LAKE COUNTY, FL – State troopers are investigating an accident in Lake County that killed a bicycle rider late Friday night.
WOFL reports a bicyclist and the driver of a pickup truck were both headed west on State Road 46 east of Deal Drive at about 10:24 p.m.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the bicyclist was initially riding on the shoulder of the roadway, but began to move in a southwesterly direction and entered the westbound lane.
SUMTER COUNTY, FL – A collision in Sumter County on Saturday morning left three people dead and another injured, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
According to WFLA, the crash occurred on State Road 471 near South Grade Road. An investigation indicated that a man driving a sedan on SR-471 near the Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve veered into the opposite lane at about 4 a.m. His vehicle crashed into another sedan nearly head-on.
The driver of the first car, a 42-year-old Winter Haven man, and the driver of the second vehicle along with a 54-year-old female passengers all were killed in the accident. Another passenger in the second sedan, a 47-year-old man, was seriously injured. All three occupants of the second car were residents of Lima, Ohio.
The juncture of Northwest 39th Avenue and 13th Street in Gainesville may appear to be your typical residential intersection, but during rush hour, this crossroad seems more like crash racing at a Demolition Derby show.
This busy intersection has been the site of 358 collisions from Jan. 1, 2014, to May 31, 2022. One of these crashes in June 2021 took the life of an 18-year-old Gainesville High School student.
There are 26,500 westbound vehicles and 20,400 eastbound vehicles that pass through the intersection of Northwest 39th Avenue every day of the year, which is more than any other road in the northern Gainesville region, according to Florida Traffic Online.
However, there are proposals to make the intersection safer from the Florida Department of Transportation. The proposed improvement, if given the go-ahead by the FDOT later this summer, would cost close to $300,000 and would not be finished until 2025.
The Northwest 39th Avenue left turn lanes would be extended to 13th Street and a new median would be built along those lanes in both the east and westbound directions. The medians would be 350 feet long in total. The only thing separating the lanes from the opposing-direction traffic now is a thin, flat median.
While this intersection is considered one of the most dangerous in Alachua County, it is surpassed by Northwest 39th Avenue and 34th Street, which saw 51 sideswipes, 147 rear end collisions, and 17 pedestrian and bicyclist accidents from Jan. 1, 2014-May 31, 2022, according to FDOT. More than 100 people were injured in car crashes surrounding the center of the intersection, which is the size of a neighborhood swimming pool.
In the first 20 days of 2023, the intersection saw six accidents.
In May 2022, Metric Engineering Inc., an engineering consulting company, conducted a safety analysis for the intersection in order to obtain crash data for the previous eight years and make field observations of the crossing.
According to the analysis’s data, left turns were to blame for 19% of the intersection’s 358 collisions that have been reported since 2014.
The safety analysis proposes the installation of traffic separators to block vehicles from executing left turns across Northwest 39th Avenue.
The safety analysis estimates that the planned improvements will cost $289,000 in total.
If allowed, temporary barriers would be installed on Northwest 39th Avenue in the fall of 2023.
Permanent concrete would be poured for traffic dividers in the fall of 2024, with construction wrapping up in the spring of 2025. Continue reading
HERNANDO COUNTY, FL – A man has been arrested in connection with a fatal accident that occurred April 30 in Hernando County.
A report by Pasco News Online states that the crash occurred on Tarpon Boulevard near the intersection with US-10.
The Florida Highway Patrol said 38-year-old Andrew Michael Windsor of Hudson was driving eastbound on Tarpon Boulevard when he was unable to negotiate a curve in the roadway. His car went off the road, onto a shoulder and hit an embankment before coming to rest in a canal next to the road.
GAINESVILLE, FL – A motorcycle and a box truck were involved in a deadly collision in Gainesville on Monday morning, WGLF reports.
The crash occurred at the intersection of Northwest 39th Avenue and Northwest 97th Boulevard at about 8:45 a.m. An investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol indicated that the driver of the box truck was going west on Northwest 39th Avenue and attempted to make a left turn at the intersection.
It was at that point that the motorcyclist, going east on Northwest 39th Avenue, slammed into the back of the box truck.
THE VILLAGES, FL – A man was arrested in connection with a hit-and-run accident in the Villages Monday afternoon.
According to Villages-News.com, the crash happened in the vicinity of State Road 44 and Powell Road in Wildwood. Police said the driver of a Mazda 3, identified as 36-year-old Mark Regan of Pennsylvania, struck the back of a trailer being towed by a truck at about 3 p.m.
The truck driver said Regan pulled into the median after the crash but did not try to exchange information and suddenly left the scene heading west on State Road 44.
MARION COUNTY, FL – State troopers said a pickup truck and a sedan were involved in a deadly crash in Marion County, Ocala News.com reports.
The vehicles collided Sunday night on State Road 40 near County Road 314 in Silver Springs just after 8:30 p.m.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a pickup truck going west on State Road 40 veered into oncoming traffic and crashed into an eastbound sedan.
SUMTER COUNTY, FL – The Florida Highway Patrol said four people were injured after two vehicles collided at a Sumter County intersection early Sunday morning.
According to WKMG, the crash happened at State Road 44 and Morse Boulevard at about 4:15 a.m.
The FHP said the driver of a sedan was going at high speed while headed east on State Road 44 and went through a red light at the intersection. The sedan collided with an SUV going south on Morse Boulevard, causing both vehicles to end up on the south shoulder of State Road 44.
MARION COUNTY, FL – One driver was killed and another injured when their vehicles collided in Marion County Wednesday night, WKMG reports.
The accident occurred along Interstate 75 southbound near mile marker 354. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a 19-year-old woman was driving south on I-75 at about 9:10 p.m. when she drove off the road.
A pickup truck was parked in the emergency lane, and the woman’s car struck the back of a trailer attached to the pickup. The woman, a resident of Wesley Chapel, died in the wreck. State troopers said she was wearing a seat belt. A 39-year-old Dade City man who was the driver of the pickup sustained minor injuries.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett lost his 2-year-old daughter in a drowning accident at their home swimming pool Sunday, according to investigators.
Officers arrived at the family’s swimming pool in the Beach Park district of south Tampa shortly before 9:30 a.m. after receiving a call about a toddler who had fallen into a pool.
Barrett’s youngest child was rushed to the hospital, but ultimately died.
According to the police report, the inquiry is still ongoing. It is believed that this was an accidental, tragic incident.
Barrett, 30, and his wife also have three more kids.
Barrett, who missed the second half of last season due to a damaged Achilles tendon, is entering his fifth year with Tampa Bay after completing his first four seasons with the Denver Broncos.
The most frequent type of injury that results from swimming pool mishaps is drowning. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the second most common cause of unintentional injury death in children between the ages of one and fourteen. Most of these drownings take place in family swimming pools.
Florida had the highest rate of unintentional drowning deaths among children aged 1 to 4 in the United States from 2018 to 2020, according to the Florida Department of Public Health. Here is the breakdown of the number of children under the age of 5 in Florida who drowned in the past few years:
Premises liability is a subset of personal injury law that covers accidents that happen on either public or private property and includes swimming pool mishaps. In circumstances involving premises liability, you may bring a lawsuit against the property owner if their carelessness contributed to or caused your damage.
Who Is Responsible for a Drowning Disaster in a Swimming Pool?
Whether the pool is public or private, the property owner is typically responsible. A municipality may be held responsible in the case of a public pool.
The owner of a private swimming pool is liable when a drowning accident occurs on their property. Typically, an insurance claim would be made against the homeowner’s insurance policy.
Depending on the accident’s cause, other responsible parties may also include a pool maintenance firm or a manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of a defective product.
Our Florida Swimming Pool Accident Attorneys Whittel & Melton assist victims and their families in holding negligent pool owners responsible. You may be entitled to financial compensation for your suffering, including:
