This Fort Lauderdale Pedestrian Accident Lawyer, Anthony Quackenbush, has assisted injured pedestrians successfully numerous times over the course of his career. He works on pedestrian accident cases in Broward County and throughout the State of Florida – including South Florida.
Pedestrian accidents typically occur when somebody walking along or near a roadway is hit by a passing vehicle. Pedestrian crashes can occur due to all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, pedestrian wrecks are caused by defective roadway conditions. This would be called a roadway construction case. For example, defective, poor or inadequate lighting on a roadway can prevent a driver from being able to see a pedestrian, thus causing an accident and injuries to a pedestrian. If this was the cause of your pedestrian accident, Mr. Quackenbush can hire an expert to evaluate the lighting in the roadway and determine if it might have played a part in the wreck.
Roadway lighting can be the responsibility of a governmental entity (i.e., the State of Florida, a specific county, or a specific city). If that is the situation, you may have a “sovereign immunity” case against that governmental entity. A sovereign immunity case will present several restrictions and limitations that you and Mr. Quackenbush will have to deal with. For example, in a sovereign immunity case, the most you will be able to recover is $200,000.
Additionally, in a sovereign immunity case, you will need to put the governmental entity at fault on notice of the claim within three years. You will then need to wait six months before filing suit against the governmental entity (which will need to happen within four years).
On the other hand, oftentimes governmental entities contract out the duties of roadway lighting to private companies. If this is the case, there will be no such cap on damages or sovereign immunity time limitations. The challenge for Mr. Quackenbush will be to discover the identity of the private companies.
Pedestrian wrecks also frequently occur due to drinking and driving. Intoxicated drivers are more prone to driving off of the road and hitting pedestrians. If the driver who hit you was impaired at the time of the accident, Mr. Quackenbush may move for punitive damages – which are designed to punish the person who was drinking & driving. In a personal injury case, there are several different types of damages you can recover. One type, for example, is compensatory damages – which are designed to compensate you for your medical bills, your time missed at work, and your pain and suffering. Punitive damages, on the other hand, are designed to actually punish the responsible party.
Pedestrian crashes also frequently occur due to texting and driving. Texting & driving is one of the most dangerous behaviors a person can engage in. When somebody is looking at their phone while driving, it is easy to drive off of the road and hit a pedestrian. If the driver that hit you was texting and driving at the time of the crash, Mr. Quackenbush could move for punitive damages as well.
If you were a pedestrian injured in an accident, contact Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation. Should you retain Mr. Quackenbush’s services, he will not get paid until you’ve been compensated for your injuries. That is, there will be no charge to you upfront – so there is no risk to you. Mr. Quackenbush can help you if you’ve been injured as a pedestrian anywhere in the State of Florida. This includes Miami and West Palm Beach.
Many pedestrian crashes are hit-and-run accidents. A passing vehicle will hit a pedestrian and keep driving, knowing that there is no way for the pedestrian to catch up to them. If this has happened to you, it will obviously be important to try to determine the identity of the driver who hit you. If your pedestrian crash occurred at an intersection, it will be important to determine if there were any red-light cameras at the intersection. If there are, it will be crucial for this Fort Lauderdale Pedestrian Accident Law Firm to try to get the video footage as soon as possible as many of these cameras are on timed “loops” – meaning they tape over themselves every so often. If you don’t download the footage within a certain amount of time, the video may tape over itself and the footage will be lost.
Even if the accident did not occur at an intersection, this Broward County Pedestrian Accident Attorney may be able to get footage from red-light cameras at neighboring intersections. This footage may reveal the car that hit you speeding away from the scene. If the license plate of the vehicle is visible on the footage, Mr. Quackenbush may be able to discover the identity of the driver.
If there were no red-light cameras in the area, Mr. Quackenbush may be able to retrieve surveillance footage from neighboring businesses. He will send an investigator out to the scene to determine if there were any businesses in the area, if they took surveillance videotape of the area, and if the vehicle that hit you can be seen on the videotape.
Finally, if you were a pedestrian struck by a hit and run vehicle and you remember a portion of the license plate of the vehicle (i.e., some of the letters and/or numbers, but not all), you should inform Mr. Quackenbush. There are searches that can be done using even just a portion of the license plate that may reveal the identity of the bad driver.
If you were a pedestrian struck by a vehicle anywhere in Florida, you should also be aware that you may be entitled to personal injury protection (PIP benefits). In Florida, if you own automobile insurance and you are in an accident which involves a motor vehicle in any way (even if you were a pedestrian and not in a motor vehicle), you will be entitled to $10,000 of personal injury protection (PIP benefits) which will go to your medical bills and/or lost wages, lost income and time missed from work. This will be true even if you were at fault for the accident.
Moreover, even if you were walking in a place where you weren’t supposed to be when you were struck by a passing vehicle (for example, if you were jaywalking outside of a marked intersection), you may still have a case. This is because Mr. Quackenbush may be able to argue that the vehicle that hit you had the “last clear chance” to avoid the accident. That is, it’s a lot easier for a vehicle to avoid hitting a pedestrian than it is for a pedestrian to try to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. Passing vehicles have an obligation to try to avoid hitting pedestrians even if those pedestrians are in a place where they’re not supposed to be, and, if the drivers of those vehicles don’t do that, they may be liable.
Because pedestrians are completely unprotected against oncoming vehicles, pedestrianaccidents frequently involve the worst of injuries, including death. Many victims of pedestrian crashes sustain closed head injuries, brain bleeds, and brain damage. Many victims of pedestrian accidents end up in comas and vegetative states. They may also wind up living with paralysis, paraplegia, and quadriplegia.
The statute of limitations for a pedestrian accident case is four years, although this may be different if the case involved a death. In any case, time is of the essence to contact this South Florida Pedestrian Accident Lawyer and begin your claim.
If you’re a pedestrian who has sustained injuries in an accident occurring anywhere in Florida, contact Mr. Quackenbush at 954-448-7288 for a free, no obligation consultation. Should you decide that you’d like Mr. Quackenbush as your lawyer, he will not charge you anything up front. That is, this Broward County Pedestrian Accident Lawyer won’t get paid until you’ve made a recovery in your case – so there is no risk to you.