WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida mother is calling on state lawmakers to overhaul the state's personal injury protection insurance laws after a crash killed one of her daughters and left the other permanently disabled.
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Sarah Marquez said her daughters, 16-year-old Millie and 13-year-old Olivia, were riding in a car driven by a 19-year-old on the night of Jan. 2 in Hobe Sound when the driver ran a stop sign. Another car struck them, killing Millie and severely injuring Olivia.
"Last thing Millie said to me was, 'We'll be back soon, mum. I love you,'" Marquez said.
Olivia survived but sustained catastrophic injuries.
"Lacerated her aorta near her heart, her liver. She broke her spine in three places," Marquez said. "They almost had to amputate the right leg and the left arm. This is forever."
Marquez said Olivia, now requires round-the-clock care.
"She was just a normal, happy 13 year old, and we were all happy," Marquez said.
The family has accumulated more than $1 million in medical debt. Because Millie and Olivia were too young to have their own car insurance, they fell under the teen driver's personal injury protection, or PIP, policy — which covered only $10,000 of Olivia's injuries.
"It's devastating," Marquez said. "Our whole world has been turned upside down."
Marquez's attorney, Chase Nugent, said Florida's minimum insurance standards have long been a problem for crash victims.
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"The bare minimum insurance in Florida, $10,000 of personal injury protection," Nugent said. "If you just adjust that number for inflation, that would be $50,000 in today's dollars. If you adjust it for medical inflation, it would be close to $100,000 in today's dollars. So I think that $100,000 at a bare minimum."
Nugent also noted that Florida does not require drivers to carry bodily injury liability insurance at all.
"We're one of the few states, if the only that doesn't require any," Nugent said.
Five years ago, a bill that would have eliminated PIP policies and replaced them with mandatory bodily injury liability coverage passed the Florida Legislature, but Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it.
"They claim that it's to drive down insurance costs, car insurance costs, but there's no provisions in those bills that require auto insurers to actually reduce their costs. So it's it's always under the guise of we're reducing auto insurance rates," Nugent said.
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With no meaningful insurance coverage to fall back on, Marquez said she has been left to rely on outside help to get by.
"I've been relying on food banks and like, charities," Marquez said.
Now, Marquez and Nugent are urging Florida legislators to revisit the issue and raise PIP minimums. Marquez said she hopes something meaningful comes from her family's loss.
"Something positive would come out of the loss of Millie," Marquez said.
When WPTV's Kayla McDermott asked Marquez what it would mean if Florida legislators chose to listen to her, her answer was simple.
"That'd mean everything," she said.
Those who wish to support the Marquez family can donate through their GoFundMe campaign, here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
