Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

As Coral Springs personal injury lawyers, we understand the pain and suffering that families of DUI accident victims endure after losing a loved one due to a Florida drunk driving accident. Unfortunately, car accidents caused by drunk drivers happen all too often in the U.S. We are especially touched when these tragedies happen close to home.

On Thursday, July 28, 2011, a man from Miramar, Florida was sentenced to 10 years in prison for causing a motorcycle accident in 2009 which led to the death of a 43-year-old man. Robert Louis Jones's blood alcohol level was 0.236, almost three times the legal limit, when he crashed into Eric Maron's motorcycle.

Jones ran away from the scene of the accident, leaving his fiance's 9-year-old daughter in the car, for which he was sentenced to an additional 5 years for child neglect. According to the Sun Sentinel's report, Jones was also in violation of his probation in Maryland on a different drunk driving case in which he fled the scene of an accident involving bodily injury.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), one person dies every 50 minutes in a drunk driving accident in the U.S. One person is injured every minute in a drunk driving accident. A large percentage of convicted drunk drivers (50 to 75 percent) keep driving despite having a suspended license.

Continue reading "Broward County Drunk Driving Accident Results in the Death of a Motorcyclist" »

A Fort Lauderdale accident involving a car and a scooter on Thursday, July 21, 2011 has injured a 26-year-old man. The scooter accident took place on the 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale, when a BMW struck Jared Sacks' scooter, ejecting him and causing "severe head injuries," according to the Sun Sentinel's report.

According to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) report from 2005, about 10,000 people ended up in the ER for injuries linked to electric or motor powered scooters from July 2003 to June 2004. The report also found that fewer than 50 percent of those injured were wearing helmets when the accidents occurred.

The CPSC also reports that 49 people were killed in powered scooter accidents from October 1998 to November 2004. 29 of those deaths were linked to a crash with a motor vehicle.

Continue reading "Fort Lauderdale Scooter Accident Injures Broward County Man" »

A Broward County car accident on Friday, July 22, 2011, killed a 22-year-old mother and injured her baby. The crash also involved a 32-year-old Davie resident, whose BMW collided with the Scion in which the young mother and infant were passengers. According to the Sun Sentinel's report, the BMW broadsided the Scion. The child was taken to a Hollywood hospital. Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Approximately 25 percent of vehicle passenger deaths are linked to side impact car accidents in the U.S., according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Broadside (side impact) car accidents can lead to serious, and sometimes fatal, injuries, as the sides of cars offer less protection than the front or back.

In the event that a driver's negligent actions caused the death of a passenger or another driver in a car accident, a wrongful death lawsuit can be filed by the family of the victim. A Coral Springs wrongful death lawyer can conduct a detailed investigation of your case and help determine liability (fault) in the accident.

Continue reading "Cooper City Car Crash Kills Mother, Injures Baby" »

Three Palm Beach car accidents took place over the weekend, leaving a total of three injured and one dead.

On Friday, July 22, 2011, a Lake Worth woman hit two people sitting in a bus stop after losing control of the vehicle she was driving. One of the victims had minor injuries, while the other suffered a head injury and broken bones.

A man was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident on Saturday near West Palm. The motorcycle and a car collided at Summit Road and Military Trail. The man was taken to Delray Medical Center.

On Saturday night, a 20-year-old woman from Lake Worth lost control of her car and died near Lake Osborne. According to investigators, alcohol or drugs may have played a factor in the accident.

Continue reading "Lake Worth Car Accident, Motorcycle Crash, and Death Make for Deadly Palm Beach Weekend" »

Two recent South Florida daycare negligence cases, one in Palm Beach and another in Miami-Dade County, have sparked debate on how to keep children safe in daycares and prevent wrongful death cases from happening. One preventive measure, advocated by Florida Senator Maria Sachs of Delray Beach, would be to install safety alarms in daycare vans to prevent death from extreme heat. These alarms would alert daycare van drivers to inspect the vehicles when they drop off children. Drivers would have to go to the back of the vehicle to turn off the alarm.

A Palm Beach personal injury lawsuit was filed last August against Katie's Kids Learning Center in Delray Beach for the wrongful death of a 2-year-old who died after being left in a hot van. The facility has since shut down.

For more information on the Miami-Dade daycare wrongful death lawsuit mentioned at the beginning of this blog, please visit our blog entry on that topic.

According to San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences statistics, 513 children in the U.S. have died of hyperthermia (heat stroke) from being left in vehicles since 1998. The study shows that from 1998 through 2010, 51 percent of children who died from heat in vehicles were "forgotten" by their caregiver.

Continue reading "Delray Beach Senator Urges Installation of Safety Alarms in Daycare Vans " »

A Dania Beach school bus accident injured a bicyclist on July 13, 2011. 21-year-old Maurice Burrel, from Fort Lauderdale, suffered a knee injury after his bike was struck by the school bus.

According to statistics from the Department of Transportation, there were a total of 2,252 deadly bus accidents between 1999 and 2005. Of those accidents, 857 involved school buses. According to the report, approximately 63,000 buses of all types are involved in accidents each year, resulting in about 375 deaths of people including bus drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

National School Bus Safety Week is officially in October, but it is important for people to practice bus safety year-round. To learn more about "Stop on Red, Kids Ahead," and read about bus safety tips from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, click here.

Continue reading "Dania Beach School Bus Crash Injures Bicyclist" »

A Fort Lauderdale auto accident injured three people last week, including a Fort Lauderdale man, a female Fort Lauderdale police officer, and a man from Lauderdale Lakes. For more information on this crash, click here.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 3.75 million vehicles were involved in multi-vehicle accidents in the U.S. in 2009. Of those crashes, 1,028,000 resulted in injuries and 12,052 were fatal.

Continue reading "Lauderdale Lakes Man Injured in Three-Car Accident Involving Police Officer " »

A female pedestrian was injured after being struck by a vehicle on Thursday, July 14, 2011. The car accident, which happened in Pembroke Pines, caused the pedestrian serious but not life-threatening injuries.

Approximately 11 pedestrians in the U.S. were killed every day in accidents involving motor vehicles in 2009, according to NHTSA statistics on walkinginfo.org. 59,000 pedestrians were injured that same year. A large majority (72%) of pedestrian deaths take place in urban areas.

Florida is one of the most dangerous states for pedestrians. According to a recent Governors Highway Safety Association report, Florida ranked second in the country for highest number of pedestrian fatalities in the first six months of 2010. Forty-one percent of pedestrian deaths in the U.S. come from only four states - California, Florida, Texas, and New York.

Continue reading "Pembroke Pines Car Accident Injures Pedestrian" »

Leaving children unattended in South Florida's sweltering heat can be a killer. As reported by the Miami Herald, a 22-month-old boy from Homestead died earlier this week in a van outside a daycare. An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the boy's death. The family of the boy has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the daycare. The family's attorney believes the boy's death is heat-related.

This story follows the death of a 2-year-old girl who died from the heat outside a Delray Beach daycare in a van last August.

An estimated 3.5 million children are the victims of abuse or neglect each year in the U.S., according to preventchildabuse.org. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 1,770 children died in the U.S. in 2009 as a result of child abuse or neglect. 35.8% of these deaths were linked to neglect.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death of Child Left in Van Leads to Immediate Miami-Dade Lawsuit" »

At least one person has been injured following a single-vehicle car crash in West Palm Beach. The auto accident happened in the morning hours of July 14, 2011, when a car lost control and crashed into a tree, resulting in the car catching fire. It is yet undetermined how many passengers were in the vehicle. The vehicle hit a utility pole before striking the tree, resulting in nearly 3,000 people losing power for about two hours on the morning of the accident.

More than 1.75 million single-vehicle crashes happened in the U.S. in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Of those crashes, 18,745 were fatal and 489,000 resulted in injuries.

Single-vehicle accidents are sometimes caused by defective vehicle equipment or design, such as defective brakes, steering systems, or tires. These types of equipment and design problems can lead to car accidents with catastrophic injuries, and in some cases, death. A product liability attorney can help determine liability and hold the negligent party accountable for damages in a single vehicle accident.

In some cases, single-vehicle accidents are the result of poorly maintained roadways. Unsafe road conditions may be caused by a construction company that set up a road improperly, or other defect in the maintenance or traffic control of the road.

Continue reading "West Palm Beach Car Accident Results in Residential Power Loss " »

A Coconut Creek crash has resulted in the death of an 18-year-old man from Boca Raton and a 27-year-old man from Deerfield Beach. The accident, which occurred in the early hours of July 12, 2011, involved a motorcycle and a pickup truck. Police are currently investigating this motorcycle accident.

Motorcycle accidents are caused by a variety of factors, including rider inexperience, speeding, drug or alcohol use, not checking blind spots and failure to obey traffic laws. According to the Ocean State Chapter Harley Owners Group (oshog.org), two-thirds of motorcycle accidents involving another vehicle were caused by the other vehicle driver's failure to yield the right-of-way to the motorcycle.

Continue reading "Coconut Creek Motorcycle Accident Kills Two Men in Broward County" »

Amusements parks are visited by millions of people nationwide each year. Unfortunately, thrills can quickly turn to tragedy in an amusement park accident. Earlier this year, a young boy was killed and 20 others were injured when a train ride derailed at a South Carolina amusement park.

According to reports, the train inspector was fired for falsifying maintenance documents. The inspector gave the train passing grades despite mechanical problems, including issues with the train's brakes and wheels.

According to National Safety Council statistics, an estimated 1,181 injuries occurred at fixed-site amusement park rides in the U.S. in 2009.

Amusement parks have a responsibility to maintain their equipment and facilities to the highest safety standards in order to ensure the safety of their guests. When injuries or wrongful death occur due to the negligence of amusement park staff and owners, the emotional and financial effects can be devastating to the person injured and their family.

Continue reading "Coral Springs Amusement Park Injury Lawyer Comments on Theme Park Accidents" »

A family from Destin, Florida, was killed in a plane crash on Saturday, July 9, 2011 as they were flying home from St. Louis. According to a report in the Palm Beach Post, the airplane, a Cessna C421, lost an engine prior to the crash.

An airplane crash can happen due to a variety of factors, including pilot fatigue, pilot error, mechanical problems or defects with the aircraft, and negligent maintenance. In the tragic event that a family member is killed in a plane accident, the family of the victim can file a wrongful death lawsuit against the persons or company responsible for the accident.

Continue reading "Florida Plane Accident Results in the Death of 7 People" »

An ATV crash over the July 4th weekend has resulted in injuries to three people and the firing of two Miami Beach police officers. Kitzie Nicanor and Luis Almonte were injured when an ATV driven by officer Derick Kuilan crashed into them. The ATV was also carrying a female (non-police) passenger, who sustained minor injuries. Kuilan was on duty when he operated the ATV, which had been issued by the Miami Beach police department. The Miami Beach police department confirmed that Kuilan and his partner, police officer Rolando Gutierrez, were seen at the Clevelander Hotel prior to the accident. An investigation is on-going to determine whether alcohol was a factor in this ATV accident.

All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) first became available in the U.S. in the early 1970s and have gained popularity ever since. Unfortunately, these vehicles have also been linked to serious injuries and deaths over the years. According to ATVSafety.gov, there were 376 deaths and an estimated 131,900 injuries related to ATVs in the U.S in 2009.

Continue reading "Miami ATV Accident Leaves 3 Injured" »

A crash in Margate on July 5, 2011 involving a fuel truck and a Broward County transit bus has injured 25 people. Police are investigating the cause of this truck accident, in which the fuel tanker apparently rear-ended the bus. The drivers of the vehicles involved were not injured.

Truck accidents can be caused by many different factors, including driver fatigue, improper vehicle maintenance, careless or reckless driving, improper driver training, speeding and drug or alcohol impairment. Accidents involving large trucks often result in serious personal injuries, including brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken bones, and damage to internal organs. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2009, 74,000 people were injured and 3,380 were killed in accidents involving large trucks.

Accidents involving buses can be very dangerous because of their large size and weight. Additionally, buses don't provide the protection of safety belts found in many other motor vehicles.

In Florida, many buses fall under the category of common carriers, meaning the owners and operators must follow high safety standards for their passengers. When people suffer serious injuries or death at the hands of a negligent bus driver, the bus company may be vicariously liable for the accident, meaning the company will be held responsible because of its relationship to the driver.

Continue reading "Coral Springs Truck Accident Lawyer Comments on Margate Accident Involving Fuel Truck and Broward Bus" »

A Palm Beach County bus accident on July 1, 2011 has left at least five people injured. Police are investigating the cause of the accident, which involved a car and a public bus.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 58,000 crashes involved buses nationwide in 2009, 221 of which were fatal. Bus crashes in 2009 resulted in injuries to approximately 12,000 bus occupants and death to 26 bus occupants.

Due to the large size and capacity of buses, a bus crash can result in serious personal injuries for people involved in a bus accident. These injuries can include spinal cord injuries, head injuries, broken bones, neck and back injuries, and in some cases, wrongful death.

Continue reading "Bus Accident Results in Injury to Five from Crash" »

We hope you and your loved ones had a safe and happy Independence Day. As families and friends gather at homes during the year for celebrations including New Year's Eve and the 4th of July, it is important to practice safety when using fireworks, sparklers and firecrackers, in order to avoid personal injuries.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), approximately 8,600 injuries linked to fireworks occurred in 2010. More than 50 percent of these injuries were burn injuries. Other injuries included cuts, eye injuries, hand and finger amputations, and other harms serious enough to send people to the emergency room. Approximately 73% of injuries linked to fireworks in 2010 happened between June 18 and July 18 of that same year.

The following are some safety tips to avoid burn injuries from fireworks:

• Keep fireworks away from children. Do not let children light any type of fireworks.

• The use of sparklers by children should only be practiced under adult supervision. Sparklers can be extremely dangerous and potentially cause personal injuries.

• After lighting fireworks, make sure you move away quickly and don't stand over the fireworks.

For more fireworks safety tips, please visit the CPSC website

Continue reading "Coral Springs Burn Injury Attorney Provides Fireworks Safety Tips" »