Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

Polk County, Florida - A construction site accident claimed the life of one construction worker in Polk County Monday. Felipe Felix, a construction worker for Lane Construction, was struck by a car and killed while he was installing road construction signs along Highway 98.

Felix was hit by a Ford Fusion, driven by Jeltema Georgia Lynn, 46, of Zephyrhills, as he was crossing the road and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators said that Felix, 36, of Bartow, had been wearing his reflective safety vest. He picked up an orange construction sign from the side of a Construction truck and began crossing Highway 98.

The Lane Construction truck had its headlights and strobe lights activated according to authorities.

A spokesman for Lane Construction said that the company's usual practice is to travel on the opposite side of the roadway with their lights on so their employees can see oncoming traffic prior to crossing a roadway.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office continues their investigation into this fatal Lakeland car accident.

Continue reading "Bartow, Florida - Fatal Accident Claims Life Of Construction Worker Hit By Car" »

Miami, Florida - Two workers were seriously injured in a construction site accident Tuesday afternoon when they fell down an elevator shaft in Miami-Dade County.

According to Fire Rescue officials, the accident happened in a building under construction at Southwest 84th Avenue and Eighth Street.

The victims were working on a suspended cart inside the elevator shaft when the cables broke. Officials said the men fell four stories.

The men were transported to Ryder Trauma Center for emergency medical treatment.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation at this time although, the accident could have been the result of negligent maintenance of the cart and cables, or it could have been the result of a defective product.

Contractors have a duty to maintain their equipment in a reasonably safe condition and can, in some instances, be held liable when they fail to do so.

Additionally, product manufacturers have a duty to make sure that when their product is sold to the public it is safe and suitable for its intended use. When a manufacturer fails to design or manufacture its products safely and in conformity with applicable standards or fails to adequately warn of foreseeable harm, they can be held liable under product liability laws.

Continue reading "Miami, Florida - Construction Workers Injured After Fall down Elevator Shaft " »

Central Florida - Florida personal injury lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of John Graziano, who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident last August.

The defendants - wrestling superstar, Hulk Hogan and his family. Graziano's parents are suing Hogan under Florida's "Dangerous Instrumentality Doctrine" which holds the owner of an automobile vicariously responsible for the negligent operation of that vehicle.

Experienced Florida personal injury lawyers know how to use Florida's laws to achieve substantial compensation for their seriously injured clients.

Hogan's son, Nick Bollea, was driving a car registered in his father's name at the time of the crash.

The August 2007 auto accident (see my post on March 13th about this crash) left Bollea's friend, Graziano with permanent brain damage and other serious injuries that will require daily nursing care for the rest of his life.

Bollea faces charges of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury. He will be tried on these charges next month.

The Graziano family filed a lawsuit against Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea), his wife Linda and son Nick, charging them with negligence.

Continue reading "Florida - Personal Injury Lawyer Sues Hulk Hogan For Brain Damage And Other Injuries Suffered in Son's Car Accident" »

Hialeah, Florida - The body of 28 year old, Odin Torres, a Miami woman was recovered from the debris caused by the collapse of a huge construction crane in New York Saturday. The crane accident destroyed a four-story building in Manhattan when it toppled.

Six others were also killed in the accident. They were all construction workers.

The crane collapsed when a steel collar used to secure it to the building under construction fell while it was being installed. It caused damage to another steel collar below it that also supported the crane. Once the crane's support system had been compromised, the counterweights at the top of the crane caused it to fall, according to the New York City Department of Buildings.

It was reported that Odin Torres was visiting New York for the St. Patrick's Day holliday.

When contractors and construction workers are careless, innocent people often pay the ultimate price. The Florida personal injury attorneys at our firm have handled numerous construction site accidents where people were seriously injured or killed as a result of the negligence of contractors or defective construction equipment. We handle cases where Florida residents are injured in other states and sometimes associate with a local lawfirm, though that is not necessary in all cases. From what I have learned so far about this New York crane disaster, it sounds like the crane and its support system were negligently designed. It is also clear that the construction crew was negligent in installing the crane. Once the support collar fell and impacted another one, a thorough inspection should have been conducted of all of the support collars to insure that their integrity had not been compromised.

Unfortunately for Odin Torres and her family, that obviously did not occur.

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Brevard County - Spokespersons for a road construction company denied that ongoing road construction was to blame for any of the six, separate motor vehicle accidents that occurred early Monday morning in or near a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 95 that is the subject of a major road widening construction project.

Six auto accidents, including one involving an overturned semi tractor-trailer truck, occurred Monday on I-95 in Brevard during rush hour. Several motorists were injured.

The first two accidents occurred just south of the construction zone - a stretch of I-95 spanning about 10 miles from Fiske Boulevard in Rockledge to State Road 528 in Cocoa which is being widened from four lanes to six.

The first crash was reported after 3 a.m. at mile marker 195, just south of Fiske. The right northbound lane still was blocked at 6:30 a.m. Bottle-necking and backup at that wreck may have contributed to cause a second crash, this one a head-on collision, occurring approximately 20 minutes later near the Viera Boulevard overpass. That crash resulted in injury to two people who were rushed to the hospital for emergency medical treatment.

Continue reading "Motorists Injured When Six Auto Accidents Occur on I-95 in Brevard County, Florida Construction Zone" »