Charpentier Law Firm Blog

December 15, 2011 article in FLORIDA TODAY by Jamie Stengle of the Associated Press discusses the topic of banning phones in vehicles.

The article reports that millions of Americans use their cars as a mobile offices, rely on phones almost every hour of every workday to stay productive and earn a living. So would drivers ever abide by a proposed ban on almost all cell phone use behind the wheel, even if it is hands-free? Could they afford to? Those are just a few of the questions looming over a federal recommendation that seeks to rein in what has become an essential tool of American business.

The National Transportation Safety Board declared Tuesday that texting, emailing or chatting while driving is just too dangerous to be allowed anywhere in the United States. It urged all states to impose total bans except for emergencies. The NTSB, an independent agency that investigates accidents and makes safety recommendations, doesn’t have the power to impose regulations or make grants, but its suggestions carry significant weight with lawmakers and regulators.

Still, a decision rests with the states, meaning that 50 separate legislatures would have to act.

If you or someone that you care about has been hurt in an auto accident, either as a pedestrian or otherwise, our Brevard County Accident Lawyers will fight for you and your rights every step of the way. To speak with members of the Charpentier Law Firm about your case and to find out how we can help,contact our Central Florida personal injury attorneys today.

For more information on Automobile Accidents and Personal Injury Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html. Our personal injury attorneys cover all of Brevard County including Melbourne, Palm Bay, Cocoa, Rockledge, Merritt Island, Titusville, and the Beaches.

An article by Joan Lowy in the December 12, 2011 edition of the CLAIMS JOURNAL, reports that despite all the criticism and new legal bans, texting by drivers just keeps increasing, especially among younger motorists.

The article goes on to report that about half of American drivers between 21 and 24 say they’ve thumbed messages or emailed from the driver’s seat. And what’s more, many drivers don’t think it’s dangerous when they do it – only when others do.

A national survey, the first government study of its kind on distracted driving, and other data released Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration underscore the difficulty authorities face in discouraging texting and cell phone talking while driving.

The article further states that at any given moment last year on America’s streets and highways, nearly one in every 100 car drivers was texting, emailing, surfing the Web or otherwise using a hand-held electronic device, the safety administration said. And those activities spiked 50 percent over the previous year, even as states rush to ban the practices.

Last month, Pennsylvania became the 35th state to forbid texting while driving.

If you or someone that you care about has been hurt in an auto accident, you need a legal team that will fight for you and your rights every step of the way. To speak with members of the Charpentier Law Firm about your case and to find out how we can help, contact our Central Florida personal injury attorneys today.

For more information on Automobile Accidents and Personal Injury Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html. Our Brevard Accident Lawyers can help.

An article by Larry Copeland published in the December 8, 2011 edition of FLORIDA TODAY reports that

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says distracted driving is still under-reported, and he is urging Congress to enact a national law against texting while driving. “We have to be able to get people to understand that this is very, very dangerous behavior,” he says. Distracted driving has been LaHood’s signature issue. Thirty five states and the District of Columbia now have bans on texting while driving. “When we started three years ago with distracted driving, it was not on anybody’s radar,” he says. “Only eight states had (texting bans).”

The article goes on to state that two separate studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that bans on handheld cell phones and on texting had not reduced crashes. “While there’s no question that cell phone use and especially texting by drivers is distracting, there’s no evidence that laws enacted so far have cut crashes,” IIHS spokesman Russ Rader says. But LaHood says that when such laws are diligently enforced — as they were during National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) studies in Syracuse, N. Y., and Hartford, Conn. — crashes do go down.

Meanwhile, NHTSA is changing the way it measures fatalities related to distracted driving, using a narrower, more focused definition that will enable local police officers to more accurately pinpoint distraction as a factor in crashes. Previously, among distracted driving fatalities, NHTSA listed deaths caused by careless driving or those in which a cell phone was merely present in the vehicle; those categories have been removed from its new category, “distraction affected crashes.”

LaHood compares the new approach to the way NHTSA changed its methodology in 2006 on drunken driving crashes. Prior to 2006, any crash in which a driver, pedestrian or bicyclist had a blood alcohol level of .-01 or higher was an “alcohol-related crash.” In 2006, the agency began using the measure “alcohol-impaired driving crashes,” to include only those in which a driver or motorcyclist had a blood alcohol level of .-08 or higher.

Using the new methodology, NHTSA reports 3,092 distraction-affected crash deaths in 2010, which LaHood says cannot be compared with the 5,474 “distraction-related” fatalities in 2009. However, he says other indicators, such as the National Occupant Protection Use Survey, in which trained data collectors at random intersections actually observe drivers in their vehicles, indicate that distracted driving is still “a significant problem.” That survey found that the percentage of drivers texting or visibly manipulating handheld devices

in-creased from 0.6 percent in 2009 to 0.9 percent in 2010; handheld cell phone use remained steady at 5 percent.

“Distracted driving, we believe, is still under-reported,” LaHood says. LaHood also will announce that updated data shows there were 3-2,885 traffic fatalities in 2-010, the lowest level since 1-949. Early projections from NHTSA in March had found 3-2,788 road deaths. There were 1-0,228 drunken-driving deaths in 2-010, down 4.9 percent from 2-009.

If you or someone that you care about has been hurt in an auto accident, you need a legal team that will fight for you and your rights every step of the way. To speak with members of the Charpentier Law Firm about your case and to find out how we can help, contact our Central Florida personal injury attorneys today.

For more information on Automobile Accidents and Personal Injury Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html. Our Brevard Accident Lawyers can help.

Florida Today-January 30, 2012-According to the article a 39-year-old Melbourne man crashed into the back of a pickup truck just south of the main gate at Patrick Air Force in Satellite Beach, Brevard County, Florida. The accident occurred around 2 a.m. on State Road A1A, just north of Jupiter Street. Florida Highway Patrol state that the pickup truck rolled off the roadway after the impact and flipped over before coming to a rest. The driver of the pickup truck was seriously injured while two of the passengers of the pickup suffered only minor injuries. All three were wearing their seat belts. Investigators believe that the driver of the 1994 Corvette was traveling at a high rate of speed when the front right side fo the car hit the rear of the pickup truck. The Corvette veered into the grassy median and crossed over northbound lanes. The driver of the Corvette was also wearing their seat belt and was listed as being in critical condition. All four were transported to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida.

For more information on Automobile Accidents Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html

Florida Today-January 23, 2012-Rick Neale-According to the article, a man bleeding from a gunshot pulled into the parking lot of the Del’s Freez ice cream stand in Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida and collapses on a picnic table outside. Several patrons at the U.S. 1 ice creamy eatery applied basic first aid to the victim until 9-1-1 arrived. An ambulance took the man to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida. Melbourne Police Sgt. said the man was in stable condition when he left the hospital. Melbourne detectives are searching for the suspect driving a gold-colored truck. The shooting occurred at about 4:20 p.m. at 23 E. Avenue C, an apartment complex just a mile south of Del’s Freez. The article goes onto say the victim was shot several times with a small caliber rifle. Melbourne investigators found three bullet casings on the pavement. Witnesses in the complex said they heard gunshots and the saw the victim’s vehicle speed away and the suspect’s vehicle driver away casually.

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An article in the December 6, 2011 of FLORIDA TODAY by Larry Copeland of USA TODAY reported that the United States could save 2,000 lives a year if all 50 states instituted comprehensive programs of phased-in driving privileges for teens, according to a new report out today.

“We knew that when states pass good laws, lives are saved and a lot of money is saved. We’d just never done the analysis,” says John Ulczycki of the National Safety Council, which researched the issue for the Allstate Foundation.

This report came in as Congress prepares to consider a multi-year highway and transit spending bill. Advocates of graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws are pushing to include funding for about $25 million a year in incentives for states to strengthen GDL programs.

Motor-vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash, the CDC says.

Every state has some form of GDL, which rewards novice drivers with additional privileges as they gain experience and maturity. Ulczycki and other experts say the most effective programs contain seven key components; two states, New York and Delaware, have programs with all seven.

The seven components: a minimum age 16 for a learner’s permit; six months’ supervised driving before unsupervised driving; minimum 30 hours’ supervised driving during learning stage; intermediate licensing at a minimum age of 16½; intermediate nighttime restriction beginning at 10 p.m.; no more than one non-family passenger for intermediate license holders; and a minimum age of 17 for a full license.

One component that could draw opposition from lawmakers concerned about states’ rights: raising the minimum age for getting a learner’s permit.

Also, the 10,000-member National Youth Rights Association opposes a national GDL law. “It’s discriminatory on its face,” Vice President Jeffrey Nadel says.

If you or someone that you care about has been hurt in an auto accident, you need a legal team that will fight for you and your rights every step of the way. To speak with members of the Charpentier Law Firm about your case and to find out how we can help, 

contact our Central Florida personal injury attorneys today.

For more information on Automobile Accidents and Personal Injury Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html. Our Brevard Accident Lawyers can help.

Florida Today-January 18, 2012-According to the article one person was killed and two others were injured in a car crash that occurred on the eastbound Industry Road just off the exit of State Road 528 in Cocoa, Brevard County, Florida.  This one-vehicle accident occurred just after 5:00 p.m., shutting down the exit for at least six hours as investigators worked the scene.  The article goes onto say that one of the injured vehicles were airlifted to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida.  The other injured victim was taken to Wuesthoff Hospital in Rockledge, Florida.

For more information on Automobile Accidents Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html

Florida Today-January 17, 2012-Dave Berman-According to the article an investigation is under way to determine whether chemical stored in the garage of a West Melbourne home triggered an explosion that killed a man Monday. The man suffered serious injuries to his abdomen and arm in the explosion that occurred around 1:20 p.m. in West Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida. He was pronounced dead at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida. The article goes onto say that numerous hand-labeled containers of chemicals were found in the detached garage. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called to the scene which temporarily cleared the property for safety concerns. The bomb squad determined that the chemicals were owned legally and were used to make fuel for modal rockets. The man was involved in model rocketry and also repaired cars for a hobby inside his garage. A neighbor of the West Melbourne man says he felt the explosion from two houses away.

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An article by Larry Copeland published in the December 9, 2011 edition of FLORIDA TODAY reports that it is getting riskier for people on foot, and experts aren’t sure why.

The article goes on to state that new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data show pedestrian fatalities rose 4.2% in 2010 over the previous year. The number of pedestrians hurt in motor vehicle crashes soared 19%, to 70,000.

Experts are puzzled by the increase, which comes as road fatalities in most categories are dropping. The jump follows four straight years of falling pedestrian deaths, and a 14% decrease in pedestrian fatalities from 2000 to 2009.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know why they went up,” says James Hedlund, a former NHTSA official who researched pedestrian safety in January for the Governors Highway Safety Association. “Nobody knows. As far as I can tell, nobody has studied the issue. The data (are) too new.” Possible explanations:

Pedestrians are put at risk by the preponderance of wide, high-speed roads designed to move large numbers of vehicles but not with pedestrians in mind.

Low income residents and immigrants have added population in suburban areas and more pedestrians are distracted by cell phones and other handheld communication devices. There has been only anecdotal evidence of “pedestrian distraction” as a factor in fatalities, such as a 31-year-old woman killed in March in San Ysidro, Calif., while crossing the street in a crosswalk. Police said she was on her cell phone and ignored a red light.

“Nobody has good data,” says Richard Wener, professor of environmental psychology at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, who collaborated on studies led by Jack Nasar, an Ohio State University professor. One obstacle to obtaining good data is police are not required to indicate whether a victim was using a phone or texting. “My guess is that’s going to change,” he says.

Drinking also is a major factor in pedestrian fatalities. Alcohol-impairment — of the driver or the pedestrian — was involved in 48% of all pedestrian fatalities in 2009, according to NHTSA.

If you or someone that you care about has been hurt in an auto accident, as a bicyclist, a pedestrian or otherwise, you need a legal team that will fight for you and your rights every step of the way. To speak with members of the Charpentier Law Firm about your case and to find out how we can help, contact our Central Florida personal injury attorneys today.

For more information on Automobile Accidents and Personal Injury Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html. Our Brevard accident lawyers are here to help.

The Palm Beach Post-January 6, 2012-Associated Press-According to the article figures show that 111 people died on Florida’s roads during an 18-day holiday period through January 2. That is almost double the amount of deaths recorded from just a year ago. Florida Highway Patrol do not have an explanation for the increase yet. Law enforcement increased their traffic enforcement in Florida and across the nation during the holiday seasons both years. According to the article Florida State Troopers arrested 505 drivers under the influence of alcohol and drugs during the most recent campaign “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.” This figures compares to 407 a year ago. Although, traffic citations dropped from 40,000 to 35,000.

For more information on Automobile Accidents Click Here: http://www.brevardlawyer.com/html/auto-accidents.html