Motor Vehicle and Trucking Accidents

Because of the numbers of vehicles on the road, and the limited regulation of drivers and the trucking industry, motor vehicle crashes continue to take over 40,000 lives each year. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury and death for drivers under the age of 34.

Large trucks present even greater dangers to the public. Fatigue is a major factor involving truck crashes, and even with governmental regulation there is still an economic incentive on the part of truckers to drive longer hours at greater speeds. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board estimates that driver fatigue as a probable factor in 20 40% of truck crashes.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires that drivers and trucking companies maintain logs and other paperwork that track their compliance with current regulations.

Leighton Law has extensive experience with accident cases involving cars, trucks, tractor trailers, trains, motorcycles, scooters, ATVs, bicycles and mopeds. Board certified trial lawyer John Elliott Leighton aggressively pursues the optimal recovery for our clients.

Mr. Leighton has extensive experience with litigating and trying complex motor vehicle and trucking cases throughout Florida and around the country. He is the past Chairman of the Motor Vehicle and Highway Liability Section of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He frequently lectures and teaches other trial lawyers on techniques for handling such cases and maximizing damages at trial.

In a record setting recovery, Mr. Leighton obtained an $8 million award for the parents of a 19 year-old girl who was killed when the car in which she was a passenger struck a large commercial truck which had made an illegal u-turn on the Florida Turnpike. This was the only child of Mr. Leighton’s clients, and she had just completed high school and intended to join the military and go to college.

Mr. Leighton obtained a $1,900,000 settlement when a defendant trucker was driving in blinding rain storm and failed to stop at an intersection where the traffic light was out due to power outage. He broadsided a pickup truck, killing the driver and seriously injuring the passenger. Mr. Leighton’s investigation revealed that the trucker had been using over the counter medications to stay awake.

In a recent case, a car containing two sisters and a friend collided with a stake truck on a highway. Two people were killed and the two sisters suffered injuries, one severe. Mr. Leighton obtained a $5 million settlement for the sisters’ injuries and a $3.65 million for the family of one of the passengers who was killed.

Florida is a tourist haven, but sometimes visitors to the sunshine state are treated harshly. In once case, Mr. Leighton represented the family of a retired couple who were killed when their rental car was struck from behind and crushed. Mr. Leighton recovered $1.4 million for the family, which amounted to all of the insurance coverage available from the responsible parties.

Likewise in another case, Mr. Leighton recovered $1,600,000 for a man who was on a motorcycle when the driver of a care made an illegal turn in front of him. The recovery represented all of the available insurance proceeds from the defendant and the client’s underinsured motorist carrier.

In another case, Mr. Leighton obtained a $1,020,000 million recovery for a man struck by a drunk driver in Central Florida. The case involved two bars which served a man alcohol to the point where his blood alcohol level reached .17%, resulting in a DUI following his striking our client's motorcycle.

Mr. Leighton has been successful in securing financial security for clients who have been harmed by negligent drivers. In one case, he won a $420,000 verdict for 76 year old man riding 3 wheel bicycle who struck a BellSouth utility truck that had stopped on the bike path in front of him. Our client sustained a fractured shoulder requiring surgery.

DWD: Driving While Distracted  

Driving While Distracted has become one of the leading causes of crashes and preventable deaths in the United States.  On April 30, 2010, declared by Oprah and the media as National No Phone Zone Day, John Leighton delive

red a lecture on "DWD: Driving While Distracted - The New DUI" to the American Association for Justice's Jazzfest Seminar: Litigating Auto Collision Cases in New Orleans.  The speech capped a day in which the national media focused on the perils of driving while distracted, particularly the use of texting while driving.

Oprah Winfrey has made DWD a major issue in an attenpt to focus the public on the hazards o

f these distractions.  The National No Phone Zone Day was created to enlist drivers to commit t o stop engaging in these dangerous habits.  Oprah's web site has already recruited over 350,000 drivers who have signed the pledge to quit. (www.oprah.com)

Mr. Leighton has lectured and written on the serious problems of driving while distracted, including texting, emailing, web surfing, telephoning, use of electronics while driving (including GPS, audio/video equipment) and other distractions that drivers today face.  He has spoken to national audiences about the effects on reaction time that these distractions have, even telephone conversations.  The fact that over 600 billion text messages were sent last year highlights the problem.  Drivers engaging in texting were 23 times more likely to have a crash than other drivers.  Amazingly, drivers who text have twice the accident risk than a legally drunk driver.  One reason is that texting drivers spend 400% more time with their eyes off the road.  26% of teens admit to driving while they text, and 48% admit they have been a passenger in a car when a driver was texting.

Although many states have acted and banned texting and/or hand held cell phone use while driving, many - including Florida - have not. Florida's texting ban bill died in committee this past legislative session.

LEIGHTON LAW will continue to fight for a ban on texting and will continue to represent victims of careless drivers whose negligence, whether caused by distraction or inattention, cause injuries and death to members of the public.  Mr. Leighton has also been a vocal proponent of treating texting drivers as drunk drivers for the purpose of obtaining punitive damages in order to punish and deter such behavior.