Florida’s summer is well underway, and the hot weather is a perfect excuse to get out on the water. With close to 900,000 registered vessels in the state, chances are that you or someone you know owns a boat and is planning to use it this season. Getting out on a lake or the ocean can be a great way to spend some time with friends or family, as long as you take some safety precautions to keep yourself and everyone else on the boat safe. Unfortunately, boat owners fail to take precautions and end up injuring themselves or others far too often. In 2013 alone, there were 420 reported boating injuries and 62 reported boating fatalities in Florida. In fact, we hold the dubious title of State with the Most Annual Boating Accidents, coming in well ahead of other coastal states such as California and Texas. So what’s causing these boating accidents in our state? Here’s a look at just a few of the most common causes:
1. Inexperienced Boat Operators
Florida isn’t particularly strict when it comes to requirements for operating a personal watercraft. You have to be over the age of 14, and if you were born on or after January 1, 1988, you have to pass a boating safety education class, but that’s about the extent of it. This means that many boat operators lack experience and confidence when it comes to navigating waterways, and their lack of expertise can be particularly dangerous during the warm season, when lots of other boaters set sail. If you want to rent or buy a boat and have limited experience operating one, keep in mind that you can still choose to take a boat education class even if it isn’t legally required. It’s also a good idea to make sure any passengers you plan to take with you are familiar with boat safety rules.
2. Mechanical Failure
If you own and operate a boat, it’s your responsibility to perform routine maintenance checks to ensure everything is working before you take it out on the water. When boat owners or rental companies fail to properly inspect vessels, their negligence can result in serious accidents. To ensure safe, worry-free sailing, regularly check the engine, steering, rescue capacity, communication system, and navigational lights (if there’s any chance you’ll be out after dark). If you’re not experienced with boat maintenance, take your vessel to a professional. This is a situation where attempting to limit expenses by skipping the maintenance can cost you dearly. Companies that rent boats have a duty of care to their customers and should be performing regular maintenance checks on all their vessels; however, you should still ask the boating company if the boat you’re renting has recently been inspected. If the boating company assures you that the boat will function perfectly and you later experience a mechanical failure that endangers you and your passengers, you should speak with a boating accident lawyer as soon as possible.
3. Weather
The weather can change quickly in Florida, and even if the skies look clear when you head out, you may find yourself unexpectedly facing torrential rain or high winds. Inclement weather may be too difficult for a boat operator or even a particular type of vessel to handle, leading to accidents such as a boat capsizing or even sinking. As a boat operator, you should always check the weather forecast in the morning before you head out. If there’s a chance of rain, high winds, or rough seas (for people boating in the ocean), don’t take your boat out. In case the forecast does look good, you should still check your safety equipment ahead of time and be prepared for sudden weather changes.
4. Alcohol
While it might be tempting to crack open a beer or two while you’re out on a boat, you need to stay sober if you’re the driver. The use of alcohol is the single biggest cause of boating accidents, accounting for a third of recreational boating fatalities. Just like driving under the influence, drinking and operating a boat is illegal under federal law. Sadly, not everyone recognizes the risks of operating a boat while drinking—or they assume that they’ll be fine since there’s “less to run into” on water than on roads. However, there are still other boats, jet skis, swimmers, docks, and other obstacles that an impaired boat driver can hit. Drunk boat operators and drunk passengers are also at increased risk for falling overboard and being unable to get the assistance they need.
The globalization of food production and distribution has made it so that American consumers can go to their local grocery store and find items from every corner of the world. While many appreciate the diversity and convenience, our food distribution system also makes it easier for more people to get sick—if one batch of bad food is shipped out all around the country, consumers from the east to the west coast may suffer the serious effects of foodborne illnesses, and it becomes difficult for the distributor to recall all the bad units before they do damage. Regardless, it’s the manufacturer’s duty to do everything in their power to stop consumers from purchasing and eating contaminated food, no matter how widespread its distribution.
We’ve seen several major food recalls in the last few weeks alone. Lansal Inc. was recently forced to recall seven tons of their hummus products, which are marketed under the Trader Joe’s and Archer Farms labels, due to fear of Listeria contamination. Listeria is an organism that can cause high fever, headaches, nausea, and muscle aches. There have been fatal cases of Listeria infections, mostly in children and adults over 65.
Just before Memorial Day, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced a recall in nine states (including Florida) for beef that may have been contaminated with E. coli. E. coli causes severe gastrointestinal distress and has symptoms that typically last for three or four days, but the bacteria can be fatal for children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune system. The USDA named Gordon Food Service Marketplace and Giorgio’s Italian Delicatessen as two chains in Florida that may have received beef tainted with E. coli, and consumers who bought beef with a production date between March 31st and April 18th are urged to throw the meat out or return it for a refund.
Food Contamination Can Turn into an Epidemic
So far, there have been no reported Listeria infections, as a result, of Lansal Inc.’s hummus—the company voluntarily recalled their product after routine testing turned up traces of Listeria–but eleven people in four different states are suspected to have become ill due to the recalled beef, and the USDA recently expanded their recall to include nearly 2 billion pounds of ground beef. Although it’s unfortunate that even eleven people have become sick, it’s a relatively small scale outbreak compared to some of the major food contamination issues of the last several years.
According to the CDC, roughly 1 in 6 Americans fall ill, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die, as a result, of foodborne diseases every year. One large recall of a popular food product or ingredient can leave hundreds of people sick, and dozens hospitalized.
The largest food recall in the US occurred in 2008, when the Peanut Corporation of America (CPA) issued a warning about millions of dollars’ worth of peanuts and peanut products that were believed to be contaminated with E. coli. The warning, unfortunately, came too late for the more than 700 people across the country who became ill and at least nine people who died after eating the contaminated products.
Massive foodborne illness outbreaks like this should be a wake-up call to those working in the food processing and manufacturing industry. Consumers generally trust that the food available to them at grocery stores and restaurants has been thoroughly inspected to ensure its quality, and not only is food contamination a breach of trust, it’s dangerous to a wide swath of people nationwide.
Food manufacturers should perform standard tests for bacteria and other health-hazards as soon as food arrives at their facility and again when it has been through production. If there is a contaminant, this will help food manufacturers determine whether it’s coming from their own facility or the supplier. Food manufacturers and distributors also need to keep detailed records of both suppliers and recipients so that they can warn consumers of any contaminated products as soon as possible. The industry needs to take all reasonable actions to keep consumers safe, or they risk being liable for releasing a defective product.
What Consumers Can Do to Stay Safe
While it is the responsibility of the food supplier, manufacturer, and distributor to ensure that their product is safe to eat, there are precautions that consumers can take to prevent falling ill when a foodborne disease goes through the supply chain unnoticed.
Check sell-by dates. Some grocery stores will sell food products up to or even after the sell-by date, often putting the sooner-to-expire items at the front of the shelf with the offer of a discount. This can be especially dangerous when it comes to bagged greens, which provide a better environment for E. coli to grow the older they are.
Don’t leave perishables in your cart for too long. If you’re doing a big weekly grocery shopping trip, load up the non-perishable items first and grab perishable items like meat, produce, and dairy last. If you have a long drive home from the grocery store, consider bringing a cooler to stick the perishable items in.
Wash hands while preparing food. You should always wash your hands with soap and warm water before you start preparing food and after handling raw meat or any other animal products. You should also use hot water and soap to wash any cutting boards, kitchen surfaces, or utensils that you used when preparing your food.
Invest in a meat thermometer. If you don’t already own a meat thermometer, it’s well worth purchasing. In order to ensure that you’ve killed any bacteria, check to see that your meat is cooked to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you do suspect that you’ve become sick, as a result, of something you ate, see a doctor as soon as possible. One reason foodborne illnesses are able to become so widespread is because the first few people who become sick do not always recognize that their symptoms are related to contaminated food.
If you or a loved one becomes seriously ill or even have to be hospitalized because of a contaminated food product, you should focus on recovering first, and then contact an injury attorney who has experience with defective product cases. Food manufacturers need to be held to a high standard of safety, and you need to hold them responsible if they caused you to suffer.
About the Author:
Jeffrey Braxton is a trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale who has devoted his 22-year career to the practice of personal injury law. As lead trial attorney for The South Florida Injury Law Firm, Jeff has litigated thousands of cases and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an exclusive group of attorneys who have resolved cases in excess of one million dollars.
Last November, “The Fast and the Furious” actor Paul Walker and former race car driver Roger Rodas lost their lives after crashing a high-performance Porsche in Santa Clarita, California. Although the report from the crash investigation says that the accident was caused by speeding (93 mph), Kristine Rodas is still looking for answers to explain her husband’s death.
Ms. Rodas recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche Cars North America, claiming that her husband’s 2005 Porsche Carrera GT—which is capable of going from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds and has a top speed of 205 miles per hour—was not equipped with a proper crash cage and safety features in the gas tank that could have saved its occupants’ lives. The suit also alleges that a mechanical malfunction forced Rodas off the road.
It’s less common to hear about this kind of solo-vehicle wrongful death lawsuit than it is to hear about multi-vehicle accidents in which one driver was clearly reckless or negligent. However, there are legitimate reasons for filing a wrongful death suit in solo-vehicle accident cases: if unsafe road conditions or a manufacturer defect resulted in a fatal accident, then the surviving family of the accident victim has a right to hold the negligent party responsible.
Cases in Which a Car Accident Results in Wrongful Death
If you’re considering filing a wrongful death lawsuit after the loss of a loved one in a car accident, the first thing you need to do is determine who was responsible for the accident. Some examples of a negligent party include:
• Another driver who was intoxicated, distracted, sleep-deprived, inexperienced, or driving recklessly for another reason
•The city or state, if they failed to maintain safe road conditions (e.g. if the city knew about but did not fill in the large pothole that caused your loved one to lose control of their vehicle)
•The vehicle manufacturer, if their vehicle contained a defective part such as faulty brakes or failing suspension, and that defective part caused a fatal accident
Although there is always an official investigation into fatal car accidents, as there was in the Paul Walker/Roger Rodas case, you may need to hire your own investigative team to determine the cause of the accident.
Initial Steps to Strengthening Your Case
File a wrongful death lawsuit within the statute of limitations. If you suspect that your loved one died as a result of a third party’s negligence, you should contact an experienced attorney and file a lawsuit as soon as possible, in part because it will be easier to reconstruct the accident the sooner you file, and also because you are legally required to make your case within a certain time frame. The statute of limitations for wrongful death cases varies from state to state; in Florida it is two years.
Gather concrete evidence. In some cases, your attorney may hire an investigative team to return to the scene of the evidence to look for things such as skid marks and road flaws. The specialists will likely look closely at the car(s) involved in the accident as well. Meanwhile, your attorney may subpoena footage from traffic cameras, surveillance cameras, or even someone who filmed the accident on their phone, if that sort of evidence is available. Interview witnesses. If anyone witnessed the accident, your attorney should meet with them as soon as possible, since memories become faultier with the pass of time.
Present your case in court. You should always have a well-qualified wrongful death attorney represent you in this type of case since so much is at stake, but more so if you are going up against a car manufacturer or insurance company. These organizations will do everything they can to prove your loved one’s actions contributed to the accident, and you’ll need a lawyer who has handled this type of case to counter their arguments and give you the best chance of recovering compensation.
About the Author:
Jeffrey Braxton is a trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale who has devoted his 22-year career to the practice of personal injury law. As lead trial attorney for The South Florida Injury Law Firm, Jeff has litigated thousands of cases and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an exclusive group of attorneys who have resolved cases in excess of one million dollars.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that texting while driving is dangerous, all too many drivers are still deciding that using their smartphones can’t wait until they get to their destination. One of the latest tragic tales of a texting accident comes from North Carolina, where a young woman died seconds after posting a Facebook status about Pharrell Williams’ popular song “Happy.”
Police believe that 32-year-old Courtney Ann Sanford was driving in High Point, NC, when she posted the Facebook comment “The happy song makes me so HAPPY” at 8:33 pm on April 24th. Less than a minute after that comment went live, the High Point Police Department received a call about a car accident. The collision occurred when Sanford crossed the center median and drove headlong into an oncoming truck. The truck driver, 73-year-old John Wallace Thompson, was thankfully not injured, but Sanford’s Toyota Corolla caught on fire, and Sanford died at the scene.
Investigators found that Sanford was wearing a seat belt, but that it wasn’t secured properly. Police have also determined that she was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and that the most likely cause of the accident was Sanford’s use of her cell phone. High Point Lieutenant Chris Weisner said of this preventable tragedy, “In a matter of seconds, a life was over just so she could notify some friends that she was happy. As sad as it is, it is a grim reminder for everyone… you just have to pay attention while you are in the car.”
Despite Texting Bans, Distracted Driving is Still a Problem
In January 2014, Pew Research reported that 90% of American adults own a cell phone, and 58% of American adults have a smartphone. We’re living in a constantly connected culture, where people have become used to being able to reach their friends and family or access the internet wherever they go—even if they’re behind the wheel.
With anywhere from 387,000 to 421,000 Americans being injured in distracted driving-related accidents each year, state laws are finally beginning to catch up and discourage risky driving behavior. 43 states, as well as DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, currently ban all texting while driving (Florida enacted a texting ban just this last October). 12 states also prohibit the use of all handheld phones while driving, although hands-free devices like those that use Bluetooth are still acceptable.
Unfortunately, the penalties for texting and driving vary from state to state and are often not severe enough to deter drivers who are truly determined to use their phone while they’re on the go. In Florida, for example, texting while driving is only a secondary offense (meaning a police officer has to have a primary reason for pulling a driver over before ticketing them for texting), and a first-time offense results in a fine of $30—little more than a slap on the wrist. In North Carolina, where Sanford’s accident occurred, texting while driving is a primary offense, and violators face a $100 fine, as well as court costs. Although North Carolina’s law is stricter than Florida’s, it still was not a strong enough deterrent to keep Sanford from using Facebook while driving.
Technology distractions are still a huge problem for drivers, with the CDC estimating that 1 in 5 crashes resulting in injuries were caused by distracted driving. In spite of texting bans and statistics that prove how hazardous distracted driving is, drivers who want to use their phone continue to get into the mindset that they’re capable of multitasking behind the wheel.
We Think We Can Multitask (But We Can’t)
Perhaps one of the most common rationales behind texting and driving is that the driver thinks they are “good at multitasking.” They may think that they’ve got glancing back and forth between their screen and the road down to a science, and that their acute perception makes them better at texting while driving than other people on the road.
In reality, the human brain doesn’t multitask in the way many of us think it does. David Strayer, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Utah, has been working to bust the myth that people can successfully juggle multiple tasks at once. He told Psychology Today, “Our brains don’t do two things at once; instead, we rapidly switch between tasks, putting heavy burdens on attention, memory, and focus.” He added, “Talking on a cellphone while driving (perhaps the most ubiquitous type of multi-tasking) leaves people as cognitively impaired as if they’d had two or three drinks.”
Note that Mr. Strayer is discussing talking on the phone, an activity that doesn’t even take a driver’s eyes off the road. Texting or posting social media updates, which take a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds, obviously creates an even bigger impairment.
What Will Get Drivers to Stop Texting?
Although it was a horrible event, Sanford’s fatal accident – which received wide coverage due to its tragic irony—will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to other drivers who have thus far paid little attention to state texting bans. Sanford’s accident shows just how quickly someone can go from using their phone while driving to losing their life, all because they couldn’t wait until they parked to update their Facebook status.
We can only hope that these personal, emotional stories hit home more than distracted driving statistics and texting laws have so far. Anyone who has ever texted or updated their Facebook status while driving should reflect on Sanford’s accident. Maybe doing this will help them to recognize that they put themselves and other drivers in a potentially dangerous situation by allowing technology to distract them. While many of us consider it a modern necessity to constantly be available to our online contacts, we need to remember that no matter what message we need to share, it can always wait until we get to our destination or find a spot to safely pull over.
Each year, thousands of people are injured in slip and fall accidents. Sometimes, injuries sustained from these accidents can be severe, particularly in instances where an individual has preexisting medical problems, say in his or her hip. In certain slip and fall cases, the damages sustained can be staggering.
Because slip and fall cases can result in such serious injuries, lawsuit payouts following these cases can rack up some high sums. It’s not uncommon to see slip and fallawardsreach six figures, or even rise to the millions.
In one case, Marriott International was ordered to award $1.2 million for injuries sustained by one of its hotel guests. In this case, the court had to consider not only the case of the guest’s shattered ankle and the two surgeries that followed the fall, but also the arthritis that had developed in the ankle, the fact that the woman now walks with a limp, and countless other problems that tie in with emotional and physical suffering. Marriott International plans to appeal the $1.2 million verdict.
When payout amounts get so high, it’s common for major companies to argue and try to appeal these verdicts. During those appeal cases, the question inevitably arises: Should there be a cap on slip and fall awards?
What Would a Slip and Fall Cap Mean?
To individuals who sustain injuries following a fall, high slip and fall payouts seem fair. For defendants, though, high payouts are rarely as appealing, especially when the award numbers climb into the multiple thousands or millions.
When award prices get this high, one of the first arguments that people jump to is that there should be a cap on these types of awards. In injury cases, this debate has been going on for years. Usually the cap people advocate for relates to the amount that can be paid towards “non-economic” damages (that is, damages that are difficult to put a price tag on, such as emotional trauma). In almost all cases, a cap would not apply to “economic damages” (namely, those that include set amounts, such as hospital bills).
In many states, non-economic caps are already in place. Usually, the cap is set somewhere around $250,000 to $500,000. This means that, regardless of the details of your claim and your level of suffering, you will never be awarded more than the set amount.
The Business Perspective
Aside from the obvious benefits that award caps would have for defendants in slip and fall cases, it has also been argued that limiting damage payouts can reduce liability insurance losses in the long term. Some say that capping non-economic damages means that insurance companies will not have to fork over large sums, which means they won’t be trying to recuperate the losses from citizens by increasing premiums.
It has also been argued that capping damage payouts would lessen medical expenses across the board. Advocates claim that damage caps would allow doctors to be less fearful of being sued, meaning that they would no longer need to practice so much “defensive” medicine. (“Defensive” medicine refers to the practices of ordering an excessive number of tests and procedures to effectively cover all possibilities and lessen the likelihood of a lawsuit.) If defensive medical practices decrease, the cost of health care would go down,as well.
Damage Caps: Who Do They Benefit?
Contrary to the findings noted above, information from a 2006 report from the Confessional Budget Office showed that,“Lower premiums alone would not cut overall health care costs.” According to this report, malpractice costsare, in fact,marginal when considered in light of the wider realm of health care spending, which means that lowering them would have very little impact on overall health care costs.
In the above article, Chris Mather, the Communications Director for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, states, “There’s nothing to back up the correlation between the high cost of premiums the doctors pay for medical malpractice insurance and lawsuits. This is about the insurance company wanting to pay the least amount possible for injury. … The civil justice system, the courtroom, is [the victims’] last resort. It’s the last place they can go to get what they need.”
Since damage caps likely will have no significant effect on health care costs, it is very unlikely that you or anyone who files a slip and fall claim would see any benefit from these caps.On the contrary, damage caps would only work against you.
The Victims’ Perspective
First, caps could discourage slip and fall victims from filing lawsuits. Lawsuits can be exhausting and expensive, so if the possible award amount is not substantial enough, individuals with legitimate cases may choose not to go all the way.This is unfair, as all injury victims should be entitled to plead their case.
Furthermore, if an injured individual decides not to file a suit, the responsible parties will be let off the hook.Not be held accountable for their actions means they may continue to endanger others’ lives through their recklessness or negligence.
Lastly and most importantly, if you’re the party injured in a slip and fall accident, you might not get what is due to you.Every slip and fall case is different, and the legitimacy of your claim should not depend on a cap that was set in place by people who have no knowledge of you or your claim. Caps like these would essentially concede that your injuries and your accompanying emotional and physical suffering are worth no more than whatever pre-determined amount has been settled on as a cap.
You deserve more.
Victims of slip and fall cases are entitled to financial reparations for their pain and suffering . Calls for caps are essentially calls to sweep these claims under the rug, claiming that victims’ injuries are invalid or not worth adequate compensation. But you deserve to be treated with fairness and respect. If your injuries exceed the cap’s value, you should receive the total payment that you are justly entitled to.
We’ve come a long way in how we handle personal injury cases, with developments such as cloud software making it easier than ever to transfer important documents, and video surveillance streamlining the collection of physical evidence in certain accident cases.
Of course, just as technology can be a boon to claimants and personal injury lawyers, it also has its downsides. In this post, I’m going to look at two ways technology can actually damage a personal injury case and end on a more optimistic note by listing three ways technology can help.
Technology That Can Harm Your Case
1. Social media. There are a staggering 1.3 billion monthly active users on Facebook, and there’s a good chance you’re one of them. Unfortunately, your Facebook account may be a liability in your personal injury case. Even if you know you have a legitimate personal injury case, you can’t be sure that the defense attorney won’t search your Facebook account for evidence they can twist.
For example, if you injured your back, but post a picture of yourself dancing in your living room, the DA could point to that as evidence that you’re faking your injury, even if in reality you only briefly posed for a “dancing” picture to show you were keeping your spirits up. The best thing you can do in your personal injury case is disable your Facebook account and personal blog, if you have one. You should also be very careful not to post any information about your accident on any social media outlets.
2. Surveillance technology. Although it might sound extreme, some defendants who risk losing a lot of money to your lawsuit might hire a private investigator to search for evidence to use against you. In addition to trawling your social media pages, the investigator might use videos or photos in an attempt to show that your injury is not as serious as you claim.
This is important to keep in mind, because many accident victims have times when their pain is not as severe as others, and might take advantage of these “good” times to do things outside or in public that they might not be able to do on days with worse pain. While your case is ongoing, keep in mind that you may be under surveillance in public areas, so you need to think about the message your behavior will send.
Technology That Can Help Your Personal Injury Case
1. iPads. It’s becoming fairly common practice for many accident victims to use iPads or other tablets as they recover from serious injuries. These tablets not only help them perform day-to-day activities that they might not be able to otherwise, it also allows them to stay in touch with their attorney using video chat apps such as Skype and FaceTime. It can even be used to help stroke victims or other people who have lost the ability to speak to better communicate with their family, friends, and legal counselor.
2. Google Glass. A law firm in Arizona has just launched a new program aimed at equipping personal injury clients with Google Glass. The program, called Glass Action, lets clients send emails and other important documents to their attorneys with only a voice command or the blink of an eye, which is especially beneficial for amputees or other injury victims who can no longer use their hands. It also allows clients to record their day-to-day activities, which can be valuable in proving that their injury has had a serious impact on the way they lead their lives.
3. Black boxes in cars and trucks. I handle a lot of auto accident cases, and I know that one of the biggest struggles for clients can be producing concrete evidence that the other driver was at fault. This could change if black boxes become mandatory in all new cars and trucks, something that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently pushing for.
Black boxes, which are already being added to some cars and trucks in the US, record important crash data such as speed, acceleration, braking, and even whether or not the driver was wearing a seatbelt. This is huge for the field of personal injury law. Imagine, for example, that a commercial truck crashed into a van and injured the driver, but there were no witnesses other than the two people in the crash. Black box data from the truck could be used to prove that the truck driver lost control and accelerated into the van, or didn’t start braking until moments before the impact.
The takeaway is that the face of personal injury law is changing, largely for the better. It’s becoming easier for attorneys and clients to communicate, and it’s also becoming simpler to produce concrete evidence (since the plaintiff always has the burden of proof). It’s important for both attorneys and victims to think about how modern technology can work in their favor, rather than against them.
About the Author:
Jeffrey Braxton is a trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale who has devoted his 22-year career to the practice of personal injury law. As lead trial attorney for The South Florida Injury Law Firm, Jeff has litigated thousands of cases and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an exclusive group of attorneys who have resolved cases in excess of one million dollars.
It’s pretty hard to ignore the statistics surrounding helmet use and motorcycle accidents.
Head injuries are the most common cause of motorcycle fatalities, and even when motorcyclists survive a crash, injuries are generally more serious and long-lasting for riders and passengers who weren’t wearing helmets. According to estimates from the US Department of Transportation, wearing a helmet reduces a rider’s chance of dying in a crash by about 37%. A study by the Governor’s Highway Safety Administration also found that 44% of all people fatally injured in a motorcycle accident were not wearing helmets. Additionally, the GHSA found that wearing a helmet saved the lives of 1,829 riders in the course of a year.
With everything we know about helmet safety, it seems like a no-brainer that bikers should be using them. Unfortunately, many bikers are still unwilling to give up the feel of the wind in their hair when they ride. Riders who go helmetless argue that they’re exercising their freedom to choose, and that if they want to increase their odds of being in a fatal accident, it’s their right.
But it’s not just the individual rider who is being affected. If a motorcycle rider offers a ride to a friendand doesn’t have a helmet to offer him or her, then he or she is also at a greater risk for suffering a fatal head injury. Refusing to wear a helmet also sends a message to other riders that helmets are not a part of “true” motorcycle culture,perpetuating the idea that protective equipmentis ultimately optional.
The True Cost of Not Wearing a Helmet
It’s not just motorcycle riders and passengers who are affected by a rider’s failure to wear a helmet. Dr. Lori Terryberry-Spohr, a physician at the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Nebraska, told The Economist that she can always tell which motorcycle accident victims weren’t wearing a helmet because they suffer internal bleeding and cell death across large areas of their bodies. Those helmetless riders who actually survive typically rack up about $1.3 million in direct medical expenses. As you might imagine, this far exceeds the insurance coverage that most motorcyclists have. Because of this, taxpayers end up footing about 63% of the bill.
If the loss of human life is not enough of an incentive, more states should be motivated to enact universal helmet laws based on the cost to their taxpayers. However, surprisingly few states have laws that require all motorcycle riders to wear a helmet.
States Shun Universal Helmet Laws
Currently, only 19 states and the District of Columbia have universal helmet laws. Three states – Illinois, Iowa, and New Hampshire – have no helmet laws whatsoever, meaning that even child passengers can ride along without a helmet. Every other state only requires helmets for riders under a certain age, usually 17 or 18. In Florida, riders can shun helmets as long as they’re 21 or older and carry at least $10,000 in insurance.
Some opponents of helmet laws say that they support the idea of wearing helmets, but that riders should come to the decision to wear a helmet on their own, without being forced into it by the government. They say that wearing a helmet is the smart thing to do, and responsible riders will realize that.
Unfortunately, not nearly enough riders are willing to wear helmets if they’re not legally required to. This week’s Daytona Beach Bike Week, one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the country, emphasized that fact. If you look through images of the gathering, it appears that the overwhelming majority of riders in attendance chose not to wear helmets. The event saw a total of four motorcycle accident fatalities, at least two of which involved head injuries to riders who were not wearing helmets.
States Need to Reassess Helmet Laws
The 33 states that do not currently have universal helmet laws should look to the 19 states that do andacknowledge the positive benefits this type of enforcement can have. The CDC has found that states with universal helmet laws have four times the cost savings of states that don’t. While a whopping 64% of riders in states without universal helmet laws choose to ride without helmets, only 12% of riders in states with universal laws go helmetless. As a result, the states with universal laws see fewer serious and fatal motorcycle injuries, which results in lower medical costs and loss of productivity costs.
It’s time that Florida, and all the other states with partial or no helmet laws, push to adopt universal laws. Of course, this change won’t happen overnight, and in the meantime it’s important that riders choose to wear helmets regardless of what state they live in. There may still be situations where riders get into accidents through no fault of their own, but by wearing a helmet, they can give themselves the best possible chance of surviving and recovering.
Some jobs certainly don’t attract as much attention as others. For instance, telling someone you work as a plumber or on a construction site may not impress them as much as telling them you are an architect, photojournalist, or an astronaut. But construction jobs are some of the most underrated, if not for the growth and rewarding opportunities, then at least for the many dangers and risks workers are constantly exposed to. It may not be included in the job description, but working on construction sites often leads to injury, long-term disability, and death.
According to numbers published by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, 3,945 workers died in private industries in 2012, of which nearly 20 percent were from the construction industry. The “Fatal Four” reasons of accidents of the industry include:
Falls – the number one reason for worker injuries and fatalities, accounting for 36 percent of all deaths in the construction industry.
Electrocutions – More than 60 people have been electrocuted, accounting for 9 percent of all deaths in the construction industry.
Hit by object – considering the size and weight of materials and equipment used on construction sites, any contact between them and workers is likely to result in injury and even death. 78 workers were struck by objects in 2012, making up 10 percent of all fatalities in the construction industry.
Caught in/between – 2 percent of workers who are caught in/between equipment on construction sites lose their lives (13 people died this way in 2012).
Despite the numerous efforts of OHSA to increase workers’ safety and bring forth effective ways to prevent injury and fatality in the workplace, the rate of injury and death has not decreased proportionally to their efforts. Workers may be much safer now than ten years ago (6,217 deaths in 1992 compared to 4,383 in 2012), but numbers provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show no significant difference between the rate of fatality reported between 2009 and 2012. For instance, the number of fatalities in 2009 was 879, only slightly higher than that recorded in 2012, of 849; the rate of injury and illness cases per 100 workers has dropped only by a few percentages from 2009 to 2012. Whether due to faulty equipment, poor communication between team members, or improper risk management training, workers continue to lose their lives in the workplace. Here are six reasons why:
1. Attitude of Workers towards Safety
Basically, all workers are informed and well aware of the safety precautions and dangers they’re exposed to. However, their attitude towards safety depends largely on age and experience, according to the results of the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ). For instance, the older workers with more experience may be less careful around equipment, thinking that accidents will not happen to them or, in any way, confident they can handle unforeseen situations with success. On the other hand, younger employees pay more attention to work safety and usually take more precaution measures at work.
2. Erring on the Human Side
No matter what safety precautions are implemented in the workplace, scientists believe there are certain permanent characteristics in a worker that make him/her more likely to cause or be involved in an accident. The Behavior Models, the Human Factors Models, and the Ferrel Theory are some of the theories pointing to human error as the root cause of workplace accidents, while also describing different corrective actions to eliminate it.
3. Poor Communication and Dissension between Team Members
An older report from Stanford University titled “Safety Problems in On-site Construction Work Processes” revealed that the lack of collaboration, poor communication between members of different departments, and dissension can lead to injuries in the workplace:
“In construction sites of this general constructor, verbal or written instructions of safety work procedures are offered by on-the -spot decision making at crew safety meetings or in planning and allocation daily meetings. One of those instructions is that every worker regardless of their position has to participate to keep the workplace in good housekeeping order. Nonetheless, because insufficient instruction, inadequate plans and workers’ negative attitude towards the supervisor, present construction sites are often cluttered with tools, packaging materials and waste materials such as, wood shaving, defective nails and boards. The conditions frequently result in human error occurrence associated with stumbling or slipping and stepping on sharp objects.”
4. Workplace factors
Aside from human error, many construction workplace accidents are attributed to faulty equipment and tools, as well as unsafe work areas. Uncovered holes, trenches, exposed stakes, and rebars may pose hazards to those coming across them, usually leading to injuries due to slips and falls.
Workers who go near an open-sided floor without paying attention to his steps may fall and get injured; the same may happen with workers who use staircases that have no handrails, offering no support during the climbing and causing workers to land on their sides or injure their heads. Stepladders are also a very important component among workplace factors likely to cause injury and long-term disability. Accidents occur when workers either fall from a tipped-over stepladder, leave tools on the top platform and then these fall on someone else’s head, or the ladder may simply break under the weight of a worker equipped with heavy tools.
Falling roofs are one of the leading causes of workplace accidents where no fall protection is ensured. Scaffolding problems that occur when someone unauthorized to erect scaffolds may overlook potential dangers, leading to materials falling off scaffolds and workers working on inferior levels getting hurt. When working in construction and using power tools, it seems like a no brainer to use protective equipment such as appropriate ear and eye protection, considering that a nail is shot from a gun with the same force as a .22 caliber bullet. Also, not wearing protective gloves and helmets may result in cuts and amputations.
5. Improper Risk Management Training
In a construction project, risk management’s goal is to identify the factors that might negatively influence or impact the cost schedule or quality objectives of the project and proceed to implement corrective measures to mitigate these risks. The riskier an activity is, the more dramatic will be the consequences of errors, thus risk management works by implementing measures to reduce the level of risk to a minimum.
According to a paper by researchers at the Engineering Management Department Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, risks associated with the construction industry may be:
Technical: inadequate site investigation, improper design, low-quality materials
Logistical: proper transportation facilities and sufficient resources for construction equipment such as spare parts, fuel, and operators
Management related risks: industrial relation problems, uncertain productivity of resources
Some of the benefits of effective risk management training implementation include minimizing uncertainty on projects, better decision-making processes, providing focus on essential problems, better work planning, easier to identify accountability, etc.
Risk management training is probably the most challenging – and less emphasized – part of a construction project. Project managers should be able to recognize and identify the causes of risk and trace them to their consequence. The use of risk management training from the early stages of a construction project, where essential aspects regarding quality of materials and labor are still not decided, is crucial for the outcome of the entire project and for making use effectively of the available resources.
6. Superficial accident investigation and under-reporting
Because construction accidents can rarely be attributed to a single cause, one of the most effective prevention methods includes accident investigation. Identifying the causes of an accident enables managers and owners to take proactive steps into controlling or eliminating so that the chance of similar future accidents is slim.
To be able to explain how an accident has happened – and how it can be prevented in the future – investigators must gather information and analyze the events surrounding the incident. Having this data, they should be able to identify the workplace conditions by looking at physical evidence and also eyewitness testimony. All these steps must be done immediately following the accident to ensure the best outcome, but most often, things are quite the opposite. Little attention is paid to workers injured on the job, if their injuries aren’t severe, and when they do have a case and are ready to file a claim, companies force them to accept unjust payouts.
Not to mention that only an insignificant percent of all construction injuries are actually reported, for various reasons: employers may not consider the injury work-related, they may not be clear about injury reporting regulations, or fail to report the injury at a later time in case it was initially deemed non reportable.
About the Author
Jeffrey Braxton is a trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale who has devoted his 22-year career to the practice of personal injury law. As lead trial attorney for The South Florida Injury Law Firm, Jeff has litigated thousands of cases encompassing personal injury, civil, and business matters, his expertise and skillfulness ensuring his admission into the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an exclusive group of attorneys who have resolved cases in excess of one million dollars.
We’ve all heard a story like this one before: a man walks into a department store with a banana peel, surreptitiously tosses it on the floor, then gets down on the ground and pretends to have seriously injured himself by slipping on it.
Of course, slipping on banana peels is mostly just a myth, but that’s beside the point. When most people think of injury lawsuits where someone hurts themselves at a business and tries to sue them for it, a version of this is what they imagine – scam artists out to earn a big payday by faking a problem and blaming someone else.
Why is this the image that we picture? Two reasons:
1) Because the media loves stories that catch people in the act of doing something wrong. It’s a lot more entertaining watching a security video of someone pretending to slip and fall than it is learning that the teenager cleaning up at the local Walmart forgot to put up a wet floor sign.
2) Because faking falls in order to get money from a lawsuit is a real problem that costs our country a lot of money.
How Big of a Problem Is Insurance Fraud for Falls?
By some estimates, fraudulent slip and fall claims cost around $2 billion each year in our country when litigation costs are factored in. But that’s just the beginning. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, slip and fall claims that they deemed “questionable” increased by 12% from 2010 to 2011. This news report from KXJB in North Dakota makes the problem sound even worse, saying that “suspicious” claims have gone up an astounding 57% since 2008!
The worst part, though, might be the belief that many faked incidents never even turn into claims since the scam artist in question goes directly to the business owner and cuts a deal for cash. Why would businesses agree to such an arrangement? Because they are afraid of the costs and bad publicity involved if the situation ends up going to court. And even if it is simply handled through their insurance, they believe it may end up costing them more by raising their premiums.
The Case of Florida and Slip and Fall Reform
About a decade ago, the Florida Supreme Court presented a ruling on a personal injury liability case that essentially said businesses were responsible for hazards on their property even if they weren’t aware that those hazards existed. This led to a sharp increase in claims, as well as giving the state a reputation as an easy place to win money for slip and falls.
Naturally, businesses weren’t happy because this put the entire burden on them, and in 2010, the legislature created a new law. It required claimants to show that businesses either knew about the specific problem that caused their accident or that it was a hazard that occurred frequently enough that the company should have known and done something about it.
This was deemed a good compromise because it lessened the chance that a scammer could just come into a business and create the circumstances of their own accident, but it also left protections in for those who truly had suffered an injury that could have been prevented by the property owner. All they needed to do was provide evidence that the hazard that caused their injury was something that should have been dealt with.
Did it work? Well, that depends on who you talk to. Again looking at numbers from the NICB, Florida was second only to California from 2010 to 2011 in what they determined were “questionable” claims, beating out more populous states like Texas and New York. Even after reform, a lot of people were apparently still trying to scam their way to a big payout – at least according to statistics from the NICB. But statistics are a funny thing, and often there are two ways to look at them.
Are Slip and Fall Fakers Really That Big of a Problem?
The answer is an unfortunately complicated yes and no.
Yes, because it’s impossible to deny that something costing $2 billion each year is minor. Moreover, the bad publicity generated from these kinds of cases makes it that much tougher for people who legitimately suffer falls and deserve to be compensated for their pain and suffering.
Case-in-point: recently, a woman was awarded $10,000 after her apartment failed to clean away ice and snow, and she fell and seriously injured herself. Now that kind of money is nothing to sneeze at, but there’s a problem: the judge assessed the case before the trial and estimated that she should receive $65,000 to cover the cost of medical bills, litigation, and so on. The $10,000 she won doesn’t even cover the cost of going to trial!
But fakers are also, arguably, not that big of a problem when you look at the big picture from another angle. How so? According to the National Floor Safety Institute, only 3% of slip and fall claims are fraudulent. Some basic math tells us that means 97% of claims are real and valid and deserve compensation.
You’d never imagine that from all of the negative publicity, though. And you would also probably think that $2 billion dollars represents a huge portion of overall insurance fraud, when in fact it’s only about 5% of the $40 billion lost each year. The problem seems bigger than it is because we’re constantly being bombarded with stories about it.
What Needs to Be Done for Future Fall Cases
The trick in engaging in this type of reform is that you need to be careful to strike a balance. The Florida legislature was on the right track, but more probably need to be done. Businesses can’t be afraid that they’re going to be sued from the second they open their doors, but people who suffer from real injuries also can’t be so afraid to seek compensation that they simply back down. Depending on the severity of a fall, you can sustain damage that can haunt you for your entire life.
For those who are truly suffering, filing an injury lawsuit isn’t about getting some kind of windfall or even punishing the person or company that caused them harm. All they want is to get the money they need to help themselves to heal and make sure this kind of incident doesn’t happen to someone else.
If we really want to limit fraud, perhaps more of the burden should be placed on lawyers to thoroughly examine the stories of their potential clients and look hard at the evidence before taking on these kinds of cases. Most well-respected litigators already do this, because they don’t want to gain a bad reputation. However, more can be done to standardize the process and hold people accountable. This will cut down on lost revenue for businesses, increase the likelihood that personal injury lawyers will win the cases they take, and free up valuable time in our court system.
A report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveals that auto accidents kill more than 40,000 people every year in the United States. Among them, people who drive for a living – truckers, school bus drivers, and cab drivers – are the most exposed to injury and death. Here we take a look at some alarming statistics regarding fatal work injuries caused by transportation incidents.
If you own and operate a boat, it’s your responsibility to perform routine maintenance checks to ensure everything is working before you take it out on the water. When boat owners or rental companies fail to properly inspect vessels, their negligence can result in serious accidents. To ensure safe, worry-free sailing, regularly check the engine, steering, rescue capacity, communication system, and navigational lights (if there’s any chance you’ll be out after dark). If you’re not experienced with boat maintenance, take your vessel to a professional. This is a situation where attempting to limit expenses by skipping the maintenance can cost you dearly. Companies that rent boats have a duty of care to their customers and should be performing regular maintenance checks on all their vessels; however, you should still ask the boating company if the boat you’re renting has recently been inspected. If the boating company assures you that the boat will function perfectly and you later experience a mechanical failure that endangers you and your passengers, you should speak with a boating accident lawyer as soon as possible.
The weather can change quickly in Florida, and even if the skies look clear when you head out, you may find yourself unexpectedly facing torrential rain or high winds. Inclement weather may be too difficult for a boat operator or even a particular type of vessel to handle, leading to accidents such as a boat capsizing or even sinking. As a boat operator, you should always check the weather forecast in the morning before you head out. If there’s a chance of rain, high winds, or rough seas (for people boating in the ocean), don’t take your boat out. In case the forecast does look good, you should still check your safety equipment ahead of time and be prepared for sudden weather changes.
