Florida is the deadliest state in the nation for bicycle riders. I came upon this interesting statistic while reading through the news the other day. According to wptv.com, Florida had 119 fatalities, ahead of California with 109. I have to say, I was not surprised. Doing what I do and having lived most of my life in South Florida, I know how dangerous the roads are.
While bicyclists are well within the law to ride alongside motor vehicles, they often do so with fatal consequences. Often times, these accidents are caused by careless drivers who fail to respect that they must share the road with bicyclists. Needless to say, the person on the bicycle is the one who usually pays the consequences.
According to a recent article in the Sun-Sentinel, there have been three fatal accidents in Palm Beach County alone as of April 19th. In order to reduce the amount of accidents, local police departments, as well as the Palm Beach County School Board are working to educate the public to reduce injuries.
In a related statistic, South Florida drivers have also been ranked year after year as having the wost road rage in the country. Anyone who has experience driving on South Florida roads knows this first hand. I think it is safe to assume that reckless behavior by drivers has contributed to the high number of fatal accidents between motor vehicles and bicycles. Hopefully, with the efforts discussed above, drivers will learn to have more respect for bicyclists. If not, the consequences will continue to be devastating, if not fatal.
All questions and comments are welcome. Please feel free to contact the author, Adam Werner, Esq. at AWerner@fortheinjured.com.
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