Reading about a tragic and fatal automobile accident at Highway 60 and Peavine Trail near Kennansville in Osceola County made me pause to consider how important accident investigation and accident reconstruction can be to family members in a wrongful death case.
In this instance, William Wilke, of Boynton Beach, was killed in a multiple vehicle crash in Osceola. Reportedly, Mr. Wilke’s eastbound Chevrolet Aveo somehow got into oncoming westbound traffic and collided with an S.U.V. carrying multiple passengers. It is difficult to know the extent of the impact of this crash because, while two of the S.U.V. passengers were immediately taken to the hospital, two others reportedly suffered only minor injuries.
After the initial impact and after his vehicle came to rest, Mr. Wilke’s Aveo was reportedly the impacted by a semi-tractor trailer being driven by Danny Frederick, of Burnside, Kentucky.
Mr. Wilke was pronounced dead at the scene, but no word has been issued as to whether Mr. Wilke was killed as a result of the initial impact with the S.U.V. or after being hit by the semi.
In my experience as an Orlando personal injury attorney, this kind of information is often critical to a family who has lost a loved one. Families are often desperate to know exactly what happened to their loved one, and to know if there was any way that their loved one could have survived. Families are often sometimes interested in knowing whether their loved one shared any responsibility for causing his own death, or whether some other entity was responsible.
In this instance, a thorough accident reconstruction and/or an autopsy could reveal that Mr. Wilke survived the initial impact with the S.U.V. If this was the case, then it would be interesting to know how much time Mr. Burnside had to see the first impact and either hit his brakes or avoid the vehicles that has been involved in the first impact. The speed and following distance of the semi-tractor trailer might also shed some light on what happened out there.
Hopefully, the Florida Highway Patrol will issue some follow-up information about this crash.
If you have any questions regarding a Florida motor vehicle crash, a Florida trucking crash involving a tractor-trailer, or a Florida wrongful death, please call Winter Park personal injury attorneys Kim Cullen and Robert Hemphill at 407-254-4901.
