Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blog

Recently, two young people were killed and another seriously injured when they were standing near the side of the road as a result of a prior automobile accident in Plantation, Florida. Two of the victims had stopped to assist the driver of another car which had been disabled car in an earlier single car collision. A passing car collided with them. Currently, the Plantation police have not stated who was responsible for this horrific accident.

Last year in Miami, five people were struck and killed when they left their cars after a three-car accident along Interstate 95. Police said the driver who hit them was drunk and has since fled. In April, a Fort Lauderdale tractor-trailer driver was killed attempting to cross Interstate 75 after his truck collided another truck. Both of these accidents occurred in the low light of early morning.

In Hallandale, a 15-year-old Miami boy was struck and killed by a passing car as he helped three others push a disabled vehicle off I-95 near Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

Similarly, in Palm Beach County, an 18-year-old woman was struck and killed when she decided to leave her car which was disabled on I-95 near Forest Hill Boulevard to cross the highway about 3 a.m.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, if your car is disabled, particularly on a highway in I-95, you should attempt to stop your car off the highway and as far away as possible from moving traffic. If conditions permit, you can try to find safety behind a guard rail or possibly stand in front of the car to the side. If you must get out of your car,you do not want to stand behind your car where it can be hit by passing traffic and propelled into you.

If your vehicle is disabled on a busy highway, you need to be very careful before you decide to leave your car, taking into consideration the weather, the traffic, and lighting conditions. Particularly in multiple lane highways like I-95 you need to be extremely cautious before attempting to walk across the lanes of traffic. If you must leave your car, try to stay as far away from the side of the road as you reasonably can.

Continue reading "Roadsides on South Florida highways are risky for those who leave their cars " »

A helicopter crashed in northern Florida while carrying three people, all of whom died, while delivering a heart for transplant to a waiting patient. The crash occurred early Monday morning according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The helicopter had left St. Augustine and was heading to Gainesville, where the University of Florida, Shands Hospital, is located.

Aboard the helicopter was a heart surgeon, a procurement technician, and the pilot.

The downed helicopter, a Bell 206, was located by different helicopter in a remote wooded area. The Bell 206 is small and light weight and is usually used by police departments or traffic reporters.

Initially, weather does not appear to have been a factor as The National Weather Service only disclosed light fog with cloudy conditions, but no rain.

The cause of the crash will remain unknown until the NTSB issues its reports analyzing the pilot's experience, weather conditions, birds or other factors contributing to low visibility. The report will take months to prepare and examiners will be collecting evidence removed from the scene of the crash as well as maintenance records and the chopper's history of recalls, repairs and accidents.

It has been reported that the Bell 206 usually has an older engine which is no longer in use.

Continue reading "Florida Helicopter crashes while delivering heart for transplant " »

A motorcyclist was recently killed in Dania Beach at SW Sixth Street and Federal Highway when a car collided with his motorcycle.

The senior driver and his wife were returning home from dinner in their Cadillac automobile around 6:30 in the evening. The Cadillac was proceeding southbound on Federal Highway and made a left turn onto Southeast Sixth Street in front of motorcyclist which was heading northbound on federal highway. The driver of the car said the motorcycle was speeding.

Currently BSO is still investigating.

This type of intersectional collision is very common in motorcycle death cases. Typically the driver of the car is heading in the opposite direction of the motorcycle. The driver doesn't see the motorcycle as it approaches and the driver makes a left turn directly in front of the bike. Occasionally, there may be a car driving in front of the motorcycle which obscures the view for motorists driving in the opposite direction.

With this type of impact the biker could be seriously injured or killed.

Continue reading "Dania Beach Motorcyclist Killed in Accident" »

In less than one month, pit bulls have attacked several young children in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The mother of one of the young children attack believes that Broward County should enact a ban against this breed, similar to the one in Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade's law bans ownership of American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers or any other dog that exhibits the traits of these breeds.

The inherent difficulty in banning breeds like Pit Bulls is that very rarely are these dogs entirely purebred. Often they are a mix of American Staffordshire terriers with other types of dogs. Pit Bull lovers love to argue that these bans are unfair because they believe the violence these dogs commit is unrelated to the breed, but rather the result of bad owners, the evidence seems undeniable.

One victim this week was riding his bike near his Deerfield Beach home when he was bitten by a pit bull. The boy fled to a playmate's home, where an adult was required to beat the animal off the boy. The young boy suffered a broken arm and wounds on his face and limbs that required at least 30 stitches.

Another child in Deerfield Beach was bitten by a Pit Bull, requiring a neighbor to shoot and kill the dog. Although the child will recover from her physical injuries, the emotional trauma will be much more difficult to overcome.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that 885,000 Americans seek medical attention for dog bites every year, and that half of them are children. Of the injured, 31,000 require reconstructive surgery, the website says.

Broward County Animal Care and Adoption policy is that if a dog has a previous bite history and bites someone else, it could be euthanized under county law, pending appeal by its owner.

The CDC's website states that Pit Bulls were responsible, more than any other breed of dog, for fatal dog bites to humans.

With each passing year, the problem of Pit Bulls becomes increasingly apparent. Both Broward County and the State of Florida need to find the political will to ban this aggressive breed from our streets and our children.

Continue reading "Two Deerfield Beach children bitten by Pit Bull " »

Negligent gun shootings are on the rise in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Negligent shootings involve the unintentional discharge of a firearm. These typically occur when a loaded gun is not adequately secured and children or adults unfamiliar with a firearm get their hands on the gun which fires. The overwhelming majority of these incidents are easily preventable.

Since last year, nearly a dozen shootings have occurred resulting in serious injury or death which marks a dramatic increase over past years.

One of the most tragic stories involves a Deerfield Beach father who left his loaded gun in his pickup truck where his 10-year-old son discovered it and fatally shot his 11-year-old brother.

In the vast majority of negligent shootings, unfamiliarity with the firearms by the owner was the root cause. Many gun owners fail to understand that with semi-automatic weapons, even though the magazine which holds the bullets is removed from the gun, a bullet can still be in the chamber and can be fired if the trigger is pulled. In addition to simply a lack of knowledge regarding gun safety, every new hand gun sold today comes with a trigger lock which, if used, would have prevented all of the South Florida tragedies.

In each of these negligent shootings, the owner exhibited a lack of common sense. As long as the discharge of the firearm was not intentional, the victim of these shootings may recover from the gun's owner home insurance policy under a theory of negligence. If you or a loved one has been injured by the accidental discharge of a gun, you need to be aware of the possibility that you may be able to recover for your damages.

Continue reading "Negligent gun shootings increase in South Florida" »

According to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, for the year 2010, automobile fatalities fell into the following categories:

Careless driving, 26

Failed to yield right of way, 13

Exceeded safe speed limit, 11

Broward County Driving under the influence of alcohol, 10

Improper lane change, 5

Disregarded traffic signal, 4

Driving on the wrong side or wrong way, 4

Followed too closely, 4

Improper turn, 3

Exceeded posted speed limit, 3

Driving under the influence of drugs, 2

Disregarded stop sign, 2

Failed to maintain equipment/vehicle, 1

Driving under the influence of alcohol and druge, 1

Drove left of center, 1

Ran off roadway, 1

Over-correcting/Over-steering, 1

Other, 71

Continue reading "Broward County deadly car crashes " »

A federal judge in Bay City, Michigan, recently approved a $1 million settlement in the wrongful death suit filed by the family of a Bay City teen filed by his family. The wrongful suit was filed in December 2009, following the death of 15-year-old boy died when Bay City police used a Taser to subdue him.

The autopsy showed the teen died of "alcohol-induced excited delirium" together with "application of an electromuscular disruption device." Officers claim the teenager was drunk and displayed an aggressive stance toward them when they were responding to reports of a fight. No charges were brought against the officers.

People often assume that since Tasers are less lethal than guns, that they are relatively safe to fire at people. In fact, Tasers have been involved in a number of deaths.

Because of the potential for serious injury and death, Tasers may result in wrongful death cases in the context of a civil rights action against law enforcement or even a civil lawsuit against a private party for assault and battery.

Continue reading "Settlement in Taser Death Suit" »

An Indiana appeals court has upheld the South Florida "small print" venue provision buried in a Carnival Cruise Lines' ticket. A woman filed suit against Carnival in her home state of Indiana alleging that as a cruise passenger she became ill because the Carnival ship she was on was going too fast.

Doris Beard sued Carnival claiming "due to the speed of the ship I became very sick, my body swayed terrible on the ship I had bleeding, which I had not has [sic] in three years. The ship was moving so fast everyone on board became sick, even the workers," according to a court document.

Carnival's attorneys requested that the case be dismissed based on the "small print" venue clause in its ticket, contending that lawsuits against the company by passengers are required to be filed South Florida, where the cruise line is based.

Although the cruise line's motion was denied by the Indiana small claims court, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the decision finding that the small claims court "erred." The end result is that the woman can re-file her lawsuit in South Florida, assuming that she is still within the one-year statute of limitations.

Most cruise lines, particularly those based in South Florida departing from the Port of Miami or Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, have provisions for venue and the statute of limitations printed in their tickets. Frequently, this language is buried somewhere in the middle of the ticket in fine print with language straight out a law school text book.

"Venue" is the legal term for where a lawsuit must be filed and a "Statute of Limitations" deals with the time period in which a passenger must file suit. Carnival's ticket limits venue to the federal court in South Florida and has a one year statute of limitations. The courts have enforced these provisions, which can be quite onerous for a passenger seeking legal redress against Carnival for injuries or damages, particularly when they are living out of the South Florida area. This impediment is the intended effect of incorporating this language in small print buried somewhere in the ticket.

Continue reading "Carnival passengers must sue cruise line in South Florida" »

Lona Varner, an 87 year old grandmother in El Reno, Oklahoma, agreed to settle the federal lawsuit she filed after police shocked her in her own bed with a Taser. The officers were also alleged to have stepped on Varner's oxygen hose depriving her of air.

Varner filed a lawsuit against the City of El Reno claiming she was wrongly stunned with a Taser. The police threw Varner's grandson to the floor and handcuffed him when he told officers, "Don't Tase my granny!"

Citing a confidentiality agreement, Varner's attorney would not disclose the amount of the settlement.

Police officers claim they entered Varner's apartment after learning that she might be attempting suicide with a drug overdose. They also claimed that the 87 year old Varner pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and said, 'If you try and get the knife, I will stab you and kill you.'" The officers claimed it was necessary to stun Varner to prevent her from attacking them. Varner denied making any threats to police and also denied attempting suicide.

While no one would deny that being a police officer is a dangerous job, it is hard to conceive how these officers could have felt legitimately threatened by this 87 year old granny and why they had to to stun her twice with their Taser. This absurdity was apparently the primary reason the City of El Reno settled this case rather than have a jury decide it.

As most of you know, the Taser is considered a less lethal means (as opposed to a gun) of stopping a dangerous suspect. The Taser fires an electrical dart into the suspect and stuns him or her with an electrical current. For the most part, people stunned with a Taser make a complete recovery. Perhaps because of the reduced potential for serious injuries to granny, the officers felt they could "teach a lesson" of respect to Varner with their Taser.

Indeed, Varner recovered, but the professional judgment of the officers in using this degree of force to restrain an 87 year old woman was questionable. The end result is that the city, on the eve of trial, paid money to settle this case.

Continue reading "Grandmother, 87 years young, settles lawsuit against police for Tasering her" »

Two young women, age 18, tragically died when their car was struck by a tractor trailer carrying a heavy load. Another passenger in the car is recovering from serious injuries.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that on the evening of March 29th, the three were in a Toyota Camry and driving east on Southern Boulevard approaching the intersection of County Road 880 as a tractor-trailer hauling thousands of pounds of lettuce was crossing.

While the details of the crash are still under investigation, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, the car struck the rear of the trailer, causing it to roll, which resulted in major crush damage to the vehicle. Incredibly, the truck driver, who was not hurt, kept going. The truck driver was pulled over later that evening and claimed to be unaware of the accident. The damage to the car was consistent with the damage to the truck.

18 Wheelers are a fact of life on any expressway in South Florida. You do not need to have a Phd in physics to appreciate the potential for disaster when a tractor trailer impacts a passenger automobile. These trucks have "black boxes" which can reveal things like the speed of the truck at the time of the crash. This type of information can be vital in determining fault for a truck accident, particularly where the occupants of the car have been killed or severely injured.

Continue reading "Two South Florida Teenagers killed in Truck Accident" »

Another vicious attack by a pit bull, the second in two days, sent two more victims to a Palm Beach County, Florida hospital.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reports that a male pit bull bit a 39-year-old woman in Lake Worth as she returned one of its puppies to its litter. The "severe attack" happened at a mobile home in a trailer park. The woman's hand and forearm were severely injured, the Sheriff's Office said. The woman owns the pit bull who bit her, which had just fathered a litter of puppies in their home.

When another person tried to provide assistance , this person was also bitten.
Both victims were taken to Wellington Regional Medical Center. Animal control workers removed the dogs from the home.

When will the defenders of pit bull ownership wake up? While some of these dogs may indeed be non-violent, there is a disproportionate number which are extremely violent and capable of inflicting serious injuries, particularly on young children.

The Tennessee Legislature has considered legislation which would fine owners of pit bulls for the violent attacks of their dogs and required them to carry liability insurance for the victims of these dogs. The Florida Legislature should do the same.

Continue reading "Another pit bull attack sends two victims to Florida hospital " »

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.

Continue reading "Dania Protestors tell Florida Governor Scott not to scrap pill data base. " »

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.

Continue reading "Homestead Turnpike Extension no longer accepting cash for tolls" »

Every year it seems like we hear about someone "disappearing" at sea while on a cruise. More often than not, there are no witnesses to what happened and the cruise ships label the disappearances as "mysterious circumstances." The cruise lines may spin these situations as a simple case of a drunk passenger deciding to jump.

According to Canadian college professor, Ross Klein, in 2008 there were 12 passengers or crewmen have gone overboard from cruise ships or ferries. Since no central government agency maintains records of cruise ship disappearances or deaths or falls from cruise ships, Professor Klein derived his data from various news outlets.

"They're (the cruise lines) trying to sell a vacation product and this isn't good news . . . .They tout cruising as the safest mode of transportation anywhere in the world. People go on them expecting to be safe, and these incidents contradict that perception," states Professor Klein.

Every cruise ship has barriers designed to prevent passengers from falling overboard. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine some one falling off a cruise ship without being drunk or disregarding their safety. Nevertheless the cruise ships have the legal responsibility to take reasonable precautions to prevent this type of foreseeable occurrence.

Although falling overboard would seem to involve some comparative negligence on the part of the passenger, the cruise ships frequently over serve alcohol to their passengers without limits. Alcohol is a big money maker for the cruise lines. As a result of over-imbibing, passengers tend to fall on the decks of cruise ships and some even overboard. Accordingly, there may be some liability on the cruise lines for falls on and off the ship even though the passenger may have been intoxicated.

"It's drink and drink and drink," says Charles Harris, former chief of security for Carnival Cruises, a critic of cruise industry secrecy. "We'll take your money, and if you fall overboard, we don't worry about it."

Continue reading "Cruiselines sugarcoating passengers missing at sea?" »

A tire blowout resulted in a fatal accident involving a day laborers' van. One man was killed and five others were injured on Interstate 95. In the truck were day laborers who resided in Fort Pierce, Florida. They were headed to work at the time of the accident. One of the men, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene. The other occupants of the vehicle were transported to various local hospitals.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the men were in a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan headed south in a construction zone when the left rear tire tread separated and the vehicle lost control. The van proceeded to crash into a retaining wall and flipped over, ejected one of the men who was not restrained by a seat belt. The accident result in massive delays for traffic on I-95.

The consequences of a defective tire on the highway cannot be overstated. Vehicles experiencing blowouts at high speeds are prone to flipping and if the occupants are not restrained by a seat belt, there is a strong possibility that they could be ejected from the vehicle. The tire pressures should always be at the recommended settings. Also, one needs to be careful when buying retreads because of the possibility that the retread may separate from the tire.

This case is another tragic example of the catastrophies that can result from defective tires. If the defect was preventable, legal action may be filed against the manufacturer.

Continue reading "Tire Blowout results in fatal South Florida car crash" »