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After a recent car accident in Fort Myers in which a toddler died, the driver of the rear-end accident faced a warrant for her arrest after allegedly failing to properly buckle in her child, according to The News-Press. It all happened on Market Street and Fowler Street in Fort Myers when the the 31-year-old driver was rear ended by another vehicle. It was just the collision that concerned officials, but the fact that there was an unharnessed 2-year-old girl in the vehicle.

The young passenger was transported to the Lee Memorial Hospital where she later died from injuries sustained in the accident. No one else was injured in the accident. According to local police, the child was sitting in the passenger seat and was not properly buckled into a car seat when the collision occurred. The car seat was not anchored to the car either. In the accident, the airbag deployed.

Our Fort Myers child injury attorneys understand that children rely on parents to make sure they’re properly buckled during every car ride. It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure these kids are riding safely and are properly buckled in during every car ride. Since the mother failed to buckle in her little girl, she’s now at the Lee County Jail arrested on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child. Court records indicate that she is still in custody on her $15,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in court on the 7th of May.

This is a tragic reminder of the requirement for child-passenger safety.

In the state of Florida, law states that children under the age of 5 are to be properly restrained no matter which seat they’re occupying in the vehicle. Kids who are under the age of 3 are to be secured in a separate carrier (child car seat) or in a vehicle manufacturer’s integrated child safety seat. Kids between 4- and 5-years-old can ride in either a safety belt, an integrated child safety seat or a separate carrier. If an adult seat belt does not fit your child correctly, you should use a booster seat to help make it fit once they’ve outgrown their forward-facing car seat, which is usually at either 4-years-old or about 40 pounds. Children who weight between 40 and 80 pounds or are under the height of 4’9″ should ride in a booster seat.

If you violate one of these Florida child restraint laws, you could get a fine of $60 and 3 points on your driver’s license. If an injury or a fatality results, you could wind up in a lot more trouble.

There were nearly 1,500 kids aged 14-years-old and younger who were killed in a motor vehicle accident in 2009. Nearly 200,000 more were injured throughout the year. Parents can help to reduce these numbers; in 2008, officials estimate that nearly 250 kids under the age of 5 were saved because of properly used child restrain systems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Lawmakers are proposing new restrictions, which could reduce the risk of serious or fatal watercraft accidents involving residents and tourists alike. In an effort to reduce the number of Fort Myers watercraft accidents, legislators are trying to change minimum age requirements, as well as the penalties for criminal behavior in water sport activities.

Our Cape Coral personal injury lawyers understand the dangers involved in operating water sport machines like jet skis or small motor boats.

The News-Press recently reported about the proposed bills in the upcoming legislative session. Bill 370 is proposing the minimum age to operate a personal watercraft be raised from 14 to age 16. It would also require anyone born on or after January 1, 1988 to have completed a boating safety course and acquire a boating safety ID card in order to operate a watercraft such as a Jet Ski or a WaveRunner.

The bill’s proposal follows the death of a young boy who crashed into a dock while operating a personal watercraft.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported 149 injuries and 7 deaths in Florida in 2008 as a result of personal watercraft accidents. In 2009, there were a total of 143 watercraft accidents which resulted in 152 injuries and one fatality in the state.

Lee County reported no fatalities during these two years but did have 10 injuries sustained in 15 watercraft crashes. Collier County reported 11 crashes totaling 13 injuries but no fatalities during the same time period.

The other proposal, Bill 512, would eliminate criminal misdemeanor penalties for violating navigation rules which don’t involve reckless operation but result in an accident. The new bill would impose fines for navigation incidents that cause accidents that do not involve carelessness or alcohol involvement. The fine would be up to $500 for first offense, up to $750 for a second offense, and $1,000 for all other offenses.

The new age law would not restrict tourists from participating in watercraft activities. If a renter does not have the boating safety ID card they can take the course onsite for $3 and still boat the same day.

Water activities can be loads of fun but operators are reminded of the dangers that could ensue. If you have been the victim in a watercraft accident, seek legal advice immediately to discuss your rights.
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Elderly drivers, those over the age of 65, will make up about 20% of motorists by 2025. This statistic has safety advocates scrambling to develop programs and other tactics to help ensure the safety of older drivers and those around them.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2008 older individuals accounted for 8% of all traffic crash injuries and 15% of all traffic fatalities. Older drivers statistically have fatal crashes during the day (80%), on weekdays (72%) and their crashes involve other vehicles (69%).

Older drivers in fatal crashes rarely are found with alcohol in their system. And seat belt use among drivers 65+ is 14% higher than those in fatal crashes ages 18 to 64.

Our Fort Myers car accident lawyers understand the dangers elderly drivers face and remind you to help older relatives monitor their driving skills and make good decisions about their driving abilities.

Traffic safety should be important to all drivers, however older drivers need to pay attention to their body’s physical changes, which could affect their driving ability. Here are some issues that all drivers should be aware but particularly elderly drivers.

Vision: Most folks know, if you are over age 40, your eyesight changes. Your retina has decrease sensitivity to light, your eye’s lenses don’t focus quickly, and your peripheral vision narrows. Interestingly, the amount of light your eyes need to drive doubles about every 13 years. So a person that is 45 years old needs quadruple the light that a 19 year old needs and if you are 60 you need 10 times as much. Good vision is essential to safe driving since about 90% of what we do while driving is based on what we see.

Get eye exams every two years if you are under 60 years old and every year if you are over 60. If night vision and glare from headlights are a problem, try to not drive at night. As peripheral vision narrows, turn your head frequently to adjust. Keep glasses inside your car and all lights and mirrors clean. Adding a large rear view mirror will expand your range of visibility. Always keep your eyes on the road ahead of you to give yourself plenty of time to react to a sudden situation.

Though elderly adults’ minds may remain sharp, their reactions to changing events won’t be as crisp as when they were younger. As we age, it takes our brains longer to process information and we are easily distracted. When a sudden event occurs while driving we need to see it, decide what to do, then do it. For an elderly driver all that takes time, and sometimes it takes too long. Give yourself plenty of time to see and react to a situation, that’s good advice for any age driver.

Here are some helpful tips from buyautoinsurance.com:

-Allow plenty of room between you and other vehicles.

-Avoid left turns if possible. If you have to make a left pay attention to the cars coming toward you, watch for pedestrians and have enough space and time to safely cross approaching traffic before turning.

-Never have anything in the car that could be a distraction. Keep the radio off, don’t use a cell and if passengers are noisy tell them to be quiet.

-Review your route ahead of time, so you won’t have to make a last-minute decision about which turns to take.

-Use side roads when possible, high speed roadways can be frightening and confusing.
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Car accidents in Fort Myers and Cape Coral involving teen drivers made it the deadliest hotspot of its size nationwide for fatal accidents between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, according to a report released this week by Allstate Insurance.

The accident attorneys and staff at Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Personal Injury Lawyers, encourage parents to sit down with teen drivers and review driver safety as we head into the holidays.

The areas with the highest number of holiday fatalities since 2000 were also in Florida – Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (59), Jacksonville (29) and Orlando-Kissimmee (39).

Fourteen fatal accidents involving teens have been recorded in Fort Myers- Cape Coral since 2000 – giving the area a holiday teen driving score of just 4 and making it the deadliest city of its size for holiday teen drivers. The Daytona Beach area was second by size with a driving score of 29 — or seven times better than Fort Myers-Cape Coral.

The study also reported that over the past eight holiday seasons, teen drivers nationwide have been involved in more than 5,000 fatal crashes between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
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