Florida Injury Attorney Blog

The law firm of Shorstein & Lasnetski, LLC had a client who was injured when he was driving home from work in Jacksonville Beach, Florida at night and was hit by another driver who failed to yield and turned directly in front of our client. The other driver's negligent driving caused injuries to our client and totaled his car. When the Jacksonville Beach police arrived, they suspected the other driver was drunk and initiated a driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) investigation. The other driver smelled of alcohol and was not able to balance on his feet very well. He was also combative and aggressive with the officer. After the officer determined that the other driver failed the field sobriety examination, the other driver was arrested for DUI and DUI with property damage. His breathalyzer results came back above the 0.08 legal limit.

In our client's personal injury case, we obviously focus on the other driver's negligent driving that clearly caused the accident. However, over and above that negligence, we assert that the other driver was reckless for driving while impaired by alcohol, and that a jury should award punitive damages for our client against the other driver. The Jacksonville Beach police officer's observations and field sobriety exams along with the breathalyzer results are strong evidence of the other driver's drunk driving. While the other driver's DUI case is still pending, if it results in a conviction and order of restitution, the other driver will be unable to deny that he was impaired by alcohol when he crashed into our client. A conviction for DUI and the criminal judge's order for the defendant to pay restitution pursuant to the crash has the effect of preventing the driver from denying in the civil case that he was drunk when the crash occurred. Therefore, when a person is injured in a crash by a drunk driver who is arrested for DUI, it is important for a personal injury or wrongful death attorney to stay apprised of the criminal case and make sure the prosecutor includes a restitution order with his offer if the defendant driver pleads to the charges or goes to trial and is found guilty. Once this is done and the defendant driver is prevented from denying the elements of the DUI with property damage in the civil case, the judge in the civil case will allow the injured plaintiff to request punitive damages against the defendant driver from the jury in the personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. A determination that the defendant driver was drunk when he/she caused the crash is clear evidence that the defendant driver was driving recklessly which is a basis for allowing a jury to award punitive damages against a defendant driver.

One person died and five more were injured when a pickup truck flipped and crashed on Bartram Park Boulevard near Old St. Augustine Road in Jacksonville, Florida, according to an article on www.News4Jax.com. All six of the injured individuals were riding in the pickup truck at the time of the crash. Three of them were in the cab, and three of them were riding in the bed. Jacksonville police indicated that the pickup truck driver may have been speeding, and they are testing the driver's blood alcohol content (BAC).

After such a serious accident involving a death and significant injuries, if a personal injury or wrongful death case results, there will be an extensive investigation done and many questions asked to determine to whom the cause of the injuries should be attributed. Personal injury and wrongful death lawyers for the passengers and the family of the deceased passenger will argue that the pickup driver was completely at fault and his insurance company should bear all of the responsibility for the subsequent death and injuries. If, as the article indicates, the pickup driver was speeding with three individuals in the bed of his truck, that is further evidence of the carelessness of the driver. Further, if the driver was intoxicated from alcohol or drugs,that is evidence of reckless conduct by the driver. However, in some auto accident cases, negligence is not absolute. In other words, the insurance company lawyers can argue that the victims bear some percentage of responsibility for their injuries. Depending on how the facts come out, the insurance company lawyers may argue that the passengers knew the driver had been drinking or was prone to speeding and should not have ridden with him. They could also argue that the passengers in the bed of the truck were negligent by sitting in a place that cannot be protected by seat belts and air bags.

In serious accidents such as this one, there are several issues related to the cause of the accident and the subsequent injuries that arise. When making a claim for an injury or death, it is important to begin the investigation quickly and uncover all of the facts so the anticipated defense from the insurance company lawyers can be dealt with and maximum compensation can be obtained.

Four people were killed after a pickup truck crashed into a minivan on I-95 South near Savannah, Georgia over the weekend, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Apparently, the pickup truck driver was driving the wrong way on I-95 during the late morning hours on Sunday. The pickup truck driver, Michael Delph, caused a head-on collision with the minivan that was occupied by five people, according to the article. Three of the minivan occupants died while two others were seriously injured and taken to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia.

There are several issues that are raised in a wrongful death and personal injury lawsuit that arises from such a tragic accident and involves several victims. The first issue in any such fatal accident- who was at fault in causing the accident- appears to be obvious. However, when a person is driving the wrong way on a highway as large and well traveled as I-95, the analysis goes further than ordinary negligence on the part of the pickup truck driver. As suggested in the article, other factors that indicate reckless driving by the pickup driver are likely involved. For instance, a lawyer for the injured passengers and family of the deceased would look into the pickup driver's blood alcohol content to explain how he could be driving the wrong way in the center lane on a road such as I-95 (open containers of alcohol were apparently found in Michael Delph's truck). Since Michael Delph, the pickup driver, also died as a result of this accident, there obviously will not be a typical DUI investigation conducted by the police officers who responded to the scene. However, there are other ways for wrongful death/personal injury lawyers to investigate an at-fault driver's level of intoxication when he/she dies in an accident. Medical records of that pickup driver from his treatment after the accident often provide helpful information to determine his condition at the time of the accident. While such medical records are normally confidential, they can be obtained by a wrongful death/personal injury lawyer in the context of a lawsuit where the other driver's condition is an issue.

More states are passing laws banning driving while using a text messaging device, although Florida has not joined them. North Carolina became the 14th state to institute a ban against driving while using a text messaging device. States are reviewing crash data and other studies which show the dangerous nature of driving while using a cell phone or text messaging device and passing laws to ban such driving. Some studies have equated driving while using some sort of mobile communication device to driving drunk. While most states appear to have some sort of ban against cell phones or text messaging devices, whether it only applies to bus drivers or drivers under the age of 18, Florida does not yet have any such law in place that applies to any driver according to information compiled by the Governors Highway Safety Association. However, injury accidents caused by people who were distracted due to talking on a cell phone or text messaging are becoming more prevalent, and it may only be a matter of time before Florida passes a law addressing the issue.

A young child was injured and flown to Shands Hospital after she was hit by a car in St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. The child, who was just under two years old, was injured when she was hit by a vehicle in a trailer park by a driver who said he was unable to see the small child. Although it is not clear whether this accident occurred while the vehicle was backing up or in some other manner, we have written on this blog a few times about the danger of vehicles backing up or otherwise driving without properly looking when small children are around. In the context of a personal injury lawsuit or wrongful death lawsuit, we would always look to see what extra steps a driver took to make sure the path is clear in areas where children may be present. Quite often, unfortunately, people back up vehicles and start driving without being extra careful that children are nowhere near the vehicle. In neighborhoods and other areas with small children, serious accidents and injuries are not uncommon.

Two boats collided near Brunswick, Georgia, (which is about an hour north of Jacksonville, Florida) resulting in the death of one boater and two others being rescued by the Coast Guard, according to an article on News4Jax.com. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources was still investigating the cause of the boat accident.

We normally discuss car accidents and semi truck accidents on this blog as those are the most common accidents, particularly in Jacksonville, Florida where two of the most well-traveled highways intersect. However, many of the same issues are present in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit based on a serious boating accident. The personal injury/wrongful death lawyer for the injured party or the family of the deceased will investigate all possible causes of the accident and determine why it occurred and who was at fault. Similar to semi truck accidents, there are issues of training and boating experience that need to be explored when a boat accident causes an injury or death. Alcohol is often a factor that causes or contributes to a serious accident.

Boating accidents, perhaps even more-so than auto accidents, should never occur absent some form of negligence or recklessness on the part of one or more boaters. When a serious accident occurs that results in an injury or death, it is important to uncover the facts quickly so all of the causes of the accident can be determined and the injured party can be properly compensated.

A man was driving on I-95 near I-10 in Jacksonville, Florida and crashed after apparently suffering a heart attack, according to a news story I saw recently. No one was seriously injured or killed as a result of the accident. However, this raises a question as to who is at fault when an accident is caused by a sudden medical condition like a heart attack, a blackout or some debilitating reaction to medication. It depends on the circumstances.

In order for a driver to be able to successfully use a medical condition as an excuse for an injury or fatal accident, it truly must be a sudden and unexpected event. For instance, if someone has no idea that he/she has any health problems and suffers a medical event for the first time, he/she could certainly argue that the accident was caused by an unexpected medical event. However, when this issue comes up, we always look into that person's medical history. What we often find is that the person had a previous diagnosis that put him/her on notice that driving is dangerous. There are often warnings in the driver's medical records that directly contradict a defense of a sudden medical event. Sometimes, a defendant driver will argue that he/she took medication that caused an unanticipated reaction that led to the accident. These defenses rarely work. More often than not, the driver had been on the medication for some time and would have been familiar with any side effects. Additionally, everyone is responsible for knowing the side effects of any medication they take and all medications come with information that warn of side effects and tell people when they should not drive or operate heavy machinery. With the information that comes with medication these days and is easily accessible on the Internet, it is hard for anyone to argue that they were not aware of possible reactions and side effects. In our view, for the medication side effect defense to be credible, the driver would have to be taking the medication very early in the prescription and the reaction would have to be something not covered by the warnings that come with the medication, which is unlikely given how thorough prescription medication literature is these days.

A teenager who was walking her dogs along Cornell Road in St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida was hit by a driver who then fled the scene, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. The teenager was injured as a result of the crash and taken to Shands Hospital. The driver fled the scene and was later caught after St. Johns County police received tips that she hid her car in the woods and removed the tag. The driver, Ginjer Ullman, was charged with leaving the scene of a crash with serious injury.

The fact that a crash involves a hit and run can certainly affect the value of a personal injury case when the victim is injured in such a crash. Attorneys for the victim would certainly investigate all possible reasons for the driver to have left the scene, whether drugs or alcohol were involved or some other factor that contributed to the driver's negligent or reckless driving. The insurance company for the hit and run driver and the defense lawyer the insurance company hires will also know they have an unsympathetic client and should be more willing to pay a fair settlement amount to resolve the personal injury case without a trial. When a driver causes a crash and leaves the scene, it raises several issues that can increase the value of a personal injury case. At a minimum, it casts doubt on any argument that the driver was not at fault in causing the crash but also raises red flags as to the extra dangerous behavior on the part of the driver that caused her to exacerbate the problem and her negligence by leaving the scene of the accident.

A pickup truck driver was killed after he ran into the back of a semi truck trailer on Highway 301 outside of Lawtey in Bradford County, Florida (which is about an hour and 15 minutes southwest of Jacksonville, Florida). According to the article, the tractor trailer was stopped along the side of the road when the pickup driver drove off of the road and into the back of the trailer.

While this accident appears to be fairly straightforward and caused by a vehicle leaving the road for some reason, we do see very serious accidents that result from semi trucks stopping in or near the road and creating a dangerous hazard that is difficult for other drivers to see. The threat of injury or death that comes from a car or truck driving into the back or side of a tractor trailer is obvious. This can happen when a semi truck stops or breaks down in the road and fails to get completely off of the road or at least fails to display the proper signs and markings alerting other vehicles that they are stopped in the road. When a passenger vehicle is driving at night or around a curve and comes upon an unmarked, or poorly marked tractor trailer, that driver often does not have enough time to avoid the trailer. Serious injury or fatal accidents result. When a semi truck driver stopsin or near the road, that driver must flash the approprioate lights on the tractor and the trailer and possibly put orange cones or other markings along the road so other drivers have advanced notice that the tractor trailer is there. Failure to do so creates a serious hazrad for other drivers that can easily result in a very serious accident.

A tractor trailer carrying a load of granite crashed causing the granite to spill all over I-95 just south of Jacksonville, Florida near the St. Johns County and Flagler County, Florida border, according to an article on news4Jax.com. The article did not indicate that any other vehicles were involved in the crash or that anyone was injured.

It is not clear how this semi truck crash occurred, but the potential for serious injury that is always present in a semi truck crash increases when the truck is carrying a dangerous load in its trailer that spills out into the road in the path of other vehicles, particularly on a busy road like I-95. When a semi truck causes an accident that results in injuries and/or death, there are always issues regarding the driving and operation of the semi truck that caused the accident. However, when the contents of the trailer contribute to the accident and/or another person's injuries, we also need to look at additional issues such as how the load was secured, whether it was secured properly and whether the semi truck driver was driving safely enough given the character, size and content of his/her load. Obviously, when a semi truck driver is transporting a particularly hazardous or heavy load, he/she needs to adjust his/her driving accordingly.