Articles Tagged with “Key West Personal Injury Attorneys”

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Divers broke records this year in an annual competition to remove invasive lionfish from Florida waters, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission press release. 

The 2024 Lionfish Season concluded with a record-breaking 31,773 species being pulled from the water. Just under 300 divers went on over 700 trips throughout the state to retrieve the animals that are dangerous to native fish and coral reefs. 

One lionfish can reduce a native reef fish population by over 70%. They also present a risk to humans with their venomous spines which can cause painful stings. In 2022, over 25,000 lionfish were removed from Florida waters in FWC’s annual, summer-long challenge, which began in 2016. 

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About eight cases of Legionnaires’ Disease have been reported recently in Lee County, tallying 48 cases so far this year within the Southwest Florida community. 

About three of the eight occurred within the same neighborhood after three women were reported to have pulled weeds in their garden, according to reporting from local news outlets. Two of the women have since died. 

Information about how the women were infected was not immediately available.  

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An 18-year-old died when she was hit by a propeller trying to board a New Jersey boat over the weekend officials say. 

The teen was on a raft being pulled by the boat and, when she tried to get on the boat, was hit by the propeller. Additional details were not immediately available Tuesday. The investigation is ongoing. 

Officials urged boaters and swimmers alike to be advised of boating safety and propeller safety protocols stating that even when in neutral or at rest, propellers can still present a danger. 

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Two families have filed lawsuits in a March St. Petersburg boat crash that resulted in a wrongful death case of a 15-year-old boy, according to reporting from local news outlets

The crash happened near Bayshore Blvd in Shore Acres in St. Petersburg after a family get-together in which at least two boys went for an afternoon boat ride. Both boys were thrown into the water after the 18-foot vessel slammed into a concrete dock. They were taken to the hospital where one of them later died from his injuries. The other, the one who was driving the boat that day, had non-life-threatening injuries. 

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed last week, claims that the parents of the boy who was driving the boat the day of the crash purchased the vessel for him and allowed him to routinely use it without supervision and without ensuring that the teens were not taking alcohol on board. It goes on to allege that the boy told good Samaritans who pulled him out of the water that, at the time of the crash, he was looking down at his phone to change the music. 

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The first day of school drop-off lines can be particularly hectic with friends waving to one another after months away and frustrating traffic jams but, for one Florida family, the new school year’s drop-off turned tragic when a mother accidentally hit her child with her car

The incident happened before 8 a.m. Monday during school drop-off when the Sarasota middle schooler was attempting to retrieve school supplies that had fallen underneath the car. The child crawled under the SUV to pick up the pens and markers. The mother, who told police she did not see the girl, hit her. 

The girl was airlifted to a hospital in St. Petersburg in critical condition. There was no update on the child’s condition as of Tuesday. 

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A summer chock-full of dangerous floods, prompting iterations of the famed “Florida man” floating down city streets in a canoe to gain traction online are not the only threats to the state during hurricane season.  

Hurricane season lasts from June until November each year and while Floridians may poke fun at the situation online, there is always the potential risk of an upcoming storm during these months. The latest system inching near the coast is expected to become Tropical Storm Ernesto, if it continues to gain strength, according to meteorologists with the National Weather Service

Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and more than a dozen other islands in the Caribbean are under a tropical storm warning as of Monday as forecasters continue to monitor a system strengthening over the Caribbean. The system, which, if it continues to gather strength, could become Tropical Storm Ernesto, is expected to bring increased rain and flash floods to the islands. 

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The regular lobster season has officially begun in Florida, marking the long-awaited return of this popular recreational fishing activity. 

Below are several important safety tips and rules you should know before you head out on the water.  

Legal lobsters weigh about 1 pound and have a carapace shell of at least 3 inches or bigger. In Monroe County, you may keep six lobsters per person per day. It is not permissible to use any device that could harm the exoskeleton of spiny lobsters nor are divers allowed to separate the tail from the body or to take egg-bearing spiny lobsters in Florida waters. Recreational trapping is not allowed.

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About eight people were injured and one person died in three separate incidents in the Florida Keys over the holiday weekend, according to local officials. 

The latest of the three incidents happened around 2 a.m. Monday when a Contender boat crashed into the South Pine Channel Bridge, a bridge connecting Middle Torch Key and Ramrod Key in the Lower Keys. At least seven people were injured in the crash including a child. The child and two others were transported via air ambulance while four others were taken to local hospitals. Monroe County Fire Rescue officials told The Miami Herald that the boat was going at a high rate of speed when it crashed. 

The second incident took place Saturday around noon in Key West and involved at least one person on a jet ski who was transported to the hospital by helicopter. Additional details, including how the incident happened or whether another watercraft was involved, were not immediately available Monday. 

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An 83-year-old Marathon, Florida, woman retained Leesfield & Partners to represent her after a neighbor’s pet bird attacked her while she folded towels at the community pool.

The woman lives alone in the Marathon community in a two-story condominium and was watching her granddaughter swim in the pool the day of the incident. When she returned to the pool later on to retrieve the beach towels her granddaughter had left, a neighbor came down to the pool area carrying their pet bird whose wings are clipped. As  the woman folded the discarded towels, her neighbor put the bird on the fence around the pool near where the woman stood. The bird then reached out and bit the woman on her hand, startling her and causing her to violently fall to the ground. The woman was transported to hospitals a total of three times by ambulance and it was determined she had a broken hip requiring surgery. 

Following the bird attack, the woman was left bedridden at the hospital for several weeks and likely has several months of painful recovery and physical therapy still ahead. Due to the incident, the woman “sustained permanent disabling and disfiguring injuries,” according to a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court for the 17th Judicial Circuit in Monroe County. 

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Two pedestrians running in a weekend race on U.S. 1 near mile marker 17  in Key West were hospitalized after being hit by a car whose driver had allegedly fallen asleep at the wheel.  

The driver, 23, was heading north when officials say she fell asleep at the wheel, eventually hitting two men identified by NBC 6 South Florida as a surgeon named “Matt D.,” and a University of Miami professor named “Gabriel.” The two men were hit around 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, and were participating in the Keys 100, a 100-mile point-to-point race to benefit The Cancer Foundation of the Florida Keys Inc, which offers various services to cancer patients in the Keys who have to be shuttled to and from Miami for treatment. As the driver fell asleep, her car went out of her lane to the right, hitting the first runner and then the second before stopping on the road’s right shoulder. 

The wife of Matt D. said in an interview with NBC 6 that part of her husband’s right arm had to be amputated and he remains in the hospital at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center for treatment. The wife of Gabriel, the other runner injured in the crash, said that doctors expect him to lose some function in his right arm. Both wives claim their husbands to be experienced runners with Gabriel’s wife adding that safety measures like cones and signs to tell drivers that there are runners in the area were missing. Keys 100 officials said in the article that the Seven Mile Bridge is coned, but not other parts of the course and “it [the entire course] never has been [completely coned off.]” 

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