South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Police said a Buffalo-area tow truck driver was texting on one cell phone while talking on another when he slammed into a car and crashed into a swimming pool. Niagara County sheriff’s deputies said 25-year-old Nicholas Sparks of Burt admitted he was texting and talking when his flatbed truck hit the car Wednesday morning in Lockport.

The truck then crashed through a fence and sideswiped a house before rolling front-end first into an in-ground pool.

The 68-year-old woman driving the car suffered head injuries and was in good condition. Her 8-year-old niece suffered minor injuries.

Sparks was charged with reckless driving, talking on a cell phone and following too closely. It couldn’t be determined Thursday morning if he has a lawyer

A man is recovering after his boat exploded Thursday night in Coconut Grove.

The boater and his son were trying to head out before the end of lobster mini season, when the blast happened at about 8:30 p.m.

According to a witness, the vessel was at the Dinner Key Marina, when the man opened the door to the engine room and something exploded. When firefighters arrived the boat was fully engulfed, and sustained heavy damage.

The boater was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with first and second degree burns to his arms and legs. His son was also onboard the boat, but he was not injured.

An investigation is underway to determine what caused that explosion.

With a mounting number of lawsuits being filed against Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, plaintiff’s attorneys across the nation are beginning to call this the newest mass tort. The injury lawsuits against the major pharmaceutical company all allege serious injuries and in some severe cases deaths caused by the fourth generation oral contraceptives, Yaz and Yasmin.

Yaz/Yasmin Health Risks and Side Effects

While the two birth control pills are not exactly the same, they are very similar. They both contain the novel progestin component, drospirenone, which is a diuretic that has the potential to significantly increase a risk of increased potassium levels which can lead to both gallbladder damage and blood clots.

In addition to gallbladder damage and blood clots, these two drugs have also been associated with heart attacks, strokes, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolisms and kidney stones.

One of the plaintiff’s attorneys that is currently investigating a number of Yaz/Yasmin claims, Dan Gallucci of RodaNast, P.C., says he even has clients who suffered gallbladder removal or sudden death after taking the Yaz birth control pills to treat their acne. These plaintiffs, he says, were not even of child-bearing age.

Lawsuits Follow FDA Warnings

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Bayer in 2008 about a series of marketing commercials surrounding the two birth control pills. The commercials, according to the FDA, included false claims about what the fourth generation contraceptive can and cannot do. In an effort to fix the false claims, Bayer agreed to fix the marketing campaign.

On April 28, 2004, plaintiff Jesse Shipman, 12, was assaulted by a classmate during a class at the Harlee Middle School in Manatee County for at-risk students. The student punched and kicked him until he was unconscious. The student was convicted of assault and was sentenced to incarceration.

Jesse’s mother, Lucinda Affeldt, on his behalf, sued Manatee County, alleging that the attack was foreseeable. Jesse’s class included those with behavioral problems and violent tendencies. The attacker was known to have been involved in previous violent incidents. The teacher in Jesse’s class never looked at the attacker’s records to discover his violent history, counsel argued.

Plaintiff’s counsel also stated that the teacher stood by while the plaintiff was assaulted. The teacher made no effort to break up the fight. According to testimony of the attacker, the teacher used the telephone after the attack stopped.

Defense counsel contended that the attack was not foreseeable, and Jesse said something to the other student to trigger the assault. An assault such as this is not foreseeable, contended defense counsel.

Defense counsel stated that the teacher pressed an alarm in the room when the assault commenced. Defense counsel also pointed out that the teacher was in her 60s, and could not be expected to break up a brawl.

The parties stipulated that Shipman was attacked and that he suffered injuries. Shipman sustained a concussion, between 10 and 15 facial fractures, which included orbital fractures, a fractured sinus cavity and a completely broken nose. He was in intensive care for five days. Doctors had to wait 2.5 months for the facial swelling to subside before they could perform reconstructive surgery on his face.

Shipman still suffers from dull facial pain and has problems with his sinuses including some breathing difficulties. Plaintiff’s counsel sought $45,000 in medical costs.

The jury found the defendant 100 percent negligent and awarded Shipman $285,000.

Jesse Shipman

$35,000 Personal Injury: Past Medical Cost

$125,000 Personal Injury: Past Pain And Suffering

$125,000 Personal Injury: Future Pain And Suffering

A 21-year-old woman was killed today when the car she was riding in hit a palm tree on Universal Boulevard.

The 1997 Honda, driven by Vladimir Levinta, 23, of Orlando, was northbound in the left lane when Levinta lost control at Destination Boulevard, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The car ended up in the median, and its right side hit a palm tree, the FHP said.

The passenger wore a seat belt.

It’s the first in a series of special enforcement campaigns in which troopers focus on specific violations. The idea is to saturate the highways, putting all available FHP troopers and supervisors – even those who don’t regularly patrol, onto the roads, according to information released by FHP officials.

They’ll be using radar, video, unmarked cars and planes to spot aggressive drivers – those who tailgate, change lanes without warning, speed and ignore all sorts of traffic signs and signals.

If you’re pulled over for aggressive driving, there are no additional fines or points, but when judges spot the “aggressive driving” box checked on the citation, they tend to impose higher fines or require the offenders to take a course about aggressive driving, FHP reports.

FHP says motorists should help in the crackdown, using their cell phones to report drunk, aggressive or otherwise dangerous drivers. Call *FHP (347) But of course, pull over to dial. Don’t call while you’re driving.

The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms says four summer pages are exhibiting symptoms similar to swine flu and have been quarantined.

Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer says that the Senate’s Office of Attending Physician will not test the pages for the H1N1 virus because the accuracy of the tests is poor and because it would not alter the treatment plan.

Pages must be high school juniors and at least 16 years old. They serve primarily as messengers. The current class numbers 50 pages.

Gainer, in a message to the senators and their staffs late Tuesday, said two of the pages were improving and were expected to return to work Wednesday. Two others fell ill on Tuesday.

A trip to catch lobsters ended today with an Orlando-area diver’s death.

The 36-year-old man was diving in Pelican Flats,15 miles northeast of Sebastian Inlet, when something went wrong, Brevard sheriff’s Maj. Greg Purden said.

It’s unclear whether the man drowned, dove too deep, got the bends or had a medical condition, Purden said. The water is about 100 feet deep, he said.

Something went wrong about 3:30 p.m., and the Coast Guard notified the Sheriff’s Office. The three survivors took the man to land by boat, but it was too late. His name was not released.

Purden said the divers were out during the first day of the two-day lobster mini-season that leads to the commercial lobster season.

Florida will soon start sending some of the state’s worst drivers back to school.

A new state law will require any motorist convicted of three crash-related moving violations over a three-year period to take a behind-the-wheel education course and pass a driving test, just like a teenager.

The little-noticed crackdown on chronically bad drivers becomes effective Jan. 1. It was signed last month by Governor Charlie Crist.

”These people have demonstrated a propensity not only for crashing but for being at fault,” said Electra Bustle, executive director of the state highway safety agency.

“If we can change even one person’s driving behavior to avoid a crash, then I think we’ll be successful.”

Highway safety officials will begin counting violations starting in January, so previous incidents won’t be considered.

Still, department officials have identified more than 3,200 drivers who currently fit in the most dangerous category.

Statistically, they are most likely to be white men, age 40 or younger, and are clustered in the state’s urban centers. Although men make up 52 percent of the drivers, they account for 64 percent of these bad drivers.

Kevin Bakewell, senior vice president of AAA Auto Club South in Tampa, said the change is a positive development.

”For some people, paying a fine for violating a traffic law does not serve as a disincentive,” Bakewell said.

“Hopefully, the act of having to take that driving test will have some positive impact on that person’s driving behavior.”

Current law requires a four-hour refresher course for drivers cited in two crashes, but the course can be taken on the Internet and does not include behind-the-wheel training.

Contrary to stereotypes, the Florida drivers most likely to be cited repeatedly for causing accidents are not elderly. Only 7 percent are over 65; more than a third are under age 25.

The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has identified 3,277 drivers who were involved in 10,281 accidents over a three-year period ending Dec. 31, 2008.

Of that total, 595 have at least one conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol.

A federal privacy law prohibits the state from disclosing the names of the worst drivers, but the state knows who they are and where they live.

Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county, was home to the largest number of dangerous drivers in 2008, with 378. Jacksonville’s Duval was right behind with 372.

Pinellas and Hillsborough rank third and fourth, with Broward fifth.

Democratic lawmakers called for states to ban texting while driving or face cuts in highway funds, citing the need to reduce driver distraction and potential highway deaths and injuries.

“When drivers have their eyes on their cell phones instead of the road, the results can be dangerous and even deadly,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who unveiled the legislation Wednesday with Democrats Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal.

Some critics have questioned whether the laws could be enforced, whether there is enough data to warrant such bans, or if reckless driving statutes already cover texting behind the wheel.

Steve Largent, a former Oklahoma congressman who leads CTIA — The Wireless Association, said his organization supports “state legislative remedies to solve this issue. But simply passing a law will not change behavior. We also need to educate new and experienced drivers on the dangers of taking their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.”

The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, said it does not doubt the dangers of texting and driving but does not support a ban because it would be difficult to enforce.

“Highway safety laws are only effective if they can be enforced and if the public believes they will be ticketed for not complying. To date, that has not been the case with many cell phone restrictions,” said Vernon Betkey, the highway safety association’s chairman.

The proposal follows a series of studies showing the dangers of operating handheld electronic devices while driving.

In a study released earlier this week, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about six times in cars and trucks.

The Virginia Tech researchers said the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers.

The lawmakers also cited a separate report by Car and Driver magazine that found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.

Texting has grown from nearly 10 billion messages a month in December 2005 to more than 110 billion in December 2008, according to CTIA, the cellular phone industry’s trade group.

The legislation would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle or lose 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding. It would be patterned after the way Congress required states to adopt a national drunken driving ban.

The transportation secretary would be required to issue guidelines within six months of the measure becoming law, and states then would have two years to approve the bans on texting and driving.

States could recover highway funds by passing the legislation following the two-year period.

The bill would target the activity in a moving vehicle and not prohibit a driver from texting or e-mailing in a stopped car.