Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
When it comes to road risks, distracted driving is number one with a bullet.
Car radios (AM) date to the Model A, although they were a prohibitively expensive option. When installation of AM/FM radios became standard in cars in the 1950s, there was heated debate on whether they would prove to be a deadly distraction to drivers!
They did. 
Since Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, was founded in Fort Myers in 1971, we have represented injury victims through most of the subsequent advances in in-car technology: 8-tracks in the 1970s, cassette in the 80s, compact discs in the 90s, and satellite radio and GPS in the early 2000s.
Today’s vehicles include bluetooth, entertainment systems, mapping, early warning systems, rearview cameras, avoidance-warning systems and an increasing array of driver-assistance technologies that will soon have the cars driving themselves.
With each advance, have come risks, both new and old. Certainly, car radios have been involved in a significant number of crashes from the first installations. As the systems have become more complicated, the risks have increased, as have the complexities of litigation where those risks resulted in a serious or fatal collision.
As our injury lawyers in Fort Myers and Cape Coral have written before, today’s technology can make it necessary to make claims against both vehicle manufacturers and some of the largest tech companies in the world, including Google and Apple, which continue to move into the manufacturing and marketing of both in-car information systems and driverless technology.
And we haven’t even mentioned cell phones yet!
Distracted Driving Claims in Southwest Florida
The truth of the matter is serious and fatal collisions are often caused by multiple poor driving behaviors and decisions. When such crashes result from a single cause, it is most often distracted or intoxicated driving. When multiple causes are involved, distraction is usually among them.
Consulting with an experienced car accident lawyer in Fort Myers or Cape Coral is always best done as soon as possible after a collision. In many cases, distraction may not be noted as a contributing cause by the initial traffic investigators, particularly if another obvious cause is involved, such as failure to obey a traffic control device.
At Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, our experienced investigators consider the initial traffic investigation to be just one important piece of identifying causation and determining all of the parties responsible. Cell phone records, evidence of eating or drinking, the presence of roadside distractions such as construction, the presence of children or pets, and the use of in-car technology, can all play a part in causing a serious or fatal collision.
Additionally, it’s important to note that even victims who are found partially at fault for a collision may still be able to collect damages. Florida’s comparative fault laws allow victims to make a claim as long as they were not determined to be more than half at fault for causing a crash.
Just because these crashes have become dishearteningly common, does not mean your claim should be trusted to just any law firm.
If you or a loved one is injured, call Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, at 1-800-646-1210.
