Florida
Car Accident Lawyer Blog

A new statute in Florida may soon see frequent-collision drivers headed back to school. Under the new rules, any driver who is in three accidents in a period of three years will need to pass driving school before being allowed to drive again. The driver with three or more crashes will need to take on-road training and will need to pass the driving test, much like a new driver.

The new statute aims to reduce the number of car accidents and serious injuries resulting from car accidents. Some areas of Florida – notably Miami, Hillsborough county, Pinellas county, and Jacksonville – have very high car accident rates. The accidents in these areas cause many fatalities as well as serious burn injuries, broken bones, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, and other serious injuries.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, crowded roads and rapid population growth may be contributing to the number of collisions. However, a number of drivers who seem to be in repeat crashes may also be contributing to the accident rates. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, over 3 200 Florida motorists sustain three or more accidents in a three year term. Many experts believe that a motorist with so many accidents may be unsafe and should be re-evaluated for safety and training.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the majority of repeat accident drivers are not senior citizens or teens. Most have been behind the wheel for 15 years or so and have become over–confident while also developing some bad habits. The new law, which will be in place by January 1, aims to help drivers deal with these habits.

So far, it is unknown whether drivers who are instructed to get mandatory training after three accidents will seek exemption. However, most experts agree that extra training and evaluation is a good idea for many drivers who have been in a car accident. Training helps to target those bad habits that can lead to accidents and can make a driver feel more comfortable behind the wheel again after an accident.

Product defects affect just about every industry, but it is especially troubling if your car is recalled as unsafe. A car with a design flaw can be a major danger on the road and can cause serious personal injury or even death in a car accident. Unfortunately, car recalls are widespread and studies suggest that some motorists are not paying as much attention to recalls as they should.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that many motorists and car owners do not keep up to date with car recalls. Some people do not even check recall information when buying a used car. Part of the problem is that it is up to the driver to get repairs completed, and too many drivers simply ignore recalls.

Despite better manufacturing processes, car recalls are still very frequent and very pervasive. In 2008, several models of Ford Motor, Mercury, and Lincoln calls were recalled after a flawed cruise control switch was found to be a hazard. The switch was found to cause fires even when the car was parked and turned off. The recall became one of the largest issued, at about $12 million. The NHTSA has reported that 5 million of the recalled cars are still not repaired and remain on the roads, prompting the NHTSA to make repeated appeals to customers of these cars to seek repairs.

One reason why so many drivers ignore recalls is that we are inundated with them each day. Recalls are issued all the time, and some involve minor issues such as window wipers while others involve life-threatening issues such as the faulty cruise control in the Ford cars. Drivers who have new cars are contacted about recalls but may ignore them. Drivers who own used cars need to do their own research and often fail to do so. The NHTSA has a site (www.nhtsa.gov) listing all recalls. It is a good site to bookmark.

According to the NHSTA only about 30% of recalled child safety seats are repaired or returned, and only 50% of recalled tires are returned or repaired. On general car safety recalls, only 70% of cars are returned or repaired. This means that a significant number of drivers continue to drive with cars, child safety seats, or tires that are known to be unsafe.

In 2008, car makers recalled 14.5 million cars. In 2006, only 11.2 million cars were recalled. While this is still lower than the record set in 2004 (when 30.8 million cars were recalled), the fact is that with so many cars recalled, the numbers of unsafe cars on the road is unacceptably high. Experts at the NHSTA worry that customers are ignoring recalls without fully understanding how these recalls could affect them, their passengers, and others on the road.

A new study released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that almost 65% of near car collisions and 80% of all car accidents occur because motorists are eating or drinking. According to the study, food and drink are a major distraction for drivers and drivers who are focused on eating or drinking have slower response times and are less able to react quickly to sudden changes in road conditions or to dangers on the road.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study has found that some foods are worse than others when it comes to driving. Coffee seems to be the worst danger for drivers. The liquid is hot and can easily spill on a driver, even when secured with a lid. A sudden burn injury behind the wheel – even a minor one – can cause a driver to swerve, drive erratically, and take their eyes off the road. A driver who has spilled coffee on themselves is rarely ever thinking about their driving, and that’s a key danger, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study.

After coffee, the other major dangers behind the wheel include, in order: soup, tacos, chili dogs, hamburgers, ribs and wings, fried chicken, jelly doughnuts, soda and chocolate. Soup is similar to coffee in that it can easily spill and burn a driver, distracting the driver from the road. Chili dogs, hamburgers, ribs and wings, fried chicken, and jelly doughnuts are all potentially messy foods that can spill or drip, distracting the driver from the road. As well, many of these foods require more than one hand to eat. For example, driver might be tempted to take both hands off the wheel to dip wings or chicken in sauce. Most of these foods are also quite greasy or messy and can cause the driver to have a poor grip of the wheel.

One of the most troubling aspects of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study is that so many people eat and drive. Drive-thrus are designed to allow people to eat on the road and most drivers who get take-out at a drive-thru eat in their car while driving. On longer trips, many people eat while driving to save time. As many of us get busier, having a snack or a coffee on the road has become quite common. In fact, according to an ExxonMobil Corporation study, over 70% of drivers eat while driving while 83% of drivers admit to drinking beverages on the road.

There are currently no laws against eating or drinking non-alcoholic products while driving, but as a result of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, some communities may want to rethink their legislation. From the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, it would appear that forbidding drivers to eat or drink while driving can save lives and can prevent many personal injuries.

Until laws are put in place, it is evident from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study what drivers must do. If you are hungry or thirsty, pull over before eating or drinking anything. If you go through a drive-thru, wait until you get home to eat and drink your purchases, or eat them in the parking lot of the restaurant. The extra few minutes you might save by eating on the go are not worth the risk.

Alcohol is a major cause of many car accidents, trucking accidents, and motorcycle accidents. In many fatal accidents, alcohol is a factor. Although drunk driving is fully preventable and although the media and many organizations have been teaching about the dangers of drunk driving for years, there are still some people who decide to drive under the influence. There are many ways you can prevent the personal injuries and fatalities that drunk driving causes:

1) Plan ahead. If you know you may be drinking alcohol, designate a sober driver and give that person the keys. Or, plan to take a taxi and bring taxi fare as well as the number of a taxi service. Many people drink and drive simply because they don’t make arrangements for getting home safely.

2) If you have been drinking and don’t have a designated driver, use an alternative means of transportation. Not everyone plans ahead or knows ahead of time when alcohol will be served at an event. If you go out not expecting to drink but find that you do drink, have a plan in place. Have a sober friend you can call, or know how to use mass transit. Always keep a taxi company’s number in your wallet so that you can call for a cab.

3) If you see someone who is about to drive drunk, stop them. Take away their keys or offer to get them home safely using the type of safe transportation you are taking home.

4) If you see someone driving erratically and think that the person may be drunk, call the authorities. A drunk driver on the road is an emergency and should be treated as such. Do not approach the person yourself but do call for help so that the person can be removed from the road before an accident occurs.

5) Don’t assume you can drive. If you have been drinking and have only had a small amount of alcohol, don’t assume that you are sober enough to drive. Many people make this mistake and drive drunk inadvertently, thinking they are fine. If you have any alcohol, take an alternative means of transportation. At the very least, take a breathalyzer – available now at many bars and clubs – to determine whether you are safe to drive.

In the summer, many people take advantage of the beautiful weather to head outside. As well, children are usually home from school and may be playing outside. For drivers, the summer presents new challenges since more pedestrians can mean more car accidents involving pedestrians. These accidents are often especially because they involve children. As well, car-pedestrian accidents are often devastating, leading to fatalities, brain injuries, broken bones, spinal cord injuries, and other serious injuries. This summer, here are ways to prevent these accidents:

1) Keep an extra eye out for pedestrians. There are more pedestrians around, so do scan sidewalks and pedestrian walkways as well as the roads as you drive. This can help you spot pedestrians before they try to cross the street.

2) On your usual route, note parks and exits from walking and biking trails. Pedestrians might be coming out of these areas and trying to cross the street. Some may be wearing headphones or talking on the phone, distracting them from traffic.

3) Use extra caution in parking lots. Parking lots are a common site for accidents, and even at the relatively low speeds usual in parking lots, pedestrian-car collisions often prove fatal to pedestrians. Be especially careful to check blind spots for children.

4) Don’t ignore school zones and school bus zones just because it’s summer. In the summer, summer school is still in session and school bus zones are sometimes still in use for camps. As well, school bus zones are often residential areas where children might be playing outside. Even though school is out, school zones still deserve some extra caution.

5) Don’t expect pedestrians to follow road rules. Many pedestrian-car collisions happen because a motorist expected a pedestrian to behave one way and the pedestrian did something unexpected. While pedestrians are expected to follow some rules of the road – such as cross on green lights and cross the street at crosswalks – not all pedestrians follow these rules.

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Although not as common as broken bones, spinal cord injuries, whiplash and brain injuries, burn injuries are a serious injury associated with car accidents. Usually, burn accidents take place in serious car collisions, when fuel spills as a result of the crash and is lit. Burn injuries are often devastating, because they affect a person’s appearance and can even burn and injure tissues and muscles, causing severe pain. Getting help for a burn injury quickly after a car accident can help minimize the impact of a burn and can facilitate healing. After a car accident, if a victim has sustained a burn injury, this is what you should do:

1) Examine the burn site for red skin. If there are no blisters but the victim is in pain and has red skin, the burn is likely a superficial or first-degree burn.

2) Examine the skin for signs of wetness and blistering. If these symptoms are present and the victim is in severe pain, it is possible that the victim has a partial-thickness or second-degree burn.

3) Examine the skin for signs of charring or greyish color. The victim may feel a dull pain or even no pain at all if nerve endings have been severely damaged. In this event, the victim has likely suffered a full-thickness burn, which is also known as a third-degree burn.

4) Evaluate the extent of the burn injuries. Over how much of the patient’s body surface is the burn? The victim’s palm surface is usually seen as 1% of the body surface area, so compare the burned area to the victim’s palm. When calling emergency personnel for help, it is useful to be able to explain what type of burn the victim likely has and the extent of the burn. This can help emergency medical personnel evaluate whether to send a burn unit.

5) If in doubt, contact emergency medical personnel. Even if you think a victim has suffered only a first-degree or superficial burn, keep in mind that sometimes the blisters associated with partial-thickness burns or second-degree burns do not develop for a day or 24 hours, so err on the side of caution. Also, call emergency personnel if there is a burn on the victim’s armpits, hands, face, neck, feet, groin, or buttocks. Burns in these areas can be serious.

While we often associate weather-related accidents with bad weather, beautiful warm days can contribute to their fair share of fatal and serious accidents. In the summer, many accidents take place on lovely days, and these accidents can lead to serious personal injury. Summer can lead to car accidents because:

1) Warm weather can mean more events where there is drinking. Summer holidays, picnics, and barbeques often involve cold alcoholic drinks such as beer. While these drinks are refreshing, it is also essential to remember to drink responsibly. Even a few drinks can affect your ability to drive. If in doubt, walk or call a cab.

2) Warm weather means insects and animals. Animals and insects can pose a serious danger on the road. Each year, many car accidents are caused when an insect flies into a car, distracting the driver. When driving on a hot day, roll up your widows and keep the air conditioning on. If you do not have air conditioning and must keep the window open, remember not to panic if an insect flies into your vehicle. Pull over the shoo the pest out. Keep in mind, too, that there are more animals out and about during the summer, since animals are no longer hibernating and since many people let their pets outside on nice days. Keep an eye out for animals and be prepared to evade animals running out into the street.

3) Warm weather can mean car trouble. Some cars overheat and cause a serious burn injury risk in the summer. Warm weather can also cause other problems with cars. Consider getting your car tuned up before the warmest weather arrives.

4) Warm weather means more children and pedestrians on the roads. In the summer, children are more often playing outside and more people are taking advantage of the warmth to walk and bicycle. This can mean an increase in pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents. In residential areas, keep an eye open for bicyclists, joggers, pedestrians, and children.

5) Warm weather means heat exhaustion. Driving in a hot car can expose you to sun and can eventually dehydrate you. Extreme heat can also make you feel drowsy or can even put you at risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Wear sunscreen in your car and sip water as you drive. Keep your vehicle cool with air conditioning or by opening windows.

6) Warm weather can mean poor visibility. Glare and bright sun can make it hard to see the road in the summer time. Invest in a good pair of sunglasses you can wear while driving and use your sun visors to keep the sun out of your eyes.

Car accidents not only cause personal injuries such as burn injuries, brain injuries, broken bones, spinal cord injuries, and other injuries, but they also create a serious emotional impact. The shock and trauma of a car accident can leave a motorist shaken and can leave long-term emotional symptoms, as well. Some people who have been directly impacted by a car accident may feel withdrawn, emotional, unable to sleep, depressed, or anxious. To cope with the physical and emotional impact of a car accident, it is important to:

1) Get careful checkups from a qualified physician. Any symptoms you have – emotional and physical – could be signs of an injury or a problem stemming from the accident. Report all symptoms to your doctor and make sure that you are tested for any possible injury. Sometimes, physical ailments can have very real emotional symptoms. Even if your emotional upset is not caused by a physiological injury, it is good to rule that out.

2) Talk about your symptoms. Talking about the accident and your emotions with a trusted friend is often very helpful. Writing about the accident and its aftermath or creating artworks related to the accident can also be therapeutic. Often, keeping your emotions hidden only intensifies them, so it is good to deal with your emotions rather than bottling them up.

3) Get comfortable with cars again. Many motorists and passengers who have been involved in a car accident feel anxious about being in a vehicle again. Consider taking some classes or getting help if you need it. However, do not drive again until you feel comfortable doing so.

4) Get support and help if you need it. There are also many support groups and qualified counselors who can help you with the after-effects of the accident. These groups and professionals can help you find ways to cope with your emotional upset and can help you work through your feelings so that you feel stronger than ever.

5) Get proactive. Often, we feel that emotions are something abstract and we mistakenly assume that there are few things that can be done about them. This is not the case. If you have suffered trauma after being in a car accident, you can often start to feel better by taking positive steps towards reclaiming control. For example, if your accident was caused by a faulty road, you may petition your city government to fix the intersection. Helping prevent future accidents can help you get on track after your accident and can help make you feel better.

Each Independence Day, the rate of drunk driving accidents spikes, and police officers and emergency rooms get ready for an influx of brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other serious injuries caused by drunk driving. You don’t want to remember this 4th of July with a stay at the hospital, so use these tips to stay safe this weekend:

1) Don’t assume you can drive. Many people cause car accidents because they do not realize that they are over the legal blood alcohol limit. You may not feel intoxicated but still be over the limit legally. Get a small breathalyser kit to carry with your keys so that you can determine your blood alcohol level. If you do not have such a kit, take a taxi or an alternative means of transportation, even if you only have a small amount of alcohol to drink.

2) Plan ahead. Some people drink and drive because they do not plan an alternative means of transport. If you will be out celebrating Independence Day, bring extra money for a cab, designate a sober driver or arrange to stay over if you will be drinking.

3) Be a good host. If you are hosting a 4th of July event, remember that you are also responsible for preventing drunk driving. Stop serving alcoholic drinks well before the end of your event, make alternative forms of transportation (or guest bedrooms) available to your guests, and do not allow your guests to drive drunk.

4) Report possible drunk drivers. If you are driving and notice someone who appears to be drunk or erratic behind the wheel, call authorities. Reporting possible drunk driving or dangerous driving can help prevent accidents.

5) Consider family-friendly events. Most cities and towns offer family-friendly events for Independence Day. These events service no alcohol and often offer transportation services to and from the event.