Florida Teen Dies in Head-On Collision Due to Reckless Driving on Residential Streets
On March 1st, 2016, a Sebastian, Florida, teenage driver died on impact of a head-on collision with a Ford F-250. The teen, Alexander Frith, had just turned 18 the day before, had inherited a large sum of money, and used that money to purchase a brand new Dodge Charger, not even 12 hours before the deadly collision, according to the news source WFLA.com. The collision was likely a result of intoxication, though lab results have yet to come back. The collision occurred at 7:56 a.m., the morning after Frith had hosted a party at his house, which is partially why Sebastian police speculate that alcohol or drug intoxication was present in the crash.
The fateful morning began with Frith speeding down the residential street from his home and hitting a pedestrian, who managed to leap out of the way in time to only suffer a minor blow to their arm from the car’s side view mirror. Shortly after, Frith sped through two stop signs and hit the much larger pickup truck head-on at 85 miles per hour. Frederick R. Klein, aged 51, was the driver of that truck and was taken by helicopter to the hospital, and he was still in a coma at the time of this writing. Florida Highway Patrol officer Carlin Parker described the scene as something that one would see as a result of a high-speed highway crash, not one that would occur in a residential area.
Teen Drivers Have High Rates of Causing Fatal Crashes
Teenage drivers are the most dangerous group of drivers for a variety of reasons. Teens lack driving experience, they do not fear their mortality as much as an older person (they feel more invincible), they are easily susceptible to peer pressure, and they lack reasonable decision making such as being able to recognize a dangerous situation and respond accordingly, compared to an older driver. For instance, teenage drivers have the lowest seat belt use rate out of any age group, according to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. Only 55 percent of high school aged students report that they always use a seat belt when riding with another person, and 35 percent of 16 to 20 year-old drivers who died in 2013 were speeding. Both of those statistics clearly show how peer pressure and the desire to impress affect decision making. Even a few years of experience and maturity results in safer driving. Drivers aged 16 to 19 are three times more likely to die in a fatal car crash than a diver that is 20 years old. Additionally, male teenage drivers are much more dangerous to themselves and others than female: males aged 16 to 19 are twice as likely to die in a car crash than females of the same age. And, like the story described above, alcohol plays a big role in the deaths of teenage drivers, just as it does with older adults as well. In 2013, 25 percent of drivers aged 16 to 20 who died behind the wheel had blood alcohol contents of 0.08 or higher.
Contact an Attorney for Help
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident that was caused by a teenage driver, or a driver of any age, contact an experienced Florida car accident attorney at the law offices Gillette Law, P.A. today at 888-366-5904. We will aggressively advocate on your behalf to help ensure you recover the compensation that you deserve.
