Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

In Newton, Massachusetts, eleven National Transportation Safety Board investigators are examining the Green Line Trolley that rear-ended another train yesterday. The deadly Massachusetts train accident left an MBTA operator dead, seriously injured seven passengers, and had emergency medics treating five other people at the crash scene for cuts and bruises. Some other passengers that had left the accident scene on their own checked themselves into hospitals later.

The train operator, 24-year-old Boston resident Teresa Edmonds, died at the accident scene. Rescue workers finally managed to remove her body from the train wreck about 7 hours after the crash.

The Massachusetts train collision occurred around 6pm during rush hour on Wednesday when a two-car outbound Green Line train ran into another two-car train that was stopped at a red light signal. Both trains were leaving Boston.

About 200 people were on both trains at the time of the collision. A number of passengers were thrown from their seats.

The federal investigators are here to analyze the condition of the signals and the track, the performance of dispatchers and trolley operators, and the emergency response.

The Federal Railroad Administration's Office of Safety Analysis says 951 people died and over 11,000 others got hurt in the 14,355 train accidents that occurred in 2002.

Investigation begins into fatal crash on Green Line, Boston.com, May 29, 2008

Trolley operator dies after collision in Newton, Boston.com, May 28, 2008

Eight injured in Green Line train crash in Newton, Mass., The Daily News Tribune, May 28, 2008

Related Web Resources:

MBTA

National Transportation Safety Board

Continue reading "MBTA Two-Train Crash Kills Train Operator and Seriously Injures Several Passengers" »

In Massachusetts, Steven J. Huard, a prisoner at the Middleton jail in has filed a $9.9 million personal injury lawsuit in federal court against the Massachusetts State Prison System, the Middlesex sheriff, other Massachusetts officials, and several doctors.

Steven J. Huard says that jail officials have denied him the proper medical care ever since he began serving his 5-6 year prison sentence. Huard began serving time in prison after he was convicted of assault and battery and resisting arrest charges in 2005.

Huard says he has had chronic health problems since 1989, when he was diagnosed with liver disease. He also sustained a spinal cord injury and bulging discs in 2002. In 2004, he sustained more injuries in a car crash. He also fractured his right hip and ribs when he fell from the roof of a two-story building in 2005. He underwent hip surgery and was told by the surgeon to use a cane, as well as undergo physical and rehabilitation therapies.

Huard was arrested two months after the surgery and convicted. Huard says that more health issues arose surrounding his hip, his back, and his neck in December 2005, and he needs more therapy. The doctor, however, was only authorized to examine his hip.

Huard also claims that after he was admitted to the Middleton jail, doctors cleared him to enter into the general population without a cane. He says that the Middlesex Sheriff Department won’t bring him to the necessary doctors.

If you have been seriously injured, it is important that you receive the proper medical care. Failure to obtain this care because of the negligence, carelessness, or recklessness of another party can be grounds for a Massachusetts personal injury claim or lawsuit against the responsible party.

Huard is seeking monetary damages. He also wants the jail’s procedures and policies to be revised so that he can get the medical care that he needs.

Ex-Billerica Man Sues Over Medical Treatment in Prison

Huard v. Essex County Correctional Center, et al, Justia.com

Related Web Resource:

Middlesex Sheriff's Office

The Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration says that the owners of the Salem Harbor Power Station failed to protect three workers that died when a faulty boiler ruptured at the plant on November 6, 2007. Following its investigation into the deadly work accident, OSHA says that it found 10 serious safety violations at the plant, owned by Dominion Energy New England, including a failure to enter or inspect the area where the blast occurred for the past several years.

Engineer Phillip Robinson, rookie Mathew Indeglia, and mechanic Mark Mansfield were killed when the Unit 3 boiler tubes broke—enveloping them in steam with a temperature that was close to 600 degrees.

Dominion Energy New England officials say they will dispute the claim that they failed to protect the company’s employees from getting hurt or killed on the job. A Dominion official says that an inspection found that the cause of the boiler explosion was an undetectable defect in an old weld that joined two pipe pieces.

OSHA has ordered Dominion to pay $46,800 in safety violations, and more fines may be pending. The company says that the majority of the violations have been remedied.

OSHA says that is essential that Dominion identify and eliminate any dangers to workers and take the necessary steps (including conduct proper maintenance and inspections), to prevent future leaks.

Other fines that may be pending include $4,500 for improperly storing compressed gases in cylinders and $6,300 for failing to inspect the "dead air space" area of the coal-fired boiler that ruptured.

The surviving family members of the victims are considering filing a Massachusetts wrongful death lawsuit against Dominion.

OSHA finds Salem plant failed to protect men who died, Boston.com, May 15, 2008

Salem Harbor Resumes Operation After 2007 Plant Catastrophe, an Industrial Info News Alert, Marketwire.com, April 25, 2008

Workers In Salem Plant Explosion Die From Injuries, WBZTV.com, November 7, 2007

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Continue reading "OSHA Says Owners of Salem Harbor Power Station in Massachusetts Did Not Protect Workers that Died in 2007 Boiler Blast" »

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that the greatest number of deadly accidents involving 15-passenger vans take place from June through August each year. The NHTSA issued its latest report this month.

According to the NHTSA, 31% of deadly 15-passenger van rollovers happen during this time because the summer holidays are a busy time for travel.

Data shows that the more people and cargo there are in a 15-passenger van, the greater the chances of a rollover accident. 50% of 15-passenger van fatalities in 2006 happened when the vans were loaded to full capacity. Other common causes of 15-passenger van fatalities include tire problems, driver inexperience, and failure to use a seat belt.

On a positive note, the number of 15-passenger van deaths declined between 1997 and 2006—the period of time that the new NHTSA study encapsulates. There were over 100 15-passenger van-related deaths in 1997 and less than 60 in 2006.

15-passenger vans continue to be one of the motor vehicles most likely to be involved in a rollover accident. A major reason for this is that the vans are designed in a way that the rear of the van, when fully loaded with passengers and cargo, tends to become weighted down. These vans are also designed with what is called a high gravity center that gets heavier the more people are in the vehicle. 15-passenger van accidents can lead to many injury victims—especially in rollover accidents.

Nation’s Top Vehicle Safety Official Urges 15-Passenger Van Users to Drive with Caution this Summer, NHTSA, May 12, 2008

Fatalities to Occupants of 15-Passenger Vans, 1997-2006, NHTSA (PDF)

Related Web Resource:

15-Passenger Van Safety Hazard Information

NHTSA Action Plan for 15-Passenger Van Safety

Continue reading "NHTSA Says Summer Months Are the Deadliest Period for 15-Passenger Vans" »

The US Chemical Safety Board says that the 2006 chemical explosion in Danvers, Massachusetts could have been avoided if ink manufacturer CAI Inc had implemented the proper safety measures at its factory.

The safety board issued its findings today in a final report. Although CAI and Arnel, Inc., a specialty paintmaker both ran the plant, the safety board is holding CAI accountable because the board says one of its employees did not turn off the ventilation system while chemicals were being heated. The employee, however, disputes this finding and says he shut down the heat before leaving for the day.

The report also described the differences that exist between federal and state safety regulations and why these gaps need to be remedied.

Safety board member William Wright said that the CAI should have installed automated safeguards and an alarm system rather than leaving the safety measures to be manually activated by employees that could make mistakes.

The board says that the chemical explosion took place at around 2:46 am.
Fortunately, no one died in the explosion that forced 300 people to evacuate the neighborhood and destroyed 3 buildings and 16 houses. 10 people, however, did sustain minor injuries.

CAI’s attorney is disputing the safety board’s findings. He says that the company’s own investigation (based on computer modeling of the explosion) has reached a completely different conclusion.

Property owners and their insurance companies have filed property damage lawsuits against CAI.

Report: Lack of safeguards led to Danvers plant explosion, Boston Herald, May 13, 2008

Federal report: Danvers 2006 explosion could have been prevented, Boston.com, May 13, 2008

Read the US Chemical Safety Board's Report (PDF)

Related Web Resources:

US Chemical Safety Report

How they survived, Boston.com, November 28, 2006

Continue reading "CAI Inc. Could Have Prevented Danvers, Massachusetts 2006 Factory Explosion, Says Federal Report" »

In Massachusetts, Fall River resident Alyssa Bolduc, is suing Massachusetts State Trooper Allyson Powell for compensatory damages over a strip search that took place during a traffic stop in Dartmouth in March 2007.

Bolduc, 18, says that she and three friends were pulled over because of an unlit headlight. Bolduc says that she had unbuttoned the top button on her pants because she and her friends had just finished eating at the Dartmouth Wendy’s and she was full from her meal.

Although the police stop was for the headlight, Bolduc says that the police officers asked her and her friends if they had drugs or any prior criminal offenses.

Police noticed her unbuttoned pants and requested a female police officer to do a strip search. Bolduc says she was forced to stand naked from her waist down to her ankles in front of her friends and motorists—she says police told her to take under underwear off too. Officer Powell, wearing leather gloves, then allegedly conducted an “internal and manual body cavity search” of the teenager’s genitals. The teenager was not given a ticket or arrested following the search.

However, two of companions received traffic tickets. Christine Moniz was issued a $35 ticket for driving without a license, and Ryan O’Connell was issued a $35 ticket for letting someone without a driver’s license drive the car.

Massachusetts’s police strip search policy says that searches must be conducted in a police department facility unless circumstances necessitate otherwise and always in an area of complete privacy, away from public view. Police strip searches must also involve no touching.

Bolduc filed a formal complaint the day after the March 7, 2007 incident. An internal affairs report found evidence that Officer Powell violated police policies. The Massachusetts State Police Division of Standards and Training is disciplining her.

Lawsuit filed against Mass State Trooper, Herald News, April 30, 2008

Related Web Resource:

New England: Massachusetts: Strip-Search Settlement, New York Times, June 1, 2002

Related Web Resources:

Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Massachusetts Police Brutality