A recent major car wreck involving six vehicles put eight people in the hospital and left one driver dead at the scene. The crash, which was reported around 6:30 p.m. on the night of February 16, happened on Northwest 37th Avenue near the intersection with Northwest 194th Street. News coverage from the scene the morning after showed that in addition ...
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The mega dirt-bike and ATV highway joyride “Wheels Up, Guns Down” is celebrated to bring fractious communities together, but the event tragically claimed lives again this year. Video footage shows these MLK-weekend riders seemingly overjoyed, popping wheelies and weaving through traffic in Miami Dade and Hialeah Counties, causing a wild spectacle and chaos on the roads. A Weekend of Many ...
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A Slate report in 2013 judged Miami to have the worst drivers in the nation. More recent national statistics for pedestrians said that Miami-Dade was the nation’s fifth most dangerous metropolis with fatalities at a ten-year high.
Miami-Dade also ranked number seven for traffic congestion, making commuting frustrating as well as hazardous. Red-light running is a huge problem, with American Traffic Solutions singling the county out in online accident videos. So, how to avoid being a victim? You can start by being extra vigilant at the following highly dangerous corners and intersections:
Alton Road has been historically plagued by flooding and has been subject to various improvement projects over the years. Dade’s latest project was to raise up the roadway to be in line with other roads. Where the two streets meet, the wide, hectic crossroad is prone to accidents and heavy traffic that can back all the way up into South Beach and the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Careless pedestrians can add to the chaos.
At this corner, 36th Street widens to six lanes of traffic and NW 87th to eight. Maybe we can just stop there as you can imagine trying to gauge the intentions of that many drivers all at once. These Doral roadways can be jam-packed from morning to night.
This Brickell drawbridge road is at the mercy of passing boats, which can halt traffic for about twenty minutes so that they can pass through on their pleasure cruise—even in the middle of rush hour. This stretch also links to I-95, causing many vehicles to make last minute moves to get onto the highway. Incidentally, the Florida stretch of I-95 was ranked the most dangerous road in America in 2010, so take care there as well.
This intersection was labeled the most dangerous in Miami-Dade due to its high number of accidents and how catastrophic they were. NE Sixth Street is also a feeder for I-95, and American Airlines Arena brings crushing traffic during Heat games and other stadium events. Tourists and other visitors add to the crowding of these well-used roads.
A 2001 Allstate study ranked this intersection as the nation’s most dangerous. Within five years, one hundred pedestrians have died here. Safety measures such as red-light cameras and steep fines have improved things somewhat, but drivers still need to be extra cautious. With six lanes for Flamingo and eight for Pines (including turn lanes), chaos is a given and stress levels run high.
Lavent Law has extensive experience in personal injury traffic accident cases. Boris Lavent puts his knowledge of the South Florida legal system and insurance industries to work to seek maximum compensation for the injuries and damages suffered by accident victims. Contact our office to schedule a free, no-pressure case evaluation by calling 305-440-0450 or by completing the form below.
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The mega dirt-bike and ATV highway joyride “Wheels Up, Guns Down” is celebrated to bring fractious communities together, but the event tragically claimed lives again this year. Video footage shows these MLK-weekend riders seemingly overjoyed, popping wheelies and weaving through traffic in Miami Dade and Hialeah Counties, causing a wild spectacle and chaos on the roads.
Many riders forgo helmets and get airborne on their back wheels, courting danger and sometimes finding it. In 2016, one rider’s accident had him flying fifty feet and miraculously surviving to take selfies of himself with rescue workers. This year, two men tragically lost their lives and many others were injured. A twenty-year-old ATV rider was doing tricks when he crashed on the Palmetto Expressway in Hialeah. Another man, age twenty-five, was riding a borrowed dirt bike near Fort Lauderdale, crashed, and did not survive cardiac arrest in his own terrible crash.
Other incidents included a car and four dirt bikes that ran afoul of each other, as did another car and a motorcycle. This all highlights the danger of both stunt-riding on four-wheel vehicles and taking unauthorized vehicles on major roadways. The “Bikes Up, Guns Down” movement is said to have begun in Baltimore, and the Florida ride’s name is supposed to be shorthand for the Maryland city’s riding culture and “Pick Up a Bike, Put Down a Gun” motto.
So what happens if a ride meant to be a celebration and a peaceful protest gets hairy for other drivers and law enforcement? While the sentiment of the riders for attending is good, the risky behaviors could be characterized under the law as reckless riding and driving. Police have the challenge of keeping the peace, but one officer suggested that they did not want to make the roads more unsafe by giving chase in an already chaotic environment.
There was a concerted effort this year before the event, however, with police statements meant to try to discourage dangerous showboating. Another official said that while they may not be in hot pursuit via car, the police choppers could outpace anyone who failed to stop when ordered. The official said that Broward County citations ranged from $116 to $1,165 for doing wheelies or driving recklessly. Also, ATVs and dirt bikes are not supposed to be on major highways, and their riders can be penalized accordingly. Drivers on four-wheelers without helmets can also be ticketed.
If you encounter a joy rider or other reckless person behind a wheel—or on a bike—and he or she causes you to crash, damage your vehicle, or get injured, you can seek damages through a personal injury lawsuit if your damages meet the required minimum criteria. A skilled attorney can build a case to get you the largest settlement available under Florida law.
If someone thought that he or she was in control while cutting loose and you were the victim, it’s time to look into getting your expenses, injuries, and trouble covered. Call Lavent Law to find out why Florida drivers choose us for their reckless driving and highway cases. To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation, call us at 305-440-0450 or complete the form on this page.
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The term medical malpractice can evoke images of sketchy doctors and poorly run clinics. But hospitals and doctors are not the only sources of these cases. Millions of people put their lives into the hands of pharmacists every day. These healthcare professionals are tasked with dosing potentially fatal medicines and in some cases, producing them. Carelessness and willful neglect on the part of a pharmacist can easily destroy lives.
The owner and head pharmacist of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy, NECC, is facing twenty-five counts of second-degree murder due to the alleged dangerous practices of his business. His facility is widely blamed for creating contaminated injectable steroids (preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate) in 2012 that are believed to have sickened 751 people across twenty states and caused sixty-one deaths from fungal meningitis and other diseases.
That meningitis outbreak was the largest recorded in US history. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) writes that this type of meningitis does not to pass from person to person, but rather from things like the spinal injections that the affected patients received. The pharmacist’s other charges include conspiracy, racketeering, and aiding and abetting mail fraud. Jury selection for his medical malpractice case began last week.
A second pharmacist, a supervisor, is also due to stand trial on similar charges. He apparently found his situation so serious that he took it on the lam in 2014 and was apprehended in an airport while trying to escape on a flight to Hong Kong.
Some of the causes of the contamination in this case were said to have come from producing medicine using expired or expiring ingredients in substandard conditions and failing to clean the facility and sterilize things properly—with multiple staff members falsifying sterilization records and lying about it.
Some of the vials containing the steroid had visible filaments, indicating contamination, as did sterilization equipment with “greenish-yellow residue,” according to The New York Times. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said NECC put the health of the public at risk because of “serious deficiencies and significant violations of pharmacy law and regulations.”
One report says that while compounding pharmacies are meant to create individualized prescriptions, this one had turned itself into a major drug supplier to big names like Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School. A large-scale operation would have been subject to tight regulation.
The accused pharmacist’s defense lawyer said that his client did acknowledge that the steroids were tainted. However, he also said, “No one has a good understanding of the source of the contamination . . .” and that his client “. . . feels horrible about the consequences of this.”
The business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 and a year later set up a $100 million fund for victims. NECC also tried to spread blame to their cleaning company in a report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the cleaning company said that the filing was without merit and that they were only hired to clean once a month.
Cavalier attitudes about rules that were put into place to protect the public can easily result in death, injury, and tragedy. Lavent Law has substantial experience in medical malpractice cases and personal injury law. We help our clients work through the aftermath of someone else’s wrongdoing, be it willful or accidental. In many cases, it’s possible to seek financial compensation.
If this has happened to you, please contact us for a free consultation to discuss any concerns you have about your treatment from a medical provider or any other person or business that has caused you harm. To get started, simply call 305-440-0450 or enter the form below.
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