Wrongful Deaths In Florida
The death of a loved one is always a challenging dose to take. It is a wound that often takes a long time to cure and leaves scars in the memories of those affected for a lifetime. It is an even worse situation when it happens because of another person’s negligence and misconduct. This is referred to as wrongful death. A phenomenon that takes place daily and globally, leaving many families and societies heartbroken and in extreme confusion.
Many factors are captured in wrongful death statistics, a vast majority having repeatability as you move from nation to nation. Newsrooms, journals, newspapers, and even books fill up with these sad statistics and stories that people could have been prevented in the first place if those in whose hands these fatalities happened had chosen to be responsible for other individuals’ lives.
Wrongful death statistics are recorded in a wide variety of occurrences. The following are a minority of these:
Preventable medical errors.
According to wrongful death statistics, 3 billion dollars on medical malpractice payouts get to be spent, which is an average of one payout every 43 minutes, with an average of 98,000 medical error fatalities and 7,000 errors in wrong medication in the united states of America alone. This must be seriously addressed in medical practice to stop these kinds of deaths from happening to other patients.
Deaths associated with falls
Although this type of death cuts across all age brackets, there is a specific concern about how it affects the elderly. Recent statistics indicate the elderly, individuals above 75 years of age from 60 percent of fatalities in this category. It is always hard handling the elderly due to the many complications accompanying their age; thus, the situation is always hard to salvage. The take-home, then, is that all should endeavor to take proper care of the elderly close to them.
Workplace accidents
Employers have the responsibility to keep their employees safe while they are working. However, we always experience wrongful deaths in various workspaces ranging from construction sites, to office space, to different activities like fishing for those in sectors involving agricultural and fisheries activities, not forgetting the livestock rearing sector among many other work spheres. It is hazardous as such situations affect all the individuals in that specific place of work.
Deaths out of animal attacks
In some instances, out of the negligence of the concerned authorities, for example, in wildlife reserve areas, dangerous animals leave their confinement areas and get into human settlements, resulting in extreme harm and even deaths.
Defective products
The manufacturing company carries the burden when someone dies from using a given product. Therefore, companies should follow all the guidelines in stringency to avoid such fatalities by producing safe products. Examples of defective products are pharmaceuticals, toxic food products, and containers, dangerous childcare products and toys, and defective vehicles.
Criminal acts
Recently, many criminals have developed a new trend where they take to the streets and cause massive destruction, for example, in mass shootings. These amount to the wrongful deaths of the many individuals who lose their lives.
Despite many causes of wrongful deaths globally, as highlighted above, in the United States of America and specifically Florida, the leading cause of wrongful death is Motor vehicle accidents.
Human error and irresponsibility in driving behavior account for most mortalities.
Causes of vehicle accidents in Florida
It is important to familiarize yourself with such possibilities and why you should have Florida Wrongful Death Attorney at your reach.
Over speeding
Driving faster than the required speed limit amounted to 29 percent of mortalities in 2020. Drivers ignore the risks of overspeeding to them and other road users and only focus on arriving at their destinations.
Aggressive driving
Drivers often feel insulated from the outside world. They change lanes without any signal and get angry at other drivers for not being as fast as they are. At times they frustrate other road users with their continuous horning. These road malpractices have always ended up badly and even resulted in deaths. If you are a victim of an accident caused by such driving, it is best to call your Florida Wrongful Death Attorney.
Use of mobile phones while driving
Mobile phones always capture the attention of the individuals using them, receiving phone calls and looking at text messages while driving is a significant act of carelessness that assume those communications to be re important than anyone else on the road.
Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs
Wrongful Death Statistics indicate that one person dies in Florida every 45 minutes due to this, while 32 people die due to drunk driving car accidents daily in the United States. These accidents occur late at night and early morning when it’s still dark and the drivers can neither see even nor adequately make sound decisions while using the road.
Ignoring traffic signals
Some drivers deliberately ignore traffic signals without recognizing the danger this poses to themselves and others.
Distracted driving
Drivers are often distracted by various factors, for example, talkative passengers who demand attention, children at the back who probably want something, a driver trying to adjust the sound system, or even a driver looking for something to eat or drink while driving.
Drowsy driving
Sleeping while driving leaves a driverless alert, especially for drivers with strict deadlines, such as truck drivers. This accounted for 1.6 percent of the accidents in 2020 in Florida.
Weather conditions
Driving is always easier in perfect weather. Driving on a dry road with clear skies is very enjoyable. Rain, hail, wind, lightning, and flooding can make driving less safe—a challenge many drivers in Florida experience.
Mechanical defects and equipment failure
Equipment in a vehicle will not last forever. With time, it will eventually fail, and addressing it will be vital. However, some situations, like a tire burst while a vehicle is at high speed or breaking, stopping at a profound intersection, are complex, requiring the service of a car attorney in Florida.
Animals
They are often unpredictable. Large animals like alligators, deer, bears, or even livestock can pose a more dangerous threat worse than small animals can. The damage is enormous if the big animals get hit or run over.
Road construction
Road construction often alters traffic patterns and may involve shifting lanes, resulting in confusion and uncertainty for motorists.
In such cases, your Florida Wrongful Death Attorney will handle lawsuits for you if you have lost a loved one.
There are unbelievable wrongful death statistics regarding road /vehicle accidents, as highlighted below:
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, car accidents are responsible for approximately 1.3 million deaths.
- In the United States of America, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) projects that in 2021 there were 42,915 traffic fatalities which amounts to a significant increase from 2020. It was also the highest annual percentage increase in the fatality analysis reporting systems in history.
- 55 percent of motor vehicle deaths were as a result of single crushes, according to 2020 statistics published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)
- The Association for Safe Internal Road Travel (ASIRT) reports that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among people aged 5 to 29 years
- More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among vulnerable road users, for example, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, among others, and are also the single most significant annual cause of death in the United States citizens
EFFECTS OF MOTOR VEHICLE DEATHS IN FLORIDA
Devastation from loss of lives.
Considerable economic loss to entire countries, individuals, and families, which results from the cost of medical treatment, lost productivity for those who end up disabled or killed as well as from family members who take off from work either giving care or grieving over the loss of a loved one.
Conclusion
People should never normalize wrongful deaths. The effects of it are unbelievably heavy. Therefore, they should treat every form of negligence resulting in a loss of life with the gravity it deserves by law, not just in Florida and the United States of America but all nations globally. Everyone should shake themselves off their selfish slumber and get to understand the fact that every life matters!
