Auto insurance companies make lots of promises. They vow to be “on your side” and “like a good neighbor.” The truth of the matter is, when it comes time to pay a claim, they will do anything in their power NOT to pay it – or at least to minimize…
To anyone looking on, it may have seemed like some kind of odd drug epidemic had swept South Florida. Dozens or even hundreds of people, wandering seemingly aimlessly around local parks, public libraries and college campuses. Cape Coral Police Officer Ray Schilke first got wind of the phenomenon when he…
The family of four was on their way to a school play at a local high school. They were just minutes from it starting. Meanwhile, a 20-year-old driving a turbocharged BMW was heading home after picking up some Chinese takeout for his family. He was traveling at a mind-bending 115…
Wrong-way crashes are becoming a serious problem on Southwest Florida roadways, and The News-Press recently explored this issue on both a micro-level and from a statewide perspective. As The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) noted in its 2012 investigation into the issue, wrong-way driving tends to have very serious consequences –…
A school district in California agreed to pay $10.5 million to a former student who suffered a brain injury after he was violently mobbed by classmates while dressed in a mock mascot uniform of the rival team.The traumatic brain injury occurred after the student begged school administrators to let him…
It seems such a common-sense measure for rental car companies: Don’t rent out vehicles that have been recalled until they’ve been repaired. But until June 1, 2016, there was no law stopped from them from doing so. Many rental car companies routinely rented to customers vehicles they knew were unsafe.…
The family of a 7-year-old girl is reeling from an unfathomable loss after she was struck and killed by an alleged distracted driver in front of her Fort Myers home. It happened near her father’s house on Jupiter Road, where she was riding her tricycle. The suspect, a 27-year-old man…
Motor vehicle accidents are known to be the No. 1 killer of children in the U.S. under the age of 14. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates every year that more than 1,100 children are killed and 167,000 are injured in traffic crashes. So it makes sense that a…
It was December when the 20-year-old young man from Tallahassee had just plunked down a down payment for his first motorcycle. He had some previous experience on the bike and was ready to commit to being a responsible bike owner himself. The bike was so new, in fact, he was on his…
A Collier County jury recently awarded $5.1 million the family of a 91-year-old woman killed in a Marco Island car accident caused by a man reportedly traveling 77 mph in a 30 mph zone before running a stop sign in November 2013. The civil judgment comes almost exactly one year after the conclusion of…