Florida Injury Attorney Blog

We have written several times on our blog about serious injury and fatal accidents caused by people who were distracted while driving because they were talking on their cell phones or sending or receiving text messages. Studies show that driving while texting can be as dangerous as driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs because it takes a person's focus off of the road for significant periods of time. Would you rather have the person in another vehicle driving after a few drinks at dinner or looking down at his/her cell phone while he/she types out a text message for 20 seconds while driving 65 miles per hour? Neither is ideal.

However, a recent study showed that a driver's reaction time is significantly reduced if he/she is listening to sports on the radio and more so when the person is particularly interested in the game or discussion. The study found that reaction times for drivers intently listening to a game while driving were up to 20% slower which certainly can be the difference between safe driving and causing a serious accident. The number of incidents of hard braking almost doubled when drivers were listening to sports radio.

While different states are making it illegal to drive while texting or talking on a cell phone, it is unlikely that anything would be done about people driving while listening to anything on the radio. However, some people do get inordinately caught up into a game or sports talk show on the radio, and it could cause them to be less alert to their surroundings and more susceptible to causing an accident. It is an issue that personal injury and wrongful death lawyers should explore in a personal injury/wrongful death lawsuit during a deposition or otherwise.

In January of 2009, a medium sized tour bus with 16 passengers was involved in a very serious accident in Arizona after the bus driver became distracted and crashed. Apparently, the bus driver was distracted by something with the door to the bus and as a result, the bus, which was going 70 miles per hour, veered out of its lane of travel. Once the bus driver realized he was out of his lane, he jerked the steering wheel to get the bus back in its lane but lost control of the bus. The bus rolled over and came to rest in the oncoming lane. Seven passengers on the bus were killed in the accident, and ten were injured.

The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the fatal accident. The NTSB concluded that if the bus had a lane departure warning system, the driver would have been alerted to the act that the bus was veering outside of its lane. Additionally, if the bus was equipped with a stability control system, the likelihood of the bus losing control and rolling over would have been reduced. Stability control systems are now fairly common on automobiles and SUV's. The NTSB noted that it is unclear from federal regulations whether medium sized buses are required to have this kind of safety equipment. As a result, the NTSB recommended that all vehicles over 10,000 pounds should have lane departure warning and stability control systems, among other safety equipment.

The NTSB's recommendation makes sense and should have been implemented years ago. If regular passenger vehicles have this safety equipment, larger vehicles that may be more susceptible to rolling over and carry many passengers should surely have at least the same, if not more, safety equipment as well.

Two people died and two were seriously injured after their vehicles crashed in Webster, Florida (which is about 3 hours southwest of Jacksonville, Florida). According to the article, Kodi Chamberlain and Roger Higby were driving on State Road 471 in Sumter County, Florida when their vehicle veered off of the roadway. The driver was able to get the vehicle back onto the road, but it drove into the oncoming lane when it crashed into an oncoming vehicle.

It is unclear from the article exactly why and how this accident occurred, but as personal injury and wrongful death lawyers in Florida, we do see a lot of similar crashes in rural areas. It is not uncommon for drivers in rural areas to lose focus and veer off the road. This can be an extremely dangerous situation even where the vehicle leaves the road for mere seconds. Vehicles traveling on rural roads are often traveling at high speeds. Additionally, rural roads are often more narrow than the roads in more urban areas. If a vehicle does leave the road, the shoulder next to the road in a rural area is often grass or dirt which can make it difficult, and very dangerous, for a driver to safely get back on the road. Often, a driver will panic when the vehicle leaves the roadway and overreact, or over-correct, so that when the vehicle turns back onto the road, it does so at too sharp and angle and too fast so the vehicle drives through its lane and into the oncoming lane. Under those circumstances, these kinds of serious, high speed, head-on accidents occur, and fatalities and serious injuries often result.

More and more states are passing laws that make it illegal to drive while using a text messaging device. With studies coming out showing the dangers of driving while texting, often comparing the practice to driving while intoxicated, and the increased number of serious auto accidents involving drivers who were distracted while driving because of their cell phones, these laws banning driving while texting are becoming more prevalent.

Under the new law in Georgia, a driver who is caught driving while texting may receive a ticket and a $150 fine with a point added to his/her license.

A head-on collision resulted in the death of a teenager in Baker County, Florida which is just west of Jacksonville, Florida, according to an article in News4Jax.com. William Hardin was reportedly driving along U.S. 90 in Baker County, Florida when he crossed the center line and struck the vehicle driven by 15 year old Travis Suggs, who died from his injuries. Several of the passengers in Travis's vehicle were seriously injured.

It is unclear from the article what caused the driver to cross the center line and cause the head-on crash. However, these kinds of serious accidents are not uncommon in less-traveled, rural areas. Some people might expect the majority of serious accidents to occur in more urban areas on busier roads due to the higher traffic levels. However, studies show that traveling on smaller roads in more rural areas can be just as, if not more, dangerous. Rural roads are often narrower with soft shoulders leaving little margin for error. The speed limits are often higher on average than streets within cities. People have a tendency to lose focus while driving when there are not a lot of other drivers, traffic signals, street signs and other things that can keep a person more alert. In rural areas on narrower roads, even a minor mistake can result in a very serious accident.

A Dodge Durango was rear ended on I-10 in Columbia County, Florida (which is about an hour west of Jacksonville, Florida), and two children in a family from Arkansas were killed in the accident according to an article on News4Jax.com. Other occupants of the Dodge Durango were seriously injured in the crash. The article indicates that Jordan Burch's vehicle hit the Dodge Durango from behind on I-10 which caused the accident. However, the accident was still under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol at the time the article was posted.

Whenever there is a serious accident like this one, it is important to determine who was at fault so the injured parties can be compensated in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit. In Florida, when there is a rear end accident like this one, there is a legal presumption that the back vehicle driver was negligent and liable for the damages caused by the crash. One reason for this legal presumption in Florida is that the back driver is in a better position to anticipate and avoid such a crash since the front driver is most likely looking ahead rather than behind his/her vehicle at any given time. This presumption can be refuted, for instance if the front driver did not have lights on at night or slammed on the brakes suddenly for no reason, but those instances are rare. In most accidents of this nature, the back driver could and should have avoided the crash and is fully responsible for all damages that result from the rear end accident.

A person riding a bicycle on Cedar Point Road near Gate Road in Jacksonville, Florida was struck by a vehicle and killed, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Police were still investigating who was at fault in the accident at the time the article was posted.

Jacksonville, Florida is a city with a lot of bicyclists year round because of the good weather. However, many of the streets are not conducive to safe bike riding. Additionally, a lot of vehicle drivers do not seem to understand that they need to share the road with bikers. Driving around in Jacksonville, Florida, we see a lot of bicyclists on the roads. We also see a lot of cars who do not slow down or move over to accommodate the bicyclists. Some drivers seem to think that bicyclists do not belong on the roads and should be relegated to the sidewalks. But that is not the law in Florida. Bicyclists are permitted to ride on the roads just like vehicles. When vehicles are in the vicinity of bicyclists, those drivers need to slow down, move aside or make any other adjustments to safely share the road with bicyclists.

As more and more drivers distract themselves with cell phones and text messaging devices, the roads become more dangerous for bicyclists who are often in close proximity to motor vehicles. If a vehicle driver hits a bicyclist, whether because he/she was distracted or just failed to take the necessary steps to make way for the bicycle, serious injuries often result and the vehicle driver is often at fault for negligent driving.

Three people were killed after their vehicle swerved off of I-95 and drove into a tree in Titusville, Florida. According to the article, the driver, Jeff Cain, had to swerve to avoid a grill that fell off a truck in front of Mr. Cain's vehicle on I-95. The car left the roadway and rolled over before hitting a tree. Three occupants were killed, and another was seriously injured.

These kinds of accidents are not uncommon, unfortunately. Normally, when there is a one-vehicle accident, fault for the accident lies with the driver of that vehicle. However, there are exceptions, for instance, when another driver's negligence causes a hazard like this one. Whenever a person places something in his/her vehicle or trailer that could potentially be a hazard to other drivers on the roads, it is imperative that the person secure that item to ensure that it does not fall from the vehicle or trailer. A grill falling onto I-95 would certainly qualify as a potentially dangerous object that needs to be securely tied down. When a grill or similar object falls onto a road like I-95 where the speed limit is 65 miles per hour, it creates a serious and immediate hazard that is likely to cause a serious accident like this one. In a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit surrounding an accident like this, it is important to investigate how the grill was secured, if at all, why it fell from that vehicle and how the person was driving with that unsecured load in his/her vehicle. More than likely, the driver of the vehicle with the grill was negligent in failing to properly store and secure the grill which resulted in this serious, fatal accident.

Hopefully, the driver of the truck stopped at the scene of the crash, or his license tag was recorded by someone, so that his information and insurance information could be discovered. If so, personal injury/wrongful death lawyers would certainly want to question that driver about the circumstances of him/her placing and securing the grill in the truck and the manner in which he/she was driving with that grill in the truck. If not, the injured victim and the families of the deceased victims would still be able to make a claim with their own insurance companies for damages under an uninsured motorist insurance policy.

A recent study using information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that I-95 is the most dangerous highway in the U.S. in terms of serious, fatal traffic crashes. Particularly, in Florida the study found that there were 1.73 deaths per mile on I-95 in Florida. I-4, which also runs through Florida, was found to be the 3rd most dangerous highway in the country.

As people who live here in Jacksonville, Florida know, I-95 and I-4 are major highways that are well traveled in Jacksonville. It is not uncommon to see serious accidents on those roads and hear about them in the radio traffic reports. Because two of the more popular highways in the country intersect in Jacksonville, we also have a large number of semi trucks that drive on our roads after having traveled long distances from other parts of the country. The existence of tractor-trailer drivers, some of whom are fatigued from the long drives, add to the dangers of driving in and around Jacksonville. This study should come as no surprise to those of us who drive on I-95 and I-4 in Jacksonville, Florida every day.