Despite that feeling of frustration some people get when they open the mail and see a jury summons, most of us realize that our jury system is essential to our democracy and our freedom. The right to trial by jury in a civil case is found in the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution which says: […]
Orlando, Still a Dangerous Place for Pedestrians
Metro Orlando has once again topped the list of the most dangerous cities in America for pedestrians. The results are based on a pedestrian danger index created by Transportation for America that calculates the number and rate of pedestrian deaths relative to the percent of people who walk in the community. The last time I […]
Update on House Bill to Ban Red-light Cameras
As reported by the Florida Sun Sentinel, after an emotional 90 minute debate on Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee voted 12-9 to send HB 4087 to the full House. The bill would repeal the law enacted just last year that allows municipalities to use red-light cameras to issue tickets to motorists for running red-lights. Some […]
Right to Privacy While Running a Red-light?
In Orlando, red-light cameras have been in use since September 2008, but some legislators want to ban the cameras completely. The program uses cameras at intersections to issue tickets to any driver that runs a red-light. Obviously, this results in additional revenue to the city, but more importantly it punishes those who run red-lights and […]
Progressive to Offer Monitors to Evaluate Drivers
Progressive is launching a program to monitor its customers’ driving habits with a tiny computer device, in exchange for possible premium discounts. Progressive will provide the customer with a device that plugs into the diagnostic port of a vehicle which will collect data about the driving habits of the customer for 30 days. The device […]
Did You Know it’s Drowsy Driving Prevention Week?
The National Sleep Foundation has launched a public awareness campaign to educate drivers about how lack of sleep effects road safety. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a new study which demonstrates that driving while drowsy is a bigger problem than previously thought. The study showed that drowsy driving results in one in six […]
Florida Theme Parks Well Protected from Wrongful Death Lawsuits
It’s no surprise that the business interests of Florida, including the theme parks, have stacked the deck in their favor when it comes to how the law treats injured workers in Florida. For workers injured at Florida theme parks, the law is not on their side. That’s because Florida’s workers’ compensation law was re-written by […]
Child’s Death Shows Danger of Beach Driving
Growing up in Orlando, I spent at lot of time at Daytona Beach with my family and driving on the beach was one of the reasons to go to Daytona. These days, however, the risk to pedestrians, especially children, is just too great to justify driving on the beach. As Scott Maxwell argues in a […]
Guardrails Reduce Traffic Fatalities
Yesterday’s Orlando Sentinel reported that five years after guardrails were installed in the median of Florida’s Turnpike, fatal accidents and deaths from automobile crashes on the turnpike have been reduced by more than half. Although urban areas have had guardrails along the turnpike for years, many rural areas, including Osceola County, did not have them. […]
Florida Highways Among Deadliest in Nation
As reported by The Daily Beast website, the Florida stretch of Interstate 95 is the deadliest interstate in the country based on data analyzed from 2004 through 2008. Interstate 4 ranked third in the study. This is alarming, but not surprising, that Florida has two of the deadliest interstate highways in the entire country. The […]
Texting While Driving Ban Seems Unlikely
As I blogged a few weeks ago, it seemed this year that the Florida legislature was finally going to pass a law banning texting while driving. Although the bill had the support of law enforcement and easily passed through committees in both the House and Senate, the bill now appears to have been killed by […]
You Don’t Have to Go it Alone
This is a picture I took a couple of years ago on a family vacation of a skier high atop the mountain making his run all alone. That’s not unusual to go skiing by yourself, but it made me think about what it’s like for someone after a personal injury accident who has to navigate […]