Where Pasco County’s serious crashes happen
Pasco County averages roughly 100 traffic deaths and more than 1,000 serious injuries a year in the five-year figures the Pasco County MPO reports from FLHSMV data, and the county’s growth has outrun its roads on both sides of the Suncoast. The corridors that fill our Pasco files:
- US-19 from Holiday through New Port Richey and Port Richey to Hudson: the deadliest highway in Florida, with more than 150 deaths in Pinellas and Pasco since 2020, long signal gaps, the plaza driveways and pedestrians crossing six lanes.
- State Road 54 and State Road 56 from Trinity through Land O’ Lakes to Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills: the county’s busiest east-west road, with the US-41 intersection, one of the worst in Florida, the Suncoast and I-75 interchanges and the shopping-center signals.
- I-75 and the Suncoast Parkway (SR 589): the north-south freeways, with high-speed rear-end chains at the SR 54, SR 56 and SR 52 interchanges and wrong-way entries at night.
- Little Road (CR 1), US-41 and Collier Parkway: the north-south arterials through the west and central county, four and six lanes of subdivision and school traffic.
- State Road 52, US-301 and US-98: the roads to San Antonio, Dade City and Zephyrhills, two and four lanes at highway speed, with head-on crashes and the east county’s truck traffic.
- Ridge Road, Moon Lake Road, Gall Boulevard and the two-lane county roads: the older connectors with stop-controlled side streets, poor lighting and run-off-road crashes.
If you were hurt on one of these roads, cameras, event data and witnesses exist for days, not months. Contact us as soon as you can so we can preserve them.
Personal injury cases we handle in Pasco County
Car accidents
US-19 and SR 54 left turns and red-light crashes, I-75 and Suncoast rear-end chains, two-lane head-on collisions and uninsured drivers. Florida’s no-fault rules, the permanent-injury threshold and comparative fault decide these cases, and we explain each below. See the car accident practice page.
Truck and commercial vehicle accidents
The I-75 and SR 54 freight, the dump trucks serving every Pasco subdivision and the delivery fleets on US-19 and SR 54. These cases turn on federal hours-of-service and maintenance records and on reaching the truck’s data before it is overwritten. Truck accidents.
Motorcycle accidents
US-19, SR 52 and the east county’s hill roads are popular rides, and drivers turning across them are the riders’ main danger. Drivers who “didn’t see” a rider are still responsible for the injuries they cause. Motorcycle accidents.
Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
US-19 through Holiday, New Port Richey and Port Richey has the county’s pedestrian deaths; the Starkey Ranch and Wesley Chapel trails and the golf-cart neighborhoods put cyclists and carts beside fast traffic. Pedestrians and cyclists have the same right to recover as anyone else, and your own PIP policy covers you on foot. Pedestrian accidents.
Rideshare, hit-and-run and drunk-driving crashes
Uber and Lyft crashes, hit-and-run claims paid through uninsured motorist coverage, and drunk-driving cases that can include a dram shop claim against the bar.
Slip and fall and premises injuries
The plazas along US-19, SR 54 and SR 56, the Shops at Wiregrass and the Tampa Premium Outlets, restaurants, apartment and retirement communities and parking lots. Florida requires proof the business knew or should have known of the hazard, and surveillance video is overwritten within days. Slip and fall accidents.
Negligent security
Assaults and shootings at apartment complexes, gas stations, bars and motels where the owner ignored known crime and skipped basic lighting, cameras or staffing. Negligent security.
Dog bites
Strict liability for the owner, usually paid by homeowner’s insurance. Dog bites.
Wrongful death
When a crash or a fall takes a family member, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act allows the estate and the surviving spouse, children and parents to recover lost support, funeral and medical expenses and the loss of companionship. Wrongful death.
Insurance and PIP disputes
Carriers that cut off benefits, deny treatment as unrelated or lowball uninsured motorist claims. Insurance claims and personal injury protection.
The Florida law that decides a Pasco County injury claim
Two years to file. Florida’s statute of limitations for negligence is two years from the injury (Florida Statutes § 95.11), the same as for wrongful death. Claims against Pasco County, one of its six cities, the school district, FDOT, the Turnpike Enterprise or another state agency carry separate notice requirements under § 768.28 and should be opened early.
Modified comparative negligence. Under § 768.81 a jury’s finding that you were 50 percent or less at fault reduces your award by that share; 51 percent or more bars recovery. Insurers build your share in recorded statements. Do not give one without counsel.
No-fault first. Florida requires $10,000 of personal injury protection on every registered car (§ 627.736). It pays 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of lost wages up to that limit, only if you are seen by a medical provider within 14 days, and only $2,500 of it unless a physician documents an emergency medical condition.
Pain and suffering needs a permanent injury. Non-economic damages against the at-fault driver require proof of a permanent injury within a reasonable degree of medical probability, significant scarring, or death (§ 627.737). Consistent treatment and imaging supply that proof.
Uninsured drivers. Florida does not require bodily injury coverage and roughly one driver in five carries none. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own policy, and on the policies of relatives in your household, is often the largest source of recovery in a Pasco County crash. We read every policy in the household before we value a case.
Premises and security cases. A business owes its customers reasonable care; for a fall on a transitory substance, § 768.0755 requires proof the business knew or should have known of it, which is why video, inspection logs and incident reports matter. For negligent security, prior crime at and around the property is the evidence, and county public records make it available.
What changed in 2023. Juries now hear what was paid or owed for treatment rather than billed charges; letters of protection are disclosed with the referral; and bad-faith claims against insurers require the insurer to have been given a fair chance to pay. Cases built correctly from the first appointment do well under these rules.
What you can recover. Medical expenses past and future, lost wages and earning capacity, out-of-pocket costs, property damage, and, where the injury is permanent, pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life. Florida places no cap on these damages in an ordinary negligence case. A spouse may claim loss of consortium.
Pasco County resources after an accident
In an emergency, call 911. These are the courts, agencies and hospitals a Pasco County injury claim runs through.
Courthouses
Civil cases are filed in the Sixth Judicial Circuit, at the West Pasco Judicial Center, 7530 Little Road, New Port Richey, FL 34654, for the west county, 15 minutes from our office, and the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Center, 38053 Live Oak Avenue, Dade City, FL 33523, for the east; the Pasco County Clerk & Comptroller keeps records at both. It is the same circuit that hears Pinellas cases, before judges our attorneys appear in front of regularly. Most of our cases settle without a lawsuit; the ones that do not are filed here.
Crash reports and police
Most of Pasco is unincorporated, so most crashes are investigated by the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, 8700 Citizen Drive, New Port Richey, FL 34654; the city police of New Port Richey, Port Richey, Zephyrhills and Dade City investigate crashes inside their limits; and crashes on US-19, SR 54, I-75 and the Suncoast Parkway often fall to Florida Highway Patrol Troop C. Reports are available to the people involved through FLHSMV’s Florida Crash Portal within a few days; we obtain them for every client, along with body-camera and dash-camera video.
Trauma centers and hospitals
HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital, 14000 Fivay Road, Hudson, FL 34667, is the Level II trauma center for Pasco and Hernando counties; HCA Florida Trinity Hospital, 9330 State Road 54, Trinity, FL 34655, is a few minutes from our office; BayCare Morton Plant North Bay Hospital, 6600 Madison Street, New Port Richey, FL 34652; AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, 2600 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544; BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel, 4501 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard; AdventHealth Zephyrhills, 7050 Gall Boulevard, Zephyrhills, FL 33541; and AdventHealth Dade City, 13100 Fort King Road, Dade City, FL 33525. The worst injuries from the east county go to Tampa General Hospital, the region’s Level I center. Pasco County Fire Rescue responds countywide, and its run reports are part of every file we build.
If you were treated at any of these facilities after someone else’s negligence, keep every discharge paper and bill; they are the first documents we ask for.
Cities we serve in Pasco County
We represent injured people in every corner of Pasco, and each of these pages covers the roads, courts and hospitals of one community:
- Trinity: our home office, SR 54, Little Road and the Suncoast interchange
- New Port Richey: US-19, Little Road, Main Street and the hospital district
- Port Richey: US-19, Ridge Road and the Gulf View Square area
- Holiday: US-19 from the Anclote River to Elfers, 10 minutes from the office
- Hudson: US-19, Hudson Avenue and the Bayonet Point hospital district
- Odessa: SR 54, Gunn Highway and the Suncoast Parkway on both sides of the county line
- Land O’ Lakes: US-41, SR 54 and Collier Parkway
- Lutz: SR 54, US-41 and Dale Mabry at the Hillsborough line
- Wesley Chapel: SR 54, SR 56, Bruce B. Downs and the I-75 interchanges
- Zephyrhills: US-301, Gall Boulevard, SR 54 and SR 39
- Dade City: US-301, US-98, SR 52 and I-75, the east county seat
How Kemp Law Group handles Pasco County cases
Our office is at 11567 Trinity Boulevard in Trinity, on the west side of the county, 10 to 15 minutes from Holiday, New Port Richey and Port Richey, 20 from Hudson and Odessa, 25 from Land O’ Lakes and Lutz, 35 from Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills and 50 from Dade City. Walk-ins are welcome during business hours, we meet clients who cannot travel at home or in the hospital, and most of the case is handled by phone, text and video either way. We order the crash report, the 911 audio, the body-camera and business video and the medical records, our investigators photograph the scene and find the witnesses, and if the case has to be tried it is tried in New Port Richey or Dade City before judges our attorneys appear in front of regularly.
Results for injured clients in Pasco County and across Florida
Kemp Law Group has recovered over $400 million in settlements since 2008. Recoveries confirmed from the firm’s case records include:
- $2,415,000 for a motorcycle rider with a traumatic brain injury struck by a car
- $2,000,000 for the family of a driver killed by a commercial carrier’s truck
- $2,000,000 for a 64-year-old pedestrian struck while crossing the road
- $1,500,000 for a driver rear-ended in stopped traffic by a commercial truck whose driver fell asleep
- $1,250,000 for a motorcyclist hit by a truck that failed to yield
- $1,150,000 for a passenger in a pickup struck by a semi on State Road 56 in Pasco County
- $1,102,000 for a driver hit by a landscaping company’s vehicle
Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a particular outcome. See more case results.
Who handles your Pasco County case
Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded Kemp Law Group in 2008 and owns it today. A graduate of Saint Leo University, in Pasco County, and of Stetson University College of Law, admitted to The Florida Bar in 2008, she has spent her career representing injured people in Pasco County and the rest of Tampa Bay from the firm’s office in Trinity. Cases that need a courtroom are prepared by the litigation team under managing litigation attorney Ian Boettcher. From your first call, a member of our team takes the time to understand what happened, and an attorney reviews every case and stays involved from intake to resolution.
The office holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 900 Google reviews, most of them from Pasco County clients.
Pasco County personal injury questions
Where exactly is your office?
At 11567 Trinity Boulevard, Trinity, FL 34655, on Trinity Boulevard a few minutes from HCA Florida Trinity Hospital, with free parking at the door. Walk in, call or text 727-847-4878 for an appointment, or have us come to you at home or in the hospital.
How long do I have to file a claim in Pasco County?
Two years from the date of injury for negligence and wrongful death claims. Claims against Pasco County, a city, the school district, FDOT or the Turnpike Enterprise have earlier notice deadlines, so call sooner if a government vehicle or property was involved.
What if the insurer says I was partly at fault?
Florida reduces your recovery by your share of fault and bars it entirely at 51 percent or more. Adjusters assign fault to limit payouts; we investigate independently, pull camera footage and vehicle data, and advise clients not to give recorded statements before speaking with us.
The driver who hit me had no insurance.
We look first to the uninsured motorist coverage on your policy and on the policies of relatives you live with, then to any other responsible party: an employer, a vehicle owner, a bar that over-served a drunk driver.
Which courthouse hears my case, New Port Richey or Dade City?
Both are the Sixth Judicial Circuit; cases from the west county are generally heard at the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey and cases from the east at the Sumner Judicial Center in Dade City. We file in the right one, and the law and your rights are the same in both.
I was hit on US-19 or SR 54. Is the state responsible for the road?
Usually the claim is against the driver, but where a known-dangerous intersection lacked lighting, signals or crossings that FDOT or the county had been told it needed, a claim against the agency can exist, with the notice rules and damage limits of § 768.28. We review that in every US-19 and SR 54 case.
What does a Pasco County personal injury lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery set by Florida Bar rules and explained in writing before you sign, and you owe no fees and no costs unless we win. The consultation is free.
Talk to a Pasco County personal injury lawyer today
The insurer already has adjusters, investigators and lawyers on your case. You should have the same. Call or text 727-847-4878 or contact us online for a free consultation, 24 hours a day. We will tell you honestly whether you have a case, what it is likely worth, and what happens next, and you owe no fees and no costs unless we win.
Kemp Law Group, 11567 Trinity Boulevard, Trinity, FL 34655. Serving Trinity, New Port Richey, Port Richey, Holiday, Hudson, Odessa, Land O’ Lakes, Lutz, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills, Dade City, San Antonio and all of Pasco County from our office on Trinity Boulevard, with home and hospital visits anywhere in Tampa Bay.
The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
