Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blog

A 12 year old girl on vacation with her family in Wisconsin suffered serious injuries when she fell off an amusement park ride. The girl fell approximately 100 feet from the "Terminal Velocity" ride and landed on the ground below. According to police, the ride operators failed to have a safety net.

The girls' doctors say she should survive, but may suffer from paralysis. The ride's operator was charged with felony reckless injury.

Amusement park accidents are ofter serious because of the nature of the rides, which are frequently fast-moving or high off the ground. Although the rides are supposed to be inspected, it is not uncommon for there to be structural defects in the rides such as metal fatigue. Often, accidents results from something as simple as the failure by the ride operator to provide the proper safety restraints or other devices such as a safety net. The public's safety should not be placed in the hands of amusement park operators. State and local authorities need to be more vigilant in their inspection practices. Had this occurred in this unfortunate incident, something as obvious as the lack of a safety net would have been discovered.

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BSO and the Coast Guard are examining the death of a 53 year old physician who was scuba diving from a commercial dive boat off Hillsboro Beach, Florida, after he became ill at sea.

BSO's Marine Unit heard a radio report of a diver experiencing difficulty. The BSO boat met the dive vessel and transported the man to shore where paramedics took him to a nearby hospital in Fort Lauderdale. A short while later the man was pronounced dead.

In South Florida, scuba diving accidents are not uncommon, frequently resulting in death. Commercial dive boats are required to be inspected and certified on a regular basis. Dive boat operators need to be vigilant because of the number of scuba divers they are escorting and possibility that their divers could get into difficulty. Dive boat operators need to conducted counts of divers before and after the dives. The operators also need to be extremely alert during the dive and to constantly scan the horizon for distressed divers.

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A jury in Gainesville, Florida, awarded $6.2 million to a Jacksonville man who died after having underwent gastric bypass surgery for weight loss at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida. The decedent was a University of North Florida business school professor who died there in 2002.

The surgery was uneventful, but the decedent developed breathing difficulties.According to the attorney, the decedent was sent to radiology for a CT scan by a nurse, who had not checked his oxygen saturation levels. After telling the CT technicians that "I feel like I am dying" and said he didn't think he could breathe at all if they laid him flat, he was instructed to lie down on the CT table.

Shands Hospital did not check his oxygen saturation levels, nor did they call in a radiologist to check the decedent, who died during the scanning procedure. He is survived by his wife, Lisa, and 10-year-old son, Tyler.

In this era of quick fixes, we have all seen advertisements for gastric bypass in newspapers and television. What you don't hear about from the advertisers offering these procedures are the complications and the risks. The reality is that weight loss surgery is risky and even if you go to a reputable facility like Shands hospital, there are no guarantees. Some times the simplest procedure like testing oxygen saturation levels
is overlooked with devastating results.

Continue reading "$6.2M award in malpractice suit against University of Florida hospital" »

The ubiquitous red-light camera has arrived in Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale city officials announced that the cameras are being installed in a number of active intersections throughout Fort Lauderdale.

In case you haven't heard, red-light cameras are installed at various intersections and are intended to photograph cars which run red lights. The photographs show the car's license plate, but not the driver. Beginning in September, red-light runners in Fort Lauderdale will receive a $158.00 fine. According to Fort Lauderdale authorities the cameras will be in operation 24 hours a day, and warning signs will be posted that the intersection uses photo enforcement.

In addition to raising city revenue through fines,the installation of red-light cameras also serve the purpose of deterring would-be red-light runners because these drivers will no longer be able to count on the absence of any police cars to justify ignoring red-lights.

Opponents of red-light cameras cite privacy concerns and have met with some success in challenging their constitutionality based on technical grounds. They also argue that since the cameras can only photograph the license plate and not the drivers that an injustice may result since someone other than the owner may be driving.

For the years between 2004 and 2009, traffic accidents resulting from red-light runners in Fort Lauderdale resulted in 26 wrongful deaths. These photographs have tremendous evidentiary potential in personal injury and wrongful death cases where it is alleged that one of the drivers ran a red light. Frequently, both sides point to the other as the violator and there are no independent witness to support either side. Of course, attorneys will need to be able to get these photographs and access to them will create a whole new set of legal issues.

The following intersections will have red-light cameras:

N. Federal Highway at N.E. 8th Street

N.E. 15th Ave at E. Sunrise Blvd.

SR 84 at SW 9th Ave.

W. Sunrise Blvd. at N.W. 15th Ave.

W. Commercial Blvd at NW 21st Ave.

S. Fed.l Highway at SR 84

N.W 62nd Street at NW 9th Ave.

W. Commercial Blvd. at N.W. 9th Ave.

N.W. 62nd St. at N.W. 31st Ave.

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