Articles Tagged with Orlando car accident attorney

Auto insurance companies have a responsibility to defend their clients when they are accused of liability. Almost all auto insurance policies make these two promises to their insureds:

• A promise to indemnify, which is pay for the insured’s legal liability, up to the policy limits;
• A promise to defend, meaning the insurer hires legal counsel and defends insured against the lawsuit and cover legal fees. 

If an insurer is faced with a covered third-party claim, the insurer is responsible to defend the claim and pay any monetary award entered for that covered claim. Sounds straightforward, but in practice, insurers don’t always make it so easy. There are often exceptions and rules – not all of which may be explicitly spelled out on the policy. When disputes arise, it can impact the third-party case, filed by the person injured in the auto accident.

One such dispute was recently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, following a serious crash in Illinois. It involves a case of several teenagers and a “borrowed” car. The car belonged to a 16-year-old girl, who borrowed it on August 2013 night in question to go to a party. Another, also 16 and defendant in this action, ultimately obtained the keys to that vehicle. How she got those keys was in dispute, as the girl whose mother owned the car said she never gave them to her, but rather to another friend. Nonetheless, defendant left the party with that vehicle and picked up several passengers – plaintiff among them.  Continue reading →

Crashes in construction zones are an ongoing and serious problem – in Florida and beyond. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports in a single recent year, there were nearly 97,000 crashes in work zones – which represented an 8 percent increase over the previous year and a stunning 43 percent increase in the span of just two years. A crash occurs in a work zone every 5.4 minutes. For the roughly 70 work zone crashes that happen daily, more than 26 percent result in at least one injury.

In many cases, driver error is to blame. Drivers are distracted, impaired or speeding through construction zones with disregard for workers and warning signs. However, sometimes these car accidents can involve errors on the part of the construction companies and failure to give drivers clear warning of dangerous conditions.

This is what was alleged in a fatal car accident lawsuit recently before the Delaware Supreme Court. It involved allegations of an unsafe road condition known as “raveling.” As explained by Asphalt Magazine, this is a type of pavement distress identified as the wearing away of aggregate particles from the asphalt cement. It can be caused by use of a poor quality mixture, inadequate compaction or dislodging by certain types of heavy traffic.  Continue reading →

Three people died recently in a wrong-way car accident in Florida, including the wrong-way driver and a newly-engaged couple who had just learned they were expecting a child.

The couple, a 24-year-old man and 21-year-old woman, were traveling on Interstate 75 near Tampa when they encountered a 21-year-old motorist traveling in the wrong direction. Authorities with the Florida Highway Patrol are investigating the crash, though it’s likely the wrong-way driver will be deemed at-fault. That will open the door for two wrongful death lawsuits against his estate. Although most people don’t have the personal funds to cover the full amount of damages, but usually there are avenues for compensation, such as personal injury protection (PIP) benefits from the victim’s insurer, bodily injury liability benefits from the at-fault driver’s insurer and uninsured/ underinsured motorist benefits from the victim’s insurer. Florida statute also allows for compensation from the vehicle owner (or the vehicle owner’s insurer), if that individual is someone different from the driver.

Wrong-way crashes are a serious problem in Florida, one that the state highway patrol and other advocates have begun trying to address with a number of countermeasures. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports there are approximately 1,500 wrong-way crashes in Florida annually. Not all of those are fatal, but a larger percentage of them are compared to other types of crashes. That’s because most wrong-way collisions are head-on. This type of violent crash accounts for 81 percent of all wrong-way crash fatalities. In cases where motorists are not killed, they are often seriously injured.

FHSMV reports these incidents most often occur at night and during times of transitional light (dawn/ dusk). During these hours, the agency encourages drivers to stay to the right. This can give other motorists the best chance to avoid a collision. If you see a wrong-way driver approaching, immediately reduce your speed, pull ff the roadway and call 911.  Continue reading →

In the first nine months of 2016, traffic deaths rose 8 percent compared to the same period from 2015. During that time, nearly 28,000 people were killed in car accidents. In the first three quarters of 2015, there were 25,800 people who died. 

Many people have looked for an explanation for what’s happening, and there are several. One of the most popular theories is that more people are traveling the roads and for longer distances, thanks to the economic recovery. Certainly, there is some truth to this. We do know that people are traveling more. But when we look more closely at the data, that doesn’t account for the entire trend. That’s because, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration points out, vehicle miles traveled from Jan. 1, 2016 through Sept. 30, 2016 were up 3 percent as compared to that same time frame the year before. So we have a 3 percent uptick in vehicle miles traveled and an 8 percent increase in the number of people dying in car accidents.

Something more is going on, and it’s especially concerning when you consider that cars manufactured today are safer than ever. While it’s true we’ve seen record-setting auto recalls in recent years, much of that involves the auto industry catching up with years of failing to recall vehicles with serious defects they should have set straight many years earlier. Meanwhile, we have cars that come standard-equipped with rearview cameras, electronic stability control, blind spot monitoring, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. All of this to say: Driving should be safer than ever, yet it’s not.  Continue reading →