South Florida Injury Attorney Blog

As an Aventura injuries to minors attorney, I have written several times about the dangers to young children from unattended swimming pools. I am sorry to say that the city of Delray Beach saw another such accident Dec. 29. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a three-year-old boy and a boy and a girl, both two, somehow got into a neighbor’s backyard around 5:30 p.m. as they were visiting a family friend. One of the boys was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, while the other children were in stable condition. Delray Beach police are investigating how the accident occurred.

The boys are brothers and the girl is their cousin, according to family friend Manette Joseph. Both of their mothers were visiting Joseph’s home while Joseph was working that day. It was unclear whether an adult was watching them when they were outside, but a neighbor, Matilda Corona, had warned the children and a teenager to stay away from her own pool earlier in the day. When the children were found in another neighbor’s pool, Corona’s daughter-in-law, a nursing student, was called to perform CPR. Because the pool was murky and dirty, a Fire-Rescue dive team was called to ensure that there were no more children in it.

The nursing student told the Sun-Sentinel that she didn’t see a screen around the pool. If so, it suggests that the unnamed neighbor may have violated Florida law by failing to erect a fence sufficient to keep small children out. Swimming pools are a leading cause of accidental drowning in toddlers, taking the lives of about 300 children under five each year. For that reason, state law requires owners of new swimming pools to erect a fence around their pools high and secure enough to keep young children out. Failure to follow this law can result in a criminal charge, as well as clear liability in any West Palm Beach child injury lawsuit. This is entirely separate from the issue of whether the children were adequately supervised by adult family members. If they were not, both parties would be at fault and any financial recovery for the family would be reduced accordingly.

Continue reading " Toddlers Hospitalized After Wandering Into Unattended Delray Beach Pool " »

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Posted In: injuries to minors , premises liability

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As a Fort Lauderdale auto accident lawyer, I’ve written here several times about tragic and preventable injuries to construction and emergency crews working at the side of the road. A Dec. 21 article from the New York Times examines that issue from another angle: work site injuries to motorists who happen to be passing by. According to the article, few laws exist to ensure that contractors working on public roads follow safety laws, and guidelines are violated. As a result, the article estimates, 4,700 Americans were killed in the past five years in work zone accidents, most of them preventable. And because the laws don’t provide much accountability, the contractors responsible often continue to be hired.

Accidents happen, the article says -- but safety experts say they don’t need to happen as often as they do. According to David Holstein, chief traffic engineer for the state of Ohio, an accident-monitoring system in that state found that crashes increase by as much as 70% in construction zones. With stimulus package money likely to fund many new construction projects, more deaths may be likely in 2010. Transportation officials focus on driver error by raising speeding fines and making “move over” laws. But 85% of deaths in construction zones are driver deaths, the article said, and federal safety officials don’t track whether and how contractors might be to blame.

One example the article gave was an accident that took place on I-75 in Sarasota. Zep Construction, the contractor, planned to use a “rolling roadblock” to slow down traffic for work on a bridge just after midnight. However, the roadblock caused traffic to stop completely rather than slow, in an area with a blind spot and a 70-mph speed limit. Drivers Manuel Ramirez and James Brashear came to a stop, but a semi truck behind them couldn’t stop in time. It jackknifed into a line of cars, killing both men and wounding 10 other people. Brashear’s son Tyler, 11 at the time, was physically unhurt but trapped in the crushed vehicle with his father. The article said Zep had followed almost none of the rolling roadblock guidelines provided by the Florida Department of Transportation, but the state still gave the contractor an excellent performance rating. The Brashears have sued Zep.

I am disturbed to read that there are so few regulations on construction zone safety in our state, or across the U.S. According to the NYT, those guidelines that do exist are mostly not mandatory or specific, and states resist changing this because of fear of litigation. Ironically, as a Miami Gardens car crash attorney, I believe states are in a worse position without such rules, because accidents, and thus lawsuits, are more likely when safety is lax. More importantly, failure to make and follow adequate safety rules means more preventable deaths, like those of James Brashear and Manuel Ramirez. No contractor sets out to create deadly accidents, but this article shows that good intentions are not enough. If government agencies and contractors are not willing to set and enforce higher standards, the accidents -- and their legal liability -- are likely to continue.

Continue reading " Article Finds Thousands Killed in Preventable Road Construction Zone Accidents " »

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Posted In: automobile accidents

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As a Pompano Beach premises liability attorney, I was very interested in a recent report about an outbreak caused by contaminated water at an upscale Miami hotel. The Miami Herald reported Dec. 13 that bacteria in the water at the Epic Hotel is believed responsible for one death among the guests and two other cases of illness. All three victims contracted a rare form of pneumonia called Legionellosis, or Legionnaires’ disease, which is generally transmitted by breathing water vapors infected with the Legionella family of bacteria. Authorities say that the three victims represent only a fraction of all of the guests the hotel had seen over the past two months, but about 300 guests still asked to be moved to other hotels.

The problem was uncovered by a joint investigation between Florida state health officials and the Miami-Dade County Health Department. The investigators put the blame on the hotel’s powerful new water filter -- which, ironically, was intended to improve the quality of the drinking water. The filter was so powerful that it removed the chlorine from ordinary Miami city tap water, allowing bacteria to grow. The result was three known cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the past two months, affecting unrelated European tourists. The first victim, a man, visited the hotel on the way to a cruise ship, where he became ill. He was rushed back to the mainland for treatment, but died. The other two victims were a man sickened in late November and a woman who fell ill this month. The article did not mention whether they have recovered. Poor international communication prevented authorities from discovering the connections earlier, county officials said.

The article says that the hotel is working with the county to fix the problem, by bypassing the water filter and temporarily tripling the chlorine in the hotel’s supply. But as a Hallandale Beach dangerous premises lawyer, I wonder whether careful investigation beforehand would have revealed that the water filter was removing necessary safeguards from the hotel’s water supply. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Legionella bacteria are common in the environment and especially likely to be passed on at hotels. Like many bacteria, they thrive in the warmer temperatures common in South Florida. Chlorinated drinking water may taste bad, but it’s also specifically intended to inhibit growth of microbes in the public water supply. All of these facts suggest that the hotel should have at least considered the chance of contamination before filtering out the chlorine.

Continue reading " Contaminated Water at Miami Hotel Kills One Guest and Sickens Two Others " »

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As a Miramar premises liability attorney, I was interested to see a report about a major incident at Walt Disney World that left about 300 people stuck in cars high above the ground. The Orlando Sentinel reported Dec. 14 that a hard drive failed in the computer system that runs the monorails at around 1 a.m. early on Sunday, Dec. 13. The computer problem cut off power to seven monorail cars, three of which were out of the station with people inside. No injuries were reported, but the Reedy Creek Fire Department used ladders to rescue guests from the high monorail tracks, which a Disney spokesperson said was motivated by customer service concerns. The trains began running again around 4 a.m. and were operational when the park opened Sunday.

It was the third incident involving monorail service at the Magic Kingdom this year. In July, a Disney employee was killed when two of the trains crashed. In the fall, an electrical short shut down parts of the system in an incident that affected 25 people but did not result in any injuries. While nobody was hurt in this latest incident, several park visitors wrote in to television station Central Florida News 13 complaining about the way Disney handled the incident. Because the power was out, there was no air conditioning, they wrote, leaving it hot and muggy inside. One passenger said her driver said not to open the emergency windows in case the glass fell out and onto people below. She also complained that the driver misled her car, saying at first that they were waiting for clearance, and then that they were experiencing minor technical difficulties. Another Disney visitor wrote in to say that his train had a power outage earlier in the day, which stranded him for about 45 minutes.

I am pleased that nobody was seriously hurt, even though the experience sounds hot and stressful and probably kept a lot of kids up past their bedtimes. As a Hollywood premises liability lawyer, I can think of a few ways in which someone could have been injured by the experience. Simply being stuck in a small, hot, humid place for three hours could cause problems for people with certain health conditions, such as people with heart problems or time-sensitive medications. Incorrect instructions, or failure to control an angry crowd, could also lead to injuries from people climbing out of the car or getting involved in fights. Just as Disney has a responsibility to make sure its rides and grounds are safe, it also has a responsibility to prevent incidents that it can reasonably anticipate, which may include problems with out-of-control guests. Failure to do that could lead to a tragedy and expose Disney to a premises liability lawsuit.

Continue reading " Power Failure Strands Disney World Visitors on Monorail for Three Hours " »

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As a Weston pedestrian accident lawyer, I was sorry to read that a crash has claimed the lift of an elderly woman. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Dec. 13 that 75-year-old Patricia Wardrop of Weston died that day of injuries she sustained in a parking lot accident the Friday before. Wardrop was at a shopping center in Pembroke Pines around 12:30 when driver Josephine Curatolo, 65, drove out of a parking spot, through some bushes and over a curb. Curatolo’s vehicle also hit two children, 10-year-old Luis Finol and 12-year-old Ana Finol, who suffered minor injuries. It was not clear whether they were with Wardrop. Law enforcement believes Curatolo may have hit the wrong pedal, and is asking witnesses with more information to contact the Pembroke Pines police department or CrimeStoppers.

The response to this accident has stirred up a politically volatile topic here in South Florida: driver’s license retesting for older drivers. Proponents believe this would cut down on preventable accidents caused by older drivers who have problems with vision, reaction time or cognitive decline. Opponents, including many people who would be affected, believe this is nothing more than ageism. Florida does require drivers over the age of 80 to renew their licenses every six rather than eight years, and requires a vision test at each renewal after that age, but critics charge that problems can begin before 80 and go beyond vision. As a Coral Springs pedestrian accident lawyer who sees a substantial number of very serious accidents, I believe it’s worth looking into. If scientific research shows that accidents decrease when older people are retested at each license renewal, I would support it.

Pedestrian accidents are among the most serious crashes on South Florida roads. Unlike crashes between two cars, pedestrian accidents pit an unprotected human body against a vehicle weighing thousands of pounds and traveling at many miles per hour. This is no contest at all, and the resulting injuries tend to reflect that. The most serious pedestrian accidents cause wrongful deaths as well as serious head injuries, spinal cord damage and other permanent disabilities. And because Florida law gives pedestrians the right of way in most situations, the crashes are almost always the fault of the person behind the wheel. This may be cold comfort for victims and their families, but it can be important later if they choose to pursue a pedestrian accident lawsuit.

Continue reading " Elderly Pembroke Pines Woman Dies After Driver Jumps Curb and Hits Pedestrians " »

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Broward County car accident attorneys like me got some bittersweet news Dec. 7 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. As the Washington Post reported, the federal government’s driving safety agency held a press conference Monday to announce its annual anti-drunk-driving campaign for the holidays and reveal national DUI statistics. Because intoxicated driving is statistically likely during the holidays, the NHTSA partners with local law enforcement to run a national anti-DUI campaign called “Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” In its press conference, however, the agency announced statistics showing that drunk driving has actually gone down in recent years. However, the accompanying report shows that driving under the influence of drugs is now a serious threat.

According a survey by the NHTSA, 11% of drivers on the road on the weekends are under the influence of an illegal drug. That number shoots up to 16% at night, traditionally the time when drunk driving rates are highest. That was the bad news in a Dec. 7 Washington Post article on the press conference. More bad news for Florida was that we are one of the ten states that did not see a drop in the rate of fatal drunk driving accidents. Florida, Delaware and Pennsylvania saw no change to fatal DUI crashes, while seven states actually saw increases: New Hampshire, Kansas, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Idaho, Oklahoma and Colorado. Drunk driving fatalities declined by 7% nationwide, the Post reported. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the declines were biggest in states that sought and prosecuted DUI most aggressively, with checkpoints and stepped-up patrols.

I hope Florida authorities take that message to heart. The NHTSA report (PDF) shows that our rate of fatal DUI accidents is better than those of most of our neighbors in the Southeast, but it still isn’t falling as fast as that of the nation as a whole. As a Hallandale Beach auto accident lawyer, I work frequently with victims of serious car crashes, including people who were badly hurt or lost a family member in drunk driving accidents. Every single one of those accidents was the preventable result of another driver’s negligent decision to get behind the wheel while impaired. Most public education campaigns about DUI don’t differentiate between alcohol and drugs, but both will leave drivers’ judgment and motor skills impaired, harming their ability to safety control a vehicle. And driving under the influence of either can leave the innocent motorists around them equally dead.

Continue reading " Federal DOT Releases DUI Statistics, Reminds Drivers to Stay Sober During Holidays " »

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As a Coconut Creek pedestrian accident attorney, I was interested to read about a lawsuit in an unusual pedestrian accident. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Dec. 7 that the widow and daughters of an 80-year-old Hollywood man have sued the operators of the drawbridge from which he fell. Desmond Nolan was walking home from the beach on Sheridan Street when the drawbridge opened over the Intracoastal Waterway. As the bridge rose, he clung to the edge, but eventually couldn’t hold on and fell 60 feet to a concrete bridge below. He died later the same day at a hospital.

The drawbridge has flashing lights and arms that warn travelers not to cross when it’s about to open. However, a video posted on the Sun-Sentinel’s Web site shows that the arm on Nolan’s side of the road did not go down until he was well past it and onto the bridge:
 
The Nolan family alleges negligence by the drawbridge’s operator, Michael O’Rourke; his employer, ISS Facility Services; and two other drawbridge contractors, C&S Building Maintenance and Transfield Services North America. All three companies are contractors to the Florida Department of Transportation. The Nolan family’s attorney said they also intend to sue the Department itself, but must wait six months because of a legally required notification period for suing state agencies. The claim says O’Rourke should have checked for people on the bridge before he opened it, and that he failed to respond to motorists who were honking and screaming to get his attention.

I applaud this family for taking quick action on its legal claim. Some observers may believe it’s callous for the family to file a lawsuit so quickly, but as a Boca Raton pedestrian accident attorney, I know that suing a government agency requires victims to start their claims as soon as possible. As the article notes, people who wish to sue an arm of the Florida state government must notify the agency in writing six months before filing their claims. It’s only after the agency has a chance to reject or accept the claim that victims can file a real lawsuit. Meanwhile the statute of limitations for wrongful death in Florida is just two years. That means that if the family of a wrongfully killed person delays action for a year or more, they may no longer be able to sue at all -- no matter how strong their claim might be.

Continue reading " Family Sues Drawbridge Operators Over Elderly Pedestrian’s Fatal Fall " »

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Posted In: pedestrian accidents , wrongful death

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about the FHP’s report of unusually high numbers of hit-and-run accidents in Florida. That post included references to at least two accidents involving motorcyclists who might have survived their crashes -- if a second vehicle hadn’t hit them while they were struggling to get up from a first accident. As a Deerfield Beach motorcycle accident lawyer, I’m sorry to say that television station WSVN reported another such accident Dec. 5. Police are asking for the public’s help finding the driver of a vehicle, possibly a black pickup truck, that struck and killed a 38-year-old woman in southeast Miami.

The accident that killed Clara Baquero de Doy took place on Krome Avenue near Kendall Drive at around 11:30 p.m. Dec. 6. The victim was riding on the back of a motorcycle in the northbound lanes of Krome Avenue. For reasons that were not clear to law enforcement, she fell from the back of the bike and ended up in the southbound lanes. There, she was hit by an oncoming vehicle, whose driver then left the scene. Police speculate that the driver may not have realized that he or she hit a person, but hope that the news report will help that driver realize what happened. Lt. Alex Annunciato of the Florida Highway Patrol asked that driver, or anyone else who may have been at the scene, to come forward with more information.

As a Dania Beach motorcycle crash attorney, I am disappointed to read about yet another hit-and-run affecting a Florida motorcyclist. As I have noted on this blog before, Florida has the nation’s highest rate of hit-and-run accidents. Accidents with motorcyclists may be particularly likely to produce hit-and-runs because the severe injuries a motorcycle accident can cause may make some drivers panic and leave the scene. In cases like this, the low visibility of motorcycles and their riders may also be a factor. Unfortunately, leaving the scene of an accident sets drivers up for substantially worse consequences if they are caught. Not only could those drivers face charges of leaving the scene -- even if the original accident does not result in criminal charges -- but they could also end up on the wrong side of a Pompano Beach motorcycle accident lawsuit. Juries in both criminal and civil courts have little patience for drivers who hit others and leave them on the roadside as they flee.

Continue reading " Police Seeking Black Pickup Truck That Struck and Killed Downed Motorcyclist " »

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about the FHP’s report of unusually high numbers of hit-and-run accidents in Florida. That post included references to at least two accidents involving motorcyclists who might have survived their crashes -- if a second vehicle hadn’t hit them while they were struggling to get up from a first accident. As a Deerfield Beach motorcycle accident lawyer, I’m sorry to say that television station WSVN reported another such accident Dec. 5. Police are asking for the public’s help finding the driver of a vehicle, possibly a black pickup truck, that struck and killed a 38-year-old woman in southeast Miami.

The accident that killed Clara Baquero de Doy took place on Krome Avenue near Kendall Drive at around 11:30 p.m. Dec. 6. The victim was riding on the back of a motorcycle in the northbound lanes of Krome Avenue. For reasons that were not clear to law enforcement, she fell from the back of the bike and ended up in the southbound lanes. There, she was hit by an oncoming vehicle, whose driver then left the scene. Police speculate that the driver may not have realized that he or she hit a person, but hope that the news report will help that driver realize what happened. Lt. Alex Annunciato of the Florida Highway Patrol asked that driver, or anyone else who may have been at the scene, to come forward with more information.

As a Dania Beach motorcycle crash attorney, I am disappointed to read about yet another hit-and-run affecting a Florida motorcyclist. As I have noted on this blog before, Florida has the nation’s highest rate of hit-and-run accidents. Accidents with motorcyclists may be particularly likely to produce hit-and-runs because the severe injuries a motorcycle accident can cause may make some drivers panic and leave the scene. In cases like this, the low visibility of motorcycles and their riders may also be a factor. Unfortunately, leaving the scene of an accident sets drivers up for substantially worse consequences if they are caught. Not only could those drivers face charges of leaving the scene -- even if the original accident does not result in criminal charges -- but they could also end up on the wrong side of a Pompano Beach motorcycle accident lawsuit. Juries in both criminal and civil courts have little patience for drivers who hit others and leave them on the roadside as they flee.

Continue reading " Police Seeking Black Pickup Truck That Struck and Killed Downed Motorcyclist " »

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As a Hollywood auto product defect attorney, I was very pleased to read Dec. 26 that Toyota will recall 4.26 million vehicles to address reports of unintended, uncontrollable acceleration in late-model Toyota and Lexus cars and trucks. Responding to more than 1,000 incidents that caused at least 19 deaths, the company said it would change the shape of the gas pedals in seven models; replace floor mats that may cause the pedals to stick; and reconfigure on-board software to override the throttle when both the gas and the brakes are pressed at the same time. But according to a Nov. 29 article from the Los Angeles Times, many Toyota owners and safety experts believe these fixes miss the real problem -- the electronic throttle system that replaced mechanical throttles during this decade.

The electronic system, also called drive-by-wire, uses sensors and a computer system, rather than a physical structure like a cable, to determine how much pressure the driver is putting on the accelerator. According to the article, there was an average of about 26 complaints a year about unintended acceleration in 1999-2001 model year Camry and Lexus ES sedans. After the electronic throttle was introduced, that average shot up by five times, to 136 complaints a year, in 2002-2004 model years. Similarly, the average number of complaints about sudden acceleration in Toyota Tacoma trucks shot up by 20 times after the trucks got drive-by-wire. Toyota denies that the electronic system is to blame for the problem, but the only independent test of the electronic throttle -- conducted by the federal government -- found that engine speed surged when a magnetic field was applied to the computer.

Perhaps most damning was the article’s story about Eric Weiss of Long Beach, CA. After Weiss survived one sudden acceleration incident in his 2008 Toyota Tacoma, his dealer removed the floor mats. Months later, he was stopped at a red light when his truck -- without the floor mats -- began accelerating, requiring him to stand on the brakes to avoid another accident. He told the newspaper that he doesn’t want to drive his truck anymore, but doesn’t want anyone else to drive it either.

As a North Miami Beach defective auto attorney, I am disappointed and concerned by this news. If the allegations the article makes are true, Toyota has failed to address a life-threatening problem. The government’s records show that sudden acceleration events have killed at least 19 people, and caused many, many more accidents. Toyota is a popular brand in the United States, which means there are many millions of late-model Toyota and Lexus vehicles with the drive-by-wire system on the road. Even if only a handful have sudden acceleration problems, they could still cause dozens of deaths and catastrophic injuries. The Times reported elsewhere that the cost of the announced recall could easily be more than $250 million, which is a lot to pay for a recall that might not actually solve the problem. Under these circumstances, it seems wise for Toyota to delay action until it can eliminate the possibility of electronic throttle system defects -- or can eliminate the defects themselves.

Continue reading " Doubts Persist About Accelerator Problems as Toyota Recalls 4.26 Million Vehicles " »

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As a motorcyclist and a Broward County motorcycle accident attorney, I was interested to read about a public gathering in support of tougher laws for motorists who kill motorcyclists. The Pensacola News Journal reported Dec. 1 that about 150 riders from the Gulf Coast chapter of ABATE (American Bikers Aiming Toward Education), a motorcycle enthusiast and political group, circled an Escambia County building where a hearing was being held on just such an accident. Tammy Bellamy, 22, of Mississippi, pleaded no contest to failure to yield in the Sept. 11 accident that killed Anthony Nalbone, 55, and seriously injured Diana Oglesbee, 45. ABATE members, some of whom also attended the hearing, gathered outside to request stronger penalties for accidents that result in a death.

According to the article, Bellamy turned left in front of Nalbone’s motorcycle late at night on Sept. 11. The resulting crash threw both riders off the bike. Neither was wearing a helmet, and no one involved was drinking. However, Bellamy told investigators that she “never saw” the motorcycle before the crash. The article said the evidence in the case did not support the more serious charge of reckless driving against Bellamy, but ABATE chapter president Gary VerCrouse said the case was an example of why stiffer penalties are needed. VerCrouse and others held another such vigil in July of 2008, when a similar civil fine was the only penalty against an 18-year-old driver responsible for a fatal motorcycle crash. For years, ABATE has lobbied the Florida Legislature for stronger laws in such cases.

As a Davie motorcycle crash lawyer, I strongly support efforts to raise public awareness of motorcycles and their vulnerabilities on the road. And I would certainly be interested in knowing more about the circumstances of an accident that caused a death, yet still didn’t merit charges more serious than a traffic ticket. But because I work with the driving public on a regular basis, I am not sure whether a higher fine would be enough to reduce accidents from cars that fail to yield to motorcycles that drivers “don’t see.” Nor does a higher fine seem like enough, by itself, to penalize people who cause a death through sheer negligence. I would support efforts to establish a new law that strikes a middle ground between a “failure to yield” ticket and vehicular homicide -- especially if it comes with a heavy dose of education for all Florida motorists.

Continue reading " Bikers Group Holds Protest at Hearing on Accident That Killed Motorcyclist " »

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As a Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyer, I was very pleased to see an announcement that federal regulators will toughen up safety equipment requirements in new vehicles. The Detroit News reported Dec. 1 that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates and tracks traffic safety issues, will require larger and stronger side curtain air bags in new vehicles starting in 2014. The new standards are intended to reduce the number of deaths each year in rollover crashes, considered one of the most deadly crash types. Vehicles with the new air bags will be tested on how well they keep occupants from being thrown from the vehicles, where they can sustain serious head and spinal injuries.

NHTSA statistics say vehicle rollovers cause about 10,400 deaths every year. The problem is worse for drivers and passengers who aren’t using seat belts or age-appropriate car seats, but the agency estimates that about 13% of the 402 lives saved by the new regulation will be the lives of people who are using seat belts. The standard applies to vehicles that weigh 10,000 pounds or less, which includes large SUVs, vans and pickup trucks as well as passenger cars. According to the article, the new standards would likely lead to larger side curtain air bags large enough to cover more of the windows; strong enough to keep passengers from being thrown through the windows; and inflated for several seconds (rather than just 0.1 second, as with frontal air bags).

I applaud this sensible move by the NHTSA. According to the article, the agency estimates that the new regulations will add approximately $54 to the cost of vehicles. As a Coral Springs auto accident attorney, I believe most people would agree that that’s a very small price to pay to reduce their risk of dying. Rollover crashes are so deadly because they throw occupants around the inside of the vehicles, where they can sustain serious head, neck and back injuries or puncture wounds from metal and glass that was deformed by the accident. In many cases, especially cases where vehicle occupants didn’t use safety restraints, they can also be thrown violently out of the vehicle. This is undoubtedly one reason why NHTSA statistics show that rollovers accounted for just 2.7% of all crashes in 2008, but 21.25% of fatal crashes.

Continue reading " Federal Safety Agency Announces Stricter Standards for Side Curtain Air Bags " »

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Posted In: automobile accidents

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