Car Accidents

Car accidents in Bonita Springs have resulted in lifelong injuries and devastating losses for residents and tourists in this community of nearly 45,000 in Southwest Florida. In addition to its full-time residents and families, Bonita Springs is a prime vacation destination and the perfect spot for snowbirds with winter homes. It’s one of Lee County’s most dynamic coastal communities, and among those with the most traffic.

Bonita Springs car accident attorneys at Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, have successfully secured countless favorable settlements and verdicts against defendants in auto accident cases in nearly five decades of service. Usually, those payments are made by auto insurance companies, including:

• Plaintiff’s own insurer, which provides personal injury protection (PIP) benefits up to $10,000 for 80 percent medical expenses and 60 percent wage losses, and funeral expenses in the event of wrongful death;
• Plaintiff’s own MedPay (which is optional coverage) or health insurance carrier;
• At-fault driver’s auto insurer, which pays bodily injury liability, minimum $10,000 per person/ $20,000 per crash, and property damage, minimum $10,000;
• At-fault driver’s employer’s insurer, which can be either vicariously liable or directly liable through negligence, applying cases involving truck accidents or anytime the driver was acting in the course and scope of employment, including ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft;
• Owner vehicle’s insurer, if different from at-fault driver, as vehicles have been deemed dangerous instrumentalities in Florida since the 1920 Florida Supreme Court ruling in Southern Cotton Oil Co. v. Anderson and vehicle owners can be vicariously liable (up to $100,000) for negligent driving of anyone they permit to use the vehicle. This also arises frequently in truck accident cases;
• Plaintiff’s own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage policy, which provides coverage in the event the at-fault driver is not insured or lacks enough insurance to fully compensate plaintiff for damages. It can also apply in hit-and-run crashes.
• Workers’ compensation insurance. This would apply to cover medical bills, a portion of lost wages and other expenses, if you were on-the-job at the time of the collision.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of legal options, but it gives you a good idea of how many avenues there might be following a Bonita Springs car accident, which is why it’s imperative that you contact an experienced injury lawyer.

Bonita Springs Car Accidents: A Closer Look

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports a recent three-year average for crashes in Lee County is:

• Total crashes – 10,500
• Total fatal crashes – 94
• Total injuries – 6,830

Not all of these are in Bonita Springs, but some of the major thoroughfares in the county run through this community too. Those include I-75 (which has nine interchanges in Lee County) and arterial north-south highway U.S. 41.

Another report by FLHSMV indicated a total of 159 crashes in Bonita Spring annually, of which 36 were alcohol-related. Other causal factors that arise frequently in Southwest Florida crashes are:

• Unlawful Speed (which both causes crashes and exacerbates the seriousness of them, and is defined in F.S. 316.183 as not only traveling in excess of the posted speed limit but also traveling faster than what is reasonable and prudent under the conditions, having regard for actual and potential hazards);
• Distraction (which the NHTSA reports kills 3,450 and injures more than 390,000 annually);
• Fatigue (which often arises in trucking accidents, but it’s a factor in many others too, according to the CDC);
• And aggressive driving (with the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety finding as many as 80 percent of drivers expressing significant anger, aggression or road rage at least once in the last year, manifesting in driving behaviors like tailgating, cutting other drivers off, racing and suddenly slamming on brakes).

Some of the various types of car accidents we see frequently include:

• Single-car accidents. This occurs when only one vehicle is involved, typically when a vehicle runs off the road. These crashes can be deadly when the vehicle runs off-road into a tree, an embankment, a pole or canal.
• Side-impact collisions. Sometimes referred to as t-bone accidents, this occurs when the vehicle is impacted from one or more sides, typically at intersections and parking lots. It accounts for roughly 25 percent of all passenger vehicle occupant deaths.
• Rear-end collisions. This happens when one vehicle strikes another from behind, and is often attributed to driver inattention, impairment, tailgating or reduced traction due to irregular road conditions. In Florida, there is a rebuttable presumption that the driver in the rear was negligent.
• Head-on collision. This occurs when two vehicles hit each other at the front ends, often resulting in very serious injuries or death.

If you are injured in a Southwest Florida crash, the Bonita Springs car accident attorneys at Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured, will fight to ensure you are justly compensated.

If you or someone you care about has been hurt, contact the Bonita Springs car accident lawyers at Associates and Bruce L. Scheiner, Attorneys for the Injured. You pay us no fees unless we win.