South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

If you have been reading the news in South Florida recently, you have probably read allegations that a firefighter on the scene of a bad automobile accident stole the severed foot of a victim. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the firefighter was among those responding to the scene of an accident on I-95 in Port St. Lucie, in which a man lost control of his pickup truck and eventually crashed into a tree. His foot was severed in the accident. The normal procedure is to bring a severed limb to the hospital if there's a chance that it can be reattached, the paper reports, but in this case, it didn't find its way to the hospital until Wednesday. The firefighter is currently under investigation by her own fire department and the Florida Highway Patrol.

While I cannot imagine why someone would do this, it's almost beside the point. Even if this firefighter had good reasons for her actions, she has exposed her county to a ton of legal liability. Judging solely by the facts in the article, the county government had nothing to do with the original accident. If the victim in any Florida accident is mostly or entirely responsible for his own injuries, Florida law would reduce the amount of money he could win by the percentage of fault he bears. That is, if a jury decides he is 90% at fault, he can only collect 10% of any judgment he wins in a Florida car crash lawsuit. (Needless to say, this is just an example; I do not have all of the facts a jury would use to determine this.)

Normally, that would be the end of it. But because this firefighter interfered in a fairly unusual way, she has put herself and her department in danger of becoming defendants in a different sort of lawsuit -- one over her interference with his right to his own foot. And because county governments tend to have much more money than individuals, they make attractive defendants. If there was any chance that the foot could be reattached, this man has a major claim, of course. But even if there was not, he and every other Floridian has the right to make decisions about his own body and property.

Amputations are not the most common injury from a car or truck accident, but as you can see, it's far from impossible. Serious auto accidents can be brutal, leaving victims disabled by spinal damage or brain damage, severe burns or other catastrophic injuries. If you've been hurt in an auto accident by someone else's carelessness, including the carelessness of government agencies, you have the right to hold those people responsible for the results. Contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free evaluation of your case.