A federal jury ordered two U-Haul companies to pay $2.6 million in damages for  personal injuries that occurred nearly five years ago when a trailer pulling an Ohio couple’s SUV swerved and flipped over in Tennessee.

According to their personal injury lawsuit as detailed in a story in Cincinnati’s The Enquirer, Christian and Mindy Strong rented a U-Haul trailer in 2002 to pull a motorcycle from Ohio to Florida. A friend, Brian Hunzicker, also attended the couple. While driving back through Tennessee, the Strongs’ Ford Explorer swerved and rolled, leaving Christian with two broken wrists, Hunzicker with minor injuries, and Mindy with serious injuries. Mindy suffered a broken back, lacerated liver and brain trauma resulting in cognitive and memory problems.

The couple claimed that U-Haul failed to properly instruct them how to use the trailer and to stay within a 45-mph speed limit. They also alleged that the U-Haul trailer was defective, a claim which was thrown out by the eight-person jury. However, the jury agreed that U-Haul failed to properly warn of the dangers of pulling the trailer. The subsequent U-Haul car accident settlement awarded $1.98 million to Mindy Strong, $111,399 to Christian Strong and $40,916 to Hunzicker. U-Haul International and U-Haul Co. of Massachusetts and Ohio Inc., were also ordered to pay $220,800 each in punitive damages.

While the weekend is often a great time to take ATV vehicles off-road to have a fun time, a recent Massachusetts ATV accident teaches an important lesson about knowing the riding and safety laws in your state, especially for children!

Just last Super Bowl Sunday, a nine-year-old boy who shouldn’t even have been riding an ATV was involved in an extremely dangerous Massachusetts ATV accident, according to a recent story in The Salem News. The boy had been riding with a party including an 8-year-old boy and that friend’s father. While trying to cross a road, the boy’s ATV was struck by a minivan. Somehow the boy, who was thankfully wearing a helmet, avoided a serious personal injury after the collision caused his ATV to burst into flames. Since the boy is a juvenile, his name was not released by police.

Massachusetts police officer Gayle Haley described in the story how the boy was not supposed to be on an ATV. Haley said that eight and nine year olds are not allowed to ride ATVs under any circumstances in the state. Massachusetts law requires a child to be 10 years old to ride an ATV and 16½  years old in order to cross a road.

The adult supervising the nine-year-old boy is now facing some very serious charges following this Massachusetts ATV accident. 47-year-old Ronnie G. Ouellette was specifically charged with:

• “3 counts of allowing the operation of unregistered recreational vehicles, and the unsafe operation of them;

• 2 counts of allowing a child under 161/2 to cross a highway on the ATV; and

• trespassing on the power line right of way.”

Ouellette would not comment on the incident, but did say that he was extremely upset about what happened. Preventing these types of ATV accidents has become a major source of concern lately, as evident by the various ATV bills in state legislatures throughout the country.

Concerned Senators and advocacy groups seriously questioned the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Long Island Rail Road about the problem with gap-related New York train accidents this week, and some interesting details were learned.

Long Island Rail Road officials described the extent of gap train accidents for the first time on Thursday. According to a Newsday story, company officials said that there are 32 platforms at 22 LIRR stations with gaps exceeding 10 inches. Metro-North Railroad president Peter Cannito confirmed that his railroad has 26 similar gaps at 17 stations. LIRR officials said that they have already begun fixing some of the gaps and also plan to spend more than $13 million to continue to do so. LIRR officials said that the company will have a specific safety plan to address the gap issues by the end of the month.

According to an Associated Press story in the New York Daily News, LIRR officials said that the company is launching a public relations campaign about the gap dangers and redesigning “Watch the Gap” decals which will be placed on their trains. One advocacy group wondered whether such signs would be enough for train passengers, while Senators justifiably asked what took LIRR so long to do more about these past and recent train accidents!

A grisly incident this summer involving a Minnesota teen who fell into a gap at a New York subway station and was killed when a train ran her over prompted a 5-month investigative study by Newsday on the history of these types of train accidents. A recent Newsday story revealed that New York gap-train accidents and personal injuries had been occurring for more than 30 years, and that instead of fixing the problem, LIRR and its parent company, MTA, decided to settle most of the resulting personal injury lawsuits over the years. MTA and LIRR are no longer able to hide from this problem as the Senate hearing on Thursday revealed!

The severe injuries and consequences from ATV accidents have been detailed here in the past, and West Virginia has recently joined the growing list of states seriously addressing ATV safety concerns. Three ATV bills have been introduced in the West Virginia House of Delegates to bolster safety regulations and try to curb West Virginia ATV accidents.

According to a story in the Charleston Daily Mail, there were 54 West Virginia ATV deaths last year. The West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles says that nearly half of those fatalities involved ATV accidents on paved roads. Two of the three bills would ban ATV use on paved roads, require all riders to wear helmets, and ban any additional passengers unless allowed by the specific vehicle manufacturer.

• West Virginia delegate Corey Palumbo has introduced a bill which would essentially eliminate ATV use on open roads with the exception of riders on trails, who could drive an ATV vehicle on the berm of the road for up to one mile. Current West Virginia law allows ATV riders on trails to do so for ten miles. Palumbo said that the number of West Virginia ATV accidents and deaths on open, paved roads is an extremely important issue because their tires are not designed for pavement. Palumbo admitted that he does not think his bill will get passed but hoped that it would spark more discussion.

• Delegate Kenneth Tucker has introduced a similar ATV bill which would require state agencies to develop an incident form describing all known West Virginia ATV accidents. The West Virginia Division of Highway would then have to include these forms in its annual traffic accident analysis. This bill would exempt the restrictions on riders legally operating their vehicles in areas managed by the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, according to the story. Both Tucker’s and Palumbo’s bills would also take into account recommendations from ATV manufacturers and West Virginia State Police.

In addition to these ATV bills, delegate Sam Argento has introduced a bill that would require ATV owners and operators to get off-road driving permit cards and display this identification on the vehicle. According to Argento, only 150,000 of the near half-million ATV vehicles in West Virginia are registered! All three bills are pending in committees, according to the Charleston Daily Mail story.

Earlier this week, a Rhode Island jury awarded the family of a mother who died after receiving negligent care from an emergency room doctor a $21.5 million verdict for personal injuries. Irish immigrant Mary O’Sullivan visited Newark Hospital three times in four days for flu-like symptoms back in 1999 before dying from complications of streptococcus pneumonia some 3½ weeks later, according to the family’s personal injury attorney, Mark B. Decof, in a story in The Providence Journal.

The family’s personal injury lawsuit claimed that the doctor who saw O’Sullivan on the second visit, Dr. Charles L. Stengel, failed to notice and respond to signs of bacterial infection, including toxins which were eating away at her lungs. Stengel sent the 34-year-old O’Sullivan home without antibiotics and told her to see a doctor in five days. According to the story, O’Sullivan had to return to the hospital in less than two days. Another doctor immediately recognized her pneumonia and severe sepsis. Decof said that a hole “the size of a softball” developed in a lung of O’Sullivan, who unfortunately died on March 1, 1999.

The personal injury lawsuit against Stengel and Newport Emergency Physicians Inc., a corporation which contracts emergency doctors to Newark Hospital, alleged that O’Sullivan would have had a full recovery in three to five days if Stengel had noticed and responded to the symptoms of pneumonia. The jury agreed, awarding the family a verdict which could eventually reach up to $28.63 million with interest, according to Decof. Specifically, O’Sullivan’s husband Noel was awarded $9 million for loss of consortium while her three children were given $4 million each for “loss of parental society.” $500,000 also went to O’Sullivan’s estate for pain and suffering. The award did not include economic damages like medical bills or lost wages.

This $21.5 million verdict is the largest jury award in the state since 1999 and surpasses that period’s previous high $18.9 million Pawtucket car accident settlement in 2002, according to Jason M. Scally, a Managing Editor of a weekly Rhode Island law publication that tracks such information. Decof said in the story that he is nearly certain that the jury award is the largest medical malpractice verdict and personal injury verdict in the history of the state.

At The Injury Blog, we usually talk about personal injury cases and news in the United States but a recent Ontario car accident settlement is certainly worth talking about! The Ontario Superior Court recently awarded two men a combined $24 million for damages they suffered during a car accident in 2003, according to a story in the Law Times.

Plaintiffs Derek Gordon and Ryan Morrison were passengers in a leased car driven by defendant Cory Greig when they were involved in a single-car collision. The accident caused Morrison to suffer a severe spinal injury and Gordon to sustain serious brain injuries. In the case Gordon v. Greig, an Ontario Justice awarded both men the combined $24 million for their loss of past and future income, costs of attendant and future care, and “general and special damages minus a deduction of contributory negligence.”

Specifically, Morrison was awarded $12.5 million for his spinal cord injury and Gordon was given $11.5 million for his brain injuries. According to the plaintiff’s personal injury attorney, the $12.5 million given to Gordon marks the largest Canadian award for a spinal cord injury. Gordon’s $11.5 million is believed to be one of the largest awards ever given to a brain-injured adult. The families of both men were also granted family law awards. According to the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, the leasing company and not Greig is responsible for paying the $24 million because it owned the vehicle.  

Of other interest, this type of large award may become less common in Ontario according to some personal injury attorneys citing a recent law limiting the amount of money that leasing companies would have to pay for liable injuries. On March 1, 2006, the Ontario government passed an amendment to the Insurance Act which limits leasing company liability to $1 million.

A $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against pop singer Brandy Norwood involving a car accident that killed a woman may not last in court due to improper filing by the victim’s family. The California Highway Patrol found Brandy at fault for failing to stop her 2007 Land Rover from hitting the car in front of her during a fatal accident on December 30th. After Brandy’s Land Rover hit her Honda, Awatef Aboudihaj suffered fatal, blunt force injuries when her car slammed into a third vehicle, careened into a freeway center-divider and was broad-sided by a fourth vehicle. 

According to California law, only the husband of the victim is able to sue for wrongful death on the victim’s behalf. Aboudihaj’s parents actually filed the wrongful death lawsuit, which would only be allowed if they were her financial dependents. However, Aboudihaj’s parents live in Morocco and were not her financial dependents. According to an Associated Press story, the parents did not consult Aboudihaj’s husband prior to filing the Brandy wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the pop singer was driving recklessly.

The California Highway Patrol recommended that Brandy be charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for the death of the 38-year-old Los Angeles waitress. They have determined that Brandy was not driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but have said that she was driving at speeds that endangered the safety of others. Brandy has expressed her condolences to the family of Aboudihaj, and according to one witness at the scene of the accident, was blaming herself for causing the incident.

Since beginning her recording career at the age of 14, Brandy has made five albums and earned a Grammy in 1999. She also starred in her own sitcom “Moesha” from 1996-2001 and has served as a judge for the NBC show, “America’s Got Talent.”

A motorcycle driver who was hit by the delivery driver of a Florida chicken restaurant operating for a national franchise has been awarded a $2 million car accident settlement in an interesting case raising an important question about financial responsibility. Joshua Szentpaly suffered severe neurological damage and the loss of his right arm when a delivery employee of a Chicken Kitchen restaurant in Miami ran through a stop sign and hit him with the delivery car. The subsequent personal injury case was held up by a debate about who was financially responsible for the injuries: the Miami franchisee or the national franchisor, Chicken Kitchen USA LLC?

Chicken Kitchen USA LLC argued that it was not responsible for any of the victim’s damages. Specifically, the national franchisor claimed that the Miami franchisee was an independent contractor, and it was therefore not responsible for any of the franchisee’s actions and omissions. A jury did not agree, finding Chicken Kitchen USA LLC responsible for any damages since it controlled or had the right to control the daily activities of the franchisee as stipulated in the franchise agreement and operational manual, according to the story in the South Florida Business Journal. After this decision was made in three days, a separate jury trial awarded the victim with the $2 million Miami car accident settlement. A Chicken Kitchen USA LLC representative was not available for comment, according to the story.

A Missouri judge has ordered a car accident settlement of $1,024,000 to the family of a man who was killed in a February 2006 accident with a truck driver. Scott D. Potter was killed when a truck driven by Timothy Haase struck the rear of his car. Haase and the trucking company that employed him, Mid-American Truck Service, agreed to pay the car accident settlement to Mr. Potter’s widow Sonya and mother Patricia Standley.

Haase’s personal injury attorney, Laurie Ward, said that her client and the trucking company are equally responsible for satisfying the terms of the court order. Haase still faces criminal charges of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, and no trail date has been set at this time. Ward said that she doesn’t think this car accident settlement would influence the outcome of the criminal proceedings and further detailed her client’s grief and remorse for the incident.

According to the terms of the personal injury settlement as detailed in The Sedalia Democrat, Sonya Potter will get $364,207 and also receive more than $1200 each month for the next 25 years. Standley will receive $154,300 in the car accident settlement. The remaining settlement money will go towards attorney fees and expenses.

A Vermont man has denied faking a personal injury claim for slip and fall injuries resulting in a $700,000 personal injury settlement. Francis Fredette of Clarendon, Vermont claimed his back injuries were sustained when he fell down a flight of stairs at an apartment complex in Rutland. However, federal prosecutors believe that Fredette’s injuries were really sustained during a botched burglary attempt of a gas station some 40 miles away, according to the story in the Rutland Herald.

Prosecutors indicted Fredette last year, and he entered innocent pleas earlier this week. According to the indictment, Fredette did not suffer his injuries from falling down an apartment stairway but actually sustained them that same evening during a burglary attempt of a Mobil gas station in Randolph. The indictment says that Fredette seriously injured his back when he fell off the roof of the gas station and then worked with a conspirator to make the injuries appear to have happened at the apartment complex. Specifically, the conspirator laid Fredette at the bottom of the stairway and called emergency services.

In addition to federal mail and wire fraud charges, the indictment seeks forfeiture of a house that Fredette bought with his $700K personal injury settlement with the landlord of the apartment complex. Fredette was released on conditions, and no trial date has been set. If convicted, he could face 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine.  

ATV enthusiasts and opponents are at odds over bills in various states that would change current riding laws, some of which would allow riders more freedom and others which would strive to avoid ATV accidents like the fatal one in Mississippi last week. A 23-year-old woman was killed last Sunday when her ATV crashed with another man’s ATV, throwing her into the path of an SUV. This incident is the second ATV-related death in the Lucedale, Mississippi area already this month, and another example of why a state like Oregon is trying to tighten ATV-riding laws.

• An Oregon ATV bill would bar anyone under 12-years old from driving these vehicles. Strongly pushed by Senator Alan Bates, Senate Bill 49 would also limit 12 to 16-year olds to operating ATVs with engines of 90 cc or less. This bill has sparked much protest as Southern Oregon constituents are threatening to launch a recall against Bates. According to statistics from the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, one-third of the near 6,500 victims who died in ATV accidents between 1982 and 2004 were children.

While this bill attempts to curb Oregon ATV accidents involving minors, other states are trying to open up the roads for younger riders.

• A North Dakota ATV bill would allow 10-year olds to ride off-road ATVs and dirtbikes under the supervision of their parents and refute a current law requiring riders on public land to be 12-years old. Proponents of the bill say that such a bill would allow North Dakota children to be trained in safety procedures at an earlier age while opponents question the full cognitive abilities of children below 11 years of age.

• A Nebraska ATV bill would allow ATVs to be driven on all roads except controlled-access highways. Legislative Bill 288 has drawn criticism from safety advocates who say that ATVs are designed for off-road and not on-road use and do not turn as sharply as motorcycles or cars. 

Follow this personal injury blog for the latest developments with these ATV bills.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced steps aimed at improving the agency’s safety programs. But will this result in fewer injury lawsuits? The three key elements in the FDA’s plan to improve drug safety are:

• Strengthening the science that supports the FDA’s medical product safety system, including initiatives to:
  • Develop new scientific approaches to detecting, understanding, predicting and preventing adverse events;
  • Develop and incorporate new quantitative tools in risk / benefit assessment; and
  • Conduct a pilot program to review the safety profiles of certain newly approved drugs on a regular schedule
• Improving communication and information flow among all stakeholders involved in promoting safe use of medical products by:
  • Establishing an advisory committee to help improve the agency’s risk communication policies and practices; and
  • Reviewing current public communication tools and developing a comprehensive risk communication plan
• Improving management / operations to ensure implementation of necessary review, analysis, consultation and communication processes, through the use of external management consultants

The FDA has been under fire from consumer advocacy groups for years, and the outcry has increased in recent years as multiple FDA approved prescription drugs have been found to cause serious medical problems and even death.  In some of those cases, it has been revealed that information regarding these risks was available long before it was publicly acknowledged, leading to unnecessary medical complications and deaths.