Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
A 19-year-old woman was charged Wednesday for a crash in June where police say she ran a red light in Pensacola, killing an Uber driver and injuring two U.S. Navy sailors.
The woman was charged with DUI manslaughter, DUI with serious bodily injuries and two counts of DUI, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
What Happened?
On June 29 just after 4 a.m., officials say the woman ran a red light in a Hyundai Elantra before she smashed into a Subaru Legacy which was driven by a 60-year-old man who was working as an Uber driver that night. Also in the car were two U.S. Navy sailors, 22 and 28 years old. The 60-year-old driver was pronounced dead at the scene while both sailors were taken to the hospital for treatment of serious injuries, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.
The woman was also seriously injured and officials say she was driving drunk at the time of the crash.
As of Thursday morning, she was still in custody at the Escambia County Jail. Bond information was not immediately available. She has a court date listed for September 20, according to jail records.
Leesfield & Partners
With an office mere feet away from one of Miami’s major highways, Leesfield & Partners attorneys know how quickly an average commute can turn into something much more serious. Whether it is crashes caused by distracted driving or devastating accidents due to an impaired driver, Leesfield & Partners has represented clients through them all.
It is through a 48-year career litigating dangerous crashes that have resulted in injuries requiring surgery, permanent brain and orthopedic injuries, and even deaths that the firm’s Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, became a public safety advocate. Earlier this year, Mr. Leesfield was named onto the Board of Directors for Friends of The Underline, an organization aiming to transform the space underneath Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail system into usable parks and community-gathering spaces. Part of the group’s goal is to improve pedestrian walkways and add bike-friendly infrastructure to the paths that snake beneath the Metrorail. In addition to his work with The Underline, Mr. Leesfield has penned Op-Eds to raise awareness to the dangers of E-bikes and E-scooters that account for numerous injuries in the city each year. He has also previously worked with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) through his family’s foundation The Leesfield Family Foundation.
In addition to charitable work, the firm has handled thousands of personal injury cases involving distracted and impaired drivers on Florida roads including a record-breaking verdict involving the tragic death of a young medical student and permanent injury to her brother at the hands of a drunk driver speeding down the wrong side of the road on I-95. The result in that case was a $95 million verdict for the family with $57 million going to the son and $38 million to the parents.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys secured a $2.9 million recovery for a crash involving a truck and a car in Miami-Dade County.
In one case, involving a Pensacola, Florida, family, Justin B. Shapiro, a Partner and Trial Lawyer with the firm, doggedly pursued a $600,000 recovery after they were hit by a New York drive and sustained serious injuries.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles’ Crash Dashboard shows that there have been over 3,600 crashes in Escambia County where Pensacola is located. Over 3,000 injuries and 35 deaths were caused by these crashes. About seven pedestrians were killed and one bicyclist died.
In Miami-Dade County, where one of three Leesfield & Partners offices is located, there have been almost 37,000 crashes with 181 fatalities and a total of 18,275 injuries from all crashes. In 2024, about 44 pedestrians and 12 bicyclists have been killed.
The firm also has considerable experience litigating bicycle-involved accidents. In one case out of Key West, a bicyclist stopped on the shoulder of the Overseas Highway was seriously injured after being hit by a car whose driver was distracted by fiddling with a navigational system. A $5,350,000 settlement was reached by Leesfield & partners attorneys for the client injured in that case.
A Miami bicycle case handled by the firm resulted in a $3.1 million settlement after the client sustained serious leg injuries from the incident.
Leesfield & Partners attorneys also secured a $1.8 million verdict for a Boca Raton bicyclist.
A nurse in Key West who was represented by the firm was awarded $5 million for serious injuries.
A young client injured on a moped represented by Leesfield & Partners clients was awarded $2.5 million for the incident.
