[dbussone]

Originally Posted by rubicon

Who's at fault? If you mean legally it will take more than this forum to resolve the question. Florida is a comparative negligent state. what you describe is a driver who made a sudden stop reacting not to avoid hitting an animal but to assist the animal. We have another driver apparently not driving a safe clear distance.

My initial reaction to this is that I suspect LOE charged both legally (50%) negligent? My personal opinion is the driver who stopped to assist the turtle used extremely poor judgement (I'm being polite) and should be found primarily responsible for setting this accident in motion. the pivotal question is how the LOE viewed the turtle loving drivers actions. Its one thing to pull your car left or right to avoid hitting the animal quite another to stop to assist it. Experts will tell you for example it better to hit a deer than to try and avoid it because you are going to probably end up with greater consequences. Indeed the obits are replete with drivers who attempted to avoid hitting an animal and ended up hitting a tree, etc and died . I opinion, others can decide

Personal Best Regards:

This is a very tough one. Last week I was on Pinellas heading to Winn Dixie. Near one of the golf courses 3 Sandhill Cranes started to cross the street.

I stopped and put my flashers on. The cars in both directions also stopped. This is easy on a 30 MPH street, but I wonder what I would have done on 466A.

Depending on traffic I might have tried to go around them.