South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Manhattan, New York City - a Cirrus Design SR20, N929CD, operated as a personal flight, crashed into an apartment building in Manhattan, New York City, while attempting to maneuver above the East River. The two pilots on board the airplane, a certificated private pilot who was the owner of the airplane and a passenger who was a certificated commercial pilot with a flight instructor certificate, were killed. One person on the ground sustained serious injuries, two people on the ground sustained minor injuries, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and postcrash fire.

According to the pilot/owner’s logbook at the time of the accident, he had accumulated 87.8 hours total flight time, all of which were accumulated in the last 12 months, including 12.5 hours in Cirrus aircraft, 3.9 hours of which were as pilot-in-command (PIC).  In the last 90 days, 30 days, and 24 hours before the accident flight, he flew 13.7, 0, and 0 hours, respectively.

The pilot/owner’s logbook indicated that he received three instructional flights in a Cirrus SR22 8. His first flight in the accident airplane was on July 20, 2006, and there was a flight instructor with him on that flight. The pilot/owner had flown with six different flight instructors since receiving his private pilot’s certificate and had received a total of 11.5 hours of flight instruction in Cirrus aircraft. Most of his flight time was conducted in California, and there was no record that he had previously flown in the New York East River class B exclusion airspace.

The airplane impacted the 32nd and the 33rd floors of the north face of an apartment building located at 524 East 72nd Street.  The engine, propeller, the right portion of the engine mount, and the nose landing gear strut were found in an apartment on the 32nd floor.  The engine was found inverted with the propeller separated.  The engine and propeller exhibited thermal damage and were coated with ash, debris, and fire-extinguishing agent.

The majority of the wreckage was on the street level at East 72nd Street, directly below the impact point.  The wreckage was destroyed by impact forces and postcrash fire. Some wreckage debris was found on adjacent rooftops, balconies, and building projections. The examination of the wreckage indicated that there was no sign of an in-flight fire or any preexisting damage to the airplane.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilots’ inadequate planning, judgment, and airmanship in the performance of a 180º turn maneuver inside of a limited turning space.

Thirty-six-year-old Andrew McCarrell of Moody, Alabama was awarded $119,000 for his past medical expenses and $2.5 million in compensatory damages to cover his future medical costs and for pain and suffering in a jury verdict awarded yesterday. His lawsuit alleged that the Accutane treatment he received for acne caused him to develop inflammatory bowel disorder, a serious and debilitating disease marked by chronic inflammation of the intestinal tract, severe diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps.

Hundreds of Accutane Lawsuits

The maker of Accutane is the pharmaceutical giant Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., based in Nutley, New Jersey. The trial was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the first trial handled by five law firms jointly representing nearly 600 people whose inflammatory bowel disorder is alleged to have been caused by Accutane. The acne treatment has been on the market for about 25 years, and more than 13 million prescriptions for Accutane have been written during that period. Many lawsuits regarding several of Accutane’s severe side effects have been filed in the U.S.

Severe Risks of Accutane

Accutane’s other potential side effects include suicidal behavior and birth defects. The package instructions for Accutane include a warning about its link to psychiatric disorders and birth defects, including the bold-faced wording “Causes birth defects.” The warning also includes wording to the effect that Accutane use has been associated with inflammatory bowel disease, but the 10-person Atlantic City jury found that this warning was not adequate

Health officials in North America and Europe sought passenger lists Wednesday for two trans-Atlantic airline flights in their effort to find about 80 people who sat near a honeymooner infected with a dangerous drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.Authorities also disclosed that the man was on several flights between various European locales over the course of two weeks earlier this month. Passengers lists for those flights were also being tracked down, they said.

“The investigation is just beginning. It’s very challenging,” said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of global migration and quarantine.

The man, who is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963, told a newspaper he flew from Atlanta to Greece for a wedding and then traveled to Italy for a honeymoon. Later he flew back to North America because he feared he might die without treatment in the United States.

CDC officials are concentrating on the trans-Atlantic flights, when the likelihood of spreading the disease was greatest because he was in a confined space with other people for hours. Officials were trying to contact 27 crew members and about 80 passengers who sat in the five rows surrounding the man for testing.

Other passengers on the flights are not considered at high risk of infection because tests indicated the amount of TB bacteria in the man was low, Cetron said.

“Our big concern is that no one has told us which row he might have sat on,” passenger Shannon Boccard, whose 10-year-old son was on the same flight, told WSB-TV in Atlanta.

Health officials in France have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry also is tracing the man’s movements. A spokeswoman for Czech airline CSA said medical checks showed no infections among its crew members who flew with the man, but the airline was contacting passengers.

The man had a supply of masks to wear for the protection of other passengers, but it is not clear whether he donned them, Cetron said. The man continues to feel well and shows no symptoms, Cetron said.

The man told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that doctors did not order him not to fly and only suggested he put off his long-planned wedding. He knew he had a form of tuberculosis and that it was resistant to commonly used drugs, but he did not realize until he was already in Europe that it could be so dangerous, he said. The man’s wife has tested negative.

“We headed off to Greece thinking everything’s fine,” he told the newspaper. The newspaper did not identify him at his request, because of the stigma attached to his diagnosis.

He flew to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385, also listed as Delta Air Lines codeshare Flight 8517.

He and his bride took then took four more flights within Europe, flying from Paris to Athens on May 14; from Athens to Thira Island on May 16; from Mykonos Island to Athens on May 21; and from Athens to Rome on May 21.

The passengers on the shorter European hops are not considered to be at the same level of risk for infection as the passengers on the trans-Atlantic flights, which each lasted eight hours or more, CDC officials said.

While he was in Rome, health authorities reached him with the news that further tests had revealed his TB was a rare, “extensively drug-resistant” form, far more dangerous than he knew. They told him to turn himself over to Italian health officials and not to fly on any commercial airlines.

Instead, on May 24, the man flew from Rome to Prague on Czech Air Flight 0727. From Prague, the couple left for Montreal the same day, aboard Czech Air Flight 0104, according to CDC officials.

The man then drove into the United States at Champlain, N.Y. He told the newspaper he was afraid that if he did not get back to the U.S., he wouldn’t get the treatment he needed to survive.

The man is now at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital under the first federal quarantine order since the government quarantined a patient with smallpox in 1963. A sheriff’s deputy was assigned to guard him. He is not facing prosecution, health officials said.

A spokesman for Denver’s National Jewish Hospital, which specializes in respiratory disorders, said Wednesday that the man would be treated there. It was not clear when he would arrive.

A New Jersey jury recently found mechanic Joseph Martelle 50 percent liable for injuries he incurred in 2000 when he was installing air conditioning at a New York high school and had two fingers partially severed as he was sawing Plexiglas.

Two days after the jury’s verdict, Martelle and his lawyer settled the lawsuit they had filed against the City of New York as the high school’s owner and the former Board of Education as the City’s agent, which the jury found 50 percent liable. The bifurcated trial had an upcoming damages phase that was rendered unnecessary by the settlement agreement, which included $900,000 as compensation to Martelle.

No Anti-Kickback Device on the Saw

Martelle was employed by Aiello & Sons Air Conditioning Company at the time of the February 2000 accident. He was building an air conditioner frame that was to include Plexiglas elements. He used a table circular saw that did not have an anti-kickback safety device, and the Plexiglas kicked back as he was sawing it, cutting four fingers on his left hand and nearly completely severing two of the fingers.

Conflicting testimony regarding the ownership of the circular saw was presented at the May 14 trial. Martelle contended that the saw was his employer’s, and his employer alleged that the saw was Martelle’s.

Martelle has not returned to work since the 2000 accident, although his fingers were successfully reattached.

On Jan. 26, 1999, plaintiff’s decedent Christian Boullianne was born with a brain injury. His mother, Brenda Boullianne was admitted to Carlisle Hospital that day and at 4 p.m., the his fetal heart indicated that he may be developing hypoxia. By 4:20 p.m. the fetal heart tones became bradycardic. At 4:33 p.m., Boullianne, who was assisted by nurse midwife Pamela Kozick, was completely dilated and was instructed to push.Boullianne alleged that Kozick continued to disregard the evidence of fetal distress and never called for the assistance of an obstetrician and made no effort to expedite delivery. Kozick continued to manage Boullianne’s labor by herself, and eventually spontaneous vaginal delivery occurred at 5:24 p.m. Christian’s brain injury was then diagnosed with a brain injury, which resulted in his death in 2001.Christian’s father sued Kozick, Women’s Health Associates of Carlisle and Carlisle Regional Medical Center for medical malpractice, seeking wrongful death damages. Carlisle Regional Medical Center was dismissed on defense motion.

Plaintiffs’ counsel argued that Kozick failed to recognize and respond to clear signs of fetal distress. Stuart Edelberg, plaintiffs’ obstetrics expert, testified that Kozick violated the standard of care by failing to call in the supervising obstetrician in the face of the non-reassuring tracings, and that the fetal monitor findings were classic evidence of a hypoxic fetus that needed to be delivered by the most expeditious route possible. Dennis Dlugos, plaintiffs’ neurology expert, testified that the cause of neurological disabilities was from the brain injury, which occurred immediately prior to delivery, and was reiterated by Geoffrey Altshuler, plaintiffs’ placental pathologist.

The defense denied the allegations. Defense counsel contended that Kozick properly complied with the standard of care. Paul Douglas, defense obstetrics expert, testified that the fetal monitor strips were not troubling and Kozick was not required to contact an OB-GYN. Felicia Rohraugh, defense nurse practitioner expert, testified that Kozick properly acted within the standard of care. Bradley Quade, defense pathology expert, testified that it was not possible to tell whether the baby’s brain injury occurred prior to delivery.

Christian was profoundly depressed at birth, as spontaneous respirations could not be obtained until approximately 50 minutes of life, and he suffered seizures after delivery, had abnormal muscle tone, and sustained hypoxic/ischemic injury to several organs including his brain and kidneys. As a result of his brain damage, he suffered daily seizures, diminished or absent reflexes throughout his body, a depressed state of consciousness, mental retardation, and the need to be fed by an epigastric tube. He died on Feb. 9, 2001. Edleberg testified that Christian’s brain damage and cerebral palsy were caused by oxygen deprivation during the last minutes of labor. Plaintiffs’ counsel argued that Christian lived in a state of intermittent irritability due to his neurological injury, and that had he lived, he never would have been able to attend to his own basic personal needs and never would have been able to work. Plaintiffs’ counsel argued that Christian’s life expectancy, had he lived, was 75.2 years, and that his expected earnings range, based on a high school diploma through a bachelors degree, was $1.5 to $3.4 million, which was calculated by David Hopkins, plaintiffs’ economics expert. Gerard Boulianne sought $220,000 in past medical specials and $2,500 in funeral expenses.

The jury found that Kozick was negligent and her negligence was a factual cause of Christian’s injuries and awarded the estate of Christian Boullianne $2,273,471 in damages.

Sunny Delight is the target of a lawsuit by three women in three states who are alleging some of its juice products are prone to carrying benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer, anemia and other ailments.

The suit was filed in the summer of 2006 by two mothers and a student in Florida, New Jersey and Kansas. And while it’s just three individuals, these women have a good track record; they recently got a settlement out of Coca-Cola Co.

The suit claims that Blue Ash-based Sunny Delight’s Baja Orange, Berry and Intense Lemon Lime flavors tested positive for benzene after being exposed to heat and light. Two ingredients in the beverage - ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and sodium benzoate - can apparently combine to form benzene when exposed to these conditions.

Others remaining in the suit after Coca-Cola settled include PepsiCo., Shasta and Rockstar.

“This is about preventing anyone from getting injured,” said Andrew Rainer, a Boston attorney who is representing the women. “The levels of benzene in these products is higher then the level that is (allowed) in drinking water.”

The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate benzene in beverages other than bottled water. But in an e-mail, the regulatory group said a survey showed that most beverages contained either no benzene or levels below the limit for drinking water. As such, it said that such beverages were not a concern.

Sunny Delight CEO Billy Cyr declined to comment on ongoing litigation. “We’re aware of it and we’re looking into it,” he said.

The defendants, including Sunny Delight and Coca-Cola, had filed a motion to dismiss the suit in December. “A plaintiff who purchased and consumed an allegedly defective product without injury, or an allegation of potential future injury, cannot later demand a refund of the product’s purchase price,” the motion concluded.

Still, Coca-Cola in mid-May settled and reformulated its Fanta Pineapple and Vault Zero drinks to exclude the benzene-related ingredients. It also posted a notice on its Web site offering the newer product as reimbursement to those who were affected.

Asked if Sunny Delight may have reformulated its drinks, Rainer said he does not know. “They certainly have not said anything to the world about it.”

Dave Buschow was so dehydrated after 10 hours of hiking without water in the 100-degree heat of the Utah desert, he thought a tree was a fellow hiker.

Hallucinating, incoherent and suffering excruciating cramps, he died within 100 yards of a pool of water. He wasn’t lost; he was on an organized hike. And its leaders had water the whole time.

The 29-year-old former River Vale resident’s death on July 17, 2006, has touched off a wave of criticism and sparked a federal lawsuit against the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS), which organized the hike and the 28-day course of which it was part.

“He died needlessly,” said Buschow’s mother, Patricia Herbert of River Vale. “The instructors had water that they could have given him, and he would be alive today. And they still have not accepted any sort of wrongdoing in the way they handled my son’s situation.”

Dr. Paul Auerbach, founder of the Wilderness Medical Society and a professor of surgery at Stanford University Medical Center in California, also criticized hike leaders’ actions.

“There is risk in the wilderness, for sure, but there was no risk whatsoever to this man’s companions had they chosen to do the proper thing and try to save his life with cooling, rest and water,” Auerbach wrote in a posting on rememberdave.net, a Web site set up in the aftermath of Buschow’s death.

BOSS, which charges more than $3,000 for the course, has denied any responsibility, saying that Buschow, an Air Force veteran, did not read its manuals and may not have communicated important medical information before embarking on the strenuous trip. Officials said Buschow had also signed liability waivers.

“Mr. Buschow expressly assumed the risk of serious injury or death prior to participating,” BOSS asserts in a lawsuit filed in January that asks a judge to validate Buschow’s signed liability waivers.

Bradford Buschow, Dave Buschow’s father, said he can’t understand why BOSS refuses to take responsibility.

“He wasn’t out there alone,” said the retired Westwood police chief, who now lives in Tafton, Pa. “He was with other people that were supposed to take care of him. Regardless of whatever kind of waivers he may have signed, you don’t sign your life away. You certainly have the expectation of coming back from a survival course. Something had to have gone terribly wrong there or somebody had to have made a terrible judgment call.”

Rob Buschow, Dave’s brother, said the family filed the federal lawsuit to make sure that this type of tragedy would never happen again to anyone else.

“They’re blaming Dave for his own death, and they would rather fight to keep their policies the same and not make any changes,” said Rob Buschow, 33. “We’re trying to get some changes made so that Dave didn’t die for nothing. Hopefully, his death will save somebody else’s life.”

Rob Buschow said his brother’s Web site has drawn many well-wishers.

“People from all over the world have been blogging in, offering their condolences and their outrage,” he said. “It’s been amazing how it’s reached so far. It’s nice to know there’s still a lot of good people out there with big hearts.”

The family has dedicated two trees on Westwood Avenue in River Vale, each with a plaque in front of it, as a memorial for Buschow. One plaque is inscribed with one of Buschow’s favorite quotes: “Grow wild according to thy nature,” and the other with a poem he wrote titled “Wind Chimes.”

“Ever since he was a young boy he loved the woods, hiking and camping,” Herbert said. “He loved Mother Nature, so it seemed like the most appropriate thing to do would be to plant two trees in his memory.”

Rob Buschow said that whenever he drives past the memorial he sees people looking at the plaques.

“A lot of people in this town know what happened to Dave,” his brother said. “So for them to just walk by and see Dave’s plaque and see his trees, to me it’s comforting. The fact that we were able to engrave one of the plaques with one of his poems, it just gives you a piece of Dave right there. He may not be with us physically, but we want to keep him a part of this family forever and get his memory out to everybody.”

For Memorial Day, the Forcellati Brothers, a local nursery, was to plant seasonal flowers, including impatiens and assorted annuals, at the memorial.

“When we can, we like to give back a little bit to the people in town, especially a situation like this where someone has lost somebody, especially a child,” Enzo Forcellati said. “I think it’s a little solace for them.”

Family and friends have vowed to spread Buschow’s ashes all over the world.

“We had decided in the beginning that we were going to cremate Dave, and because he loved to travel, we were going to spread his ashes wherever we travel,” Rob Buschow said.

He said the family spread some of Dave’s ashes in Jamaica on a trip there during the holidays, and his mother will take some to Venice in the fall. Some ashes were also sent to the Marshall Islands, midway between Hawaii and Australia, where Dave served as a military police officer.

“The [officers] went out into the lagoon and spread his ashes in places that he had gone hiking and camping,” Herbert said.

Two of Dave’s close friends, Todd and Cari Dages of West Milford, took his ashes to the Continental Divide near Breckenridge, Colo.

“At the top, if you poured a glass of water, whatever goes off the east side will eventually make it to the Atlantic Ocean, and whatever goes to the west will go over to the Pacific Ocean,” said Cari Dages, 31. “So we scattered his ashes directly on top, allowing Dave to go east, west and anywhere that he wanted to be, since he wanted to travel and experience all parts of life.”

Brook Millard, the family’s attorney in its lawsuit, said it could take 18 months before the case would be ready for trial.

“I believe the actions taken by BOSS and its employees were outlandish and that his death was absolutely caused by their neglect and their intentional withholding of water,” Millard said.

Pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. was hit Tuesday with a $2.6-million jury verdict over its acne treatment Accutane, the first such verdict in a case that blamed the drug for inflammatory bowel disorder rather than other, more well-known side effects, lawyers say.

A six-woman, four-man jury in Atlantic City awarded compensatory damages to a Moody, Ala., man, but did not assess punitive damages against the Nutley, N.J.-based drug maker.

Andrew McCarrell, 36, was awarded $119,000 for past medical expenses and $2.5 million in compensatory damages to cover future medical costs, pain and suffering, said one of his lawyers, Brian Barr.

Barr said this was the first trial handled by five law firms jointly representing nearly 600 plaintiffs suing Roche over inflammatory bowel disorder claims; three more trials are scheduled this year in Florida and Illinois.

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Group, Hoffmann-La Roche’s parent, said in a statement it will appeal.

“The cause of inflammatory bowel disease remains unknown and there is no reliable scientific evidence that Accutane causes inflammatory bowel disease,” the statement adds.

Barr said the jury found the company failed to adequately warn the public about Accutane’s risk of causing inflammatory bowel disorder, an umbrella term for several poorly understood diseases involving chronic inflammation of the intestinal tract. They cause symptoms including severe abdominal cramps, fever and diarrhea.

Accutane’s links to suicidal behavior and birth defects are much better known. The detailed instructions in the package include a lengthy, bold-faced warning about psychiatric disorders and begin with the words “Causes birth defects” and “Do not get pregnant.”

A brief, plain-type warning states Accutane has been associated with inflammatory bowel disease.

Roche lawyers argued that the warning was adequate. It has been on the package insert for more than 20 years, and Accutane has been prescribed for more than 13 million people in the quarter-century it has been on sale, Roche said.

The jury apparently did not see the warning as adequate, Barr said, yet did not find that Roche violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, which bars misrepresentations about a product’s safety. Because of that ruling, Roche was spared any punitive damages.

Five Walt Disney World visitors and an employee were injured Tuesday after a water ride that simulates a trip down a rain forest river malfunctioned, authorities said.Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak said the injuries were not life threatening, but she couldn’t be more specific.

Polak said it was not immediately clear what happened on the Kali River Rapids ride, but somehow it malfunctioned about the point that guests transfer from floats to a walkway. The ride simulates a river rapids trip through a rain forest in the Animal Kingdom part of Disney World.

“Nothing like this has ever happened,” she said.

Disney closed the ride to investigate.

A Michigan truck driver pleaded guilty to reckless homicide Tuesday for a highway wreck that killed five Taylor University students and staff last year.One of the young victims had been mistakenly identified as a survivor until her parents discovered the severely injured woman they had been caring for was actually another student.

The truck driver, Robert F. Spencer, 38, was accused of falling asleep on Interstate 69 shortly before his tractor-trailer hit the university van on April 26, 2006.

Authorities said he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules at the time of the crash.

Spencer, from Canton Township, Mich., had been set to stand trial in August but agreed to plead guilty to five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness resulting in serious bodily injury, all felonies, prosecutors said.

He now faces four to 24 years in prison at sentencing Aug. 14.

Defense attorney Max Ludy declined to comment after the hearing.

Prosecutor James Luttrull Jr. said he had spoken with the victims’ families. “They were supportive of the agreement and relieved that there appears there won’t be a trial,” he said.

A spokesman for Taylor University, in Upland, said the school would not comment on the legal issues but supports all the families involved.

“We continue to commit ourselves to prayer for everyone whose lives were impacted by this tragic accident,” said Jim Garringer, university spokesman. Whitney Cerak, the student mistaken for her friend, has since returned to class.