Miami, FL — Turnpike Crash Sends Dump Truck Driver to the Hospital

Miami, FL (August 19th 2024) – A dump truck driver had to be extricated from his or her vehicle after a crash on the Florida Turnpike this morning.

The driver in the single-vehicle accident was taken to the hospital with injuries. No immediate information regarding his or her condition was available, however.

Law enforcement is investigating the cause of the crash, which saw left lanes of the Turnpike blocked for a period after the accident. Authorities were cleaning a fuel leak after the collision, however, it was not reported whether the leak may have contributed to the cause or if it resulted from the crash.

Causes of Turnpike Accidents

Some crashes occurring on the Florida Turnpike, and elsewhere, result from the action or inaction of drivers. Factors in such accidents may include speeding, distraction, alcohol intoxication, or drug use. 

Not all collisions on the highway are driver-related, however. Weather, road conditions, and vehicle issues can also play a role in causing serious or deadly accidents. For example, ice, rain, sleet, or snow can impair visibility and affect maneuverability, which can contribute to wrecks. Poor road conditions, inadequate drainage, hazardous road debris, and insufficient signage or lighting can also play a role in causing accidents.

Suing for Florida Turnpike Accidents

When road conditions contribute to causing serious or deadly accidents in Florida, victims may seek to hold the at-fault party financially responsible. Suing government agencies, however, often carries challenges because such agencies may have sovereign immunity, protecting them from lawsuits. Consequently, for victims of crashes caused by road conditions, certain circumstances must exist for them to pursue claims against Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise and the Florida Department of Transportation. 

Exceptions to Sovereign Immunity

The existence of some circumstances in your case can create an exception to a government agency’s immunity from legal action. For example, such situations include:

• Insufficient road maintenance
• Inadequate signage or lighting
• Inadequate drainage
• Improperly designed or unmarked curves
• Failure to address hazardous road debris or conditions

 An experienced car accident lawyer can help you understand these exceptions, and determine if your situation allows for legal action. 

Proving Negligence

To successfully recover damages in a turnpike accident claim, you will need to prove that an exception circumstance exists, and negligence on the part of the Florida Department of Transportation. Proving negligence involves establishing four key elements – duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

Duty of Care

FDOT has a responsibility to maintain the roads and highways under its control for safe travel. Therefore, to establish a duty of care was owed to a victim, a personal injury lawyer may present evidence to show that the portion of road where the crash occurred was under the department’s jurisdiction. 

Breach of Duty

It is not enough that the department owes a duty of care, it must also have breached this duty. For example, there is a section of road with inadequate drainage. Consequently, hydroplaning and accidents are common in this area, but the FDOT does not address the drainage issue, or put up signs to warn motorists of the hazard. Accident victims may point to previous crashes as evidence of the department breaching its obligation to maintain the roadway in a reasonably safe condition.

Causation

After establishing the existence and breach of a duty of care, victims pursuing financial justice in personal injury claims must establish causation. To this end, they must show that the breach of the duty of care directly led to their accidents, and thus, the resulting injuries. Car accident attorneys may work with accident reconstructionists and other experts to explain to a judge or jury how the road conditions caused the collision.

Turnpike Accident Damages

To recover damages in turnpike accident cases, victims must have suffered losses. The compensation recoverable through such claims include economic and non-economic losses.

Economic Damages

Economic damages aim to compensate victims for the tangible losses suffered in accident claims. Victims may seek to recover for the costs of their medical bills, the wages they lost while off work recovering, and lost future income due to any resulting disability, among other such tangible losses. 

Non-Economic Damages

Although they do not hold a set dollar value, victims can still seek to recover for their non-economic losses. For instance, such damages provide compensation for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and disfigurement or scarring, among other losses.

If you or a loved one suffered injury in a Florida turnpike accident, call Magazine & Light Law Group today at 727-499-9900. We’ve recovered millions of dollars on behalf of injured people like you. Our attorney, Jim Magazine, offers free, no-obligation consultations.

Jim Magazine

James (Jim) Magazine is a Florida Board Certified Civil Trial lawyer who has spent his career helping injured victims. Jim is licensed to practice law in the State of Florida since 1990 and is also admitted to practice at the Appellate level and admitted to the United States Supreme Court.

Years of Experience: More than 30 years
Florida Registration Status: Active
Bar Admissions:
Clearwater Bar Association
West Pasco Bar Association