Palm Beach Gardens ‘Car Surfing’ Victim Goes Home to Recover
A Palm Beach Gardens teenager is happy to finally be back at home after six weeks of recovery at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Actually, she is happy to be alive after a “car surfing” accident resulted in a catastrophic brain injury that nearly killed her.
In April, the teen suffered severe head trauma after she fell while standing on the trunk of a 2008 Toyota Corolla driven by a friend in her Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood.
The teen’s doctor is calling her recovery nothing short of miraculous. She will have to wear a helmet for two to three months because the sides of her skull were removed to allow for her brain’s swelling to go down.
“Car surfing” is an activity the teen’s mother said wasn’t even on her radar before her daughter was a victim, but the chief of neurosurgery at St. Mary’s told the Palm Beach Post that sadly, it’s a term he is all too familiar with. He estimates that the staff sees two or three “car surfing” cases a month.
The girl’s mother said that what happened to her daughter should be a wake up call for everybody.
“If you’re going to drive a killing machine, you should take responsibility and shut the car down if somebody wants to do something stupid,” she told a press conference.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), car surfing at any speed can be deadly — fatalities have been reported when a vehicle was traveling as little as 5 mph. The CDC emphasizes that parents need to play a key role in keeping their children safe by ensuring that their teens are aware of the consequences of risky behavior on the road.
Irresponsible, reckless, and negligent behavior can get people hurt or killed, and those engaged in it should be held accountable for their actions. If you’ve been injured because of another person’s negligence, a personal injury attorney in Tallahassee at Farah & Farah stands ready to help you get compensated for medical costs, pain and suffering, lost wages, and other damages. Contact us at (800) 533-3555 if you believe you have a case.
