• 31
  • August
    2010

Miami auto accident attorneys see victims of car and truck accidents on a regular basis. They know the heartbreaking stories of negligent drivers who cause permanent damage to families. People who cause these injuries need to be held accountable for the damage they do. In addition to criminal penalties, negligent drivers must pay damages that will do something to restore the victims.

A girl named Elle Vandenberghe was on a scooter in a crosswalk last September when a driver in a Ford Bronco struck her as he backed down the street looking for a parking spot. The girl had a serious stroke not long after she arrived at the emergency room with a fractured skull. She spent the next four months in the intensive care unit and ultimately endured 11 operations. Doctors told her parents that Elle would most likely never walk or talk. In fact, they were told she might not live. 

Elle's mother, Heather Vandenberghe, struggled with the rage she felt toward the man who had nearly killed her daughter in his quest for a parking spot. This was made worse when she learned that he had come away from the accident with nothing more than a ticket.

Ms. Vandenberghe pushed for tougher laws in New York, where the accident took place. Now New York has a law declaring that drivers who flout traffic laws and seriously injure pedestrians in the process can lose their license for six months or, if it is a repeat offense, one year. It is known as Elle's Law.

A recent Department of Transportation report on pedestrian safety concluded that 36 percent of serious accidents that injured pedestrians were the result of driver inattention.

Elle Vandenberghe still walks with braces, and has limited fine motor skills in one hand. But, though her neurosurgeon estimates that she lost the use of almost half her brain as a result of the stroke, she has been able to make a remarkable recovery. This is due to what doctors call the "plasticity" of her young brain. Hopefully Elle's story will help rewire the way drivers think about the choices they make on the road.

Source: New York Times "Channeling Outrage to Toughen Traffic Laws" August 31, 2010