March 10, 2010

By Russell Carter, Womack Publishing Service

A Gretna woman filed a $15 million lawsuit Thursday in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court on behalf of her 12-year-son who drowned in 2008 at Smith Mountain Lake State Park.

Dora Mae Henley is suing Sycamore Baptist Church and the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with lifeguards, chaperones and a park ranger.

Henley’s son, Marvin Strickland Jr., was at Smith Mountain Lake State Park with a youth group from Sycamore Baptist Church when he drowned Aug. 7, 2008.

Strickland was found in 6-7 feet of water around 20 feet from the shore.

The Virginia Conservation and Recreation Department, which investigated the drowning, estimated Strickland had been missing about 15 minutes before lifeguards began searching for the youth.

After Strickland was reported missing, lifeguards removed everyone from the water and began diving in the area the boy was last seen.

He was found 20-30 minutes later.

In addition to Sycamore Baptist Church, the lawsuit names Kathy Mohilan, director of youth programs for the church, as well as adult chaperones Lonnie Rowland, Cindy Rowland and Annie Rowland Jones.

Others named in the lawsuit include Anna Woodford, the head lifeguard at the park; lifeguards Joey Nance and Austin Wood; and park ranger Meredith Bennett.

According to the lawsuit, Strickland was among six children from Sycamore Baptist Church who went swimming at the state park.

“When taking the youth group, including Master Strickland, on the trip to the state park, the adult chaperones, and each of them individually, expressly or impliedly assumed duties to supervise and care for Master Strickland for the duration of the trip,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims the chaperones were responsible for Strickland’s care on the trip, lifeguards were responsible for watching the boy while he was in the park and the park ranger was responsible for making sure lifeguards were properly trained.

Henley, who is represented by the Roanoke law firm of Crandall & Katt, is seeking $15 million for sorrow and grief, loss of her son’s income and his funeral expenses.

The plaintiff also asked for $350,000 in punitive damages.

March 10, 2010

By: Jackie Soto, WGN News

CHICAGO – A new warning for parents: Your baby can suffocate if you carry them in popular infant slings, that strap around your chest.

The head of the Consumer Product Safety commission says there have been too many deaths linked to the slings especially with small babies.

The sling wraps around the parents neck cradling the baby in a C-like position.

Consumer reports say the C-like position can cause the baby, who has no head or neck control, to flop its head forward, chin-to-chest and suffocate into a parent’s chest or belly.

By Dionne Searcey, Wall Street Journal

Relatives of a California Highway Patrol officer killed along with his family when a Lexus accelerated out of control have sued parent Toyota Motor Corp. in one of the tougher cases the Japanese car company may face.

In the wake of congressional hearings and recall notices, Toyota has taken a public-relations beating and could be vulnerable on many legal fronts. But many of the other high-profile lawsuits involving unintended acceleration filed against Toyota have circumstances that could give the company another factor to blame.

In one case, a driver was epileptic and medical examiners couldn’t determine whether he had suffered a seizure. Another driver had suffered a stroke. Yet another driver was elderly and was parking his 2005 Camry near a precarious bluff.

The California case could prove more challenging for the car company. The San Diego accident has already drawn the concern of U.S. highway-safety regulators as well as prominent media coverage. The suit also comes in the wake of bruising congressional hearings where lawmakers questioned Toyota executives about the car maker’s response to reports of sudden unintended acceleration. Toyota has recalled 8.5 million vehicles world-wide.

Federal safety regulators have received reports of 52 fatalities blamed on sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Suits seeking class-action status have been filed, and each wrongful-death suit could seek millions of dollars in damages.

The California lawsuit was filed Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court on behalf of relatives of Mark Saylor, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer who was driving a 2009 Lexus in August when it accelerated to 120 miles an hour on a freeway.

Witnesses said the Lexus slammed into a Ford Explorer, plowed over a curb and went through a fence before it flipped and burst into flames, killing Mr. Saylor and three family members. The suit blames Toyota and a Lexus dealership for product liability and negligence.

Legal experts say the Saylor suit could be tough for Toyota to defend against. The Lexus was a loaner vehicle from a dealership, and the prior driver had told the dealer the accelerator had become stuck, a lawyer for the family said. The Lexus was outfitted with thick floor mats designed for another type of vehicle.

One of Toyota’s recalls blames sudden-acceleration issues on floor mats that can entrap accelerator pedals. A harrowing tape of a 911 call from Mr. Saylor’s vehicle in which cries of “hold on” and “pray” are heard has circulated on the Internet, intensifying the negative publicity for Toyota.

Tim Pestotnik, a lawyer for the victims’ relatives who filed the suit, declined to comment on whether settlement talks with Toyota had occurred.

A Toyota spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on litigation. Toyota executives have expressed their sympathy for the Saylor relatives.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday it had received 10 reports about sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles whose owners said had their gas pedals fixed and floor mats removed under the recalls. The agency said it has not verified the claims.

Incidents of unintended acceleration in vehicles that have received the mechanical fixes, if verified, could call into question Toyota’s assurances that vehicle electronics are not to blame.

Other suits against Toyota involving fatalities or serious injuries attributed to unintended acceleration may be more difficult for plaintiffs to win as they have details that could point to other causes. These may fit the classic criteria for “human error,” a theory favored by car makers and safety regulators that suggests the bulk of sudden-acceleration accidents are caused by the driver mistakenly hitting the gas instead of the brake.

Safety advocates say drivers aren’t to blame but instead point the finger at the electronic throttle systems, which regulates a vehicle’s speed by a computerized system instead of a cable connected from the gas pedal to the engine.

Plaintiffs lawyers are playing a major role in how Toyota’s troubles are playing out in public. For its hearing last week, a congressional committee heavily relied on testimony cobbled together by auto-safety advocate Sean Kane, whose for-profit research firm has produced voluminous reports on sudden acceleration incidents and is backed financially by several plaintiffs’ attorneys suing Toyota.

Mr. Kane arranged the testimony of Rhonda and Eddie Smith, who said their Lexus zoomed out of control to about 100 mph on a Tennessee highway. He also helped set up the testimony of a university expert who found that an undetected electronic failure could cause sudden acceleration incidents.

Asked about his role, Mr. Kane said: “We went to Congress without anybody paying for that. That was on our own dime. Our work is well foot-noted and well documented.”

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have closely tracked the congressional hearings. They hope to use testimony from Toyota executives to bolster the numerous suits seeking class-action status that attempt to hold Toyota responsible for lost value of consumers’ vehicles due to the recalls.

Accusations during testimony on Capitol Hill that Toyota failed to act when it knew there were problems may prompt lawyers to accuse the company of violating federal racketeering laws, said Northeastern University law professor Tim Howard, who is coordinating several dozen lawsuits filed in 35 states.

Mr. Howard and several lawyers who represent plaintiffs in suits against Toyota say it is too soon to tell what Toyota’s legal strategy will be; Toyota declines to comment. The company so far hasn’t made overtures to settle recent cases involving sudden acceleration, lawyers said.

Posted March 2, 2010

By wsfb.com

STAMFORD, Conn. — A man was killed in a Tuesday morning collision with a tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Stamford.

Police said a Toyota Sienna driven by Xiaoyuan Huang, 28, was either stopped or traveling slowly in the right, northbound lane of Interstate 95 before 5 a.m. Police said Clarence Edwards came up behind Huang’s vehicle in a tractor-trailer. They said Edwards attempted to swerve around the Toyota, but struck the rear of the car.

The Toyota went into the roadway’s right shoulder, striking a metal guardrail. The tractor-trailer traveled into the median and struck the barrier, police said.

Huang was extricated from his vehicle and taken to Stamford Hospital, where he later died. Edwards was uninjured in the crash.

The crash, which closed northbound lanes of the roadway for hours, remains under investigation.

Tom Bowen said he commutes to Stamford from Long Island, usually on Interstate 95, but said he took back roads on Tuesday.

“I used to work in the local area and I know the local roads,” he said.

By suntimes.com

BLUE ISLAND — A man died in an accident while at work Monday in south suburban Blue Island.

Brian Fuller Sr., 48, of La Grange, was pronounced dead at 1:03 a.m. at MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Fuller died at 2258 Vermont St. in Blue Island.

George J. Roll & Sons, a building material supplier company, is located at that address, according to an online directory. No one was immediately available from the company.

Fuller Sr. was killed when he was pinned in by a truck, an official said.

Fuller’s son, Brian Fuller Jr., 23, said his father had worked with the company for more than 15 years and was in charge of loading trucks in the dry wall and lumber yards.

“He worked a strenuous job that was incredibly hard and no one else would do,” Fuller said. “He put my sister and I through college.”

Fuller Jr. described his father as a family man who was “there for us.” In his free time, he was an avid muskie fisherman, he said.

The muskie or muskellunge fish is a trophy fish that is highly prized by fishermen, according to an online site.

Fuller Sr. left behind his son, daughter Alyssa, and wife Kathleen, to whom he was married for 25 years, Fuller Jr. said.

Neither the Blue Island police or fire department would comment.

No one was immediately available from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Posted Friday, February 19. 2010

www.Fayobserver.com

CLINTON – One person is dead and two more were in critical condition after the trusses of a church roof under construction collapsed Thursday afternoon.

Sampson County Interim County Manager Susan Holder said the accident happened around 4:25 p.m. at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church on the 3700 block of Faison Highway northeast of Clinton.

Holder said the two surviving construction workers were taken by helicopter to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where they were in critical condition Thursday evening. All three victims worked for Clifton Halso Construction of Chinquapin.

The names of the workers were being withheld, Holder said, until the family of the deceased is notified and until the N.C. Department of Labor determines the cause of the accident.

The workers were working on the roof of what was planned to be a new sanctuary for the church, Holder said.

By Jay Sorgi, www.620WTMJ.com

February 16, 2010

February 7, 2010

Middletown, Connecticut (CNN) — Five people were killed and at least 12 were injured in a gas explosion Sunday at an under-construction power plant in central Connecticut, local officials said.

Residents up to 20 miles away reported hearing the blast at about 11:19 a.m. at the Kleen Power Plant in Middletown, a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut.

“There is no present or continuing threat to anybody from either substances getting into the atmosphere or of a possible subsequent explosion,” Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said, adding terrorism has been ruled out.

He said plant workers were purging a natural gas pipeline when the explosion occurred.

“Urban search-and-rescue teams are on the premises … with dogs, attempting to locate and account for further victims,” Giuliano said.

It’s unknown how many people were working in the plant, which was about 95 percent complete, at the time of the explosion. Multiple contractors were involved in the project, Giuliano said, complicating efforts to account for those who may have been on the site.

“[Each contractor] has their own foreperson, their own employee list, so we’re trying to sort that out,” Giuliano said.

Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said later Sunday that no one has come forward with any names of missing people and dogs have not detected signs of life beneath the rubble left by the explosion.

The plant was expected to go online this summer, Giuliano said.

Santostefano initially said about 50 people, most of them construction workers, were working at the time, but Giuliano said “we don’t know that as a hard number right now.”

“What I’ve been told by the owners of the project is that there could be anywhere from 100 to 200 people working on the site on any given day,” Giuliano said.

But Santostefano later said the numbers Giuliano cited were weekday figures, and he repeated his estimate of 50 to 60 people at the site Sunday when the explosion occurred. He said he thought most of those escaped the blast.

A no-fly zone was established over the site because of the unstable structure, Gov. Jodi Rell announced Sunday night.

Middlesex Hospital in Middletown said it received 11 patients from the explosion. One patient with serious injuries was flown to a hospital in Hartford, and another was transferred to Yale New Haven Hospital, according to a statement on Middlesex’s Web site. Two others had minor injuries and were treated and released. The remaining seven patients sustained injuries “mainly to the extremities, including broken bones, blunt trauma and abdominal pains,” the statement said.

Emergency room physician Dr. Jonathan Bankoff told reporters that some patients reported being thrown 30 or 40 feet by the blast.

Two people were airlifted directly to the Hartford hospital from the scene, Middlesex spokesman R. Brian Albert said. A center was being set up at Middletown’s City Hall for relatives of plant workers, he said.

As of late Sunday afternoon, the hospital said it was not expecting more patients from the plant.

After the explosion, it took a while for emergency crews to get into the plant, Santostefano said, because the plant was on fire and the natural gas had to be turned off at the source. No major incidents at the site had been reported since construction began there a couple of years ago, he said.

People miles away reported hearing or feeling the blast.

“It felt like the house was shaking,” Peter Moore, who lives about 10 miles away in Durham, told CNN. He said he thought at first there had been a traffic accident on his street or there was a problem with his house.

Moore said his mother, who lives in Woodbridge, about 20 miles away from the plant, also said she heard the explosion, and said it “sounded like someone pounded on the back door a couple of times.”

“It was almost like an earthquake,” nearby resident Lynn Townsend told CNN affiliate WTNH. She said she heard the explosion and went outside to see “a very big, bright orange flame” between the plant’s two smokestacks, and immediately dialed 911.

“It really shook the house,” she said. “Everybody was scared. The kids started to cry.

Connecticut State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance told WTNH his agency has received “an immense amount of inquiries” from residents who heard or felt the explosion.

If you or anyone you know was injured or killed in the power plant gas explosion, please feel free to contact the Hayes Firm online or call 1-800-603-6833.  We will work to find the best attorney in your area to advise you and fight for your rights. 

Saturday, December 12, 2009

By Katherine Sayre, www.al.com

 A Mobile County jury awarded $20 million this week to the family of a woman who plaintiffs’ lawyers said died after receiving improper anesthesia care.

The jury returned the wrongful death verdict against medical group Coastal Anesthesia, Dr. Randall Boudreaux and Don Ortego, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, court records show.

Paulett Pettaway Hall, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, died Jan. 16, 2006, after receiving anesthesia prior to exploratory surgery, according to Cunningham Bounds, the law firm that represented Hall’s estate.

Hall, who had been suffering from severe abdominal pain, breathed bile from her stomach into her lungs, the lawyers stated in a news release. She died at Springhill Medical Center.

Coastal Anesthesia, Boudreaux and Ortego denied the claims in the lawsuit, according to court records.

Defense lawyer Wesley Pipes, speaking on behalf of his clients, said, “We were disappointed in the jury’s verdict, and we’re disappointed that they did not seem to understand the evidence we tried to present.”

Pipes declined further comment.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that Boudreaux and Ortego did not examine Hall’s abdomen or look at her medical records prior to the exploratory surgery, which would have identified her risk factors for breathing fluid into her lungs, according to the Cunningham Bounds news release.

Posted December 28, 2009

By: Chris Wagner, KHASTV.com

A Nebraska teenager is dead after being hit by a snow removing machine in a school parking lot early this morning.

According to police, 19–year–old Christopher Johnson was struck by the pay–loader after he went to talk to the vehicle’s driver and slipped on the ice. Johnson then fell under the snow remover.

He was pronounced dead at Columbus Community Hospital.

Johnson was working with the company clearing the snow for the school at the time.