Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Attorney Blog

A reporter and cameraman were injured this week in a Fort Lauderdale car accident when their television remote truck flipped over after reportedly colliding with a Jeep. The crash happened near the Kathleen C. Wright Administration building, which headquarters the Broward County School District, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Car accidents are the most common cause of work-related accidents. In all cases, an employee would be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for car accidents that occur while on the job. Such benefits are designed to pay the cost of your medical bills and a portion of lost wages.

In other cases involving work accidents while on the job — or those in an accident with a work vehicle — a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit may be filed against the business. Employers carry large umbrella liability policies, typically in the amount of $2 million, to help protect against serious or fatal accidents involving a company vehicle.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than one-third of all fatal work accidents involved a traffic accident in 2009, accounting for 1,682 of the 4,340 work-related deaths.

In this case, the crash happened about 9 a.m. near the intersection of Southeast Third Avenue and Southeast Sixth Street. Two WPLG Ch. 10 employees and the female driver of the Jeep were transferred to Broward General Medical Center.

The TV News employees were identified as reporter Neki Mohan and cameraman David Silver.

The white television truck was heading downtown, where firefighters were taking part in a training program that involved the controlled burn of a vacant building. The woman in the Jeep was an employee of the school district and was heading for the district’s nearby parking garage.
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For more than 30 years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been providing consumers with crash-test performance data that helps vehicle buyers make well-informed safety choices when it comes purchasing a car or truck.

In an ongoing effort to improve the evaluation criteria, the NHTSA has updated its five-star safety rating system to include today’s technological safety enhancements. Newer technologies and newer standards ultimately mean better protection for occupants in the event of a Fort Lauderdale car accident, but they also change the ratings for many previously rated vehicles.

Newer evaluations include a front end and side-pole crash test series that measures how the vehicle protects the head, neck, chest and legs of occupants involved in a either a head-on crash or one where the car or truck strikes a tree or utility pole from the side. The NHTSA has also upgraded their crash-test dummies to include a smaller-sized adult female and a medium-sized adult male.

Also included is a review of rollover- and crash-resistance technologies, such as, electronic stability control (ESC), and forward collision and lane departure warnings. Each are “smart” technologies that evaluate driving, road and traffic conditions in real-time and either alert the driver through dashboard and sound signaling or execute mechanical actions to correct for driver error.

With ESC, for example, if a driver heads into a turn at a dangerous speed or hits a slippery patch of road and begins to spin out of control, sensors will signal a braking mechanism to compensate for under- or over-steering.

The NHTSA has already published findings on more than 30 vehicles and expects to rate and evaluate 55 more in 2011. To date, only the BMW 5-series and Hyundai Sonata have earned five-stars. Formerly a five-star holder, the Toyota Camry dropped to a three-star ranking, and the Nissan Versa holds the sole distinction of a two-star rating.

You can visit the website for new and used car safety ratings.
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Our South Florida Car Accident lawyers reported in an earlier post to our Fort Lauderdale Car Accident Attorney blog, that Florida remains one of just seven states with no laws restricting use of hand-held or other electronic devices despite an explosion in the number of distracted driving car accidents nationwide.

In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration linked cell-phone use to 18 percent of distracted driving fatalities and 5 percent of distracted driving injuries nationwide. But, of course, texting or chatting aren’t the only ways drivers can be distracted.

USA Today reports that a host of distractions were found to contribute to more than 16 percent of all motor vehicles accidents that claimed 5,474 lives and injured more than 448,000 in 2009.

Eating while driving is a popular distraction common to drivers, so is applying makeup, searching for a favorite CD or new radio station, engaging with passengers, disciplining children, lighting a smoke and reading. And then there those folks who travel with furry companions who, more often than not, roam the vehicle unrestrained.

Some experts even claim that our quality highway system has created a “complacency among many drivers” that builds a false sense of security and lures drivers to take their eyes off the road. But even a two-second distraction can have deadly consequences. A car moving at 60 and 70 m.p.h. can travel up to a couple hundred feet in a matter of two seconds, more than enough time and distance to cause an accident.

In a recent interview, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood referred to distracted driving as an “epidemic” in America. One that is claiming more lives as overall traffic fatalities have fallen to their lowest number since 1950. To top it off, our most vulnerable drivers – those aged 20 and younger – represent the largest group killed in distracted driving fatal car accidents.
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OurSouth Florida car accident lawyers are monitoring a debate waging in Royal Palm Beach, West Boca and Boca Raton over the use of red-light cameras. Supporters say the red-light cameras act as a deterrent by decreasing the number of drivers running red lights – and the number of car accidents – while making the community a little money. Opponents complain the cameras amount to little more than an invasion of privacy, open municipalities up to lawsuits, and put moneymaking ahead of improving public safety.

In Royal Palm Beach, the tide is against keeping the cameras, the Palm Beach Post reports. City council members and even the mayor say that dealing with the flack from villagers – and the possibility of fending off lawsuits filed after issuing camera-based citations – essentially isn’t worth the hassle of keeping cameras in place at intersections where Okeechobee and Crestwood cross Royal Palm Boulevard. They are even questioning whether cameras improve safety and will vote this week whether to keep them in place or take them down.

Meanwhile, in other parts of Palm Beach County – namely West Boca, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Palm Springs – moves are being made to install red-light cameras or to transition from issuing warnings to issuing citations in locations where cameras exist. Some areas in Palm Beach County have already moved to issuing citations to violators captured by cameras.

According to the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running, red-light cameras are installed in more than 400 communities in 25 states. Cities from New Orleans to Washington D.C. to Orange County, Calif. have all reported significant drops in both red-light running incidences and car accidents caused by a driver running a red light. In New Orleans, installing red-light cameras led to an 85 percent drop in drivers running lights and in Council Bluffs, there has been a 90 percent drop in car accidents caused by drivers running the light.
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According to Meteorology professor Jan Null, so far in 2010, 49 children have died due to heat stroke caused from being left in hot vehicles. In Florida alone, six children have died from hyperthermia this year – including, most recently the Miami Herald reports, a one-year-old from Miramar. On average, 37 children die heat-related deaths each year from being left in a car on a day otherwise considered mild – around 70 degrees.

Our West Palm Beach child injury attorneys know that more than half of these deaths occur because a caregiver or parent has done the unthinkable – accidentally forgetting a child in a car. Another 18 percent die after intentionally being left in a vehicle by an adult.

Even in cooler weather, it take little time for the interior of a vehicle to reach deadly temperatures, particularly in the South and particularly when the tolerance of a young child is taken into account. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, even with windows cracked and ambient outdoor temperature in the low-80s, in less than 10 minutes the interior of a vehicle can become hot enough to cause hyperthermia. Because their bodies are ill-equipped to mitigate extreme temperatures, children under age 4 are especially susceptible to heat stroke and can succumb quickly to overheating.

As mentioned, and as difficult as it may be to believe, forgetting a kid in a car is the most common contributor causing the death of a child due to hyperthermia. An exhausted parent, a distracted caregiver – all it takes is a break in a routine and tragedy can result.

The NHTSA offers a handful of prevention tips to help those who care for our youngest, most vulnerable, passengers:

~ put something you need next to the car seat – a cell phone, a wallet, a handbag.

~ simple as it sounds post a sticky-note reminder on your steering wheel or some place on the dash.

~ limit distractions when getting out of the car – don’t worry about the mail or start chatting on your cell phone.

~ have a call/check system in place with your caregiver.

~ make a habit of looking in the back seat.

~ NEVER leave a child unattended in a vehicle. Period.
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When 22-year-old Tiffiany Olson died from injuries sustained in a South Florida fatal motorcycle accident on a Palmetto road on Dec. 7, 2005, the only identification she had on her was a driver’s license with an old address. It would take law enforcement six-and-a-half hours to track down her next of kin.

Her frantic mother and brother heard she had been in an accident, but that was it. They checked the local hospitals – nothing. Two hours into their search, a police officer tracked down Tiffiany’s mom at Manatee Memorial Hospital. He handed her an evidence bag containing a few personal effects and advised her that her daughter’s body was at the morgue, which was closed. It was 1:30 in the morning.

After burying her daughter, Olson was determined that no mother should have to face such a wait to hear the fate of their child. From this experience two things emerged, the website To Inform Families First was created and the initiative for Florida’s “Register Your Emergency Contact Information Week” was born.

There are many unknowns and much uncertainty swirling around an early morning South Florida car accident on Palmetto Expressway that left one pedestrian dead and found a stunned driver flagging down a state trooper in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 28, the Miami Herald reports.

What detail are known are sketchy at best. It is believed the Spanish-speaking foreigner flew into Miami International Airport from Laredo, Tex. and that around 3 a.m. he hailed a cab. He asked the driver to take him to a Hialeah Gardens address that authorities have determined doesn’t exist.

The cab driver, who said the victim asked to sit up front, said his passenger quickly became agitated – flailing his arms and speaking to himself in Spanish. The Florida Highway Patrol reports the victim was talking on a cell phone before he began screaming and unbuckled his seat belt and tried to open the passenger door.

The cab driver pulled off to the shoulder and scrambled to call for help. The victim then fled the vehicle and dashed blindly into traffic and then lay face down in the road. Several cars dodged the victim as the cab driver and couple other drivers attempted to divert traffic. The driver of a 2008 Nissan pickup was unable to avoid striking the man. He has not been charged.

While this case is a bizarre example, most cases handled by Fort Lauderdale pedestrian accident attorneys involve the death of a pedestrian that could have been prevented by the at-fault motorist. In fact, Florida has one of the highest rates of pedestrian fatalities in the nation. Most pedestrian-involved traffic fatalities happen in urban areas, at night, under normal weather conditions and at non-intersection locations along roadways. That in 70 percent of cases, the victim is a man.

The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department recently reported that more pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties than anywhere else in the state, claiming 150 lives in 2009. Throughout the state, 8,248 pedestrians were involved in Florida car accidents that left 7,676 pedestrians injured.
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The stories of distracted driving fatalities are as heartbreaking as they are endless. One young couple was Disney-bound, where they were scheduled to meet with the bride-to-be’s parents and their wedding planner. It was early 2008. Their car was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer, allegedly driven by a texting driver. He never touched his brakes. She died at the scene.

Our Fort Lauderdale Florida car accident lawyers know that distracted driving kills. As we’ve reported in an earlier post to our South Florida Injury Lawyer blog, just among teenage drivers alone, one in four admit to texting behind the wheel. In 2009, more than 16 percent of all fatal car accidents involved distracted drivers. More than 500,000 were injured and another 5,500 were killed in distracted-driving crashes nationwide.

Once again, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has hosted a distracted driving summit in Washington D.C. to address growing concerns regarding what has become an epidemic of handheld electronic devices being used by drivers behind the wheel. At the summit, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke of a multi-layered approach to changing driver habits, involving tougher laws, stepped up enforcement, promoting public awareness and personal responsibility.

Thanks to efforts at the summit, both last year and this year, there is now a nationwide texting ban in place for commercial bus and truck drivers. Also, train operators are restricted from using cell phones or other electronic devices while conducting. And, the NHTSA is currently pushing for a complete ban involving use of any electronic device while operating a commercial truck transporting hazardous materials.

In tandem with the NHTSA efforts, both the entertainment industry and state lawmakers have joined forces to raise awareness and restrict usage of handheld electronics while behind the wheel. The National Football League, the Jonas Brothers, Allstate Insurance, Oprah Winfrey and even Webster’ Dictionary, which named “distracted driving” their Word of the Year – each organization aggressively promoted an anti-technology message.

More than 270 distracted driving bills were discussed in 43 state legislatures. Currently, 30 states have banned texting while driving and 8 have banned the use of handheld electronic devices. Even Pres. Obama and the United Nations have joined the act – Obama banned 4 million federal employees from texting while driving and the U.N. enforced the same ban for their 40,000 member employees.

Florida is one of a dwindling number of states with no such law.
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On the heels of a distracted driving summit aimed at mapping legislative, law enforcement and awareness campaigns that will drive down the exploding number of distracted-driving related car accidents nationwide, Sect. Ray LaHood released two glowing NHTSA reports tracking ongoing seat-belt usage and minimum age drinking law efforts.

Our Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyers frequently report on a host of behind-the-wheel issues – from impaired driving to distracted driving to maintenance and child passenger safety – facing Florida drivers on our South Florida Injury Lawyers blog. Regarding seat belt and child restraint use, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed that 12,713 lives were saved by simply buckling up in 2009 and 309 toddlers were spared thanks to proper child restraint use. Since 2005, the NHTSA estimates that the increase in seat-belt use has saved more than 72,000 lives. The recent report also estimates that more than 600 lives were spared in 2009 through the enactment and enforcement of minimum drinking age laws.

As for distracted driving, 2009 NHTSA statistics alone are staggering. Car accident crash rates have steadily declined since 2005, when the NHTSA reported 39,252 crashes that claimed 43,510 lives to 2009, when the NHTSA logged 30,797 reported crashes that led to 33,808 fatalities. Meanwhile, the number of distraction-related car accidents and fatalities has risen from 10 to 16 percent of those overall numbers. In 2005, 4,026 distraction-related car accidents were reported, causing 4,472 fatalities. By 2009, those numbers had jumped to 4,898 and 5,474, respectively.

While NHTSA Administrator David Strickland admitted the trends reflecting more ubiquitous seat-belt use and fewer cases of underage drinking and driving are impressive, his goal remains at 100 percent compliance. As for the issue of distracted driving, he said the mission of his office is to take action “on a number of fronts to address the epidemic of distracted driving in America. With the help of experts, policymakers, and safety advocates… we are going to do everything we can to put an end to distracted driving and save lives.”

Sometimes seat belts save lives. Sometimes, they don’t. But what is clear is that speeding, drunk driving and distracted driving remain the three leading causes of serious and fatal traffic accidents. Hiring an experienced Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer or wrongful death attorney can help determine the cause of your accident and can assist in recovering the compensation you deserve.
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