Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

According to a report released by the Florida Department of Highway Safety, wrongful deaths from car accidents in Florida, particularly in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach have steadily decreased, to a new low. The data shows a drop of almost 15% in fatalities from car and truck accidents in Florida.

The Florida Highway Patrol believes the drop in deaths is directly linked to a new Florida Law which permits police officers to stop and ticket drivers and passengers solely for not wearing a seat-belt. Before this law went into effect in 2009, police officers were only allowed to ticket someone if they pulled them over for another violation.

Other reasons for the decline in such accident related deaths include better roads, more guard rails and better driver education. Regardless of the reason why, as personal injury lawyers practicing in Florida, we applaud anything which reduces preventable deaths.

In yet another dubious honor for the State of Florida, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declared that I-95, particularly in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, is the most deadly road in America. NHTSA's declaration is based upon their evaluation of the number of car accidents and truck accidents resulting in wrongful death compared to the distance of a particular stretch of highway.

According to the study, there were about 1.73 deadly accidents for every mile along I-95 during the years 2004 through 2008. The Florida Highway Patrol's own evaluation of our deadly roadway, blames such accidents and deaths on driver's being distracted by activities like using cell phones and navigation devices. Those of us who endure the daily commutes along I-95 in South Florida are all too well acquainted with those drivers who are clearly paying attention to something other than their driving.

The Florida DOT also believes that the sheer number of vehicles on the limited number of lanes on I-95 in Miami and Broward Counties is an obvious reason why our highway is so deadly.

As personal injury lawyers in Ft. Lauderdale we again urge everyone to be particularly vigilant to reckless drivers, especially during this summer travel season.

Unfortunately, three passengers from Hollywood, Florida, died in a car accident outside of Vero Beach this weekend. This deadly accident is another strong reminder that seat belts are the best defense against suffering serious injuries and death in car accidents. According to the Highway Patrol, all three victims were ejected from the vehicle apparently because they were not wearing seat-belts.

In something that probably is more than a mere coincidence, the only person to survive the collision was the driver, who according to police, was wearing a seat belt. The deadly car accident occurred on I-95, when according to the highway patrol, the tread on one of the cars' tires separated, causing the driver to loose control and roll-over. All of the passengers in the SUV were ejected in the crash.

As attorneys practicing personal injury law throughout Florida, too often we see innocent victims suffer debilitating and deadly injuries, which might have been prevented, if they only "click it." Over this summer season we again urge everyone to use their seat belts, and to make sure that children use appropriate car seats.

In what is being claimed as a victory for victims of personal injury caused by the negligence of employees of the State of Florida or any of its counties or cities, the Florida Legislature agreed to raise the sovereign immunity limits of compensation from $100,000.00 to $200,000.00 per person. This is the first increase of these limits in thirty years.

For too long, those who suffered severe and life altering injuries as a result of the negligence of sovereign employees, such as police officers and bus drivers who cause many car accidents due to careless driving, and doctors who commit malpractice at State funded hospitals, were limited in their recovery to the wholly inadequate sum of $100,000.00. Any additional damages required the legislature to pass a "claims bill," a process which places an undue burden, with little chance of success, upon the injured victim.

These new damage limits, assuming the Governor signs the bill into law, will go into effect for accidents occurring after October 2011. While these damage limits remain too low to adequate compensate those victims whose lives are turned upside down when a government employee carelessly disregards their obligations, at least the accident victims have an opportunity to receive some more compensation.

Much to the disappointment of personal injury attorneys throughout the State of Florida, and to the clear detriment of those injured when they slip and fall because of a business' negligence in failing to maintain their premises in a safe condition, the Florida Legislature recently turned the clock back to 2001, by enacting the law known as HB689.

The new law requires that the injured victim of a slip and fall prove that the business had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition which caused them to slip, and that the business should have taken some action to prevent the fall. This law places the burden upon the injured victim, rather than the business owner, who under Florida Law since 2001, had the burden on proving they maintained their floors in a safe condition.

While is generally impossible to prove that a business had actual knowledge of a dangerous condition, the law allows the victim to use circumstantial evidence to prove that the dangerous condition existed long enough so that the business should have known of it.

This law will require most slip and fall cases to be litigated, increase the expenses associated with such matters, and further congesting our already crowded court system. Yet another blow against the rights of innocent injured Floridians.

In a dubious honor, a study by the Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership determined more pedestrians and bicycle riders are killed in car accidents in Florida than in any other state. Florida, including its heavily populated and tourist frequented areas of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, is now the deadliest for state pedestrians and cyclists.

Amazingly, 11.1 percent of all pedestrians, and 17.4 percent of all bicyclists, killed in traffic accidents across the United States, die in Florida. The results, while shocking, are not surprising as this marks the ninth consecutive year that Florida has ranked in the top three deadliest states for pedestrian and bicyclist deaths.

As personal injury attorneys practicing in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, we certainly hope our legislators take a hard look at these figures and institute greater safety awareness programs to turn the tide against such tragic losses.

In some good news for drivers throughout Florida, in hopes of preventing deadly truck accidents, the federal government enacted new regulations prohibiting commercial truckers and bus drivers from texting while driving. These overdue restrictions go into effect immediately.

While no one knows who many accidents are caused by commercial driver texting while driving, it is a certainty that such behavior is dangerous and creates a high-risk of accidents. Considering drivers who text generally take their eyes of the road for more than 4 seconds, there a known likelihood of increased collisions.

The federal ban comes on the heals of the actions of many state laws which are being enacted to hopefully curtail this deadly practice. As personal injury lawyers practicing in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach, we are always glad to hear of laws which help protect fellow Floridians from deadly accidents.

The texting ban is supported by the American Trucking Associations and American Bus Association.

Not surprisingly, a recent study, done at the University of Utah, determined that texting while driving, not only increases the risk of having a car accident, but is significantly more dangerous than talking on a cell phone while driving.

The study determined that texting drivers were less likely to apply their brakes in a timely manner to avoid a car accident, that they followed other vehicles too closely and demonstrated significantly delayed reaction times. Further, the researchers determined that texting drivers were 6 times more likely to be in a car accident, as compared to drivers who were concentrating on driving.

The study found that texting to be more dangerous than simply talking on a cell phone, determining that drivers can better split their attention between a call and driving, rather than texting, which causes the driver to concentrate more upon typing or reading a message. This research, from the journal Human Factors, ultimately determined that drivers increased their risk of being in a car accident by thirty percent when texting.

As Florida Lawyers practicing personal injury and car accident law in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, we are alarmed when we learn of ongoing conduct which results in the wrongful death and injury to innocent drives. According to a recent report, car accidents caused by drop-offs along highway construction areas kill about 160 people and injure another 11,000 people each year.

Most of these deadly car accident occur when a car slips off the edge of a road onto the shoulder, causing the driver to overreact and lose control. Generally these drop-offs are the result of roadway contractors negligent failure to smooth out the sides of roads they recently paved.

Sadly, there are few regulations requiring such safety measures along highway work zones. Consequently, few fines are levied against contractors, who, due to either their own carelessness or desire to save money, continually violate these guidelines.

Given the recently enacted Federal Stimulus Package, which is intended to promote additional highway construction, we certainly hope Florida Officials will take a hard look at these dangerous and too often neglected safety issues before more Floridians are hurt.

As Florida Lawyers handling personal injury and wrongful death cases, we've learned of yet another report which demonstrates how dangerous the roadways are for pedestrians in South Florida. According to a recent report, the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area achieved the dubious honor of being named one of the nation's most dangerous areas for pedestrians.

The study indicates that because our roads were designed to speed up traffic, people walking along any given road in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are most at risk of being involved in a car accident. People who do walk in Miami and Fort Lauderdale face a relatively high risk of being struck by a car and killed. Our pedestrian fatality rate is 3.04, with a danger index level, which consists of the average pedestrian fatality rate per 100,000 residents over a two-year period and the percentage of residents who commute to work by foot, is 181.2.

Apparently suburban growth, with roads designed to assist vehicular traffic, many without sidewalks or adequate crosswalks, is the main reason for the increase in fatalities. Not surprisingly, more than half of fatal vehicle crashes occurred on wide, high-speed roads. We certainly hope that these statistics will convince future engineers to be mindful of the safety of pedestrians on our roadways.

According to a recent study, more than a third of all people over the age of sixty five fall each year. Unfortunately, more than one fall in 10 results in a serious injury, like a fractured hip. As Florida Lawyers, we too often seen the devistating affects such injuries from such trip and falls at stores, parking lot and shopping centers, have on our older clients.

Thankfully researchers are beginning to further study, through wireless sensors in carpets, clothing and rooms, older individual's activity. The continuous measurements allowed by simple devices, afford greater insight on the causes of fall, and how to prevent them.

Fall prevention also promises to be part of an emerging — and potentially large — worldwide industry of helping older people live independently in their homes longer. The hope is that activity patterns from the data can help identify ways to prevent falls.

In the desire to go "Green," the steady increase in hybrid cars on the road are causing a drastic increase in the number of car accidents with pedestrians and bicycle riders. According to a recently released report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, due to the lack of noise generated from hybrid engines, pedestrians and cyclists are less likely to hear such vehicles that were turning, slowing or backing up.

Thankfully, in light of this unintended side-effect, vehicle manufacturers are apparently proposing to include a device in their vehicles which would generate noise under certain circumstances, such as the back-up warnings used on commercial trucks.

The study reviewed over 8,000 hybrid and 550,000 non-hybrid car accidents in 12 states, including Florida, and determined the collisions usually took place at low speeds, when the sound difference between a hybrid and traditional car engine is the most pronounced.