South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

A motorcyclist died after a large commercial truck turned left into her path, the Bradenton Herald reported. The victim was eastbound when she approached an intersection at which a westbound truck was waiting to turn left. The truck’s driver made the left in front of the victim, causing a collision that threw her from her motorcycle and killed her instantly. A spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol said he expected the truck’s driver to be cited for failing to yield the right-of-way and making an illegal left turn.

Under the circumstances, those citations are the least that I, as a South Florida motorcycle accident attorney, would expect. The article does not provide many details, but the citations suggest that the truck driver either didn’t look for oncoming traffic or thought he could beat it across the street. Just like all motorists, this truck driver has a legal duty to take reasonable care while driving -- and that includes checking for oncoming traffic before making turns. If a driver fails in this duty and someone is killed, law enforcement has the option of charging the at-fault person with vehicular homicide, a second-degree felony in Florida (first-degree if it was a hit-and-run). The victim’s family also has the right to pursue a Broward County motorcycle accident claim, regardless of whether there’s a criminal case as well.

As I have written on this blog in the past, this is unfortunately one of the most common configurations for serious motorcycle accidents. Research from the University of Southern California shows that roughly three-fourths of all motorcycle accidents are two-vehicle accidents, and two-thirds of those were caused by another motorist who violated the motorcyclist’s right of way. That is, one half of all motorcycle accidents is caused by other people on the road -- usually a driver of a car, pickup or SUV. The study went even further, saying that other motorists’ failure to detect motorcyclists in traffic is the “predominating cause” of motorcycle accidents.

Smart motorcyclists do what they can to reduce this risk, by dressing to be noticed and avoiding unnecessary risks. But nobody can anticipate inattention or bad choices by the drivers around them. If you or someone you love has been in a serious motorcycle accident and you believe it’s the other driver’s fault, my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, would like to help. A Miami-Dade motorcycle accident lawsuit can help victims and their families pay medical bills from the accident; support themselves while a wage-earner is out of work; and compensate them for their losses, pain and suffering. To set up a free consultation to discuss your case, please contact our firm online or call our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100.

Motorbike manufacturer Suzuki has announced a safety recall of its GSX-R1000 sport bikes, Clutch and Chrome reported Feb. 3. The campaign affects 26,082 bikes with 2005 and 2006 model years, whose frames are susceptible to breaking or cracking in stressed areas, such as the wheel-fork assembly or behind the steering neck. Owners of the affected motorcycles can take their bikes in to a Suzuki dealership for inspection, where dealers will replace cracked frames and install reinforcements on uncracked frames for free. For more information, owners of the GSX-R1000 can view the federal notice or contact Suzuki in the United States at (714) 572-1490.

Officially, Suzuki’s action is a “safety improvement campaign” because it was not ordered under federal product safety laws, though it has all of the features of a recall. The manufacturer noticed the problem after reports began surfacing of GSX-R1000s suffering cracks and breakage during “extreme situations” -- when the bike is being ridden fast and used to do stunts like jumps or wheelies, as well as in cases of motorcycle accidents. This behavior is very common with sport bikes like this model, which are at the center of a subculture of stunt racers, but Suzuki apparently did not design its motorcycle with the use in mind. As a result, hard riding has caused several frame breaks that killed or severely injured the riders.

As a motorcyclist myself and a Broward County motorcycle accident lawyer, I urge GSX-R1000 owners to get their motorcycles’ frames reinforced. Riding a motorcycle in Florida is already dangerous, statistically speaking; nobody needs to add a risk of serious accidents from a defect in the motorcycle. Even the best rider in the world can’t prevent an accident if the equipment itself is the problem. And while the use of the bikes as stunt bikes may not have been anticipated by Suzuki, you would have to be unfamiliar with the motorcycle industry to describe it as unforeseeable.

People who are seriously hurt by misusing a defective product in Florida can still hold manufacturers responsible for those defects, as long as the misuse was foreseeable. Florida law holds manufacturers of defective products strictly legally liable (legally responsible) for injuries they cause, regardless of whether the manufacturer intended to include the flaw. In this case, that means people who were severely injured or lost a loved one to a defective Suzuki motorcycle frame still have a case, even if the situation isn’t appropriate for a conventional South Florida motorcycle accident claim.

Cohn, Smith & Cohn has an active Miami motorcycle accident litigation practice serving riders throughout South Florida. We aggressively defend the rights of people who have been seriously hurt in a bike crash, even when the at-fault people and insurance companies use anti-motorcycle prejudice to avoid their own legal responsibilities. If you or someone you love is in this situation and you’d like to learn more, please contact our firm online or call us at our main Hollywood office at (954) 431-8100.

A Boca Raton man was fined and had one of his dogs impounded after they attacked neighbors in two separate incidents, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Feb. 5. Matt Cousineau told the police that he forgot to close his front door, allowing his two pit bulls, Primo and Princess, to escape. The dogs first charged neighbor Maureen Hartnagle and her Jack Russell terrier, who were out on a walk. With help from neighbors, Hartnagle and her dog fought off the pit bulls, but were unable to corral them.

The pit bulls later attacked Randy Schultz and his family, out on a walk with their own four dogs. Schultz was bitten as he tried to protect his one-year-old grandson and his smaller dogs from the pit bulls. Both dogs were taken into custody by Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, which quarantined Primo because he had bitten hard enough to break Schultz’s skin. Cousineau was fined $25 for breaking leash laws, and his dogs faced a hearing Feb. 10 on whether to classify them as dangerous.

Everyone involved is lucky that the situation wasn’t much worse. Pit bulls are not necessarily bad dogs, but they are large and strong predators whose ancestors were bred to hunt and kill vermin. Left uncontrolled and without proper training, they are capable of killing or seriously mauling a person or pet they see as a threat -- or as prey. Statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that dog attacks kill more than 15 Americans ever year and leave about 6,000 more with injuries serious enough to require hospitalization. At their most serious, dog attacks can leave people dead or with permanent nerve or organ damage, lifelong disfigurement, serious infections and, especially in children, years of emotional trauma.

Palm Beach County law requires only a fine and fees for people who allow their dogs to run around loose. But victims of a vicious dog also have the option of pursuing justice with a South Florida dog attack lawsuit. Florida law makes dog owners legally liable for the results of any attack by a dog running loose in public, even if the dog was never violent before. That means owners are financially responsible for the serious harm their dogs can do, including the cost of treating serious dog bite injuries, now and in the future; costs like missed work or therapy; and compensation for the physical and emotional trauma of being attacked at random by a pet.

The Coral Springs law firm of Cohn, Smith & Cohn represents victims of serious dog attacks throughout South Florida. To set up a free evaluation of your case with our experienced Florida dog bite attorneys, please contact us online as soon as possible or call today at (954) 431-8100.

Law enforcement said speed definitely contributed to a fatal car crash in St. Petersburg early on Feb. 9. The Tampa Tribune reported that Melissa Daddio, 19, was speeding when lost control of her car at 2:10 a.m. that day while trying to pass another vehicle. The car slammed into a curb, a street sign and four other objects before flipping over and hitting the wall of a local law firm’s offices. A 20-year-old passenger was killed; Daddio and another passenger were taken to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening. Public records show that the driver had received three speeding tickets since 2006.

Police are still investigating the accident, the article says, and it would be inappropriate to lay blame without all the facts. But this case is a good illustration of the sad but true fact that speeding can kill. According to a study of 2007 traffic accidents by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding is a factor in 24% of all fatal crashes of passenger cars, 19% of fatal light truck crashes and 36% of fatal motorcycle crashes. Drivers who speed are also statistically more likely to be intoxicated by alcohol and less likely to have a valid license or use seat belts. And unfortunately, drivers under the age of 25 are also more likely to speed.

As a motorcyclist, I understand the temptation to speed. But for a Pembroke Pines car crash attorney, it’s also easy to understand why speeding is so frequently deadly. When a vehicle is going very quickly, its driver has less time to react to unexpected obstacles and less margin for error when making basic maneuvers like turning or passing, as in this crash. It also takes longer to stop a fast-moving vehicle, which means that cars take longer to brake, increasing the distance the car travels before it can stop. Under those circumstances, seat belts and airbags can only do so much. Even when they’re restrained, occupants of the vehicle are more likely to be killed or sustain catastrophic injuries like brain damage, paralysis and severe burns.

These injuries are a tragedy no matter what the circumstances. But when they are the result of someone else’s bad decisions or carelessness, victims have a right to hold that person legally responsible with a South Florida auto accident lawsuit. A legal claim can help victims hold careless people legally and financially responsible for their actions, compelling them to pay the medical bills, repair bills and other costs of the accident they caused. It can also help victims win compensation for their non-financial injuries, such as loss of a loved one, permanent disability, inability to work, physical pain or emotional anguish. Cohn, Smith & Cohn has helped many clients in this position win the money they need to get good care, make ends meet and eventually move on from a serious accident.

At Cohn, Smith & Cohn, our experienced Coral Springs car accident attorneys offer free consultations, so there’s no risk in talking to us about your case and your options. To set up a free evaluation of your case, please contact us as soon as possible using our online form or call (954) 431-8100.

A federal agency regulating aircraft found that a central Florida plane accident was caused by pilot error and mistakes by corporate management. An article from Aero-News Network said National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded in late January that the July 2007 accident “could have been... easily avoided” if personnel at NASCAR’s corporate flight division had made better decisions about an electrical problem with the plane. The NASCAR flight, headed from Daytona to Lakeland, crashed into three residential homes in Sanford while attempting to make an emergency landing at Orlando-Sanford International Airport to deal with an in-flight fire. Two people aboard and three on the ground were killed, including a small child.

According to the article, a different pilot had reported an electrical problem with the plane the day before the crash. That pilot pulled a circuit breaker associated with the malfunctioning equipment and reported the problem to staff at NASCAR’s aviation department. However, the department authorized the plane for flight the next day without fixing the problem, which the NTSB said was one of two major mistakes leading to the crash. Not only did this violate federal regulations, but NASCAR told investigators that it had no record of the first pilot’s report. The other mistake cited was the NASCAR pilot’s choice to fly the plane knowing that there was an unresolved maintenance problem. At some point, the report said, someone reset the circuit breaker, which led to the fire.

The article didn’t say whether any of the victims or their families have filed a Florida airplane accident lawsuit over the incident. But as an aviation accident lawyer in South Florida, I can see that this report would be bad news for NASCAR in any such legal claim. In order to collect damages for the accident -- including the costs of medical care, funeral expenses and repairs for the people whose homes were destroyed -- victims must show that the accident was caused by someone else’s carelessness. This report does exactly that, showing that federal authorities believe both the corporate decision-makers and the pilot made serious mistakes. In fact, acting NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker said NASCAR’s lack of any record of the first pilot’s maintenance report was “frankly, alarming.”

Thanks to my own practice as a Fort Lauderdale airplane accident lawyer, I happen to know that human error is the most frequently cited cause of plane crashes -- far more often than weather or maintenance problems alone. Aircraft are generally still much safer than cars and trucks, but when they do crash, they’re more likely to leave their victims dead or very seriously injured. My firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, helps victims of serious airplane crashes hold careless people and organizations responsible for those injuries with Broward County plane crash lawsuits. If you or someone you love is a victim and you’d like to learn more about your options, please contact us online as soon as possible for a free consultation or call us at (954) 431-8100.

The Florida Board of Medicine revoked the license of an abortion doctor who ignored his patient so long that she gave birth to a very premature child, who was then thrown into the trash the Associated Press reported Feb. 6. The board found that Pierre John-Jacques Renelique had committed medical malpractice, failed to keep accurate records and delegated medical tasks to non-medical employees at his clinic in Hialeah. His license was revoked, and the Miami-Dade State’s Attorney’s office is considering whether to bring criminal charges.

The baby’s mother, Sycloria Williams, was 23 weeks (just under six months) pregnant and intended to get an abortion when she arrived at the clinic. However, the doctor was not there when she arrived at 9:30 a.m., despite the fact that he had given her drugs the day before to start the procedure. After undergoing more preparation and waiting about four hours, Williams gave birth to an extremely premature baby girl. The complaint against Renelique alleges that a clinic employee who was not a doctor then put the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red biohazard bag and threw them in the trash, where police found the child dead a week later. An hour later, Renelique arrived and tried to start the abortion, only to discover that there was no fetus.

This story is attracting a lot of attention because it involves the contentious issue of abortion. As a Florida medical malpractice attorney, however, I’m interested in the medical negligence aspects of the case. In addition to the apparent negligence involved in the case itself, I wonder about the timing of the disciplinary case. Readers may not have noticed that this incident took place more than two years ago, in 2006 -- but Renelique’s license has only just come up for review. Under those circumstances, it’s easy to wonder how many other Florida doctors are still practicing despite serious charges or pending disciplinary hearings against them.

We go to our doctors trusting that they have the training, skills and compassion to give us the best care they can. Most doctors are worthy of that trust -- but when they’re not, they can seriously harm their patients. Mistakes in surgery or medication, failure to diagnose a fast-moving disease and hospital-acquired infections affect hundreds of thousands of patients every year, killing them or leaving them permanently disabled. When doctors provide care that falls so far below basic medical standards, they have committed medical malpractice and are liable in any South Florida medical malpractice lawsuit their patients may file.

If you believe you or someone you love is a victim of a careless doctor, Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. Our Miami medical malpractice lawyers represent victims of medical mistakes throughout the state of Florida. To talk to us about your case and your options at a free consultation, contact us online as soon as possible.

A preliminary traffic statistics report from the Florida Highway Patrol shows a substantial dip in the number of fatal accidents in our state, the St. Petersburg Times reported Jan. 28. The 2,986 deaths Florida saw last year is the lowest number of traffic fatalities in at least eight years, the agency said, lower even than the 2000 toll of 2,999. Since that year, a release from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says (PDF), the state’s population has grown by nearly 18%, suggesting a substantial per-capita decline.

The decline holds even for motorcycle accident deaths. As I have written here before, fatal motorcycle crashes have about doubled nationally over the past decade. And according to the St. Petersburg Times article, the number of fatal motorcycle accidents in Florida more than doubled in this decade, from 227 in 2000 to 517 in 2007. To explain this, authorities point to a combination of increased popularity for motorcycles, a trend toward older riders and the repeal of helmet laws in many states. But for 2008, the article said, the new Florida report projects an 8% decline over 2007’s fatal Florida motorcycle accident numbers.

The Times suggested that in addition to better driver education and enforcement, the bad economy may play a part in the decline in fatalities. This theory suggests that rising gas prices and unemployment may have forced many people to drive less or find alternate forms of transportation. If so, it’s a welcome silver lining to our economic problems. We drive so much that it’s easy to forget that traffic accidents can be very serious, but in fact, they are responsible for thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries each year in Florida. Serious car crash injuries include spinal damage, brain injuries, amputations, multiple fractures and very severe burns.

These are catastrophic, life-changing injuries -- and all too often, they’re also very expensive, slamming victims’ families with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in unplanned medical bills and lost wages. To recover these and other costs caused by another driver’s negligence, victims can file a Florida auto accident lawsuit. Cohn, Smith & Cohn has more than 25 years of experience helping victims of serious car, truck and motorcycle accidents in South Florida. If you or someone you love has been seriously hurt in a Florida car crash, we can help. To set up a free evaluation of your case with our experienced attorneys, please contact us online or call us at (954) 431-8100.

A Feb. 7 report by the Lakeland Ledger said that involuntarily committed patients regularly slip away from four hospitals in the greater Tampa area before they can be stabilized or even examined. The article focuses on patients brought to hospitals under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows patients to be involuntarily committed and examined for up to 72 hours if they are believed to be mentally ill and a threat to themselves or others. The majority of the Tampa hospitals the newspaper examined had no serious problem with escapes, called “elopements,” the paper said. But four hospitals, all owed by private health system HCA Florida, routinely had one escape every month or two. At one hospital, the problem was so bad that the hospital hired private security to patrol its emergency room, a contract that has since been canceled.

The escapes are a problem because a patient must be violent, suicidal or otherwise a threat in order to be “Baker Acted.” The article says most escapes are resolved without violence -- but in one case, a patient escaped twice and ended up in a standoff with police that killed both him and a sheriff’s deputy. After that incident, a spokesperson for HCA Florida told the Northwest Florida Daily News that “we don’t lock people up.” But an expert on the Baker Act disagreed in the article, pointing out that the law gives health care organizations the right to restrain people who pose an escape risk. Patient advocate Judy Turnbaugh of NAMI Pinellas County had another theory: Hospitals that don’t want the costs of caring for medically uninsured patients turn a blind eye when they try to escape.

Regardless of whether the cause is economics or bad decisions, it’s clear that this is a problem. People are hospitalized under the Baker Act because there’s evidence that they may commit suicide, overdose or cause serious harm to others. Failure to adequately supervise such a patient might not be a crime in Florida, but it’s a highly foreseeable risk. It is also medical malpractice, or psychiatric malpractice, when the hospital or staff members had a provider-patient relationship with that patient. If a hospital allows a patient to escape and commit suicide, or hurt others, the victims and their families -- including the family of the escaped patient -- have the right to pursue a Florida medical malpractice lawsuit against that hospital.

At Cohn, Smith & Cohn, we help clients throughout South Florida who have lost a loved one or been seriously hurt by the mistakes of health care professionals. Our experienced Miami-Dade medical malpractice lawyers have a strong record of successfully recovering the money our clients need to pay new medical costs related to their injuries and compensate them for a loss in the family or a permanent injury. If you or someone you love is a victim of psychiatric malpractice or any other kind of medical malpractice in Florida, we’d like to hear from you. To set up a free consultation with us today, please contact us online or call us at (954) 431-8100.

Reality television personality and motorcycle builder Billy Lane will plead to criminal charges stemming from a fatal Florida motorcycle accident, Florida Today reported Feb. 10. Lane, star of the Discovery Channel’s “Biker Build-Off” and owner of Choppers Inc. in Melbourne, is accused of DUI manslaughter in the incident, but may plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter at in a plea bargain at his April 7 hearing. Either charge carries up to 15 years in prison. Police say Lane had a blood-alcohol concentration of more than twice the legal limit when he crossed into oncoming traffic and killed motorcyclist Gerald Morelock, 56, on Labor Day 2006.

A lot of attention in this case focuses on Lane’s celebrity, as well as the irony that a famous motorcyclist hit another rider. As a Florida motorcycle accident attorney and a motorcyclist interested in safety, I spend a lot of time defending motorcyclists who are hit by careless drivers, drunk or sober. That maybe even more true for a driver who is a rider himself. Motorcyclists may bear the brunt of drivers’ bad decisions more than they should, but we also have a responsibility to make good decisions ourselves. That includes choosing not to ride or drive while intoxicated, which is always dangerous.

My wife and I both ride, so I have a special interest in aggressively representing victims of serious motorcycle accidents. Motorcycle crashes cause very serious injuries, including wrongful deaths, broken bones, brain injuries and others that may lead to permanent, lifelong disability. In many cases, anti-motorcycle prejudice also means that motorcyclists have to fight insurance companies just to collect the compensation they’re entitled to. If you’re in this position after a Florida motorcycle wreck, you don’t have to put up with it. Our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, can help. To learn more about your options at a free consultation, please contact us as soon as possible.

A motorcyclist was hospitalized in critical condition after a hit-and-run accident with a car, the Ledger of Lakeland reported Feb. 9. The paper says the rider was struck while making a left turn from Avenue G Northwest onto Recker Highway, sending him skidding off the road. The other vehicle, described only as a blue car, left the scene. The motorcyclist was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital, where he is listed in critical condition. Witnesses are encouraged to call the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 1-800-226-8477, where they are free to leave anonymous tips.

The article doesn’t provide enough information to decide who is at fault, of course. But as an experienced Hollywood, Florida motorcycle accident lawyer, I happen to know that this is one of the most common configurations for an accident between a motorcycle and a car. The Hurt Report, the definitive study on motorcycle accidents, notes that intersections are by far the most likely place for a motorcycle crash, with other vehicles violating the motorcycle’s right-of-way in half of all crashes and sometimes also violating traffic signals.

Statistics also show that drivers tend to flee the scenes of accidents they cause when they have something else to hide -- intoxication, driving without a valid license or other forms of illegal behavior. Ironically, this might actually make matters worse for the drivers who get caught. Leaving the scene of an accident is a crime in itself, separate from any criminal charges stemming from the accident or from underlying legal problems. The penalty for vehicular homicide doubles, from 15 years in prison to 30 years, if the accused left the scene of the accident without stopping. That’s much more severe than the penalties for most of the violations that might cause someone to hit and run. For example, driving without a license carries a fine of up to $500 and potential, non-mandatory jail time of up to 60 days.

Unfortunately, law enforcement may not always be able to prosecute hit-and-run drivers, even if they catch them. But whether or not there’s a criminal case, families affected by a catastrophic motorcycle accident in Florida have the right to pursue a civil case as well -- a lawsuit against the person whose irresponsibility caused their injuries. In a Florida motorcycle crash lawsuit, they can win money to pay hospital bills and all future medical costs, as well as costs like lost income from missed days of work. Just as importantly, they can also win compensation for the loss of a loved one, a permanent disability or a serious and painful injury.

The Pembroke Pines law firm of Cohn, Smith & Cohn aggressively represents people who were hurt through no fault of their own in serious motorcycle accidents in South Florida. We offer free consultations to all potential clients. To speak with us about your rights and your options, you can call us today at (954) 431-8100 or contact us online.