Automobile Accidents

• How Do We Get Downtown?

  Eddie Farah | October 23, 2007 10:31 AM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  There was a lot of confusion getting into downtown Monday, Oct 22, so the Department of Transportation plans on installing more signs to help motorists get there.Part of the problem is a new temporary ramp for motorists exiting onto Forsyth, Monroe, Union and King streets. If you are driving east on I-10, you are advised to go north on I-95 and exit the ramp immediately after the merge point...

• Investigation Reveals Airbags Often Fail

  Eddie Farah | October 23, 2007 3:41 AM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  This investigation by the Kansas City Star reveals that more often than should happen, front airbags do not inflate in head-on crashes. Unfortunately you do not know until you need them. The newspaper looked into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) database and found that at least 1,400 motorists died from 2001 through 2006 in collisions where the airbags did not deploy. ...

• Hit-And-Run Driver Arrested

  Eddie Farah | October 20, 2007 12:17 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  It is unusual for a hit-and-run fatality to ever be solved. That's why we are encouraged to report that there has been an arrest in the death of Clint Malone, killed early last Saturday morning in Panama Ciity Beach by a hit-and-run driver.20-year-old Jeremy Matthew Hunt has been charged with leaving the scene of a crash that killed someone. Hunt was driving a pick up truck and had left Salty's...

• Police Need Your Help Finding Hit-and-Run Driver

  Eddie Farah | October 15, 2007 1:28 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  A colleague of mine has asked us to put out the word on a hit-and-run that took the life of a family friend. The driver has not been apprehended.This happened early Saturday morning in Panama City Beach. 33-year-old Clint S. Malone was an attorney from Vero Beach visiting friends and family in the area. Early Saturday morning, Malone was out for an early morning bicycle ride on Thomas Drive. ...

• Officer of the Law Sentenced for Auto Accident

  Eddie Farah | October 13, 2007 9:52 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  For 17 years, Michael Gallagher has worked at the U.S. attorney's office helping prosecute those who violate the law. On Friday, the 50-year-old admitted his driving caused the death of a 23-year-old woman by driving too fast. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and five years probation.In August, he pled guilty to vehicular manslaughter on the eve of his trial. The accident happened in...

• Suspicious Man Crashes Car

  Eddie Farah | October 09, 2007 11:26 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  Police never did have time to identify what John Sol was doing.They were too busy trying to catch him.The very energetic man was at a Hampton Inn on CR 208 in St. Augustine where he was making some sort of disturbance.When police got there he was gone but soon St. John's County Sheriff's deputies were in pursuit of the 44-year--old on SR 16. Sol was stopped by a deputy but then sped off. Police...

• Legislature Revives PIP In New Year

  Eddie Farah | October 05, 2007 6:46 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  Call it the 11th hour.Apparently the states' no-fault system of insurance known as PIP (Personal Injury Protection) will be back January 1st, 2008, if Governor Crist signs a bill passed Friday by the Florida Legislature.Meeting in special session, the Senate joined the House in reviving PIP which had sunset October 1st. PIP had been virorously opposed by insurance industry lobbyists who said...

• Ejected Passenger Dies After Blown Tire

  Eddie Farah | October 05, 2007 6:12 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  It all happened in the middle of the day. It could happen to anyone.South and northbound lanes of I-95 at Baymeadows had to be closed for almost two hours Thursday, after a car with a blown tire went off the road, hit a guardrail then rolled over.Around 2 p.m., Alicia Groatman, 32 of New Jersey, was heading south on I-95. Her tire blew and she veered into the path of a car driven by 26, year old...

• PIP Due To Sunset Sunday

  Jane Akre | September 29, 2007 12:18 PM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  Florida's Governor Charlie Crist does not want PIP (Personal Injury Protection) to expire October 1st, and he may have to stand his ground to have the special legislative session take up the issue.Speaker of the House, Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, has asked the governor to add PIP to next week's agenda against the wishes of Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, who wants to focus on the...

• School Bus Driver Arrested After Crash

  Eddie Farah | September 28, 2007 11:50 AM | 0 CommentsJacksonville, FL

  Unbelievably no children were hurt when a school bus crashed into a fire hydrant this week. The driver, 63-year-old Jean King Jones has been arrested on charges of driving under the influence.Police say she was so bad off that she couldn't stand up for her questioning. Instead she had slurred speech and kept falling asleep. Upon getting out of the bus around 5 p.m. at Cahoon Road and Ramona...