A tragic motorcycle accident occurred last Saturday evening in Clearwater, Florida.

26-year old Bobby Joseph Paonessa was driving his motorcycle southbound on Missouri Ave. on Saturday around 10:30 PM.  27-year old Lacey Smithson was driving her SUV northbound on Missouri Ave before attempting to turn left onto Belleair Road.  As Smithson turned, Paonessa's bike crashed into her SUV.  

EMS officials arrived on scene soon after the collision, but it was too late.  Paonessa was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.  Officials say that Paonessa was wearing a helmet.  

It was not reported whether or not Smithson sustained any injuries in the accident.  Investigation into the fatal accident is currently underway.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Paonessa's family and friends. 

A stretch of Interstate 275 was closed Tuesday afternoon following a car accident near downtown.

According to officials with the Florida Highway Patrol, the accident happened shortly after 2:00 p.m. near mile marker 46. Police say the crash blocked the left lane of the interstate. Police say a pickup truck was traveling south on I-275 in the left lane when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a barricade.

A tow truck was called to haul away the pickup truck. Emergency response crews worked to clean diesel fuel off the roadway. Officials were unsure when the lanes would reopen.

Tampa Fire Rescue responded to the scene of the crash, the driver was treated and released at the scene.

If you or someone you know has been injured in an accident, there may be legal options you can consider. Contact the Tampa Bay personal injury lawyers of Beltz & Ruth, P.A. at 800-235-8978 today.

Early Wednesday morning, emergency workers arrived at a Tampa Bay house to find an oak tree had crashed through the building, trapping three inside.

Although the owners of the house had been making plans to remove the old tree, which they characterized as hollow and rotted-out, the tree unexpectedly fell nevertheless. Neighbors claimed that branches had been falling off the tree weeks prior to this incident. 

The tree destroyed everything it fell on, including the house it squarely collapsed on. A truck and car were wrecked along with the house.

When authorities arrived, they rescued three people trapped inside. No one was injured. Police proceeded to block off the area around the house as the tree is completely removed from the premises. Those living in the house have moved in with family and friends.

If you or someone you know has been injured while on someone else's property due to their lawn-care negligence, you may be eligible for legal recourse. Contact the Tampa Bay premises liability attorneys of Beltz & Ruth, P.A., by calling 800-235-8978 to discuss your case today.

Scuba Clean Inc., a St. Petersburg, has incurred a large sum of fines after failing to follow safety protocols.

The current charges against the company include a $200,900 fine that combines failures to provide sufficient safety equipment for divers, a failure to properly train divers before sending them into the water, and a failure to keep employees with divers on their dives to make sure that they are safe. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the company was willfully negligent in upkeeping its practices and equipment. To the deparment's definition, willful violators can be simply indifferent to changing after being warned of safety problems. Unless they work to change charges and violations, the violator is considered willful.

These circumstances has caused the administration to tally up Scuba Clean's 16 major hazards for a $53,900 fine in addition to the three citations of willful violations, which account for $147,000 of the total fine.

If you or someone you love has been injured while using another company's products, you may be eligible for compensation. Contact the Tampa product liability lawyers at Beltz & Ruth, P.A., by calling 800-235-8978 today.

A woman has pleaded not guilty in a case of nursing home abuse that was purportedly caught on film.

During the tape, the New York City nurse is shown to have allegedly pulled away a wheelchair from an 85-year-old woman. As the tape proceeds, the plaintiff's attorney noted that the woman, instead of trying to help the now injured elderly woman, walked away, came back the to fallen woman, and did not wait until another staff member passed by the injured elderly woman before calling for help.

According to the plaintiff, this is an obvious case of nursing home abuse.

The defendant, a 56-year-old nurse, claimed that she was unable to catch the woman before she fell and broke her hip. The defense stated that their client surely could not have maliciously caused the event and left the injured woman, as she herself was the one later calling for help.

The New York State Health Department has previous cleared the nursing home with all issues of regulation compliance.

If you or someone you love as been injured while staying at a nursing home and negligence seems to be the cause, you may be entitled to compensation for those injuries. Knowing your rights can make sure that someone is watching out for you in your time of vulnerability. Contact the Tampa nursing home malpractice attorneys of Beltz & Ruth, P.A., at 800-235-8978 today.