Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

On July 27, Tuesday, President Obama signed into law a new federal law intended to improve the safety of cruise ship passengers on the high seas, reported the Baltimore Sun. The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act requires better communication between the cruise lines, which are all registered to foreign owners, and U.S. federal agencies. This is to better keep track of passengers who fall overboard, go missing, are raped, assaulted, or injured.

The new law requires that cruise liners, when taking U.S. citizens on excursions, must have at least one member of the crew on board who is trained by the U.S. Coast Guard to handle cruise ship crimes.

Railings on the deck will be raised to at least 42 inches and there need to be peepholes and on-deck surveillance. Some critics say the law doesn’t go far enough and 54 inch rails would do more to prevent passengers going overboard.

Restrictions will be tightened over which cruise ship employees have access to personal passenger cabins.

Florida cruise ship crime victim attorneys want the public to know that any cruise ship that does not comply could see their owners facing both civil and criminal penalties and fines. The jurisdiction here is tricky. Because they are foreign-flagged vessels, the Federal Maritime Commission has limited oversight concerning crimes on the high seas. Prior to this law, the government did not require the cruise lines to report crimes at sea including missing passengers and rape. Now they must be reported promptly to the FBI.

It was the rape of a California woman on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in 2006 that prompted her representative, Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), to sponsor the legislation. Now there must be an improved crime-scene response and ships will be required to carry rape kits, have a trained forensic sexual assault specialist on board, as well as anti-retroviral medications for the woman.

The next time a cruise passenger plans on a vacation at sea the public will be able to view an online criminal database, maintained by the U.S Department of Homeland Security, to determine which ships have the highest crime rate. Each ship must also keep a log of crimes reported.

The provisions will be phased in – one year after the law takes effect with the certification of medical personnel to be phased in over two years.

Laurie Dishman, the Sacramento woman raped at sea by a cruise ship janitor says “If this law was in place when I was brutally raped, there would have been evidence for a prosecution and the assailant who raped me would not be free.”

Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford has been a big advocate of installing red light cameras at some of the busiest intersections in town. A red light camera is designed to take a picture of the license plate of a red light runner who sails through an intersection, sometimes after the light has already turned red. The driver, whose license is caught on camera, would then face a steep fine of about $250, according to a Florida Times-Union article.

Florida intersection accidents are some of the most common and deadliest, and the hope is that a camera at the intersection will cut down on these T-bone and mid-intersection crashes.

Now Sheriff Rutherford says he’d like to go one step further. Rutherford wants to install crash avoidance technology at intersections as well. This technology senses when a vehicle is traveling too fast to stop and it prevents the red light from changing to green for the other side waiting at the intersection.

When Sheriff Rutherford spoke out however, the state Department of Transportation contradicted him. There is no company currently making crash avoidance hardware, said a spokeswoman for the agency. A discussion erupted in the Florida Times Union that the technology does exist and does what Sheriff Rutherford described. Nestor Traffic Systems is reportedly a company that does take photos of the intersection from several angles, which is useful when determining the at-fault party in an intersection accident.

Whether this technology is also incorporated into Florida intersections, remains to be seen, but expect the red-light cameras, at a cost of up to $5,000 per camera, to soon be installed at the 10 intersections with the most auto accidents in Jacksonville. They include Atlantic and Kernan Blvd, Blanding and Argyle Forest Blvd., Atlantic at Southside, Atlantic at Monument, and Atlantic at University, among others.

Automaker, Toyota has been out of the limelight lately, following a series of recalls for runaway vehicles, but a New York grand jury has put troubled Toyota back in the news, according to a Consumer Affairs article.

Toyota has disclosed that it’s received a subpoena related to flaws with the steering system in some vehicles. This concerns auto product liability attorneys in Florida and throughout the United States. The subpoena related to a recall initiated by the company in 2005 for a faulty relay rod on pickup trucks and SUVs that could cause a loss of control in 1989 to 1996 vehicle model years.

The recall may have been five years ago, but in May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it was looking into whether Toyota had promptly informed the regulatory agency about the steering problems within five days of understanding the problem as required by law. This would not be surprising as Toyota has already paid a record $16.4 million fine for failing for four months to alert regulators about its sudden acceleration problem.

The reason NHTSA may doubt Toyota’s version of the facts, is that when the company conducted a recall in 2004 for Hilux trucks with steering relay rod problems in Japan, Toyota told NHTSA the problem was isolated to Japanese vehicles. Toyota insisted it did not know about similar problems in the U.S.

By 2005, Toyota changed its mind and agreed that several models sold in the U.S. did have the steering problem, which could cause a vehicle to lose control. The company then issued a U.S. recall.

For years, NHTSA has failed to show it has any teeth when it comes to regulating the auto industry and now it appears the agency wants to make up for lost time. Toyota is the target now, and this marks the first time Toyota has faced a grand jury in the U.S. and criminal charges could be next.

Family and friends are mourning Christopher Tucker, 33, who died in a single vehicle accident, according to an article on News4Jax.com. Tucker was the passenger in a car being driven by Meaghan Parmenter, 25 of Starke, Florida. The Keystone Heights man and his fiancé were traveling early Saturday, July 17, around 4 a.m. when the Dodge Caliber, heading south on Blanding Boulevard, left the road and hit a tree. Tucker died at the scene. Parmenter was taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville. She is reported to be in stable condition.

Our condolences go out to the friends and family of Tucker who was also was the father of a nine-year-old boy. Our prayers are extended to that boy for his loss.

Florida Car Accident Statistics
Clay County had 1,574 crashes in 2008, a drop from the previous year. Sixteen people lost their lives in those auto accidents, a slight increase over the 15 fatalities in that county in 2008.

Crash Liability
The cause of this crash remains a mystery but blood tests were taken on the driver, Parmenter, to determine if she may have been driving intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. Others speculate that a deer might have come out of the wooded area causing the car to go off the road.

An experienced Florida auto accident attorney would want to know if there was a defective tire that might have caused the crash or seat belts that failed to protect its occupants. In that case, a product liability lawsuit can be filed on behalf of the injured or in the case of a wrongful death.

One thing we have learned through our experience at Farah and Farah is never to assume. The truth as to the cause of the accident and the at-fault party may not be obvious.

Millions of drop-side cribs have been recalled this year and now Pottery Barn Kids is recalling its version of the popular type of crib, according to a Consumer Affairs report. Eighty-two thousand are being recalled due to the dangers of entrapment. When hardware breaks, as frequently happens on the drop-side cribs, a young child can become wedged between the mattress and the crib’s frame leading to suffocation.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports the hardware of the drop-down cribs tends to malfunction with age and with incorrect assembly.

The CPSC says that there have been 36 reports of malfunctioning Pottery Barn cribs. Seven children have been injured. One child fell out of the crib and others had their legs caught. One child became entrapped but was not seriously injured.

Regardless of the model, consumers are asked to stop using the cribs which were sold from 1999 to 2010. Pottery Barn will provide consumers with a fixed-gate conversion that immobilizes the drop-side, originally designed to make removing and placing a child in a crib more convenient for the adult. Earlier this year, after millions of cribs from various manufacturers were recalled, the CPSC decided the drop-side models had design defects. Since then, the agency has called for the phase-out of drop-side cribs.

Manufacturers have an obligation to make products that are safe for children. Whether a defective design or constructed poorly of shoddy material, a defective product should never enter the marketplace, especially when those products are intended for children. When they do, a Florida child product recall lawyer can help parents determine whether they have a potential product liability claim against the manufacturer for compensation of their child’s injuries. Ultimately a product liability claim keeps other children safer if it forces the manufacturer to put out a quality, well-designed product.

The CPSC has found at least 32 children died in drop-side cribs over the last nine years. Fourteen other deaths are also being investigated that have a suspected link to the dangerous drop-side crib. Pottery Barn Kids can be contacted at 877-804-3847 or online at www.potterybarnkids.com.

Katie Mathews is just like other 20-year-olds. She wants independence, her own apartment, and is working toward attending college. But Katie is not like other young people just starting off in life. A car crash on Interstate 75 four years ago almost ended her life. For the Venice High School athlete, it did end her mobility. Mathews is partially paralyzed from the chest down.

Tampa Bay Online reports that since the car accident, life has been a series of small victories. First, she lived. She finished high school and was homecoming queen. Then she learned to dress and feed herself. She now lives in an apartment complex filled with others who are recovering from brain and spinal injuries. Mathews has accomplished something else. She is Ms. Jr. Wheelchair Florida.

"Everything in life, whether good or bad, is for a reason," she says optimistically.

Teen Auto Accidents
Florida statistics from 2009 show that auto accidents are the leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 19.

Distracted driving is blamed for the May 6, 2006 vehicle accident that almost took her life. In an SUV at 80 mph, Mathews was a passenger in a car driven by her friend Chloe West, 16. When they found they had overshot an exit, West turned suddenly but lost control of the vehicle which rolled four times.

Continue reading " Life for Ms. Jr. Wheelchair Florida Following Auto Accident " »

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) holds a lot of power over drug manufacturers, and the makers of a new diet pill were disappointed Thursday, July 15. That is when an advisory panel voted 10 to 6, not to recommend a new pill that is supposed to combat obesity.

Consumer Affairs reports that the drug called Qnexa, made by Vivus, would have been available by prescription only as a weight control aid.

The FDA does not have to accept the recommendation of the advisory panel, but usually does. The experts voting against Qnexa noted the potential side effects such as psychiatric problems, birth defects, and an increased heart rate. A panel member from the University of Colorado said that no one wants to conduct a public health experiment on the population at large.

The FDA and Vivus may have dodged a bullet on that one. While obesity is a national dilemma and carries with it a host of medical problems, companies that develop weight control products, hoping to cash in on the national obsession, have found themselves at the receiving end of wrongful death and defective product lawsuits in Florida and throughout the United States.

Continue reading " Obesity Drug Voted Down by FDA Panel " »

As safety investigators continue their probe into the unexplained and unintended acceleration of Toyotas, the automaker says it has reviewed nearly 2,000 cases and drivers appear to be the problem, not Toyota vehicles.

Federal officials have attributed a number of wrongful deaths to the runaway vehicles, so the outcome of this investigation has a direct bearing on those lawsuits. Toyota, not surprisingly, says it has found no problems with the electronics that control the acceleration, initially blamed for the runaway vehicles.

Adding insult to injury, Consumer Affairs reports that Toyota says it found some instances where drivers simply made a mistake, mixing-up the accelerator pedal for the brakes.

Those sentiments were echoed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which has found, by looking at the black box recorders, that no pressure was applied to brakes and the throttles were opened in a few cases of runaway cars.

Toyota has insisted since the early reports, that driver error or misplaced and heavy floor mats affected the cars’ acceleration, the basis of the Toyota automobiles recall.

Due to runaway Toyotas, a barrage of federal lawsuits has been certified as class actions around the country. Individual wrongful death lawsuits have been filed too, including one by the family of Mark Saylor. The California Highway Patrol officer and his family perished when their runaway Lexus plunged off a hill in San Diego in August 2009 after Saylor, an experienced driver, couldn’t bring the racing vehicle under control. Toyota claims that oversized floor mats trapped the gas pedal of the Lexus.

A new 10 percent tax on tanning salons approved by the federal government kicked in last week and salon owners in Florida are angry. Florida Today reports that tanning salon owners say the federal tax will hurt their business in an economy that is already challenging. Until now, tanning salons had to tax products such as lotions sold in their shop, but they did not tax the use of the tanning beds.

The tanning tax will impact about 18,000 small businesses in the U.S. The ten percent tax could raise the cost of three months of unlimited tanning, which usually runs about $235, making it less affordable to young customers, who are primarily women.

Originally called a vanity tax, the tanning salon tax was debated in Congress before it was passed in December 2009. The vanity tax proposed a five percent tax on Botox injections and breast implants, but in the end, it was bumped to 10 percent tax on tanning and the Botox and cosmetic industry got off tax-free.

Some salon owners say tanning has therapeutic effects by helping alleve depression and fixing some skin conditions.

But the president of the American Academy of Dermatology doesn’t agree. He says the indoor tanning tax is a good public health policy because it will discourage young people from the harmful practice of tanning and the increased risk of melanoma.

The tanning tax was proposed by Congress and is expected to raise about $2.7 billion over ten years, needed to offset the cost of the national healthcare plan.

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) has completed an investigation into the February fatal Florida tour bus crash that killed five and injured almost every elderly passenger onboard. According to a Highlands Today article, the woman who turned left in front of the bus will not be charged. Betty Adams, 81, of Lake Placid, Florida, was issued a civil infraction for improper lane change, according to the FHP.

Adams was trying to turn left onto U.S. 27 when she hit the Sunburst tour bus. Twenty-nine senior citizens were onboard, along with three others, when the bus overturned, throwing several passengers out of the windows. The bus driver was found to have a clean driving record and was not at fault for the accident. The FHP report says that Adams failed to see the approaching bus before she turned, putting her right in the path of the oncoming bus. Adams was not injured in the crash. The criminal infraction will require her to make a court appearance.

Elderly Drivers in Florida
According to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles and Highway Safety, motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of injury-related death among 65 to 74-year-olds, and the second leading cause of death among 75 to 84-year olds.

It is not just aging that affects driving. The side effects of medication, degenerative diseases, a compromised vision, hearing, mobility, reaction time, and cognitive function can all be affected as one ages.

Continue reading " Driver Involved in Fatal Tour Bus Crash Will Not Face Charges " »

The air traffic controllers who direct all flight in the Washington region have been overseeing a record number of dangerous misses. So after 22 close calls, a team from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Wednesday, July 7, began reviewing procedures at the towers at airports in the region.

The Washington Post has been leading the coverage of problems in the Washington region, the third busiest airspace after New York and Los Angeles. In one instance on June 28, a 120-seat United Airlines Airbus 319 from Chicago, being guided to land at Reagan National, narrowly missed a 22-seat Gulfstream.

When the United pilot’s warning collision-avoidance systems sounded, he pulled up hard and saw the Gulfstream pass behind him. The FAA requires a distance of three miles or 1,000 feet in altitude between aircraft.

Among the other close calls – a Continental 737 came within 3,900 feet of a military plane from Andrews Air Force Base; an 80-passenger shuttle was turned into the path of a commuter jet at National; and a Beechcraft charter jet nearly collided with a 150-passenger JetBlue Airways Airbus that was directed in front of it at Dulles.

What’s happening? The FAA believes that a new reporting procedure that relaxes punitive action and encourages controllers to report mistakes might be to blame. Still, the FAA is panicked enough to plan a top safety meeting in Washington, August 17, to address aircraft safety problems to make sure all procedures are being followed. Jacksonville aviation attorneys hope for a successful meeting and that all problems with the current procedures are remedied.

It’s also possible that the air traffic controllers who were hired in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan fired all of the controllers in a strike, are now retiring and new and inexperienced recruits are being trained to replace them.

Nationwide, there were 949 near misses last year in the Washington region. Last year there were 18 problems reported in the Washington region for the entire year.

Visitors to Pensacola are getting mixed messages about whether they can go into the Gulf waters or not during the worst environmental disaster there ever. State and local officials are pointing blame at the Obama administration for keeping secret critical safety information about the toxicity of the water from the crude oil which is continuing to leak from the BP oil rig explosion.

In one of the biggest tourist weekends in the Panhandle, the question is whether they should ban swimming altogether. The Escambia County warning stops just short of banning swimming, largely because of the area’s dependence on tourism according to an article in the Palm Beach Post.

As it stands, officials have issued a permanent warning for swimmers to stay out of the Gulf of Mexico in all 43 miles of Escambia County beaches. But they say they need more input from the EPA to know whether people can walk on the beach, get tar on their feet, or swim in waters soaked, not just with oil, but with toxic dispersant in the water to break up the oil.

It is the Environmental Protection Agency that is ultimately responsible for setting standards for the public concerning swimming, but so far the agency has failed to do so and has failed to respond to media requests for toxicology reports.

John Lanza, the top county health official says, “There is no national standard right now for swimming …I’m hoping that the EPA either tomorrow or soon will actually release those standards so we that we have some basis to make further recommendations.”

Regardless of an official explanation, common sense dictates that people avoid areas where oil and tar are present, and that pregnant women, children, and people with a compromised immune system wear shoes when walking across any Panhandle beaches.

A wreck on Interstate 95 in Brevard County turned deadly for a family on this Fourth of July holiday according to an article on FloridaToday.com.

Three people died in a rollover traffic accident Sunday afternoon, just north of State Road 407. It happened around 2:30 p.m. when the family swerved into the shoulder to avoid hitting a barbeque grill that had fallen into the road from another vehicle. Titusville police say the car hit the shoulder, spun, rolled, and struck a tree, killing three family members.
Jeff Cain, 60, Terri Cain, 58, and Ruth Dye 53, of Melbourne were all wearing seat belts at the time of the crash, but that did not save their lives.

Our hearts go out to the family members of the Cain’s and Ms. Dye for their loss in this tragic accident.

Law enforcement reports that charges may be filed in this case.

I-95 has just been named one of America’s most dangerous roads for the number of fatalities reported per mile, and debris in the road is a contributing factor to the death toll. The Florida Department of Transportation urges that drivers secure a load in a pickup truck or dump truck. It only takes a small piece of metal, concrete, or wood to fall from a truck to create a dangerous situation for a motorist. A survey from the AAA Auto Club South in 1999, reveals that 76 percent of club members in Florida believe that road debris is a problem in our state. The most common type of debris found on the roadsides are old tires.

The Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management (1998) reported that the number of crashes caused by tire debris in Florida rose from 648 in 1993 to 931 in 1996.

If you have encountered road debris on the highway and it contributed to an accident, you may have a case to make against the at-fault driver for property and bodily damage. Police need to be called onto the scene to investigate. So does an experienced Florida auto accident attorney to make sure your rights are preserved.

In an effort to cut down on auto accidents from distracted driving, Georgia and five other states have just enacted new texting while driving bans.

The Department of Transportation found that in 2008, almost 6,000 people died in crashes related to distracted driving, while 500,000 others were injured.

As of July 1, Thursday, Georgia banned cell phone use for all drivers under the age of 18, and prohibited text messaging for drivers of any age.

Twenty-eight states have now adopted laws that prohibit texting for everyone behind the wheel.

Georgia violators will find themselves facing a $150 fine as well as a one point assessment against their driver’s license. It was determined a higher fine sent a clearer message to violators. Fines around the country rage from $20 to $750.

In the Florida 2010 legislative session, several bills were proposed in both the House and Senate to prohibit texting while driving and help lower the amount of cell phone accidents in Florida. All were tied up and died in committee on April 30th. Even Heather’s Law died in committee. It was named after a young woman who was killed by a texting driver and prohibited the use of a cell phone while driving except for those drivers using a headset or hands-free device.

Heather’s Law would have allowed enforcement only as a secondary offense. Even with all of those stipulations and restrictions, the cell phone lobby kept Florida in the ranks of the shrinking number of states that still allow texting while driving.

Others include South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

Believe it or not, there is an alarmingly high number of middle and high school students who are trying smoking, using a hookah according to a recent article in the Florida Trend. Hookah smoking involves smoking flavored tobacco with a water pipe.

The cooler smoke gives the impression that the smoking is less dangerous, but research indicates hookah smoking is just as dangerous as cigarettes. The journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology, reports hookah smoking delivers up to four times the nicotine as a cigarette, 11 times the carbon monoxide, and 72 times the tar.

And forget the idea that the water is filtering out the toxins, says University of Florida’s department of health professor, Tracey Barnett.

When a hookah business wanted to open in St. Augustine, the city council discouraged it, saying they would close it down.

At the Casbah Café, smokers receive a warning on a card that explains the dangers of hookah smoking. It says this is a tobacco product and carries the same risks as smoking. But that has not deterred high school students.

Florida tobacco litigation attorneys are concerned about a 2009 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey that found that 14.2% of high school girls, and 17.3% of high school boys had used a hookah to smoke tobacco at least once.

A new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) finds that older Americans are becoming safer drivers, leaving middle-age drivers behind in the dust according to an article on FoxNews.com.

The IIHS looked at the rate of fatal crashes. For drivers age 70 and older, the fatal crash rate dropped by nearly half while for drivers ages 35 to 54, the fatal crash rate dropped 23 percent. That means about 10,000 older drivers who were predicted to be in fatal accidents, were not.

Crashes that result in injury were down too for older American drivers.

For those age 80 and older, there was a 34 percent reduction in the injury crash rate, while middle-age Americans had a 16 percent reduction in injury rate.

It may surprise many that the number of older drivers is on the rise. That may be due to Americans holding onto their licenses longer. The licensure rate increased 20 percent for drivers age 70 to 74. It could also be that more Baby Boomers are now moving into their senior years.

This is good news overall. Jacksonville car accident lawyers are pleased that more people are becoming aware of highway safety. It is possible that older Americans are restricting their own driving at night or avoiding high-speed highways.The safety of cars and highways has improved over the years and all new cars are made with airbags. Roof strengths are improving which is important in a rollover to avoid traumatic brain injury.

In some states, a vision test is required for license renewal. In 2004, Florida passed a requirement that all drivers age 80 and older pass a vision test before they renewed their license. The law required visual acuity in the weakest eye to be better than 20/200, and at least 20/70 in the other eye.

After that law went into effect, federal statistics showed that the death rate among drivers age 80 and up declined about 17 percent.

A 38-year-old woman is in critical condition after driving between 78 and 83 mph in a Julington Creek neighborhood and crashing into a tree and power pole. It happened Tuesday night, July 1 on Flora Branch Road where the speed is 35 mph according to an article on News4Jax.com.

The driver is identified as Donna McCulloch. She is in critical condition at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center. There were no other vehicles involved. For hours after the crash, McCulloch was trapped inside her car with live electric lines down threatening the rescuers. JEA had to arrive to cut the power from the live wires before they could get her out of the car.

McCulloch was wearing her seat belt. Alcohol is not believed to be a factor.

Our prayers go out to this woman for a full recovery. Investigators have no idea at this time why she was speeding in a quiet neighborhood.

What Caused This Accident?

Further tests will be conducted on the driver to see if any substances were involved.

Because there is so little information in this news report, it is difficult to know why this accident occurred. If I was a member of her family, I would want to know what led up to this excessive speeding. It is possible she had a medical condition or that the car was faulty in some way. The family should know if her accident was caused by a Florida vehicle defect or a mechanical malfunction. It is also possible that another driver may have cut her off on the road or there was something she was trying to avoid, perhaps an animal or debris in the road.

If the vehicle failed to protect this woman, or was defective in some way as to cause the accident, a third-party claim can be filed against the auto maker. A reputable Jacksonville auto accident attorney will always be willing to meet with family members and help them find the answers to these troubling questions and begin an investigation while evidence is still available.

The state has just released new traffic accident figures for 2009 and they show a continued trend downward for traffic fatalities. The number of deaths on our roads dropped 14 percent from the previous year, the fourth consecutive year of declines.

Motorcycle deaths declined even more – 24 percent in 2009 from the previous year.

The report is called the “2009 Florida Traffic Crash Statistics Report” which is generated annually by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and is available online. The report card on traffic accidents of all sorts in our state is issued every year after statisticians compile all of the data from law enforcement agencies around the state.

Other positive highlights of the report include:

• Traffic fatalities dropped from 2,983 in 2008 to 2,563 in 2009 in Florida.
• The number of deaths per 100 million miles traveled dropped to 1.3 in 2009. That is the lowest the state has ever reported.
• There were 402 motorcycle fatalities in Florida in 2009, 532 in 2008. In 2003 the number was lower – 358 deaths. In 1999 there were 164 deaths but after the repeal of the helmet law in 2000 the number of fatalities jumped sharply to 241.
• Fatalities involving teen drivers fell significantly – more than 20 percent from 193 in 2008 to 153 in 2009.
• DUI fatalities fell by 14 percent. Even with the improving picture, more than 1,000 people died in alcohol-related crashes.
• Fatalities for pedestrians and bicyclists dropped four percent
• Fatal bicycle accidents dropped 15 percent

Even with cars designed to keep us safer, safety campaigns that are reducing deaths on the road, accidents still occur. If you or a loved one is injured in a traffic or motorcycle accident, a Florida accident attorney can help preserve your rights and thoroughly investigate the cause and the at-fault party. A consultation is free and comprehensive.

Beginning this week, it will be tougher for those injured in a slip-and-fall accident in Florida at a place of business to win a settlement. According to a www.scrippsnews.com article, Florida statute puts the proof of burden on the injured person to determine that the business knew there was a problem, such as a slippery mess, and then failed to clean it up. Until now, all the injured person had to do was prove they had been injured because of some mishap, or spill, or uneven pavement in a place of business.

Not surprisingly, the new law was supported by the Florida Retail Federation, which believes it introduces fairness and creates a level playing field for businesses.

It is now the responsibility of the injured to gather the evidence they will need to prove their case. When you are injured, your main concern is to get medical attention, not to stop the ambulance and gather evidence, take pictures with your digital camera, and interview witnesses. The new law means the injured victim will most likely go without compensation, unless a place of business admits it had a hazard and did nothing to address it. That is very unlikely.

Since evidence will be cleaned up after a slip-and-fall there is very little chance that the injured will ever have their medical expenses, time lost from work, or ongoing therapy covered by the at-fault party. The goal of this law was to reduce slip-and –fall claims, but the truth is that very few people ever claim they have an injury when they don’t. In fact, most people are reluctant to file any sort of claim, even against a business that has been negligent.

When inviting a person into your place of business, presumably to conduct business, shouldn’t the customer be guaranteed a safe experience? Is that asking too much?

With the Fourth of July on the horizon, many Florida residents have already started celebrating with fireworks. While a patriotic spirit makes perfect sense, far too many citizens ignore or forget about safety when using these potentially dangerous objects.

A new study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reveals that fireworks-related incidents were responsible for two deaths in 2009 and approximately 9,000 emergency room visits for injuries. According to the CPSC, throughout the 30 days near last year’s holiday, about 6,000 injuries involving fireworks were reported in which half of the injuries related to firecrackers, bottle rockets, and sparklers.

Consumers below the age of 20 are the most prone to fireworks injuries; however, the risk of serious injury or even death still exists for anyone within close proximity of fireworks or other pyrotechnics. The CPSC notes that some common fireworks injuries and hazards include:

• Burns of the face, head and hands


• Lacerations


• Loss of limbs


• Residential fires


• Wrongful death

It is never a good idea to leave children or even young adults alone when fireworks, sparklers, or bottle rockets are within reach. Parental supervision is essential when legal fireworks are being used. Never permit young children to ignite or toy with fireworks. Although it may seem like common sense, some consumers forget that they should never throw or point fireworks at another person.

For more helpful information on how you can help prevent severe injuries related to fireworks this Fourth of July, please refer to the CPSC’s website for consumer fireworks safety tips.

The Florida personal injury attorneys at Farah & Farah hope that consumers stay safe this Independence Day. Use extra caution this weekend to help keep your loved ones out of harm’s way.

A man from North Naples, Florida, is suing BP alleging it has violated federal environmental laws and permits in allowing crude oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater oil rig.

According to www.naplesnews.com, Brian Doyle, 50, says the companies involved with the failed oil rig violated the federal Clean Water Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Oil Pollution Act.

Doyle is asking a federal judge to require BP, Transocean Deepwater Inc., Halliburton Energy Services, and the Department of the Interior to clean up the gooey mess as quickly as possible and cap the well to prevent further contamination. Doyle filed his oil spill lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers.

Ever since the April 20th explosion of the BP oil rig that killed 11 workers, dolphins have washed ashore and dead sea turtles and pelicans have been recovered, coated in oil. Sharks and stingrays are staying closer to the shores, and porpoises are avoiding the Intracoastal Waterway in a departure from their normal behavior.

Crude oil in the Gulf is collecting in areas of sargassum, which is a type of seaweed where young turtles live. To get rid of the oil, workers are burning the oil-soaked sargassum when it is pulled into booms. So far more than 240,000 barrels of oil have been burned at sea, including whatever creatures are caught in between the two boats.

Dead organisms that cover the surface near the blowout include a dead sperm whale. Under the surface is normally a very rich area for algal growth, an important base for the food chain, which is why the area was so rich in shrimp and fish.

Continue reading " Environmentalist Sues for Violations in the Gulf " »