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Court Rules Either Party May Be Liable in Florida Rear-End Crashes

You are driving down East Palmetto Park Road and you slow down for a car coming out of a restaurant parking lot.  The car behind you was following too closely and the inattentive driver slams into your trunk. Who is responsible for the Boca Raton car crash?

Until now, the person who did the rear-ending was almost always considered to be at fault. This is because one of the first rules of driving is that the driver should make sure that there is always enough distance between his vehicle and the car in front to stop safely. But there are times when the driver in front could cause an accident.

Florida law says the second driver in a rear end collision is presumed to be negligent. On November 21, two rulings by the Florida Supreme Court challenged this law when the courts determined that evidence can be introduced to overcome that presumption.

The first ruling was made in Seminole County. This involved a 2007 accident. Driver Warren Birge was travelling at 35 mph when he suddenly slammed on his brakes for no apparent reason. A motorcycle travelling behind him swerved to avoid the crash and flipped over. Passenger Crystal Charron was seriously injured. Justice Jorge Labarga ruled that a rear-driver or passenger has the right to seek damages if a jury can conclude that the front driver was negligent and at least partly at fault for an accident

The other ruling involved a three car accident in Palm Beach County.  A lower court found that Maria Cevallos, the rear-driver, was at fault for the accident. However, the crash occurred because the middle driver, Keri Ann Rideout, was on her phone and stopped suddenly, rear-ending the front driver. Ms. Cevallos was following at a safe distance and had slowed her vehicle down, but she was not able to stop in time to avoid a crash. The court overturned a previous ruling that found comparative negligence didn't apply to rear-end collisions and ruled that juries should be allowed to compare the negligence of each driver in a Florida car accident lawsuit, regardless of whom the plaintiff is, and apportion blame accordingly. Cevallos will now be able to seek damages from Rideout.

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