A woman suffering from severe chest pains entered Broward Health Imperial Point Hospital during the late night hours of June 25. Although she and her boyfriend left the hospital several hours later, she tragically died after she crossed a busy street and was hit by a Florida sheriff’s patrol car.
The car accident happened at around 3 a.m. on June 26 when the 46-year-old woman walked across Federal Highway, a busy road. She was suddenly hit a by a police car from the Broward Sheriff’s Office and pronounced dead 30 minutes later. The police officer, an 11-year veteran, was not injured.
The woman’s boyfriend and family are devastated over the incident. Her boyfriend claims that the police officer was speeding, but because he was walking ahead of her at the time, he did not actually see her get hit by the car.
The Broward Sheriff’s office is still investigating the cause of the accident because a police officer was involved. Speed or weather factors may have played a role, but it is known that the couple attempted to cross the street without a crosswalk.
Regarding car-pedestrian accidents, the law states that the victim may be able to recover compensation from the negligent party. This means that negligence must be proven. A negligent party is someone who owes a duty to another person, breaches that duty and causes an accident that leads to injury. Although the police car did kill the woman, is the police officer actually responsible? If a tragedy such as this has occurred, it is important to have a reputable car accident attorney on your side to comprehensively pursue all potentially liable parties to ensure maximum compensation for the injured party, or family of those who lost a loved one.
At this point, it’s hard to say who is at fault. Both drivers and pedestrians have a duty to ensure not only their safety but also the safety of others. This means that while the police officer should have been on the lookout for pedestrians, the woman did fail to use a crosswalk, so she bears some fault. In addition, at 3 a.m., it is still dark, so that could have contributed to the police officer not being able to see the woman in the road.
Source:
Bradenton Herald, “Woman who just left hospital struck, killed by Florida sheriff’s patrol car” Carli Teproff and Benjamin S. Brasch, Jun. 26, 2013
