Reckless Speeders, Distracted Motorists and Delray Beach Area Drivers Need Maximum Uninsured Motorist Coverage
By David Zappitell
I have spent much of my career representing responsible people whose lives were turned upside down by someone else’s reckless driving.
One lesson has become painfully clear:
You can obey every traffic law, carry good insurance, and pay attention to the road, yet still be seriously injured by a driver who has no business being behind the wheel…and oftentimes, doesn’t even have insurance!
Palm Beach County recorded 26,550 traffic crashes in 2024. Statewide, Florida reported 381,210 crashes and 3,184 traffic deaths that year. These are not abstract numbers. They represent real people who left home expecting an ordinary day but instead found themselves in an ambulance, an emergency room, or a legal battle with an insurance company.
South Florida Is a Mixing Bowl of Driving Habits
Driving in Delray Beach and anywhere in South Florida means sharing the road with longtime residents, tourists, snowbirds, new arrivals, rideshare drivers, delivery vehicles, motorcycles, elderly motorists, and commuters rushing to get somewhere five minutes faster.
The diversity is not the problem. The unpredictability is.
One driver may be unfamiliar with the area and following a GPS. Another may be driving too slowly in the left lane. Someone else may be texting, searching for an address, or making a sudden turn from the wrong lane.
And that’s a real challenge, especially on confusing roadways and dangerous intersections like Atlantic Avenue and Military Trail and the Glades Road. I-95 overpass!
Then an impatient driver comes flying up behind everyone, weaving across traffic and turning an already unpredictable situation into a dangerous one.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports that a crash occurs somewhere in Florida approximately every 44 seconds, and about one in seven crashes involves a distracted driver. Preliminary 2024 data attributed nearly 300 deaths and more than 2,200 serious bodily injuries to distracted driving.
The Drivers Who Treat Our Roads Like a Racetrack
Anyone who regularly drives I-95 through Delray Beach or Boca Raton has seen them.
You may be driving with traffic between Linton Boulevard and Glades Road when a car suddenly appears in your mirror, blasts past at an extreme speed and cuts across three lanes without signaling. Sometimes it is a young driver in a high-powered car. Sometimes it is someone on a motorcycle. Sometimes it is an adult who is certainly old enough to know better.
I do not care how expensive the car is, how loud the exhaust sounds (very uncool in my opinion BTW), or how skilled the driver imagines himself to be. I-95 is not a private racetrack.
Buzzing past families at 100 miles per hour is not impressive driving. It is selfish, dangerous conduct that gives everyone else only seconds, and sometimes fractions of a second, to react. Our culture indeed glamourizes ‘fast and furious’ type driving, but that doesn’t make it right.
FLHSMV’s 2023 crash report recorded 16,092 speeding or aggressive-driving crash events. The people involved included 437 fatalities and 1,232 incapacitating injuries.
Florida law now defines certain conduct as “dangerous excessive speeding.” In fact, there is now a dangerous and excessive speeding in Florida statute on the books. That includes driving at least 50 miles per hour over the speed limit or traveling 100 miles per hour or faster in a manner that threatens people or property or interferes with another vehicle. A first conviction can carry jail time, a fine or both!
That law exists because extreme speed is not a harmless traffic violation. It can (and has) killed many, many innocent people from I-95 to Atlantic Ave. to Glades Road.
Delray Beach and Boca Raton Drivers See the Risks Every Day
Consider a few ordinary situations familiar to local drivers:
You are heading east on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach when a visitor following navigation instructions abruptly crosses two lanes to make a turn.
You are driving on Military Trail when someone pulls out of a shopping center without properly judging the speed of traffic.
You are approaching the I-95 interchange on Glades Road in Boca Raton when one driver hesitates, another tailgates, and a third tries to force his way through the gap.
You are traveling along Federal Highway or Yamato Road when a speeding driver races around slower traffic, only to slam on the brakes at the next light.
Any one of these situations can cause a crash. Combine several of them, and a careful driver can be placed in an impossible position.
Defensive driving helps. Leaving space helps. Avoiding distractions helps. But defensive driving is not a force field. It cannot stop a reckless driver from rear-ending you, sideswiping you or forcing you off the road.
A Speeding Driver Can Cause a Crash Without Hitting You
The reckless driver does not always make physical contact.
A car may cut across your lane, forcing you to swerve into a barrier or another vehicle. A motorcycle may fly between lanes, causing several motorists to brake suddenly. An extreme speeder may disappear before anyone has time to record the license plate.
That is why evidence matters.
After a crash, photographs, video, dashcam footage, traffic-camera recordings, witness information and electronic vehicle data may help establish what really happened. Memories fade. Vehicles are repaired or destroyed. Video can be overwritten. A lawyer who understands litigation should know how to identify, preserve and pursue that evidence.
Why Having a Talented Litigator on Your Side is Crucial.
Why is it so critical to have a top litigator like me to get the maximum settlement for a personal injury case?
When someone is seriously injured, they don’t just need any lawyer to fill out paperwork or negotiate with an insurance adjuster. They need to hire a highly trained and talented litigator, an experienced attorney with experience winning cases in court, to help them prove their case in court.
That is why experience like the experience I have as a litigator matters, and why board certification as a civil trial lawyer is such an important distinction.
Insurance companies know which lawyers are prepared to try a case and which lawyers are not. An injured person should want a lawyer who can build the case from day one as if it may need to be presented to a jury.”
When someone causes a serious crash and then denies responsibility, I do not accept the easiest explanation simply because an insurance adjuster prefers it. The facts must be investigated, developed and proved.
“Good Insurance” Must Protect You, Not Just Everyone Else
Many careful Palm Beach County drivers believe they have excellent automobile insurance because they carry high liability limits, collision coverage and comprehensive coverage.
That is only part of the picture.
Liability insurance generally protects you when you injure someone else. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects you and your family when the person who injures you has no bodily injury insurance or not nearly enough of it.
Florida law requires an insurer issuing bodily injury liability coverage to offer uninsured motorist coverage. The coverage is generally offered at limits equal to the policy’s bodily injury liability limits unless the insured signs a written rejection or chooses lower limits.
My recommendation is straightforward:
Purchase as much bodily injury liability insurance as you can reasonably afford, and obtain the maximum uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage available to match it.
Do not casually sign a form rejecting UM coverage to save a few dollars. Do not assume the person who hits you will have adequate insurance. And do not assume that because you own a nice vehicle and maintain a responsible policy, everyone around you has done the same.
A driver can cause a catastrophic injury and carry little or no bodily injury coverage. Without sufficient UM protection, the careful driver may be the person left with unpaid medical expenses, lost income, and a permanent injury.
That result is not fair, but fairness alone does not pay a claim. Insurance coverage and evidence do.
Protect Yourself Before the Crash Happens
You cannot control the aggressive driver racing past you on I-95. You cannot control the distracted motorist on Atlantic Avenue or the uninsured driver running a light in Boca Raton.
You can control how you drive, the insurance you purchase, and what you do after a collision.
Review your automobile policy. Look specifically for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Confirm the limits rather than assuming it is included. Ask your insurance professional about the maximum UM coverage available and whether your policy provides stacked or non-stacked coverage.
Being a careful driver is important. Being a properly insured, careful driver is even more important.
So be sure you obtain the maximum uninsured motorist protection on your car insurance.
And when someone else’s recklessness causes you or a loved one a serious injury, you deserve a specialized car accident lawyer who specializes in large and difficult cases, a Florida board-certified litigator who is prepared to investigate the facts, prove what happened, and fight for the full value of the claim.
You deserve a Florida board-certified trial attorney who has won millions for his clients – an attorney like myself.
I am happy to discuss your case on a confidential basis anytime. My cellphone is (561) 870-7210.