Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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The lives of three Florida teens were ended or dramatically altered by drivers who were born during WWI. old man

The Miami Herald reports on two separate crashes – one in Fort Pierce and another in Davie – with drivers who were 99 and 100, respectively. In the Davie case, the 100-year-old motorist reportedly struck a 16-year-old student pedestrian as she walked to her bus stop. The teen has needed to undergo two emergency brain surgeries – so far. In the second crash, the 99-year-old driver killed two teens – 17 and 18 – when driving his recreational vehicle on the wrong side of State Road 70 (traveling west in the eastbound lanes) with no working headlights. The 99-year-old later died of injuries sustained in that crash.

It was later revealed that while both motorists had clean driving records. The 99-year-old driver had recently undergone a vision, paper and road test – all of which he passed – after someone reported to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office that medical issues made him a potentially unsafe driver.  Continue reading →

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Lee Health Trauma Center and the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization have launched “Driving Down,” an effort aimed at reducing the number of serious and fatal traffic collisions on Southwest Florida roads.

The risk of Fort Myers injury accidents continues to increase. As our accident attorneys reported earlier this month, Southwest Florida roads are growing deadlier. Last year Lee County reported more than 100 traffic deaths for the second year in a row.hit-and-run

The increasing risk has the local trauma center and county planners working together to do something about it, according to a recent article in the Fort Myers News-Press. 

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A hidden danger that is seldom talked about is the risk of traffic accidents caused by a health condition or medical emergency.

Florida has the nation’s largest population of older drivers, whose chronic conditions can put them at increased risk. Just recently, the Florida Highway Patrol reported a fatal crash on Interstate 75 near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that is being blamed on a medical episode. Medical condition car accidents

Authorities say the 70 year-old Punta Gorda man was pronounced dead at Gulf Coast Medical Center. The truck he was driving veered right and struck another car before driving into the median, where it struck a guardrail several times before coming to rest in the grass.

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Even safety-conscious drivers rarely stop to think about the risks of accidents at railroad crossings.

Most are surprised to learn that Florida is among the nation’s deadliest states when it comes to traffic accidents at railroad crossings. 

Our injury lawyers in Fort Myers took note of a recent article in the Sun-Sentinel, which touts new technology as a means of reducing the risks at railroad crossings. About 60 new crossing gates, known as quad gates, are being installed along the corridor where the new higher-speed Brighline trains have begun running in Southeast Florida.railroad accidents

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The Sun-Sentinel reports Florida motorists continue to struggle with sticker shock when purchasing auto insurance.

Our Fort Myers car accident lawyers recently reported on the high-number of motorists involved in hit-and-run accidents in Florida, which roughly corresponds to the high number of uninsured motorists on the state’s roads.car accident lawyer

One in four drivers involved in a motor-vehicle collision last year left the scene; 1 in 4 Florida motorists are on the roads uninsured.

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Recently we reported on a hit-and-run accident involving a tour bus near Immokalee.

Today, our injury lawyers in Fort Myers want to talk about how victims may seek compensation in the wake of such collisions.

From a legal standpoint, these are often underinsured or uninsured motorist accidents unless the at-fault driver is located. Even in cases where the responsible driver is arrested, he or she often lacks adequate insurance, or any insurance at all — and may not even have a driver’s license — as these are all common reasons (in addition to drunk driving) for why motorists may choose to flee the scene of a motor-vehicle collision. uninsured accidents

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A life insurance company has been ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to pay a $200,000 medical bill for an insured who reportedly crashed his dirt bike while under the influence of alcohol.

The life insurance carrier outright denied claimant’s bid for benefits, citing policy exclusion for injuries that arise from the “illegal use of alcohol.” However, the district court ruled – and the appellate court affirmed – this provision, when read and interpreted according to its ordinary meaning, refers to things like drinking alcohol while under the age of 21 or imbibing against a court order. It is inherently different, the court ruled, than engaging in illegal conduct after one has legally consumed the alcohol. That would mean actions like drunk driving would still be covered; it’s not the drinking that was against the law, it was the actions one took after drinking – something not specifically excluded in the policy language. drunk driving accident lawyer

This case is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that it is not your typical car accident lawsuit in that it involves dirt bikes and it happened off-road. Secondly, this was not a plaintiff claiming injury as a result of someone else’s negligence. He conceded his own misconduct caused his injuries. Nonetheless, he argued his life insurance company should be responsible to cover his damages.

According to court records, plaintiff was 22-years-old – of the legal drinking age – five years ago when he and his friend drank alcohol and then proceeded to ride their dirt bikes in a field near their home. While engaging in this, the two crashed. Plaintiff suffered serious injuries. It was ascertained that his blood-alcohol level shortly after the crash was almost nearly twice the legal limit for use of an off-road vehicle in that state. Continue reading →

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Part of securing damages for your car accident injuries means not only proving the defendant motorist was at-fault in the crash, but also showing that the causal nature and extent of your injuries. Some Florida car accident trials center solely around these facts, with defendants arguing you weren’t as seriously injured as you allege or that the injuries you attribute to the crash were caused by something else. car accident lawyer

Proving negligence means showing:

  • Defendant owed plaintiff a duty of care (in these cases, that driver had a responsibility to drive with reasonable care);
  • Defendant breached that duty;
  • Breach caused plaintiff’s injuries.

A recent case out of Nebraska shows how critical that causal element is in securing financial compensation.  Continue reading →

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Self-driving cars, while not yet fully autonomous, provide motorists with the opportunity to cede some of the control behind the wheel. There is much evidence that this is a whole lot safer, as driver error is the primary cause of auto accidents in Florida. However, it has also meant the question of liability has become a vexing one. If a crash happens, who was in control – the driver or the auto manufacturer? car accident lawyer

Recently in California, the state Department of Motor Vehicles announced it would not adopt a rule (recommended by General Motors) that would allow manufacturers of automobiles to evade liability for car accidents wherein the self-driving vehicle hasn’t been maintained to the letter of the manufacturer’s specifications. Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog calls the decision a “major victory for consumers,” according to the Associated Press. The rules, as proposed by the automaking industry, would have effectively absolved producers of these vehicles of product liability for things like the owner’s failure to properly clean the vehicle sensors or having a tire that was slightly under-inflated or not precisely meeting oil change recommendations.

Although it is true that vehicle owners have a responsibility to adequately maintain their vehicles (or face potential liability when failure to do so results in an injurious crash), these kinds of stringent maintenance requirements don’t exist for the standard human-driven vehicle.  Continue reading →

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An Illinois city recently agreed to a $4.75 million settlement to a woman in a sport utility vehicle who was struck by an on-duty city worker driving a garbage truck. It was reported the garbage truck driver was traveling eastbound, crossed over the double yellow lines on the road and side-swiped victim’s vehicle, which was traveling westbound. She spun and was struck by another vehicle.garbagetruck

The 33-year-old victim explained to The Chicago Tribune that her left leg was broken and she remains unable to move her left hand. Her attorneys explained in her personal injury lawsuit that she had suffered serious and permanent injuries that will not only cost her dearly for medical expenses, but also have rendered her unable to carry out certain functions of daily living, such as returning to her job as a home care worker and cashier.

Accidents involving garbage trucks are sometimes described in media reports as being “freak” occurrences. The reality is, they are more common than one might think. One study reported by the New York Daily News revealed that over a three-year stretch, garbage trucks killed an average of 24 pedestrians per 100 million miles driven. Compare that to taxis, which were involved in 6 fatal accidents per 100 million miles driven. Researchers cited potential design flaws in trucks that may make it difficult for garbage truck drivers to see.  Continue reading →