Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

A jury awarded country music star Toby Keith and his family $2.8 million in the wrongful death of his father, H.K. Covel, who was killed in a motor vehicle crash in 2001. Keith, his mother Carolyn Covel, his sister Tonni, and his brother Tracey were the other plaintiffs named in the lawsuit.

Elias Rodriguez and Pedro Rodriguez of Rodriguez Transportes and the Republic Western Insurance Co. were named as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit.

Details of the Fatal Crash:
A charter bus belonging to the Rodriguezes collided with the truck that H.K. Covel was riding in on March 2001. The bus’s brakes were in serious need of repair. The collision occurred when Covel’s truck crossed over the center median and hit the bus.

At first, Keith’s family thought that the accident occurred because Covel was suffering from a medical condition. They later found out that another car had hit his truck, causing him to swerve his truck across the median. Keith’s family says that H.K. would have survived if the collision with the bus if the bus’s brakes had been working properly.

The drivers and operators of trucks are upheld to higher standards of safety than car drivers and motorcyclists. Common causes of bus crashes include driver inexperience, driver negligence, drunk driving, speeding, improper maintenance, a faulty engine, and defective breaks.

When failure to properly maintain any kind of vehicle—especially failure to maintain a common carrier—results in the death of an innocent victim, the family of the decedent is entitled to recover wrongful death compensation.

In Massachusetts, an experienced Massachusetts wrongful death lawyer can help you file your claim or lawsuit. The lawsuit must be filed within the three-year statute of limitations allowed in Massachusetts. The three years deadline expires either three years from the victim’s date of death or three years from the time that the decedent’s estate found out (or should have found out) that there is grounds to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Toby Keith and family win $2.8M over dad’s death, Bostonherald.com, December 26, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Summary of State Wrongful Death and Intestacy Statutes

Toby Keith

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Massachusetts middle school student Kevin Lou, 13, was awarded $2.85 million in Worcester Superior Court for the escalator accident that mangled his right hand nine years ago. Kevin and his family filed the personal injury lawsuit against Otis Elevator Co, the U.S. company whose name was on the escalator that caused his injury. The escalator was manufactured in China.

Kevin doesn’t remember the accident that occurred while he was in China visiting his grandmother. Since then, however, he has had to endure five surgeries to save his hand. He will need more surgeries to hopefully regain full use of his hands.

In 1998, Kevin and his grandmother were at a department store in China. While riding the elevator down to the second floor, he fell. His hand slipped into the opening between the stationary side panels and the moving escalator. The next escalator step that hit his stuck hand caused the injury.

The Worcester jury awarded Kevin $2.85 million. His parents were awarded $250,000 each. Following the verdict, Kevin’s father, Jidong, says he will start looking for a microsurgeon who specializes in hands.

Prior to the injury accident, Kevin was right-handed. Now, he can only use his right hand with the help of his left. He is unable to bend his fingers or pick up objects.

Manufacturers are supposed to make sure that the products that they produce are safe for use. If a person is injured because a product manufactured by a company is dangerous or defective, the injured party may have grounds to file a products liability claim or lawsuit.

There are three kinds of products liability cases:

Strict Liability: Lets a plaintiff recover compensation for an injury caused by a defective product just by proving that the manufacturer made or sold the product that injured him or her.

Negligence: Plaintiff must prove that the manufacturer owed a duty of care to the plaintiff, the manufacturer breached that duty, and that this negligence injured the plaintiff.

Breach of Warranty: The defendant failed to properly warn the plaintiff of the potential dangers of using the product.

Worcester teen awarded $2.85m after escalator accident, Boston Herald.com, December 22, 2007

Jury awards $2.85M to child, Telegram.com, December 22, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Products Liability Overview, Justia

OTIS

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A coalition of truck safety advocates are asking a federal court to overturn a ruling that allows truck drivers to drive one more hour before taking a break. A new rule, introduced by the Bush Administration in 2003 had increase the number of hours that a commercial trucker can drive during a 14-hour period—from 10 hours to 11 hours—before taking a break.

Parents Against Tired Truckers says that a person’s response reflexes are up to 50% slower after 17 hours without sleep. Driver fatigue is a major cause of truck accidents.

Opponents have already persuaded a federal court on two occasions to reject putting the extended hours into place. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) currently has an “interim final rule” in place that allows commercial truckers to drive no more than 11 hours a day and no more than 70 hours a week. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters claims that they have information that proves the rule is safe. The coalition wants the court to enforce its order that strikes down the “hours of service” rule.

Opponents say the rule lets truck drivers operate their trucks on the road 30% more than they were previously allowed to. They claim that this increases the chances of pedestrians, other motorists, motorcyclists, and passengers, getting seriously injured or killed in a truck accident.

If you or someone you love was seriously injured in a Boston-area truck crash or a truck collision that occurred anywhere else in Massachusetts, you should contact an experienced Massachusetts truck accident attorney immediately.

Truck accidents are more complicated to prove than car accidents or motorcycle collisions. Commercial trucking companies and their insurers can be tough to deal with, there are FMCSA rules involved, and specific evidence—including record logs and other evidence that the truck companies may have access to—must be gathered and preserved immediately.

Here are the large truck accident injury and death statistics for 2006:

• 85,984 injuries
• 4,995 fatalities

Lawsuit seeks to limit truckers' hours, CNN.com, December 21, 2007

Court Asked To Stop Extension Of Truck Drivers' Hours, AHN, December 20, 2007

2006 National Truck Crash Facts, Ai.volpe.dot.gov

Related Web Resources:

Truck Safety Coalition

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

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In Massachusetts, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center fired seven staff members for administering dozens of electrical shocks to two emotionally disturbed teenagers because a caller pretending to be a supervisor told them to do so.

Six of the fired staff members worked the graveyard shift at the center’s Stoughton group home. A seventh worker worked in video surveillance at the center’s Canton main office. It was his job to monitor activity at the group home through remote surveillance.

According to a state report, the six staff members followed the caller’s orders to awaken teenagers in the middle of the night and shock them, sometimes with their legs and arms tied.

The caller wanted the teenagers punished for their bad behavior that had supposedly been observed through surveillance cameras. Even though the six staff members did not notice this supposed bad behavior, they administered the shock treatments.

Over a nearly three hour time period, starting at 2am, one teenager was shocked 29 times. The other teenager was shocked 77 times.

Other residents at the home woke up to the screaming teenagers and tried to convince the staffers that the victims didn’t do anything wrong. One resident suggested that the caller was a prankster. One of the staff members finally called the main office and was told that no punishments were ordered.

The Rotenberg center is known for its controversial electrical shock treatments. Students at the center are mentally retarded, autistic, or have behavior problems.

If you or someone you love was abused at a group home, a nursing home, or any other type of residential care facility, you should speak with a Massachusetts nursing home abuse attorney immediately.

Care facilities and their staff are supposed to provide proper care to patients—not abuse or neglect or assault them. All residents of care facilities have legal rights that protect them. If these rights are violated and a patient is injured or killed, a personal injury claim or wrongful death lawsuit may be brought.

Group home fires 7 on staff, Boston.com, December 21, 2007

Prank led school to treat two with shock, Boston.com, December 18, 2007

Related Web Resource:

Judge Rotenberg Educational Center

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The family of Cape Cod, Massachusetts resident Thomas Kelly was awarded $6.1 in the Suffolk County wrongful death lawsuit against Foxboro Realty Associates, Standard Parking, and Apollo Security. A Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded the $4.4 million judgment on Tuesday. With interest, the total could reach $6.1 million. The judgment will be shared between Kelly’s two sons and his wife.

Thomas Kelly, 64, was a retired high school English teacher who died in 2003 when the bus he was riding in was struck by a 300-pound gate at the Gillette Stadium Parking Lot in Foxboro. The gate slammed into the bus after being blown by a gust of strong wind. Its 8-inch double shafted pole smashed into the bus’s windshield and shot diagonally across the aisle.

The gate pierced the side of the bus and injured six people, including Kelly. He and two others were pinned by the pole. He broke his right leg and mangled his left one. Kelly underwent a number of surgeries and died from his injuries a few weeks later.

Kelly and the other bus passengers were going as spectators to a golf tournament when the tragic accident occurred. The jury found Apollo Security, Standard Parking, and Foxboro Realty Associates responsible for the unsecured gate. The jury exonerated the bus driver and the bus company, who were also named as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit.

If you or someone you love was seriously injured on another person’s premise because the property owner did not take the proper measures to ensure that the place was free from hazardous or unsafe conditions, you should speak with a Massachusetts premises liability attorney immediately.

To prove a premises liability case in Massachusetts, the plaintiff must prove that:

1) The premise owner caused or allowed the unsafe condition to exist.
2) The premise owner was aware that there was an unsafe or hazardous condition but did nothing to remedy the situation.
3) The owner of the premise should have known that the condition that caused the injury or death was unsafe or hazardous to begin with.

Family Awarded $6.1M In Stadium Death Lawsuit, The Boston Channel, December 20, 2007

Family awarded millions in wrongful death lawsuit, Cape Cod Times, December 20, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Premises Liability News, Justia

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The Massachusetts family of a 38-year-old Jamaica Plane woman who died when the Big Dig Tunnel ceiling collapsed last year may be close to reaching a settlement agreement with Powers Fasteners, the company that provided the ceiling bolt epoxy that is believed to be responsible for the collapse. Powers Fasteners also faces an involuntary manslaughter charge in Milena Del Valle’s death.

There are 15 defendants named in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Del Valle’s family. Other defendants named include the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and a number of contractors.

Del Valle’s husband and three children are named as plaintiffs in the Boston wrongful death lawsuit. The family is asking for hundreds of millions of dollars as compensation for the "outrageously egregious" acts that led to Del Valle’s tragic death.

The wrongful death accident occurred on July 10, 2006 when concrete ceiling panels in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel fell onto the car that Del Valle was in. Her husband Angel was also in the motor vehicle during the deadly accident but survived.

An investigation by federal investigators showed that workers had applied the wrong epoxy when making the tunnel ceiling secure. Powers Fasteners supposedly failed to warn project managers and construction contractors that using the wrong fastdrying glue on the ceiling could have catastrophic results. Powers disputes this, claiming that it notified engineers that the fast-set epoxy should not be used to secure the tunnel ceiling.

If you were in injured in an accident in Massachusetts or if someone you love was killed because another party was negligent or reckless, contact a Massachusetts personal injury lawyer right away.

Big Dig victim's kin may settle suit, Boston.com, December 12, 2007

Possible settlement for family of woman killed in Big Dig disaster, WHDH, December 12, 2007

Powers Fasteners denies negligence in Big Dig tunnel’s ceiling collapse, Industrial Distribution, October 9, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Big Dig Ceiling Collapse, Boston.com

The Big Dig, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority

Powers Fasteners

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Nine people were hurt in Boston, Massachusetts on Thursday after one Green line train rear-ended another trolley on Thursday. All nine people were transported to the hospital for medical care. Two of the victims were taken away in stretchers.

The train accident took place at a Boston platform at the Boylston Street station where one train came in and rear-ended another train parked there. One of the train cars was derailed.

Two of the injured victims were trolley operators. An MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) Green line employee was also among the injured. All nine people complained of neck and head pains.

Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the train crash.

Train Accident Statistics:

The Federal Highway Administration says that at least one train accident takes place somewhere in the United States every two hours. Over 2,700 train collisions occurred in the US in 1999, with 900 fatalities resulting.

Train operators are required to exercise a duty of care when transporting passengers. That’s because a train is a common carrier. Like buses, cruise ships, trucking companies, and airlines, trains must make sure that all passengers arrive at their destinations safely—failure to do so can leave the common carrier and common carrier company liable.

When someone is injured in a train crash because of the negligence of the train operator or because of a train malfunction, the injured party may have grounds to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit against the train operator, the train company, or any other parties that are deemed liable.

Common causes of train accidents:

• Train derailment
• Train collision involving more than one train
• Mechanical failure
• Faulty train signals
• Mechanical failure
• Conductor or operator negligence
• Driver fatigue

Nine hurt in Green Line collision, Boston Herald.com, December 14, 2007

Riders hurt in Green Line accident, Boston.com, December 13, 2007

Train Accidents Overview, Justia.com

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Federal Highway Administration

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A jury in Massachusetts awarded Fitchburg resident Audrey Serrano $2.5 million in her medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Kwan Lai, the doctor who misdiagnosed her with HIV.

Serrano was treated for HIV for nearly nine years before she found out that she never had the virus. Her treatments included powerful drugs that caused her to experience depression and a number of health problems, including chronic fatigue, depression, and inflammation of the intestine. Dr. Kwan Lai reportedly did not order definitive tests to confirm that Serrano definitely had HIV.

If you were injured or got sick because a doctor or any other medical provider misdiagnosed your illness, you should speak with a Massachusetts medical malpractice lawyer who can help you determine whether you have reason to file a medical malpractice claim or lawsuit.

Last week, Lai testified that Serrano was the one who persuaded her she had the virus that caused AIDS and that the 45-year old woman had an abnormal number of cells for battling infections. Lai treated Serrano at the HIV clinic of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. The medical center was not named as a defendant in the personal injury lawsuit.

Serrano filed the lawsuit four years ago after she began to question whether the diagnosis was correct. She took a test at another hospital.

Damages could exceed$3.7 million with prejudgment interest.

CNN.com offers five reasons to suspect that you have been the victim of medical misdiagnosis:

• Your symptoms are not the same as what your diagnosis says they should be.
• Your diagnosis is the result of just one lab test.
• Treatments are not improving your health.
• You did not receive a test that is usually administered to confirm your diagnosis.
• You have been diagnosed with a physical ailment that is rare.

Jury awards $2.5 million to Mass. woman misdiagnosed with HIV, Boston.com, December 12, 2007

Has your illness been misdiagnosed?, CNN.com

Related Web Resources:

Five commonly misdiagnosed diseases, CNN.com, October 3, 2007

Wrong Diagnosis.com

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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling earlier this week that says a doctor can be sued for personal injury if his patient caused a deadly car accident.

The case before the SJC involved a mother who wants to sue a doctor because he allegedly did not warn his patient that taking his medication could cause him to become a dangerous driver. The doctor, Dr. Roland Floria, practices medicine in Brockton, Massachusetts.

On March 22, 2002, Floria's patient, David Sacca, 75, passed out while driving his car. His vehicle swerved off the road and struck Kevin Coombes, 10, who was standing on the sidewalk. Coombes died of his injuries from the accident. Dr. Floria had prescribed oxycodone, prednisone, Zaroxolyn, Paxil, potassium, furosemide, oxazepam, and Flomax to Sacca. Side effects of these drugs can include fainting, drowsiness, and dizziness.

In the court’s lead opinion, Justice Roderick L. Ireland compared Dr. Floria’s failure to warn Sacca about his medications’ side effects to a bartender giving a drunken customer a drink. He said that the physician’s duty of care includes "all those foreseeably put at risk by his failure to warn about the effects of the treatment he provides to his patients."

This is the first time that Massachusetts’s SJC has issued such a ruling. Two earlier state Superior Court rulings had held doctors liable when their patients struck a pedestrian and biker. The ruling by the SJC, however, could make it easier for similar lawsuits holding doctors accountable for their patients’ actions to follow.

Dr. Dale Magee, the head of the Massachusetts Medical Society that represents the majority of Massachusetts’s doctors says that the ruling “may do more harm than good.” Magee noted that doctors should warn patients of possible medicinal side effects. He expressed concern, however, that informing a patient of every possible scenario could stop them from taking their medication.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling paves the way for a wrongful death trial to determine whether Floria is liable for the boy’s death. Prior to this ruling, a doctor’s liability regarding failure to warn ended with the patient. Now, a physician’s liability could extend to “foreseeable” third parties and nonpatients.

If you or someone you love was injured in a car accident, truck crash, bicycle collision, or pedestrian accident anywhere in Massachusetts, you should contact a personal injury lawyer immediately.

The personal injury law firm of Altman & Altman LLP can determine whether you have grounds to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit against the driver, the manufacturer of the motor vehicle, the doctor of the driver, or anyone else whose negligence may have lead to the personal injury or wrongful death. Our Massachusetts motor vehicle accident lawyers are here to help you. Contact Altman & Altman LLP today and ask for your free case evaluation.

Mass. Supreme Court Expands Doctors' Liability to Nonpatients, Insurance Journal, December 11, 2007

SJC ruling adds to doctor liability, Boston.com, December 11, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

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Posted In: Car Accidents , Medical Malpractice , Wrongful Death

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New research shows that the popular diabetes drug Avandia may cause bone thinning, which could lead to osteoporosis and bone fractures. Although GlaxoSmith-Kline has admitted that women who take Avandia have a higher risk of bone fractures, this most recent study is the first one to explain the connection between bone fractures and the drug.

A report published in Nature Medicine says that researchers gave the drug to mice. The drug increased activity among the cells that degrade bones. The National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded the research.

Avandia, also called Rosiglitazone, is used for long-term care of patients with Type II diabetes (adult-onset diabetes). Type II diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. Some 21 million people in America are afflicted with diabetes.

If you or someone you love has sustained an injury or become sick because of a prescription drug, you should speak with a dangerous drug attorney right away to determine whether you have grounds to file a products liability claim or lawsuit against the manufacturer.

Drug manufacturers are supposed to including a warning of all the health risks that come with taking a prescription drug. If you were not warned of the health risks or side effects beforehand, you may be able to sue the manufacturer for personal injury.

Although the FDA is there to regulate the safety of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, it is not uncommon for a drug to be found "dangerous" only after a number of people have already sustained serious injuries or died as a result of taking the medication.

GlaxoSmithKline is already facing numerous dangerous drug lawsuits because it had not previously warned users that the drug could place them at risk of heart disease. One lawsuit is seeking more than $100 million in damages for hiding the risks associated with Avandia. One wrongful death lawsuit in involves a Texas widow who says the drug killed her husband. Warnings of heart failure risks was recently added to the Avandia drug label.

Diabetes drug tied to bone fractures, Baltimore Sun, December 3, 2007

Diabetes Drug to Warn of Risk to Heart, AP, November 15, 2007

Related Web Resource:

Avandia

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Sagamore residents Kelly Downing and Jayne Hill died on November 29 after their motor vehicle was hit by a Ford Taurus driven by 61-year-old Carol Ducey in Wareham, Massachusetts.

Police think that the fact that Ducey, a Wareham resident, may have had a seizure or stroke while driving, which is what could have caused her to lose control of her car.

Ducey’s Taurus reportedly first crossed the double yellow lines and struck a Lincoln Navigator and a Cape Cod Express truck on Cranberry Highway. The drivers of both those motor vehicles were not injured.

The Taurus, traveling at 60-80 miles an hour, then rammed a street sign and mailbox before striking the Saturn Sedan that Downing and Hill, who had just finished breakfast, were riding in. Their car was totaled. Both women leave behind two 12-year-old daughters.

Ducey was seriously injured in the car crash.

Accidental deaths unfortunately do happen even when the person responsible would never ever dream of intentionally harming another person.

In these instances, the family of the person who died may be able to hold the negligent party civilly liable for the wrongful death.

In Massachusetts, surviving family members can file a wrongful death claim or lawsuit against the party responsible for causing their loved one’s death.

Under the General Laws of Massachusetts, CHAPTER 229. ACTIONS FOR DEATH AND INJURIES RESULTING IN DEATH, a person can be sued for wrongful death if:

1) by his negligence causes the death of a person;
(2) by willful, wanton or reckless act causes the death of a person under such circumstances that the deceased could have recovered damages for personal injuries if his death had not resulted;
(3) operates a common carrier of passengers and by his negligence causes the death of a passenger;
(4) operates a common carrier of passengers and by his willful, wanton or reckless act causes the death of a passenger under such circumstances that the deceased could have recovered damages for personal injuries if his death had not resulted; and
(5) is responsible for a breach of warranty arising under Article 2 of chapter one hundred and six which results in injury to a person that causes death.

Two women dead, a third seriously injured, in Wareham car accident, SouthCoast Today, November 30, 2007

Chapter 229: Section 2. Wrongful death; damages, The General Laws of Massachusetts

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts Highway Department

Massachusetts Highway Crash Statistics

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The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that 40,400 children were treated for ATV accident-related injuries at emergency rooms throughout the United States in 2005.

According to a study presented by Dr. Cheten Shah of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the injuries sustained by children on ATV’s can be potentially disabling. Dr. Shah presented the study’s findings at the annual Radiological Society of North America meeting.

500 children and teenagers that were injured in ATV accidents were examined as part of the study. Here are some of the findings:

• The number of ATV injuries doubled from 1998 to 2006.
• 208 out of the 500 children and teens examined for the study sustained bone fractures as a result of ATV accidents.
• Head injuries—66 bleeding in the brain injuries, 85 skull fractures, and 59 children with brain damage—were also common.
• 12 cases resulted in amputations.
• 6 children died (the study did not include children who died before arriving at a hospital)
• Some of these injuries resulted in permanent damage or disabilities.
• The eyes of two children were so badly damaged that they were removed.
• There were 5 spinal cord injuries and 21 spinal fractures.
• 70 kids sustained injuries to the liver, spleen, pancreas, or kidneys.
• 36 children sustained lung injuries.

The youngest child examined for the study was a 6-month-old who rode the ATV while his mother drove. The toddler sustained a thigh injury. The youngest driver, a 2-year-old, lost four toes. Another 2-year-old driver experienced severe brain hemorrhaging and now has a permanent disability.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that kids younger than 16 years of age not be allowed to operate or ride an ATV. Experts say children lack the coordination skills to operate an ATV safely. Supporters of ATV riding, however, claim that ATVs are safe for use by children if they wear the corrective protective gear and are supervised properly.

If your child was injured because of a defective or dangerous product, you may have grounds to file a products liability claim or lawsuit. The manufacturer of any product is required to warn users of any known hazards that can result in injury to death. “Failure to warn” can also be grounds for a products liability claim.

Experts: ATVs not safe for children, USA Today, November 26, 2007

Doctor warns ATVs not safe for children, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, December 3, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts Recreational Vehicle Safety Laws

All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Safety, NSC.org

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors , Products Liability

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