Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

The 46th Annual Fort Myers Boat Show will take place next weekend on the downtown waterfront.

Organizers expect the biggest event ever, with nearly 500 boats of all types. More than 100 boat brands will be represented and hundreds of booths will be selling gear and other accessories. Go Boating Florida reports Southwest Florida Marine Industries Association has made a substantial investment in floating docks and other equipment to accommodate boaters visiting the City Yacht Basin.

Boat show hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, through Saturday, Nov. 17; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18. For more information, visit Go Boating Florida.

The event serves as a timely reminder that winter boating season in Southwest Florida is officially underway. The most recent statistics suggest Lee County is the most dangerous in the state when it comes to deadly boating accidents, according to The News-Press. 

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Safety is too often a critically neglected holiday skill.

Everyone at Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, wish all of you a safe and enjoyable holiday season. We don’t want to be the dark storm cloud blocking your ray of sunshine. But the fact is the holidays are an incredibly hectic, chaotic and dangerous time. Taking a moment with your family to talk about the risks can go a long way toward keeping you safe.

Start of the winter tourism season in Southwest Florida will coincide with the return of holiday crowds. We have written recently about the increasing risk of motorcycle accidents as the riding season gets underway and the impact of early darkness road risks. 

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Ghosts and goblins running loose in the streets next week herald an even scarier risk: The increased accident risks that will come with early darkness.

Trick or Treat always increases the risk of pedestrian accidents or other injuries involving children. According to the Safe Kids USA organization, children are more than twice as likely to be killed by a car while walking on Halloween night than at any other time of the year. Safe Kids reports only one-third of parents talk to their children each year about Halloween safety, even though three-quarters of parents report being worried about their child’s safety.

Halloween Safety in SWFL

According to Safe Kids:

• Children under 12 should always trick-or-treat with an adult.
• Always use sidewalks and paths and walk facing traffic as far off the roadway as possible. Cross at marked crosswalks and street corners and use traffic signals.
• Parents must also consider safety when it comes to a child’s costume. Does it obstruct vision or make walking clumsy? Is it visible after dark?

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The third year was the best yet for the Annual Bruce L. Scheiner Charity Poker Tournament, held last Saturday Oct. 20 at the Naples Fort Myers Track and Entertainment Center in Bonita Springs.

The event raised more than $5,000 for the March of Dimes Bikers for Babies campaign. Prizes included two pair of round trip tickets on Key West Airline, A Private Plane flight to Miami for dinner and tickets to see the Miami Dophins vs. New England Patriots.

“Thank you to all who came out to support a night of charity benefiting a great cause as we head into the holiday season,” Bruce L. Scheiner said. Bruce was joined by wife Cheryl, and son Preston J. Scheiner, as well as many friends and office members at Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured. It’s the first of several Bikers for Babies events this fall.

Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, is again providing sponsorship for this season’s Cape Coral Bike Nights.

“We are pleased to sponsor Southwest Florida’s largest family-friendly motorcycle event,” Bruce L. Scheiner said.

Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, has been providing sponsorship to the four-night event for more than a decade. This year’s events will be held on Oct. 13, Dec. 8, Feb. 9, and April 13. Operated by the Cape Coral Parks and Recreation Department, the events occur along SE 47th Terrace in Cape Coral. In recent years, a number of headline entertainers have performed. Quiet Riot, the 1980s heavy-metal legends, headlined this year’s first event on October 13. 

We are entering the most dangerous time of the year for drunk drivers.

Recently we have written about the threat of early darkness. Back-to-school dangers. Holiday and tourism traffic. And the increase in cycling traffic that comes with fall weather. But no discussion of autumn road safety is complete without mentioning the outsized risk of intoxicated motorists — a threat that reaches its annual peak during the fall football and end-of-year holiday seasons.

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Hello Darkness My Old Friend 

While Sound of Silence was recorded 55 years ago, early darkness comes to Southwest Florida every autumn. 

By the time Daylight Savings Time begins November 4, we will all be dealing with dusk or darkness during our evening commute. Love it or hate it, early darkness will be with us again until spring.

A report published by the National Institutes of Health found an increased risk of car accidents immediately after the autumn shift in Daylight Savings Time. However, it also found a similar increased risk with the spring shift (which provides more light later in the day.) Researchers believe it likely that the time-shift’s impact on sleeping patterns is likely responsible for making the roads more dangerous.

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Cool October weather brings welcome relief from the heat and humidity of a long summer. The National Weather Service indicates that by mid-October average daily temperatures in Southwest Florida will be nearly 10 degrees cooler, even as the insufferable humidity of September disappears.

Fall also begins the long cycling season in SWFL, as even the most dedicated riding masochist sees less road time amid summer’s scorching temperatures and frequent storms. Many riding events are planned for autumn. The increasing number of riders on the road will also coincide with early darkness and the return of snowbird and tourism traffic. 

An investigate report by The News-Press recently examined five years worth of bicycle crash data in revealing that Lee and Collier counties were among the most dangerous counties in the state for serious and fatal bicycling accidents. And the risks are on the rise in both counties, with Collier crashes up almost 40 percent in three years. Crashes in Lee County spiked more than 70 percent.

According to News-Press statistics, more than 100 serious or fatal riding accidents occur each month from September to May. Riding risks peak from January-March, with about 140 accidents a month reported to local law enforcement. Statewide, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported more than 6,500 bicycle crashes claimed 133 lives in 2016, making Florida the most dangerous state in the nation for bicycling accidents.

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Safety improvements to Lehigh Acres roads and a recent settlement against the City of Cape Coral highlight the risks of dangerous road conditions in Southwest Florida.

NBC News reports Lehigh Acres is eliminating several dangerous traffic turns after a series of traffic collisions. 

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