The results: About half of the drivers who were talking on the phone missed their exits, while only one-eighth of those with passengers did. (The study found no substantial differences between drivers talking with passengers and silent drivers.) Speaking to the Washington Post, the study’s authors suggested that this could be attributed to “inattention blindness,” in which the brain literally cannot process as much visual information because it’s performing another cognitive task. In a separate press release, they also suggested that talking on the phone could limit a driver’s memory of which exit to take. And they pointed out that a passenger present in the car can drop or change the conversation to help the driver focus, which may also be a factor.

The state of Florida doesn’t currently have any laws forbidding drivers from talking on the phone, either with a handset or with a hands-free headset, although some lawmakers have considered it. But even if there’s no ticket or criminal penalty, talking on the phone while driving could still harm drivers involved in a Florida auto accident lawsuit. If research like this continues to show that drivers on the phone are actually impaired, it could be strong evidence in court that the driver was behaving carelessly or recklessly. And if that’s proven, drivers who were using a phone or other device during an accident could face substantial legal liability.

Perhaps even more importantly, hanging up the phone while you drive can help you avoid being part of a serious auto accident in South Florida. Car crashes cause deaths and very serious injuries, including brain damage, spinal injuries and serious burns that can cause lifelong scars. If hanging up for 30 minutes can help avoid these kinds of tragedy, I believe that’s a sacrifice worth making. If you or someone you care about was involved in a serious Florida auto accident caused by someone else’s carelessness, you have the right to hold that person legally and financially responsible for the results. For a free consultation with the experienced attorneys at Cohn, Smith & Cohn, please contact us today.

The closing uproots 78 residents. The only other home in the county, which is owned by the same parent company, has room for about 20 of them. The Herald article quotes several people -- one a resident -- who deny that there was abuse at the home. However, it also quotes family members of two other residents who suggest that the problems with the home stem from the parent company’s inaction rather than actions by the staff. If that’s the case, moving residents to the parent company’s other home in the Keys may not fix the problems. One man said he had seen years of failure to fix broken or dilapidated beds, wheelchairs and other equipment. This may not constitute nursing home abuse in Florida, but in many cases, it is clearly a form of nursing home neglect.

Although I sympathize with concerns about moving sick and fragile patients, I believe closing a home with such consistent neglect is the right move. As a Florida nursing home neglect lawyer, I know that neglect can make existing health problems worse or create new ones that complicate the patient’s overall health situation. Preventing bedsores, one of the most common injuries from nursing home neglect, requires staff to help disabled patients change positions every two hours. If a home is understaffed or otherwise underfunded by its parent company, these tasks may be pushed to the wayside simply because staff is overwhelmed by work. The result is that helpless patients suffer, and that is unacceptable.

Nursing home abuse and neglect in Florida make headlines because they victimize the most helpless among us -- the elderly, the ill, the disabled and people who cannot speak. As a state nursing home regulator told the Miami Herald, there should be zero tolerance for that behavior in Florida. When nursing homes and their staff abuse, exploit or neglect patients, victims and their families have a right to hold them legally responsible with a Florida nursing home abuse lawsuit (in addition to any criminal charges). Cohn, Smith & Cohn can help. If you believe someone you love is a victim and you’d like to learn more about your rights and your options, please contact us today for a free consultation.

The results showed three Florida metro areas topping the list of the most dangerous cities. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area topped the list, followed by Jacksonville and then Orlando-Kissimmee. Other metro areas on the list included Kansas City, Birmingham, Ala., Phoenix and Las Vegas. By contrast, the safest city for teens to drive in during the holidays was Salt Lake City, followed by the San Francisco, Cleveland and Portland, Ore. metro areas. More details are available in MS Excel form here. Pointing out that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers, Allstate called for teens to pledge to drive safely during the holidays and for states to adopt graduated driver licensing laws, if they have not already done so.

Allstate is right to be concerned about teen drivers, who have less experience than adult drivers with driving in general, alcohol and the challenges of driving in bad weather. But accidents during the holidays should be a concern for drivers of every age. Police agencies set up sobriety checkpoints on holidays for a reason; the probability of intoxicated driving goes up when drivers are going to holiday parties and taking time off work. Unfortunately, teens aren’t the only ones who make bad decisions about alcohol and driving. And when drivers of any age get behind the wheel after drinking (or using drugs), they’re running a substantially greater risk of being involved in accidents that can hurt or kill them and the innocent drivers around them.

As a Florida auto accident lawyer, I encourage drivers of all ages to take traffic safety seriously during the holidays, even if that means turning down one last drink or catching a ride home with someone else. Car and truck accidents can cause wrongful deaths and very serious injuries, including brain damage, severe burns and paralysis. Under those circumstances, it’s hard to feel merry. If you or someone you love has been hurt in a car crash you believe was someone else’s fault, Cohn, Smith & Cohn would like to help. Contact us today for a free consultation on your rights and your case.

I am pleased that none of the officers involved were seriously hurt. Despite outdated stereotypes about the kind of person who rides, I’ve discovered that police officers are often friendly to civilian motorcyclists who are clearly responsible and law-abiding. Because many officers ride on duty and know the common patterns in motorcycle accidents, they understand what civilian bikers are up against, including carelessness by drivers of cars and trucks as well as poor visibility, bad weather and the special mechanical challenges of riding. As a motorcyclist myself and a Florida motorcycle accident lawyer, I appreciate that law enforcement is often willing to give me and my clients the benefit of the doubt.

As an accident attorney, I’d also like to comment on the mechanics of the second accident. I don’t have all of the details, of course, but a citation for failure to yield suggests that law enforcement believes the driver of the SUV should have been able to stop. Motorcycles’ smaller size means they are generally harder for motorists to see, and I know that it can be hard to see clearly around parked cars and other obstructions. However, not stopping at all, or merely drifting through a stop sign, is illegal for a reason: It’s not safe for you or anyone around you.

The driver in this accident is lucky not to have seriously hurt the officers, not least because of the criminal and civil liability he or she could have faced. Law enforcement is not shy about charging or citing the people who harm their own, and a criminal charge could be very damaging in any accompanying Florida motorcycle accident lawsuit. Victims of motorcycle accidents and their families may sue a driver who caused the crash for all of the harm it caused -- financial costs, physical and emotional trauma and any lasting physical disabilities or wrongful death. My firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, specializes in motorcycle accident cases. If you or someone you love is a victim in a Florida motorcycle crash and you’d like to learn more, please contact us for a free consultation.

As a Florida nursing home abuse lawyer, I’m very interested in the fact that this abuse was caught by a camera. The article doesn’t say whether the camera was the cause or the result of the investigation by the attorney general’s office, but it certainly turned out to be revealing. Nursing home residents with dementia are in an especially bad position to report abuse because they have trouble remembering things or holding on to reality; some cannot speak. Because of this, they are statistically more likely to be victims of abuse by caretakers. In fact, research published in the Geriatric Times found that five to 11 percent of adults with dementia are abused, which far exceeds the one to four percent of all older adults believed to be abused.

Every family with a loved one in a nursing home should be aware of this risk, especially now that the holidays may be inspiring more visits than usual. Adults with dementia or another mental impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease or schizophrenia, may be difficult for caregivers to handle -- but abuse is never acceptable. Part of the reason that families place loved ones in nursing homes is to get the full-time, specialized care that a family member can’t provide. This is an act of trust that caregivers should repay by treating their charges with the same respect that they’d appreciate if the situation were reversed. When they fail, victims and families can and should hold them legally responsible with a Florida nursing home abuse lawsuit.

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse is just half of the story. Nursing home neglect -- staff ignoring residents’ needs, allowing irrational patients to wander and allowing patients to develop bedsores -- is actually more widespread. In addition to being an assault on the patient’s dignity, abuse and neglect can both be very dangerous to older patients, because they can exacerbate existing health problems or even create new ones that have a substantial negative effect on the patient’s quality of life. If you or someone you love is a victim of abuse or neglect at a Florida nursing home, our firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, would like to help. For a free consultation, please contact us today.

The victim’s family sued the other driver for her negligence in running the stop sign. It also sued the Florida Department of Transportation for adding a drainage ditch and royal palm trees by the side of a road where the speed limit exceeded 50 mph. This violates FDOT’s own safety rules, the suit claimed. At trial, the jury apportioned 55% of the blame for the accident to the young woman and 15% to FDOT, leaving 30% of the fault for the victim himself. The original jury award of $11.5 million was thus reduced by 30%, to $8.07 million.

This case is a good reminder that the causes of Florida auto accidents sometimes go beyond mistakes by the humans behind the wheel. Accidents caused by bad roads are rare compared to accidents caused by bad driving, but they absolutely do happen. Roadways may be defectively designed if they offer drivers an insufficient view of other vehicles, don’t contain needed traffic signals or have other problems, as in this case. They can also be defectively maintained because of weather, debris, construction or other hazards left in the road for an unreasonably long time. In either case, the culprit is not the other driver but a state, local or federal agency, which may have substantially more resources than most drivers.

Florida wrongful death lawsuits are hard, because no amount of money can truly compensate a family for the loss of a loved one. But financial penalties are how the civil courts punish serious wrongdoing, including wrongdoing that takes a life. Many times, survivors also face many practical financial problems in the wake of a death, including the unexpected loss of an income, steep medical and funeral bills and other costs they never planned for. And of course, a Florida auto accident lawsuit also allows victims to claim compensation for emotional injuries caused by the sudden and irretrievable loss of someone they loved. If your family has been victimized in this way and you’d like to learn more, please contact Cohn, Smith & Cohn today for a free consultation.

Some dog owners whose dogs were taken away under the law sued the county, hoping to have the law overturned. However, the Miami Herald reports that they dropped the lawsuit Dec. 5 in exchange for having their dogs freed. A day before the settlement, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran a more in-depth article on the same law, outlining some of recent serious dog attacks in South Florida, including one that sent a 14-year-old to a trauma center for five days and another requiring more than $100,000 worth of medical care for a Hollywood man. Other dog attacks described in the articles killed or seriously injured smaller animals.

I sympathize with concerns about the new law, but as a Florida dog bite lawyer, I also know how important it is to prevent serious dog attacks. A large dog may be a pet, but it’s also a predator with teeth and claws capable of killing an adult human. In fact, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that dog attacks kill an average of 17 people per year in the United States, the majority of them children. When there’s no death, the results of a dog attack can include major physical trauma like nerve damage, skin loss (with lifelong scarring) and broken bones, as well as possible infection. In order to be safe around humans and other animals, these dogs must have their most violent instincts trained away or controlled by the humans responsible for them.

Florida and Broward County laws require dog owners to keep dogs on their property or leashed in public, and to warn passers-by with a sign if they have a “bad dog.” Dog owners who do this aren’t subject to the county’s dangerous dog law. If owners fail to control their dogs, and someone is killed or seriously hurt as a result, dog owners may be liable for both actions by the county and a Florida dog attack lawsuit. My firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, helps victims of serious dog attacks hold owners legally and financially responsible for the results. If you know someone who has been seriously hurt by a dangerous dog in South Florida and you’re interested in talking to us about your rights and your case, please contact us today for a free consultation.

That leash violation could make a big difference, legally speaking. As a Florida dog attack lawyer, I happen to know that Broward County requires dog owners to keep their dogs confined in some way -- on a leash or tether, or on the owner's property behind a fence. Leaving a gate open, as this dog owner did, is a clear violation of that law. Furthermore, if this dog managed to seriously injure the men, or kill the terrier, it could be declared a "dangerous dog" under county laws, which means it can be taken away by the county and "put to sleep" in ten days.

Forgetting to close the gate also exposes the dog's owner to a dog bite lawsuit, if the victims choose to file one. Under Florida law, owners are legally responsible for attacks by their dogs on people who are on public property. That's true regardless of whether the dog has attacked or shown any viciousness before. Dog owners may escape liability if they post a "BAD DOG" sign on their property -- but not if they negligently allow the dog to run free, or take some other negligent action. In fact, it's not just humans who are protected from dangerous dogs in Florida. The owner of the Scots terrier, or any other domestic animal harmed by a vicious dog, could also make a claim.

The newspaper didn't report that any of the people involved went to the hospital, which I hope means there were no serious injuries. But people can and sometimes are seriously injured in dog attacks, in Florida and across the nation. Dog attacks send 386,000 Americans to the emergency room each year and kill about five, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The most seriously injured are almost always children, who are left with broken bones, nerve and organ damage and lifelong physical and emotional scars. If you or someone you love was attacked by a vicious dog in South Florida and you'd like to learn more about your rights, please contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free consultation.

The study used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal agency that studies traffic accidents nationwide, to compare Florida car crash fatality rates from before (2001-2003) and after (2004-2006) the law took effect. To rule out confusion caused by population changes, they adjusted their results for age, race and sex. They also compared the Florida numbers to numbers in Alabama and Georgia, neither of which had a similar law during the time period under study, and neither of which showed a significant change in fatal accidents involving older drivers.

The researchers found that while overall Florida car crash fatalities actually increased 6% after the vision testing law took effect, fatalities involving drivers 80 and older declined 17%. However, they did not find that the law had directly caused the decline in fatalities. The study noted that only 6.7% of the older drivers had their license renewal denied for any reason, including passing the vision test. Other possible explanations the researchers identified for the decline:
• More than three-fourths of the drivers who failed got vision care that helped them pass when they retook the test.
• Drivers who knew they would not pass could have declined to take the test at all.
• Human testers may have identified problems not related to vision in some drivers.
• The results may have been part of a larger trend unrelated to vision testing.

The article notes that other research has suggested older drivers may have other medical or cognitive problems contributing to their higher rate of accidents.

Mandatory testing for older drivers is a sticky subject in Florida, given our population of older folks and retirees. I am sympathetic to the idea that there's a fine line between sensible public safety measures and age discrimination. As the article notes, more research is needed to definitively identify what causes the statistically higher accident rates for older drivers -- not just the factors that correlate with it. Taking away a person's driver's license should not be done lightly, given the very real issues of practicality and self-sufficiency that it raises.

However, a decline in fatal accidents in any group is something to cheer -- especially if it goes against the overall trend, as in this case. As a Florida auto accident lawyer, I have personally seen that car crashes cause wrongful deaths, brain damage and other life-changing injuries. If this law does nothing else but identify folks who need to get new glasses or contact lenses, it's still a good law. If research turns up evidence that people from all age groups could benefit from mandatory vision testing, or that older folks should have a different kind of intervention, I would support laws on those as well.

If you've been seriously hurt or lost a loved one in a car accident in South Florida, please contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, for a free consultation on your rights and your case.

Specifically, the study predicted that 63% of riders across the country would use helmets in 2008, up from 58% in 2007. That rate includes only the use of helmets marked as compliant with the standards of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Another 11% of riders used non-DoT compliant helmets, and the remaining 26% went unhelmeted. Not surprisingly, it found that helmet use was higher in states with a mandatory helmet law for all riders and passengers, although not universal -- only 74% of motorcyclists in those states used DoT-compliant helmets. In states without a universal helmet law, only 42% of riders used helmets.

Among the study's other findings:
• National helmet use hit a high in 2000 and dropped afterward (possibly after several states dropped their helmet laws), but is climbing slowly.
• At 71%, helmet use is most likely in the West and lowest in the Northeast, at just 45%. The South, which includes Florida, had a helmet-use rate of 61%.
• People living in suburbs were less likely (59%) to use helmets than people in urban areas (72%) or rural areas (64%).
• People who ride in rush-hour traffic and on weekdays are more likely (71%) to wear helmets than folks who ride on the weekends (54%).
• Riders are more likely to use helmets when the weather is wet (84%), when they're on an expressway (75%), in moderately dense traffic (86%) and at fast speeds (72%).
• Motorcycle operators are more likely to use a helmet than their passengers, but one using a helmet makes it more likely that the other will too.

Motorcycle helmet use is a touchy subject in Florida. Since riding without a helmet was legalized again in 2000, riders and drivers alike have debated whether helmets are safe, effective or an unreasonable limitation on riders' freedom. I believe this is a decision that we all have to make for ourselves -- and as a Florida motorcycle crash attorney, I certainly feel that riders should not be penalized after an accident for exercising their right to ride helmet-free. Unfortunately, insurance companies often do use a rider's lack of helmet as an excuse to deny or substantially reduce a payment on a perfectly legitimate claim. If this has happened to you, you don't have to put up with it. Contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, to talk to me about your rights and your options at a free consultation.