Lawyer Monthly - October 2021 Edition

and logistics centres, on top of general population growth. What impact is this having on cities? This growth in truck traffic has also affected not only our highways, but our cities as well. People are moving to Central Florida in droves. In fact, the Winter Haven/Lakeland metro area is the second-fastest growing area in the country. Some of this is related to COVID-19 relocations, but a lot of it is related to job opportunities in the warehousing and logistics space, along with the construction industry. This puts pressure on county and city infrastructure, so they, in turn, need to engage in substantial capital projects to keep up. It is simple math. An expanding workforce, coupled with heavy incoming population migration from other states, combined with significantly increased truck traffic travelling the same roads and highways equals more crashes. How have you witnessed these changes during your work? During the initial breakout of COVID-19 in 2020, we saw a downturn in crashes because there were simply not many people driving. As we reopened in 2021, we have seen an increased number of 57 OCT 2021 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM THOUGHT LEADER - STEPHEN K BROOKS Stephen K Brooks Managing Partner, Brooks Law Group 2002 5th Avenue, Unit 101, Tampa, FL 33605 T: 1-800-LAW-3030 | E: steve@brookslawgroup.com crashes. This is due to multiple factors including huge migrations of people from the northeast and west, the rapidly growing logistics and warehousing industry, and post-pandemic reopening. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), just ten states account for half of all fatal US truck crashes. Florida is one of those states, and it is why we are seeing twice the normal number of truck crash victims walking through our doors this year. While truck accidents are fewer, the effects can be even more detrimental than a car crash. The scary thing about truck accidents is a simple matter of physics. When you crash an 80,000-pound semi-truck into a 4,000-pound car, the injuries will be more severe than an identical collision between two cars. This is especially concerning when you note that the truck driver is the least likely to die or be injured in a crash. Most of those who die in truck accidents are drivers of other vehicles. Have any recent measures, legislative or otherwise, been introduced to tackle the problem? I am not aware of any recent legislative actions, but I do know the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is studying this problem. There was an FDOT study published in 2019 titled “Large Truck Crash for Freight Mobility and Safety Enhancement in Florida.” This study covered a period between 2007 and 2016 and revealed there were 243,017 large truck crashes in Florida during the study period. There were interesting findings from this study: • Driver error was the prevailing cause of most crashes, accounting for 92% of crashes. • Vehicle defects and road conditions tied for second with about 3% each. The study identified 7 high crash density locations. The highest density location was in Ft. Myers, followed by Bradenton, Lakeland, Sarasota, Naples The highways that intersect Central Florida have the same number of lanes as they did seven or eight years ago. www.brookslawgroup.com About Stephen K Brooks I am the managing partner of Brooks Law Group in Tampa and Winter Haven, FL. For nearly 30 years, our practice has been devoted to “people problems” – personal injury, wrongful death, and Social Security Disability. I am a people-first lawyer dedicated to helping people get the legal representation they deserve.