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Category: Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

  • Drowsy driving: The role of driver fatigue in fatal car accidents

    Driver fatigue is a significant road safety issue across the country. It is one of the major causes of motor vehicle accidents leading to injuries and fatalities. Unfortunately, many people underestimate the dangers drowsy driving can bring.

    Why are tired drivers still on the road?

    Past research shows that many drivers may be unaware of how drowsy they actually are. Some drivers underestimate the effects of fatigue and overestimate their ability to cope with drowsiness while driving. This lack of awareness can lead to road accidents and potentially fatal crashes.

    Moreover, fatigue can impair judgment, delay reaction times and reduce attention to the road, all of which increase the risk of an accident.

    Lack of awareness does not release drivers from responsibility

    Even if a driver is not fully aware of their level of fatigue, this does not absolve them of responsibility for any accidents, injuries or fatalities that may result from their decision to drive while drowsy.

    Drivers have the responsibility to ensure they are in a fit condition to operate a motor vehicle safely. This includes being sufficiently alert and free from impairment, whether due to alcohol, drugs or fatigue. If a driver causes an accident due to drowsiness, they can be liable for any resulting property damages, injuries or fatalities.

    Remedies for those who suffer

    If you or a family member suffer from car crash injuries due to another driver’s drowsy driving, seeking legal guidance can be a critical step in your recovery process. A compassionate attorney can help you understand the complexities of your case and fight for the compensation you deserve for your pain and losses.

  • Many traffic fatalities are speed-related, safety officials warn

    Haste makes waste, a popular saying goes. That saying rings true in new data published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency found that speeding-related fatalities have reached a 14-year high in 2021.

    According to the NHTSA, motor vehicle speeding accounted for almost a third of all traffic-related fatalities in 2021. About 12,330 people died in speed-related crashes in 2021, accounting for 29% of all traffic fatalities that year.

    NHTSA published the data as part of its new speeding prevention campaign, which will run from July 10 to 31.

    Why are speeding accidents so fatal?

    Speed is one of the most significant factors in any collision. High speed increases the braking distance of motor vehicles and reduces the ability of road safety structures, such as concrete barriers and guard rails, to stop a runaway automobile. Speed also increases the impact and damage caused by a vehicle collision, significantly raising the chances of injury or death. And moving too quickly reduces the time a driver needs to react to a collision risk.

    Many drivers caught speeding were also found to be intoxicated at the time of the accident. NHTSA data found that 43% of speeding drivers in the 25 to 34 age range were alcohol-impaired – the largest of the age groups surveyed.

    Speeding accidents aren’t just fatal but very expensive too. In a previous report, the NHTSA said that speed-related crashes led to $46 billion in economic costs in 2019. These expenses include medical, legal, emergency services, property damage and insurance administration costs, as well as work and productivity losses.

    If a loved one died in a fatal automobile accident caused by speeding, you could hold the other driver responsible for the wrongful death through a lawsuit. The damages claimed from a lawsuit may not be able to bring back the deceased, but it can help deal with the economic burdens the surviving family may face. But wrongful death lawsuits can be tricky to navigate. A legal adviser may be able to guide you through the lawsuit process, explain how state laws affect your case and represent you in court.

  • Internal organ injuries: Common types caused by car accidents

    What is not visible to the naked eye is more difficult to detect and treat. Internal organ injuries are some of the most dangerous injuries anyone can incur after a tragic car accident. It’s even more concerning to think that they won’t be easily noticeable and only be discoverable hours or days later.

    The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department revealed 401,533 car collisions in 2021, out of which were 3,445 deaths and almost 164,000 injuries.

    Unfortunately, when your body forcefully hits even safety devices, like seat belts and air bags, you may also be at risk of internal organ injuries. 

    Suffering from the inside

    A traumatic brain injury (TBI) – A result of a violent blow, jolt or bump to the head disrupting the brain’s functions – is one of the most common internal organ injuries. As shown by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 190 Americans died daily from a TBI injury in 2021.

    Aside from a traumatic brain injury, other internal organ injuries caused by a car accident include:

    • Collapsed or punctured lungs: Due to fractured ribs
    • Ruptured spleen: Due to a forceful blow to the stomach
    • Internal bleeding: Due to severely traumatized blood vessels, arteries or veins
    • Lacerated liver and damaged kidney: Both due to blunt or penetrating trauma

    It is urgent to seek immediate medical attention. You wouldn’t want to learn that your symptoms – bruising, shortness of breath or accelerated breathing, blood in your stool or urine, abdominal swelling and pain in your chest – have escalated to the point of irreversible damage. Also, you must have medical treatment within 14 days of your car accident to claim your “personal injury protection” (PIP) insurance coverage benefits.

    As a no-fault car insurance state, Florida law imposes that your PIP policy must pay for your medical needs. This provision applies regardless of who is at fault. So, you may claim 80% of medical expenses, 60% of lost income and death benefits worth $5,000.

    Lifelong healing process

    More than the physical pain you must endure, you must also deal with deep emotional and mental distress caused by the accident. It helps to have a legal team who will walk you through seeking compensation for your overwhelming long-term care bills. It will be a long process toward recovery, and it starts with taking comfort that you’re not facing this alone.

  • Traffic safety agency underestimates the life-saving potential of side underride guards for trucks

    Underride crashes are some of the most terrifying types of automobile collisions. They happen when a passenger vehicle (often a car with a lower ride height) collides with a truck or its trailer, resulting in the vehicle running underneath the truck or trailer’s body. If the passenger vehicle is lucky, it hits one of the truck’s axles, preventing it from going entirely underneath. Otherwise, the truck’s bottom shears off the vehicle’s roof and hits the driver and passengers – often with fatal results.

    One way to prevent these fatal accidents is to install side underride guards, which prevent colliding cars from going completely underneath trucks in a collision. Unfortunately, these safeguards aren’t a standard issue on all trucks. The nation’s top traffic safety authority is also hesitant to make underride side guards a requirement.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently published a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of requiring side guards. The report estimated that it would cost between $973 million and $1.2 billion to equip all large trucks in the U.S. with side guards and that the move would only prevent 17 fatalities and 69 injuries per year.

    In response to the report, the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) issued a statement calling out the NHTSA for underestimating the life-saving functions of underride side guards. IIHS pointed out that NHTSA’s estimates didn’t account for other relevant crash types, such as crashes at speeds greater than 40 mph or crashes involving more than one vehicle or truck. The nonprofit additionally stated that NHTSA’s testing used speed limits and police-estimated pre-crash speeds rather than actual speed data recorded from real crashes.

    A senior IIHS researcher said that side guards could save more than ten times as many lives as the NHTSA had estimated.

    Responding to underride collisions

    Until the NHTSA reconsiders and makes side guards mandatory for all large trucks, underride truck crashes will continue to be a risk. The IIHS noted that in 2021, there were 488 passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in collisions that involved hitting the side of a tractor-trailer.

    While surviving an underride crash is possible, most have proven fatal. Tests have shown that slamming into the side of an unguarded tractor-trailer can result in fatal upper body crushing injuries and dismemberment, as the roof and passengers get sheared by the bottom of the truck or trailer.

    If you have a loved one who died from an underride truck collision, consider filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the truck driver and operator with the help of a personal injury lawyer. A lawsuit can hold the driver and operator accountable for the death, and they must pay compensation.

  • Car accident deaths: damages for the victim’s family

    It is difficult for the surviving family of a motor vehicle crash victim to pick up where they left off since the death of a loved one significantly changes the family’s dynamic and lifestyle. If the member involved in the motor vehicle crash is the household’s primary source of income, the family would also have to adjust significantly to continuously provide for their well-being. With this issue, they may consider seeking damages against the driver at fault.

    “No-fault” rule and exception

    Generally, Florida is a no-fault car insurance state. This means that the drivers will recover compensation from their respective insurers no matter who is at fault. However, an exception is if the victim suffers a permanent injury which includes death. In this case, the victim’s family may bring a claim against the at-fault driver.

    Common damages

    Florida laws protect the family members of car wreck victims and allow them to recover damages for the loss of their loved ones, given the circumstances of the crash permit them to do so. Common compensation that the law entitles families of victims to receive may include:

    • Medical bills
    • Funeral and burial costs
    • Pain and suffering
    • Loss of income
    • Punitive damages or the defendant’s payment for the offense
    • Property damage

    Seeking compensation for the loss of a loved one can be a tedious process. But knowing that there are damages available for the surviving family members of victims can ease any financial worries that they may have.

  • Nearly 10% of U.S. drunk driving deaths occur in Florida

    Drunk driving kills more than 10,000 people across the U.S. each year, according to the latest data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 10% of those fatalities occur in Florida.

    Annual drunk driving fatalities

    The NHTSA reports that a total of 10,511 people lost their lives in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents in 2018. Texas was the state with the highest number of deaths, with 1,677, and California came in second, with 1,241. Florida was third, with 958 deaths. That number accounted for 31% of the state’s total car accident fatalities in 2018. It also accounted for just over 9% of the nation’s drunk driving deaths.

    Key drunk driving statistics

    Alcohol impairs a person’s judgment, reaction time and ability to drive safely. In Florida, drivers are considered legally drunk when their blood alcohol concentration level reaches .08 or higher.

    According to the NHTSA, drunk driving accidents:

    • Kill someone every 52 minutes in the U.S.
    • Killed more than 230 American children in 2018
    • Cost over $44 billion in deaths and damages per year
    • Are most common in the months of June, July and August
    • Are most commonly caused by young drivers, motorcyclists and drivers with prior DUI convictions
    • Are most likely to occur at night

    How to prevent drunk driving accidents

    Thanks to tougher drunk driving laws and ongoing public awareness campaigns, drunk driving fatalities have dropped by over 30% since 1985. However, there is still a lot of work to be done.

    Traffic safety experts say drivers should always arrange for a ride home or a place to stay overnight whenever they go out drinking. They also urge parents to educate teenage drivers about the consequences of drinking and driving.

  • The federal government has a goal of eliminating car wreck deaths

    If you’ve been injured in a car wreck in Florida, going to work and paying your bills may be challenging. Unfortunately, this type of scenario occurs frequently in the United States. Thousands of individuals suffer personal injuries or die in motor vehicle accidents each year.

    Changing the statistics

    An increase in fatalities caused by motor vehicle crashes occurred in 2021, leaving 43,000 passengers and drivers dead. However, even before this number was recorded, the United States Department of Transportation recognized the need to address this situation. In early 2021, a strategy for combating fatal motor vehicle accidents was introduced. The National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) has a goal of eliminating all deaths and injuries caused by automobile wrecks.

    Encouraging people to be safer

    One of the primary objectives of the NRSS is for people to eliminate risky driving behaviors. Statistics indicate that these behaviors are the source of many automobile accidents. Curbing them can help reduce the number of car crashes each year. Specific categories to work on include speeding, drunk driving, distractions and unrestrained passengers. To aid the situation, the department will focus on outreach, education, engineering solutions, enforcement and all available tools.

    Promoting safer speeds

    Speeding is often associated with automobile accidents. Speed limit setting, education and enforcement are some of the primary ways that the U.S. Department of Transportation is planning to reduce automobile crashes. Roadway design and other infrastructure elements play a role in speed management. Examining this area can help deter excessive speeding from occurring.

    Creating awareness to be safer when driving can be helpful and remind people that humans are fragile. Promoting safer speeds is also a way to help reduce the possibility of automobile wrecks. When these two areas improve, it should help decrease car crashes and the fatalities and injuries accompanying them.

  • Why are more commercial trucks getting into accidents?

    Florida roads are frequently traveled by commercial trucks. Recently, there has been an increase in the rates of accidents among big rigs.

    How many trucks have been in accidents?

    Between 2009 to 2019, 2018 had the highest number of fatal truck crashes. However, the numbers rose by 2020. During that year, close to 5,000 commercial trucks were involved in crashes resulting in fatalities. This marked a 4% decrease over the previous year. However, truck accidents have increased since 2011 by 33%.

    Over 100,000 trucks were involved in accidents that resulted in injuries in 2020. Although this is a 2% decrease since 2019, the numbers are still high. Most of the most serious truck accidents occurred on rural roads during the daytime as well.

    Why are truck accidents so serious?

    Truck accidents are very dangerous and pose significant risks to everyone on the roads due to the size and weight of the vehicles. The average semi-truck weighs around 20,000 pounds when it’s not carrying cargo. When cargo is loaded on a truck, its total weight could reach up to 80,000 pounds. This is much heavier than the average passenger car, which weighs only a fraction of a truck’s weight.

    Commercial trucks are also much slower to stop. When the driver brakes, it takes time for the truck to stop due to its special air braking system. This is why it’s always advised for drivers to leave plenty of space between their vehicle and a truck. A truck can easily end up hitting another vehicle if the driver of that other vehicle doesn’t take care to give extra room.

    A truck also has several blind spots, which means the driver cannot see around those areas. Even if a truck driver takes extra precautions to check their blind spots, it’s possible for some cars and other vehicles to remain hidden from view.