Jacksonville Injury Attorney Blog

Articles Posted in Auto Accidents

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On July 17, 2021, a tourist trolley in St. Augustine, Florida, owned by Historic Tours of America flipped onto its side due its operator driving the trolley at an excessive speed.  The overturned trolley ejected multiple passengers and pinned others between the trolley and the road surface.  There are reports of numerous serious injuries.

The trolley had a total of three cars linked to a single engine.  The car that flipped was the rear trolley car.  Apparently, the driver attempted to “whip” the third trolley, presumably to provide a thrill to those passengers.  Witnesses have reported that the driver quickly accelerated as he turned into the parking lot for the Oldest House near the intersection of Charlotte and St. Francis streets. The driver has not been charged; however, the St. Augustine Police Department has referred charges for reckless driving to the State Attorneys office.

From the civil justice standpoint of our St. Augustine personal injury attorneys, the injured passengers will have claims against Historic Tours of America and its driver, whose name has not been published. Those who were injured will be entitled to recover for their medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering.  In all likelihood, Historic Tours of America will have a large liability insurance policy or policies in place, likely with coverage limits in the $5m to $10m range. Historic Tours of America is a fairly large company that operates tourist trolleys in St. Augustine, Key West, San Diego, Nashville, Savannah, Washington DC and Boston.

This completely avoidable accident calls into question both the hiring and training practices of Historic Tours of America.  While Historic Tours of America is already responsible for the negligence of its driver, the complete factual background could give rise to punitive damages depending on the driving history and capabilities of the driver.  Also, as driving a three car trolley is much different than operating a normal passenger vehicle, sufficient training must be provided.  This is especially the case in St. Augustine which has numerous traffic difficulties including: congestion; narrow streets; numerous pedestrians; horse and buggies; and traffic snarls caused by the periodic raising of the Lions Bridge.

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The spine is probably the most commonly injured body part in accidents of all kinds.  As St. Augustine car accident attorneys, we see the result of spinal injuries far too often.  Spinal pain can be disabling and can be caused by injuries to intervertebral discs, ligaments and facet joints. Thankfully, medical practitioners have a host of alternatives that can help alleviate this pain.

Treating conservatively at first, people with neck or back pain are typically sent to physical therapy.  If physical therapy is not successful, the doctors may try medications to reduce inflammation or to decrease pain.

When a patient has unrelenting spinal pain, or if they have pain, numbness or tingling radiating into an extremity, doctors will often order magnetic resonance imaging, commonly referred to as an “MRI.”  MRIs are helpful in that they show the shape of the intervertebral discs, while x-rays do not.  MRIs can reveal a person suffered injury including bulging and herniated discs.

Patients with painful disc injuries are often referred to pain management physicians who commonly perform epidural steroid injections as a first effort.  If the disc itself is causing pain or pushing on the spinal cord or a nerve root, epidurals can be helpful.  However, more often than not, with our accident clients we see little long term symptom relief with epidurals.  If the doctor still suspects the injured disc to be the source of pain, the patient is typically then referred to a surgeon.

However, often we find that the facet joints are the source of the pain.  Facet joints are tiny joints where the vertebral spinous processes (the wing shaped extension of bone on the back side of each vertebra) connect with the vertebrae above and below.  Pain management doctors inject pain medication into the facet joints to determine if the joint is causing the pain.

Next, a medial branch block can be performed.  This is a diagnostic procedure during which short lived anesthetic is used to determine whether the nerves injected were causing the patient’s pain.  If they provide relief, medial branch blocks only last a matter of hours.  However, once the nerves that are generating pain have been identified, radio frequency ablations can then be used to deaden the offending nerve.

Using heat generated by radiofrequency waves, RFAs are used to sever the pain generating nerves.  The beneficial effects usually take several days to take effect.  Eventually, the nerve will regenerate and pain will return. This process usually takes about 6 to 8 months as the patient reports the gradual return of pain.

Cost is a significant factor to be mindful of when handling a personal injury claim involving RFAs.  Since the procedures cost several thousand dollars and must be repeated every 6 to 8 months, the expense of future RFAs can be astronomical. For example, we recently had a life care plan performed to determine the future medical expenses for our 45 year old client whose neck was injured in a rear end collision. RFAs almost completely eliminated his pain for months at a time and allowed him to return to normal life.  This helped to prove the honesty of the client as a person who is exaggerating would not report the near resolution of pain.  The life care plan revealed that the client will incur more than $300,000.00 for this future medical care.  This evidence was presented at mediation and the case resolved for over 10 times the amount previously offered by the insurer.

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Earlier this week, Florida Highway Patrol reported a fatal crash on Interstate 95 in St. Johns County.  According to FHP, one person died and two other people suffered critical injuries in a multi vehicle crash.  The crash occurred when a sport utility vehicle traveling north crossed the grass median and collided with a tractor trailer headed south.  After the initial impact, a sedan travelling south collided with the SUV.  At least one vehicle caught fire.  FHP has not given any indication why the SUV crossed the median. Our condolences go out to all of those affected by this terrible crash.

As St. Augustine car accident attorneys, we have repeatedly written about the disproportionate number of fatal accidents that happen in the St. Johns County section of I-95 as reflected in our webpage titled “Car Accident Attorneys in St. Johns County.” Unfortunately, the portion of I-95 in Florida is considered the most dangerous interstate in the country with the Jacksonville portion representing the fifth most dangerous section of interstate in the country.

We cannot be sure why there are so many serious accidents on the St. Johns County section of I-95. Perhaps one reason is that there is frequent traffic congestion in this area due to traffic heading into, and coming out of, Jacksonville, which is directly north of St. Johns County.  Construction along this portion of I-95 may also be a factor.  Of course, texting and other distractions by cell phones have also become a very common cause for collisions in recent years.

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-By the Jacksonville Car and Trucking Accident Lawyers at The Lawrence Law Group –

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently published motor vehicle accident data compiled for 2018.  The report reflects that traffic fatalities in the United States decreased by 2.4% from 2017.  More good news: fatal drunk driving accidents in Florida dropped by 3%.   While these figures reflect some recent improvement, we have a long way to go towards increasing traffic safety.

In 2018, 36,560 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents.  To put that in perspective, approximately 58,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in the twenty year war in Vietnam.  In Florida, 3,133 people died in traffic accidents in 2018.  A whopping 26% of those fatalities involved impaired drivers.

While nearly every category of vehicle accidents reflected a decrease in fatalities, fatal accidents involving semi trucks, eighteen wheelers and other large trucks increased by nearly 1%, fatal accidents with pedestrians increased by 3.4%, and fatal accidents with bicyclists increased by 6.3%.  No explanation was provided for the precipitous increase in pedestrian and bicycle accidents.

For the last 40 years, traffic fatalities in the United States have steadily fallen.  Credit for the decrease is attributed to: the manufacture of safer vehicles including the use of airbags; the increased use of seat belts; and enforcement efforts to decrease driving under the influence.

Almost half of traffic fatalities involved persons who were not wearing seat belts despite the fact that approximately 90% of vehicle occupants do wear seat belts.   This extremely disproportionate number of fatalities for unrestrained drivers highlight the effectiveness of seat belts.  In other words, if seat belts were not effective, it would be expected that roughly 90% of traffic fatalities involved seatbelted occupants instead of only 54%.

Several measures can be taken to further decrease traffic fatalities including: 1. increasing the awareness of the effectiveness of seat belts; 2. decreasing distracted driving, especially cell phone use, texting and social media use; and 3. increasing the enforcement of impaired driving laws.  The day will come when we look back at the carnage on our roadways and wonder how we put up with it.  That day cannot come soon enough.

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When a person is injured in a car accident in Florida, no matter who is at fault, that person’s own auto insurance pays 80% of his or her medical expenses and 60% of lost wages up to a combined total of $10,000.00.  This coverage is called “personal injury protection” or “PIP,” for short.  This amount of insurance can be expended quickly for a person suffering serious car accident injuries.

Currently, most medical providers are only allowed to charge set rates when billing under PIP insurance.  Those rates are set at twice the rates paid by Medicare for the same services as identified by billing codes.  This means that a medical provider gets paid twice as much for treating a person injured in auto accident as compared to treating a person with Medicare coverage.

This limitation on the rates that can be charged has proven to be fair.  The rates are high enough that skilled medical providers are willing to see people injured in auto accidents, but low enough that the patient can receive several months of care before PIP is exhausted.

However, hospitals and emergency care providers are not subject to these rate limits. Rather, hospital rates are set at a very vague standard of 75% of “usual and customary” charges.  “Usual” hospital billing, before adjustments are made, are typically inflated by much more than 100% over what the hospital would accept from a private insurer.  Essentially, the hospital never gets paid anywhere near the amount of its original billed amounts.  Seventy-five percent of such amounts still comes to about twice of what is a fair charge for the services at issue.

Florida’s House of Representatives has proposed changing this.  Florida’ House Health and Human Services Committee proposes to include hospital and emergency care providers in the manner as post-acute medical providers by limiting the charges to 200% of Medicare rates.

A few other changes are proposed.  Currently, a person injured in a car accident in Florida has 14 days to see a medical provider in order to be entitled to benefits under a PIP auto policy.  The House proposal includes extending that period to 30 days; however, a provider will be required to submit treatment plans to the auto insurance company.  If a treatment plan is not submitted, then the PIP insurer will not be obligated to pay that provider.

Since originally enacted in 1972, PIP coverage has proven to have benefits and costs.  It ensures that people hurt in car accidents have some access to coverage for their medical bills and lost wages.  However, it also requires that a person suffer a permanent injury in order to recover anything more than the portion of medical expenses and lost wages that remain unpaid after PIP has paid its majority share.

This “permanency” requirement may sound fair; however, it can be misused by auto insurers.  In nearly every auto accident injury case we handle, once suit is filed, the insurer requires our client be seen by a doctor chosen the the insurance company.  There are four or five doctors here in the Jacksonville area that we see time and time again.  These doctors make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year doing these reviews and uniformly minimize clients injuries and often claim the client was never injured at all.

Sometimes, jurors agree with the insurance company’s doctor – meaning that a person injured in an accident may not only be denied compensation for pain and suffering, but might actually end up owing the insurance company for its expenses, and sometimes attorney fees, simply because a hired gun doctor claimed the person was not really injured.

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Using statistics for the year of 2017, the City of Jacksonville had the third highest number of fatalities per capita in car and truck accidents caused by a driver operating under the influence.  More specifically, Jacksonville suffered an alarming 5.6 DUI deaths per 100,000 residents in 2017.  Nationwide, the average for 2017 was 3.4 DUI related deaths per 100,000 people.

In Florida, 515 people died in DUI vehicle crashes in 2017.  Of all of the traffic fatalities in the United States in 2017, 29% involved drunk drivers.  Sixty-eight percent of car accidents with drunk driving fatalities involve at least one driver with a blood alcohol level of .15 or higher, nearly twice the legal limit.

From 2015 to 2017, there have been 138 DUI crash deaths in Jacksonville.  In Jacksonville, U.S. 1 (Philips Highway) has been the most common location of DUI accident fatalities with 15 people killed.

It is not known why Jacksonville has had such a high rate of DUI deaths.  Different factors may come into play.  First, Jacksonville has a great deal of interstate highway, with I-95 traversing the entire length of the county from north to south and I-10 spanning from the center of the county to its western border.  Interstates, with high speed limits and heavy trucking traffic are common sites of serious car and truck accidents.

Second, there has been an immense degree of road construction ongoing throughout the Jacksonville area for years, especially in the downtown and J.Turner Butler Boulevard areas.  Road construction projects are common locations for car accidents as: the normal flow pattern of traffic can catch a driver off guard; construction vehicles entering the roadways can cause accidents; and traffic slowdowns always lead to rear-end car accidents. Of course, drinking while driving only compounds these problems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been recording the number of alcohol related car accidents since 1982.  Thankfully, the number of DUI fatalities has decreased 48% since 1982.  Of course, as an entirely preventable tragedy, no level of DUI fatalities is acceptable.

The heartbreak of losing a loved one in a collision caused by a drunk driver cannot be overstated.  Many emotions are involved.  Along with unimaginable grief, survivors often experience a wide array of emotions including anger at the drunk driver, anger towards any establishment that served the drunk driver and the legal system itself if that driver had prior DUI arrests.

It costs nothing out of pocket to hire an injury attorney early in the process and doing so can help protect your rights.  For example, many public areas and roadways are videotaped, which can be obtained and preserved if timely requests are made.  Likewise, most newer vehicles contain data recorders which help demonstrate the erratic nature of the driver prior to impact.

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The year on Jacksonville’s roadways has gotten off to a dangerous start.  To date this year, forty-nine people have died in traffic accidents in Jacksonville, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.  This is thirteen more deaths than the average for this point in the year and the trend only seems like it will continue.  In separate incidents, two pedestrians were struck yesterday, one of whom was a woman who was killed while trying to cross 103rd Street on Jacksonville’s westside.

Pedestrian traffic fatalities are on the rise.  According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, there have been an average of thirty-nine pedestrian deaths per year during the last five years and roughly one in four traffic deaths in the city involve a pedestrian.

Jacksonville is not known to be a particularly pedestrian friendly city.  In fact, for the year of 2016, Jacksonville was rated as the fourth worst city in the country for pedestrian danger according to the National Complete Streets Coalition.  Many busy roadways in Jacksonville have no sidewalks, many roads are poorly lit, busy intersections have no crosswalks, crosswalks that do exist often do no provide enough time for slower walkers to get across and pedestrians and drivers often fail to pay attention.

The Florida Highway Patrol has designated April as “Distracted Driving Awareness Month”; however, the blame does not rest solely on drivers.  Pedestrians are becoming increasingly distracted by cellphones as they walk.  Texting, social media and surfing the net all play a role in “distracted walking,” which can be deadly.

There are things pedestrians can do to avoid being involved in an accident with a vehicle, including:

-wear brightly colored clothing at night;

-carry a flashlight at night;

-do not step out from beside a parked car or hedge when crossing the street;

-cross only at designated crosswalks;

-look left, then right, then left again before crossing;

-do not allow yourself to be distracted when crossing;

-walk on sidewalks when available;

-even if you have a “walk” signal at a crosswalk, make sure that drivers are stopped or coming to a stop;

– do not wear headphones while crossing the roadway;

– do not walk near roadways while intoxicated; and

– if there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic.

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Since 1976, Florida law has required that all vehicle owners purchase personal injury protection insurance coverage.  Personal injury protection (commonly called “PIP”) coverage provides medical and lost wage benefits for people injured in car accidents.  PIP coverage, also referred to a “no-fault” coverage, applies to injuries suffered by the vehicle owner and occupants in the vehicle regardless of fault.  In other words, your own auto insurer pays for up to $10,000.00 for your medical expenses and lost wages even if another driver was at fault for causing the car accident.

By requiring these benefits, Florida’s PIP statute prevents injured persons from seeking reimbursement for pain and suffering unless the person suffered a permanent injury, the loss of an “important bodily function,” significant scarring, or death.  In other words, if you suffered injuries in a car accident but eventually returned to normal, an at fault driver and his or her auto insurance company are only obligated to pay any unpaid medical bills or lost wages.

Concerns have arisen that PIP has provided fertile ground for insurance fraud by medical providers and unscrupulous accident “victims” charging for unnecessary medical care.  The cost for PIP coverage, which can duplicate health insurance benefits that most Floridians now have, was also a concern.

During Florida’s most recent legislative session, House Bill 461 was introduced to repeal and replace Florida’s PIP law.  Instead of requiring PIP coverage, the bill, if enacted as law, would require that every vehicle owner carry bodily injury coverage of $25,000.00 per person and $50,000.00 in aggregate bodily injury coverage if two or more persons are injured.  Currently, Florida law does not require that vehicle owners carry any bodily injury coverage at all.  It was estimated that, if enacted, repealing PIP would save Florida car owners approximately $80.00 annually.

Florida personal injury car accident lawyers are mixed on the idea.  The existing PIP framework allows for injured persons to have their medical expenses and lost wages paid.  This makes it easier for them to obtain medical care, especially for those who do not have health insurance.  Also, medical bills paid by PIP do not have to be paid back to the client’s auto insurer if the client receives a financial recovery from the at-fault driver’s insurer.

On the other hand, people who have suffered serious injuries sometimes lose their case because a jury does not agree that the person has suffered a permanent injury.  This most commonly arises with injuries to intervertebral discs. Spinal discs tend to degenerate over time and can be likened to brake pads that eventually wear out.  Some people who have never suffered an  accident or any trauma of significance have herniated or bulging discs.  Because of this, the presence of a herniated or bulging disc identified on an MRI is not the same as an x-ray that shows a person suffered a broken bone in an accident.

Insurers hire doctors of their own choosing who routinely testify that herniated or bulging discs were not caused by an accident. Unfortunately, the car insurers do this in almost every disc injury case even if the injured person never previously suffered from neck or back pain in their entire life prior to the car accident.

The result can be very unfair.  A jury may very well check the “no” box on the verdict form indicating a legitimately injured claimant suffered no permanent injury, which then results in a loss and subjects that person to a judgment for the insurer’s significant court costs.

If PIP is repealed, the “permanency” threshold will not apply, and jurors will simply award the amount of compensation to which a person is entitled, assuming the jury finds the other driver to be at fault for causing the accident.

For the time being, Florida’s PIP laws will remain in place as the House bill died during the legislative session as the Senate failed to vote on it before the session ended.  Similar bills will certainly be proposed in the future.  Continue reading

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You’re driving down the road and someone cuts you off. You’re understandably mad, so you might yell and wave your fist. But that’s not always where it stops. For many drivers, emotions continue to escalate.

Nationally, incidents of road rage are on the rise.  A recent study from AAA shows 80 percent of drivers admit to expressing significant aggression, anger or road rage in the past year. The same study shows that men are more likely than women to express aggression on the road and that 56 percent of fatal accidents involve at least one form of aggressive driving.

Road rage behavior includes tailgating, blocking and cutting off other drivers and repeated horn honking. All of these can lead to car accidents, injuries and even death.

Earlier this year in Jacksonville, a trucker from New Jersey was shot and killed by another truck driver due to road rage resulting from an earlier traffic confrontation.

Truckers often warn passenger vehicle drivers about the dangers of cutting them off because they simply cannot stop in time to avoid a collision. Not only are they extremely heavy and hard to stop, hitting the brakes hard causes the braking system to dysfunction and can shift the truck’s load out of balance.

Car accidents caused by road rage are not uncommon in Jacksonville, especially since many roadways are congested due to what seems like never-ending construction. Whether you are on the giving or receiving end of road rage, here a few tips to keep you safe:

  • Move over is someone is tailgating you and travel in the right lane if you are driving slower than other traffic.
  • Never engage with someone who has yelled or gestured at you. Most of the time, the person who is angry is not thinking rationally, so trying to engage with them won’t work out well.
  • Use an “I’m sorry” gesture if you accidentally do something offensive to another driver.
  • If an angry driver is following you, don’t pull over and don’t drive home. Instead, call 911 and drive to a fire or police station, or public place like a shopping mall for help.
  • Give yourself plenty of time to get where you’re going. Running late causes anxiety and impatience.
  • Listen to soothing music and relax your shoulders when driving.
  • Give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the woman trying to get over to the far right lane is rushing a child to the emergency room.
  • Be mindful of other drivers and always use your turn signal.
  • Lay off the horn. Excessive honking stresses drivers.
  • Don’t be distracted by anything. Checking your phone, putting on makeup, texting, even eating, don’t mix well with driving.
  • Don’t tailgate. Follow at a safe distance – allow 10 feet for every 10 mph you are traveling. So if you are going 60 mph, there should be 60 feet between you and car ahead.
  • If you you notice dangerous or aggressive driving, have a passenger write down the license plate number, date, time, and road you are on and contact the Florida Highway Patrol by dialing *FHP. The best people to handle bad drivers are law enforcement professionals

Written by Elizabeth Allen. Continue reading

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When a vehicle breaks down or runs of gas in a lane of traffic, especially on an interstate or expressway, the effects can be devastating.  Just today, a man from Orange Park died when his vehicle was struck from behind by an 18 wheeler on Interstate 95 in Flagler County near Palm Coast. The accident happened in the early morning hours and the car may not have had its lights on.  The reason for the car being stopped on the interstate is not currently known.

Our attorneys have handled numerous serious injury cases resulting from an accident with a vehicle broken down on an interstate or expressway.  Vehicle owners who fail to properly maintain their vehicles or who run out of gas will be responsible for personal injuries or wrongful death that results from an accident.  It is also necessary that the operator of the car or truck remove it from lanes of traffic as soon as possible. Commercial trucks, including tractor trailers, are also required to put out traffic cones so as to warn oncoming drivers of the lane obstruction ahead.

Our lawyers handled a case where a man suffered serious personal injuries after colliding with a moving truck broken down in the outside lane of I-95 in Nassau County, just north of the Duval County line.  The moving truck was broken down for hours before the collision occurred.  The insurer for the moving company tried to blame our injured client by claiming that he should have seen the truck and avoided it like so many other drivers did in the hours that the truck was obstructing I-95.

We were able to prevail by demonstrating that the truck failed to properly put out required warning signs and failed to have the truck removed in a timely fashion.  Also, the claim that our client was negligent was not credible due to the fact that the accident happened shortly after dark, during rush hour, and occurred just after our client changed from the middle lane to the outside lane immediately prior to the location of the truck, preventing him from being able to see it in time to react.

We also recently made a recovery for all of the available insurance coverage limits (both bodily injury and uninsured motorist coverages) for a woman who suffered serious spinal disc injuries when the car in which she was a passenger struck a vehicle broken down on the Dames Point Bridge.

Surprisingly, the car in which our client was riding had dash cam footage of the accident.  The footage showed the other car stopped in the outside lane.  As the Dames Point Bridge has no emergency lane, the broken down vehicle was obstructing more than half of the lane.  The owner of that car placed a cooler in the road to warn oncoming drivers; however, the cooler was only a few yards from the car, providing very little notice.

The driver of the car our client was in failed to observe the other car in the interstate and drove straight into it without braking our changing lanes.  With the dash cam, it was clear that that driver had several seconds to react before the collision.  As a result both the driver of the car our client was in and the driver of the broken down car were responsible for causing the accident. Continue reading

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