Three New York train derailments in the last three months, including one last week in Oneida, have prompted a federal investigation of tracks from Albany to Buffalo. Federal railroad administrator Joseph Boardman said in an online Observer-Dispatch story that a specially designed train will examine more than 1,300 miles of track owned by CSX Corp. Just last Monday, CSX train cars derailed and then exploded near Oneida, causing the evacuation of homes and businesses in the city of 10,000. No personal injuries were reported following this train accident.

Specifically, Boardman said the investigation will examine whether the two CSX rails are level and whether the width between tracks is acceptable. This announcement of a federal investigation into CSX-owned tracks comes nearly a week after US. Senator Charles Schumer of Brooklyn said he’s pushing legislation which would toughen regulations on rail companies, increase penalties for negligence and direct millions of dollars to improve rail infrastructure. Schumer, who said that federal regulators haven’t done enough to combat these problems, also issued a report detailing 527 upstate New York train accidents in the last seven years.

In addition to last Monday’s derailment, CSX Corp. had witnessed similar accidents in the previous months. Thirteen cars on a CSX train left the tracks in East Rochester on January 13^th. Luckily, no one was injured. In December, a CSX train carrying canned vegetables derailed on an overpass in Cheektowaga, leaving one box car teetering over the edge of a bridge, according to the Observer-Dispatch story. Visit The Injury Blog for the latest developments on this federal investigation and learn more about train safety at the TrainBlog.

On Wednesday, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) announced that it has notified approximately 14,000 employers in the United States about their injury and illness rates being higher than average. Specifically, the OHSA said that it sent letters to these employers as a proactive means to prevent future work-related personal injuries by encouraging them to improve the safety and health environment of their workplaces. You may view the 14,000 sites which received an OHSA notification by state and alphabetical order right here.

The OHSA identified establishments with the highest workplace injury and illness rates by gathering employer reported data from a 2006 survey of 80,000 worksites. Workplaces receiving an OHSA letter were identified as having 5.3 or more injuries or illnesses resulting in time off, restricted work activity or job transfer (DART) for every 100 full-time employees in 2005. The national DART average for every 100 full-time employees in 2006 was 2.4 instances. The OHSA letters contained copies of the employer’s injury and illness data and a list of the most frequently violated OHSA standards in its specific industry.

If you’ve suffered an injury at work due to the negligence of your employer or another employee, speak to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. The statutes of limitations for filing workers compensation claims vary by state, so having an experienced personal injury attorney is a smart way to make sure that you are doing all that is possible to best ensure any potential damages.

A former Indiana railroad worker who claimed that he was run over by three train cars and lost his left leg more than two years ago was awarded $8.4 million in damages earlier this week by a Jefferson Circuit Court jury. Keith Baird alleged in his personal injury lawsuit that while he was working as a trainman between two cars in an Indiana train yard on October 2, 2004, a supervisor failed to warn him that other cars were moving toward him. When a car hit the car that Baird was working on, his legs were run over, according to details in The Courier-Journal story.

Baird claimed in his lawsuit that his former employer, Louisville & Indiana Railroad Co., was negligent for not warning him. The railroad company countered that Baird was not paying attention and thus at-fault. The jury found the railroad company 90 percent responsible for the accident and Baird 10 percent responsible. The original $9.3 million jury verdict in favor of Baird was thus reduced by $930,000. Following the verdict, Baird and the railroad company reached a settlement in which the railroad agreed to pay him $7.9 million within 30 days and not appeal the case.

The 27-year-old Baird has had more than 36 operations on his legs since the accident. He expressed relief over the settlement and said that he’s looking forward to moving on with his life. An attorney for the railroad company could not be immediately reached. Tuesday’s settlement brought an end to a trial which began on March 5^th.

Follow the latest news on train safety at the TrainBlog and of course, right here at The Injury Blog.

Earlier this week, an Atlantic City jury awarded a man and his wife a combined $47.5 million verdict in their personal injury lawsuit against drug behemoth Merck. Idaho postal worker Frederick Humeston suffered a heart attack after taking the pain-reliever Vioxx. He successfully showed that Merck knew of these potential side effects from this drug but did not warn prescribing doctors about these dangers. The jury also found that Merck acted recklessly and committed consumer fraud by misrepresenting and failing to disclose important safety information about the drug.

The jury specifically awarded Humeston $18 million in compensatory damages and his wife, Mary, $2 million for loss of consortium. An additional $27.5 million was awarded for punitive damages. Manhattan personal injury attorney Robert Gordon helped represent the Humeston family and said in a Business Wire story that the verdict shows how the public will not accept anything less than full disclosure from pharmaceutical companies. He added that he believes plaintiffs will successfully be able to show how using Vioxx significantly contributed to heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular injuries.

Merck still has to deal with 27,000 pending personal injury cases involving Vioxx. Personal injury attorney Jerry Kristal said that Merck’s decision to take on each of these cases head-on is financially irresponsible. Kristal estimated that even if plaintiffs are successful in only 30 percent of the pending cases, with verdicts in the $5-10 million range, Merck will have to shell out anywhere from $40.5 billion and $85 billion for compensatory and punitive damages as well as defense costs.

Follow the latest developments in the pending cases against Merck right here at the Vioxx News Blog and right here at The Injury Blog, of course! 

Allegations of police brutality have been making headlines recently, and The Injury Blog is here to keep you updated. Seven people claimed police brutality against the Chicago and Calumet Park police departments last week on the same day that the nearby village of Villa Park settled a similar personal injury lawsuit.

• On March 8^th, Chicago personal injury attorney Eugene Pincham filed civil complaints on behalf of seven people who claimed they were mistreated by police officers on August 6, 2006. Pincham alleged in an ABC7Chicago.com story that the Chicago Police Department arrested two minors in the front of their home as part of a drug investigation that day. When the family dog came out of the house, one of the officers shot  at it, with a stray bullet hitting an innocent bystander, neighbor Gwendolyn White.

Plaintiff Dwayne Spencer alleged that he ran into his house to tell his parents that the police were arresting his brother when things allegedly got out of hand. His mother and respective plaintiff, Danielle Spencer, said that police came in the house and violated the rights of herself and children, whom she added were traumatized by the incident. Pincham is also representing 23-year-old William Snodey, who alleged he was half a block away at the time when police officers approached him. Snodey claimed that he thought the officers were gang members and ran away out of fear before being shot in the back of the leg and apprehended.

Monique Bond, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, did not comment on the pending litigation but added that the allegations are being taken seriously. She said that an internal investigation into the matter has been launched and that disciplinary action has been recommended.

• The very same day that Pincham filed civil complaints, the village of Villa Park reached an undisclosed settlement with 36-year-old Jason Zubov, according to a Daily Herald story. After being arrested on August 24, 2003 on charges of aggravated assault and resisting or obstructing a police officer, Zubov alleged that he was hit several times without justification by officer David Subject at the village’s police station. Two other officers were named in the personal injury suit, which also included Deputy Chief Mark Johnson and the village as defendants. The village denied all allegations of abuse at the time.

Attorney Arthur Loevy said he was satisfied with the undisclosed settlement for his client, who was acquitted on all charges in regard to a physical confrontation with Subject according to the lawsuit. Subject and the two officers in question remain on the Villa Park police force. Deputy Chief Johnson refused comment on the settlement.

Investigators say that an investigation into what caused yesterday’s train derailment of a CSX Corp. freight train in Oneida, New York could take up to 18 months. An Associated Press story details that the freight train traveling from Buffalo to Selkirk was carrying liquid propane and other chemicals through Oneida when 28 of its 80 cars derailed at seven in the morning on Monday. The derailment sent a huge fireball into the sky, causing propane tankers to burn throughout the morning and forcing people to evacuate their homes. No personal injuries have been reported at this time.

Oneida Fire Chief Don Hudson said that two cars containing liquid propane exploded and burned out while two other tankers of liquid petroleum and a fifth rail car with the solvent toluene burned. Officials declared a state of emergency for a half-mile area around the accident, which was expected to affect eight homes. Officials also evacuated various areas a mile around the accident, including most of downtown Oneida, which has a population of 10,000.

The story also detailed that up to 4,000 people live in the affected area and that evacuation was mandatory only for those homes closest to the blast. Around 100 people reported to a local shelter while local jail officials had to move 78 prisoners to a jail in nearby Chenango County. Four firefighters were exposed to liquid chloride and had to be decontaminated before going back to fight the blaze.

Federal Railroad Administration investigators were quickly at the scene to examine potential causes for the derailment. CSX spokesman Maurice O’Connell was described as saying that drug tests will be performed on the engineer and that the train’s black boxes would be analyzed. Another company spokesman, Robert Sullivan, said that CSX has specialists dealing with the hazardous chemicals and was committed to meet the needs of displaced residents.

The train derailment caused two elementary schools to close for the day, stalled train service and shut down a section of the state’s Thruway for about four hours. A cause of this train derailment has yet to be determined. Visit The Injury Blog for the latest developments on this story and learn more about train safety at the TrainBlog.

Did you know that March has been christened Brain Injury Awareness Month? With that in mind, a U.S. Senator from Utah has recently introduced a head trauma bill reauthorizing a federal law supporting programs for people with traumatic brain injuries, or TBI. More than 5.3 million Americans suffer from TBI, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, with most of those personal injuries occurring during falls or car accidents.

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced a new head trauma bill last Wednesday to the Senate. Co-sponsored with U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, this legislation would allocate money for services for people affected by brain injuries, fund projects for injured veterans, and help states develop treatment capacity for these injuries. This federal head trauma legislation would also put the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in charge of determining how common TBI is in the general population. Hatch and Kennedy sponsored the original TBI legislation in 1996.

Around two percent of the U.S. population requires lifelong or long-term care for a brain injury. According to a statistic cited in a Utah Daily Herald story, 67 percent of Iraq casualties involved some level of brain injury. Hatch said that this legislation would help provide resources for networks which treat returning soldiers. He added that the overall goal of this bill is to help patients get the best possible care early on so they may recover from their brain injuries.

In addition to Hatch’s efforts in the nation’s Capitol, Utah state legislators have already tried to achieve similar means this year. State Representative James Gowans and Senator Darin Petersen tried to secure $500,000 for a Traumatic Brain Injury Fund which would help establish outreach programs for TBI and help train medical professionals in treating this condition. However, this legislation stalled in the Utah Legislature last month for the second year in a row.

Frequent The Injury Blog for the latest updates on the aforementioned federal head trauma bill, and learn more about brain injuries at the Brain Injury News and Information Blog.

The city of Oakland has agreed to pay $40,000 as part of a personal injury settlement to the family of a renowned drummer and dancer in the city who was killed by a drunken driver nearly four years ago. Malonga Casquelourd died in June 2003 when a vehicle driven by Martin Burgermeyer and going the wrong way on Lakeshore Avenue slammed head-on into his car. At the time of the deadly accident, Burgermeyer’s blood alcohol content was three times the legal 0.08 percent limit in California. Casquelourd’s family claimed in their personal injury suit that a confusing street sign near the avenue contributed to the accident. An InsideBayArea.com story detailed that the city has since removed the sign.

Burgermeyer pleaded no contest to charges which included gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated before being sentenced to four years in prison in October 2004. Burgermeyer’s insurance company will pay the $50,000 limit of his policy to the Casquelourd family for its part of the combined $90,000 settlement.

Malonga Casquelourd was an internationally-known Congolese dancer who dedicated his life to promoting African Culture in the East Bay, according to the story. The Alice Arts Center was renamed in Casquelourd’s honor after his death. Learn more about the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts and the latest DUI news at The DUI Blog.

The Pittsburgh City Council tentatively approved a $200,000 police brutality settlement yesterday involving an off-duty police sergeant’s 2004 actions at a hot dog shop. Deven W. Werling had filed a federal personal injury lawsuit in which he alleged that Sergeant Mark A. Eggleton roughed him up at the Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland, Pennsylvania, according to a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Coming to this tentative approval was not without controversy for several reasons. To begin with, the city councilmen debated whether this decision on the settlement should be debated in public, considering the strange circumstances surrounding Eggleton. After the Pittsburgh Office of Municipal Investigations found that Sgt. Eggleton contradicted himself under oath, he was fired. This dismissal was reduced to a five-day suspension last October, and Eggleton has since returned to his job as a police sergeant. While Pennsylvania state law does allow governmental bodies to discuss personnel matters and legal settlements behind closed doors, Councilman William Peduto argued that Eggleton’s situation was not an executive session manner and should thus be decided in public. The council then voted 7-1 to tentatively approve the personal injury settlement, with Peduto the lone dissenter. The final approval could come this Tuesday, according to the story.

Peduto also used this case to review the city’s practice of allowing private businesses to hire off-duty police officers. While the Original Hot Dog Shop had to pay Eggleton close to $40 an hour per hour for this off-duty work, it does not have to pay the city any money. This has caused concern since the city has to pay when its officers are sued for actions occurring when working off-duty jobs. After shelving a plan for the city to charge businesses $4 or $5 an hour to employ off-duty cops in November, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has said that he will introduce a new plan this April, according to the story. Of further interest, Peduto is running against Ravenstahl in the city’s May 15th Democratic primary.

The widow of a Columbia, South Carolina municipal worker who was killed in a 2005 car accident has been awarded a $1.3 wrongful death settlement, according to a story in the Columbia Tribune. Regina Greenplate’s husband Clay died after a late November 2005 head-on collision in which Martha Miller’s SUV crossed into the path of his vehicle. Tests later revealed that Miller’s blood alcohol content (BAC) was above the legal 0.08 percent limit in the state, and Miller was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

On Monday, a judge officially approved this personal injury settlement for the wrongful death of Clay Greenplate, who worked at the Columbia wastewater treatment plant. According to its terms, Regina Greenplate will receive $510,066.82, and each of the couple’s four children will get $90,000 to purchase an annuity to pay for college expenses. The remaining money will go to attorney fees. Attorneys for Regina Greenplate and the insurance company declined comment on the case.

When Miller pleaded guilty in February 2006, Regina Greenplate detailed the pain that the accident had caused her family during a victim impact statement. The story detailed Greenplate as saying that her husband was her “soul mate” and that Miller had ripped her heart. Upon entering her guilty plea, Miller said that she wished she could change what happened and expressed her remorse for the accident.