Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

According to national statistics, there are approximately 100 million bicycle riders in the United States. In 2007, 697 bicyclists died on roads within the United States. Out of the 697 bicyclists that died in 2007, 92% died as a result of being involved in a collision with a motor vehicle.

One summer evening, the victim in this Florida wrongful death case was riding his bicycle northbound on Federal Highway when he was struck and killed by a driver who was under the influence of alcohol. The victim was a 54 year old father and the driver who hit him was an extremely intoxicated 43 year old female. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The intoxicated female driver in this case pled guilty to DUI manslaughter.

The family of the deceased victim contacted Schuler, Halvorson & Weisser, P.A. for assistance. Mr. Weisser acted as the liason between the deceased client's son and the State Attorney's Office to assist with overseeing that a proper sentence was imposed against the defendant. Additionally, attorneys Steven W. Halvorson and Jason D. Weisser undertook the representation and filed suit against the female driver.

The insurance company for the intoxicated driver did not offer the policy limits to settle this case within a timely fashion so therefore, Mr. Halvorson and Mr. Weisser were able to file suit against the at fault driver for bad faith and since she pled guilty and was adjudicated guilty, they added a claim for punitive damages which read as follows:

“The Defendant’s conduct was so gross and flagrant as to show a reckless
disregard of human life or the safety of others exposed to such conduct
and/or showed an entire lack of care that the Defendant must have been
consciously indifferent to the Plaintiff and/or showed a wanton and
reckless disregard for the safety and welfare of the public and/or
showed reckless indifference to the rights of others as to be the equivalent
to an intentional violation of those rights.”

After litigating the case for less than one year, Mr. Halvorson and Mr. Weisser were successful in settling this case with the insurance company for the at fault driver before trial for more than six times the limits of the drunk driver’s insurance policy.

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This wrongful death case involved a 19 year old who was employed by the U. S. Navy as an enlisted man. He had been out for the evening with two of his friends, who were also Naval enlistees. These three young men were on their way back to the Naval base and the victim in this case was in the rear passenger seat. There is no evidence of any contributory alcohol on the part of the three men in the automobile.

While traveling back to the Naval base, they traveled in the inside lane nearest the median of a four lane divided highway at about 45 miles per hour. Coming up behind them and traveling about 70 miles per hour was an individual who was intoxicated and driving a pick up truck. The driver of the pick up truck rear-ended the motor vehicle of the three young men in the rear right-hand portion of the vehicle with the left front portion of his truck. At the time of impact, it appears that the motor vehicle containing the three men spun several times until it ended up facing the same direction it was traveling. The driver in the pick up truck kept on going, fled the scene, and was later apprehended for DUI. He is currently serving a jail term for manslaughter.

When the impact occurred, the driver of the automobile looked back immediately to see what had hit him. He never did see the pick up truck. Instead, he saw a pillar of flames shooting out from the right rear of the car which is where the gas filler line is located. Once the vehicle stopped, the driver ran around to the front passenger side of the car as he was concerned about the right front passenger. When he got to the passenger side of the car, he could not get the passenger side door open and the passenger was crawling out of the driver’s side of the car.

After helping the front passenger out of the car and to the median, the driver returned to the car to attempt to rescue the passenger in the back seat. However, the passenger in the back seat appeared to be passed out, although the driver states that he had his seat belt on. The driver then grabbed the passenger’s arm and attempted to rescue him but he was unable to free him. The driver noticed that this victim was still alive when he was trying to rescue him because he saw him take numerous breaths. There are also some witness reports at the scene giving evidence that screaming was heard.

As the fire began to engulf the car, the upholstery of the top interior of the car began to drip on the driver’s arm; therefore, he had to retreat from the car and witness his own friend burn to death in his car. The Medical Examiner of Duval County, after doing an autopsy, concluded that the passenger in the back seat died of conflagration (fire) sustained as a passenger. The deposition of the Fire Marshall revealed that the source of the fire was fuel. He did not determine what in fact caused the fire, although he did determine that there were no other possible fuel sources of the fire other than the gasoline from the fuel tank.

Continue reading "Passenger in Back Seat of Vehicle Killed When Struck from Behind by Drunk Driver in Jacksonville, Florida" »

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Deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning are more common than most people realize. Carbon monoxide is silent and can be deadly if not detected early enough.

This was a case involving a couple, happily married for 42 years and enjoying their retirement years – she was 65 years old and he was 69 at the time of this incident. They had two grown daughters and were living the life they had worked toward for many years.

One October evening, the husband was enjoying a quiet evening at home and the wife had gone out with some girlfriends for the evening. Upon returning home that evening, she evidently pulled her car in the garage, closed the garage door, and then went inside the house, leaving the car running in the garage.

Unfortunately, carbon monoxide fumes entered the living quarters from the garage by way of the air conditioning unit and the air handler located therein.

Sadly, this couple died that night as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The couple’s two daughters brought their case to Richard D. Schuler for assistance. Mr. Schuler sought damages in this case from the manufacturing company of the air conditioning unit and the air handler, from the company that installed the air conditioning equipment, from the developer/builder and the architect of the house the couple had recently purchased.

Both the manufacturer and installer of the air conditioning equipment settled fairly early in the case, both for substantial amounts. However, the developer/builder and the architect both fought settlement in this matter and, in fact, did not even appear for the trial scheduled before the judge in this case.

After Attorney Richard D. Schuler presented the plaintiffs’ case to the judge against the developer/builder and the architect, he was awarded greater than $4.5 million for the daughters and the deceaseds’ estates in this case against the developer/builder and the architect.

Of course, this award will not bring back the parents of these two daughters, but hopefully it will show the defendants in this case that greater care needs to be taken when manufacturing, designing and installing air conditioning equipment in someone’s home.

Incidentally, there was one very disturbing coincidence in this case - the couple that purchased this home from the daughters of the deceased experienced the very same scenario when they too left their automobile running in the garage with the garage door closed, but luckily, they were able to escape the same fate and made it safely out of the home in time.

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