2010 September Archive

A 22-year-old man from Huntington Station, New York had just left the St. Johns County jail in St. Augustine after being picked up for a stolen moped. He was walking along U.S. Highway 1 when he was struck and killed by a southbound vehicle.

Now there are questions as to what really happened. The Florida Highway Patrol believes that Dominic Amodeo was hit Tuesday night, September 7, just south of Lewis Speedway about 9:15 p.m.

The driver, Nicole Jonas, 21, of Palm Coast told police she thought she struck a deer. There was extensive front-end damage to her vehicle, but Florida Highway Patrol deputies didn’t find any wildlife in the area she described. Five hours later, deputies responded to an anonymous call of a dead man alongside the road. Amodeo was pronounced dead about 100 yards from the county jail.

The anonymous caller may be the key to solving the mystery, reports News4Jax. According to FHP he said, “In case you have not found the body, I have killed a homeless person. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last time.”
The call was traced to a pay phone and Jonas’ boyfriend was discovered to be the caller.

What is unclear is when police first heard Jonas’ account of when she allegedly hit a deer. Jonas said she hit a deer about four miles from that site.

Did she call it in after she had left the scene?

If so, she could be charged with a felony and face up to 30 years in prison. St. Augustine pedestrian accident lawyers know that a hit-and–run, or leaving the scene of a fatality, changes an accident, with perhaps civil penalties, to a crime – a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. It is also a felony to leave the scene of an accident when someone is injured. It is a misdemeanor when there are no injuries.

Blood alcohol test results are pending on both Jonas and Amodeo.

An investigation has been launched into why a Jacksonville man lost his life on a personal watercraft, also known as a jet ski, according to News4Jax.

Edgar Roche, 31, was on the jet ski on Kingsley Lake Sunday, September 5, after 9 p.m.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is in charge of investigating mishaps on the water. A spokesman says it was dark when Roche was riding fast and had passed an anchored boat and the shore. He tried to pass again, but this time he crashed the jet ski into the boat. The owner of the boat was present and tried to help Roche. Roche was pulled to shore and CPR efforts were made but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation into the crash is continuing.

Personal Watercraft Accidents
Jet skis or personal watercraft accidents are frequently the result of the basic design of the watercraft. Jet skis have no brakes. When they are coasting or when the throttle is cut in order to slow down, they have no turning ability. When you suddenly find yourself in a precarious condition and need to turn quickly, the machine will not let you. It is counter-intuitive and very dangerous.

A side impact at 30 mph is enough to cause traumatic brain injury. Blunt force trauma is the most common injury from a jet ski and often young riders are involved.

In the year 2000 in Florida, jet skis were 19 percent of registered boats, but involved in 45 percent of injuries. Thousands of these cases involve young people who have been traumatically and fatally injured, yet they are settled silently out of court by an industry that puts profits before people. That is one of the reasons you don’t often hear about the dangers of this type of watercraft.

If you or a loved one has been in an accident involving a jet ski, the manufacturer should be held responsible for the defective design of a machine with a large horsepower that can neither break nor turn when it’s needed to avoid a collision. The Florida personal injury attorneys at Farah & Farah will offer a complimentary consultation on your case.

A pedestrian was killed Thursday evening, September 2, as he walked along U.S. Highway 1 in St. Augustine Beach. The man has been identified as Gregory Leroy Stubbs, 51, of St. Augustine. He was walking southbound around 11:10 p.m. near Ocean Boulevard when he was struck by a Volvo being driven by George Sanders, 47, also of St. Augustine.

Stubbs died at Shands Jacksonville after being transported by air ambulance.
The Florida Highway Patrol reports no charges are expected to be filed in this deadly accident.

Our sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr. Stubbs for his tragic and sudden death.

Pedestrian Deaths
Drinking is a major problem in traffic accidents involving pedestrians. Although there is no information from this report from News 4 Jax that alcohol was involved, state statistics show that 16.8% of all traffic fatalities were pedestrians and 36.25% of all of the pedestrian fatalities (502) had been drinking.

Nationally, the statistics are even more shocking.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports almost 12 people a day died after a pedestrian/motor vehicle crash in 2008. The only good news to report is that the number of pedestrian fatalities fell close to 20% from a decade earlier.

Remember, Florida fatal pedestrian accidents can include kids walking to and from school, skateboarders, and parents walking with their kids, tourists, or joggers.

“Share the Road” is the campaign promoted by Florida and it means not just with motorcycles and bicycles, but with pedestrians too. If you have suffered an injury in this type of accident, Florida pedestrian accident attorneys would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Toyota and runaway vehicles made the headlines in the beginning of 2010. Now the class action lawsuits are slowly moving through the courts, but a problem has presented itself- where are the injuries?

When some consumers got behind the wheel of their Toyota Prius, Lexus, or Camry, and it took off uncontrollably, sometimes hitting other vehicles, there was property damage but often little human damage besides a good scare. Not everyone got off so easily. Remember the case of California Highway Patrolman Mark Saylor and his family who plunged off a San Diego cliff and perished when their loaner Lexus experienced sudden acceleration?

But that was the exception.

Plaintiffs claim, and rightly so, that their car has lost value because of its problem. But courts have so far rejected economic injuries suffered by Toyota owners. This stacks the deck against the plaintiffs who don’t feel they can drive their vehicles. At the same time, no one with a conscience wants to pawn off a “lemon” vehicle that could injure others.

There are more than 200 lawsuits pending in a class action in California. Toyota cases are being pursued with several arguments. Not only do they fall under consumer fraud statutes in California, but they also can be considered a defective product, falling under product liability law.

The Toyotas that experienced sudden acceleration are now worthless and lawyers will have to argue the property loss from this defective product. That argument is easier to make in California that has strong consumer fraud statutes.

If your Toyota has experienced sudden acceleration, you are advised to stop driving it, take it to the dealer, or if it has already gone in for repairs, call an experienced Florida product liability attorney to help you seek out the responsible party that can compensate you for your economic loss.

The Ford Motor Co. has been ordered to pay $131 million to the estate of the late baseball player, Brian Cole, who died in an Explorer rollover accident in 2001.

The amount represents a settlement reached before punitive damages were considered by the jury in the trial filed by Cole’s estate.

Cole, 27, was a New York Mets minor league player who was heading home to Mississippi after attending spring training with the Mets in Florida in March 2001. His family says he was ejected from the Ford Explorer during a rollover accident because the car’s seat belt was defective. Cole was traveling more than 80 mph when he drifted off to the side of the road and the vehicle overturned. His cousin was also in the vehicle and awarded $1.5 million for his injuries from the accident. According to Bloomberg, the verdict is the eighth-largest jury award in 2010 and the ninth biggest against an auto company in the U.S.

Ford had argued that Cole was not wearing his seat belt.

When Cole died, he was an outfielder in the AA minor leagues, very close to the majors and had been named player of the year in the Mets organization. The jury considers his earning potential when deciding what amount to award the family.

If you have had a problem with an airbag, a defective seat belt, defective tires, or any mechanical failure of your automobile, you would be well-advised to consult with a Florida auto product liability attorney to help determine to what extent the failure may have contributed to your injuries. An investigation will need to be launched, including research into the past recalls that your vehicle may have bypassed.

When you purchase an automobile, new or used, you are entitled to get all you pay for – a safe functioning car without any product defects. Automakers are responsible for designing and manufacturing automobiles that live up to their promises and promotions.

The report is stomach turning. Chicken manure piled high, rodents and wild birds carrying salmonella living near chickens that lay eggs for consumers. Chickens crowded in small cages with infections and broken bones. The Consumer Affairs article contains details too sickening to describe.

That is part of the Food and Drug Administration’s report on the half-billion egg recall, the largest in U.S. history, and the sickening of approximately 1,500 people in 10 states. It is the largest epidemic of Salmonella Enteritidis in the U.S. The report states that chicken mill workers were not wearing protective clothing. FDA inspections were nowhere to be found. Welcome to modern day agriculture or agribusiness as it’s known.

New government rules went into place in July. If they had been implemented just a little bit sooner, the outbreak could have been prevented. Reportedly, the egg producers in Iowa had not even been following the federal environmental workplace rules that are on the books as no one was watching.

As a result of this massive food product recall, the FDA is planning to inspect all large egg farms in the U.S. before the end of 2011. This will be the first FDA effort to inspect large egg farms in decades.

The Food Safety Modernization Act is facing a tough challenge in the Senate, which is heavily influenced by the agriculture lobby. The bill has already been approved in the House. It would give the FDA the power to order mandatory recalls of contaminated food and to lift the registration of a food manufacturer. As it stands now, the FDA must work cooperatively with the offender, waiting for it to agree to a recall.

Industrialized agriculture churns out more than its share of defective food products to keep food cheap. But at the end of the day, E. coli and salmonella have a cost and so does the use of synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides. That’s why many consumers and restaurants are now switching to cage-free eggs. In the end, consumers get to vote with their wallet which type of farm they want their food to come from.

How many of you are guilty of this? Millions of Americans drive with a dog on their lap or unsecured in a passenger vehicle.

A new survey from AAA finds that one in five respondents admit to the distracted driving practice. Thirty-one percent of the 1,000 drivers surveyed admit to being distracted with Fido on their lap and more than half say they pet their dog while driving.

While about 80 percent of us drive our dogs to the park, grocery store, or take them on road trips, only 17 percent admit they use any form of restraint such as doggie seat belts to help protect the pet.

This survey sounds as though it was sponsored by Kurgo, a pet restraint system manufacturer.

According to a news release from AAA, “An unrestrained 10-pound dog in a crash at 50 mph will exert roughly 500 pounds of pressure, while an unrestrained 80-pound dog in a crash at only 30 mph will exert 2,400 pounds of pressure. Imagine the devastation that can cause to your pet and anyone in the vehicle in its path.”

AAA advises to use a pet restraint system even when taking your pet on a trip close to home. The automobile organization provides a book Traveling with Your Pet: The AAA PetBook.

Online, Kurgo.com sells pet restraint equipment such as the Backseat Barrier, Skybox Booster Seat, Wander Bowl, Wander Hammock, Tru-Fit Smart Harness, and the Auto Zip Line, named as a Consumers Digest Best Buy.

Jacksonville auto accident attorneys see the end result of distracted driving related crashes on a regular basis and hope that all Floridians will be safe and pay attention to the road.