Articles Posted in Bicycle Accidents

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In the aftermath of a Southeast Florida car accident, there’s no requirement that you MUST hire a Palm Beach personal injury lawyer with a claim for damages. But there is strong statistical evidence that doing so will significantly improve your odds of prevailing with full and fair damages. Palm Beach injury lawyer

One analysis published by the Insurance Research Council a few years ago revealed lawyer-represented crash victims received damage awards that were on average 3.5 times higher compared to those who didn’t hire a lawyer.

This supports much of the previously-established data on this issue.

In a 2010 empirical evidence study published in the peer-reviewed Seattle Journal for Social Justice, researchers conducted meta analysis of other studies dating back decades on how access to a lawyer impacts the outcomes of civil cases – including personal injury claims. What they found was:

  • In every study reviewed, “lawyered-up” claimants were far more likely to win. (Exactly how much more likely varied from study-to-study, with most ranging somewhere from 20 percent higher to 4 times higher.) Part of this might be explained by the fact that civil lawyers tend to take on more meritorious cases. But then again, that’s one of the many benefits you get with hiring a Palm Beach injury lawyer: Confidence that you aren’t wasting your time because you’ve got a case worth pursuing.
  • To minimize the influence of the merit-based argument, another study involved civil lawyers providing their services at random to a group of sample litigants. The outcomes in their cases were then compared to those of similarly-situated (but non-represented) litigants. Those who had lawyers were 4.4 times more likely to win than those who represented themselves.
  • Another analysis concluded that in higher complexity civil cases (including serious personal injuries, medical malpractice, and wrongful death), plaintiffs represented by attorneys were 40 percent more likely to win.

Why Does Hiring a Palm Beach Injury Lawyer Make Such a Difference?

Some of the researchers’ theories about why hiring a lawyer makes such a difference in case outcomes: Continue reading

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If you’re ever in a South Florida bicycle accident with someone driving a car, one avenue through which you might obtain compensation is through your own personal injury protection (PIP) insurance that you purchase as part of your regular car insurance. As our Palm Beach personal injury lawyers can explain, PIP can be applied in bicycle accidents – even if you weren’t driving – so long as the incident occurred in traffic. Technically, bicyclists aren’t required to carry any insurance at all in Florida. However, it’s a good idea – particularly if you enjoy road cycling. And if you have a car, it’s easy, as PIP (which can be paid regardless of fault in the accident) is already required coverage for registered motor vehicles in the state. However, any PIP claims must be accurately and timely filed. Palm Beach injury lawyer

Underscoring this point was a case last year before Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeals.

In the matter of USAA Casualty Insurance Co. v. Mikrogiannakis, a bicyclist was struck by a car in Seminole County (Central Florida), and sought medical treatment for his injuries. During that initial visit, his registration form listed his contact information and the name of his personal injury lawyer – but not the name and address for a PIP insurer. That field had been left blank. Over the course of several months, he continued to receive medical treatment from that same provider.

Roughly 18 months after administering these treatments, the medical provider began submitting claims to USAA, the bicyclist’s PIP insurer. However, USAA denied the payments, citing failure to comply with F.S. 627.736(5)(c). The statute is extensive (which is why we recommend consulting with a personal injury lawyer if you aren’t sure of your rights), but that provision in particular refers to the requirement that any bills for emergency services or care must be submitted to the PIP carrier within 35 days (possibly for treatment rendered up to 75 days). The bills in this case weren’t submitted for a full 18 months. Continue reading

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With more children and families sticking closer to home this summer, the risk of a Palm Beach bicycle accident resulting in severe injuries is higher than ever. Safe Kids Palm Beach County reports that traumatic injuries suffered by children in Palm Beach County bicycle accidents has shot up nearly 170 percent in recent months. Eight kids were treated locally for serious bike crash injuries in just five weeks.Palm Beach injury lawyer

The non-profit kids’ safety organization indicated most of the bicycle accidents involved collisions with cars. More than 90 percent of riders treated at local hospitals weren’t wearing helmets and suffered some type of brain injury.

“Kids think they’re invincible,” the SKPBC director told WPTV recently.

That may be true, but our Palm Beach County injury attorneys want to stress it doesn’t give a free pass to drivers who are distracted, speeding or otherwise careless – particularly in residential neighborhoods where one would expect to see more children on bicycles right now. The failure of a child to wear a helmet won’t excuse a negligent motorist from liability either. Continue reading

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Last week, our West Palm Beach personal injury law firm reported that the National Transportation Safety Board is calling for all states to ban texting and cell phone calls while driving. We also wrote about the upcoming debate among Florida lawmakers regarding whether or not to ban texting in the state.

This week, we’d like to blog about a recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey on the distracted driving habits of Americans. Over 6,000 drivers participated. Per the results:

• At any moment, nearly one out of every 100 drivers is e-mailing, texting, surfing the Internet, or doing something else with a hand-held device while operating a motor vehicle.
• Most of those surveyed admitted to answering phone calls while driving.
• Close to two out of every 10 drivers surveyed admitted to e-mailing or texting. Drivers in the 21-24 age group were most likely to text while driving.
• Over 50% of drivers don’t believe that making a call affects their driving performance.
• About 25% said they don’t think that e-mailing or texting impacts their driving.
• 90% of drivers don’t like it if the person driving the car they are riding in is e-mailing or texting • More drivers said they read texts over sending them.
• Two times as many drivers admitted to answering calls over making them while operating a motor vehicle.

As evidenced by the survey results, most drivers think that they can text or talk on the phone safely while driving. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Cell phone conversations and texting takes a motorist’s attention away from the task at hand, which means he/she is not 100% focused on the task at hand. This can make it hard to avoid causing or becoming involved in a South Florida traffic crash. Remember that it takes just a few seconds for a catastrophic Miami motor vehicle accident to happen-those same seconds that a driver’s eyes are off the road in order to read an e-mail or dial the phone.

Over the last couple of years, Federal, state, and local safety officials have made a concerted effort to educate people about the dangers. Yet even when there are laws limiting cell phone use or banning texting, some people can’t seem to stop themselves, which places everyone in danger.

Drivers can no longer say that they didn’t know that distracted driving can kill people. As the victim of a distracted driving accident, you may be able to pursue Palm Beach traffic crash damages from the negligent motorist.

More drivers texting but few think it’s dangerous, survey says, The Denver Post/AP, December 9, 2011
NTSB pushes for nationwide ban on cellphone use for drivers, The Washington Post, December 14, 2011
National Distracted Driving Telephone Survey Finds Most Drivers Answer the Call, Hold the Phone, and Continue to Drive, NHTSA (PFD)


More Blog Posts:
As NTSB Recommends Full Cell Phone While Driving Ban, Florida Again Considers Whether to Make Texting Illegal, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, December 13, 2011
Coconut Creek Woman Killed in Broward County, Florida Car Crash Involving Lighthouse Point Police Vehicle, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, December 5, 2011
West Palm Beach Motorcycle Accident Leaves Police Officer with Serious Injuries, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, November 26, 2011 Continue reading

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In the upcoming legislative session due to start next month, Florida legislators will once again consider whether texting should be banned in the state. Right now, Florida is one of 15 US states that haven’t made texting while driving illegal. Florida is also among the few states without any type of restriction on cell phone use while driving. Our Miami personal injury law firm is familiar with the types of catastrophic South Florida car crashes that can occur because someone was distracted driving.

This time around, however, lawmakers who favor a statewide texting ban may be coming into the debate with the extra support they need following today’s recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board that use of cell phone and text messaging devices while driving be made illegal throughout the US-unless, of course, there is an emergency situation. Although the NTSB cannot impose state laws, its recommendations are taken seriously by lawmakers.

The federal safety board called is calling for the ban because it says distracted drivers are threatening public safety. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey, distracted driving was a factor in at least 3,092 US traffic crashes last year and at any moment during daylight hours, close to 1 out of 100 drivers is using handheld phones. NTSB member Robert Sumwalt even went so far as to call distracted driving the “new DUI.”

When explaining the need for a nationwide ban, the NTSB cited the tragic multi-vehicle Missouri traffic pileup in August 2010 involving a tractor-trailer, a pickup truck, and two buses. More than 30 people were injured and two people killed, including the 19-year-old driver of the pickup, who, within 11 minutes, sent or received 11 text messages. The other victim that died was a 15-year-old that was riding the school bus.

Texting, emailing, and talking on the cell phone are dangerous activities when done while driving. You want to work with a Palm Beach car crash law firm that knows how to prove that the other party’s negligence caused your injuries or a loved one’s death. Just because these driving habits are still legal in Florida does not mean you cannot recover damages.

Cellphone ban while driving? The tragedies behind the issue, Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2011
NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving, CNN, December 13, 2011

More Blog Posts:
Coconut Creek Woman Killed in Broward County, Florida Car Crash Involving Lighthouse Point Police Vehicle, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, December 5, 2011
West Palm Beach Motorcycle Accident Leaves Police Officer with Serious Injuries, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, November 26, 2011
Miami-Dade Car Accident Lawsuit Filed in Florida Wrongful Death Case Against Coral Gables Teenager, South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, October 7, 2011 Continue reading

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According to the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there has been a 4.6% drop in the number of Florida traffic deaths. Compared to 2009, when there were Florida 2,565 motor vehicle fatalities, there were 2,444 Florida traffic deaths reported in 2010. That’s a nearly 31% drop since 2005. County wise, the number of traffic fatalities also went down in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties last year.

2010 figures also show, however, that the number of Florida pedestrian deaths have gone up by 3.5%. There were 482 pedestrian fatalities in 2009 and 499 Florida pedestrian deaths in 2010.

Other 2010 Florida Traffic Facts:

Continue reading

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It is no longer a secret that texting and surfing the Internet while driving can be dangerous. Yet people continue to get hurt and die because someone was looking at the phone, checking email, sending texts, or surfing the Web rather than paying attention to the road. As our Palm Beach personal injury law firm has mentioned in the past, the US Department of Transportation reported 5,474 distracted driving crashes in 2009 alone. Not only that, but 11 teens a year are killed because of texting while driving. Also, the National Safety Council reports that 28% of traffic crashes that occur involved drivers talking on the phone or texting.

At Palm Beach Atlantic University yesterday, participants were given the opportunity to experience virtually how catastrophic texting while driving can become when they tried texting while on a virtual course. The simulated program, run by PEER Awareness road manager Robert Tower, travels to different schools to help educate teenagers about the dangers of texting combined with driving. The program also includes news footage of interviews with families who lost loved ones in distracted driving accidents involving drivers who were text messaging.

Hopefully, education and awareness will discourage teens and adults from texting or doing anything that keeps them from watching the road. Recently, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against a woman accused of updating her Facebook while driving. The pedestrian who died was a 70-year-old man. Also, another man accidentally drove his car through a bridge guardrail and into a river because he was texting.

Unlike in a number of US states, in Florida there is still no ban on texting while driving even though 17 bills have been introduced pushing for this. That said, this does not mean that texting while driving is not negligent driving when injury or death occurs as a result.

Program exposes the dangers of texting and driving, Sun-Sentinel, February 21, 2011
Ban on Texting while Driving Urged for Florida, First Coast News, February 9, 2011
Representative says texting while driving ban could fail in FL, WZVN, February 21, 2011
Suit: Woman in fatal crash was updating Facebook, Chicago Tribune, February 15, 2011
Man who was texting behind wheel drives off Danvers bridge and into river, police say, Boston.com, February 22, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Distracted Driving, National Safety Council
Distraction.gov, US Department of Transportation
Distracted Driving, Peer Awareness Continue reading

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A 78-year-old Greenacres woman is dead after she was injured in a Lake Worth, Florida pedestrian accident. Fatemeh Kazemishahmirzadi was crossing Melaleuca Lane early this morning when the Palm Beach motor vehicle accident happened.

The driver of the 2005 Hyundai SUV that struck Kazemishahmirzadi is was Wellington resident Tracy Laing. The 22-year-old motorist has said that she did not see the elderly pedestrian.

In other recent Palm Beach traffic crash news, 16 people were hurt yesterday when a school bus was rear-ended by a Dodge compact car. The rear of the school bus, which was transporting Palm Beach Central High students, reportedly lifted and part of it was torn off. The bus driver, eight students, and all three occupants in the Dodge were transported to hospitals.

Over the weekend, a multiple-Palm Beach bicycle accident sent two riders to the hospital. According to police, one cyclist fell and then two others followed suit. One of the riders, age 40, sustained bruises, scratches, and a possible broken collarbone. Another bicyclist complained lower back and left rib pain after the South Florida bicycle collision. The third rider refused medical care.

On Thursday, another Palm Beach pedestrian accident took another life when 63-year-old Edward Bert Allee was injured in a Lake Park, Florida car accident. Allee was walking his dog at around 6:40 am when he was fatally struck by a van whose driver did not stay at the crash site. However, 55-year-old James Clark Bristow, who drives a 1999 Ford, later arrived at the North Palm Beach Police department. He told police that he thought he had struck something with his van. He was later identified as the motorist that hit Allee.

Elderly woman killed in accident in suburban Lake Worth, The Palm Beach Post, January 12, 2010
Drivers, kids injured in school bus accident in suburban West Palm Beach, The Palm Beach Post, January 12, 2010
Multiple-bicycle crash on South Ocean Boulevard sends two to hospital, Palm Beach Daily News, January 8, 2011
Victim in deadly hit-and-run in Lake Park identified, Sun-Sentinel, January 6, 2011 Continue reading

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November 8-14, 2010 marks Drowsy Driving Prevention Week. According to the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety, 41% of drivers surveyed have admitted to drowsy driving. Unfortunately, what many people fail to realize is that driving while tired is similar to driving while under the influence of alcohol. Impaired judgment, slowed reflexes, blurred vision, a foggy mind, and possibly drifting in and out of consciousness can be symptoms of both drunk driving and drowsy driving. Our Miami car accident lawyers have seen the catastrophic consequences that can arise when someone is exhausted or falls asleep while operating a motor vehicle.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drivers who fall asleep while driving are responsible for 71,000 traffic injuries, 1,550 fatalities, and over 100,000 motor vehicle crashes in the US annually. Per the AAA Foundation’s new study, drowsy driving plays a role in 16.5% of deadly US traffic crashes.

Among the study’s findings:
• Young drivers, ages 16-24, were the ones most likely to fall asleep while driving.
• Men more than women were more likely to fall asleep while operating a motor vehicle.
• 26.1% of those who admitted to falling asleep while driving did so between the hours of noon and 5pm. The percentage was about the same for drivers who fell asleep between midnight and 6am.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, a person that risks drowsy driving takes the chance that he/she will fall asleep at the wheel. That said, some groups are at higher risk of drowsy driving. In addition to young drivers, other motorists who are potentially at risk of this dangerous driving behavior include:

• Shift workers
• Commercial truck drivers
• People with sleep disorders-especially undiagnosed ones
• Business travelers suffering from jetlag
• Tired travelers

One need only look back to the 2009 Miami tractor-trailer accident in Oklahoma involving a 76-year-old trucker who investigators say fell asleep at the wheel. The multi-vehicle chain reaction crash that he triggered killed 10 people and injured 6 others.

Study examines toll of drowsy driving, Washington Post, November 8, 2010
Study shows drowsy drivers behind the wheel, Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Driving Tired is Like Driving Drunk, US News & World Report

Related Web Resources:
Drowsy Driving Prevention Week, National Sleep Foundation (PDF)

Read the AAA Foundation’s Drowsy Driving Report (PDF)
Continue reading

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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2,558 people were killed in Florida traffic accidents last year. Alcohol was a factor in 770 of the fatalities. On one hand, these latest figures show positive progress. In 2008, NHTSA reported 2,980 Florida traffic fatalities-887 involving an alcohol-impaired driver. The number of Florida traffic deaths have gone down. That said, our Miami car accident law firm looks forward to the day when there are even less traffic injuries and deaths occurring each year in Florida.

Nationally, there also has been a decrease in motor vehicle traffic crash deaths and injuries. NHTSA reports that there were 33,308 motor vehicle fatalities in 2009-a 9.7% drop from the year before and the lowest number of deaths since 1950. Even the number of US motorcycle crash deaths went down from 5,312 fatalities in 2008 to 4,462 deaths in 2009.

More 2009 US Traffic Deaths and Injuries Facts:
• 2,217,000 traffic crash injuries
• 503 truck crash deaths
• 17,000 truck accident injuries
• 90,000 motorcycle crash injuries
• 4,092 pedestrian deaths
• 59,000 pedestrian injuries
• 630 pedalcyclist deaths
• 70,000 pedalcyclist injuries

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says that the government is committed to making the roads safer.

NHTSA also has just released its 2009 Distracted Driving Fatality and Injury Numbers:
• 5,474 US distracted driving-related deaths
• 448,000 distracted driving-related injuries

Mr. LaHood has referred to distracted driving as an epidemic. Talking on the cell phone, texting, eating, playing computer games, fiddling with an iPod or stereo, surfing the Internet on a laptop, watching a movie on a portable DVD player, putting on makeup, and reading a book or magazine are just some examples of activities that people have been known to engage in while driving that have distracted them to the point that traffic crash injuries and deaths have occurred.

Although many states have imposed at least some (if not a full) restriction on texting and cell phone use, currently Florida has no such restrictions.

Distracted Driving 2009, NHTSA (PDF)

Highlights of 2009 Motor Vehicle Crashes (PDF)


Related Web Resources:
Florida Department of Transportation

US Department of Transportation

Distraction.gov
Continue reading

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