Orlando car accident lawyer

Published on: September 30, 2016

Florida Traffic Engineers Propose “Diverging Diamond” to Slash Intersection Crashes

Authorities in Delray Beach are investigating an intersection crash at Federal Highway and Northeast First Street, where a fitness club mogul in a Lamborghini t-boned an 82-year-old Uber driver in a Buick. Investigators believe speed and alcohol were factors in the crash, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

But what if those two vehicles never needed to cross paths? This is the theory behind the traffic re-engineering proposed by Florida Department of Transportation. Although we typically think of “advancements” in travel these days as being technological or electronic, this has to do with good old-fashioned road design. It’s called the, “diverging diamond interchange,” or DDI.

The goal of this design is to not only reduce the amount of potentially hazardous left turns, but also to make it tougher to enter a highway on-ramp traveling the wrong direction. Continue reading →

Published on: September 22, 2016

Distracted Driver Problem Weighed by Researchers, Florida Legislators

By Dean Freeman

Although the distracted driving problem appears to have remained steady from 2014 to 2015, researchers with the NHTSA say there is one area of concern: Young drivers who visibly manipulate their electronic devices.

That’s according to the latest research by federal analysts with the traffic safety administration, which reaches conclusions based on researcher traffic counts, as well as anonymous driver surveys. Analysts physically sat at intersections across the country and observed and recorded driver behavior for 11 hours at a time. Researchers looked to see whether there were visibly manipulating their phones, talking on visible headsets or holding phones to their ears. They also cross-compared this data with the surveys and scaled the data to a national level.

What they discovered is that while overall, the texting-and-driving/ visible manipulation of electronic devices fell slightly (2.2 percent, a statistically insignificant amount), there was an increase of .5 percent total. In fact, 5 percent of those 16 to 24 were seen doing this, as were 2.1 percent of those 25 to 69. This might not seem like a lot but consider another figure: The rate of drivers holding phones to their ears. That fell from 4.3 percent in 2014 to 3.8 percent in 2015. That sounds like good news, until you consider that this still means 542,000 passenger vehicles were being driven by someone using a handheld cell phone at any given moment of a typical day in 2015. That’s alarming. Continue reading →

Published on: July 3, 2016

Orlando Car Accident Death Lawsuit Verdict for $10M Against Domino’s

By Dean Freeman

An Orlando jury awarded $10 million to the plaintiff in a wrongful death lawsuit that holds Domino’s Pizza liable for a car accident reportedly caused by a delivery driver employed by a franchise.

What’s particularly interesting about this case – and what could have ramifications for future cases – is that the jury chose to held the parent company liable. Most of the time, parent companies that have a franchisor-franchisee contract will prevail on vicarious liability issues by arguing they did not employ the employee and had no control over the worker’s hiring, training or supervision. Here, jurors combed over the franchise agreement and concluded the national pizza chain exercised its control over all major aspects of its contract with the franchisee, and thus could be vicariously liable for the negligence of the employee driver.

The crash killed a former Brevard County fire chief, who had been a firefighter in Central Florida for more than three decades. The impact of the crash rendered him quadriplegic and he died of his injuries little more than a year later. Continue reading →

Published on: June 27, 2016

Cincinnati Ins. Co. v. Estate of Chee – Excess Insurance Coverage in Car Accident

By Dean Freeman

Excess insurance coverage is an insurance policy that provides coverage that will be in excess of what was available under the underlying liability policy. Often, that’s an umbrella policy, but it could be an auto insurance liability policy as well.

The general rule with excess insurance is that it can’t be broader than the underlying policy, but it can create higher limits. So for example if the underlying policy won’t cover damages caused by a certain act, the excess coverage isn’t going to do that either. However if the underlying policy offers up to $50,000 in coverage, your excess policy could provide more than that.

The excess insurance policy was at issue in the recent case of Cincinnati Ins. Co. v. Estate of Chee, a complex case that pits the estate of a deceased woman against her surviving husband and the doctors who provided her medical care in the wake of a crash. Those doctors then pursued action against the husband, who sought indemnification from both his auto insurance company as well as his excess insurance firm, which had provided a policy that covered both him and his wife. Continue reading →

Published on: May 30, 2016

Police: Fatigue a Factor in Fiery Disney Crash

By Dean Freeman

A fiery car accident near Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando was reportedly caused by a fatigued driver.

The crash involved a sport utility vehicle and a bus that collided around 6 p.m. It reportedly resulted in 11 injuries, with eight of those being passengers on the bus. Those injuries ranged from minor to serious.

Investigators say the SUV driver was driving the wrong way on Sherbeth Road – traveling south in the northbound lanes. The driver, her husband and son were all transported to the hospital. Onlookers reported huge flames and thick smoke billowing from the scene. Both vehicles reportedly burst into flames. Continue reading →

Published on: April 18, 2016

Distracted Driving Florida Car Accident Kills 3-Year-Old

By Dean Freeman

Three young children set out for their daily evening walk down their tree-lined country road with their mother. Because of the allegedly careless actions of a distracted driver, one of them was killed, another has been critically injured and their mother is hospitalized.

The Florida car accident reportedly occurred in Brooksville, about 1.5 hours directly west of Orlando. Florida Highway Patrol troopers told the Tampa Bay Times the 26-year-old motorist, operating a 2002 Jaguar, dropped a cigarette. He became distracted and reached for it. He lost control of the car and struck the young family.

The 3-year-old girl died of her injuries. Her 1-year-old brother was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, where he was fighting for his life, his condition listed as “very critical.” The oldest, a 6-year-old girl, was amazingly not hurt, but their mother is hospitalized with serious injuries, though she was listed as “stable.”

Continue reading →

Published on: April 10, 2016

Adamscheck v. American Family Mutual Ins. – UM Coverage and Workers’ Comp

By Dean Freeman

If you are injured on-the-job while driving, you may be entitled to compensation via a number of avenues. It’s important to discuss with an Orlando injury lawyer the best approach. Otherwise, you may find yourself short-changed.

Specifically, there is an interplay between auto insurance coverage and workers’ compensation. The latter is provided to workers who are hurt in the course and scope of employment, regardless of fault. Florida is a no-fault state as far as car accidents go, but if the cost for your injuries exceed $2,000 or are quite severe, you can pursue legal action against the other driver, as opposed to merely collecting personal injury protection (PIP) benefits. Your health insurance may cover a portion of your costs as well. If the other driver doesn’t have any auto insurance, you may be able to collect uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, if you have it.

But F.S. 627.727 does not allow for double recovery under workers’ compensation law. That means if your workers’ compensation benefits cover some aspect of your injuries that is later paid out by your UM carrier, your workers’ compensation provider may be able to assert a lien on those funds. These overlapping interests can get complicated, and that’s why it’s important to make sure you’ve got representation.

The recent federal appeal of Adamscheck v. American Family Mutual Ins. deal with these issues, which were weighed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Continue reading →

Published on: March 29, 2016

Study: U.S. Drivers Increasingly Distracted and Dangerous

By Dean Freeman

If you have been in a car accident at some point in the last decade, chances are fairly strong at least one person behind the wheel of one of those cars was distracted.

It seems this becomes more solidified with each passing study conducted on U.S. driving habits. The latest is one of the most comprehensive, funded by the federal government and conducted by researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). Researchers attached sensors, radar and cameras to the vehicles of 3,500 participants and tracked their driving behavior over the course of a full three years – collecting 35 million miles of data in all.

In sifting through this data, researchers expected to see that distracted driving was a problem. However, the extent of the problem was a bit shocking. Continue reading →

Published on: February 28, 2016

Uber, Lyft and Others Aim of Florida Car Insurance Bill

By Dean Freeman

Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have gained a groundswell of popularity in Florida and across the country, where deal-seeking customers praise the app’s ease of use and accessibility.

But Florida lawmakers say passengers are at risk when drivers aren’t required to carry the same level of insurance coverage as more traditional ride services, like taxis and limousines. Issues of coverage can get even more complicated when taxi drivers join Uber as a way to get more fares.

Two bills have been introduced, taking aim at the newer technology, though one is actually backed by the ride-share industry, while the other is firmly opposed. Continue reading →

Published on: September 3, 2015

Jones-Smith v. Safeway Insurance – Material Misrepresentation Could Void Auto Insurance

By Dean Freeman

In 49 states in this country – including this one – plus the District of Columbia, it’s illegal to drive without insurance. Even so, about 12 percent of all drivers in the U.S. are not insured.

Florida has one of the worst rates of uninsured drivers nationally. Here, 1 in 4 drivers has no insurance.

That has meant that uninsured motorist claims, which are filed when someone is injured by a driver who lacks insurance, totaled $2.6 billion in 2012. That was an increase of 75 percent from 10 years earlier. Continue reading →