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Over the last several decades, police have developed aggressive new tactics and began using advanced technological tools to combat drunk driving. At the same time, legislators have passed strict new laws which are designed to do the same thing. Florida’s controversial refusal-to-submit law is one of the more recent examples. Yet despite all these efforts, [...]
Now that House lawmakers have rejected a last-ditch effort to delay the Electronic Logging Device rule, can a similar provision for passenger vehicles be far behind? Since lawmakers voted down the ELD Extension Act of 2017 by a 246-173 count, the ELD rule will go into effect as scheduled in December 2017, absent an extremely [...]
Despite what catchy commercial jingles may imply, an insurance company is not “on your side” if you are a car crash victim. These businesses make money by collecting large premiums and denying as many claims as possible, which is why the company is committed to minimum compensation for victims. In court, insurance company lawyers usually [...]
Human error causes about 94 percent of car crashes, a statistic that is cited very often in many calls for driverless cars. Sometimes, the human error is a one-off mistake that had tragic consequences, sometimes simple negligence is involved, and sometimes the tortfeasor (negligent driver) intentionally disregarded a known risk and thereby endangered the property [...]
Per the negligent entrustment rule, vehicle owners are liable for damages if they allow people to use their vehicles and those individuals negligently injure someone else. However, because of the Graves Amendment, this rule has limited applicability in commercial transactions, such as those that involve U-Haul and other moving truck rental cases. This issue is [...]
Human error causes almost all car crashes, and many times, that error is unrelated to driving. For example, a tire may be defective or the operator may be too sleepy to drive. Alcohol impairment, which is a factor in about a third of the fatal vehicle collisions in Florida, may be the most prominent example. [...]
The AAA estimates that fatigued drivers cause about a third of the injury crashes in Florida, but this figure is nothing more than a rough estimate. For one thing, there is no “Breathalyzer” test to determine fatigue; for another, many law-enforcement agencies do not code crashes as drowsy driving-related unless the tortfeasor (negligent driver) falls [...]
Largely because it is such a powerful and widely-available drug, alcohol is a contributing factor in about a third of the fatal car crashes in Florida. What legal recourse do these victims have in civil court? Alcohol is a depressant that slows reaction time, so impaired drivers take longer to react to approaching hazards. Alcohol [...]
The government estimates that drowsy drivers cause about 72,000 serious injury crashes a year, and that number may be underreported. Much like alcohol, fatigue slows reaction time, inhibits concentration, and impairs judgment ability. All these things significantly increase the risk of a serious car crash. In fact, driving after eighteen hours without sleep is like [...]
In 2016, there were over 99,000 hit-and-run crashes in Florida, and half of the 19,000 injured victims were pedestrians. There were 94,000 such accidents in 2015 and 85,000 in 2014. Many of these cases are closed quickly because the driver is apprehended at or near the scene. Other cases drag on for months or even [...]
