According to various sources, it’s dangerous to be a Florida motorist. National surveys, Florida’s Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle Crash Dashboard, and insurance safety reports all indicate that Florida continues to rank as one of the most dangerous places to drive. Although, nation-wide stay-at-home orders have drastically reduced the amount of daily traffic, the rate of deadly accidents continues to increase steadily. Those who suffer injuries in a Florida car accident should contact an attorney to discuss their rights and how they can pursue a claim for compensation.
Reports from the nationwide surveys from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that risky driving behaviors and fatal accidents increased during the first several months of the COVID-19 national emergency. The researchers evaluated seat belt use, speeding, and impaired driving, ultimately concluding that many fatalities involved more than one of these risky behaviors. Further, a popular website providing the public with an objective, third-party, resource for automobile insurance information listed Florida as number nine among the top ten states with the highest number of fatal car accidents.
Florida’s Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles maintains an up-to-date public dashboard that tracks collisions throughout the state. The public can search for car accident data by vehicle type, injury, and classification. The harrowing statistics from the last full reporting year reveal that there were 339,905 crashes in Florida. Out of the total number of crashes, the database reports 3,286 fatalities, and 211,804 injuries. Of these crashes, there were 5,919 bicycle accidents and 157 fatalities; and 8,005 motorcycle crashes and 504 motorcycle fatalities. There were 8,072 pedestrian accidents in Florida and 699 pedestrian fatalities. Finally, the database shows a startling 91,824 hit and run accidents, resulting in 255 fatalities and 20,935 injuries.