Florida Accident Attorney Blog

A Fort Lauderdale court found a Hialeah truck driver guilty on four counts of vehicular homicide, resulting from a fiery truck accident that killed four people in February 2005. Truck driver Flavo Santisteban was operating a 9000-gallon gasoline tanker. As he drove on the Florida Turnpike ramp at Interstate 595, Santisteban lost control of the tanker, which skidded and burst into flames. A passenger vehicle with four people inside was pinned behind the tanker truck. All four people were killed in the explosion.

According to prosecutors, Santisteban was speeding before he lost control of the gasoline tanker truck. He now faces up to 60 years in jail. Speeding is one of the leading causes of commercial truck accidents, such as this tragic case. Other causes include:

• Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
• Operating while fatigued
• Driver distraction
• Faulty tires or other equipment

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 4,930 large trucks were involved in fatal crashes and 101,000 large trucks were involved in injury crashes in the year 2000. Sometimes both the driver and the trucking company are found to be at fault in truck accidents.

The sheer size of commercial trucks puts passenger vehicle occupants at a serious disadvantage when an accident occurs. The results can be even deadlier in truck accidents such as this case, where the driver was transporting flammable materials. This large truck accident also involved a ramp: Highway on-ramps and off-ramps can be particularly hazardous due to their sharp grades, curves, and merges.

As always, South Florida drivers, including those traveling on busy Interstate 595, should drive defensively and keep a safe distance from large commercial trucks.

Truck Driver Sentenced Monday for Deadly Accident Local10.com, Oct. 27, 2008

Other Web Resource

Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles: Safety First

The Florida Supreme Court made a decision that should help rectify some injustices that prevented Florida workers hurt on the job from hiring adequate legal representation from an experienced Florida work injury lawyer.

The decision made in Murray v. Mariner Health Care on Oct. 23, 2008, determined that statutory caps on attorney fees were "ambiguous" and not fair to Floridians who suffered a work accident. This means that if you work in Florida and suffer a work accident or are otherwise injured at work or in the course of your job, you may hire a personal injury attorney who may receive professional compensation in fees for legal services.

In 2003, amendments to Florida Workers Compensation law put "statutory caps" on injured workers' attorney fees, limiting the fees a work accident attorney could be paid in a work related injury claim. However the insurance company lawyers were not subject to such fee caps, resulting in gross inequities that left some injured workers without adequate legal representation.

The Murray case cited that the insurance company attorney was earning $150 or more per hour, where the injured worker's lawyer could only be paid $8 an hour. In Florida, that attorney could have made more money behind the donut counter, with tips. Not a good use of a Florida Workers Compensation lawyer's time and experience. And injured workers who are unable to recover compensation from their employers' insurers usually turn to Social Security and Medicaid to survive, further burdening taxpayers.

The Florida Supreme Court ruling should help right the legal scales, re-establishing the intent of Workers Compensation laws that are supposed to be fair to all parties involved: injured workers, employers, and insurers. Work injury attorneys are often needed to fight for the rights of people in Florida who are hurt at work, to make sure they are fairly compensated for lost wages, medical bills, and pain and suffering.

Florida Supreme Court Affirms Injured Workers’ Rights JusticeNewsFlash.com, Oct. 24, 2008

Related Web Resource

Florida Division of Workers' Compensation