Fort Myers car accident lawyer

Rear-End Collision Avoidance Technology to Become Standard

December 3, 2015 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has long been interested in driving down the number of rear-end collisions.

Nearly one-third of all collisions are rear-end accidents, the agency reports, and the vast majority of those are avoidable. The problem has only worsened in recent years with the proliferation of smart phones. Distraction was always a contributing factor to rear-end crashes, but now everyone has a a personal computer at their fingertips during every trip. In Florida, 1 in every 4 crashes can be attributed at least in part to some form of driver distraction.

Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that if car manufacturers want to receive a 5-Star Rating for safety, they’ll have to install automatic emergency braking systems standard by 2018. The announcement comes just weeks after 10 auto manufacturers indicated they would be doing just that voluntarily within the next several years. Continue reading ›

O’Connor v. George – Misrepresentation of Evidence in Crash Case

October 8, 2015 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

Evidence that is submitted for consideration of a judge or jury in a car accident case must be stipulated as a true and accurate representation, to the best of knowledge available.

When evidence is not properly represented, it deprives jurors of the opportunity to fully weigh the facts. If such an error is allowed to proceed uncorrected, it could be grounds for a mistrial or a retrial.

That’s what happened in the case of O’Connor v. George, before the Montana Supreme Court. Continue reading ›

Kimminau v. City of Hastings – Government Liability for Roadway Cleanup

August 1, 2015 | Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner

When a crash occurs on government roads, it is the duty of government authorities to close the roadway in a timely manner until debris has been cleared and the site is safe for traffic. Once the roadway has been cleared for resumed traffic by authorities, the government could be liable for remaining debris left in the road, should it be the cause of a traffic accident resulting in injury.

This was the situation in Kimminau v. City of Hastings, recently weighed by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

A messy spill of food material on the road occurred as a result of a truck accident. Government employees and volunteer firefighters were called to clear the debris from the road. They did so and the road was cleared for traffic. But when an accident the following day was attributed to remaining debris from that earlier crash, the question was who was responsible.