Orlando Car Accident Lawyer Blog

I recently wrote a post for injury lawyers on the dangers of assuming the correctness of Florida accident reports. That post suggested that all injury lawyers consider the circumstances of the accident independent of who received the ticket. As mentioned, all too often innocent and seriously injured accident victims receive a ticket without having the opportunity to speak with the officer at the scene.

The reaction to that post and a recent incident involving one of our clients led me to expand on the injustice caused by erroneous citations and inaccurate Florida accident crash reports. While I do not handle criminal law cases, I can imagine the burden that a criminal defense lawyer feels when he or she knows that there has been a “rush to judgment” and their client would never have been charged had law enforcement properly performed their duties.

Similarly, when law enforcement erroneously cites an innocent accident victim it can have dramatic consequences. While the question of “who gets the ticket” is never presented at the personal injury trial, the ticket does often result in an unnecessary burden on the innocent accident victim. Take the case of our new client, for example, a long-time school bus driver with an impeccable driving record and adored by her children riders. According to multiple witnesses, her bus was struck by a driver running a red light. While injured she focused on keeping the many children on-board calm and reassuring them. She did absolutely nothing wrong. Yet, one month after this accident she receives a citation in the mail from an officer who never spoke to her, who did not see any vehicle before being moved off the roadway and who describes nothing to support his “speculation” that our client ran the red light.

Now, our client has to contest the citation and struggles to maintain her reputation as a safe and responsible school bus driver. How terrible to suffer injury and fear for the children entrusted to you and then be wrongfully charged with causing the accident. If law enforcement does not witness an accident, does not speak to all the drivers involved and can not demonstrate who is at fault from the physical evidence should anyone be cited? Hopefully, the answer will be as obvious to you as it is to me.

Posted by Tony Caggiano | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Car Accidents

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Vehicle backover accidents occur when someone, without a driver’s knowledge or awareness, is positioned behind a vehicle as the driver is backing out of a driveway or other parking spot. Most victims of backovers are the elderly and children. To add to the tragedy of backover injuries and deaths, the driver is often a neighbor or relative. When a child is the victim, the driver may even be the child’s mother or father.

As Orlando car accident lawyers, we believe awareness and understanding of the problem are the first steps toward reducing the risk of backover deaths. Sadly, many drivers fail to realize that there is a large “blindspot” behind one’s car. The blind spot is the place behind your vehicle that you cannot see in the rear or side view mirrors — or even by craning your neck out the driver’s side window. The larger the vehicle, like an SUV or truck, the larger the blind spot.

Blind spots for shorter drivers tend to be significantly larger as well. In addition, the elevation of the driver’s seat, the shape of a vehicle’s windows and mirrors, and the slope of a driveway can affect the size of the blind spot behind a vehicle. Of course, the smaller stature of children can make them particularly difficult for a driver to see when backing up. So how do you protect a child from becoming a victim of backover?

Keeping your children out of harm’s way requires ongoing education, supervision, and vigilance. There simply is no single fail-safe solution. However, safety experts advise teaching children not to play around vehicles that parents should always assume children are present and carefully check the street, driveway, and area around your vehicle before backing out. Finally, look behind you as you back out S-L-O-W-L-Y with your windows rolled down to listen for children who may have dashed behind your vehicle suddenly — and be prepared to stop!

Posted by Tony Caggiano | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Car Accidents

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A parent’s nightmare- you allow your children to go to a school party thinking there will be proper adult supervision. Instead, alcohol was served and two teenagers are permitted to leave the party impaired. On their way home, the teen driver loses control and strikes a tree, splitting the car in two. The car accident kills one teen and leaves the other brain-damaged.

This tragedy led to both a civil trial and criminal charges against some of the participants. At the civil trial, which resulted in a verdict against the school and affiliated church, there were allegations that the school principal knew about the party beforehand and visited the home while it was going on. The evidence also included a party flier depicting a whiskey bottle which was distributed at school.

As Orlando car accident lawyers, it was even more disturbing that school provided all of its families with a written statement that it would notify police if it became aware of illegal activities by students. Certainly, parents had an expectation that this school would not knowingly allow alcohol to be served to minors at a school function. Yet investigators of this needless alcohol-related car accident found the remains of a car driven at perhaps 100 mph- with halves of the car coming to rest on opposite sides of the median. Indeed, the car accident was so bad that the medical examiner never determined who was driving.

Posted by Tony Caggiano | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Car Accidents

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