Best & Anderson, P.A. Personal Injury Blog

Driver fatigue is at the heart of many big rig accidents, contributing to an estimated 40%. When fatigue is involved there may also be other factors that led to the accident. Determining whether fatigue was involved and the underlying cause of fatigue can help in determining who was responsible if you were injured in an accident involving a big rig. Florida tractor trailer accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. will thoroughly investigate your accident to help you get the compensation your deserve.

Causes of Fatigue Hidden in Trucking Records
Hours of Service (HOS) regulations are federal laws dictating how much time truckers can spend on the road and how many consecutive hours they must spend off duty between shifts and in between work weeks. HOS rules were created to reduce driver fatigue causing big rig accidents.

Truck drivers are required to keep log books where they record the number of hours they spend on the road. In order to meet the demanding schedules of trucking companies some truck drivers violate HOS rules and falsify their log book entries. Many trucking companies even encourage their drivers to falsify their entries. Truckers also keep receipts for their fuel purchases. These receipts are date and time stamped. When log book entries and receipts are in conflict, it can indicate an HOS violation leading to fatigue.

Other Causes of Fatigue
Even truck drivers who comply with HOS rules are subject to fatigue. Hazardous, stressful, or monotonous driving conditions, difficulty sleeping due to poor parking accommodations, problems with spouses due to long period of time away from home and many other factors can cause driver fatigue.

If you have been injured in a tractor trailer accident in Florida, please contact David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. to schedule your free case evaluation and find out how we can help you and your family today.

Although cell phone use while driving is not yet against the law in Florida, distracted drivers can still be held responsible for their negligence. Proving cell phone use can be an important factor in establishing fault in a car accident lawsuit. Cell phone use rarely turns up in routine accident investigations, but experienced Florida car accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. will conduct a through investigation and dig deep to get the evidence in your case.

Cell Phone Distraction and Impairment
As you might expect, studies have found that texting, is far more distracting than talking on the phone. The acts of dialing and reaching for the phone, are not as much of a problem as texting, but are still more distracting than the conversation. You might be surprised to learn than hands-free conversations are just as bad as talking on a handheld device.

Several studies have found that drivers engaged in cell phone conversations are as or more impaired than legally drunk drivers. These studies also found that there is little or no difference in the impairment level of those talking on hand-free vs. handheld devices.

How We Can Help You Prove That Cell Phone Use Caused Your Accident
We have several ways of proving that the other driver was using a cell phone during or just prior to your accident. Thorough questioning of witnesses is a start, but we then follow up by subpoenaing phone company records and obtaining footage from traffic cameras if cameras were present at the scene.

If you have been injured in an auto accident that you believe was caused by the other driver's cell phone use, please contact Florida car accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. to schedule your free case evaluation right away.

If you are injured in an accident caused by an uninsured driver, you may not be able to collect all of the compensation that you need and are entitled to, but that does not mean you should not pursue your case. There may be more compensation available than you are aware of. Experienced car accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. will thoroughly investigate your accident and your options to help you and your family recover from your accident.

You May Still Receive Partial or Total Compensation
Before you assume that you are out of luck just because the other driver was uninsured, you should consider two things:

• Your own insurance policy may cover part or all of your damages
• There may have been a third party to blame for your accident

Collecting From Your Own Insurance Company
Under Florida law, every auto insurance policy includes personal injury protection (PIP) of $10,000. This covers the policy holder no matter who was at fault for the accident and pays for the first $10,000 of you medical expenses and lost income whether or not the other driver had insurance.

You may actually have uninsured/underinsured motorist protection and not even know it. It is automatically included in certain types of Florida auto insurance policies unless the policy holder rejects it.

Collecting From Other Responsible Parties
A thorough investigation of your accident may reveal that someone else was actually responsible for your accident. For instance, if your accident was caused by faulty brakes or defective tires, you may have a product liability case against the auto manufacturer or dealership. If roadway defect is the cause, such as an intersection that is known to be dangerous and left uncorrected, then the city, county, or state may be held responsible.

If you have been involved in an accident with an uninsured driver, please contact Orlando, Florida car accident attorneys David Best, P.A. and Dutch Anderson, P.A. today.

The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program is set up so that if you have suffered a qualifying disability you could file your Social Security Disability claim yourself. If you want, you can assemble all the documentation, get witnesses together, attend the hearings, file your appeal, assemble more documents, attend more hearings, and maybe earn your benefits without the benefit of the lawyer.

But there are many reasons why you should get a lawyer for your SSDI claim. A lawyer:

Increases the chances that your claim will be successful by:

• Filing all paperwork in a timely fashion
• Assembling all necessary evidence, including the specific tests necessary to prove your disability
• Making sure evidence is presented appropriately at hearings

When you are disabled, you need your Social Security Disability payments as soon as possible. Why add extra risk that your claim will be denied and have to go through multiple appeals? With the average wait time for hearings over a year, why make yourself wait longer than necessary? And when your claim is approved, the amount of your lawyer's fees is limited by the law to a fraction of your benefits. The more you earn, the more we are paid, but we will never be paid more than a quarter of your benefits.

If you are a disabled worker looking at the prospect of filing for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, please call or email our Orlando, Florida personal injury lawyers to learn how we can help. The initial consultation is free.

The mass and speed of a car get turned against the human body in the event of a car accident. Even when the car takes the brunt of the force through its crumple zones, the possibility for serious injury is very high.

Common types of injuries in car accidents include:

• Traumatic brain injury, both closed and open head injuries
• Spinal cord injury (car accident is the number one cause of spinal cord injuries)
• Limb amputation when portions of the car intrude on the passenger cabin. Loss of legs was recently determined by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to be a serious potential risk related to microcars when struck by a larger vehicle.
• Burns when gasoline in the car ignites.
• Internal organ trauma can also lead to multiple organ failure.

Many of these injuries require lifelong care and/or expensive immediate treatment. If you or a loved one have suffered any of these serious injuries in a car accident, the Orlando, Florida car accident lawyers at Best & Anderson, P.A. can help you pay for expenses related to your injury. Please schedule a free case evaluation today.

When you are involved in a car accident, you may end up in the hospital whether your injuries are serious or not. Often, you are transported from the scene by an ambulance, maybe on a stretcher. If you are conscious, this can be the scariest part of the ordeal as you are beginning to recover from the initial shock and you have time for the worries to flood into your mind.

How badly am I hurt? you may wonder. Will the doctor misdiagnose a serious injury? Will I recover? Who will take care of my family? The chatter of the paramedics about your condition can serve to heighten your anxiety as you worry about every injury they discuss.

Then, when you are admitted, you are asked many questions. As you try to answer the questions to the best of your ability, you may also wonder what your answers mean about your condition.

And as you realize you're going to be okay, you watch the nurses open prepackaged procedure kits and use only half the material, you wonder again how much this is going to cost you. Test after test comes back without indicating injury, and you wonder whether all these tests were necessary, and how much each costs. $100? $1000? If you are moved to a hospital bed, you think about how this bed costs as much as a suite in a swanky resort hotel. The cost-meter in your head is going like a gas pump, and it just added another figure. You now wonder whether you will have to pay $10,000 or $20,000 or more. You might remember a recent study that tied over 60% of all bankruptcies to medical bills. You might remember that 75% of those people bankrupt with medical bills had health insurance. You might worry about how you can possibly pay your medical bills that are escalating by the moment.

If these worries are on your mind when you or a loved one is admitted to the hospital following a car accident, the best way to put your mind at ease is to talk to an experienced car accident attorney. The Orlando, Florida car accident attorneys at Best & Anderson, P.A. may be able to help you get compensation to pay for your medical expenses, even if your insurance company or that of the other driver refuses to pay at first. Schedule a free case evaluation today to learn more.