South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
If you were hit by a wrong-way driver on I-95, you can usually hold that driver responsible for your medical bills and lost income, and a serious injury may let you pursue money for pain and suffering too. These crashes tend to happen late at night, and they often leave victims with severe injuries. A recent early-morning crash on the northbound express lanes of I-95 sent two people to Jackson Memorial Hospital, one of them in critical condition, after a driver headed south in the wrong direction.
The car accident attorneys at Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada have represented people hurt on South Florida highways since 1976. If you are dealing with an injury from a wrong-way crash, understanding how fault and insurance work in Florida helps you know what your claim is actually worth.
Why fault is usually clear when a driver goes the wrong way
In most wrong-way crashes, the driver traveling against traffic is at fault. Florida law requires drivers to stay on the right side of the road and to travel in the correct direction on one-way roads and divided highways under Florida Statute § 316.081 and § 316.088. A driver who enters an express lane, ramp, or highway going the wrong direction breaks those laws, which makes proving fault more straightforward than in a typical rear-end or intersection crash.
Negligence per se is a legal rule that treats a driver as automatically negligent when they break a traffic safety law and cause the kind of harm the law was written to prevent. That rule frequently applies when a wrong-way driver injures someone. Late-night wrong-way crashes are also often tied to impaired driving, which can create a separate basis for the driver’s liability and, in some cases, punitive damages.
How you get paid after a serious wrong-way crash
After a car accident in Florida, your own Personal Injury Protection coverage pays first, but a serious injury lets you step outside that system and go after the at-fault driver directly. Florida’s no-fault law requires drivers to carry at least $10,000 in PIP coverage under Florida Statute § 627.736, which pays 80% of your medical bills and 60% of your lost wages up to the policy limit, no matter who caused the crash. That coverage rarely stretches far enough after a high-speed highway collision.
Under Florida Statute § 627.737(2), you can bring a claim against the wrong-way driver for pain, suffering, and other non-economic losses if your injury involves permanent loss of an important bodily function, a permanent injury confirmed within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant permanent scarring or disfigurement, or death. Critical injuries from a wrong-way highway crash often meet this threshold, which opens the door to full compensation beyond what PIP allows.
What to do if the driver who hit you does not have enough insurance
If the wrong-way driver carries little or no insurance, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage can step in to pay for your injuries. Many drivers carry only the minimum required policy, which falls well short of what a catastrophic injury costs. Checking every available policy, including your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and any coverage on other vehicles in your household, matters after a crash this severe.
If you or a family member was hurt in a wrong-way crash on I-95 or another South Florida highway, call Friedman Rodman Frank & Estrada at (305) 448-8585. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you. You can also contact us online.