Various news agencies reported that a Tallahassee woman was significantly injured several weeks ago when she was involved in a car accident. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the car she was riding in was t-boned in Northern Bay County at the intersection of Hwy 20 and Blue Springs Rd. The male, who was driving the 2005 Honda Civic, the 32-year-old-female, and their two young children were driving home to Tallahassee from Panama City Beach when the driver told troopers he didn’t see the stop sign at Blue Springs and skid into the path of a Chevrolet Equinox going west on 20. The 32 year old female was rushed to Bay Medical Sacred Heart, where she underwent surgery. The 28 year old male was also taken to Bay Medical with serious but non-life threatening injuries. The two children ages two and four didn’t have a scratch and credited that to the fact they were restrained in age appropriate car seats. The other driver wasn’t injured.
Our thoughts and prayers are with this family. We hope for a quick and speedy recovery.
For lawyers, there used to be a term called “guest statute” which was a phrase used to describe a law that makes it more difficult for a passenger in a car to recover damages from the driver for injuries received in a car accident resulting from the fault of that driver. That is not the case here in Florida for the past 100 years. Under Florida law, the driver of a vehicle owes a duty to anyone in his/her vehicle to exercise ordinary and reasonable care in the operation of their vehicle and to keep that passenger safe. See Carver v. Chase, 128 Fl. 287, 174 So. 408 (1937).
If you or a loved one was injured while riding in a vehicle as a passenger, and a car accident resulted, contact us at Brannon & Brannon for a free consultation at (850)659-2252 or through our website at brannoncanhelp.com.
Source: http://www.mypanhandle.com/news/tallahassee-woman-injured-in-t-bone-crash