Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blog

Angry mothers and fathers picketed a Dania Beach pain clinic to remind Florida Governor Rick Scott not to get rid of a computer system designed to track pain pill abuse and pill mills throughout Florida.

Scott and some of his fellow Republicans want to cancel Florida's plans to start a computer system that would log into a computer every pain drug prescription. The purpose of the database is to keep track of pill mills which have become a major supplier of illegal prescription based medications. Drug pushers and addicts frequently go from pain mill to pain clinic and shop doctors looking for multiple prescriptions of addictive narcotics.

"I'm very upset with Gov. Scott," said one mother whose son died of an oxycodone overdose on his birthday. "I voted him in, thinking he would do the right thing. He's turning a blind eye to what's going on" in Florida.

Scott claims he is concerned that the pill database might cost Florida an extra half million dollars a year. Scott really is placing teaparty politics ahead of the safety and citizens of the State of Florida. Acknowledging the old maxim that a "penny saved is a penny earned," certainly the wisdom of being "penny wise and a dollar foolish" is appropriate here. If the data base can have even a minimal effect on the availability of dangerous narcotics in Florida, than the extra dollars spent would be well worth it.

Unfortunately, Rick Scott's decision to cancel the pill data base is just a one more example of his political naivete and misguided efforts to cater to the the tea party. In so doing, Scott has chosen to align himself with the extreme right of the Republican party and to ignore the very real concerns of most Florida citizens.

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In case you haven't noticed while driving along the highways of South Florida, there are more and more SunPass lanes. SunPass lanes permit cars to bypass the tollbooths by allowing the driver to pay his tolls electronically through the use of transponder. Instead of stopping and paying cash at the toll booths, cars equipped with the SunPass transponder can simply proceed through the SunPass lane. The SunPass transponder can be purchased through the State of Florida or at various retail stores and the tolls are paid through a SunPass account.

Because of the success of Florida's SunPass program, the Sunshine State Turnpike will no longer be collecting cash from drivers at toll booths along the Homestead Extention which runs 47 miles from Miramar to Florida City.

Drivers on the Homestead Extention will pay with their SunPass, or will be billed later, based on photographs of their license plate taken from remote cameras. This is the first step in a plan by the state to convert the Florida's turnpike system to a cashless toll road through the use of the SunPass System. The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority did this with the Gratigny Parkway, Don Shula Expressway and Snapper Creek Expressway.

In addition to the savings involved in not having workers collect cash at toll booths, not to mention the traffic delays caused by the stopping and the lines of cars at the toll booths,collecting the tolls electronically is much safer.

The National Transportation Safety Board in 2006 has recommend that toll plazas nationwide to be revamped with all-electronic tolling to reduce the risk of rear-end collisions at toll plazas with a mix of cash and electronic lanes. A staffed toll booth can process about 350 vehicles per hour. A SunPass lane where drivers merely slow to 25 mph can can handle to 1,600 vehicles per hour. Open road tolling, with no gates, barriers or booths, can handle up to 2,200 vehicles per hour.

Welcome to the 21st Century! Along with hands free cell phones equipped in most new cars, technology is reducing the need for drivers to stop at toll plazas. Because of the high rate of speed on South Florida's highways, serious rear-end accidents frequently occur where cars are backed up and an inattentive driver is approaching the toll plaza. It is not to difficult to imagine what can happened to the occupants of a car when is rear-ended at 35 mphs by a driver who is not paying attention when he approaches a toll plaza.

The transition from having cars stop to pay cash at a toll both to paying toll electronically while continuing to drive, is a welcome change which makes Florida's highways safer for everybody.

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According to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators an expedition cruise ship visiting Antarctica with Americans on board was damaged on Monday after striking an uncharted rock. The "Polar Star" struck the large rock while at anchor just north of Detaille Island at the Antarctic Peninsula.

Following the collision, the "Polar Star," was able to free itself from the rock. There were 80 passengers are on board the vessel including 32 Americans, 9 Canadians and 8 Australians. Fortunately, no passengers were injured.

The initial damage assessment revealed that the ship's outer hull was breached from the collision, but the inner hull was unharmed. The 4,998-ton "Polar Star" is now sailing north along the Antarctic Peninsula under its own power, with the hopes of returning to its home port of Ushuaia, Argentina. The ship's captain reports there was no apparent oil spill outside the ship, but booms have been deployed as a precaution."

Although more than a century has passed since the "Titanic" struck that infamous iceberg in the North Atlantic, a cruise ship's safe return to its home port is not always a certainty. Less than two months earlier another cruise ship visiting Antarctica, the "Clelia II," was damaged by large waves.

Although both the "Polar Star" and the "Clelia II" were based out of Argentina, there have been several incidents of cruise ships limping back to Port Everglades and the Port of Miami, both located in South Florida. Cruise ship mishaps can involve more than just a ruined vacation or inconvenience, they can also result in injury or death That is why some one considering a cruise should check out the ship's safety record, particularly in light of the intended itinerary.

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