Articles Posted in Car Accidents

It’s been an inauspicious start to 2015 as the number of traffic fatalities in Lee County has surpassed last year.

Just in the first month, officials reported 15 people were killed in traffic accidents across the county. Of those, four occurred in a 36-hour period, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The types of crashes range from cyclists struck by motor vehicles to single vehicles striking fixed objects to multi-vehicle collisions. The hazards on Southwest Florida roadways abound, and motorists must be more careful if we hope to avoid nearly doubling the number of car accident deaths we saw last year.
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The Florida Supreme Court recently reviewed Florida v. Dorsett, a case that involves a serious and growing problem in the state: Hit-and-run accidents.

These are cases in which one of the drivers illegally flees the scene of a serious or fatal crash without stopping to render aid or report the accident, as required by law. Not all hit-and-run drivers are the at-fault motorist, though that’s often the case. Usually, fleeing stems from the driver lacking a driver’s license or insurance, being wanted by law enforcement for some other offense or being drunk or otherwise impaired.

Whatever the reason, it’s on the rise. According to the Sun-Sentinel, the number of hit-run crashes statewide totaled 84,000 in 2014 – a sharp increase from the 78,500 reported a year earlier.
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As Florida lawmakers begin the push for tougher texting-while-driving laws, an interesting piece of information was revealed in a recent study published by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

We already knew Americans far too frequently engage in the dangerous activity of texting behind the wheel. However, we tend to mostly blame teens and young drivers. While it’s true such actions are a problem among this group, it turns out they aren’t the biggest offenders. It’s adults who should know better.

The foundation surveyed thousands of drivers over the age of 16 who had driven at least once in the last month. Although researchers focused on a gamut of traffic safety behaviors, one of those included texting while driving.
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The latest annual Traffic Safety Culture Index study, released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, reveals that while 1 in 5 U.S. drivers has been involved in a serious crash – with 1 in 10 seriously injured – many still continue to engage in risky behavior behind the wheel.

Researchers polled more than 2,700 licensed drivers who had driven at least once in the last month, asking about their perception of highway threats, acceptability of certain driving behaviors, support for certain laws and the frequency of their own engagement in those behaviors.

The common thread study authors discovered was a “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” attitude among motorists. For example, though nearly 55 percent of drivers reported red light running was a serious threat to roadway safety and 73 percent deemed it completely unacceptable, nearly 36 percent admitted they had done so themselves at some point in the last month.
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Sorting through auto insurance coverage in the event of a crash can be a complex process under any circumstance, but it can be especially challenging in cases involving “phantom vehicles.”

These are cases where one vehicle crashes, but another unidentified vehicle is alleged to have been the cause. Phantom vehicle cases can be difficult with regard to collection of uninsured motorist benefits because insurance companies often require some degree of independent confirmation (aside from the claimant’s testimony) that another vehicle was to blame.

Uninsured motorist benefits in hit-and-run cases are much more straightforward because it’s obvious another vehicle was involved due to the damage done by that vehicle upon impact – even if that other vehicle driver is never identified or located. However in phantom vehicle cases, there is usually an allegation of a vehicle being run off the road. But without evidence of impact or fault, it can be tough to prove.
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The recent death of veteran newsman and “60 minutes” correspondent Bob Simon has raised a number of questions about how safe back seat passengers are in the event of a crash.

Simon was killed while riding in a livery cab in Manhattan. Although he was not wearing a seat belt, officials say he was not violating any laws, as passengers in vehicles-for-hire are not required to wear seat belts. (Similarly, Florida law requires only front seat passengers to be belted in, and all passengers under 18 must buckle up.)

Such laws tend to imply the back seat is somehow a safer place in the event of a crash, and that isn’t necessarily true.
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An elderly woman was rendered quadriplegic following a car accident last year in Northern Florida. Now, the 76-year-old has filed lawsuit against the vehicle manufacturer, as well as the maker of an allegedly defective airbag in her Honda Civic.

In the 60-page lawsuit Mincey v. Honda and Takata, she details the day she was involved in a relatively minor crash last June at an intersection. Her airbag, rather than deploying with reasonable force, exploded violently, she asserts. This was the result of excessive pressurization.

Not only did the airbag system fail to protect her from injury, but she says it actually increased or enhanced injuries sustained above beyond what she might have incurred had the airbag system not deployed at all.
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News of a terrifying crash on Fort Myers Beach recently made national headlines after the emergence of a surveillance video that captured the scene. The 67-year-old driver, from Michigan, reportedly fainted behind the wheel before slamming into a pickup truck and flipping her own vehicle into the eating area of taco stand on Estero Boulevard.

Her 80-year-old passenger grabbed the wheel but was unable to remove her foot from the accelerator as they careened toward the box truck traveling 60 mph.

The woman would later tell a local news affiliate she had begun to have fainting episodes prior to embarking on her Florida vacation. However, she insists she was cleared by a doctor to drive.
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While traffic homicide investigators continue to piece together evidence from the wreckage following a recent fatal crash on Del Prado Boulevard in Cape Coral, they say one thing seems certain: Speed was a primary factor.

It seems both vehicles – a Toyota Corolla car and a GMC Envoy sport utility vehicle – were traveling the same direction at speeds of up to 80 miles-per-hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone.

The Corolla was driven by a 17-year-old male. The Envoy was driven by an 18-year-old. The two vehicles were traveling side-by-side when they collided, sending the SUV careening across the median and into oncoming traffic, where it rolled several times. The SUV driver, of Cape Coral, was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, 20, sustained injuries. The 17-year-old driver of the other vehicle was reportedly not injured.
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In the event of a motor vehicle accident, there are two different kinds of damages a plaintiff may be able to collect: compensatory and punitive.

Compensatory damages include economic (property damage, medical bills, lost wages and other financial losses) and non-economic (pain and suffering, loss of consortium and mental anguish).

Punitive damages, meanwhile, are not intended to compensate the victim for any injuries or damages he or she suffered, even though they are ultimately paid to plaintiff. Rather, they are intended to punish a defendant for egregious actions.

The exact amount one might expect in a punitive damage case will depend on the nature of defendant’s conduct, how wealthy defendant is and how much harm other potential victims suffer by defendant if he/she is not punished. It also factors in the actual harm sustained by plaintiff.
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