South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Fires in auto accidents can cause serious property damage and bodily injury. Fuel-fed fires are the main type of fires in auto accidents. It is estimated that approximately 550 to 1000 people are killed as a result of fires in auto accidents every year in the United States. Fires in auto accidents occur in 0.1 percent of all traffic accidents annually but are the cause of fatality in three percent of all traffic accidents. Fires in auto accidents generally begin when fuel from the vehicle contacts an ignition source. In many cases fires in auto accidents are the result of a defective auto part.

Defective fuel systems are one of the major causes of fires in auto accidents. There are many types of fuel system defects that can contribute to fires in auto accidents. These defects can be inherent to the design or the manufacturing of a fuel system or relate to the fuel tank’s placement in a vehicle. Fires in auto accidents can be the result of tank design defects when a tank is not properly protected or defective welds are used. If a tank is placed too close to another auto part which can puncture the tank in a collision, it can cause fires in auto accidents.

Fuel lines that allow fuel to escape are also the cause of fires in auto accidents. Improper construction or placement of fuel lines can cause fuel leaks which can increase the risk of fires in auto accidents. Fuel lines that continue to circulate fuel after a collision, such as electric fuel lines, are also a major cause of fires in auto accidents.

There are currently no federal safety standards that regulate the design and production of fuel systems in order to reduce the risk of fires in auto accidents. It is estimated that changes to fuel system design and production would cost an average of two to three dollars per vehicle to significantly reduce or eliminate the risk of fires in auto accidents.

There are several things that auto manufacturers can do to reduce the risk of fires in auto accidents. Providing adequate protection to fuel systems, installing anti-siphoning devices, and correct placement of the fuel tank reduces the risk of fires in auto accidents. A fuel safe bladder that lines the fuel tank and fire panels can significantly increase the integrity of the fuel system.

In 2002, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen reported that at least twelve police officers have been killed and another nine injured as a result of fires in auto accidents. The automobiles these officers had been driving were found to have dangerously placed fuel tanks which ruptured or leaked, starting fires in auto accidents. These injuries and deaths could have been easily prevented if auto manufactures would have made small adjustments in fuel tank design.

Many fires in auto accidents are highly preventable occurrences which end up causing major damage and destruction to the property and people involved. When fires in auto accidents are the result of vehicle defectiveness, victims have the legal right to seek compensation for their losses through a personal injury lawsuit.

Auto racing accidents that result from illegal street racing can cause a considerable amount of property damage, personal injury, and even death. As a general rule, the greater the speed, alcohol involvement, and size of the vehicles, the greater the damage in an auto accident. Because auto racing accidents involve collisions at higher speeds, the damage that results can be devastating. When losses result in auto racing accidents, the victims have the right to seek compensation for their damages.

According to statistics, auto racing accidents have claimed the lives of 345 people since 1990. The number of people that are killed in auto racing accidents is increasing with every year. In 2000, seventy-two people died in auto racing accidents, compared to 135 people who died in auto racing accidents the following year. National statistics reveal that nearly fifty people in every thousand who are involved in illegal auto racing will be seriously injured in auto racing accidents.

According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, auto accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged fifteen to twenty. This coincides with the age group which is most likely to be involved in illegal racing and auto racing accidents. Teens may lack the driving experience and judgment abilities that adult drivers have developed over time. Teens are also more likely to take foolish risks thereby putting themselves in dangerous situations where auto racing accidents are more likely to occur.

When illegal racing or auto racing accidents are discovered by law enforcement, those responsible can face heavy penalties for their actions. People who are caught racing or cause auto racing accidents can be arrested and have their vehicles impounded. If convicted, the offender can face months of incarceration, heavy punitive fines, loss of driving privileges, insurance penalties, and more. In addition to these criminal penalties a defendant can be charged with vehicular manslaughter (murder) in fatal auto racing accidents.

Persons responsible for auto racing accidents can also be held liable for property damage and personal injury that was caused in the accident. Victims who have suffered losses in auto racing accidents have the legal right to seek compensation for their losses. Compensatory damages in auto racing accidents cases can include medical and rehabilitation expenses, loss of income, disability, property damage, pain and suffering, and more. Because auto racing accidents involve reckless or grossly negligent actions committed by those responsible, punitive damages may also be awarded in a civil personal injury case.

Illegal street racing has reached epidemic levels in some metropolitan areas across the nation. In response, law enforcement is cracking down to prosecute these crimes and reduce the risk and prevalence of auto racing accidents.

The label of a novel antibiotic will be updated to reflect reports of severe liver problems, including several deaths, associated with its use, the drug’s maker and health officials said Thursday.

Sanofi-Aventis’ Ketek will carry a bold-type warning about the rare reports of liver failure and severe injury, some of them fatal, in patients treated with the drug. The company also is providing additional information to patients and doctors.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Ketek in 2004. The drug is used to treat respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, sinusitis and community-acquired pneumonia. Both the FDA and Sanofi-Aventis believe the drug’s benefits still outweigh its risks.

Through April, the FDA has received reports of 12 cases of acute liver failure, including four deaths, among people treated with Ketek. A fifth required a liver transplant.

“In certain of these cases, it appears there are no other likely causes of liver injury, so it does appear they were linked to the use of the drug,” said Dr. John Jenkins, director of the Office of New Drugs in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The FDA will continue to monitor the safety of Ketek and take further action if necessary, said a second agency official, Dr. Gerald Dal Pan of the Office of Epidemiology and Surveillance in the drug center.

There have been two further cases of acute liver failure reported since April, though details were not immediately available, Dal Pan said.

The FDA also knows of 23 other cases where patients had serious liver injuries after receiving the antibiotic, which also is called telithromycin.

The rate of reported liver problems associated with the drug is 23 per 10 million prescriptions filled, according to the FDA. In a previously disclosed internal memo, the FDA said the rate appeared higher in comparison with similar antibiotics.

But a study published in January that detailed several of the liver cases associated with the drug may have stimulated the reporting of further problems. That can skew perceptions of the risk of Ketek compared with older but similar antibiotics.

“At this point we cannot conclude the risk is higher than with other antibiotics used to treat these conditions,” Dal Pan said.

Dr. Bruce Lavin, vice president of internal medicine for Sanofi-Aventis, said Ketek remains an option needed by doctors when they treat people who are infected with bacteria that have developed resistance to other antibiotics.

The label change comes as the Senate Finance Committee investigates allegations of fraud connected with trials of Ketek, as well as how the FDA has handled safety issues associated with the drug.

“There are questions about whether this drug should stay on the market, and there’s great legitimacy to those questions. Ketek is another example where the FDA accommodated a drug maker and turned a blind eye to serious safety concerns,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee’s chairman, said in a statement.

The updated label for Ketek warns doctors and patients to watch for signs of hepatitis such as fatigue, malaise, anorexia, jaundice and nausea. Patients with signs or symptoms of hepatitis should stop treatment with Ketek immediately and seek a medical evaluation, including liver functions tests, according to the label.

The label was updated to warn of cases of death and life-threatening acute respiratory failure seen in Ketek-treated patients with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disorder marked by muscle weakness and fatigue. The FDA knows of three such deaths. Patients with the disorder should not be given Ketek unless other options aren’t available, the company said.

This month, Sanofi-Aventis stopped enrolling children in trials of the drug. The company said it had not identified any safety reason that would merit the “pause,” but that it wanted to confirm the trial conformed with FDA guidelines.

U.S. sales of Ketek were an estimated $50 million in the first half of 2006, the company said.

Medicare and Medicaid officials have noted large increases in the top 200 brand-name drugs including Celebrex that triple inflationary rates. In fact, the average price for Celebrex jumped 6% from November 2005 to April 2006, which is closer to five times the rate of inflation. “State, federal and family health care budgets are being stretched to the max,” said AARP chief executive officer Bill Novelli in a June 2006 news release. “It is simply unsustainable for American consumers to continue footing the bill for large increases in drug prices.”

As a result, insurers have also raised their premium rates that they charge their drug plan members. Seniors, as usual, will take the biggest hit because they are the most likely to be prescribed Celebrex and other medications. “At the same time that the Bush Administration and congressional leaders are touting the effectiveness of Medicare drug plans, those plans are quietly raising the prices that they charge,” said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA.

To put it into perspective, the leading 75 generic drugs actually fell in price by an average 0.1% between March 2005 and March 2006.

Celebrex, part of the COX-2 family of pain relievers that include Vioxx and Bextra, is the only major “new generation” of pain relievers still available on the market. The growing amount of research that has linked cardiovascular problems including heart attack and stroke prompted a voluntary withdrawal of Vioxx and Bextra. Although Celebrex has also been shown to cause heart problems, the number of reported cases is lower, which perhaps is the reason why it remained. It received a “black box” warning, the highest warning level that the FDA demands for drugs that have shown the potential to cause death or serious injury with its use.

Still, medical legal analysts predict that the number of Celebrex lawsuits will be about half that of Vioxx, at about 13,000 country-wide as of June 2006. They also believe that the drug manufacturers will fight these lawsuits in court, given that most victims were older and already have health complications, making it harder to prove a direct link legally speaking between the drug and any particular instance of cardiovascular problem.

That said, every drug company has the legal obligation to ensure that their products are safe for use, and that the results of all research be made available for patients and health care professionals so that they can make an informed decision about their use.

A new study has shown that long-term, low-dose exposure to pesticides increases the risk for developing Parkinson’s disease by 70 percent.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health examined lifestyle data provided by 143,000 participants of the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort, which was launched in 1992.

As part of the study, participants were asked to provide information about pesticide exposure, as well as their exposure to a host of other chemicals.

A total of 413 participants ended up developing Parkinson’s disease. Over eight percent of men in this group reported exposure to pesticides compared with a little more than three percent of women.

After adjusting for variables and other risk factors, researchers concluded that that the incidence of Parkinson’s disease was 70 percent higher in those who reported pesticide exposure than those who did not.

“This is the first large human study that shows that exposure to pesticide is associated with a higher incidence of Parkinson’s,” said Dr. Alberto Ascherio, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

Dr. Ascherio added that the increased risk for developing the disease is relative. “Whereas normally the lifetime risk for developing Parkinson’s is three percent, pesticide exposure will bring the risk to five percent,” he said.

The team of researchers, whose study will be published in the July issue of the Annals of Neurology , did not assess the length, frequency, or strength of pesticide exposure. However, they found no differences between occupational and non-occupational exposure in terms of risk.

Another recent study found that pesticide exposure boosted the risk of Parkinson’s disease specifically in men. That study was conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and published in the June issue of Movement Disorders .

The Food and Drug Administration recently issued guidelines to try to end a little-known, but not uncommon, cause of death to people in nursing homes and hospitals: entrapment in the bedrails on hospital beds.Bedrails are simple, metal devices that are supposed to be helpful. Patients use the rails to pull themselves up, and they can prevent patients from rolling out of bed. But sometimes patients — particularly frail, older ones with dementia or Alzheimer’s — can get trapped between a bedrail and the bed mattress, which can lead to serious injury or even death.

About 350 bedrail-related deaths have been reported to the FDA since 1995. Thirty-five deaths were reported in the last year and a half. But federal officials say they believe these are just a fraction of the actual number of injuries and deaths. Larry Kessler, director of the FDA’s Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, says many nursing homes and hospitals don’t know that they’re expected to report such injuries. Others may not be reporting the incidents because they’re afraid of legal liability or don’t want the bad publicity that results when these deaths occur.

“People shouldn’t die this way,” says Kessler, who has reviewed the reports of these deaths. “They’re very serious and we believe they’re largely preventable.”

The FDA guidelines, issued in March, tell hospitals and nursing homes how to make complex calculations to check that beds are properly assembled.

The Problems

“Sometimes the problem is caused by people who put together hospital beds from disparate parts,” says Kessler, who led the group of federal officials, industry representatives, consumer-group officials and others who came up with the new instructions.

If bed parts — such as the mattress, rails and frame — come from different companies, it can lead to dangerous gaps in the assembly, Kessler says.

“A frail person may slip his or her head or arm into one of the gaps and may not be able to extricate it,” he says, “and that’s where injury or death occurs.”

Kessler says that when the beds are put together correctly, there’s almost never a problem.

“We don’t believe hospital beds are killer beds,” he says. “We don’t believe that it’s an unsafe environment, on average. It’s just that because a million or more people are in a hospital bed every day in this country, it only takes a few of them that are frail and disoriented and a bed that’s slightly dangerous to cause a problem. It’s a rare event but it’s worth worrying about.”

Guidelines ‘Too Little, Too Late’?

But Steven Miles says the new FDA guidelines don’t go far enough. Miles, a professor at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, was one of the first to notice that people were dying after getting caught in bedrails.

He says the FDA did too little, too late to respond.

“I think right now, it’s patient and family beware,” Miles says. Even with the new guidelines, he says patients can’t rely on hospitals and nursing homes to catch dangerous beds.

What Patients and Families Can Do

If you have a loved one in a hospital or a nursing-home bed that has a bedrail, check for a gap between the mattress, the bed frame and the bedrail, Miles says.

“Personally look at the bed and see if by pushing the mattress to the far side of the bed they can make a gap that is big enough to put four fingers between that and the rail,” he advises. “If they can, that gap is too big.”

Many hospitals and nursing homes have stopped using bedrails. Originally, they were used to restrain patients, to stop them from getting out of bed. But Miles says many hospitals found they don’t do a good job of safely restraining patients. Administrators also found that confused patients sometimes try to climb over the rails, which is even more dangerous.

As nursing homes and hospitals cut back on bedrails, more of those devices are ending up in people’s homes. Miles says that the older beds — the ones most likely to be unsafe — are winding up in the home-care and hospice market.

“Rent a bed for your disabled loved one who is coming home, and typically what happens is they’ll pull some rails off a rack; they’ll pull a mattress off the rack; and they’ll throw it on a bed, and they’ll assemble it,” Miles says. “And they don’t do the testing for the size of these gaps. Then they ship it off to the end user without any labeling as regard to these hazards.”

And again, that means it’s up to family members to check that the mattress is tight against a bed frame and the bedrail.

An Accidental Death

The new FDA rules came out too late for Bud Flynn. His mother, Frances Flynn, died in a bedrail accident in May 2004.

Flynn received a phone call from his mother’s nursing home in Sacramento, Calif., telling him that she had died during the night.

“That’s the way that it was explained to me: That my mom had passed away during the night,” Flynn recalls. “So I thought that she had passed normally.”

A second call came a few days later.

“The funeral director had called my wife and said that the coroner’s office needed to transfer my mom to do an autopsy because her death wasn’t a normal death — meaning an accident had occurred,” Flynn says.

That’s when Flynn found out his mother’s death had been anything but peaceful. According to the coroner in Sacramento County, the official cause was death by sudden cardiac arrest. When Frances Flynn got her body stuck between her bedrail and the bed mattress, she panicked and died.

Flynn has filed a lawsuit against his mother’s nursing home, saying the death should have been prevented.

“And the image of my mom trapped in this bed mattress is just an awful thing to think about,” he says. “And it’s not a nice way to leave the world.”

(AP) - HONOLULU-Families of six of the seven people killed when a century-old earthen dam burst on the island of Kauai in March have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the property’s owners.

The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the area surrounding the reservoir was illegally graded by landowner James H. Pflueger, causing the March 14 dam failure that unleashed more than 300 million gallons of water. The water cut a three-mile path of destruction to the sea.

Attorneys representing the victims’ families said Pflueger repeatedly refused the state’s request to inspect the property, a claim that Pflueger’s attorney denied.

The lawsuit alleges Pflueger, a retired auto dealer, knew about seepage from the dam, but did nothing about the problem.

Pflueger’s attorney, Bill McCorriston, said the state was aware of safety risks at the Kaloko dam as early as 1982, but did not share the information with the public or Pflueger. He said Pflueger, who bought the property in 1987, has allowed inspectors onto it on many occasions, adding the lawsuit contains many factual errors.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified special and punitive damages. It also names Pflueger Properties, Pflueger Management LLC, Pflueger Partners, Mary N. Lucas Trust and its trustee Carroll S. Taylor as defendants.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Richard Fried Jr. said he is also preparing a separate lawsuit on behalf of 32 property owners whose properties were damaged. One of those, entertainer Bette Midler, is one the largest landowners in the area with 38 acres.

The water from the dam break swept away at least seven people - including a 2-year-old boy - while they slept. Only three bodies were recovered.

The state attorney general’s office is investigating the dam break.

(AP) - LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida-A 12-year-old boy died after riding a roller coaster Thursday at the Disney MGM theme park, the latest in a string of tragedies that have stung Walt Disney World in recent years.

Michael Russell of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, had ridden the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster with his parents and 7-year-old brother. When the minute-long ride was finished, Byron Russell noticed his son was limp, pulled him off the ride and performed CPR until paramedics arrived, Orange County sheriff’s spokeswoman Barbara Miller said.

The boy was pronounced dead after he was taken by ambulance to a hospital, Disney said in a statement. The cause of death was not immediately determined.

“According to the family, he was a very healthy child,” Miller said.

State officials say he is the ninth person to die at Disney World since 2003. At least 15 people have died at Disney’s theme parks in Florida and California since 1989. At least some of the victims had pre-existing health conditions.

The park closed the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster but said a preliminary investigation showed the ride was operating normally.

The sheriff’s office was investigating at the scene. State park safety officials were also notified.

A Disney spokesman said the company was assisting the family.

“Our deepest concerns are with the family,” Disney spokesman Jacob DiPietre said.

Theme park consultants said the ride is relatively tame.

“As roller coasters go that is not considered an ultra, ultra high-thrill coaster,” said David Speigel, president of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services Inc. “It does have some high launch speeds, but it’s more along the traditional lines of what roller coasters are today.”

Disney MGM is among the Walt Disney Co.’s four parks in Florida.

Most of Disney’s recent troubles have been over another ride - Epcot’s “Mission: Space,” a rocketship attraction that simulates a flight to Mars. Two people have died in the last 12 months after going on the ride, which spins in a centrifuge that subjects riders to twice the normal force of gravity. Now Disney offers people an option to ride a tamer version of the ride that does not spin.

AP) - WASHINGTON-Health officials have delayed approving a new birth-control pill that can stop many women from menstruating when taken without interruption throughout the year, its manufacturer said Wednesday.Wyeth had hoped the Food and Drug Administration would approve Lybrel on Tuesday, following a previous extension of the review period for the pill.

Instead, the FDA delayed action, saying it wanted more data on how the company’s proposed manufacturing method for the pill affects its shelf life, Wyeth said. The agency also seeks more information on the pregnancy rates, bleeding patterns and dropout rates of participants in studies of the pill, according to the company.

The FDA plans a public meeting this year to discuss the pill, Wyeth said. That is an apparent reference to a meeting of one of the outside panels of experts the regulatory agency relies on for advice.

If ultimately approved, Lybrel would become the first birth-control pill meant to be taken by women 365 days a year, without breaks or sugar pills. In clinical trials, 70.8 percent of women were period-free by their seventh month on the pill, though some still experienced breakthrough bleeding or spotting, according to Wyeth. The trials suggested the pill was 98 percent effective in preventing pregnancies.

(AP) - CLEBURNE, Texas-A rail yard worker who lost his legs when a train ran him over used a cell phone to report that he was trapped and had been “cut in two.”

Truman Duncan, 36, remained in critical condition Wednesday at a Fort Worth hospital after the Sunday accident at the Gunderson Southwest rail yard in Cleburne.

In a tape of the 911 call, Duncan tells the operator, “I need 911… I think I’m cut in two.”

“Someone got run over?” the operator asks.

“It was me,” Duncan responds. “I guess I’m going into shock. Hurry up, ma’am, because I’m about to pass out.”

Duncan and a co-worker were attempting to connect railcars when the accident occurred, according to a police report. Duncan may have been attempting to cross the tracks and was hit by the train, or he could have fallen from a car and been pulled under, police said.

Duncan’s call was followed by reports from other workers, police said.

It took rescue workers about an hour to find Duncan and free him from the tracks. One leg was caught between a steel wheel and brake and the other leg was caught on wheel and axle parts.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident in Cleburne, located about 50 miles southwest of Dallas.

Gunderson Southwest, based in Lake Oswego, Ore., repairs and refurbishes rail cars.

“We have assured ourselves that he is getting the best of medical care and that he is attended by his loved ones,” Gretchen Brask, an attorney for Greenbriar Leasing Corp., said in a written statement.