High Speed Collision

An Orange County Sheriff’s deputy was traveling at twice the posted speed limit when she hit a car, killing the 91-year-old driver, according to a report on WESH.

Deputy Malinda Miller was heading to assist another officer, she says, but she did not have her lights or sirens on when she hit Ed Soistman, a minister at Saint John Evangelical Lutheran on Monday, August 16. The FHP says Miller had the right-of-way when Soistman pulled into her path making a left hand turn. His car was T-boned by the deputy’s vehicle at Magnolia Homes Road and Calloway Drive in Maitland. The Florida high speed crash happened around 5:35 a.m. when Soistman was on his way to one of his missions and had just backed out of his driveway. He later died at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Miller had minor injuries.

Our sincere condolences go out to the friends and family of Rev. Soistman for his tragic passing. He was remembered fondly at services conducted at his church.

The speed limit on Magnolia Road is 40 mph. Miller was traveling 80 mph and she may be facing charges. Florida law allows officers to speed when they are responding to a call but they are also supposed to have lights and sirens on, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Office policy.

Police Pursuits
Forty percent of all police car chases end in a collision and 20% end with serious injury, according to Pursuit Watch, a nonprofit organization that was formed in Orlando after founder, Jim Phillips’ daughter was the innocent victim of a police pursuit in 2001. The group has worked with the Orlando police department to encourage safer and smarter police pursuits. Another group formed after the death of innocent victims of police pursuits is VIPS or Voices Insisting On Pursuit Safety.

The group estimates about three innocent people are killed every week in a police pursuit. Sometimes it’s even the officer.

The group supports a common sense policy of pursuits in cases where violent criminals are involved. The group is responsible, in part, for changing the high-speed or “hot” pursuit policy in the Orlando area.

Writers on the site of the Orlando Sentinel say that a bill dedicated to Ed Soistman, the “Ed Soistman Law”, should be created to require all police officers to turn on their flashing lights anytime they drive over the posted speed limit.

“That way Ed Soistman would forever be helping others, just as he did every single day of his life!” says one writer, a friend of Soistman.

Florida auto accident attorneys would like to remind all drivers to be safe and to pull over when you see or hear police sirens and lights.

A St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputy was killed on his way to work in Jacksonville. The 44-year-old officer, a former Marine and father of four, was traveling on Florida 9A around 3:30 a.m., according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The officer was driving southbound when a man driving a Honda Pilot SUV heading north in the same southbound lane, collided head-on with the officer just south of Baymeadows Road. The Honda then went into the median and overturned while the patrol car landed on the west shoulder of 9A.The officer was conscious after the accident and while he was being cut from his cruiser, he even had time to call his wife by cell phone. She didn’t get to the phone in time. After being airlifted to Shands Jacksonville Hospital, the officer died.

Our condolences go out to the family of this dedicated public servant and father of four children who was driving to roll call. His family says the man who caused this accident has no idea who they’ve taken from the family. Others call him an outstanding Marine, deputy, and human being. My thoughts and prayers are with the family.

The officer was very popular in the Ponte Vedra area where he patrolled. While with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, he received a metal for saving the life of a man who wasn’t breathing. The officer was with the U.S Marines from 1984 to 2004.

Florida Irresponsible Drivers
There was a bit of warning before this tragedy occurred. An off-duty Jacksonville Beach police officer, in his personal car, had seen the erratic driver in his Pilot SUV pass him going the wrong way at a high rate of speed just before the crash. That officer had to swerve to avoid being hit. He then reported the incident to the Florida Highway Patrol.

It turns out the driver has been cited for several traffic violations since 2001, including speeding. He was wearing his seat belt and is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Law enforcement calls this a “very violent collision,” which means there was a high rate of speed involved. The speed on that stretch is 65 mph and people often travel faster. If both vehicles were traveling at that speed, there would have been little time to get out of the way.

A Florida high speed auto accident investigator needs to act quickly.

First toxicology tests have to be taken along with blood samples to determine if the wrong-way driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Any witnesses need to come forward as should anyone who was with the driver before he got behind the wheel of a car. If it is determined he was intoxicated or impaired and chose to get behind the wheel of a vehicle, he could be charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Alcohol-Related Crashes
The Florida Highway Patrol reports that in 2008, almost 40% of traffic fatalities were alcohol-related and 9.1 % of traffic crashes in Florida were alcohol-related.

I would like to know if the road signs were adequate to warn someone they were going the wrong way. 9A has been under construction for some time and there are many complaints that engineers did not put safety first in terms of road signs and lighting.

City and state life insurance should help the officer’s family if they consider reporting for work “in the line of duty.”

Again our condolences to the family and police force for their loss of this fine man.

Source:http://jacksonville.com/community/my_st_johns_sun/2010-01-14/story/st_johns_deputy_killed_on_jacksonville_road

A trust fund has been set up for a 14-year-old girl who was killed in a deputy-involved crash. The trust will create a permanent garden in her memory and scholarships for students. This girl was a freshman from Northeast High School in Oakland Park when she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Saturday night, Jan. 23, she was riding in a Honda Civic when the vehicle collided with a Broward Sheriff’s Office cruiser. The collision occurred at Dixie Highway and Northeast 56th Street. The crash is under investigation.

Our hearts go out to the family of this young girl who had so much life ahead of her. How fitting that a memorial for others be put in her name as a remembrance. All those who contribute should know the money will go toward a garden in her memory that may be established at the high school. And a scholarship will go to Florida State University, which is where she wanted to go, to study business. Our condolences go out to her family for their loss.

Accident Statistics Involving Police Cruisers
While there is not much information on how this high-speed Florida accident happened or who is at fault, some people are reporting that the Broward Sheriff’s deputy was speeding and did not have his lights or sirens on. That is not uncommon.

The city of Fort Lauderdale is using satellite car-locators in patrol cars that watch for speeding. Any officer who is driving faster than 80 mph is busted and it doesn’t matter if he or she is on or off duty.

Since the monitoring began, 29 officers have been cited for speeding, some were even going faster than 90 mph. One was cited for speeding 30 times, reports the Sun-Sentinel.

Generally the vehicle locators are used in police cars to find out where they are so they can be dispatched on a call, but Fort Lauderdale knows it has a problem in finding a creative way to track officers.

Police Pursuits
Police pursuits are a sensitive topic for police departments and Orlando has had to alter its pursuit policy after public pressure. Pursuit Watch, a nonprofit, was formed in Orlando after someone’s daughter was the innocent victim of a police pursuit in 2001. The group has worked with the Orlando police department to encourage safer and smarter police pursuits. Another group formed after the death of innocent victims of police pursuits is VIPS or Voices Insisting On Pursuit Safety, On average in the U.S., police chases kill at least three innocent bystanders each week, and once every 11 weeks a police officer is killed in such a collision.

They estimate there are about 70,000 chases each year in the United States, but there is no national database to track the outcomes. Still, it’s estimated between 400 to 500 deaths every year result when police pursue a perpetrator.

Pursuit Safety reports that 40% of all police chases end in a collision and twenty percent of those end in serious injury and 1% of chases results in death.

A Personal Injury Claim
We encourage all departments to clarify their chase policies and keep transparent the results so the public can participate in if and when they should occur. And when there is no chase involved but the officer is just driving above the speed limit, essentially he is breaking the law he is sworn to uphold, it may be possible to bring a personal injury claim against the officer and the department. Consult with an experienced FL accident attorney to help determine if you may have a case.