{"id":1597,"date":"2012-02-08T15:39:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T21:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.myphillylawyer.com\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2018-06-28T18:46:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T23:46:55","slug":"11-die-in-i-75-chain-reaction-crash-in-florida-how-could-it-have-been-avoided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/2012\/02\/08\/11-die-in-i-75-chain-reaction-crash-in-florida-how-could-it-have-been-avoided\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Die in I-75 Chain-Reaction Crash in Florida: How Could It Have Been Avoided?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blinded by smoke from a large brush fire combined with fog in the early-morning darkness, the drivers of at least a dozen cars, six tractor-trailers and a motorhome crashed in a chain-reaction collision on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., late last month, killing 11 victims.<\/p>\n

Now the questions begin \u2013 did the Florida Highway Patrol, which had closed the highway three hours earlier due to the smoke and fog, re-open the highway too soon?<\/p>\n

\"An

An image of a fog-covered highway, similar to the one last month in Florida where 11 people died in a horrific crash on I-75. Image credit: \u00a9 iStockphoto.com\/AndreasWeber<\/p><\/div>\n

And if the brush fire was intentionally set, which investigators are considering, who was responsible for the blaze and for the 11 deaths?<\/p>\n

The devastating death toll, which is believed to be the worst single-incident traffic accident death toll in the state’s history, came after the highway patrol determined that \u201cconditions had cleared enough for drivers,<\/a> but visibility quickly became murky again,\u201d according to an Associated Press<\/em> story. \u201cFlorida Gov. Rick Scott has ordered an investigation into that decision,\u201d the story reported.<\/p>\n

“We went through the area. We \tmade an assessment. We came to the conclusion that the road was safe \tto travel and that is when we opened the road up,” Highway \tpatrol spokesman Lt. Patrick Riordan said in a news conference, according to AP<\/em>.\u00a0 \t“Drivers have to recognize that the environment changes. They \thave to be prepared to make good judgments.”<\/p>\n

The 3:45 a.m. crash on Jan. 29 was \thorrific, involving at least a dozen cars, six tractor-trailers and \ta motorhome, according to the story. Vehicles were crushed by the \ttrucks, others burst into flames and shrapnel was sent flying, the \tstory reported. Eighteen survivors were sent to local hospitals for \ttreatment of various injuries.<\/p>\n

So now what?<\/p>\n

Lawsuits will certainly be filed by \tsurvivors and by the families of the dead, but it will be a while \tuntil all the facts of the incident are revealed and the scenario of \tthe carnage can be fully understood.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, a report by WESH-TV <\/em> in Winter Park, Fla., identified the area of the deadly crash, \tbetween Ocala and Gainesville, as a \u201ctechnological \tblack hole for drivers\u201d because it lacks real-time video \tcameras and smart message boards that can warn drivers of dangerous \tconditions or accidents ahead. Other state highways already have \tsuch devices, including video cameras that are part of the state’s \tIntelligent Transportation System (ITS), the story reported. One of \tthe strengths of ITS is that it can see in the dark and pass such \tinformation on to message boards to alert drivers, according to WESH<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the ITS Orlando headquarters, \temployees and troopers can look out for drivers who need help, \tdebris in the roadway and dangerous weather conditions,\u201d Florida \tDepartment of Transportation spokesman Steve Olson told WESH<\/em>. “We’re \ttrying to eliminate those surprises with ITS.”<\/p>\n

Florida officials now say they \twill evaluate their protocols that allowed the state police to \tre-open the highway just before the fatal crashes, according to a \tstory by the Associated Press<\/em>. \u201cThe Highway Patrol was also \tquick to point out that motorists must be prepared to quickly make \tgood decisions because road conditions can change quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, it’s true that drivers have \tto evaluate road and weather conditions as they operate motor \tvehicles on the roads. But in this case, drivers were stopped from \tmoving by law enforcement officers, who were being trusted to \tdetermine when and if they should move again during the smoke and \tfog conditions. Once drivers were allowed to again travel, why \tshould they have believed that dangers still existed?<\/p>\n

The decision to close the Interstate \tin the first place was \u201cmade by a Highway Patrol supervisor, who \trelies on feedback from troopers who assess road conditions,\u201d \taccording to AP<\/em>. \u201cThey use information and forecasts from the \tNational Weather Service (NWS). A key piece of information is an \tindex estimating the humidity and smoke dispersion on a scale of 1 \tto 10. If the score is 7 or higher, the Highway Patrol\u2019s protocol \tis to close the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

That morning, the NWS \u201cindex score for early Sunday had been forecast to be a 6 in the four-county region that includes the crash site,\u201d the story reported.<\/p>\n

A close call, for sure.<\/p>\n

We hope that the procedures and protocols for road closures are evaluated thoroughly and changed if they are found to be out-of-date or inadequate.<\/p>\n

The families of those who were killed or injured are just beginning their legal fights for compensation and damages due to this horrible incident. Like anyone involved in a serious vehicle accident, they will find that they need to obtain competent, professional, experienced and caring legal representation as they head down this road.<\/p>\n

Only by bringing in a qualified, professional legal team can you investigate and learn the facts of the case and make appropriate decisions and set legal strategy to recover damages and compensation for your losses. That’s where legal teams like we have here at MyPhillyLawyer<\/em> come in to assist you.<\/p>\n

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and families of this devastating incident as they work to rebuild their lives.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blinded by smoke from a large brush fire combined with fog in the early-morning darkness, the drivers of at least a dozen cars, six tractor-trailers and a motorhome crashed in a chain-reaction collision on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., late last month, killing 11 victims. Now the questions begin \u2013 did the Florida Highway Patrol,…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[50,63,64,40,51,37,1,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-court-radio","category-law-in-the-news","category-law-you-can-use","category-legal-knowledgebase","category-legal-updates","category-myphillylawyer-cases","category-news","category-the-law-and-you"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6694,"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions\/6694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myphillylawyer.com\/yue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}