Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) is reporting that one of two drivers involved in a two-vehicle crash that claimed four lives several months ago in Anthony, FL was intoxicated, according to a story in The Ocala Banner.

FHP troopers say the driver of one of the vehicles registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.148 percent, while his passenger had a blood alcohol level of 1.116 percent. The state’s defines driving under the influence at a legal limit above 0.08 percent.

Unfortunately, the late August Florida car crash crash on Northeast Jacksonville Road north of 110th Street killed two passengers in the other vehicle who were not impaired.

The 26-year-old men in the first vehicle were returning home from a convenience store where they had just purchased beer. Neither man was wearing a seat belt.

Our condolences go out to all family members and friends of those involved in this senseless and tragic loss.

Florida Drunk Driving Laws
The attorneys at Farah & Farah often find that DUI crashes in Florida involve repeat offenders. It is such a problem that the state allows has a fine schedule for a first, second, and third conviction. A third DUI can lead to your car being impounded for up to 90 days. By the fourth or subsequent DUI, a third degree felony charge can lead to a $5,000 fine and/or 5 years in prison.

It often is the repeat offenders who cause the bodily injury and death that finally gets them off the road for good. Please call the Florida auto accident attorneys at Farah & Farah for a comprehensive review of your car crash if you suspect a drunk driver may have been involved. You may be entitled to be compensation for an accident that was not your fault.

WTSP Television in Tampa is reporting that the hit-and-run driver who left a Tampa student dead on Kennedy Boulevard and scarred his 20-year old friend for life, pled guilty on December 21, to two counts of leaving the scene with a fatality and will serve 15 years in prison with 15 years probation to follow.

According to police, the driver admitted his part in the hit-and-run which occurred in November of 2009 when a group of young people was crossing Kennedy Boulevard to get some food. The driver says he panicked and left the scene and ditched the car which was later found by police and traced back to the driver.

The young man was hospitalized but declared brain dead days after the collision. The 20-year-old woman, contacted at her home in Pennsylvania, said she cannot open her jaw and surgery is too risky because there are bone fragments close to her brain.

Instead of volleyball and snowboarding, she takes online courses to study to work in criminal justice or law. She tells 10 News she hoped the man would get the maximum sentence of 35 years.

Distracted Driving
The driver told reporters he was reaching down to retrieve a lit cigarette when the accident occurred. According to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, dialing a cell phone raises the risk of a crash 2.8 times, talking on a phone raises the risk of a crash 1.3 times, and reaching for an object increases the risk of a crash 1.4 times.

If you have been injured by an inattentive driver in an auto accident, a Tampa car accident attorney can immediately begin to determine to what extent the motorist may be at-fault. The driver responsible for your injuries may be liable for compensating your medical costs, lost wages, property damages, among other expenses.

This is a very sad story to report from Orlando where one of two sisters crossing Alafaya Trail has died after both were hit by vehicles when crossing against the busy flow of traffic Thursday night, December 23. The Orlando Sentinel reports the first car, an orange Jeep SUV, struck the two about 7 p.m. at a crosswalk near the University of Central Florida as they were crossing from the west to the east side of Alafaya Trail. Then a second northbound Toyota Solara hit the 11-year-old, who died at the scene. Her 17-year-old sister was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center and is reported to be in critical condition. Law enforcement reports that neither drugs nor alcohol showed up for either driver and the girls were not in the crosswalk, so traffic had the right-of-way when the girls were hit.

Our condolences go out to the friends and family of the younger sister who has passed, and our prayers are for a full recovery of her older sister.

Pedestrians in Florida
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that up to 5,000 deaths occur each year when a pedestrian is struck by a moving vehicle. In 2009, there were 482 pedestrian fatalities in Florida, and 7,676 injuries. In Orange County, there were 32 pedestrian fatalities in 2009, a sharp jump from 28 deaths in 2009. In 2007, there were 40 fatalities.

During more than 25 years of legal practice, the Orlando accident attorneys at Farah & Farah have represented many pedestrians who were injured in collisions with motor vehicles, often through no fault of their own. We have established an excellent reputation for gathering millions of dollars in settlements in favor of our clients who rely on us to investigate the particulars of their case and fully represent them to the best of our ability. You may be facing a deadline within which to file a claim, so speak to any of our experienced attorneys as soon as you can.

More new vehicles are being made with passenger safety in mind, according to the insurance industry group, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, as reported by BostonHerald.com. It has released its Top Safety Pick rating for the 2011 model year, selecting 66 vehicles to win the highest safety ranking among the 191 vehicles rated. Among the winners are 40 cars and 25 sport-utility vehicles. Only 27 vehicles made the grade at the beginning of 2010.

Among the improvements, shared by every major automaker which had one car in the top ranking, were roof strength improvements to protect passengers in a rollover accident. Newer model cars have added airbags in 92% of new models, both front and side airbags, while electronic stability control is now on nearly all 2011 cars (92%), all SUVs, and 72% of pickups.

Clarence Ditlow, of the Center for Auto Safety, attributed the safety focus on Congress and its pressure on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to set more stringent standards. NHTSA and the Transportation Department in October unveiled a crash rating system for vehicles that includes how women fare in accidents (determined by using female crash dummies), and how the cars perform in front, side, and rollover crash tests.

Surprisingly, Ford has upgraded the roof of its Flex and Lincoln MKT SUV, the Ford Fusion and mid-size SUV, and Lincoln MKZ sedans. Previously Ford has not been among the top insurance institute ratings winners. Still at the bottom for added safety features are small pickup trucks. Large pickup trucks have not yet been tested.

The Florida auto product liability lawyers at Farah & Farah have seen the devastating effects of many injuries from vehicles that fail to protect passengers and we applaud upgraded safety features that should save hundreds of lives and avert thousands of injuries from highway accidents.

The mother of a University of Miami Hurricanes sophomore running back was killed Monday, December 20, in a Haines City two-vehicle crash that also injured his sister and her 5-year-old son.

Fox News reports that Mike James’ sister was driving the Ford Explorer in the Polk county town when it was hit at an intersection by a Toyota Corolla. The mother, Elgusta James, 47, who was not wearing her seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle, as was the 5-year-old. The boy was hospitalized in Orlando and is reported to be in serious condition, and his mother was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. There were no charges immediately filed against the Toyota driver, who was not seriously injured.

James left the Coral Gables campus to be with his family and is uncertain whether he will play in the bowl game on December 31.

Our condolences go out to the friends and family of Ms. James.

Florida Seat Belt Laws
When Florida passed a seat belt law in June 2009, which allows officers to pull over drivers for the sole reason of not wearing their seatbelt, the federal government estimated that it would save 124 lives every year and prevent 1,733 serious injuries.

As of June 2010, the overall use of seat belts in the state was estimated at 87.4%, even higher than the national average of 85.2%. That is thought to be, in part, due to the Department of Transportation’s 2009 Click It or Ticket campaign and the state's primary enforcement law.

Florida car accident attorneys encourage everyone to buckle up. A seat belt is the single most effective piece of equipment a motor vehicle occupant can use to stay safe and help prevent serious injury or death from occurring in the event of a collision. However, even if a person was not wearing their seat belt when an accident took place, the person who is determined to have been responsible for the accident still may be held liable.

A University of Central Florida student was killed in a head-on car accident on her 21st birthday in Orlando on Sunday, December 20, according to a report on WFTV-TV.

The young woman was on the wrong side of Vineland Road when she struck another car head-on about 3:15 a.m. near a Florida Turnpike overpass. According to her Facebook page, she was studying hospitality and tourism at UCF.There is no word in this story where she was going or where she had come from, but police report she was not wearing a seat belt. The man in the other vehicle was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center with minor injuries.

Her friends said there were many people who loved her and they will have a party in her honor. Our condolences are extended to the family and friends of this young woman.

Young Adult Driver Accidents Statistics
The story does not say whether a blood alcohol test was taken at the scene.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, young drivers in the 20-to-24 age group had the highest number of fatal crashes in 2008 (2,788). When it came to alcohol consumption, 21-year-old drivers had the highest rate in all crashes (23.13) while 23-year-olds had the highest rate in fatal crashes (1.16).

Drunk driving accidents are some of the most devastating occurrences, especially since they could have been prevented. Far too many people are seriously injured or killed because of a driver was operating a vehicle while under the influences of alcohol. As Orlando drunk driving accident attorneys, we know all too well how tragic these accidents are. Do your part, don't drive drunk or let anyone you know do so.

With the holiday season comes a surge of travelers on Florida roads and an increased potential for auto accidents. If you were to be involved an accident - who would be contacted and when? Four million Floridians have made sure that someone close to them is contacted when seconds count following a traffic accident. When you register two emergency contact names with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, a loved one will be contacted immediately following any sort of crash on the road.

The program was initiated in 2006 after Christine Olson of Brandon, Florida, couldn’t locate her daughter, Tiffany, who had been critically injured in a motorcycle crash. Christine searched six hours for her daughter, when finally she was tipped off that her daughter had been taken to an area hospital only to learn that Tiffany had passed away. Christine never got to say goodbye to her daughter. After the agony she went through, Olson vowed no other parent would have to suffer what she experienced trying to find her daughter. Olson founded TIFF (To Inform Families First), a program that uses the two names that are registered with a person's driver's license or state identification card that can be contacted in an emergency such as an auto or motorcycle accident.

Farah & Farah’s Florida car accident attorneys remind readers to be sure to have two names registered with every family members' driver's license to give some peace of mind.

It is quick and convenient to register at www.flhsmv.gov/eci or at any Florida DMV office. There is no cost.

It’s something we write about all the time. Kids playing in a driveway or running up to an SUV to say goodbye to a parent, only to be run over by the driver who just couldn’t see the child behind the large SUV. It has happened far too often, with 292 fatalities and 18,000 injuries occurring every year from back-up accidents, that the government is requiring auto manufacturers to increase the visibility behind large vehicles. The proposal by the Department of Transportation (DOT) will expand the field of view behind SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks, by requiring a rear-mounted video camera with an in-vehicle display on all new vehicles by September 2014. The proposed rule was part of the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, named for a two-year-old who was killed by his father behind the wheel of an SUV in the family driveway.

Kids and Car Back-up Accident Statistics
The consumer advocacy group www.kidsandcars.org has supported and managed the aforementioned proposal for rear visibility so that vehicles meet a standard that allows a driver to see what is in the blind zone. The group says at least 50 children are backed over by vehicles in the U.S. every week. At least 70% of the backup incidents involve children.
“Expanding the field of vision for all passenger cars, pickup trucks, and minivans is necessary so drivers can see directly behind the vehicle when backing,” said Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org. “The quality of rearview camera technology has advanced to the point where you can see if there are leaves on the ground when backing. We have the technology to prevent these deaths; and now we are going to use it” she added.

The Jacksonville injury lawyers at Farah & Farah remind parents that no technology can make up for being mindful of the possibility that a small child, an animal, or an elderly person may be around the rear of your vehicle as you back out of a driveway. It is the person who is in a hurry and distracted who is most likely to be surprised by what they can encounter when they are not paying attention.

A Polk County Sheriff's Office sergeant was killed on Sunday, December 12 when an SUV struck him at a central Florida 7-Eleven store in Winter Haven about 10:30 in the morning, reports WPBF. The sergeant had just exited his vehicle when a Cadillac Escalade driven by a 79-year old rammed into his police vehicle, causing it to spin 180 degrees. The Escalade also crashed a metal barrier and hit a store and the owner of the store as she stood outside. Investigators are attempting to determine what happened to cause the Escalade to travel out of control.

Florida Elderly Drivers
Many people assume that an older driver must be the at-fault driver, but statistics in the state tell a different story. Drivers age 20-24 had the highest number of crashes in our state in 2009 at 44,788 with 15-to-19 year olds responsible for 29,482 crashes. There were 2,000 crashes involving 85-to-89 year olds, and drivers age 90 plus were involved in 675 crashes.

The death rate for older drivers in Florida decreased after a vision screening law passed in the state for anyone over the age of 80. Between 2001 and 2006, federal statistics show the overall death rates for all drivers rose slightly, while the fatality rate for older drivers fell 17 percent.

When there is some question about the at-fault driver, an experienced Florida auto accident attorney can ask the right questions to determine how an insurance policy will apply in an accident case that involves an uninsured or underinsured driver. The best Florida personal injury law firm will always offer a free and comprehensive session with the injured victim and his family.

The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear the largest workplace class action lawsuit in history in a sex bias claim against retail giant Wal-Mart that was filed by as many as 1.5 million female workers who claim the store did not pay and promote women in the same way it offered opportunities to their male counterparts.

The Court, led by Justice Roberts, which is inclined to slow or stop large lawsuits against business, will decide whether Wal-Mart must face a single lawsuit or individual actions. To be a class action there must be a common set of facts that affect the entire class. The women argue that Wal-Mart has a corporate culture that reserves management jobs for men. Wal-Mart alleges that each of its 3,400 stores has a different manager, therefore a different hiring, promoting, and firing style.

The decision to go forward as a class action puts pressure on Wal-Mart to settle rather than face a debilitating and potentially large jury verdict. There is no word in this story from The Los Angeles Times when the Court will hear the Wal-Mart action.

Florida Courts Protect Employers
In the case of a work-related injury, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that a business is immune from wrongful death lawsuits if it did not intentionally harm an employee. In 2003, then-Gov. Bush and the Florida Legislature approved a standard that an employer can only be sued if it engaged in a conduct that it knew was “virtually certain” to lead to death or injury. The injured worker also had to prove the business tried to conceal the danger.

The Florida workers' compensation attorneys at Farah & Farah receive calls every week from people injured at work who may have a difficult time meeting that threshold. However, there are exceptions to this standard depending on the conduct of the employer, and we are available to meet with an injured worker or the family members of someone killed on the job to discover what that employee or their survivors are legally entitled to receive.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is responsible for issuing statistics regarding many aspects of transportation, including distracted driving. Last year, distracted driving killed nearly 5,500 people and injured 500,000 more. Now the DOT is doing more than releasing statistics – it is telling the stories of the men, women, and children who died in an accident caused by someone else was talking on a cell phone, texting, reaching for the radio, or was otherwise distracted while behind the wheel.

The DOT began a website titled "The Faces of Distracted Driving" and features a video that begins with the story of Margay Schee of Ocala, who was just 13 when she, along with 21 other students were on their way home from school, when they were stopped and rear-ended by a semi-truck traveling at 60 mph.

The driver said he never saw the school bus. A subsequent investigation found the driver was talking on a cell phone at the time of the crash and it later turned out, he had driven more than 16 hours, well in excess of federal safety rules which limit driving to 11 hours. Margay was under the seat of the bus and was not able to get out when the bus caught on fire. She was the only student who did not get out alive. Her mother says a big part of her died with Margay.

In the video, Margay's mother says, “No texting, no talking, hands-free, just put it down. I ask people if they feel the urge to pick up their phone they think of Margay laying on the bottom of a school bus.”

The DOT asks anyone who has a distracted driving story to share to upload a video to YouTube and email the link to faces@distraction.gov.

If you have been injured in a truck accident in Florida, the experienced Florida truck crash lawyers at Farah & Farah will work hard to hold the responsible party accountable in a court of law as well as obtain compensation for you for your injuries.

The Florida Highway Patrol issued a press release announcing the number of traffic incidents for the Thanksgiving holiday period during five days of enhanced enforcement from November 24 through 28. During that time, 23 motorists died on Florida roads in traffic-related crashes, but that is a 36 percent reduction from the same time period last year. There were 121 DUI arrests in Florida during the holiday, 4,921 speeding tickets issued, as well as 1,407 seat belt citations given. Altogether there were 3,990 motorists assisted by the FHP.

Part of the reason for the reduction in fatalities, the FHP says, is the agency’s efforts to educate the public about seat belt use and DUI.

As of July 1, 2005, Florida motorists could be ticketed if they violated the new primary seat belt law which required that occupants (including the driver) of a motor vehicle under the age of 18 buckle up in their vehicle. Law enforcement was given the power to stop any vehicle if the driver or occupants were not wearing their seat belts.When Florida enacted its primary safety belt law, federal officials predicted it would save 124 lives a year and prevent 1,733 injuries.

Florida drivers topped the national average on the use of seat belts at 87.4 percent usage in 2010, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. That exceeds the 2009 national seat belt use of 84 percent.

The Florida personal injury lawyers at Farah & Farah encourage everyone to buckle up in any motor vehicle they drive or ride in.

She was a mother of two who was on her way to pickup her children at daycare on January 12, 2009, when a fleeing carjacking suspect was being chased by a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) deputy crashed head-on into the woman’s car, killing her. News4Jax.com reports the family says it plans to sue JSO for “negligently initiating” a chase at speeds that exceeded 100 mph in rush-hour traffic on busy Deerwood Park and Southside Boulevards in Jacksonville.

The suspect lost control of the van he was driving on Deerwood Park Boulevard and struck the vehicle being driven by the 24-year-old mother, who died at the scene of the Jacksonville car crash. The suspect has since been sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Police Chases
The question of when police should pursue a suspect is an ongoing and unresolved issue that unfortunately has resulted in the deaths of many innocent bystanders who were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

According to the citizen’s group Pursuit Safety, 40 percent of all police car chases end in a collision, while 20 percent result in serious injury and 1 percent end in a death. On average in the United States, police chases kill at least three innocent bystanders a week, and once every 11 weeks, a police officer is killed.

Many counties, such as Orange County, have adopted a policy that allows for a police pursuit only to apprehend a suspect involved in a violent crime. No doubt, the more citizens push back with personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, police departments will have to reevaluate their pursuit policies.

If a loved one has died in a Jacksonville car accident, the Jacksonville car crash attorneys at Farah & Farah attorneys will carefully review your case to determine if negligence by another motorist was a factor in the accident and help you obtain the compensation your family deserves.

A story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal questions the actions of a doctor who may have unnecessarily implanted thousands of cardiac stents used to keep arteries open. Senate investigators have zeroed in on the Baltimore area cardiologist as an example of health care costs out of control. He allegedly implanted 585 stents from 2007 to 2009 while he worked as a sales consultant for Abbot Laboratories, whose stents he used. The cardiologist was barred from local hospital privileges after investigators found many of those stents were unnecessary.

In the area of skyrocketing health care costs, medical devices are very lucrative. Medicare paid about $25 billion for stent surgery for six years up until 2009, according to Senate investigators.

The cardiologist, Mark Midei, received a $2,159 barbeque dinner two days before he inserted 30 stents in a single day, according to the reports. A hospital looking into the doctor found 1,878 cases in which he inserted stents from January 2007 to May 2009 to determine 585 may have been unnecessary. Medicare paid $3.8 million for those procedures which cost $6.6 million.

Hospitals can make about $10,000 from each stent procedure, so often the facility looks the other way when a large number of procedures are performed, reports Fair Warning. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 found that many stent placements are unnecessary and do not extend the life of the patient.

If you or a loved one have been implanted with a medical device that has failed or led to complications, the Florida defective medical device attorneys at Farah & Farah can look through your medical records to determine if there may be some avenue to be compensated for your medical expenses and lost wages. Call our office soon as there is a limited time within which to bring a medical malpractice action.

In its first ever analysis of drug use and driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released data that says 1-in-5 drivers who were killed in car crashes last year tested positive for drugs, both illegal and over-the-counter.

The report highlights the growing problem of people driving vehicles after having taken medication, some being legally obtained. There is little information on how medication affects driving, although some prescriptions say they may cause drowsiness and caution against operating heavy machinery.

Many people assume only illegal drugs can be dangerous behind the wheel. In 2009, the data show that drugs were found in nearly 4,000 drivers killed in auto accidents, an increase of about 5% from a study done five years ago.

The types of drugs being tested for included narcotics, stimulants, depressants, anabolic steroids, inhalants, and hallucinogens, among others.

As more and more people find drug use acceptable, NHTSA will continue its drug research to try and determine their impact on car crashes. Increasingly, law enforcement in 46 states is being trained to recognize the symptoms of a drugged driver as distinguished by someone driving under the influence of alcohol.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident and don’t know where to turn, the Florida auto accident lawyers at Farah & Farah can get you started on thinking about your next step. It may all seem overwhelming, but the insurance representative for the other side may make a gesture to offer you some money if you sign a waiver and promise never to sue. This is not something you should do without first consulting with an experienced auto accident law firm because you may be signing away your rights.

Johnson & Johnson is on the hot seat again after its consumer-products division recalled 12 million bottles of Mylanta and almost 85,000 bottles of AlternaGel liquid antacid because of a product defect. In this recall, there was a small amount of alcohol not noted on a package which came from the flavoring agent and amounts to less than 1%.

According to a Reuters article, the brands were manufactured in a joint venture with Merck & Co. at a plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a different plant from the J & J plant closed in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania after millions of bottles of children’s cold and allergy medications were found to have inconsistent formulations and contamination.

Just last week, J & J recalled 9 million bottles of Tylenol because of the alcohol problem.
So far this year, more than 200 million of J & J products have been recalled including Tylenol and Motrin, Benadryl, and Rolaids. Sales dropped 25% and company executives had to testify to Congress about the lack of quality control. And the problem has not just been a domestic one. J & J’s plant in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, also had a contamination problem that FDA investigators say still is not fixed. That plant produces most of the over-the-counter drugs sold by J & J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare division.

While you chances of getting sick from the inconsistent formulations and alcohol are remote, the FDA went out on a limb and even suggested the public choose generics over the risky J & J or McNeil brands. If you or a loved one is sickened by a defective pharmaceutical, you may have questions whether the responsible party can be held liable for a medication that contains bacterial contamination or an inconsistent amount of active ingredient. Those are questions for the Jacksonville product liability attorneys at Farah & Farah.

Charges are not expected to be filed in a pedestrian accident that took the life of a 56-year-old Orlando man walking on Lee Road Wednesday, December 1. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the man was on foot northbound when he suddenly tried to cross the westbound lanes near the intersection of Adanson Street. According to the FHP, the man was struck head-on by a 2007 Ford Edge driven by a 21-year-old. The impact sent the pedestrian to the driveway of a nearby Burger King where first responders found him in critical condition. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital but later died from his injuries. Witnesses say the man ran suddenly into traffic and there was no way to avoid hitting him.

Pedestrian Accident Statistics
Orlando is among four Florida cities cited as being the most dangerous metropolitan areas for pedestrians, according to a study by the nonprofit group, Transportation for America. Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville round out the other four.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles report that 482 pedestrians were killed in Florida pedestrian accidents in 2009, while 7,676 pedestrians were injured, a 4 percent and 2.6 percent decrease respectively from the previous year.

Nationally, a dozen people are killed every day in a pedestrian/motor vehicle crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports there were 4,378 pedestrians killed in the U.S. in 2008, along with 69,000 pedestrian injuries that year.

If you have been injured by a motor vehicle in a pedestrian accident in Florida, you would be well-advised to have an experienced Florida pedestrian accident attorney advocate for you at a time when you are recovering from a devastating injury. It may be possible to at least recover the cost of your medical care so you do not have to become financially devastated as well.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is assuring parents that through its efforts there are safer toys on the market this holiday season, as reported by NBC 15 News. Safer means low or no lead, usually found in painted items made in China, along with a reduction in phthalates, a type of plastic, reduced by a mandatory standard. The government has been working with U.S. Customs to try and track shipments as they come into this country to make sure toys are in compliance.

The efforts seem to be working. There were 44 toy recalls in 2010, reports NBC 15, and 50 toy recalls in 2009, down from 172 recalls in 2008.

Those recalls often followed injury and death which hit a high in 2007 and 2008 when there were 24 toy-related fatalities. By 2009 that number had dropped to 12 deaths, which is still too many. Deaths were attributed to powered riding toys, drowning, motor vehicle accidents or obstruction of the airway from a small toy or part of a toy.

All of that sounds comforting but at the same time the federal agency states toy-related injuries are on the rise. The CPSC reported 186,000 ER visits by children under the age of 15 were injured by toys last year. By comparison there were 152,000 toy-related injuries in 2005. Injuries include abrasions, laceration, and contusions from sharp toy parts.

If your child has been injured by a toy, it may be because the product was defective. The Florida product liability lawyers at Farah & Farah remind you that no product is supposed to hurt the user under product liability law. Our attorneys can help you determine if you have a viable product liable lawsuit to file against the manufacturer or distributor of the dangerous toy that harmed your child.

The rollover of a Ford Explorer took the life of a man on Sunday, November 21, at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Otis Stone Hunter Road in Daytona, reports First Coast News. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) states the Ford Explorer was northbound around 2 a.m. when it suddenly left the road onto an unpaved shoulder at which time the driver then over-corrected the Ford and it rolled several times. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene of the Florida car crash and his passenger was taken to a Daytona Beach hospital with critical injuries. FHP officials took blood tests at the time to help determine why the vehicle might have left the road in the first place.

SUV Rollover Accidents
While we don’t know the year of this Ford Explorer, in May 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) upgraded the standard for roof strength, which is important to the vehicle’s occupants during a rollover so their heads are protected. These were the most widespread changes in 38 years. Vehicles weighing in at 6,000 pounds and less have to be able to withstand a roof crush standard three times their weight. Heavier vehicles between 6,000 to 10,000 pounds only will be required to withstand a crush weight of 1.5 times the vehicle’s weight.

The tougher roof strength standard, which will be phased in between 2012 and 2026, are predicted to save 13 to 44 lives a year at a minimum. Ten-thousand people die every year in rollover accidents, and about a quarter of occupant deaths in motor vehicles involve rollovers. For SUVs that number jumps to 59 percent.

The Florida SUV rollover accident lawyers at Farah & Farah are up-to-date on the standards required for vehicles concerning rollover safety. If you or a loved one has been injured in a Florida SUV rollover crash, we can offer advice that is complimentary and comprehensive to get you started on the road to recovery and obtaining compensation.