A firefighter responding to an incident in his or her personal owned vehicle must use the same due regard towards the public that he or she would if responding in a municipality owned vehicle. The lack of due regard resulted in a fatal vehicle accident on July 16, 2010, when “Firefighter Timothy Johnson of the Portage Ohio Fire District” collided with a vehicle driven by Olivia Duty, which resulted in the death of her boyfriend, Ian Huffman (Varone, 2012, para. 2). Timothy Johnson was responding to a mutual aid structure fire when the accident occurred (Varone, 2012). The parents of Ian Huffman and Olivia Duty, the driver of the vehicle Firefighter Johnson collided with, “filed a wrongful-death and personal injury lawsuit” with the Ottawa County Common Pleas Court (Feehan, 2012, para. 2). Firefighter Johnson additionally faced the criminal charges of negligent vehicular homicide and attempted negligent vehicular homicide, in which he entered a guilty plea and served 9 months in jail (Feehan, 2012).
In the civil suit against Firefighter Johnson and the Portage Fire District, the prosecution was charged with providing evidence that negligence by both parties had contributed to the death of Ian Huffman and the attempted homicide of Olivia Duty. Prosecutors allege “Mr. Johnson was driving his personal vehicle as fast as 98 mph on State Rt. 19 on his way to the fire station in Oak Harbor just seconds before he crashed into the rear of Ms. Duty's car at Portage River South Road” (Feehan, 2012, para. 6). The posted speed limit on Portage River South Road was 55 mph at the time of the accident (Curt, 2012). The defense alleges that Firefighter Johnson was using his lights and sirens and that Ian Huffman was not wearing a seatbelt at the...
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...ng problem many jurisdictions and professional organizations have set the industry standard of following the speed limit or only 10 mph above when responding to an emergency. Fire departments must take notice and follow industry standards, or they and their members may become the next defendants in a court room due to negligence.
References
Varone, C. (2012). More tragedy flows from fatal pov crash in Ohio. Retrieved from http://firelawblog.com
Feehan, J. (2012, October 17). Parents, girlfriend accept $1.57M to settle lawsuit. THE BLADE. Retrieved from http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2012/10/17/Parents-girlfriend-accept-1-57M-to-settle-lawsuit.html
Speed limits not applicable to emergency or public safety vehicles, 4511.24 Ohio codes § 24 (1975).
Varone, J. C. (2012). Legal considerations for fire & emergency services (2nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.
The case of Kamloops v. Nielson was a landmark decision for tort law, since it established the duty of care principle in Canadian private law, which prior to this case was used in the Anns v. Merton case and expanded the scope of duty first identified in Donoghue v. Stevenson. In the historic case of Donoghue v. Stevenson, duty of care was established to include anyone that could be foreseeably harmed by someone’s actions, creating the neighbour principle. The Anns v. Merton case expanded the scope of the neighbour principle to including public bodies, such as the municipality. The case involved a faulty building foundation, which resulting in requiring repairs for the house, and whether the municipality should have to pay for the repairs, since it was the job of the municipality to inspect and ensure the building was properly constructed. Whether public tax allocations should be subject to tort litigations was placed in question in the case but the municipality was held liable for damages nevertheless.
To conserve fuel and save lives. fifty-five (55) miles per hour national speed limit should be restored. Driving at 55 miles per hour or less conserves fuel. Billions of barrels of Oil and gas are used up each year so that Americans can drive at high speeds across the country. The.
Lewis and Graves v. Thomas are two court rulings related to police pursuits. In both cases, the court ruled that a police officer in pursuit of a fleeing motorist does not intentionally choose to cause harm to a suspect, and resulting injury or death of the suspect is not due to the negligence of the officer and the officer and agency is therefore not liable (Farber, 2007). However, through the multitude of incidents involving police officers in traffic accidents, there is no case law placing liability on a police officer or agency, unless the officer was in violation of departmental policy or grossly negligent, as shown in Haynes v. Hamilton County (Justia.com, 2017). In this case, a sheriff’s deputy pursued a vehicle reaching speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour in dense traffic. The pursuit ended when the suspect vehicle collided with a civilian vehicle, killing three teenagers. The court ruled the failure of the officer to terminate for safety reasons was thereby
The argument that Forestville should reverse a decision it made six months ago to raise its speed limit by 10MPH due to a 15% rise in accidents because accidents in Elmsford, a neighboring region, declined slightly, is inconclusive. A base line study of traffic pattern disruptions and speed variances in Forestville and Elmsford comparing demographic data, location, rate, and type of accidents for more than six months might determine significant risk factors. Federal studies suggest that accidents rise if speed limits are raised on highways by as much as 5% for each 4 MPH but on moderate speed limit roads, no such relationship exists. Other studies show accidents decrease with a rise in speed limit since artificially low limits also cause accidents.
Varone, J. C. (2012). Legal considerations for fire & emergency services (2nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.
That doesn't mean that if you feel unsafe you can't go slower. They're aren't many places where they have a minimum speed limit but I've seen some that are usually about twenty miles per hour slower than the speed limit. This allowes for drivers who don't feel safe doing the speed limit a way to drive without getting and ticket and sill feel safe. Honestly regardless of the speed limit some people are going to drive really fast and others slower. If your one of those people who isn't a fan of the increase in the speed limit you should just drive slower. The speed limit rise wouldn't have been approved by the town of Forestville if they didn't feel it was going to be safe for their
Should highway speed limits be increased? Should we strike down every sign that the government posts and uses to regulate the speed limit on the thousands of highways around the country? Should we trust the driving ability of each and every person to drive within a reasonably safe speed? The response that most people lean toward is one of negativity. People automatically assume that the speeds presently posted on our highways are there only for our own protection.
In my opinion, I strongly believe Ontario should not raise the current speed limit of, 100 km/h to 110 km/h on major highways. To begin with, speed limits are determined by how fast a driver can react to hazards and how fast they bring a car to a stop. By increasing the speed limit, drivers will have insufficient time to react to a hazard, resulting in less time for other users of the road to react to that vehicle. Drivers need ample time to react and hit the breaks when they need to. Moreover, many individuals believe the idea of a brake assist will help avoid collisions and accidents on the freeway, however most Ontarians have older cars that do not have modern technology found in most cars made today. Not all cars have a brake assist and
Some motorists choose to exceed the speed limit because they seek the thrill of travelling at high velocities. Whilst such drivers are not necess...
... such speeds, drivers will weave in and out of traffic outraging, intimidating, and endangering other drivers on the highway. Too often in the news we hear of road rage ending in a violent stand off between drivers. In a time when the "Too fast, Too Furious" lifestyle seems to be so popular, men and women are ignoring the potential dangers of speeding. Everyday drivers are losing their patience with racers who are putting the lives of their families in jeopardy.
Speed limits have been around since the 1600s. In New York they had got a law issued in 1652 that stated any wagons,carts, and sleighs can't be rode or even be driven at a gallop. Any person that violate faced a penalty that started at 150$ less than today’s standard consequence of breaking the law. By the 1970s,The prices of fuel started to rise to where it cause many states to want to get a speed limit so they wouldn't have to waste a lot of money and get laws to save money and resources in the early 1970’s. In result, President Richard Nixon agreed to make a national national speed limit of 55 mph for all the states. After the law had passed it went into effect. Then America’s traffic death rate dropped from 4.28 per million miles traveled in 1972 to 2.73 in 1983.This shows that speeding leads to death.
Imagine driving on I-75 as cars race by you at a blink of an eye. You are driving 60 miles per hour, the speed limit; they must be doing 100 miles per hour or more. This is not an illusion; this is the reality of driving on a highway. Believe it, it happens everyday. Cars race down the road at uncontrollable speeds that cause tickets, accidents, and sadly death. Speed limits are a must for traffic control, for safety in neighborhoods and for avoidance of collisions.
According to Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) study in which speed limits were varied at 100 locations nationwide resulted "raising posted speed limits by as much as 15mph had little effect on the motorists' speed." The data actually indicates that accident rate reduced at sites where speed limits were raised. Traveling at high speeds saves time and gets you to your destination quicker and the traffic usually travels five to ten miles faster than the posted speed limit.
...s to make traffic more efficient. For example, the Ohio Revised Code in section 4511.21 states clearly that "No person shall operate a motor vehicle, trackless trolley, or a street car at a speed greater than reasonable or proper due regard to the traffic." Road speed limits are used to regulate the speed of vehicles. Sometimes people try to get somewhere and they go over the speed limit not realizing that they are putting themselves in danger. Now every time I get in a car with a friend or a family member, I make sure that they are going by the speed limit, not texting and paying attention on the road. It is very important that we follow this rules because they are only protecting us, and keeping us safe. If we want to reduce the millions of deaths that are caused by this imprudence every year we need to start being more responsible when we get behind the wheel.
One of the most important factors about the traffic accidents is violation of the rules which can be with exceeding speed limit, using alcohol. Exceeding speed limit causes great accidents because with this exceeding driver loses the control of his driving and then occur accidents which even result in deaths.