Personal Injury Law
Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer 
Discussion of personal injury law and legal issues, with Florida focus.
Post Frequency: 1.1/day Last Entry: November 19, 2009 at 20:04:32 Recent Entries: 329
By Eddie Farah, Editor.
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Gov. Crist Supports Texting Ban This Legislative Session
Posted on November 19, 2009Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has come out with a Legislative wish list for 2010. He clearly stated he is in favor of a ban on texting while driving this year, adding new momentum for the state Legislature to finally adopt some legislation when they meet in the spring...
Making Health Care Easier and More Affordable
Posted on November 17, 2009When you need to access health care in a hurry in Florida, you might not be thinking about cost comparisons like you would with food or toys. But consider this. Shop for health care like you shop for anything when you want to save money – wisely...
Party House Mom Facing Two Counts of Manslaughter
Posted on November 15, 2009Her lawyer had argued that Diane Katz Santarelli should not be charged with two counts of manslaughter after hosting an open house drinking party that preceded the death of two teens in an auto crash. But Friday, St. Johns Circuit Judge Wendy W. Berger, refused to dismiss manslaughter charges against Santarelli, 51, saying her action 'set in motion a chain of events' that ended January 11 with the deaths of Jesse Calvin Pitts, 18 and Taylor Rae Brennan, 17...
Florida Tops List For Pedestrian Deaths
Posted on November 14, 2009A 42-year-old St. Augustine, Florida woman was killed Friday night after authorities say she walked in front of a moving car. Glenadine Harding was crossing Florida 207 when she was hit by a Honda sedan about 6:20 p.m. The driver was identified as Jill E...
Number of Yaz and Yasmin Lawsuits Growing
Posted on November 13, 2009In 2007, Susan Galinis of San Francisco was the happy mother of 3-year-old twins, until doctors put her on the Yaz birth control pill. Four weeks and one day later she suffered a stroke. Today it's obvious to see part of her skull has been removed...
FDA Addresses Medical Errors And $4 Billion Pricetag
Posted on November 06, 2009As we look at saving money on health care spending, Americans should consider drugs, specifically the huge cost of medical errors involving prescriptions. Medication interactions, a mix-up in the pharmacy such as switching out the wrong prescription, an inability read a doctor's handwriting, all can lead to drug dosage errors which cost us all about $4 billion a year, not to mention lives and injuries...
25-Year-Old Loses Life In I-95 Explorer Rollover
Posted on November 01, 2009It seems like we are reporting on these Ford Explorer rollover deaths on a weekly basis. Now there has been another. A 25-year-old Orange Park woman lost her life on I-95 Saturday. The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Kathleen Lugo was heading south on Interstate 95 in Flagler County when she lost control of her 1999 Ford Explorer SUV and crashed Saturday afternoon around 3:15 p...
Headphones, Pedestrians and Railroad Tracks Don't Mix
Posted on October 26, 2009This is a very sad story to report out of Auburndale, Florida. An 18-year-old high school student was walking along Amtrak train tracks wearing headphones and apparently didn't hear an approaching train traveling from Miami to New York. The conductor says he tried to alert Robert Lopez with no response...
Missing Children and The Technology That May Find Them
Posted on October 25, 2009According to federal statistics, there are about 115 child abductions by strangers every year in this country. Unfortunately this week we had another in the Jacksonville area. The community of Orange Park is in shock following the abduction of 7-year-old Somer Thompson who was walking home from school...
Gardasil and Lou Gehrig's Disease - Two Cases
Posted on October 19, 2009Researchers believe that two separate cases of Lou Gehrig's Disease in young girls that progressed rapidly following the Gardasil injection may be related to the cervical cancer drug. More than seven million young women and girls have been given Gardasil vaccine in a three-shot series to protect against two types of virus that cause cervical cancer and two that cause genital warts...
St. Johns County Chamber Joins With AAA To Get Serious About Texting
Posted on October 18, 2009The government estimates that there are 5,800 deaths caused by distracted motorists. St Johns County Sheriff's officer, Col. Art May says he is seeing them more and more. Often it presents as a swerving car. In the past, he would have pulled the driver over, assuming they were DUI...
Ford Recall of 4.5 Million Vehicles Over Fire Danger
Posted on October 16, 2009Ford Motor Company has issued its largest single recall in history this week alerting drivers to a fire hazard from a faulty switch. This is the eighth recall of the faulty Fords, this time involving 4.5 million vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes that 16 million Ford vehicles have been recalled over the faulty switch in the past decade...
Separate Incidents Kill Two Elderly Drivers
Posted on October 11, 2009A question we often get in Florida is - how old is too old to drive? This generally comes from the adult children of elderly drivers who are concerned that they may be liable if they don't take their elderly parents car keys away. No, they cannot be held liable unless they own the car...
Erin Brockovich Focuses On Florida Cancer Cluster Case
Posted on October 08, 2009Environmental crusader, Erin Brockovich is coming to Florida to speak to residents and health officials and to host a Town Hall meeting Thursday night to talk about the cancer cluster at the South Florida community known as The Acreage. Brockovich was played by actress, Julia Roberts in a film with the same name about Brockovich's efforts in uncovering toxic water pollution in California...
Overloaded SUV Rolls And Kills 8-Year-Old boy
Posted on October 04, 2009An eight-year-old boy was killed Saturday when an SUV, fill with kids going to a church event, rolled on I-95. The single-vehicle crash occurred 4:45 p.m. near the Volusia and Flagler county line. The ten children onboard were members of a church choir from Orlando heading to Jacksonville...
Crimestoppers Needs Your Help In Motorcycle Fatality
Posted on October 03, 200964-year-old Bobby Nixon was returning from a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Light the Night Charity Ride on Friday when he was thrown from his motorcycle and killed. It happened in front of the Eagle Hammocks subdivision, about a miles from his home off Yellow Bluff Road...
Two Die After Collision With School Bus
Posted on September 30, 2009Children at a Clay County elementary school are trying to cope with the deaths of two people who were in a car that collided with a school bus. The Florida Highway Patrol reports the car ran into the back of a school bus filled with kids returning home Tuesday afternoon...
Teen Mother And Unborn Baby Killed in Pickup Crash
Posted on September 24, 2009A Westside Jacksonville family is grieving and making funeral plans for a 19-year-old woman and her unborn baby who died in a collision between two pickup trucks Tuesday afternoon. Eight people were in the two trucks when they collided in the westbound lane of Normandy Boulevard just before 5 p...
Grandmother Blames Gardasil In Granddaughter's Death
Posted on September 20, 2009Jessie Ericzon was 17-years-old and about to graduate from high school. Like many girls her age, she was given the first of the three-shot series of Gardasil, the Merck drug that is supposed to protect young girls from the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that causes two types of cervical cancer and two types of warts...
Florida Teens Rally Against Texting While Driving
Posted on September 17, 2009By now we've all seen the video on YouTube than aired on British television. The public service announcement should be seen by all teenagers who are close to the driving age, or presently behind the wheel. A warning – it is a gruesome, up close and graphic look at the inside of a car during an accident...
Teen Facing Vehicular Homicide In Another Teen's Death
Posted on September 11, 2009The friends and family of Miranda Zant will be celebrating her 17th birthday this Saturday, but Miranda won't be there. She was killed last July when the pickup truck in which she was riding rolled onto her. Now the driver is being charged in her death...
Bicyclist Critical After Hit By Five Time DUI Offender
Posted on September 08, 2009This is a tragic story. A 77-year-old man, riding his bicycle 10 a.m. Saturday morning on Seminole Road in Atlantic Beach, was hit by the driver of an SUV. Charges have now been filed against the driver, 41-year-old William Adams. He was driving his SUV, towing a trailer when the right fender well of the trailer hit the man...
What Happened Before Man Jumped Off The Carnival Sensation
Posted on September 04, 2009Martha Jackson, a passenger on the Carnival Sensation, returning from four nights in the Bahamas, heard the splash. A 34-year-old unidentified man from Philadelphia jumped from his sixth-deck suite aboard the Sensation late Wednesday and into the Atlantic waters off Port St...
UNF Student Hit And Killed By Two Hit-And-Run Drivers
Posted on September 03, 2009He was a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of North Florida. Yasser Hamdy, from Egypt, was killed in a double hit-and-run early Thursday morning. Hamdy and two friends were riding their scooters back to the UNF campus from McDonalds about 2 a...
New Chrysler Will Accept Liability Claims, But Not All
Posted on August 30, 2009The New Chrysler has reversed itself. After filing for bankruptcy and then emerging fresh from a sale to Fiat, the "New Chrysler" said it would refuse to accept any product liability lawsuits resulting from the 30 million vehicles still on the road...
Teen Faces Nine Charges in Fatal Wreck
Posted on August 28, 2009Friday night's exhibition football game was a sad one for some parents of students at Ed White High School in Jacksonville. Four teenagers, who were part of a group who cut school on the last day, and died in a wreck, were remembers by the entire school in attendance...
More Women Driving Drunk Focus of Labor Day Crackdown
Posted on August 23, 2009A new study shows that women are increasingly being pulled over for driving under the influence or DUI. The Transportation Department reports the number of women arrested for DUI has jumped nearly 30 percent over the last ten years, while the number of men arrested for DUI fell 7...
JaxPort Employee Injured On The Job 110 Feet Up
Posted on August 19, 2009An industrial accident at the Jacksonville Port Authority led to a dramatic but successful rescue for one injured employee. The unidentified man was working on a 110 foot crane Monday night doing routine maintenance along with six other men, when he suffered a severe back injury...
Cash For Clunkers - Good Riddance Rollovers
Posted on August 13, 2009First Coast car dealers in Jacksonville seem to be moving ahead with the 'Cash for Clunkers' program despite the questions about depleted funds. The government has approved more money to keep the program rolling for the time being. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be administering the program and the official website you can check to see if your car qualifies - http://www...
Construction Worker Painting Lines Hit, Killed By SUV
Posted on August 12, 2009People who work on our roads often wear brightly colored neon vests and helmets. That is what 37-year-old Cary Fraser was wearing, but it didn't help him to be more visible to a driver of an SUV Tuesday morning. The Nissan Xterra, driven by 42-year-old Michael O'Hara stopped after hitting Fraser, but it was too late, he died at the scene...
Three Injured In ATV Accident In North Florida
Posted on August 09, 2009One man is in critical condition in North Florida following an all terrain vehicle (ATV) crash Sunday morning. St. Johns County deputies are trying to figure out what caused the Arctic Cat recreational vehicle to overturn on a private dirt road on Bartram Air Park property off County Road 13 in northwest St...
Officers Escorting Harley Dealer Funeral Collide
Posted on August 08, 2009The irony is pretty amazing. Six officers on motorcycles, escorting a funeral for the late motorcycle dealer, Bruce Rossmeyer in Ormond Beach, Florida, Tuesday, were involved in a crash. The officers, from various agencies, were riding along with the funeral party when the lead rider slowed down...
Chinese Drywall Victims Target White House
Posted on August 06, 2009Tirzah Pestenski would like President Obama to come over to her house. She even plans to place a call to the White House to see if he'd like coffee or tea. She is not just being sociable. Pestenski wants the president to see her custom home in Port St...
Rollover Kills Teen In Back Of Pickup
Posted on July 28, 2009A 16-year-old high school girl was killed early Monday morning when a pickup truck in which she was riding along with six others over corrected, then struck a curb and overturned. Miranda Zant, a student at Lee High School was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene...
Florida Fire Marshall Suspects Chinese Drywall Could Be Flammable
Posted on July 26, 2009As if the problems with the foul smell coming from Chinese drywall in some Florida homes is not problem enough - now we learn that the state Fire Marshal's Office and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are testing to see if the toxic drywall contributes to fires...
Floridians Get Three Moving Violations Then Lose License
Posted on July 24, 2009A new law in Florida should send reckless drivers back to driving school. Beginning January 1, any driver who is convicted of three moving violations that led to a crash during a three-year-period will lose their license. It could happen for offenses such as reading a newspaper while driving 65 mph to work, or texting while driving, anything that takes your attention off of the road and leads to a crash...
Disney Discovery Denied In Monorail Death
Posted on July 16, 2009Lawyers representing the mother of the 21-year-old pilot of a Disney monorail ,who died July 5, have been denied the opportunity to inspect all of the evidence into the death of Austin Wuennenberg. The evidence would include video from surveillance cameras on the platform at the time of the crash as well as any audio communication or black box data recorders from the platform...
Florida Trooper Three Others Injured In Pile-Up
Posted on July 15, 2009A Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) trooper and three others were injured in an early morning crash on Interstate 4 Monday. Driver Jack Duran, 45, of Orlando, was behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer traveling westbound when the FHP says he approached a construction zone around 2 a...
Mother And Child Drown in Jacksonville Pool
Posted on July 09, 2009There are many questions surrounding the drowning death of a young mother and her baby in an Arlington community pool on Wednesday. Tiffany Sue Cecconi, 18, and her 18-month-old daughter, Kaylani, were found just after noon in a subdivision pool. The pool area is usually locked...
Jacksonville - Most Crashes In Florida In 2008
Posted on July 08, 2009Just how are we doing as a state in regard to highway fatalities? A new report issued from the Florida Highway Patrol compiled crash data from around the state for 2008. Unbelievably- Jacksonville was the top city for the number of crashes in Florida, even topping Miami by about 50 percent...
Two Federal Investigations Into Disney
Posted on July 07, 2009With Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) already conducting a probe, now the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced it too will examine the fatal monorail collision that took the life of a young train operator at Disney World in Orlando Sunday morning...
Buckle Up On The Boat This Holiday Weekend
Posted on July 02, 2009A warning before you head out this July 4th weekend on the coastal or Intracoastal Florida waters – The Coast Guard says this holiday is the deadliest one for Florida boaters. The Coast Guard, as well as Florida Fish and Wildlife, will be out patrolling the waterways this Independence Day holiday...
Deputy and Girlfriend Hurt In ATV Accident
Posted on June 27, 2009A Baker County, Florida deputy and his girlfriend were riding their all-terrain vehicle last Sunday night when they went off the road and hit a tree in the Osceola National Forest. Deputy Matt Sigers was a bit roughed up but was treated at the hospital and released...
Nurse Hit-and-Run Victim Outside Hospital, Suspect Arrested
Posted on June 24, 2009Police in Jacksonville have arrested a man they say is responsible for hitting a nurse outside of Shands Hospital Sunday night, then driving off. The victim, Karen Elaine Hanel, 54, was hit as she was reporting to work and walking in a crosswalk outside the hospital around 7 p...
Police Report On Little Girl Left In Vehicle To Die
Posted on June 21, 2009The St. Johns County Sheriff's department is releasing details about what happened to a one-year-old who was left inside a car to die. On Sunday, June 14, Arianna Long was left in the automobile after her father dropped the mother off at work. It was very early in the morning...
Fourth Student Dies After Ford Explorer Rollover
Posted on June 21, 2009Last week we told you about a horrible accident on the last day of school. Nine teenagers decided going to the beach, so they cut school and crammed into a 1997 Ford Explorer. On their way to the beach, a tire either detreaded or blew, and the 15-year-old driver lost control of the car and it rolled...
Florida Hit-And-Run Driver Arrested
Posted on June 14, 2009This is an accident that had the potential for a very bad ending. Friday night, 16-year-old Allison Almon was walking her two dogs when someone hit her from behind with their vehicle and left the scene and Almon in the road. It happened on Cornell Road in St...
Are Red-Light Cameras At Intersections A Good Idea?
Posted on June 13, 2009Red-light runners be warned. The city council of Orange Park near Jacksonville will soon have a candid camera to watch your every move into those intersections that aren't quite green. We've all seen drivers who run a yellow or red light - sometimes speeding up to make it even more dangerous...
Three Teens Mourned After I-295 Wreck
Posted on June 07, 2009The teens were celebrating the end of the school year and cutting school. Nine kids from Ed White High School in Jacksonville got into a 1997 Ford Explorer and headed to the beach Friday morning. Today their family and friends are mourning the death of three and the injury of six others after the SUV rolled several times and crashed on I-295 Friday morning...
FAA Must Pay $3.75 Million For Doomed Flight Instructions
Posted on June 04, 2009The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to pay $3.75 million after it gave faulty landing instructions during an emergency in December 2005. Pilot Gary Tillman of Rome, Georgia, his daughter, Hannah, and her friend Anna Kipp died in the Atlantic off Vilano Beach when the FAA told the plane with engine trouble to fly to the St...
Foster Kids Put On Drugs At Alarming Rates
Posted on May 31, 2009A new report by the state finds that hundreds of kids in foster care have been placed on psychiatric drugs by their caregivers in Northeast Florida. What's especially shocking is that no one gave authority for these drugs to be used on the children, and most of the drugs are not even approved for use in children...
New Policy For Beach-Driving Leaves Public Vulnerable
Posted on May 28, 2009We reported earlier this month about a Jacksonville Beach police SUV that accidentally ran over a woman who was sunbathing. She was in very critical condition and is just now able to speak. The professional musician, 41-year old Ann Marie Giffin was pulled out from under the SUV semi-conscious and bleeding from her head...
Three-Year-Old Dies In Lake City Pool As Swim Season Begins
Posted on May 21, 2009A three-year-old child drowned Sunday afternoon, May 17, in a swimming pool in the back yard of a home in Lake City. He was scooped from the pool and taken to a local hospital where was pronounced dead. The Columbia County Sheriff's office calls it a tragic accident...
Floridians Receive Confirmation of Defective Chinese-Made Wallboard
Posted on May 20, 2009Reports of sulfur smelling homes and corroded wiring have been coming into the Florida Department of Health since December. Now there is official federal confirmation that the Chinese-made wallboard, used in upward of 100,000 homes nationwide, is defective...
NTSB Investigation Into Flight That Killed Jacksonville Law Student
Posted on May 14, 2009Jacksonville has a connection to the airline crash that is the focus of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing. A local law student was one of the 49 passengers aboard who died when Continental Flight 3407 crashed February 12th in Buffalo, New York...
Mom Sentenced In Wreck That Killed Son
Posted on May 13, 2009A Jacksonville mother has a long time to think about that day in March of 2008. She was speeding on a rain-slicked road, with her nine-year-old son in the car. Police estimate she may have been traveling in excess of 90 mph when she lost control of her car and hit a tree...
Speeding Public Officials Face Charges After Fatalities
Posted on May 08, 2009They are sworn to protect the public, but instead these individuals are being charged with endangering it. Criminal charges will be filed against a Jacksonville Sheriff's officer and a Jacksonville Fire Rescue district chief. Both men were involved in speeding incidents that left two elderly men dead, in separate incidents...
Falling Television Kills Child
Posted on May 07, 2009It was an incredibly sad story this week when little four-year-old Dymounique Wilson died after a television fell on her in her Jacksonville home. Wednesday night her mother, Samara Brinkley, put the little girl on her bed and as they watched television together, the mother dozed off...
Officer Drives SUV Over Woman In The Sand
Posted on May 02, 2009The woman run over by a police SUV while she was lying on the sand is reported to be in critical condition. The Jacksonville Beach police officer was on patrol and driving a sport utility vehicle, a Chevrolet Trailblazer around 3:15 when he appeared to have turned around the area that 41-year-old Anne Marie Giffin of Jacksonville way laying...
Tougher Seat Belt Laws In Florida
Posted on April 29, 2009Ever since Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti died in separate auto accidents more than a decade ago, their parents felt their deaths had a higher purpose. Neither young woman was wearing a seat belt when they were killed. For 13 years, Irv Slosberg tried to get through the Florida legislature a bill that would allow police officers to pull over anyone who is not wearing a seat belt...
Boaters Rescued Off Coast Of Jacksonville
Posted on April 25, 2009This time the story had a good ending. Six people were rescued in the Atlantic about 90 miles east of Jacksonville after their boat started to sink. Luckily for the group, a good Samaritan saw the boat with the six aboard as it was taking on water. He called the Coast Guard to aid in the rescue...
Mystery Compound That Killed Horses In Florida To Be Revealed
Posted on April 24, 2009Early this week, the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine may release the name of the drug that killed 21 polo horses as they were getting ready to compete in a Florida match. The state is awaiting the result of toxicology reports on the animals that were buried last Thursday...
Drywall Lawsuit Filed In Florida
Posted on April 22, 2009We have quite a problem in Florida for homeowners who unknowingly bought home with drywall made in China that emits gasses making people sick. A class-action lawsuit has now been brought in south Florida against homebuilder, Lennar on behalf of homeowners...
A Big Break For Big Tobacco Proposed In Florida
Posted on April 21, 2009Big Tobacco may be receiving a shield from the Florida legislature. Right now there are about 8,000 sick smokers, former smokers, or survivors of smokers, who have sued the tobacco industry for making misleading claims and fraudulently marketing their product for years...
Auto Accident Takes Life Of Popular 15-Year-Old Girl
Posted on April 21, 2009The community of Jacksonville is grieving the loss of 15-year-old Allison Haramis. She was killed Friday when the Lexus in which she was a passenger, hit the back of a tow truck on the Buckman Bridge. The driver was her 16-year-old friend, Alexander Lee...
Jacksonville Leads In State, National Foreclosure Rate
Posted on April 19, 2009Jacksonville has the dubious distinction of exceeding state and federal rates for foreclosures. In fact, rates here have hit a five-year high. In March, foreclosure related notices were sent out to 2,721 homes in Jacksonville – a 29 percent increase from February...
Boat Driver Not Intoxicated In Easter Sunday Wreck That Killed Five
Posted on April 19, 2009Blood alcohol has just come back on the person in the driver's seat of that Easter Sunday boating crash on the Intracoastal that left five people dead. There was a great deal of speculation that alcohol had some part to play, but the test came back on the 44-year old woman at 0...
SUV Driver Plows Into School Bus With 30 Aboard
Posted on April 16, 2009An early morning rush led to the injury of six students when a school bus was struck by an SUV. Just after 9 a.m., police were called to the collision at the intersections of Firestone and Melvin Road in Jacksonville. While the bus had stopped at a flashing red light, then preceded into the intersection, police say the SUV failed to stop at the intersection and rammed into the side of the bus...
Fatal Boating Accident Grief And Tributes Pour In
Posted on April 16, 2009It was a senseless loss of life on Easter Sunday. And the funerals are now underway. Three of the five killed Sunday on a boat in the Intracoastal area of Palm Valley south of Jacksonville are being laid to rest. The first funeral was held Thursday for 20-year-old Liz Rosenfeld a student at the University of North Florida...
Three Car Wreck Kills Two, Closes Dames Point Bridge
Posted on April 12, 2009It was a tragic beginning to the Easter holiday for two drivers of SUVs. Both were killed Friday night on State Road 9A in Jacksonville in a three-vehicle wreck. It happened around 6:30 when, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, a 60-year-old driver was heading north onto the Dames Point Bridge behind the wheel of a red Suzuki, changed lanes and struck a southbound Toyota SUV head on...
The Fight To Cap Payday Loans
Posted on April 10, 2009PayDay Loans. If you see them you should run the other way. Florida is among a few states that has tried to stop the abusive high interest loans. In the average scenario, a person takes out a high interest loan with phenomenal interest rates, up to 400 percent in some cases...
Florida Attorney General Sues Man For Caylee Doll, Vick Chew Toys And Deceptive Practices
Posted on April 09, 2009It is the utmost in bad taste and proof that there are bad people among us. Apparently the Florida Attorney General agrees. The Jacksonville businessman who created toys in the image of slain 2-year-old, Caylee Anthony, and chew toys resembling former NFL player Michael Vick who raised fighting pit bulls, has been sued...
Texting Truck Driver Arresting After Hitting School Bus
Posted on April 07, 2009Seven months after a school bus erupted into flames, killing one student aboard, the driver of an 18-wheeler that caused the crash has finally been arrested. 30-year-old Reinaldo Gonzales turned himself into the Florida Highway Patrol today. He was booked in the Marion County jail in Ocala, Florida charged with vehicular homicide and reckless driving with serious bodily injury...
Leaving Kids In Cars - Please Stop This Fatal Distraction
Posted on April 05, 2009Already this year two little ones have been left in cars by inattentive adults to die in the sweltering heat. It's called hyperthermia and in Florida heat stroke can happen in a very short time. If you think it cannot happen to you because you are an attentive adult, that's probably true, But it has happened to other attentive, responsible adults...
Medtronic Defibrillator Lead Linked to 13 Deaths
Posted on April 03, 2009An independent panel of physicians now says the death count from the Medtronic Sprint Fidelis cardiac wire is closer to 13, more than the five deaths the company previously revealed. Last month, the company told doctors about the increased number of patient deaths and suggested that leaving the lead intact was perhaps the best choice for the majority of patients...
When It Might Be Okay Not To Ticket A Speeder
Posted on April 02, 2009This sounds like an April Fools joke but unfortunately it isn't. If there is ever an excuse to drive fast, I can't think of a better one than driving your wife to the hospital who is in labor. That's exactly what Kyle Nordman was doing when an officer pulled him over...
DUI Manslaughter Charges for NFL Player
Posted on April 01, 2009His Bentley was the car that hit a pedestrian crossing a Miami causeway. There is no dispute about that. The question that lingered concerned the outcome of a blood alcohol test. Now that's back and now Cleveland Browns wide receiver, Donte Stallworth, is facing DUI manslaughter charges...
Florida Considers Banning Tanning Beds For Teens
Posted on March 27, 2009It's hard to believe that in the Sunshine State people pay to go into a tanning booth to get sun exposure. But they do, including kids who want to get ready for spring break or a cheerleading competition. So state lawmakers have filed anti-tanning legislation that would ban those under the age of 16 from being able to go to a tanning bed...
Parental Waivers - Should They Be Enforcable?
Posted on March 27, 2009Take a visit to Disney World and parents may be asked to sign pre-injury waivers so their children can participate in boat rentals, horseback riding or any other potentially dangerous activity. SeaWorld uses them too in its Discovery Cove before you swim with the dolphins...
Woman Killed In Rollover Trying To Avoid Motorcycle
Posted on March 26, 2009Charges are pending against a motorcyclist who sped up on the back of a woman's car causing her to lose control and die in a rollover. According to the Florida Highway Patrol 32-year-old Vanessa Parker Sinclair, who was eight months pregnant, was on I-95 near the intersection of State Road A1A in Nassau County north of Jacksonville around 3 pm last Saturday...
NFL Player Hits, Kills Florida Man Crossing Street
Posted on March 25, 2009Mario Reyes, 59, of Miami was rushing to his work as a construction crane operator. It was about 7:15 in the morning on March 14. Reyes crossed the six-lane MacArthur Causeway, near a crosswalk. That's when he was hit by a Bentley being driven by Cleveland Browns wide received, Donte Stallworth...
Motorcycle Passenger Hit By Falling Ladder
Posted on March 22, 2009This would certainly qualify as a freak accident. A passenger on a motorcycle traveling in the Jacksonville area was hit by a ladder that fell from a pickup truck. The 59-year old woman is in the hospital with critical head injuries. The Florida Highway Patrol says the female passenger was sitting a bit higher than the driver of the Harley on which they were riding, and that's why she took the brunt of the hit...
Mortgage Fraud - Florida Second In The Nation
Posted on March 21, 2009Mortgage fraud is on the rise, with Florida a hotbed of fraudulent activity by people trying to get money from a lender. A Mortgage Asset Research Institute report puts Florida at second in the nation for fraud reported in 2008 (Rhode Island was first)...
Tractor-Trailer Hits School Bus With Students Onboard In Downtown Jacksonville
Posted on March 19, 2009This is a story that could have had a much worse ending. A tractor-trailer rear-ended a school bus on a field trip in downtown Jacksonville this morning. The kids from Lake Forest Elementary were going to the Cummer Museum of Art. Ten students had to be transported to local hospitals to be checked out...
Curbing House Parties - The Party's Over Campaign
Posted on March 16, 2009Just on the verge of spring break, 'The Party's Over' campaign has been launched in St. Johns County, south of Jacksonville, by Sheriff David Shoar. Underage drinking has gotten out of hand in the county, he says, pointing to the death of two teens in Orangedale in January, blamed on a house party where alcohol was served to minors...
Florida May Make Seatbelt Law A Primary Enforcement Tool
Posted on March 15, 2009The proposal to tighten seat belt requirements has never passed before. In Florida, not wearing your seat belt will get you an additional fine, if, and only if, you are pulled over for a traffic infraction. Now a proposal is on the table for Florida to join 25 other states that consider not wearing a seat belt a 'primary' enforcement law- meaning an officer could pull you over and give you a ticket just for not wearing your seat belt...
Super Speeder Fines Increase In Georgia
Posted on March 13, 2009It may not pay to be a super speeder in Georgia. Those who drive fast on the state's highway are facing an increased fine of $200 that would accomplish two goals. First, to get speeders to slow down and secondly to fund the state's ailing network of hospitals that take trauma cases...
Two-Year-Old Killed In Driveway By SUV
Posted on March 13, 2009This is a very sad story we keep reporting because unfortunately it keeps happening. On Tuesday afternoon, a 2-year-old girl died in her driveway when her father backed up his SUV and didn't see her. Kainaat M. Umnair was in the driveway at her parent's home on the Southside around 2 p...
Young Driver Distracted By Phone Pins Tree Trimmer
Posted on March 12, 2009The 17-year-old girl was driving in the Ortega area. She tells law enforcement that she was distracted by her phone. 'Just glancing at it,' is how the reporter from Channel 4 describes it. Teens are notorious for texting, talking on the phone and generally being distracted by anything on the console, and they do not have the experience or reaction time that a more experienced driver might...
Florida, California Lawsuits Over Smelly Wallboard
Posted on March 08, 2009Florida may be the first state but is likely not the last state that has sulfur-tainted smelly wallboard manufactured in China that has residents moving out. A number of lawsuits are underway in Florida, the most recent filed in Miami claiming that a rotten egg small is corroding wiring in homes and electronics...
Negligent Property Owners Sued For Death Of Young Man
Posted on March 07, 2009James and Cheryl Creech would do anything to see their 22-year-old son again. Antonio Creech was visiting his sister at the Eureka Gardens Apartments in Jacksonville, two days before Christmas 2007, when he was shot and killed along with another man. Now the couple has filed a negligence lawsuit against the property owner, Flagship Property Managers...
Jacksonville Sheriff Must Keep Roads Safe For The Public
Posted on March 05, 2009Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford is asking the public for patience as a criminal probe tries to uncover what exactly happened that led to a collision between an officer's car and an 86-year-old man driving a truck. A much needed change in the police chase policy may result from the accident...
Toddler Run Over By Unlicenced Teen Uncle
Posted on February 22, 2009A tragic accident occurred Sunday afternoon when an unlicensed teenager got behind the wheel of a car. The 16-year-old was asked by his family to move the car after a church service at the Summerville Baptist Church near downtown Jacksonville. The teen intended to maneuver it to the front of the church...
School Bus Driver Kicks Kids Off
Posted on February 21, 2009This Jacksonville school bus driver had simply had enough. Several Ribault Middle School students were messing around on the bus, threatening to open the emergency door on the back of the bus. A student, Kaylan Edem, admitted to Channel 4 that kids were disorderly and that students on the bus kept pulling the emergency handle...
Doctors Want To Protect Their Reputations
Posted on February 20, 2009We’ve already warned consumers against signing binding arbitration documents when you go to the doctor’s office and are presented with a pile of paperwork to sign. Binding arbitration means you will never be able to sue a doctor if there is an unfortunate case of medical malpractice...
Florida Jury Awards $8 Million To Widow Of Smoker
Posted on February 18, 2009Tobacco company, Philip Morris, was dealt a major blow Wednesday when a Fort Lauderdale jury awarded the widow of a smoker $8 million in damages. It took two days for the six jurors to deliver the favorable verdict to Elaine Hess. In 1997, her husband, Stuart Hess, died at the age of 55 of lung cancer after decades as a chain smoker...
Foreclosures Stopped At Two Florida Banks
Posted on February 15, 2009With Florida leading the country as one of the top states for foreclosure, two banks here say they will stop foreclosures temporarily as the federal government tries to fix the housing crisis. Coral Gables-based BankUnited, along with BankAtlantic, will join Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bank of America which have all decided to temporarily halt foreclosures...
State Farm Plans Its Exit From Florida
Posted on February 14, 2009State Farm is one step closer to pulling its property insurance policies out of the state. Florida’s Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty indicated the insurance giant should go and soon. “We do not believe that they can maintain trustworthiness and fitness to continue to do business in Florida...
Georgia Lures Industry With Promises Of Curtailing Civil Rights
Posted on February 12, 2009This is reminiscent of what’s put Michigan on the map as the friendliest state for drug and device makers. In Michigan, drug companies enjoy immunity from prosecution. Imagine if you or I enjoyed such protection. Now Georgia is trying to entice the pharmaceutical and medical device industry to the state with a promise of protection...
Smoker Wins First Phase In Tobacco Trial
Posted on February 12, 2009For those of us who have fought Big Tobacco for a long time, this was a much welcomed victory. On Thursday, a jury in Florida ruled that a smoker was addicted to cigarettes and that is what led to his death. It was a huge setback for Philip Morris and could forecast the future for thousands of cases in Florida waiting to go to trial...
North Florida Resident Puts State On Salmonella Map
Posted on February 08, 2009It was always amazing that Florida was one of seven states that had dodged the bullet on the salmonella outbreak in the country - until now. A North Florida resident has shown signs of salmonella poisoning, according to the Florida Department of Health report on Wednesday...
Tracking Your Dangerous Teen Drivers - Literally
Posted on February 08, 2009You may have seen them on the road. A teenager with their drivers license less than one year, speeding past, jamming their brakes on when someone doesn’t get out of their way, trying to drive around them and not being able to make it, jamming their brakes on again...
Auto Fraud Database Now Online
Posted on February 08, 2009The U.S Department of Justice has put an auto database online to uncover fraud. The system will allow the state department of motor vehicles, law enforcement, and consumers to check a car’s title and history. The information will help consumers find out of a vehicle has been in an accident, was used to commit a crime or was stolen...
Can Mold Kill? Parents Say Yes and File Lawsuit Against Hospital
Posted on February 05, 2009Can mold kill? The families of three young children say yes, and they’ve filed a lawsuit against St. Joseph’s Hospital accusing the hospital of failing to protect the leukemia patients from mold. The Tampa, Florida hospital was undergoing an expansion in 2008...
Stay Put An Answer To Foreclosure?
Posted on February 01, 2009There is more and more conversation about this concept. As many Americans find they cannot stay in their homes because of job loss or a sub-prime loan that has now doubled, one Congresswoman is saying "stay put” in your own home. When Wall Street bought and sold mortgages as investments, they forgot to dot all of the "i's" and cross the "t's"...
State Farm Putting Profits Before People In Florida
Posted on January 31, 2009State Farm property insurance wants to leave Florida for greener pastures. After major hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, State Farm Florida, a subsidiary of the insurance giant, says it will phase out offering property insurance to 1.2 million property owners within two years...
Florida's Most Dangerous Jobs
Posted on January 31, 2009While the national picture for accidents and deaths on the job decreased by about six percent – Florida’s death rate for workplace fatalities stayed steady from 2006 - about 362 people lost their lives at work in 2007. What kind of jobs pose the greatest risk? Florida Trend breaks down the most dangerous jobs...
Seroquel Victory For AstraZeneca Which Says Bring Em On
Posted on January 28, 2009AstraZeneca didn’t know what to expect. Thousands of cases are pending against its antipsychotic drug Seroquel, claiming it causes diabetes and weight gain. Wednesday, the company won dismissal of two lawsuits in central Florida. U.S. District Judge Anne Conway in Orlando ruled the cases, “Just didn’t meet the standards” to go to trial...
School Bus Wreck Hospitalizes Five
Posted on January 24, 2009Wednesday after school, a North Florida school bus was taking kids home when a 16-year-old driver of a pickup truck failed to stop at an intersection and rear-ended the bus. Things could have been much worse. Four students on the bus were taken to Lake Butler Hospital...
Pedestrian Killed But Many Questions Unanswered
Posted on January 24, 2009The Florida Highway Patrol reports that a young man walking on a Jacksonville road was hit and killed by a motorist early Friday morning. The man has been identified as Cammeron T. Nettles, 21. He was walking southbound on Blanding Boulevard near County Road 220 around 1:45 a...
Dangerous Downtown Condo Collapse Results in Loss Of Life and Lawsuits
Posted on January 23, 2009The downtown Berkman Plaza condominium project was abruptly halted in December 2007 when a parking garage collapsed burying one worker under five feet of debris and concrete. Now the condo owner is suing six subcontractors for at least $36 million in damages...
Disastrous Drywall From China
Posted on January 23, 2009The Florida Health Department is reporting that dozens of complaints have come in from people living around the state in newly constructed homes with some questionable drywall. A foul smell, sort of like rotten eggs, is driving folks out of their homes because it is so bad...
Patients Need To Be Aware of Medtronic Infuse Use In The Neck
Posted on January 17, 2009Medtronic is facing more trouble over its Infuse Bone Graft. A Texas woman is reportedly preparing a lawsuit blaming off-label use of Infuse for injuries she suffered after cervical spine surgery. Mary Selke claims that bone formed in her neck and it made it difficult for her to breathe and swallow resulting in more surgery, this time of an emergency nature...
Brace For Impact- Would You Know What To Do In An Airplane Ditching?
Posted on January 16, 2009"Brace For Impact,” are the last words you want to hear when you are on an airplane. But that is exactly what was said to the 148 passengers onboard a US Airways A320 airbus leaving New York’s LaGuardia Airport Thursday. The plane made a remarkably soft landing on water and amazingly everyone got off with a few broken limbs and hypothermia...
More Deadly Teen Crashes Occur In Florida
Posted on January 16, 2009They could be considered teen driving hotspots, and the top three cities for fatal teen car crashes are all in Florida. Allstate Insurance Company recently released a list of top cities for fatal car accidents involving teen drivers that occur around the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day...
Florida Insurance Commissioner Tells State Farm "NO"!
Posted on January 13, 2009State Farm wanted to raise homeowner’s premiums to cover losses from hurricanes by more than 47 percent. Monday, the state insurance commissioner told the insurance giant “No!” This is not the first time they’ve been turned down...
Trucking Regulations Will Keep Drivers On The Road Longer
Posted on January 10, 2009It was an eleventh hour rule by the Bush administration that does not keep us safer on the highways. The administration in its waning days has decided to finalize rules on just how long truckers can stay behind the wheel. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule allows drivers of big-rigs to work for up to 14 consecutive hours, including 11 behind the wheel...
Tea Leaves May Forcast Sailor's Future
Posted on January 10, 2009The tea leaves from this cup have forecast disaster for Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Javier Trevino and his job as an air traffic controller at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville. When a friend brought back some tea from Mexico and gave it to Trevino when was visiting in San Antonio last May, it tasted pretty good...
Florida Needs To Watch for Salmonella Cases
Posted on January 10, 200942 states have been stuck by a salmonella outbreak and the King Nut Company believes it may be responsible. King Nut out of Ohio, has issued a recall of the peanut butter it distributes nationwide. So far 399 people have been affected, people of all ages...
Florida Laid Off Workers Can't Afford Cobra
Posted on January 09, 2009You lose your job and your medical benefits. At least there is COBRA to get you through. That’s the health insurance you can obtain up to 18 months after you lose your job. You must pay for, but at least it keeps you covered. A new study says that Florida is one of nine states where the cost of COBRA exceeds unemployment benefits – in other words you must dip into your savings at a time you have no job, if you want to afford COBRA health insurance...
Make Sure Your Doctor Has Insurance
Posted on January 03, 2009Florida is facing a health care crisis right around the corner. First there was the failing grade for access to Florida’s emergency rooms. Then there was a forecast of a doctor shortage with the word that the majority of the state’s doctors are over the age of 45...
Private Medical Records Found In Garbage Sent To TV Station
Posted on December 31, 2008We might never have known this happened, except some decided to send the medical records they found in the garbage to First Coast News, the NBC/ABC affiliate in Jacksonville. What they found were pages upon pages of un-shredded medical documents from pediatric and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr...
Consumers Beware Of Insurance Denial Tactics
Posted on December 30, 2008If you’re one of the few who actually have health insurance coverage, consider yourself fortunate. However, if you have yet to file a claim for health insurance benefits, you may be in for some unpleasant surprises. Insurers are now using a scheme to deny claims and actually cancel insured’s policies through “postclaims underwriting...
Missing Woman At Sea
Posted on December 30, 2008Millions of people go on cruises every year and have a wonderful time. Then there are the mysteries at sea which are difficult to solve, largely because no one is watching. The latest mystery involves a Florida woman, Jennifer Ellis-Seitz, 36, a journalist who apparently had everything to live for...
AstraZeneca Wants Expanded Use for Seroquel
Posted on December 27, 2008AstraZeneca says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants more information before it approves the schizophrenia drug Seroquel for expanded uses. The drug maker received a “complete response letter” from the FDA after it applied to have the drug prescribed to patients suffering from depression...
Florida Highway Patrol Crackdown
Posted on December 26, 2008This Christmas and New Year’s holiday, expect the Florida Highway Patrol to have a zero tolerance policy toward any driving that puts another motorists in danger. The FHP will target aggressive and hazardous violators throughout Florida. That includes motorists who drive aggressively or under the influence, speed, or violate the rules of the road...
Man's Wife Moved To Nursing Home 1,000 Miles Away Without Permission
Posted on December 25, 2008This is an incredible story and sounds like it could end up in court for violating the rights of the elderly. A St. Augustine, Florida man says that on Christmas eve, his 65-year-old wife was moved to an Illinois nursing care center in Elmwood, without his approval or knowledge...
Silver Alert To Quickly Find Elderly Dementia Patients
Posted on December 24, 2008By this time everybody has heard of Amber Alerts – issued by law enforcement as soon as a child is missing. This is the latest twist on an Amber Alert but for people much older. “Silver Alerts,” managed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, will let the public know about mentally impaired elderly residents who wander from home...
Guide To Choosing a Nursing Home
Posted on December 20, 2008Trying to choose a nursing home for a loved one? Your options might be a little easier with a new online rating system from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which provides ratings from one to five stars for 16,000 nursing homes in the U...
New Pool Drain Covers Mandated Nationwide By Friday
Posted on December 18, 2008pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"Beginning Saturday, pools and spas that do not have the required anti-drowning drain covers could be forced to close down. The improved safety system was passed by Congress last year and pool and spa owners had a year to comply...
Sleep May Be The Best Injury Protection
Posted on December 17, 2008pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"We know from the statistics and from the traffic we see in our offices at Farah and Farah that teenagers are one population group that has a higher likelihood of being involved in traffic accidents than others, particularly first year drivers...
Jacksonville Link To Killer of Adam Walsh
Posted on December 16, 2008p /p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"27 years is a long time to look for closure, not that it can ever come when your child is murdered./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"Today the a href="http://www.news4jax.com/news/18292526/detail...
Reckless Driver Could Be Out In Nine Months
Posted on December 12, 2008A man was sentenced Thursday for reckless driving that caused a young man to die in a crash. The judge has ordered Mario Tellez to spend two years behind bars but because of the time he's already served, Tellez could be out again in nine months. Tellez is in the U...
Florida Court Rules - Sports Waivers For Kids Are Essentially Worthless
Posted on December 12, 2008A ruling by the state's high court this week has far reaching implications for anyone who is forced to sign a waiver before their child can participate in a sport. Essentially, the ruling means the waivers are worth only the paper they are written on...
ER Access - Florida Worst In The Nation
Posted on December 11, 2008The news is not good if you need emergency room care in Florida. Florida ranked dead last in a national report on the ability of someone in a dire medical need to access emergency care. The study comes from the American College of Emergency Physicians...
Careless Driver Kills Man - 27 Days Later Pulled Over Again
Posted on December 10, 2008Imagine you had a loved one who was hit and killed by a careless driver. Wouldn't you hope that person would be arrested and at least face some charges? That is what the family of Terrance Fowler hoped. Maria Fonsica was driving on August 12th, when troopers say she veered off the road and onto the shoulder, hitting and killing Terrance Fowler...
Florida Slips in Health Ranking
Posted on December 06, 2008Florida used to rank 41st in states in terms of health, now that number has dropped. Florida was No. 45 in the latest America’s Health Ranking. That represents a partnership between United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention...
Alcohol Sales To Minors Busted In Florida
Posted on December 06, 2008With more than 7,000 businesses licensed to sell alcohol in Jacksonville’s Duval County, the state is doing what it can to ensure underage drinkers aren’t getting their hands on alcohol. Friday night police did a random check of more than dozen establishments in the Jacksonville area...
Jacksonville Second in Fatal Teen Crashes
Posted on December 05, 2008With the holiday season just around the corner and more teen drivers out of school and on the road – Allstate Insurance has a word of caution. The roads in three metro areas in Florida are the tops nationwide for fatal auto crashes involving teens...
First Of Thousands Of Florida Smoker Lawsuits Since Engle Underway
Posted on December 03, 2008Stuart Hess of Cooper City, Florida died of lung cancer at the age of 55 in 1997. His widow, Elaine, says Stuart tried to quit smoking. He tried Nicorette gum and hypnosis. He tried to quit cold turkey. Nothing worked. Whether or not Hess was actually addicted to cigarettes will be the key to the case that his widow is bringing against Benson & Hedges (owned by Philip Morris), the cigarettes Hess preferred to smoke...
Toddler Run Over In Driveway - A Too Common Occurance
Posted on November 28, 2008We’ve heard these stories before, too many times. This time a 2-year-old riding his tricycle in a driveway was run over in a driveway. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office says the little boy, Sergio Martinez, was riding his tricycle, not in the street, when Rangel Rauda driving a Ford Explorer ran him over...
72 Car Safety Awards Highlight U.S. Automakers
Posted on November 28, 2008If you happen to be car shopping, you’ll want to visit the Top Safety Picks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The list for 2009 has more domestic cars that ever before. 72 vehicles are on the list, double the number from last year...
Ortho Evra Birth Control Patch Costing Consumers And J&J
Posted on November 26, 2008It’s hard to believe it is still on the market. Johnson & Johnson has paid about $69 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits by women use used the Ortho Evra birth-control patch. Still to be heard, thousands of complaints that have been filed in federal and state courts...
$16.6 Million Duragesic Pain Patch Trial Ends
Posted on November 24, 2008The trial of a woman who died from an overdose of the drug delivered through the Duragesic pain-killing patch is over. The jury awarded her husband and three children $16.6 million. The Chicago area woman, Janice DiCosolo, 38, died in February 2004. DiCosolo was the mother of three children who suffered constant pain from a neurological condition, reflex sympathetic dystrophy for which she used the patch...
Bullies On The Internet
Posted on November 23, 2008The father of a son who committed suicide on the Internet this week is “appalled” by the audience that watched his son die and is calling for regulations to oversee the Internet. Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, took an overdose of medication for bipolar disorder...
More Warnings for Derma Fillers
Posted on November 20, 2008An FDA advisory panel believes the cosmetics industry is not coming clean about the potential adverse side effects from dermal fillers, injected to soften facial wrinkles. Popular brands are Juvederm (Allergan) and Restylane (Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp)...
Raising the Tax On Cigarettes - It's About Time
Posted on November 19, 2008It makes sense. Cigarettes cost the state of Florida about $6 billion a year in exorbitant health care costs associated with smoking - heart disease, cancers and hospitalizations, according to the Alliance for Healthy Florida Campaign. Productivity on the job decreases among smokers too...
Tricks of the Trade
Posted on November 17, 2008At Farah and Farah, we’ve seen just about every excuse to avoid paying an insurance claim. Every day the big insurance companies do a cost analysis and find creative ways NOT to pay, while they continue to collect premiums. It’s called profit, and for the insurance industry that comes in at about $30 billion a year with insurance CEOs among the highest paid of any industry – it doesn’t hurt to find out the source of all of that profit...
The Hiring Of Home Health Aides
Posted on November 15, 2008Frequently we at Farah and Farah are asked whether hiring a home health aide to watch over an elderly loved one, in our home or theirs, is a good idea and what should someone look for. You should treat the hiring of a home health care person with the same scrutiny as you would for your child...
Florida Vision Test Works To Reduce Elderly Deaths On The Road
Posted on November 13, 2008It was almost five years ago now that Florida changed its law to require elderly drivers, age 80 and above, to have their vision tested before they renew their drivers license. It turns out that was a good idea. Requiring drivers 80 and older to pass a vision test for license renewal had reduced the numbers of deaths for drivers 80 or older by 17 percent after the law was first passed in January 2004...
Woman Buckles Up Infant As Her Last Act
Posted on November 13, 2008A very sad story was in our paper this week. A woman, 39-year-old Kimberly Frazier, was driving south on U.S. 1 in Flagler County in northeast Florida. She drove her Chevy Blazer too close to a truck being driven by James Wilkes, 50, of Green Cove Springs, west of Jacksonville...
Support National Salvage Vehicles Database
Posted on November 11, 2008Every try to buy a used car? About as much fun as going to the dentist. Not to disparage dentists, or the used car industry, but it can be very tricky. The used car stuff that is. Vehicles that have been totaled, flooded, fire-damaged, sold and re-sold several times over, and even stolen have been salvaged, repaired and sold to innocent buyers across the nation...
Vytorin Lawsuits Over Low Cholesterol Claims
Posted on November 07, 2008You know the Vytorin commercials – comparing Fettucini Alfredo to your Uncle Alfredo – both are sources of high cholesterol, the ads said. Food and family are both to blame. Now Merck & Co and partner, Schering-Plough Corp are facing a probe by the Department of Justice about whether the promotion of Vytorin made false claims...
30 Off-Road Fatalities Subject Of Govt Probe
Posted on November 07, 2008We blog all too frequently about children who are hurt or killed in off-highway vehicles and ATVs. Now the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is looking into the design of a handful of brands associated with more than 30 fatalities. The Yamaha Motor Company’s Rhino is one of those brands...
Drinking Age Should Stay 21
Posted on November 06, 2008The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is releasing new data that shows that keeping the drinking age laws at 21 prevented an estimated 4,441 drunk driving deaths over the last five years. NHTSA was responding to a national movement among colleges to turn back the drinking age to 18...
Cruise Line Customers To Receive A Refund
Posted on November 06, 2008Passengers traveling on one cruise line have a refund coming thanks to Florida’s Attorney General. Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit this week against Imperial Majesty Cruise Line. The company is alleged to have added a fuel surcharge of $20 to $30 secretly onto customers’ bills...
Exploding Boat Injures Florida-Georgia Fans
Posted on November 01, 2008The Florida-Georgia game weekend started on a bad note for four fans aboard a boat that exploded in the Intracoastal Waterway of Jacksonville. Two people were reportedly thrown from the boat when it exploded and burned to a crisp. The explosion occurred as the boat was refueling near the Palm Cove Marina on Beach Boulevard...
Let The Games Begin - 709 Ballots Rejected So Far
Posted on November 01, 2008Remember the hanging chads from the 2000 election and the dysfunctional voting machines that registered the exact opposite candidate than a person voted for in 2004? Florida is a battleground state that makes it one of the most controversial areas in the country for fraud...
Avandia Focus Of Petition By Public Citizen
Posted on October 30, 2008Type-2 diabetes drug Avandia once showed great promise in reducing blood glucose levels in patients. GlaxoSmithKline thought they had a winner on their hands. But then the reports of heart and liver damage. Now the consumer group, Public Citizen wants the Food and Drug Administration to take Avandia off of the market and has filed a petition to that end...
JAMA Favors Consumers In Upcoming Levine Pre-emption Case
Posted on October 27, 2008Coming up next week before the U.S. Supreme Court is an issue that affects all Americans who take any kind of prescription drug from time to time – that would be virtually all of us. The case before the court on November 3 is Wyeth v. Levine and the decision will help clarify one of the fiercest battles between consumers and corporations to date, known as federal pre-emption...
5-Year-Old's Asthma Death At School Results In Wrongful Death Suit
Posted on October 25, 2008The tragic death of a five-year-old boy who suffered an asthma attack at the beginning of school last year has resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit. Trenton Stokes died in August 2007. It was his fourth day of kindergarten at Orange Park Elementary School in Clay County, Florida...
Florida Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Injured Workers
Posted on October 25, 2008The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday stepped in to help injured workers. Ever since a controversial 2003 reform of the state’s workers’ compensation law, lawyer’s fees have been capped. In the case before the court this week, the attorney for Emma Murray was compensated $8 an hour...
Dangerous Cribs Recalled After Two Infants Die
Posted on October 24, 2008An 8-month-old child has died , after becoming entrapped and suffocating in a Delta Enterprise Co. drop side crib. The company is voluntarily recalling almost 1.6 million cribs made in China, Indonesia and Taiwan. And this week, reports of a second child dying in the crib have come in...
Antilock Brakes On Motorcycles Might Save Lives In Florida
Posted on October 23, 2008The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that antilock brakes on motorcycles could save lives. Antilock brakes are installed in cars and trucks. Typically they are found on touring bikes and a limited number of motorcycles. They add a cost of about $1,000...
Florida Foreclosures At Number 3 Nationwide
Posted on October 17, 2008As forclosures are at record numbers across the country comes news that once again Florida ranks near the top – the number three spot nationwide. According to Foreclosures.com, the Sunshine State was topped only by Nevada and Arizona. · Nevada 77...
New School Bus Rules Protect Manufacturers
Posted on October 17, 2008NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, issued new rules this week that will improve the nation’s 474,000 school buses. Seat and shoulder belts will be required on small school buses. The requirement will also change seat backs making them four inches higher in all new buses...
13-Year-Old Killed At Apartment, Mother Settles Lawsuit
Posted on October 17, 2008The mother of a 13-year-old Jacksonville girl, killed by a stray bullet fired within her apartment complex, has settled her lawsuit against the property owner. Tina Williams filed the lawsuit against Hartwood Place Apartments in Jacksonville. She claimed if the apartments had better security her daughter, Shenice Holmes, would be alive today...
Angry Investors File Suit
Posted on October 13, 2008A wave of class action lawsuits has begun by angry shareholders who invested in two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They allege that stock underwriters hid the true numbers on the mortgage giants, failing to disclose that Fannie Mae was “grossly undercapitalized” as a result of the subprime holdings...
Chain Reaction Involving Tractor-Trailer Kills One
Posted on October 11, 2008A driver from Kingsland, Georgia died Friday afternoon after a chain-reaction on the road involving a tractor-trailer. The tractor-trailer was hauling a load of beer, heading south near Pecan Park Road, when he rear-ended a pickup truck that was pulling a cement mixer...
Florida Defines Road Rage And Aggressive Driving
Posted on October 09, 2008Aggressive driving is responsible for 2/3rds of all fatalities on the road each year, or 27,000 deaths. That number is four times the number of deaths resulting from DUI or drunk under the influence. "Aggressive driving" is driving under the influence of “impaired emotions” which then leads to high-risk decisions...
Couple Together 65 Years Die Together In Auto Accident
Posted on October 08, 2008James and Blanch Whiddon had been married for 65 years. They told relatives recently they could never live without each other. After a car accident, they died three days apart last week. James, 85, and his wife who was 79, were on their way home from the grocery store September 30th...
Teen Auto Safety Message By Teens For Teens
Posted on October 08, 2008With more than 36,000 teen drivers involved in car crashes in Florida last year – and a teen killed every 6.5 minutes nationwide, the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has created an interactive web site to drive home the message of safety on the road...
DUI Mom Will Go To Prison For 9 Years For Killing Son
Posted on October 03, 2008A 32-yer-old Jacksonville woman will be spending close to nine years in prison for driving drunk and killing her son in the crash that followed. Last April, Angela Harper was was drunk driving at 100 mph on Interstate-295, south of Jacksonville. Harper lost control of her Saturn and hit a metal guardrail on Interstate 295 in Jacksonville...
Teens Recovering After ATV Hits Tree
Posted on October 03, 2008This week, a couple of teenage boys riding an all-terrain vehicle in Baker County, smashed into a tree after losing control of the ATV on a dirt road. Neither wore a helmet, and were both reported to be in serious condition. 17-year-old Michael Jewel of Sanderson was driving...
Florida, Eight States Sue Merck & Co
Posted on October 02, 2008Florida is joining eight other states in seeking its share of money it spent reimbursing patients who took the dangerous painkiller, Vioxx. All of the states are also suing Merck & Co alleging deceptive marketing of the recalled painkiller Vioxx. The lawsuit claims that while Merck offered Vioxx to the Medicaid program it was hiding the drug’s adverse effects in direct violation of the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act...
Auto Fraud Database Will Help Consumers
Posted on September 26, 2008It was 1992 when Congress passed a law calling for the creation of a database of rebuilt or stolen vehicles. But it never happened until now. A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice has until January 30th to make this information available to consumers...
Medtronic Is In The News Again
Posted on September 26, 2008This time patients and doctors need to be aware of a substance used to promote bone growth during spine-repair surgery. "Infuse Bone Graft" has led to complications, largely during the "Off-label" use of the drug, according to the Wall Street Journal...
Florida Fatal Highway Accidents Down, Alcohol Use Deaths Up
Posted on September 25, 2008Fatal accidents on Florida's roads are down four percent, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, but deaths from alcohol-related crashes are on the rise. For the second year in a row, the number of traffic accidents is down as are the number of deaths from those accidents - down more than four percent from 2006...
Student Killed When Tractor Trailer Driver On Cellphone Collides With School Bus
Posted on September 24, 2008Incredible details are coming out about a school bus crash in Citra, Florida that killed one 13-year old girl. The tractor-trailer driver was talking on his cell phone when he slammed into the school bus Wednesday! Four bystanders who witnessed the accident ran to the school bus and pulled out half of the students from the burning bus...
Teen Motocross Death In North Florida
Posted on September 20, 2008Students at Bartram Trail High School are mourning a senior who was killed this week in a motocross track accident in Flagler County, Florida. Bennet "Ben" Gordon Geiger Jr. was just 17 years old. He had been riding motocross for two years and was on a practice ride at the Pax Trax Motocross in Bunnell Tuesday when his landed under his motorcycle after a jump...
Texting While Driving Still Allowed In Florida
Posted on September 20, 2008Los Angeles area officials have banned the use of all mobile drvices by anyone at the controls of a moving train after it was discovered this week that a Metrolink engineer had been texting around the time he drove his commuter train into a freight train...
Gasoline In Short Supply And Expensive
Posted on September 20, 2008The Florida Attorney General's Office had received more than 300 complaints by weeks end about gasoline price gouging following Hurricane Ike. The Gate stations in questions say their supplier raised the price on them and they're passing it onto the consumer...
REAL ID Driver's License Coming To Florida
Posted on September 19, 2008Beginning in October, Florida drivers will have to obtain a nationally compliant drivers license called Real ID. This is controversial because it moves us one step closer to a national ID card, many believe will give government more control over our lives, while taking authority away from states...
Vehicular Homicide Charges Filed Against Officer's Girlfriend
Posted on September 16, 2008A Jacksonville Sheriff Officer's girlfriend has been charged with his death in an auto accident. 50-year-old Officer Michael Hartsfield died July 30, when the car he was a passenger in crashed off Fort Caroline Road. It was driven by his friend, 45- year-old Vicki Mullins...
Rollover Study Shows Roof Strength Weakness
Posted on September 13, 2008Three independent auto safety groups have found that the federal government's safety standard failed miserably for roof crush standards in real-world conditions. Researchers from Public Citizen, The Center for Auto Safety and the Center for Injury Research, strapped crash-test dummies into the vehicles in seat belts...
Nursing Home Fairness Fought By Industry
Posted on September 12, 2008Binding arbitration. You might not know what means, but look in the fine print of most contracts these days. There is a line or two that agrees to let any dispute be settled by a panel, usually that favors the wrong-doer, and takes away your right to settle a dispute in court...
Can The Injured While Intoxicated File Suit?
Posted on September 10, 2008Florida is a comparative negligence state, and that means you can make a personal injury claim based on the percentage of the other side's negligence. If they are half at fault, you get 50 percent. If you are 30 percent at fault, you'll get 70 percent of the value of your case...
Storms Hanna And Ike - When You Cannot Stay Home From Work?
Posted on September 05, 2008We are in the middle of hurricane season in Florida and most of us are keeping an eye on the latest storms, Hanna and Ike. And although it looks like North Florida dodged a bullet again, experiencing tropical storms or hurricanes presents a dillemma for motorists...
8-Year-Old Girl Dies In Florida School Bus Accident
Posted on September 05, 2008It is truly a parent's worst nightmare. School has been in session in Florida for nearly a week and in Tallahassee a school bus, a minivan, and a cement mixer truck collided this week killing an eight-year-old girl onboard the bus. Seven other children were injured Friday afternoon on a bus, owned by a Boys and Girls Club...
Teen Facing Vehicular Homicide In Death of Friend
Posted on September 03, 2008A Jacksonville, Florida teenager has been charged with vehicular homicide in the death of his friend in an accident that happened in Mandarin last June. 17-year-old Daniel R. Farren had been drinking during the early morning of June 23rd. Police later said that he had a blood-alcohol of 0...
Red-Light Runners- Smile Your On Candid Camera
Posted on September 03, 2008Those who feel compelled to run red lights have a new challenge in Florida. This week a new technology will take images of red-light runners and automatically issue them a ticket. The new technology began this week in Central Florida and will be set up at Orlando's seven deadliest intersections...
CPSC Recalls Three Unsafe Children's Items
Posted on August 30, 2008With new funding and an expanded role, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is focusing on unsafe children's items. More than 115,000 wooden infant toys, wooden puzzles, infant rattles, pacifier holders and stroller toys were recalled by manufacturer Habermaass Corporation of Skaneateles, New York due to a choking hazard...
Dram Shop Laws Don't Always Protect Minors
Posted on August 29, 2008The Dram Shop Act begins with the ancient word "dram" that refers to a unit of weight equal to 1/8 of an ounce. A dram shop became known as a place where liquor was sold. Generally, dram shop laws today refer to the liability of any establishment that sells alcohol to a minor or to someone who is visibly intoxicated, and then causes death or injury to a third party...
Bassinet Recall After Infant Deaths
Posted on August 29, 2008The Consumer Product Safety Commission, along with six retailers, is recalling nearly 900,000 Simiplicity bassinets because of a strangling hazard. The recall follows the August death of an infant girl from Kansas who became entrapped between the bed's metal bars...
As Another Tropical Storm Approaches Florida- A Warning About Roads
Posted on August 28, 2008Tropical Storm Fay, which just passed through our area, took a number of lives, including a teenage girl who was the head of her class as Paxon. In fact, four of the Faye deaths involved motorists were not wearing their seat belts. Now the Florida Highway Patrol is issuing safety tips as a precaution before Tropical Storm Gustav hits Florida...
Seven Deaths From Fay - Many Traffic Related
Posted on August 23, 2008As tropic storm Fay leaves Florida she leaves seven deaths in her path. Many people lost their lives on our roads. Two men were in their vehicle Thursday morning when a tree fell on their car in Nassau County. The passenger, Roberto Constantino, 27, of Tijuana, Mexico died from the felled maple...
Uninsured Benefit From Right To Know Act
Posted on August 23, 2008Beginning January 1, 2009, the Health Care Consumer's Right to Information Act will provide medical consumers with reliable and understandable information about health care charges so a patient can make an informed decision. The law is aimed at helping the uninsured patient who is seeking doctor or hospital services...
Doctors Learn To Apologize For Medical Mistakes
Posted on August 21, 2008When the chief of staff at a Veterans Hospital in Tampa told the family of a man who died he was sorry, he broke the mold. Doctors rarely say they are sorry, even when they make horrible mistakes. There is a national movement afoot to change that. It's called Sorry Works! Coalition and its founder Doug Wojcieszak calls it a "massive cultural shift...
Motorists And Homeowners Need To Prepare For The Storm
Posted on August 18, 2008With high winds from Hurricane Fay hitting Florida this week, motorists and homeowners are getting ready. The Department of Transportation reports that motorists are calling to find out if roads will be closed. Of particular concern are our many bridges that travel over water, as well as the new elevated flyovers that take cars high above the congestion below...
Allstate Settles With Florida Homeowner Rate Cut
Posted on August 15, 2008Florida and Allstate Insurance have settled their differences and the news is good for consumers. The Northbrook, Illinois company is giving Florida homeowners an additional 5.6 percent rate cut, as part of a settlement. That means homeowners can expect a 19...
Cleaning Up A Jacksonville Environmental Hazard
Posted on August 15, 2008From the 1890s until 1978, the old Kerr-McGee property in Jacksonville was home to a fertilizer and chemical plant. Now the site encorporates the polluted Talleyrand waterfront area. The land is vacant, and a bulkhead is built over contaminated sediments at the bottom of the St...
FHP Trooper Hit By Motorcyclist
Posted on August 15, 2008An accident on the Buckman Bridge in Jacksonville has sent a motorcyclist to the hospital in critical condition. 26-year old Frank Belarde reportedly lost control of his motorcycle and slammed into the back of a northbound Florida Highway Patrol cruiser...
Pharmacy Errors Addressed In New Florida Law
Posted on August 14, 2008Florida Governor Charlie Crist has just signed Senate Bill 1360 into law. The Pharmacy Technician Act is a significant piece of legislation that should keep us all safer from the medication errors made by pharmacy technicians. SB1360 should bring some justice to the Hippely family...
MRI Patients Need To Know About Contrast Agent
Posted on August 10, 2008Patients in need of an MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, need to be on alert. A contrast agent may be injected into the veins of patients about to undergo an MRI to help technicians and doctors see a detailed image of tissues, bones and vessels. One in particular, gadolinium, also known as Omniscan, has been connected to a skin disorder called Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF)...
Just One Or Two Drinks Can Be Fatal Mixed With Medication
Posted on August 09, 2008Alcohol and prescription drugs don't mix according to the latest Public Citizen annual "Worst Pills, Best Pills" report. Even if you are a light drinker, the nonprofit consumer group warns against mixing alcohol with certain medications. "Worst Pills, Best Pills" lists 273 drugs that shouldn't be mixed with alcohol including antibiotics, antidepressants, narcotics and anti-ulcer drugs...
Rescue Personnel on I -10 Twice Today
Posted on August 08, 2008Two accidents sent motorists to the hospital on I-10 near Jacksonville this afternoon. The first one involved two Jacksonville Fire and Rescue emergency medical personnel and one passenger. Three firemen were onboard an ambulance that was transporting a patient eastbound on Interstate-10 near the Cassat Avenue exit, when the vehicle hit a concrete divider and lost control...
"No One Should Go Through What I Did"
Posted on August 06, 2008Christine Olson of Bradenton, Florida got the call the evening of December 7, 2005. Her son told her there had been an accident and she needed to go to Manatee Memorial Hospital. Christine's daughter, Tiffany, had been on a motorcycle with her boyfriend of nearly one year, Dustin Wilder...
Compulsive Gambling and Mirapex Verdict $8.2 Million
Posted on August 02, 2008A drug given to treat Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome is the focus of a number of trials underway in the District Court of Minneapolis. More than 200 plaintiffs are taking their case forward. But first, three cases will be heard back-to-back to determine the disposition of the remaining cases, including whether there should be a class settlement...
Head-On With Tractor-Trailer Kills Georgia Motorist
Posted on July 31, 2008A car traveling south in the northbound lane on U.S. 1 in Georgia collided head-on with a tractor-trailer Wednesday night. The passenger died. He's been identified as 33-year-old Charles Allen Music of Lyons, Georgia who was thrown from the Ford Mustang at the Ware-Charlton County line...
Defective Product Makes Health Enthusiasts Sick
Posted on July 31, 2008An Athens, Georgia couple who wanted to be fit, instead got sick. They took the product called Total Body Formula which, along with the Total Body Mega Formula, have been recalled. It may still be on store shelves, or you may have some at home. 76-year old Virginia Crawford, was an active member of her community...
Florida Doctors With No Insurance Leave Patients Vulnerable
Posted on July 30, 2008When you go to the doctor you make an assumption - that they have a license, they are a professional, that they went to medical school and have additional experience in a specialty. Maybe you assume they have malpractice insurance, just in case something goes wrong...
Motorcyclists Ride Proud, Dress Loud in Florida
Posted on July 26, 2008You might just see a biker wearing bright chartreuse jeans riding down the highway. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Florida Rider Training Program have launched a statewide "Motorcycle Conspicuity Campaign" to promote motorcycle visibility...
Trucker Convicted Of Killing Two North Florida College Girls
Posted on July 25, 2008A truck driver from Ponte Vedra is facing up to 25 years in prison after he was convicted Thursday night of causing a crash that killed two Flagler College students nearly three years ago. Miguel Leon was convicted by a jury in St. Augustine, Florida, of vehicular homicide and two counts of reckless driving causing serious bodily injury...
Big-Rig and Bus Accidents and the Drivers Who Cause Them
Posted on July 24, 2008Information about who is behind the wheel of a big-rig and bus might have you changing lanes to get away from them on the highway. A 30-page General Accounting Office study shows that more than a half-million commercial tractor-trailer drivers and bus drivers, with commercial licenses, are also eligible for full disability benefits...
Jacksonville's Fatal Auto Accidents Drop 34 Percent
Posted on July 23, 2008There is a little good news to report about the gloomy gas picture. Rising prices have apparently reduced traffic deaths around the country. Here in Jacksonville, the Florida Highway Patrol is reporting that in the four out of five metro counties there was a 34 percent drop in traffic fatalities when compared to this time last year...
Teen Drinking Party Resolved For Now
Posted on July 19, 2008This story could have had a very different ending. A few stories ago we reported on the young teenage girl who drank herself unconscious and could not be awakened. On Monday she was released from the hospital. If it had not been for the heroic decision by other teens to right a wrong, she might have never woken up...
Botox Lawsuit Filed For Unapproved Uses
Posted on July 19, 2008Allergan, the maker of Botox Cosmetic, makes about $1.2 billion a year from the drug. Plenty to fight the lawsuits that are filed by users who claim they were injured or by survivors of Botox victims. The latest one, filed in Orange County Superior Court, claim that Allergan failed to warn of the dangers of the drug...
I-95 Fatal Head-On Kills 2, Injures 3
Posted on July 18, 2008No one knows why a St. Augustine woman was driving south in the northbound lane of I-95 at 3 a.m., Thursday morning. She was killed instantly when her vehicle collided head-on with an SUV carrying a South Carolina family. A passenger in the SUV died as well...
New Gun Law Sparking Opposition In Florida
Posted on July 17, 2008On Tuesday, Florida got a new law that some feel makes the workplace safer. Others feel it makes the workplace more dangerous. It's a very emotional issue, gun control, so let's not go into that here. But some Florida businesses are "just saying NO" to the expanded rights of gun owners...
Open House Party Goes Wild- Three Teens Arrested, 15-Year-Old Hospitalized
Posted on July 12, 2008Three St. Johns County Florida teenagers were arrested Saturday for giving a 14-year-old girl so much alcohol that she passed out at an open house party. The house, just south of St. Augustine, had about 60 juveniles and no parents. A 14-year-old girl went to the party with an old 18-year-old...
Bicyclist Run Over By Truck and Killed on Westside of Jacksonville
Posted on July 11, 2008Expect to hear more stories like this as the price of gasoline becomes prohibitively expensive for many. Bicycles are a great way to get around- in a perfect world with fewer cars. But an increase in bicycles on the road requires people behind the wheel of a car to keep their eyes opened for those on two wheels...
"Daddy Quit Crying," Girl Says To Dad Following Dog Bite
Posted on July 10, 2008Last Saturday, over the July 4th holiday, 9-year-old Miranda Miller spent the day at a family friend's house in Melrose, Florida. Miranda and the other kids played outside. The family's dog was always nearby. The dog never showed any sign of aggression until they went inside for the evening...
When It's Time To Pay- Worst Insurers Report
Posted on July 10, 2008The American Association for Justice, is an organization of personal injury attorneys long experienced in fighting insurance companies. This report just issued uncovers just how and from which companies the consumer is getting the short end of the stick...
Driven To Distraction
Posted on July 05, 2008By Eddie Farah on July 5, 2008 Washington State has decided that if you talk on the cellphone while driving you can face a $101 fine. Washington State joins four other states - California, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, that have cellphone restrictions while driving...
Brazen Shooting in Mid-Day Kills SUV Driver
Posted on July 05, 2008Brazen Shooting in Mid-Day Kills SUV Driver By Eddie Farah on July 5, 2008 The streets of Jacksonville, Florida do not need this, especially on July 4th at noon on a heavily-traveled Westside intersection. One man, the driver of an SUV, was shot to death by another man who approached his car...
Couple Settles Wrongful Death Suit With NAS Jax
Posted on July 04, 2008Couple Settles Wrongful Death Suit With NAS Jax By Eddie Farah on July 4, 2008 A couple who filed a $15 million lawsuit against the government for the wrongful death of their 15-month-old son, has settled their lawsuit for $900,000. Thomas and Jessica Hugaboom, who've moved to Virginia, reached the out-of-court agreement last week...
Georgia Teen Tosses Baby On YouTube Video
Posted on July 02, 2008Georgia Teen Tosses Baby On YouTube Video By Eddie Farah on July 2, 2008 A video has been removed from YouTube, but it's fair to say it shows a stupid teenager doing something potentially harmful to an 8-month-old infant -- tossing him. The South Georgia teen from Lee County has now been charged with child cruelty for putting the baby on a large, inflatable pillow on the floor, and jumping on the pillow so the baby would fly in the air a few feet away, land on his little body, and start crying...
An American Right In Jeopardy
Posted on June 28, 2008An American Right In Jeopardy By Eddie Farah on June 28, 2008 We hear it all the time. People tell us, "I'm not the type who sues..." and then they tell us about a horrible injury they or a loved one has endured. We tell them, it's okay, you are an American and the courts are set up for citizens like you to find a remedy when they've truly been injured...
Florida Makes Slight Move Toward Motorcycle Safety
Posted on June 27, 2008Motorcycle Training Just Got Tougher In Florida By Eddie Farah on June 27, 2008 Those who plan to obtain a motorcycle licence in Florida have until July 1 to do so without further training. That's when a new Florida law will require all motorcyclists, regardless of their age and experience, to take a basic rider course through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles...
Florida Man Drinks 20 Vodka Shots And Dies
Posted on June 26, 2008Sometimes stories in Florida sound like they come out of a Carl Hiassen novel, complete with a tragic ending. A 26-year old man is dead after entering a vodka drinking contest in a Seffner, Florida bar. Eric Morris was going shot-to-shot with another patron at the Angels Nightclub...
Gas Hike Resulting in Motorcycle Accident Hike
Posted on June 25, 2008Emergency room doctors are seeing more motorcycle injuries as the price of gasoline rides higher. The ER at University of Florida at Shands has seen a hike of more than 37 percent in motorcycle accidents so far this spring, says Dr. Richard Crass, an emergency room physician...
Florida Man Guilty of Mortgage Scam
Posted on June 21, 2008Florida Man Guilty of Mortgage Scam By Eddie Farah on June 21, 2008 An Orlando man, Robert Guest, 44, pled guilty in Alabama to one felony count of conspiracy in a scheme that involved the purchase and reselling of more than 200 homes, many in Florida...
Tomato Salmonella Scare Hits Florida Hard
Posted on June 20, 2008Just take a look at the FDA's list of states from which you can safely buy tomatoes not tainted with salmonella Saintpaul. At last look, Florida was the only state broken up by counties. The FDA is concentrating its investigation on Mexico and Florida, specifically south and central Florida, which was the source of the last few salmonella outbreaks, and which was in the middle of harvesting when the salmonella cases began being reported in mid-April...
Another Train Collision Takes A Life
Posted on June 20, 2008Last month, a high school football hero died when he was struck by a CSX train in Clay County, outside of Jacksonville. Now another person was killed this morning when a freight train struck their car Friday morning. It happened just before 11 a.m...
OSHA Cites Jacksonville's T2 Laboratories For December Explosion
Posted on June 18, 2008It was a blast that was seen for miles away. Last December 19th, a chemical plant on the Northside of Jacksonville exploded. Four people were killed and many were injured. The hazardous-materials teams from all over the area were called to the "hellish inferno" that was the T2 Laboratories site...
Truck Driver Gets 7 Years for 7 Child Deaths
Posted on June 14, 2008Truck Driver Gets 7 Years for 7 Child Deaths by Eddie Farah This was one of the most horrible truck accidents this area can remember. On January 25th, 2006, a tractor-trailer driver reportedly fell asleep behind the wheel and drove his trailer into a car full of Lake Butler children waiting in a car for a school bus...
Girls Drowns At Pool Party While Florida Lags In Pool Safety Standards
Posted on June 14, 2008Girls Drowns At Pool Party While Florida Lags In Pool Safety Standards by Eddie Farah These are the sorts of stories we hear far too oftenin the summer. Florida leads the nation in the number of children who drown in swimming pools. Our condolences go out to the family of a six-year-old girl drowned at a pool party in the Arlington section of Jacksonville this Saturday...
Prescriptions Killed More Floridians Than Street Drugs In 2007
Posted on June 14, 2008Prescriptions Killed More Than Street Drugs In 2007 By Eddie Farah on June 14, 2008 A report released this week by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Medical Examiner's Commission, concludes that prescription drugs killed more Floridians in 2007 than illegal drugs...
CSX Train Lawsuit Follows Teen Death On Trestle
Posted on June 13, 2008CSX Train Lawsuit Follows Teen Death On Trestle byEddie Farah A 17-year old Clay County High School football player, Wesley Whiddon Jr., who was struck and killed by a train lastmonth, was doing what many people in the Black Creek area regularly do -- fish from the railroad bridge...
Jacksonville's Dubious Distinction
Posted on June 07, 2008Here's something the city is not going to be adding to its Chamber of Commerce brochures. The city's infant mortality rate continues to be the highest in Florida. The black community of Jacksonville has nearly twice the infant deaths of white families, according to the Jacksonville Community Council Inc...
Dry Drowning Warning For Parents
Posted on June 06, 2008The death of a 10-year-old boy from South Carolina this week while lying in his own bed, has brought attention to the little known "dry drowning." Johnny Jackson had gone for a swim in his neighborhood and walked home with his mother. He seemed fine except that his mother says he soiled himself, and then started talking slowly...
Two Charged In Teen Car Crash In Ocala Fly-In Community
Posted on June 04, 2008Last January, five young men in an expensive car, took a fast ride on a runway in an exclusive fly-in community in Ocala, Florida before crashing and killing everyone in the car. Thefly-in community of Jumbolair Aviation Estates is the same place where actor John Travolta lives and flies in to park his jet in central Florida...
OSHA Fines Downtown Contractors After Garage Collapse Kills One
Posted on June 04, 2008The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined three downtown Jacksonville contractors for design and construction flaws that caused the December 6th collapse of the Berkman Plazaparking garage. The major construction accidentkilled one and injured 20 other workers...
Expiration Dates for Tires May Be Good Idea
Posted on May 31, 2008Many Florida drivers may be driving on tires prone to fall apart because of the effect of heat and humidity on older tires. Just last year, a government report prepared by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded that 84% of crashes caused by tires involved tires more than six years old...
Bridge Improvements Increase Speed, Accidents
Posted on May 31, 2008The newly renovated Mathews Bridge is one of seven main bridges going into Jacksonville, Florida. Recently it underwent a major renovation that toned down the bumps of the grated surface, which felt like you were driving on a corregated surface, and replaced it witha lightweight decking material, similar to what is used on aircraft carriers...
Drivers of Big-Rigs Beware!
Posted on May 31, 2008The division that licenses truckers , the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, says you cannot use the drug Chantix to help kick the habit. The same applies to airline pilots and air traffic controllers, per the Federal Aviation Administration...
Parents- Think Twice About Hosting a Graduation Bash
Posted on May 29, 2008As school wraps up in Florida, graduates and their parents are looking forward to the summer, sleeping in, barbeques, pool parties and beer- soaked rampages. Parents might consider passing on the latter. Graduation parties for high school students are fine, but most partygoers are under the age of 21 and that can mean anything but a fun time for parents...
Big-Rigs May Get Ever Larger
Posted on May 29, 2008Americans are frightened by big-rigs on our highways. at 80,000 pounds that is understandable. A poll taken byLake Research Partners, finds that 66 percent of drivers oppose a proposal to allow bigger trucks carrying heavier loads on the highways...
High School Football Hero Was No Match For Train
Posted on May 23, 2008Mourners from Orange Park, Florida said goodbye this week to a Clay County, Florida athlete killed in a train accident. Wes Whiddon, 17, and two friends were fishing from a train trestle right next to SR 220. A CSX train approach. All three of the teens tried to get out of the way but Whiddon could not...
Click It or Ticket Campaign Aimed At Young Drivers
Posted on May 22, 2008It's called the "Click It or Ticket Campaign" and it is designed to crack down on young drivers and passengers who don't think they need to wear a seat belt during nighttime driving. For some reason, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds that teens and young drivers just don't seem to buckle up at night...
Joyride Leads to Day Care Closure
Posted on May 19, 2008It might have been a fun ride to Chuck E. Cheese for little 1-4 year-old toddlers, but the ride has ended in a Jacksonville day care center, Kids Creations and More receiving a notice of intent to have its license revoked. The problem is a van meant for 15 had about 38 kids onboard...
Day Care Center Facing Closing After Wild Field Trip
Posted on May 16, 2008You would hope that your children are safe while in day care. Apparently not. In this case, the Kid's Creations and More took the little kids, ages 1-4, on a field trip to Chuck E. Cheese. Because they only have one van, they packed nearly 40 kids into a van that seats only 15...
Vioxx Has $32 Million Award Overturned
Posted on May 14, 2008It was a huge win for a victim of Vioxx. In 2001, Leonel Garza suffered a fatal heart attack after a month on the painkiller Vioxx. In 2006, his widow was awarded a $32 million judgment by a Texas jury. But leave it to the caps on punitive awards to have that reduced to $8...
Mother Accused of DUI In Crash That Killed Son
Posted on May 14, 2008The mother of a teenage boy killed in a car wreck has been arrested for causing his death while drinking and driving. 31-year old Angela Harper has been taken into custody for the accident last April 18th. Harper was driving her son and five of his friends...
One Million Enrolled in Emergency Contact Information System
Posted on May 13, 2008When 22-year-old Tiffiany Olson was involved in a motorcycle crash in 2005, it took six hours for her mother, Christine, to find out where she was. That was time she could have spent with her dying daughter. Now thanks to the efforts of Christine, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says that a million people have enrolled in the Florida's Emergency Contact Information System (ECI)...
Niceville Florida Turkey Crosses the Road, Causes Auto Accidents
Posted on May 10, 2008Why was the turkey crossing the road? It's not a riddle, it was a real life nightmare this weekend for a truck driver. Defensive driving means you are ready for any situation. But a turkey hitting your windshield? That's what happened in Niceville, Florida in Okaloosa County, Florida in the Panhandle near Eglin Air Force Base...
Jet Ski Accident Kills One Teens, Leaves Another Critical
Posted on May 10, 2008wo teenagers riding on a personal watercraft Saturday collided with a small boat in the Jacksonville area waters. The 19-year-old man was killed and an 18-year-old woman seriously injured. No one in the boat on Durbin Creek was injured. When a boater tried to come to the rescue of the two victims, he went to the Julington Creek boat ramp, about two miles from the accident...
The State of Florida Wants You To Quit!
Posted on May 08, 2008The state of Florida is spending about 58 million to get you to kick the habit. Any Floridian who qualified because of income can obtain the stop smoking aids for up to eight weeks. Call 1-877-822-6669 for the free nicotine patches, gum and lozenges...
Head-On Driver Wreck May Have Been Intentional
Posted on May 07, 2008A four-vehicle wreck south of Fernandina Beach killed two and injured four others Wednesday. Police say that the wreck may have been intentional. Just after 1:30 pm, a pickup truck being driven north on state Road 200 crossed the median...
Pro Bono Hours On The Decline In Florida
Posted on May 03, 2008Are Florida's lawyers spending less time helping those who cannot afford to pay? The Florida Bar, reports that the number of hours Florida lawyers donate to the poor every year is on the decline, especially when you consider the growing number of new lawyers that graduate every year...
Head-On With Bi-Rig Kills Driver
Posted on May 01, 2008No one knows why 21-year-old James Rowland drifted his pickup trust into an oncoming lane just after midnight early Thursday morning. The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Rowland was driving east on Normandy Boulevard in Jacksonville when he collided head on with a tractor-trailer...
Taser Gun Death Lawsuit Filed
Posted on May 01, 2008We've had a rash of them lately. Law enforcement is fast to turn to Taser Guns or stun guns. The problem is the jolt delivers around 50,000 volts that penetrates the skin and shocks the heart and has been known to sometimes turn fatal. That is what's alleged to have happened to 56-year-old Emily Delafield...
Hit-And-Run Driver Who Killed Blind Athlete Gets 5 Years
Posted on April 30, 2008Often times a hit-and-run driver is never apprehended. They get away knowing they can get away with it. That was not the case with the driver who hit Darryl Green. Darryl Green was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Last June, the blind athlete from Philadelphia was trying to cross U...
Police Pursue Suspects With Two Kids In Car
Posted on April 25, 2008High speed chases usually end badly. When law enforcement tries to apprehend a suspect through residential neighborhoods, innocent bystanders are frequently the victims. By NHTSA's estimates three people a week are killed in U.S. police pursuits. And when you consider that the pursuit is usually to recover a stolen car, there is no comparison to a life lost...
14 Year Old Tobacco Lawsuit Settled in Florida
Posted on April 18, 2008Thousands of Florida smokers or their surviving family members will be eligible to share in a $600 million judgment against tobacco manufacturers ending more than a dozen years of litigation. A $145 billion damage award was originally created following litigation by Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle who died from emphysema...
Five Killed in North Florida Auto Wrecks Over 12 Hours
Posted on April 18, 2008North Florida roads saw four separate wrecks early Friday that took five lives and injured several others. The worst auto accident occurred in Putnam County. The Florida Highway Patrol reports that a 2004 Cadillac was driving down Bardin Road when the car went off the road and struck a tree then caught fire...
Yamaha Rhino- A Danger Off the Road
Posted on April 16, 2008More trouble for Yamaha, the maker of the Rhino All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) blamed for serious injuries. In March, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a voluntary recall of 2008 Rhino Side-by-Side vehicles because of a risk of brake failure that affects about 7,800 vehicles...
Mexican Big-Rigs On U.S. Roads
Posted on April 14, 2008Under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a tribunal ruled in 2001 that the U.S. was in violation by limiting access to U.S. highways by Mexican trucks. Under terms of NAFTA, those big rigs were supposed to be allowed on roads along the border with the U...
Hybrid Cars Can Hurt the Blind
Posted on April 12, 2008People who rely on sound to make their way through life can usually rely on the sound of a motor to gauge the safety of a street. But the National Federation of the Blind fear that the nearly silent hybrids may be too quiet for the blind. Rep...
14-Year-Old Dies in Stolen Car Accident
Posted on April 12, 2008The driver of an allegedly stolen car that crashed into a house Saturday was just a 14-year-old middle schooler. It happened across from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in the St. Nicholas area of Jacksonville. It was chaos at the scene. The car could not be easily backed out because part of the house collapsed...
20 Most Dangerous Autos
Posted on April 12, 2008No doubt sometime in your future you might consider buying a car. Whether new or used there is important information to help make you an informed consumer and therefore safer on the roads. Forbes.com has put together a compilation of the 20 Most Dangerous Vehicles on the road by considering side-impact protection, stability control and rollover risk...
Skater Hit By A Car
Posted on April 07, 2008The moves of young people twisting and turning on skateboards, riding ramps and rails has become somewhat of an art form. But for one skater, his art turned life threatening last Sunday night when he was accidentally hit by a car near Fort Caroline Park...
Georgia Supreme Court Upholds $13 Million in Ford Crash Case
Posted on April 06, 2008Nine years ago a Clarke County, Georgia woman riding in a 1985 Ford Mercury Grand Marquis, was rear ended by another car. When the Toyota slammed into her vehicle, it burst into flames. Anne Marie Gibson died immediately. After the family filed a lawsuit, it was revealed that bolts from the trailer hitch on Gibson's vehicle gouged into the rear-mounted gas tank...
Police Look For Hit-And-Run Driver At The Beach
Posted on April 05, 2008Friday night, two men were crossing the street in the rain in Jacksonville Beach. Out of nowhere a white car pulled out and hit one of them. Instead of calling for help, one of the men in the street says the driver got out of the car, took a look at the man he hit, then got back into the vehicle and drove away...
Jacksonville Woman Ejected In Single-Car Crash
Posted on April 04, 2008According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about 5,500 lives could be saved every year by increasing seat belt use to 90 percent. But at the best estimates, 20 percent of adults choose not to wear seat belts and as a direct result of that decision, every hour someone dies in the U...
Jacksonville Beach Access Denied After Boy Is Run Over
Posted on April 04, 2008Vehicle access to Huguenot Memorial Park in Duval County, Florida has been restricted after a five-year-old boy was run over by a truck in March. The boy was lounging in the sand and the driver said he didn't see him. The boy was taken to the hospital and treated for a hip injury...
Car Lodged Under Semitrailer
Posted on March 29, 2008Traffic on Interstate 95 just south of Jacksonville had to come to a crawl as the road was closed when a car drove underneath a semitrailer. The Florida Highway Patrol says that 41-year-old Robert Barker drove his Honda into a semi and continued driving until the front of his vehicle went under the truck's trailer...
Car Lodged Under Semitrailer
Posted on March 28, 2008Traffic on Interstate 95 just south of Jacksonville had to come to a crawl as the road was closed when a car drove underneath a semitrailer.The Florida Highway Patrol says that 41-year-old Robert Barker drove his Honda into a semi and continued driving until the front of his vehicle went under the truck's trailer...
9-Year-Old's Family Sues After Autistic Son Injured on School Bus
Posted on March 27, 2008It's tough to argue with the picture of the bruises. The parents of a 9-year old boy who is autistic and blind say that attendants on a First Student school bus abused their child and left marks on him. They are suing the bus attendants and First Student Inc...
Freak Accident with Bus Kills City Worker
Posted on March 26, 2008The likelihood of this happening is very slim. But one man who worked as a traffic engineer was in a bucket working on a traffic light. The driver of a Jacksonville Transportation Authority bus either didn't see the flag man or ignored him and struck the truck knocking the man 52-year old Cesar Solomon out of the bucket to fall to his death...
Florida Man Arrested For Hitting Police Cruiser in Georgia
Posted on March 26, 2008A Florida man is under arrest after ending a police pursuit by crashing his vehicle into a Georgia State Patrol deputy's car. Sunday about 1 in the afternoon, Theodore Thomas Wagner approached the security guard at the Bayer Corporation in Kingsland, Georgia...
9-Year-Old's Family Sues After Autistic Son Injured on School Bus
Posted on March 26, 2008It's tough to argue with the picture of the bruises.The parents of a 9-year old boy who is autistic and blind say that attendants on a First Student school bus abused their child and left marks on him. They are suing the bus attendants and First Student Inc...
Legislature Looking At Safer Streets
Posted on March 22, 2008More legislative action is proposed out of Tallahassee this session that might help keeps roads safer. One of the more innovative involves placing red-light cameras that would take a driver's image when they are caught running a red light. A violation could result in a fine...
Legislature Trying To Curtail Teen Auto Accidents
Posted on March 21, 2008Tallahassee lawmakers are trying to make driving safer for all of us by cracking down on left lane hogs. You've seen them going slow in the left passing lane while talking on their cell phone oblivious to lights. Often they aren't even wearing their seat belt...
First Coast Teens Learn Lessons of Drinking & Driving
Posted on March 20, 2008The attendance was double this year, a sure sign that this teenage education program has hit a nerve. It's called a STUD Rally - Stop Teen Underage Drinking and it looked more like a party at the Morocco Shrine Auditorium Thursday. High schoolers packed the place listening to DJs from 93...
Woman Sues Naval Hospital For Amputation
Posted on March 17, 2008June McDowell was supposed to be going in for knee replacement surgery. Instead something went terribly wrong during her 2005 surgery at the Naval Hospital Jacksonville. Now McDowell is suing. McDowell told Channel 4 the last two years have been a nightmare...
Operation Safe Ride Cracks Down on Spring Break Auto Accidents
Posted on March 15, 2008If you are thinking about speeding anytime this weekend, forget about it. That's because the Florida Highway Patrol will be monitoring you from aircraft, with lasers, radar and marked and unmarked cars on the Interstates, the Florida Turnpike and major and minor roads...
SUV Roof Crushes Kill Motorists
Posted on March 13, 2008In about 35 percent of auto accidents, death occurs where there is a rollover. In a SUV the death rate jumps to 59 percent. The key to surviving the crash, if you are not ejected, is the strength of the vehicle's roof. Right now the federal government is considering increasing roof strength, something that hasn't been done in passengers cars since 1974...
Jacksonville Roads Get Good Marks
Posted on March 12, 2008While cracked roads and potholes have been causing motorists to shell out about $400 extra in wear and tear on their cars, a national study says that Jacksonville's roads rank as "good" when compared to the nation. 9 percent are "mediocre" and 4 percent of our roads are rated as poor...
Atlantic Blvd. Auto Accident Kills One
Posted on March 09, 2008There is nothing more frightening that thinking that a drunk person may be behind the wheel of the car next to you. Several motorists were frightened Sunday when a pickup truck truck speeded down Atlantic Avenue then lost control and flew into the air...
Bicyclist Hit, Killed By Two Autos
Posted on March 08, 2008You have to wonder what he was thinking. A 42-year old man ridiing a bicycle in the dark. It was raining. Thomas Mattox, 42, was from St. Augustine but for some reason he was riding his bicycle about 10 pm on U.S. 17 in Putnam County. Mattox was crossing the road when he was hit by the first car...
I-95 Auto Accident Involving Car, Bus
Posted on March 07, 2008There was no match between a tour bus with 60 people on board and a car. The two tangled on Interstate 95 this afternoon. The bus won.
Bike Week Brings Death And Auto Accidents To Our Roads
Posted on March 04, 2008It happens every year and every year we report that more people have died on our local roads. Bike Week in Daytona brings motorcyclists from around the country. Some are wearing helmets, many are not since it is not required for adults in Florida to do so...
Two Gas Stations Fined Half Million for Shorting Customers
Posted on March 01, 2008You could say that two Kingsland truck stops were busted this month. Two weeks after state inspectors found that the pumps were shorting customers in the amount of gasoline they pumped, the fuels are now flowing after the owner agreed to pay a $500,000 fine...
Pickup Truck Occupants Ejected
Posted on February 29, 2008Neither man was wearing a seat belt. So when the pickup truck they were driving in Columbia County drove off the road, one man was killed and a second man was in critical condition Thursday evening. 53-year-old Ronald Turner was killed according to the Florida Highway Pastrol...
Car Found May Be Hit-and-Run Vehicle
Posted on February 28, 2008The Florida Highway Patrol says it has found a blue Mustang that may have caused a fatal crash Monday. Parts of Roosevelt Boulevard were shut down for hours and a retired Jacksonville police detective was killed. Three others were hurt when an Acura belong to 20-year-old Matthew Borg crossed the median at Roosevelt Boulevard then went airborne...
Keeping Kids Safe in Non-Traffic Auto Accidents
Posted on February 28, 2008President Bush today signed the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act. It attempts to prevent, albeit too slowly, many of the accidents we report about here that happen in a family's driveway - that is accidents where a child is run over because a relative can't see around their SUV...
I-10 Westbound Reopened After Fatal Auto Accident
Posted on February 23, 2008I-10 has reopened in the westbound direction after a fatal accident involving a semi truck Saturday morning closed two lanes. It appears the rain may have been the cause. A semi being driver by 47-year old Steven Stoff began moving counter clockwise as he was changing lanes...
State Farm Won't Write New Policies
Posted on February 23, 2008State Farm Insurance is Florida's largest private insurer writing policies to cover homeowners in case of loss. State Farm has decided to stop writing policies in Florida. Don't expect that to hurt the 1 million currently with a homeowner's policy covered by State Farm, but the state run insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance will be expected to pick up the slack...
Obese Are Not Wearing Seat Belts in Auto Accidents
Posted on February 21, 2008Often we write here about a person's failure to wear a seat belt as being a contributing factor to injury. It's tough to figure out why people wouldn't wear a seat belt knowing your chance of surviving an auto accident is greatly increased. A new study sheds some light on that...
Baby Not Hurt In Single Car Auto Accident
Posted on February 21, 2008This mother had the good sense to buckle her son into his car seat--before she got into a single car accident this morning. No word on what caused the accident on Julington Creek Road around 9:15. For some reason the mother drove her Oldsmobile into a ditch and sustained life-threatening injuries...
Driver Hits School Bus Injures Her Two Children
Posted on February 16, 2008This is an auto accident that could have had a very different outcome. A woman driving a small SUV ran a stop sign early Thursday morning and hit a school bus. It happened in northwest Jacksonville as the bus was traveling to school. The driver was injured as was one of her two young children in the backseat...
Elderly Woman Walking Hit By Elderly Driver
Posted on February 15, 2008Dora Krone was either 91 or 101 depending on whom you listen to. But her friends say she liked to be active and frequently walked for exercise, even though she used a walker. Dora was doing just that Wednesday about 5 p.m. when she was hit be a car at the intersection of North Main and Sycamore Street...
State Road 9A- What You Need To Know
Posted on February 13, 2008For the next several months, nothing will be the same on the 9A project that's underway. This $831 million project will be great when it's completed this fall, all part of the I-295 beltway around the city, but until then you might want to take notes, or at least check a variety of web sites if you are going to travel east or west on or off 9A anytime soon...
Man Gets 30 Years in Prison for Auto Accident
Posted on February 13, 2008Back in November 2006, Edward Abruscato ran a stop sign. That caused a chain reaction of vehicles that killed two teenage girls and their father and injured four others. Today a Clay County judge sentenced Abruscato to the next thirty years in prison...
Eight DUIs No Auto Accidents Gets Man Four Years Prison
Posted on February 09, 2008The judge told the man he was lucky. When 48-year-old John Craig Homans of Brunswick Georgia pleaded no contest to DUI and driving with a suspended license, Judge Wendy Berger told him "You're lucky you haven't killed yourself or somebody else". Homans was sentenced to four years in prison for his eight DUI offense...
Auto Hits Man on Bike Crossing Beach Boulevard
Posted on February 09, 2008Crossing Beach Boulevard can be tricky on foot and especially difficult on a bicycle. That's what happened to an unfortunate bike rider Friday night when he tried to cross Beach in front of a bus. A vehicle heading west was trying to drive around a bus in front of it that was slowing or stopping...
Woman Straps Beer Into Seatbelt, Baby Is Not
Posted on February 07, 2008Sounds like this driver had her priorities straight. 20-year-old Amber Tedrick jumped in the back seat to go to a nearby grocery store to get food for a Super Bowl party. The driver, Tina Darlene Williams, 46, was an acquaintance. Tedrick buckled in her 16 month old since she didn't have a car seat in this car...
Motorcyclist Hit and Killed by Wife in Auto Accident
Posted on February 07, 2008It only takes a moment of distraction to take a life. We report here countless times about people who might have been looking for a CD, or answering a cell phone. Their life is over, or someone they love. That's what happened to a Green Cove Springs couple...
Single Car Auto Accident Kills One
Posted on February 02, 2008We've mentioned here a few times that drinking and driving don't mix. You don't need much more proof than the story of this 37-year-old who died behind the wheel after police say he was drinking. Scott Stanley Mortgomery and a friend were driving north on Lem Turned Road...
Toddler Hurt in Auto Accident on I-95, Driver Flees
Posted on February 01, 2008The two year old was strapped into his car seat but ended up hospitalized Thursday when a semi truck changed lanes into the path of the car in which he was riding. It happened on I-95 in St. Johns County near Flagler County. Amazingly the semi driver pulled over to the emergency lane, looked out of the cab to see the car overturned and the baby ejected...
Officer Killed by Drunk Driver Auto Accident
Posted on February 01, 2008Not that there was much doubt about the cause of the auto accident, but a man who drove into a car driven by a Jacksonville police officer last October has been charged with DUI manslaughter. 57-year old Joseph May was driving a van near New Berlin Road and Heckscher Drive around 11:30 October 13th...
Auto Accident on Ocala Runway Hits Home
Posted on January 30, 2008He was laid to rest today. 19-year old Jacob Casey was a football player for Jacksonville University but his early years were in Ocala. That's where he died last Saturday on a joy ride with four other young men all under the age of 20.
DUI Woman Could Get 25 Years for Auto Accident
Posted on January 26, 2008Lisa Green appeared before a judge Thursday morning facing two counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury and one count of DUI manslaughter. Green, 43, allegedly got drunk and drove her Mitsubishi off the road at I-95 and Baymeadows just days before Thanksgiving...
JU Freshman Among Five Killed In Ocala Auto Crash
Posted on January 26, 2008A local student at Jacksonville University is among the five teenage boys killed in an Ocala runway crash in an exclusive "fly-in" community. Jacksonville University football player Jacob Casey was a freshman and 19 years old. For some reason he and four of his friends ranging in age from 18 to 20, piled inito a $75,000 BMW in the exclusive Ocala community known as Jumbolair Aviation Estates...
Allstate On The Hot Seat
Posted on January 24, 2008Allstate Insurance executives are expected to be called by Tallahassee investigators early next month to talk about how the insurance giant makes rates and pays claims. It's part of the state's investigation into how Big Insurance does business in Florida...
Everyone At Fault in Fire Engine Accident
Posted on January 24, 2008It is a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong drivers involved. Two weeks ago, a truck and a fire engine collided at an intersection. Four firefighters were injured. Luckily no one was killed. Now after an investigation by the FHP, no charges will be filed because everyone was at fault.
73-Year-Old SUV Passenger Killed When Car Collides With School Bus
Posted on January 19, 2008Luckily no children were hurt on a school bus when it collided with an SUV on Thursday. But the passenger in the SUV was killed. 73-year-old John Robert Ryder of Zephyrhills, Florida was riding with driver, 70-year-old Carole Jean Ryder in Yulee Thursday afternoon...
MySpace Teens in Trouble for Felony Child Pornography
Posted on January 17, 2008A young teen poses nude and a friend put the image on their MySpace page. It probably happens more often than us parents would like to think. Afterall social networking is an easy way to stay connected to people and avoid the unpleasantries of face to face encounters...
Driver Convicted of Killing Three in Head-On Crash
Posted on January 17, 2008It was a simple act of running a stop sign on county road 215 in Middleburg. But that split second mistake took three lives and on Tuesday it sent the driver to prison, possibly for the rest of his life. Edward Abruscato, 40 was found guilty by a Clay County jury...
No More Good Hands Allstate Auto Written in Florida
Posted on January 16, 2008It was a bit of a standoff in Tallahassee today between the state Insurance Commission Kevin McCarty and Allstate executives. Seems they were under subpoena to bring documents into a hearing. They didn't. Allstate decided the request was "irrelevant...
Search Is On For Pickup Truck Linked to Hit-And-Run
Posted on January 12, 2008Flagler County was the scene of a still unsolved hit-and-run Thursday night and the FHP would like your help in finding a pickup truck that might be involved. The pedestrian was hit crossing state Road 100 in Flagler County. According to witnesses, the driver of a two-tone Dodge pickup was spotted passing another car and then striking Frederick Dunham of Bunnell...
Friday Deadline for Thousands of Tobacco Cases
Posted on January 11, 2008An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 cases will be filed in Florida courts today under a deadline set to file lawsuits for smoking related illnesses. A 2006 state Supreme Court decision decertified a class-action punative verdict of $145 billion, the largest award ever granted against the tobacco companies, but directed injured smokers to file individual lawsuits...
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