Auto Accident

Florida auto accident attorneys Farah & Farah, P.A., are pleased to announce the creation of Florida-CarAccidents.com —a car accident news and information site.

For the victims of car accidents and the families and friends of those injured by car accidents, staying abreast of news and information relating to accident statistics, insurance settlements and other issues is one way to come to terms with the aftermath of an accident. Reading up on the stories of others can provide the vital affirmation that an accident victim is not alone.

Florida-CarAccidents.com seeks to fill the void left by mainstream media with fair and balanced coverage of issues that matter most to those who have been injured in an auto accident. Florida-CarAccidents.com will feature news from all of Florida with an emphasis on the Jacksonville, Florida area.

Designed as a news and information resource for car accident victims and their loved ones, Florida-CarAccidents.com features accident statistics and other pertinent information for Florida drivers. For those seriously injured in an accident, getting back to the way things were can be a challenge, and Florida-CarAccidents.com will be a voice of encouragement every step of the way.

Visitors to Florida-CarAccidents.com will also find news about traffic laws, safe driving habits and other pertinent information. Readers will also be able to keep up-to-date with news about the latest legislation affecting car accident victims and traffic safety.

New Jersey lawmakers are reviewing a proposal to bulk up consumer protection for state drivers involved in “bad faith” situations, including those where a driver is hit by an uninsured party and needs to recover costs from his or own insurer.

However, the response from the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMICS), a major trade association for the insurance industry, is anything but positive. NAMICS spokespeople claim that new laws would only serve to drive up costs for those securing New Jersey auto insurance coverage. Representatives of NAMICS cite past efforts on the part of the state to make automobile coverage affordable for citizens. They also paint the new laws against the backdrop of a worsening economy.

Read the rest »

This month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) presented a fifteen-year trend in work-related accidents and fatalities, as the country recognizes National Safety Month. The span of years between 1992 and 2007 shows a declining rate of workplace fatalities, but also spotlights other trends on accident occurrences in the workplace. Read the rest »

If you are in a major auto accident in a small Georgia city such as Valdosta, or Dalton, you have an increased risk of death.

That’s because the state cannot afford to fully fund trauma centers that make every second count when they are treating a badly injured accident victim.

But the state is coming up with a creative solution to funding those vital centers. Soon, it really may not pay to be a “Super Speeder” in Georgia, according to a report. Those who drive fast on the state’s highway are facing an increased fine of $200.

The proposal is a good one because it solves two problems at once.

First, it would encourage speeders to slow down. Secondly, the extra money, about $30 million a year, would fund the state’s ailing network of hospitals that take trauma cases.

Georgia lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully for three years to pay for the trauma centers, which are operating in the red.

Drivers busted for going over 85 miles per hour on a four-lane road would face a $200 fine as would those going over 75 mph on a two-lane road.

The proposal, backed by Gov. Purdue, now goes to the Senate for approval.

As skilled auto accident attorneys in Jacksonville at Farah and Farah, we see the impact a car accident, that happens in a moment of time, can have on an entire family. Every second counts in saving lives.

Having a trauma center in smaller cities could save an estimated 700 lives every year.

Since about three-quarter of traumas result from motor vehicle accidents, using the money for that purpose sounds like a win-win for injured motorists and the state.

You certainly have been passed by fast driving teens on the road. A teenage driver with less that one year experience can be the most reckless driver on the road. Speeding up to your tail, passing on the right side of your car, tailing you, aggressive driving and speeding are just some of the problems. I’ve often said I wish their parents could see them driving so they could provide a consequence – like taking away the car and keeping all of us safer from being in an auto accident.

Technology has heard your concerns and has responded. A GPS tracking system will tell you exactly what your child is doing behind the wheel of your car.

A number of these items are able to monitor speed, location, time, where they went, and how long they stayed. Fitting inside your car discretely, the GPS device works by receiving signals from 24 satellites orbiting the earth. Every second you get a reading and are able to access the tracking data.

GPS Teen Tracking has one for $229 and you can order online.

Now you can get one to monitor your teen’s speed and location. LandAirSea has a GPS device that allows you to monitor your teens speed and location at a cost of about $600. Learn more about it on their Web site.

Almost four thousand teens are killed every year in traffic accidents and hundreds of thousands of teens are injured, some critically and permanently. Add other teen passengers, traveling at night, and distractions such as cell phones, CDs, texting AND the youth and inexperience of the driver, one of these devices might just deliver a little piece of mind.

With auto accidents as the number one cause of teen deaths, this small investment and a slight invasion of privacy should be weighed against the cost of doing nothing. Farah and Farah is always there when you do need someone to help you through the maze of tragedy following a Florida auto accident. Call our Jacksonville offices if you need to talk to someone who is on your side.

It happened in early February. Middle school students from Ribault in Jacksonville were misbehaving by setting off an alarm on the emergency exit. This made it unsafe to continue to drive the bus. Instead of pulling over and transferring students to another bus, or calling police, the school bus driver instructed them to get off the bus at Rutledge Pearson Elementary School and find their own way home. Thankfully, no students were injured to due any Jacksonville pedestrian accidents that could have resulted from the kids being off the bus.

This is an unacceptable reaction by an employee of First Student, the bus company. There are rules and regulations in Duval County for bus drivers. Students are supposed to conduct themselves in a respectful way to keep everyone safe. If not, they can be suspended from school and parents have the responsibility to make sure that their children understand that.

But a bus driver also has a huge responsibility, delivering those children safety to and from school. For a child to find their way home from a different school, meant many walked to a bus stop or called their parents. Many parents understandably were angry. First Student says it is conducting an investigation. Cameras on the bus will help tell the story, but even with misbehaving children, this is not the proper response, but a response of pure frustration. The liability of the school district if something had happened is not something they want to hear about.

Fortunately no children were injured due to the bus driver’s negligence. If you have any questions regarding the safety of your child in relation to bus-driving laws, please contact the skilled Florida personal injury attorneys at Farah and Farah by calling 1-800-533-3555.

Buying a used car is almost as much fun as going to the dentist.

Everyone has dealt with used car salesmen at some point in their life and we are not out to attack the used car industry; however, a warning about avoiding the pitfalls when it comes to purchasing a used car.

The used car industry can be very tricky. Vehicles that have been totaled, flooded, fire-damaged, sold and re-sold several times over, and even stolen have been salvaged, repaired and sold to innocent buyers across the nation. Unfortunately, there is little to no regulation or protection in place from fraudulent resale of potentially dangerous used vehicles.

In 1992, Congress tried to remedy this by passing a law calling for a nationwide database that would give people shopping for cars and trucks information about used vehicles.

The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System is a good idea. In September, a call went out to consumers concerning the Proposed Rules. And we all have until November 21, 2008 to submit written comments. Please do so. This is a case where your government has let you down.

Unfortunately, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice have failed to implement the database, putting consumers in danger of compromised unsafe vehicles and safety features such as airbags that don’t work.

The database would allow consumers to instantly check the validity of a vehicle’s title, mileage, and history of theft or damage. The data would have to be reported by insurance companies and junk and salvage yards. Failing to do so, Public Citizen the consumer group, has gone to court to find the federal government in violation of the 1992 law.

It would help consumers who have purchased cars that were under water during Hurricane Katrina, or split in two after hitting a tree, or burned up in a fire, then passed on by unscrupulous people. Read the rest »

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is releasing new data that shows that keeping the drinking age laws at 21 prevented an estimated 4,441 drunk driving deaths over the last five years.

NHTSA was responding to a national movement among colleges to turn back the drinking age to 18. After all, the argument goes, we sent 18-year-olds to die in Iraq, why not allow them to drink and take away the stigma of doing something “illegal”?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) headed a symposium on the issue. MADD says that “Turning our back on these laws would be a deadly mistake. Minimum drinking age laws are among the most effective measures ever used to reduce drunken driving deaths among America’s young people.”

NHTSA’s data reports that motorcycle helmet use has risen in recent years and that using those helmets is saving lives – from 1,173 in 2003 to 1,784 in 2007. Remember though that there has been a dramatic increase in motorcycle use over those years. Still more than 7,000 lives are estimated to have been spared because of the use of helmets on motorcycles.

Adding more safety features on the roads has also saved lives.

In 2007, front air bags saved 2,788 passengers ages 13 and older. Child safety seats saved 358 lives of children age 4 and under. Seat belts saved more than 15,000 lives, but unfortunately not everyone wears seat belts.

Nationally, even more lives could have been saved – an estimated 5,000 – if everyone had been belted up. #

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that antilock brakes on motorcycles could save lives.

Antilock brakes are already found on cars and trucks. Typically they are found on touring bikes and a limited number of motorcycles. They add a cost of about $1,000.

Without them, riders who need to stop their bikes abruptly can lock up the wheels or fishtail. The Insurance Institute found that equipping motorcycles with them resulted in a 38 percent lower crash rate.

The Institute studied eight motorcycles with antilock brakes and found there were 6.6 fatal crashes per 10,000 registered motorcycles without antilock in 2005 and 2006. The bikes with antilocks had a 4.1 per 10,000 fatal crash rate. A second study found antilock brakes reduced collision claims by 21 percent. Read the rest »

NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, issued new rules this week that will improve the nation’s 474,000 school buses. Seat and shoulder belts will be required on small school buses. The requirement will also change seat backs making them four inches higher to 24 inches in all new buses.

Seats must also come equipped with safety latches that can be flipped up or removed without resorting to special tools. That’s the good news.

But there is a huge gap here. What about the large school buses that most children ride in? NHTSA has not resolved that question, despite the fact that all of the research shows that children would be made safer.

Instead NHTSA sets standards for seat belts on large school buses. Five major studies over the past decade have shown seat belts are needed on large school buses. But the Secretary of Transportation, Mary E. Peters said that putting seat belts on larger buses can limit capacity and force more students to walk or ride in cars.

“The last thing we want to do is force parents to choose other, less safe ways of getting their children to school,” she said.

Putting seat belts where people sit will make them less safe? NHTSA says more kids are actually hurt around school buses than inside them, but seat belts on school buses would impact about 1,900 crash injuries each year.

Public Citizen doesn’t like the omission of seat belts from large buses and Joan Claybrook, who was the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1977-81, says Public Citizen objects to NHTSAs plans to immunize manufacturers from personal injury liability. Read the rest »