpse was, so I googled. Your objection is duly noted, but in the interest of improving highway safety for those who don't know the victim, the "shocking" word shall remain. Thank you for your input. Sorry for your loss. Drive safe.
As for safer guardrails, I didn't find any designs that are high enough (triple rail) to prevent an SUV from climbing over them. It appears it's time for TDOT to design one.
Folks need to know that SUVs are very unstable compared to cars, and no vehicles have adequate "roll cage" protection. Look at the roll cage in any racecar to see what's required for safety, and even that requires wearing a helmet and neck-stabilization (Hans Device). Maybe its time to require all highway drivers to wear helmets, as currently required for all motorcyclists and bicyclists in Tennessee?
Boring road kills driver, public demands Police State target SUVs
Sorry no action photos by The Dragonater, I'd already had my fill of investigation for the day, and local PR, er, "news" corporations don't pay stringers for real news. Did you know that Blount County does NOT control the speed limit on the Dragon, Knoxville does?
It appears that the proximate cause of the fatal crash was the single-layer "guard" rail acting like a launching rail. Although this is a new state-of-the-art guardrail, it may still be defective according to traffic engineering standards. Does DOT's US DOT Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices require a double guardrail at the point of impact?
The car was invisible in a ravine on a straight highway. No obvious skid marks. Saw a large rescue op at 3 pm, THP, FD, Rural Metro, Floyds Wrecker. Zero sense of urgency. Passed again at 6 pm and they had the corpse in a body bag on a gurney, on the shoulder of the road. Zero sense of urgency.
Was the cause of death another slow response by Rural Metro Taxi Service, with trigger-puller cops refusing to provide first aid? Loss of concentration on a boring straight highway? Dodging a lane-crosser? Cell phone? Texting? Tire blowout? Deer attack? 4x4s can easily climb a single-row "guard" rail.
At least Rural Metro's stock went up today. Glad to hear the Euro owners are makin Euros on their trillion dollars. I guess charging $4,500 per mile really adds up.
The Dragonater is banned forever from posting these facts at Knoxville News Sentinel propaganda rag, whose owners Mr Scripps and Mr Howard perform snuff kiddie porn to Satan and run around naked holding Georgie Bush's penis at Bohemian Grove homosexual nudist compound.
$31.3 Million for Dangerous and Out-of-Date Guardrails
14 January 2009
Philadelphia, PA: In a unanimous decision last fall, a jury awarded a young man almost $32 million after he was permanently injured in a car accident. It may be one of the largest verdicts ever recorded for a motor vehicle accident case in the Superior Court of New Jersey but attorney John Dodig says considering the injuries suffered and the negligence involved, his client deserved every cent of it. “It is a lot of money, but the jury felt it was fair compensation and I couldn’t agree more,” he says.
Three years before, when Nicholas Anderson was just 18, he was driving down a county road when he was forced to swerve to avoid a head-on collision with a car that had wandered into his lane. A drop off in the pavement grabbed the car and smashed it into the end of metal safety guardrail.
That safety guardrail pierced the cabin of his vehicle and severed his leg. “He is only 22 now,” says Dodig. “He has had 34 surgeries and already has had medical bills close to $3 million. His right leg was severed at the scene of the accident and he will soon have one of his arms amputated.”
Nicholas Anderson will need another $15 million for medical services in the years
to come. The remainder of the $32 million is for Anderson’s pain and suffering—the loss of life’s pleasures and the embarrassment and disfigurement that the he will endure for the rest of his life.
The jury found that the County of Camden, NJ had failed in its duty to repair the highway and a safety guardrail it knew was out-of-date and dangerous and should have been able to foresee the potential damage that could result.
Dodig argued first that the highway was hazardous. “There was a 6 inch drop off at the edge of the pavement – that is what caused my client’s car to go off the road in the first place,” says Dodig.
However, the biggest problem was the safety guardrail that Camden County knew could cause injuries in a crash. “That guardrail was dangerous because it was not up to code. In fact, it was 30 to 40 years out of code,” says Dodig. “It didn’t have any of the current safety features and it acted like a spear when it impacted with the driver’s compartment.”
During the trial Camden County admitted that it had a policy not to bring guardrails up to code unless they were specifically involved in an accident. “Then it would go after the driver who hit the guardrail and use their insurance money to bring the guardrail up to code,” says Dodig. “I don’t think the jury was impressed with that testimony.”
There are highways in poor states of repair and similar out-of-date safety guardrails on highways across the US. Since the Nicholas Anderson case, Dodig has heard from a number people about accidents with road guardrails. “Yes, there are a lot of cases out there,” says Dodig. “But since the verdict, New Jersey is doing a better job.”
Dodig has successfully obtained a number of eight figure verdicts for victims of motor vehicle accidents, medical negligence, product liability, consumer class actions and civil rights cases during his career.
John Dodig is a partner in the firm of Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernt
Tanner, Weinstock & Dodig in Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University and his law degree from Nova University. He also received an LLM in Trial Advocacy from Temple University. In 2004, he was awarded the President’s Award by the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, in recognition of his work protecting the rights of innocent victims and maintaining their access to the court system.
US DOT Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices 2009 Edition
TDOT Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices 2008 Edition - These rules shall govern the design and location of all signs, signals, markings and postings of traffic regulations on or along all streets and highways in the State of Tennessee, and no signs, signals, markings or postings of traffic regulations shall be located on any street or highway in the State of Tennessee regardless of type or class of the governmental agency having jurisdiction thereof except in conformity with the current edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), as adopted in these rules. The current edition of the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, 2003 Edition, is hereby adopted in its entirety and incorporated herein by reference. It is the intent of the Tennessee Department of Transportation to amend these rules as necessary to adopt future revisions of the MUTCD as may hereafter be approved by the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. The provisions of the MUTCD set forth the basic principles that govern the design and usage of the most commonly used highway signs. Detailed specifications for the layout of these signs are provided in the latest edition of the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Standard Highway Signs, which is incorporated by reference in the MUTCD. The Tennessee Department of Transportation authorizes the design and usage of the signs in the Tennessee Supplement to Standard Highway Signs. Signs on any street or highway open to public travel in the State of Tennessee shall be fabricated, installed and used in accordance with the specifications of the current edition of Standard Highway Signs and/or, for signs erected on state highways, the Tennessee Supplement to Standard Highway Signs.
TDOT Traffic Design Manual - Limited info on guardrails
South Dakota Road Design Manual - This manual consolidates road design policies, standards, and procedures in a convenient reference for designers and plan recipients. Designers and other users will follow the policies, standards, and procedures described in this manual. Huge guardrail section in Chapter 10 Roadside Safety: BARRIER TYPES: A barrier or guardrail is a device which provides a physical limitation to shield roadside obstacles or nontraverseable terrain features. It is intended to contain or redirect an errant vehicle. Steel beam guardrail should not be installed on a slope steeper than a 10:1. The MGS system is a W beam system where the splices are located between posts and the wood blockouts are deeper (horizontally, normal to the rail). The height would be at the same height as thrie beam guardrail. This system has more height tolerance than traditional W Beam. Double W-guardrail Figure 1a Attachment
Guardrail Transitions - US DOT Federal Highway Administration. Nationwide, most bridge guardrail transitions consist of a semi-rigid W-beam connecting to a rigid bridge rail. Some of these guardrail transitions have been recently crash tested in accordance with the guidelines in "National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 230." The initial test results were unsatisfactory, marginal or inconclusive. Common elements of the failed systems included the following: (1) A vertical concrete face or the toe of a concrete safety shape barrier which came in contact with the vehicle wheel resulted in snagging. (2) Inadequate guardrail stiffening (such as standard guardrail posts at 3 foot, 1½-inch spacing) resulted in substantial deflection of guardrail and subsequent snagging or poor redirection of the vehicle. Almost all existing W-beam guardrail systems that connect directly to a bridge rail without adequate blockouts or a rubrail near the bridge connection should be considered unsatisfactory because they can result in vehicle snagging, which in turn can contribute to a catastrophic accident. Not only are these hazardous transitions between the guardrail and bridge rail common, but many State standards still detail the transition without adequate blockouts, rubrail, or other features.
TDOT Region 1 - Strawberry Plains HQ
Day on Torts -- The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices defines the standards used by road managers and contractors nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all streets and highways. The MUTCD is published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under 23 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 655, Subpart F. The MUTCD has been adopted as the law in Tennessee; violation of the MUTCD is negligence per se. If you have a case that involves an injury or death at a road construction site you will want to consult this manual to determine if the contractors involved followed the minimum standards established by this manual. The manual also applies to governmental entities and others placing road signs. Tennessee's supplement to the MUTCD, "Rules for Guide Signs on Freeways, Expressways and Conventional Highways", was adopted July, 2005. The Tennessee supplement is found in Chapter 1680-03-02 of the state rules and regulations. Be sure to check this site to find the addition rules applying to contractors working in Tennessee. I have been using the MUTCD in my practice for almost 20 years, and it is my perception that the standards have been weakened over the years to make it more difficult to use the standards against contractors and governmental entities in litigation. However, the MUTCD still sets the minimum standard, and therefore any research in this field needs to start with this document.
TN Governmental Tort Liability Act - A claim is required to sue a negligent Big Brother. Once Big Brother uses its discretion to install a traffic control device, it has waived its sovereign immunity. GABRIEL DRYDEN, ET AL. v. THE METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT
OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY
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