Articles Tagged with Fort Lauderdale car accident lawyer

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing a rule that would accelerate the kind of vehicle-to-vehicle technology that would allow cars to “talk” to one another, and ultimately prevent accidents.drive

Under the proposed rule, all new cars and like trucks would communicate wirelessly not just with one another, but with traffic lights and other roadway infrastructure. NHTSA officials say the technology has the potential to transform driving and dramatically slash the number of traffic deaths every year. The rule would be mandatory for all new model vehicles, if the rule is approved.

So how exactly would this work? Well first, it’s important to outline what V2V is. It is a type of crash avoidance technology that hinges on the communication of information between nearby vehicles that can warn drivers about possibly hazardous situations that might lead to a collision. For instance, V2V technology could alert a driver that the vehicle up ahead is breaking, so they need to slow down. It could also inform a motorist that it isn’t safe to go through an intersection because another vehicle – one that can’t yet be seen by the driver – is fast approaching that same intersection. The information communicated would involve short-range data (about 300 meters) that would include other vehicle information such as:

  • Location
  • Speed
  • Direction
  • Breaking status

This information exceeds what can be gleaned from the current cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors that many vehicles are currently affixed with. V2V communications can also detect a threat much sooner than camera sensors or radar. In fact, the data is shot out at a rate of about 10 times per second. Continue reading

Airbags are supposed to help save lives – not take them. airbag

That’s what has Jewel Brangman’s father, Alexander, so incensed about the death of his beloved child, whom he called “my best friend.” The striking beauty was a college graduate, a model and a gymnast teacher. She lived in San Diego, and her father had moved there from New York to be closer to her. But the last Father’s Day card he ever received from her was in June 2014. In it, she told him no matter what, she’d always be his little girl.

Just months later, she was gone. She was reportedly traveling in a rental car on the Los Angeles freeway when she rear-ended a van. It was a multi-vehicle collision, involving four cars total. But while all others involved walked away with no serious injuries, 26-year-old Jewel was killed. The Honda in which Jewel was driving was reportedly equipped with a faulty airbag. The vehicle had been recalled back in 2009, but it doesn’t appear the airbag was ever switched.  Continue reading

Catastrophic traumatic brain injury is a thief. It steals the remnants of a person’s identity. It takes away the lives they and their loved ones once knew. It robs them of the future they might have had. brainscan

When traumatic brain injuries occur as a result of a car accident caused by someone else’s negligence, the victim deserves to be compensated, as do their loved ones. It won’t give them back the life they had. But a just outcome in an injury lawsuit can alleviate the stress of medical bills. It can ease the financial woes caused by that individual no longer being able to work. Although nothing can return things to the way they once were, it can help families begin to heal.

Recently, a jury in the Georgia case of Khan v. Moore Freight Service Inc., recognized this. As Courtroom View Network (CVN) reported, plaintiff as awarded $20 million in damages following trial. Continue reading

A car accident lawsuit trial is slated to begin soon in Georgia, where plaintiff alleges he was strapped with a six-figure medical bill after the crash left him with a fused spine.spinal

While many auto accident injuries can be serious, a fused spine is a lasting – and expensive – condition. It’s also extremely painful. When it results from another driver’s negligence, only an experienced injury lawyer should be trusted to handle the claim. Spinal fusion is a type of major surgery, often lasting several hours. It can involve bone taken from other areas and used to form a bridge between vertebrae or metal implants being inserted between sections until new bone can grow between them. Recovery time can take weeks and sometimes months. There are also risks that include:

  • Intense pain
  • Blood clots
  • Nerve injuries
  • Graft rejections
  • Fusion failure

And of course, the surgery is extremely expensive.  Continue reading

In Florida, courts have established a rebuttable presumption when it comes to the negligence of rear drivers in rear-end collisions. However, this presumption is not without exception, though they are very specific.

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For example, a sudden stop by a driver ahead isn’t enough to overcome the presumption. The stop has to be both sudden AND unexpected. For instance, a driver on a suburban street who stops suddenly for a child who darted out into the middle of road – that’s not wholly unexpected. Neither is a driver who stops suddenly at an intersection because someone else ran a red light. However, a driver who arbitrarily stops suddenly on a four-lane highway – that might be both sudden and unexpected.

Still, drivers who are struck from behind should not assume these will be slam-dunk cases either. An experienced attorney can help you spy any potential hurdles to overcome. Continue reading

Our Fort Lauderdale car accidents have come to expect that most auto insurance companies facing down a claim for damages will take whatever action they can to avoid paying that claim – or at least minimize liability. driving6

One such tactic occurs even long before the crash: It is to draft policies that contain a myriad of exceptions and loopholes and contingencies so as to deny coverage on different grounds. However, as the recent case of State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Jakubowicz shows, this tactic can backfire when the language of the policy is ambiguous.

Courts across the country have held that when there is more than one meaning to the language in an auto insurance policy, the meaning that best favors the insured is the one that will be followed. That’s because courts have recognized that insurance companies, as the entities that draft the language of the policy, have the upper hand. It’s their responsibility to make sure the policy is clear.  Continue reading

A Florida product liability lawsuit alleging faulty airbags leading to a fatal car accident slated for trial in the fall when attorneys announced a surprise confidential settlement agreement. airbagdeployed

The case centers on allegedly defective Takata airbags, which are reported to have played a role in at least 10 deaths and more than 100 injuries when they improperly inflate and spew metal debris into the faces and necks of front seat occupants.

Vehicles made by 14 different automakers were recalled in what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has called the biggest and most complex recalls to date. Most of the bags were installed in vehicles from 2002 through 2015.  Continue reading

A man injured in a car accident last year is suing not only the young driver who slammed into him, but the social media platform on which she was allegedly engaged at the time of the wreck. phone

According to the complaint in Maynard v. McGee and Snapchat, filed in a Georgia state court, plaintiff alleges a critical cause of the crash was the mobile software produced and made available by Snapchat.

For those unfamiliar, Snapchat is a messaging app that allows users to take photos or videos and than add a caption, doodle or lens graphic over the top and send it to a friend. Users can also create “stories” and broadcast them publicly – either to everyone or just to your followers. Some of these images can only be viewed for a short period of time before they disappear.  Continue reading

A local auto dealership may be facing a vicarious liability lawsuit soon, following a tragic car accident in Delray Beach in which a mechanic behind the wheel lost control of the car and smashed into a motorcycle, fatally injuring one of the riders. driver1

According to The Sun-Sentinel, the Ed Morse Toyota Scion, which is part of the larger Ed Morse Automotive Group, offered condolences to the family of the decedent, a Canadian woman who was the rear passenger of the bike.

Police with the Delray Beach department allege that a mechanic for the auto dealership was speeding along Dixie Highway when he reportedly lost control of the vehicle, a 2002 Lexus sedan. He was reportedly test-driving the vehicle.  Continue reading

A defective car seat resulted in permanent and profound injuries to a then-7-year-old boy.caraccident2

Now, a jury in Texas has awarded his family $124 million, assigning 55 percent of the blame to the car manufacturer. Another 25 percent of the blame was assigned to the driver who rear-ended the car he was in. His father was assigned 20 percent liability, because neither he nor his son, who was seated directly behind him, were wearing a seat belt. 

This tragic case highlights not only the estimated 100 serious injuries – mostly to children – that resulted from this specific defect since 1989, but also the fact that defective vehicles resulted in a record 900 recalls last year. In total, 51 million vehicles were taken off the market for a myriad of dangerous aspects, from defective airbags to dysfunctional brakes.  Continue reading

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