The roads in Florida and the vehicles that travel on them could become safer if a bill being considered by federal lawmakers is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. The Moving Forward Act would allocate $1.5 trillion in federal funds to improve the nation’s infrastructure, and some of this money would be used to rebuild roads, transit systems and bridges in Florida. The proposed legislation would also make a long list of electronic safety features mandatory in all passenger vehicles sold in the United States.
Lawmakers supporting the Moving Forward Act say that bold action is needed to stem a worrying rise in car and truck accident fatalities, and they are particularly concerned about the alarming rise in the number of pedestrians killed on the nation’s roads each year. Safety features that would be mandated under the legislation include automatic braking systems, lane departure warnings, devices that prevent vehicles from operating when alcohol is detected, automatic cutoffs for keyless ignitions and features that alert drivers when they exit vehicles with passengers sitting in the back.
The Moving Forward Act would introduce tougher vehicle crash-test standards and revise the star ratings awarded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The safety information that can be found on new vehicle window stickers would also be updated if the legislation is passed.
Experienced personal injury attorneys who have seen firsthand how debilitating automobile accident injuries can be would likely be in favor of this legislation. The safety systems that the bill would mandate could provide valuable evidence in car accident lawsuits as well as prevent crashes in the first place. These systems capture information about road conditions, driver behavior and vehicle performance with an array of cameras and sensors, and this data is often stored in the cloud or under the hood on hard drives. Crash investigators and attorneys may be able to use this information to determine what caused an accident and who was to blame.