Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirm that 40% of car accidents in the United States occur at intersections. Intersection accidents are common because there at least two crossing roads. Roads typically have at least two lanes of travel, which means most intersection traffic involves four lanes of travel. Cars at intersections can either turn left, right, or travel straight through the intersection. Drivers need to look out for all three types of traffic [...]

You are driving into the sunrise or sunset when suddenly you collide with another vehicle. Finding the answers to who, what, why, and how is important in a successful auto accident case, and one method to find said answers is to look at your vehicle’s event data recorder (EDR). What is an event data recorder? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that an EDR is a device, installed in an automobile, that records a [...]

Driverless cars used to be the perfect symbol for the future. Thanks to companies like Tesla and Google, though, the future is now – and driverless cars are a real thing. As exciting as that is, though, there are still issues when it comes to liability and driver safety, so back in 2016, the United States Government unveiled guidelines concerning driverless vehicles. The guidelines cover many points. We’ve created a summary of them here, so you [...]

There is a critical piece of safety equipment that can protect you from serious injury if it works and kill you if it fails. We are not talking about safety belts or airbags, but the guardrails that you see every day along the side of the highway, but probably don't even notice. What most drivers do not know is that not all guard rails are created the same. Some guardrail terminals, instead of slowing down a [...]

Seat belt use saves lives: period. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has crunched those numbers for us. In 2014, the CDC found: In fatal crashes, more than 50% of teens and adults under 44 were not wearing seat belts. About 1 in 7 people don’t use a seat belt. Overall seatbelt use throughout the country was 87%. (from DefensiveDriving.org) The National Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a report recently that shows overall seat [...]

Drivers share the roads in Tennessee with operators of various vehicles, including motorcyclists and truckers. No one can control anyone’s actions, except for his or her own, so there’s always a risk of an auto accident because of a drunk driver out on the road. Unfortunately, sometimes auto accidents are deadly, and a recent example of deadly auto accidents is the case of Tennessee trucker Randall Weddle. What are the basic facts of the Weddle case? [...]

Auto accidents occur virtually every day, and a large number of Tennessee drivers who are involved in auto accidents, are uninsured or underinsured. The Tennessee state government deems the large number of uninsured drivers unacceptable and way too large; therefore, as of January 1, 2017, a new Tennessee state statute came into effect and imposes tougher penalties on uninsured drivers. The new statute In Tennessee, drivers must now have liability insurance for auto accidents, and that [...]

School buses are an important mode of transportation for children, and they usually provide safe transportation for children. Nevertheless, the fact that school buses are a safe mode of transportation for children is not always the case, as the horrific November 21, 2016 school bus crash in Hamilton County, Tennessee clearly demonstrates. In fact, the crash claimed the lives of 6 children and left many others with injuries. As of December 16, 2016, six lawsuits assert [...]

Auto accidents occur every day, due to a variety of causes. Some occur because of driver error; others occur because of vehicle problems associated with defective products. When a faulty or defective auto product leads to an accident, identifying the root of the vehicle problem isn’t always easy. You cannot just say the accident was the vehicle’s “fault.” There are several different auto parts that can be defective. The most common ones include: Faulty brakes Defective [...]

We share the road with other drivers, pedestrians, emergency vehicles and bicyclists all the time. To let others pass is common courtesy. But to specifically let emergency vehicles pass or precede us is legally required, and refusal to do so is considered a violation of the law. In Tennessee, the law governing emergency vehicles on the road (and violation thereof) is called the “Move Over Law.” It was passed in 2006, “and requires motorists to move [...]

Also known as multi-vehicle accidents, multi-car accidents, and pileups, chain-reaction auto accidents are a kind of rear-end auto accidents. They involve three or more vehicles rear-ending each other in a series, or chain, of collisions. Usually, chain-reaction auto accidents happen when the last car in the chain collides with the car before it, forcing that car to collide with the car before it, so on, and so on. Caused of chain-reaction auto accidents So what causes [...]

Autumn is a perfect time of year; the leaves change colors, the smell of apple cider begins to fill the air, and the cooler weather finally starts to come in. But like any season, fall presents some dangers to drivers that don’t necessarily occur during other times of the year. You could be at risk of serious injury because of: School traffic, including buses, newly licensed teen drivers, and small children darting out in the roads [...]

Often, when people talk about auto accidents, they usually talk about the injuries sustained by drivers and passengers. But the people inside the cars and trucks are not the only ones who get injured in auto accidents. Pedestrians get injured too, and pedestrian injuries are just as prevalent as driver and passenger injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has compiled some statistics on this matter. According to its latest data in 2013, more than [...]

Broadside, side impact, “T” bones – whatever you call them, these types of collisions are dangerous, and can leave you with serious injuries. T-bone collisions are auto accidents involving the side of a vehicle hitting the back or front of another vehicle, thus creating the “T.” Accounting for factors such as the impacted vehicle portion(s), safety measures, vehicle speed, and vehicle weight, the vehicle damage and accident victims’ injuries often are more serious than the damage [...]

The heat is on. School is out. The nights are shorter, and the days are longer. It is time to hit the road and live the summer life. For some of us, that means vacations and visits to faraway places (or at least to a nearby lake). We tend to think of winter as a season full of roadside dangers, and it is. But summer also is a season full of roadside dangers, and we [...]

We are constantly on the go here in Knoxville. We rely on our cars, our primary mode of transportation, for everything; to go to school, to work, etc. Now, a new type of car, a car capable of driving itself, is in development, and the Tennessee State Senate has passed a bill that sets guidelines and regulations for self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles. What are AVs? Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are vehicles that operate themselves in one [...]

We Tennesseans are constantly on the go. Our cars and trucks are our primary mode of transportation, which means we have to deal with other drivers. We cannot always be safe on the road because we cannot control the actions of others. One common type of auto accident is a rear-end crash or collision. The most persistent kind of automobile accident, rear-end crashes involve one vehicle’s front bumper hitting another vehicle’s rear bumper. We also call [...]

There are few things more controversial than child safety. Everyone agrees that protecting our kids is a top priority, but we have a harder time agreeing on just how to do that. The recently recalled car seat bill is just another example of difficult it is. The bill, which had been passed by the Senate and the House, “would change the rules to require kids under two to use rear-facing seats; children under age five must [...]

Its technical title is HB 1416/SB 1608, but the charmingly named “Slow Poke Law” is looking to change the way we drive here in Tennessee. Legislators are looking to help ease congestion while making our interstates a little safer to drive on, and they’re using a plan that’s worked in other states to do it. The “Slow Poke Law” is essentially this: if you’re driving on a roadway with three or more lanes, you’d better stay [...]

We are a mobile people; we are constantly on the go. Therefore, we rely on our cars to take us places and to see faces. But we cannot always rely on the roads we drive on, and some roads are safer than others. The federal government has compiled a list of the top ten states whose roads are the most dangerous nationwide. Our great state of Tennessee ranks number ten on this list. Ranking number ten [...]

It’s a nightmare scenario: you’re driving along when all of a sudden your vehicle is hit by another car, or a car stops short in front of you, or you swerve to avoid a deer and you hit a tree. Your car is a wreck, you’re completely shaken up, and you’ve no idea what to do next. At Banks & Jones, we’ve heard stories like these (and so many more) time and time again from drivers [...]

Whether you live or work in Tennessee, or are just passing through on your way to somewhere else, you’d better buckle up. As of January 1, 2016, anyone caught not wearing a seatbelt is in for a new fine. WBBJ Eyewitness News reported that first-time offenders caught without safety restraints are now posed to get hit with a $25 fine. Repeat offenders will see double that amount, as the new fines for them are $50. The [...]

2015 was a pretty terrible year when it came to auto recalls. We saw some truly mind-blowing accounts of defects in hardware and software that car and truck manufacturers pushed forward in the name of the almighty dollar. The silver lining, of course is that the US auto-safety advocates and regulatory committees finally said “Enough is enough!” You might say that 2015 was the year that we all struck back in the name of accountability. Now, [...]

In September of 2015, Volkswagen admitted to circumventing emissions tests on up to 11 million vehicles across the globe, spurring one of the largest – and most costly – recalls in history. This latest recall, however, involves a far more frightening part of the car: the braking system. According to Automotive News, the German auto manufacturer will recall 91,867 vehicles because “’The camshaft lobe has the potential unexpectedly shear off from the camshaft,’ leading to a [...]