Where Westchase’s serious crashes happen
Hillsborough County recorded about 25,000 crashes, 15,700 injuries and 172 deaths in 2025 in FLHSMV’s preliminary figures, and its Vision Zero program has named it the large U.S. county with the highest traffic death rate per capita. Westchase’s share comes from a few roads:
- Hillsborough Avenue (SR 580) from the Veterans Expressway to the Pinellas line: 50 mph traffic, the plaza driveways and the Countryway, Sheldon and Double Branch signals, where the left-turn and red-light crashes produce the worst injuries in the area.
- Linebaugh Avenue from Countryway to Sheldon and on to Citrus Park: the neighborhood spine, with school zones, roundabouts and the trail crossings.
- Countryway Boulevard: the loop through the subdivisions, with pedestrians, cyclists, golf carts and stop-controlled side streets.
- Race Track Road toward Oldsmar and Odessa: two lanes carrying four lanes’ worth of cut-through traffic, with head-on and run-off-road crashes.
- Sheldon Road from Hillsborough Avenue to Gunn Highway: the connector to Citrus Park and the mall, with pedestrians crossing between distant signals.
- The Veterans Expressway (SR 589) at Hillsborough Avenue and Linebaugh Avenue: high-speed rear-end crashes on the ramps and wrong-way entries at night.
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 Westchase
Car accidents
Hillsborough Avenue left turns and red-light crashes, Veterans Expressway rear-end chains, Race Track Road head-on collisions and uninsured drivers, which in Hillsborough County means roughly one driver in five. Florida’s no-fault rules, the permanent-injury threshold and comparative fault decide these cases, and we explain each below. Westchase car accidents and the Florida car accident practice page.
Truck and commercial vehicle accidents
Delivery fleets on Hillsborough Avenue and Linebaugh, and the semis that use the Veterans and Hillsborough Avenue between the airport and Pinellas. 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
Hillsborough recorded 514 motorcycle crashes and 28 rider deaths in 2025. Drivers who “didn’t see” a rider on Hillsborough Avenue or Race Track Road are still responsible for the injuries they cause. Motorcycle accidents.
Pedestrian, bicycle and golf-cart accidents
The Upper Tampa Bay Trail, the neighborhood paths and the golf carts of Westchase share its roads with commuter 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 Hillsborough Avenue and Linebaugh, West Park Village’s restaurants, the golf club, apartment complexes 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 Westchase 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 Hillsborough County, HART, the school district or a 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 Westchase 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 Hillsborough County’s 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.
Westchase resources after an accident
In an emergency, call 911. These are the agencies and facilities a Westchase injury claim runs through.
Courthouse
Hillsborough County civil cases are heard in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit at the George E. Edgecomb Courthouse, 800 East Twiggs Street, Tampa, FL 33602, with the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court in the same building. Most of our cases settle without a lawsuit; the ones that do not are filed in Tampa.
Crash reports and police
Westchase is unincorporated, so crashes on its streets are investigated by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (headquarters 2008 East 8th Avenue, Tampa, FL 33605, with the north-west district office nearby); crashes on Hillsborough Avenue and the Veterans Expressway often by Florida Highway Patrol Troop C, 11305 North McKinley Drive, Tampa, FL 33612; crashes west of the county line by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. 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.
Hospitals
St. Joseph’s Hospital, 3001 West Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33607; AdventHealth Carrollwood, 7171 North Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, FL 33614; Mease Countryside Hospital, 3231 McMullen Booth Road, Safety Harbor, FL 34695, across the county line; and, for the most serious injuries, Tampa General Hospital, 1 Tampa General Circle, Tampa, FL 33606, the region’s Level I trauma center.
Fire and EMS
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue responds across the unincorporated county, 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.
Results for injured clients in Hillsborough 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
- $1,102,000 for a driver hit by a landscaping company’s vehicle
- $1,000,000 for a passenger with a brain injury and a neck fusion after a collision with a business owner’s vehicle
- $959,421 for a driver hit by a logistics company’s driver, with a brain injury and a neck fusion
Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a particular outcome. See more case results.
Who handles your Westchase case
Kelly Cook leads the firm’s Hillsborough County work. Before joining Kemp Law Group she was a partner at a Tampa civil trial firm, where she defended large insurance companies and their insureds in Hillsborough courtrooms; she now uses that knowledge of how carriers value and defend claims for injured clients. Stacy Kemp Ferrari founded the firm in 2008 and owns it today; 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 firm’s office holds a 4.9-star rating across more than 900 Google reviews, many from clients in Westchase, Citrus Park, Town ’N’ Country and Oldsmar.
Westchase personal injury questions
Do you have an office in Westchase?
Our office is at 11567 Trinity Boulevard in Trinity, 30 minutes away by Race Track Road and East Lake Road or by the Veterans Expressway. We meet Westchase clients by appointment, at home or in the hospital, and handle most of the case by phone, text and video.
How long do I have to file a claim in Hillsborough County?
Two years from the date of injury for negligence and wrongful death claims. Claims against Hillsborough County, HART, the school district or a state agency 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.
Common in Hillsborough County, where roughly one driver in five is uninsured. 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.
I was hurt on the trail or in a golf cart. Is that a case?
Often, yes. A driver who hits a cyclist, pedestrian or golf cart at a trail crossing or on a neighborhood street is held to the same duty of care as anywhere else, and your household’s PIP and uninsured motorist coverage can apply even when you were not in a car.
Where would my case be filed?
In the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit at the George E. Edgecomb Courthouse in downtown Tampa. Most cases settle without a lawsuit, and most lawsuits settle before trial; we prepare every case as though a Hillsborough County jury will hear it.
What does a Westchase 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 Westchase 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 Westchase, Citrus Park, Town ’N’ Country, Oldsmar, Odessa and all of north-west Hillsborough County, with meetings by appointment and 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.
