Orlando Personal Injury Attorney / Lawyer & Board Certified Trial Attorney Florida

With spring here and summer just a few weeks away, Orlando car accident lawyers expect a spike in vehicular traffic and accident risks across the state. The Florida Highway Patrol is increasing efforts to prevent accidents related to speeding and aggressive driving.

The Florida Highway Patrol is dedicating the week from March 30 to April 4 to a campaign focused on increasing awareness about the risks of aggressive driving. The aim is to ticket drivers who drive at excessive speeds, change lanes rashly, and follow larger vehicles like 18-wheelers too closely. The agency is having more troopers stationed at South Florida's busiest highways and roadways, to ticket motorists who drive aggressively.

The Florida Highway Patrol has also announced that it is partnering with the Florida Trucking Association in a special initiative aimed at encouraging motorists to avoid the blind spots of a commercial tractor-trailer. Every commercial tractor-trailer driver has a few blind spots in his vision. These spots usually fall to the sides and rear of the truck. Motorists traveling in these blind spots may be invisible to the tractor-trailer driver. That means that the motorist is at a high risk of colliding with the truck.

The Florida Highway Patrol-Florida Trucking Association’s No-Zone Campaign encourages motorists to avoid these blind spots. The campaign is also raising awareness about the need for motorists to avoid driving too close to tractor-trailers. The agency plans billboard campaigns as well as radio spots to get the message out. Similar education efforts will be made at schools and community centers.

Over the next few weeks, there will be more motorists than usual sharing the road with you. Avoid driving under the influence, and using cell phones while driving. Drive at safe speeds. Speeding is linked to at least 1/3rd of all accident fatalities every year.

The Florida Highway Patrol has identified a total of 7 victims of the deadly multivehicle accident on Interstate 75 on Monday. Three of the victims have been burned severely, and have not yet been identified. The 7th victim has been identified as a 27-year-old woman from Gainesville, Florida. Other victims include the members of a pastor's family, who were on their way back to Atlanta.

Meanwhile, investigations into the accident have begun. Local investigators will be joined by investigators from the Federal Department of Law Enforcement. For now, investigators believe that the tragedy was the result of poor visibility conditions on the interstate. Conditions were smoky, from a brush fire nearby. Investigators are looking at the causes of the brush fire, and there is some belief that the fire was intentional.

However, Florida car accident lawyers expect that more attention will be paid to the decision to open up the interstate when road conditions were clearly not fit for travel. Authorities had opened up the highway late on Sunday evening, after having closed it down because of the smoky conditions. That led to a massive multivehicle pileup that included at least 12 vehicles, 6 commercial trucks and one motor home. Ten people have been confirmed dead in the accident, and 18 have been injured.

Rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that visibility was so poor. In some cases, victims could hardly extricate themselves from their own cars, because they could not see right in front of them. Rescuers were forced to rely on their sense of hearing, looking for sounds of screaming and moaning from survivors. Many of the vehicles burst into flames upon impact, worsening an already bad situation.

With a substantial population of baby boomers and retirees, Florida is no stranger to the safety concerns and challenges facing elderly motorists. However, as the number of baby boomers across the country increases, Orlando car accident lawyers expect the state to play host to more numbers of these senior citizens. The American Occupational Therapy Institute is marking December 5 to December 9 as Older Driver Awareness Week. The group is drawing attention to the growing safety concerns facing senior drivers as they age.

In Florida, in 2008, 447 senior motorists above the age 65 were killed in car accidents. These deaths comprised about 15% of all car accident fatalities in the state of Florida. According to a survey by the Florida State University and the Florida Department of Transportation, very few senior drivers plan for the day when they will no longer be able to drive. Most senior drivers believed that they would be able to drive till they die, or firmly believed that they would never have to give up their driving privileges. Approximately 13% of older drivers said that they would never give up driving.

Senior safety concerns are expected to affect Florida the most. The Florida Department of Transportation recently awarded a grant to the Pepper Institute to devise strategies to handle the explosion of senior motorists in the state. The object of the Aging Road User Strategic Safety Plan will be to develop strategies that can help reduce the number of accidents involving senior citizens in Florida.

Telling an older driver that his or her driving abilities have begun to diminish and that it's time to give up driving privileges, is not an easy task. For older drivers, driving is one of the last physical activities that they enjoy with complete independence, and not surprisingly, they choose to hang onto these privileges. However, families of older drivers must look out for signs of deteriorating driving abilities. If a senior citizen is becoming increasingly forgetful and confused, takes a long time getting back home after a drive, or shows signs of diminished physical capacity, it may be time for family members to initiate that uncomfortable conversation.