Greetings Clients and Friends,
It may not be summer officially (June 21) yet, but it’s already hot in Florida…and dry. If I knew how to do a rain dance, I would.
CHOICES
By Daniel L. Hightower, Lawyer
Conventional wisdom tells us that all or most of our choices have consequences. Some are good. Some are not. Some consequences are permanent and irreversible. Some are not.
The innocent, law-abiding people who I help and represent after they are very seriously or severely injured in motor vehicle crashes (cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, etc.) through no fault of their own…did not choose:
- To be in the motor vehicle crash,
- To have their motor vehicle disabled and towed from the crash scene,
- To be transported to the hospital by ambulance,
- To sometimes wait on a bed in the hallway of the busy Emergency Room in pain and then finally be examined, diagnostically tested (X-rays, CT scans, etc.) and treated…sometimes admitted to the hospital, sometimes emergency surgery, sometimes long hospital stays, sometimes released from the ER and recommended to medical doctor specialists for months or years of inconvenient, necessary follow-up treatment,
- To wrestle with the decision whether to take the prescribed narcotic medication for their acute and very painful injuries…and risk addiction…or don’t take the prescribed narcotic medication and deal with the constant daily, moderate to severe pain until it improves, if ever,
- To have family members notified about their crash injuries, get upset, rush to the hospital and wait in the busy waiting rooms for news from the doctors about their injured family member, whether they have life-threatening injuries…if not, details about the nature and severity of their injuries and what the future likely holds for their injured family member,
- To be without transportation until the at-fault driver’s insurance company gets around to paying for the needed repairs to their vehicle…or even worse, pays the actual cash value of their totaled vehicle which will not pay for an equivalent replacement vehicle…and they have to draw down their own savings account or borrow money to buy an equivalent replacement vehicle,
- To miss time from work during medical treatment and recovery, wonder how they’ll pay their bills and wonder if they’ll lose their job,
- To sometimes having their privacy invaded and/or be harassed by aggressive private investigators hired by the at-fault driver’s insurance company who hide in vans with one-way windows near their house and take pictures of them when they walk or hobble out to the mail box to get their mail and/or who follow them around when someone drives them to scheduled doctor appointments and take pictures of them going into and out of the doctor’s office, etc.,
- To be forced by their painful, permanent injuries and physical limitations to give up or cut back on activities they enjoyed with their spouse, family members and friends before the bad crash…family vacations, Holiday gatherings, their daughter’s or granddaughter’s dance recitals, their son’s or grandson’s baseball games or their school graduations, outdoor barbecues, laughter around the supper table, etc.,
- To wrestle with and get treatment for the frequent, major depressive episodes and irritability caused by their serious permanent/chronic pain and reduced quality of life secondary to their physical crash injuries,
- And on and on it goes…many times while the at-fault driver goes on with their life without a care in the world.
The one and only choice that started this too frequent and tragic chain of events was the choice of the driver of the other vehicle…who chose to drive carelessly and to violate the Florida Traffic Code without any regard for the safety of others.
Many of you, my clients, can attest to this. Some of you may read this and think, or even say, “Something like that will never happen to me.” And I certainly hope it never does and that you never have to suffer with the permanent, painful, life-changing consequences of another driver’s choice to drive carelessly. It’s impossible to imagine and understand.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
Atticus Finch, Lawyer
To Kill a Mockingbird
When you drive a motor vehicle this summer, remember to choose to drive carefully, cautiously and considerately…for your safety and the safety of others.
