2/7/2006 - Posted by:
Stone, Taylor & Associates, P.A.
Phone: 904-396-3335
Alt. Phone: 904-399-3596
Fax: 904-399-4540
Mobile: 904-536-9309
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Hydroplaning/Airbag Defense
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Our client was driving home from a Jaguar football game the same night Hurricane Katrina was passing by Florida. The outer bands produced several rain storms in Jacksonville throughout the night which left the roads wet and slick. Our client was nearing his neighborhood when his truck slid off the road onto the grassy shoulder. His truck went through two yards taking out a Yucca plant and a Cyprus tree and ultimately hit a parked car and slammed head on into a telephone pole. The airbag deployed in our client's face. Several neighbors came out of their homes and found our client in the driver's seat dazed and confused. One neighbor smelled the odor of alcohol on our client and the assumption was that he was drunk. When the police arrived they conducted a DUI investigation on video and our client was arrested and taken to jail where he refused the breath test. At trial we established that the road was slanted toward the area where our client's truck entered the grass. We also established the poor drainage which causes water to pool on one side of the road and flow to the other side. We also established facts concerning how and why cars hydroplane. These facts were all established during cross examination of the State's witnesses. We also established how airbags deploy at high impact rates that can result in minor concussions. These facts all helped explain how the accident occurred as well as why our client seemed impaired. We coupled those explainations with other facts that supported our position that our client was not impaired by alcohol even though the civilian witnesses and officers testified that he was. Finally, we established that all the State's witnesses overlooked important facts that contradicted their assumptions. In the end the jury agreed that there were important facts that had to be plugged into the equation and when they did so they found our client not guilty.
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