South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

A woman and her 2-year-old child were killed Wednesday night when the trailer portion of a tractor-trailer crushed their pickup in rural south Osceola County, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The accident happened at the exit ramp to Florida’s Turnpike in Yeehaw Junction, said Sgt. Kim Montes, a highway patrol spokeswoman.

Cassandra Green, 33, of Orlando, and her son, 2-year-old Steven Holtzapple Jr., died at the scene, according to the highway patrol.

The tractor-trailer loaded with pineapples, which was westbound on State Road 60, was going too fast as it tried to enter the turnpike, Montes said. The pickup driver was coming off the turnpike and waiting to turn onto S.R. 60.

The trailer crushed the 2004 Chevrolet, Montes said. The cab portion also fell over, but 68-year-old Boca Raton resident Reynaldo Santos, the tractor trailer’s driver, received only minor injuries and wasn’t taken to a hospital, she said.

It took about 45 minutes for a trooper to reach the remote location near the border of Okeechobee County and hours longer to untangle the wreckage.

Two police officers and several good Samaritans may have saved the life of a 73-year-old Boynton Beach woman Wednesday morning after her car crashed, spun out of control and began sinking in a manmade retention pond.

The officers and civilians pulled the woman from her car as it slowly sank into the pond just east of Lake Ida Road and Congress Avenue.

The woman, whose identity police have not released, was driving west on Lake Ida at 10:34 a.m. Police at the scene said a truck pulled out of Delray Park of Commerce and hit her 2010 Audi convertible, sending it spinning out of control, over a sidewalk, down an embankment and into the a manmade retention pond.

Delray Beach police received several 911 calls, and Officer Stephanie Kearney and Detective Michael Debree, along with several good Samaritans, jumped into the water to try to free her.

The woman’s leg was trapped in her car, but she was freed within minutes, just before the car became submerged, police said.

“It seems obvious that without the help of the rescuing officers and good Samaritans, the trapped driver would have been subject to serious if not fatal injuries,” Officer Jeffrey Messer, police spokesman, said in a news release.

The woman was evaluated at Bethesda Memorial Hospital, found to be uninjured and was released.

A St. Augustine man suffered life-threatening injuries after he hit a deer on his motorcycle Tuesday night in St. Johns County, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Philip M. Cooley, 49, was eastbound on Florida 206 near East Seacove Avenue in St. Johns County about 10:40 p.m. when a deer entered the path of his Honda motorcycle, the Highway Patrol said. The front of the motorcycle struck the deer.

Cooley, who was wearing a helmet, was taken to Shands Jacksonville hospital for life-threatening injuries, according to the report.

A mass tonight will  be dedicated to a Tallahassee woman thrown from her wheelchair and killed last month.

30 year old Jill Caputo – a state employee and FSU graduate – was struck by a car and killed August 10th as she tried to cross at the corner of Woodward and Jefferson Street.

A Tallahassee Police Spokesman says traffic homicide investigators are still working on the case and it could take another 60 to 90 days before they make a decision about whether charges will be filed against the driver of the SUV who hit her.

A special mass is being held for Caputo tonight at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More (900 West Tennessee Street, Tallahassee). It begins at 5:15 and friends and colleagues will be invited to share memories of her immediately afterward.

Father Michael Tugwell says Caputo was a faithful parishioner at St. Thomas More since starting her studies at FSU. He says one of the first people on the accident scene had seen Caputo at church just days earlier and whispered a prayer in her ear as she lay dying.

hassee woman thrown from her wheelchair and killed last month.

As two-dozen diners were getting lunch at Nosher’s Deli Wednesday, an elderly woman drove a silver Toyota Camry through the restaurant’s glass façade.

“You hear a tornado, a hurricane and an earthquake all at the same time,” said Nosher’s Deli co-owner Steve Galin. “You turn around and see this car driving at you. And she kept coming.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office identified the driver as Rhoda Samuels, 79, who told a deputy that she was “pulling into a parking space at the Deli when she stepped on the gas instead of the brake pedal and accelerated into the business,” according to an email provided by the agency.

Samuels was cited for careless driving.

Tamarac Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Patrick Kendrick said the driver and her female passenger were not injured when the vehicle entered the dining room at 7134 N. Nob Hill Road in Point Plaza, north of West McNab Road.

A Nosher’s busboy and seven patrons were taken to area hospitals, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the restaurant owners.

The sheriff’s office said the people injured in the noon crash were: Lourdes Maharaj, 43 of Margate; Leonore Danz, 89 of Tamarac; Marilyn Grossman, 74, of Tamarac; Rita Garfinkel, 82, of Tamarac; Shirley DiPietro, 78, of Tamarac; Ronald Etienne, 26, of Fort Lauderdale and Sharon Genyon, 71, of Philadelphia.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Kendrick said. “There was no permanent structural damage and the business will be able to remain open.”

After responders left the scene, Galin and co-owner Charlie Adelson were cleaning up broken glass, upended furniture and other damage to the 72-seat, New York-style delicatessen that observed its one-year anniversary Tuesday.

“I did not know the lady,” he said of Samuels, the driver. “Fortunately, we’re still in the off-season, so it wasn’t a packed restaurant.”

Galin said he did not expect to reopen until the weekend at the earliest. He still seemed shaken from the incident.

“We were able to free a lady customer who was halfway trapped under the car,” Galin said. “The business can be rebuilt. Thank God no one was killed.”

Officials on Wednesday afternoon plan to start cleaning up mercury that a Margate man spilled on his driveway over the weekend and that neighborhood kids played with, police said.

Margate police and firefighters, as well as the state Department of Environmental Protection, have been warding off people from the spill site, in the 7800 block of Northwest Third Place, since a neighbor reported the hazardous area Monday afternoon.

Officials have spent the past two days scouring the neighborhood for additional mercury and planning the cleanup. Margate Police Detective Efrain Suarez said “all the people coordinating the cleanup” again met Wednesday morning, reviewing a plan to remove contamination.

The Margate resident who police said spilled the mercury, Hubert Jean, said he didn’t know the silvery liquid was a toxin that can cause central nervous system problems.

“I didn’t know what it was,” he told the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday afternoon.

He said he and his girlfriend were cleaning out his garage on Saturday, getting ready to move, when he came across a silvery liquid he’d never seen before. Apparently the previous owner had left the mercury in the garage.

Jean said he gave a small canister of the liquid to one teen and several of the teen’s friends soon visited him, asking for more mercury. Police on Monday came to Jean with complaints that kids were playing with the mercury.

On Tuesday, a group of five neighborhood kids, ages 11 to 15, said they had played with the liquid, which they found fascinating to look at and hold.

“We were just looking at it. We were touching it,” said Daniel Aiello, 15. “It was just like a ball of silver.”

Michael Jacinthe, 11, said he didn’t think Jean, a friendly guy, intended to harm anyone.

“I feel bad for him,” he said. “He just found it and said, ‘Do you want to see it?’ And me and my brother said, ‘Yeah.’ ”

Suarez said all the teens appeared to be “doing fine.” Jean said he and his girlfriend also touched the mercury but were OK.

It will be up to state or federal environmental officials to decide if Jean is cited or fined, Suarez said.

On May 24, 2006, plaintiff Ramon Moreno Jr., 30, a wrought iron laborer, was driving a 1994 Ford Explorer on California Highway 15 in Riverside County. His father, plaintiff Ramon Moreno Sr., 55, a carpenter; his cousin, plaintiff Adriana Sanchez Moreno, 32; and his brother, plaintiffs’ decedent, William Moreno, 11, were passengers. The treads on the sport utility vehicle’s left rear tired separated, causing Ramon Moreno Jr. to lose control of the vehicle. The car rolled down a seven-foot embankment. William’s head was partially ejected from the vehicle and he suffered fatal head injuries.

The Moreno family had purchased the Ford Explorer in the spring of 2005 from a neighbor. At that time, unknown to the family, the car came with a recalled 12-year-old Radial ATX in the spare tire position. In January 2006, Ramon Moreno Sr. brought the car to an American Tire Depot in Monrovia to have the two rear tires replaced. American Tire, which is a Firestone dealer, suggested that the spare tire be rotated onto the vehicle because it appeared to be in a new, unused condition. Ramon Moreno Sr. agreed to this.

Ramon Moreno Jr., Ramon Moreno Sr., Adriana Sanchez Moreno and Maria Elena Moreno sued ATV Inc., which was doing business as American Tire Depot Inc., Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc., Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC, Bridgestone Corporation, Bridgestone/Firestone Americas Holding, Bridgestone/Firestone North America Tire LLC and Ford Motor Co.

Ford Motor and the Bridgestone/Firestone companies settled prior to trial for confidential amounts.

At trial, the plaintiffs alleged that American Tire Depot was negligent for recommending the use of and installing a 12-year-old recalled spare tire.

Plaintiffs’ counsel argued that American Tire Depot was licensed to sell Bridgestone/Firestone tires and should have known about the recall on the Radial ATX tires. In October 2005, Bridgestone/Firestone issued a technical bulletin to its dealers recommending careful inspection of and removal of all tires that were 10 years old or older, including spare tires, plaintiffs’ counsel contended.

Defense counsel for American Tire Depot argued that Ramon Moreno Sr.’s receipt from the tire replacement did not show that the spare tire was rotated into service.

Plaintiffs’ counsel countered that a work order that Ramon Moreno Sr. initialed would have shown the actual sequence of work, substantiating the plaintiffs’ claims, but American Tire Depot claimed that the work order could not be found, counsel stated.

Defense counsel also contended that if the company had rotated the spare tire into use, old tires are not necessarily dangerous and that there is no fixed expiration date for tires. Counsel argued that the recall on the Radial ATX was in 2001 and had since ended. American Tire Depot had no responsibility to pull old or recalled spare tires out of service.

Defense counsel claimed that the Ford Explorer was defective and contributed to the accident due to its lack of rollover stability and faulty seat belt. Counsel argued that Ramon Moreno Jr. should have controlled the vehicle and that the tire de-treading did not adversely affect the vehicle’s handling.

The occupants of the vehicle sought damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering and emotional distress, which included bystander mental anguish for witnessing William’s death.

Ramon Moreno Sr. suffered a broken wrist, lacerations, contusions and had severely elevated blood sugar levels after the accident. He was a diabetic. He was admitted to the hospital and was treated with blood pressure and blood sugar medications, a cast and sling and short term use of a cervical collar.

Ramon Moreno Jr. suffered lacerations on his scalp and some bruising and was evaluated and released from the emergency room a few hours after the accident.

Adriana Sanchez Moreno suffered a sprained neck, contusions and other sub-clinical soft-tissue injuries and soreness. She was treated and released from the emergency room with a cervical collar.

The jury found that American Tire Depot was 85 percent responsible, that Firestone was 15 percent responsible for the accident and that Ford was not liable. The jury awarded Ramon Moreno Sr. $5,026,591.68, Ramon Moreno Jr. $3,505,379.08, Adriana Sanchez Moreno $516,045 and Maria Moreno and Ramon Moreno Sr. $9 million. The award total was $18,048,015.80.

American Tire Depot is responsible for 85 percent of the non-economic damages and for the majority of the economic damages, for a total of $15,343,093.04.

Adriana Sanchez Moreno

$16,045 Personal Injury: Past Medical Cost

$500,000 Personal Injury: past non-economic loss

Ramon Moreno, Sr.

$26,592 Personal Injury: Past Medical Cost

$3,000,000 Personal Injury: past non-economic loss

$2,000,000 Personal Injury: future non-economic loss

Ramon Moreno, Jr.

$5,379 Personal Injury: Past Medical Cost

$2,000,000 Personal Injury: past non-economic

$1,500,000 Personal Injury: future non-economic

Maria Moreno and Ramon Moreno, Sr.

$4,000,000 Personal Injury: past non-economic loss

$5,000,000 Personal Injury: future non-economic loss

Connecticut State Police say a man fell out of his car onto Interstate 95 and watched his vehicle drive on for about two-tenths of a mile before it crashed into a pole.

Troopers say they’re not sure why 51-year-old Robert Craig of Killingworth fell out of his 2006 Dodge Charger late Tuesday morning in Darien near Exit 10. Police say Craig was treated for minor injuries at Stamford Hospital.

State police say Craig fell onto the highway but wasn’t struck by any vehicles. They say other motorists stopped to help him and get him to safety.

Troopers say the car continued down the highway before striking a light pole and metal guardrail on the right shoulder.

The accident remains under investigation.

Four people were killed in a two-car crash early Tuesday on Northeast Jacksonville Road just north of 110th Street.

The driver of an SUV is dead after his vehicle was struck by a train on the FEC tracks at 36th Street. “The vehicle was proceeding west bound on 36th street,” West Palm Beach Police Traffic Homicide Investigator Karl Seifel said. “It went under the crossing gate, that was already down, and got hit by the train. As a result the driver is deceased. There is evidence on the crossing gate showing that the vehicle went under the crossing gate while it was down. The car was pushed about 235 feet.”