A deadly pileup on I-75 near Gainesville Sunday, January 29, 2012, killed ten people and 21 were injured when fog combined with dense smoke from a wildfire in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park moved over the Interstate.

The road has reopened but the National Weather Service in Jacksonville warned that new wildfires burning in the Osceola National Forest produced smoke that covered I-10 near Lake City. Visibility was cut to less than a quarter of a mile.

A large swath of West-Central Florida from Tampa to Orlando and nearly touching Lake Okeechobee to the southeast was put under a Red Flag Warning by the NWS Monday, meaning that wildfire potential had reached a critical state.

In its mid-season outlook released Jan. 5, the Florida Forest Service predicted a near- to above-normal wildfire season, with the worst conditions in the northern parts of the state. As the dry season continues, wildfire risks will expand throughout the peninsula, officials said.

Even in a normal year, more than 4,600 wildfires occur in Florida, burning 110,000 acres.

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As reported by The Palm Beach Post:

As the first stretch of guardrails was installed along State Road 80 near Belle Glade this summer, officials gathered to remember a mother and her two daughters who drowned this year after driving into a canal near that very spot.

The long-sought guardrails are among the measures that local officials hope will help continue a steady decline in traffic deaths on Palm Beach County roads over the past five years.

There were 123 traffic fatalities in Palm Beach County in 2010, down from 151 in 2009, according to the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Though the trend encourages local law enforcement officials, they’re only cautiously optimistic, especially since traffic deaths this year are keeping pace with a year ago.

And some say the county’s turnaround is threatened by worrisome factors such as distracted driving.

Donna Bryan, spokeswoman for the Safety Council of Palm Beach County, cites 2009 data from the U.S. Department of Transportation showing there were nearly 5,500 fatal crashes nationwide involving distracted drivers.

“I think we as a society need to work on this type of behavior,” she said.

Compounding the problem is that Florida has no laws limiting either texting or talking on mobile phones while driving. Efforts to enact such laws failed during the past two legislative sessions, but new legislation has been filed for the 2012 session.

Laws, gas prices help

Palm Beach County’s decline in traffic deaths mirrors a statewide trend of decreases in each of the past five years, according the highway safety department.

Several factors have contributed to the decline, officials said. They include recently enacted state traffic laws, the economy and gas prices.

“Our law enforcement initiatives such as Click It or Ticket (have been important),” Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Tim Frith said. “There’s been a huge emphasis on that with the primary seat belt law taking place.

“And our community is fortunate to have so many advocates of traffic safety,” he added. “It’s a year-round accomplishment, and the numbers going down, I think, speak for themselves.”

Sgt. John Churchill, a traffic homicide investigator for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, said the sluggish economy and high gas prices have more drivers opting to make fewer trips or use public transportation.

“Some of the traffic counts are showing they’re driving a bit less,” he said, adding that fewer drivers on the roads translates to fewer deaths.

Though Churchill and others are hopeful that deaths will continue to decline this year, there were 94 traffic fatalities countywide as of Oct. 4, compared with 90 at the same point in 2010.

Cars already hitting rails

A key initiative in halting any backward slide for Palm Beach County, Frith said, is installing guardrails along a stretch of State Road 80 – long one of the deadliest stretches of highway in South Florida.

The work began this summer near Belle Glade in response to at least 12 drownings since 2004 between Belle Glade and the 20-Mile Bend area. State transportation officials have said they hope to have the project completed by January.

Frith said cars have damaged some of the completed guardrails.

“Hopefully that prevented someone from going into the canal,” he said. “That was a hot-button topic that was addressed both by local and state leaders. I think that’s a real reason where we may see a significant decrease there.”

Another reason, Frith suggested, is that local law enforcement agencies have aggressively targeted drunken drivers. There were 31 alcohol-related traffic deaths in Palm Beach County in 2010, compared with 62 in 2009, according to state data.

“The saturation patrols are the most effective,” Frith said.

DUI units are concentrating on areas that have had many traffic crashes, he said, such as stretches of Military Trail, Forest Hill Boulevard and Okeechobee Boulevard.

The Safety Council of Palm Beach County, meanwhile, credits law enforcement as well as local organizations’ driver programs with helping to save lives on roads.

“It really takes a combination of educational efforts along with enforcement to make a change in behaviors,” Bryan said.

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According to The Palm Beach Post, a 19-year-old Palm Beach State College student died and four others were sent to the hospital when a car and a sport utility vehicle collided on Northlake Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

On Thursday, September 29, 2011, at around 11:39 p.m., Bryanna N. Sanville, of Palm Beach Gardens, was in the front passenger seat of a Kia Forte headed west on Northlake when the driver of that car made a U-turn near the corner of Hiatt Drive/Alister Boulevard.  But the Kia’s driver, Sabrina J. Gavagni Fiorentino, a 19-year-old from Palm Beach Gardens, pulled into the path of an eastbound Ford Explorer being driven by 42-year-old Dora J. Valencia.

The Explorer struck the Kia in the passenger door and killed Sanville, who was not wearing a seatbelt, police said.

Fiorentino was taken to the St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Valencia, of Palm Beach Gardens, was also taken to the hospital, along with her two passengers: a boy whose name and age were not given; and 19-year-old girl, Viviana Silva.

In the report, police traffic accident investigators say that alcohol played a role in the fatal crash and charges are pending.

Sanville was a freshman at PBSC. She graduated Palm Beach Gardens High School in 2010 where she was a member of the track team.

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According to the Palm Beach Post, the southbound lanes of I-95 were closed for three hours Thursday morning, September 8, 2011, after a crash and car fire that left one person dead and a second person hurt.

The incident was initially reported shortly before 6 a.m., according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Investigators were trying to determine if wheels that detached from a northbound tractor trailer set off the fatal chain of events, according to FHP Sgt. Mark Wysocky.

“One of the wheels bounced over the wall to the roadway on this (southbound) side,” Wysocky said.

The wheel that flew over the divider hit a blue car. Among the vehicles behind the blue car were a pickup truck and the gray car that ultimately caught fire.

“We’re still trying to determine if the gray vehicle was slowing down and got hit by the pickup truck which pushed the gray vehicle into the blue vehicle,” Wysocky said.

The gray car burst into flames and its driver was killed, Wysocky said. One person in the blue-colored car was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

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According to a Palm Beach Post article, South Florida recorded 1,555 pedestrian deaths from 2000 to 2009, according to Transportation for America, which promotes alternatives to driving. The region averaged 2.9 deaths for every 100,000 people.

Traffic engineers in South Florida have taken small steps in the past decade to improve safety for people walking. For instance, countdown clocks that tell pedestrians how much time they have to cross the street are now commonly found everywhere.

Planners acknowledge more must be done and are now increasingly shifting spending priorities from roads to mass transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects.

In Palm Beach County, officials are focused on remaking U.S. 441 in West Boca into an area that supports mass transit with wide sidewalks for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Last year, for the first time, Broward planners put more emphasis on transit and pedestrian improvements than roads in the county’s blueprint for transportation over the next 25 years. They are working with cities to develop transit hubs and bike lanes and sidewalks that would be built at the same time.

“This is a process. It took us 50-some odd years to get into this predicament,” said Mark Horowitz, a Broward County bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. “It’s not going to be a quick turnaround.”

But Congress could throw up a roadblock next month as it drafts a new comprehensive transportation spending bill and sets priorities.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has proposed slashing transportation spending over the next six years by 35 percent and eliminating a dedicated fund for bike and pedestrian projects.

Florida’s new Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad alarmed some bicycle and pedestrian advocates earlier in the year when he testified before Congress that it might not make sense to build sidewalks and bike trails if money is tight.

In June, Prasad told the Sun Sentinel that the DOT should not have pre-established goals when it comes to pedestrian improvements.

“We need to make sure it’s needs-driven rather than a fixed amount of money or a percentage of the program spent on landscaping or sidewalks where they might not make sense,” Prasad said.

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According to the Palm Beach Post, Southbound lanes of Florida’s Turnipke have reopened after a fatal crash closed them for nearly six hours this morning, August 10, 2011.

The accident involving a tractor trailer and a pickup truck happened around 1:28 a.m. just north of PGA Boulevard, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

The identity of the person killed in this accident has not been disclosed.

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According to The Palm Beach Post, a popular Miami salsa singer’s elderly father lost control of his sport utility vehicle and plowed it into a west Miami-Dade boutique Tuesday afternoon, instantly killing the pregnant owner, Celeste Gaitan, 33 and a second woman in her 20’s.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers rushed the deceased Gaitan to Kendall Regional Hospital in an unsuccessful effort to save her unborn child. She was six months pregnant.

Police said Pedro Ruiz, the father of singer Rey Ruiz, was behind the wheel of his red Chevrolet SUV. He was not seriously injured; neither was his female passenger.

Havana-born Rey Ruiz’s salsa albums have gone gold and platinum throughout Latin America since his solo debut in 1992.

His father has not been charged in the accident.

Witnesses said the accident occurred at around 12:10 p.m. when Pedro Ruiz was attempting to make a right turn, police said. Witnesses at the shopping center told authorities Ruiz was maneuvering into a parking space when he accidentally hit his car’s accelerator, Miami Dade fire rescue said in a press release.

Gaitan and the other woman were sitting on a bench outside Celeste & Co. Boutique when Ruiz’s SUV came straight at them. The car hit the women, smashed through a display window and landed halfway inside Gaitan’s store at 13357 SW 42nd St.

The crash killed both women instantly, Miami-Dade fire rescue said.

Pedro Ruiz was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. His wife, a passenger in the SUV, was unharmed.

The senior Ruiz was medically cleared at the scene, Rutland said, meaning that police do not believe a heart attack or similar health emergency caused the crash.

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According to The Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a driver after she apparently lost control of her car and hit two people sitting at a bus stop in Lake Worth this morning.

The two people were driven to Delray Medical Center and JFK Medical Center in Atlantis under trauma alert, according to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Moses Abdelnour. There is no immediate information available on their conditions.

Around 10 a.m. today, witnesses and sheriff’s deputies say Laurie Daugherty was speeding “about 70- or 80 miles per hour” eastbound on 10th Avenue North when she swerved to avoid an oncoming truck.

Daugherty, of Lake Worth, then plowed into a bus stop where the two people were sitting near the corner of 10th Avenue North.

Dean DeCarlo, who was a passenger in Daugherty’s car, said she was speeding because “she was in a rush to get her medication.”

“Everything happened so fast,” said DeCarlo, also of Lake Worth.

“There was a lot of speed,” he added. “I saw the people at the bus stop, and said, ‘I hope she doesn’t hit them.

“Then, ‘Bang!’this happened,” he said, pointing at the bus stop remnants on the ground nearby. “I looked over and saw two people on the ground.”

Abdelnour said DeCarlo and Daugherty suffered only minor injuries in the crash.

Daugherty was screaming at sheriff’s deputies as she was arrested for driving with a suspended license, and taken away in handcuffs.

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According to the Palm Beach Post, a 44-year-old Wellington man died Saturday, July 16, 2011, on Military Trail after his motorcycle crashed into a pickup truck.

George Gonzalez was reportedly driving the motorcycle quickly; and he may have been in a race with another vehicle or caught up in road rage, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said in a release.

The pickup truck was making a U-turn near Cambridge Street, just west of Palm Beach International Airport, when Gonzalez switched lanes and slammed into the truck. Gonzalez was wearing a helmet but died at the scene.

The driver of truck, Steven Talbot, 53, of West Palm Beach, suffered minor injuries.

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed as a result of a motorcycle, car or truck accident, please call the attorneys at Hogan & Chapman for a free consultation.  Call Now – Toll Free 1-877-995-0055.

According to the Palm Beach Post, three people, including a Fort Lauderdale police officer, were transported to a hospital on Tuesday morning, July 12, 2011, after their vehicles collided in front of Fort Lauderdale City Hall.

The police officer’s patrol car had front-end damage. A Lincoln Navigator SUV involved in the crash was on its side. The other vehicle involved was a Nissan Murano.

The driver of the Lincoln SUV was transported to Broward General Medical Center by Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.

The police officer, a female, and the driver of the Nissan were also taken to Broward General Medical Center.  

Fort Lauderdale Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.

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