2010 April Archive

A teenage girl lost her life in a crash in Pasco County, Florida Sunday night. It happened on Pasco Road near Vineland Street. According to a MyFox Tampa Bay report, the 24-year-old male driver suddenly swerved the car when he saw a small animal cross the road in front of him. The car then left the road and rolled over. The young man was wearing his seat belt and suffered minor injuries. The Florida Highway Patrol reports that his female teen passenger was not wearing her seat belt.

Our condolences go out to the family of the teen who lost her life so suddenly in an accident they may have had preventable injuries.

Seat Belts Save Lives
Several local police departments joined forces last month to pledge to save lives by enforcing Florida’s seat belt laws. Statistics from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, find that 2,983 people were killed in motor vehicle related crashes in 2008. Of these deaths, 1,795 individuals were drivers or passengers in vehicles equipped with safety belts and 60 percent (1,085) of them were not wearing safety belts.

Research shows that properly worn lap/shoulder belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate to critical injury by 50 percent.

Car Accident Causes
There is no word in this article, but the FHP likely took a blood alcohol test at the scene. Drivers in the age group 20 to 24 who had been drinking had the highest rate per 10,000 licensed drivers of crash involvement and the highest rate of fatal crashes. Other complicating factors that may have added to this crash include speeding, distracted, or negligent driving. If there was a dangerous condition on this roadway which may have caused or contributed to this accident, the city or governmental agency responsible for maintaining this roadway could also be held liable, but a claim must be filed in a timely manner. The best Florida personal injury attorney will always offer a free and comprehensive consultation concerning your accident situation.

This appears to be an early morning run to school that left eight people injured including two children. According to a North West Florida Daily News article, a 21-year-old female motorist from Milton, Florida was driving a Nissan Maxima when she rear-ended a Chevrolet Tahoe, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The Tahoe was stopped and waiting for the van in front of it to turn. The Tahoe driver and all six onboard suffered minor injuries including two 2-year-old children, three other adults and a 15-year-old girl. All were taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. It is possible that the 21-year-old could face a charge of careless driving. Everyone was belted in. FHP says there was no alcohol involved.

Our best wishes for the recovery of everyone in the Tahoe, especially the children. They are fortunate they did not suffer serious injuries and were belted in.

Accident Statistics
Escambia county saw 4,419 crashes in 2008, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, 594 of them were alcohol-related and 63 deaths resulted.

Accident Causes and Liability Issues
It is possible that the young driver was distracted when she rear-ended the Tahoe. Talking on a cell phone makes a driver 2.8 times more likely to crash than a non distracted driver, according to research from Virginia Tech. The school’s research shows that text messaging which has the highest risk of keeping a driver’s eyes off the task at hand - that is driving. VT found that texting takes about a 4.6 second interval, which equates to driving the length of a football field at 55 mph without looking at the road. Driving is a visual task and any activity that takes your eyes off the road should be avoided.

If I was a family member of those in the Tahoe, I would seek the assistance of a Florida accident lawyer to determine who the at-fault driver is and why. An investigation could reveal whether there was texting or cell phone use seconds before the crash. Or if not, whether there were other causes for this accident such as problems with the roadway, or a fault with the vehicle or tire. The at-fault driver could be held liable for the costs associated with hospitalization, therapy and lost wages.

Three Gainesville area teenagers are lucky to be alive. The three were riding in a Saturn around 6 p.m. when the vehicle hit a tree in Newberry. The accident happened at the intersection of Southwest 15th Avenue and Southwest 226 Street when the car went off the north side of the road and then the driver lost control of the vehicle.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that the driver, a 17-year-old from Gainesville, is in critical condition. Also riding in the car was another teen from Gainesville and one teen from Newberry, both 17 and both with serious injuries. The FHP says the vehicle was traveling at a “high rate of speed.” Two teens were ejected from the vehicle.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of these young men and their families for what they are enduring. One of the injured teens is the son of an Alachua County sheriff’s deputy.

Accident Statistics
According to Florida Highway Patrol accident statistics for 2008, there were 4,415 auto accidents in Alachua County, with 308 of them alcohol-related, and 34 fatalities. In all of Florida in 2008, FHP reports there were 243,342 traffic accidents, and 2,764 fatalities.

Accident Causes and Liability
The Florida Highway Patrol reports that charges are pending in this accident. If it is determined that the driver was exceeding the speed limit and driving recklessly, he and his parents could be held civilly and criminally liable for the driver negligence. Parents often do not realize that their minor child’s accident, even though he is a teen and driving, could impact them financially for the rest of their lives.

If the parents insure and own the vehicle involved in the accident, some liability coverage should extend to the child, unless he or she does not live with the parents. If the parent signs the application for a license for a driver under the age of 18, they become legally responsible for the child’s actions under Fl. S 322.09. A Florida vehicle accident attorney will be able to tell you when the minor’s parents will be held responsible for paying medical bills of those injured in the crash.

Source:http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100412/ARTICLES/100419868/1004/LIVING?Title=FHP-names-three-teens-injured-in-Newberry-crash

You may be aware of a rift over trucking between the U.S and Mexico. President Bush had opened up the border with a demonstration pilot project that was supposed to open up U.S. roadways to trucks from Mexico. But safety advocates argued that the trucks in many cases, didn’t meet the minimum expectations of safety. U.S. labor feared it would lose jobs to Mexican drivers.

Then the opening was stalled in 2007.

Last March, Congress cut off the pilot program which stopped a select number of trucks from Mexico from crossing the border. When it stopped funding, the Mexican government, in retaliation, slapped a $2.4 billion in tariffs on about 90 U.S. products. Mexico argued that the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1995, was supposed to open cross-border trucking.

The Obama administration is hinting that it may decide to re-open the U.S. border to trucks from Mexico with some new conditions. The Office of the Inspector General says the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration must improve the safety of Mexico-domiciled trucks.

In a report issued last September, the Office of the Inspector General says there needs to be a sufficient database to allow the monitoring of Mexican carriers for safety as well as drivers. nd there needs to be a U.S. presence at the border to conduct meaningful bus inspections. With about $400 billion in bilateral trade between the two countries from fruit and vegetables to toilet paper, expect to see trucks from Mexico soon moving freely throughout the U.S. Let’s just hope that Congress insists they do so safely.

Source:http://www.todaystrucking.com/news.cfm?intDocID=23341

Toyota is vowing to win back customers “at all costs” to reverse the tide of plummeting sales and an unprecedented series of safety recalls. Automotive News reports the automaker will offer the best extended new car warranty in the industry and offer a warranty for used vehicles as well. Customers will be offered cash to buy a Toyota vehicle and dealers will get help from Toyota on their overflow inventory and in dealing with repairs outside of those covered by the various recalls.

Toyota has already fallen to third behind Chevy and Ford among truck sales and 80,000 automobile sales will be lost this year.

Last fall, Toyota recalled more than five million Toyota and Lexus models following complaints of unintended acceleration caused by floor mats trapping accelerator pedals. In January, another 2.3 million cars were recalled because of unintended acceleration. This time though it was blamed on a sticky gas pedal. The more recent recalls have included the Prius hybrid and the Tacoma pickup, affecting about 8,000 four-wheel trucks that will be fixed for a defective front drive shaft.

Personal Injury Claims
We certainly hope that you or a loved one has not experienced a runaway Toyota. A few individuals have lived to tell about it and even experienced drivers who tried everything in their power to stop the vehicle, could not. As a result, there are individual lawsuits and class action lawsuits that have been filed against Toyota. Unfortunately, sometimes that is the only thing that will get the automakers ear and attention. While automakers typically try to block class actions, Toyota will not have much opportunity this time around. A suit has already been filed in federal court in Florida on behalf of over 5 million Toyota owners who have had their vehicles recalled. A lawsuit in Texas alleges a woman was killed in a December accident driving a 2009 Corolla.

It is very likely that Toyota will have to settle rather than try each case individually in open court. Expect charges of wrongful death, breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. As more information comes forward about what Toyota knew and when it knew it, expect more accusations of a cover-up. Then the question arises, why leave other similar vehicles that do not have a brake over-ride system unrecalled?

If you own a Toyota, you would be well-advised to contact a Florida auto product liability attorney, even if you have not been involved in an accident, to stay up to date with your rights, the possible diminished value of your car, and the latest news on this huge defective product action.

Acer Computers are getting more than their fair share of complaints over the Internet. We reported here about the bloatware that a new computer comes loaded with. Bloatware is software pre-loaded onto your new computer that is basically an advertisement for a virus software or backup program. Advertisers pay for the ads, they pop up on your computer occasionally and slow town the start up and shutdown times of your computer as well as generally slows its response and reduce battery life. Now Consumer Affairs have a whole litany of complaints from consumers about the Acer. One woman says Wal-Mart and Acer refuse to fix the problem.

Another says her new Acer Netbook has a cracked LCD screen, and the company wants to charge her $125 even though it has a factory warranty. Another Acer Aspire 3050 has been in six times for repairs. Even a computer sales consultant says he does not recommend Acer to anyone largely y because of their poor customer service.

In January, the company recalled some models of the Aspire Notebook computers. 22,000 were recalled after it was determined that an internal microphone wire can short circuit and posed a potential burn injury hazard to consumers.

On the bloatware problem, there is software that can walk you through removing the bloatware and some computer companies actually offer an option. You can purchase a custom configuration that removes bloatware on your new computer, but of course for that you pay more, or you can simply take the machine in and have the bloatware removed, again substantially raising the price of a low cost computer and fooling consumers in the process.

A single-engine plane crash in Winter Haven has killed the pilot but spared his passenger and dog. A 45-year-old male flight instructor of Brooksville crashed shortly after taking off from the Winter Haven Airport. He landed on the side of Highway 92.

When rescuers arrived, they found the man lying on the ground and paramedics were unable to revive him. His passenger, a student, was trapped inside the plane, but rescuers extricated him and took him to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where he is in critical condition. The instructor’s dog, a white terrier named Zulu, survived and was found wandering around the accident site.

Our condolences go out to the family of this pilot family for their tragic loss and to the family of the injured passenger. We will pray that he recovers from his injuries.

Witnesses say the small plane, a 1974 Beech C23, appeared to lose power and crashed into a tree about a mile from the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will both conduct an investigation. The pilot and owner of the plane, who was not onboard, had been working on establishing a charity for underprivileged youth.

Aviation accidents in Florida and throughout the United States occur far too frequently. It is important for pilots to receive proper training before taking flight, especially with others onboard. Plane manufacturers also have an important reasonability of ensuring that components of an aircraft are accurately designed and created.

Source:http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=126072&catid=8

Most people have heard by now about the horrible and tragic accident at SeaWorld in Orlando that led to the death of a trainer. The incident took place on Wednesday, February 24, when a killer whale named Tilikum, attacked a trainer during a show at the Orlando attraction. The 40 year-old trainer was known to be experienced at her job; however, she was dragged around by the whale in front of the horrified visitors and died in front of them.

A former animal trainer who has turned into an animal advocate, says he wrote a letter to SeaWorld three years ago warning them that there would be an accident with the show mammals. “Happy animals don’t kill their trainers,” he said. Deeply intelligent and highly social, Tilikum, a 23-foot, 6-ton male, was involved in two previous fatalities.

Elsewhere in the captive mammal world, a part-time trainer was grabbed and drowned in 1991 at Sealand in British Columbia. The same whale was shipped to SeaWorld in Orlando where a naked dead man was found laying on the orca’s back. He had slipped into the facility at night and died of hypothermia.

It is indeed tragic and shocking that the SeaWorld trainer in the aforementioned accident was the third person who died at the hands of this specific killer whale. The autopsy report was released the first week of April. According to reports, the trainer suffered blunt force trauma and drowning in addition to other very severe injuries.

It would be advisable for establishments that put on similar animal shows to revaluate the condition in which their subjects are being handled to ensure that accidents like these stop now. Wrongful death incidents that could have been prevented are some of the most tragic. Our hearts and deepest sympathy go out to this woman’s family and anyone else who has lost a loved one due to an animal attack.

Source:http://www.nationalledger.com/ledgerdc/article_272631151.shtml