The Injury Blog recently detailed a proposed Oregon ATV law (Senate Bill 101) requiring permits for riders age seven and older. A recent online story on TheWorldlink.com detailed how ATV enthusiasts and those concerned about ATV safety have reached several agreements on this legislation, which would have originally banned children under the age of 12 from riding ATVs as a means to prevent serious personal injuries and even deaths. These compromises include requiring mandatory safety training courses for minors and their parents and disallowing children ages six and under from riding on these vehicles.

ATV safety advocates had originally proposed this bill to prevent anyone under 12 from riding these vehicles in the wake of fatal ATV accidents involving children. However, after ATV enthusiasts complained that this type of law would hurt the burgeoning Oregon ATV industry, a group of riders, dealers and safety advocates reached several agreements.

 • Children six years and under can not ride on these vehicles.

 • Older children may ride ATVs if they have a guardian’s supervision and a state-issued permit, which would only be obtainable after successfully completing the mandatory safety course with their parents.

• Children would have to ride on properly sized ATVs. Rules determining what is a properly-sized ATV for a child rider would be written by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Portland ATV dealer Gary Sargent helped negotiate the bill and said in the story that it makes more sense to look a the size of the vehicle rather the child’s age.

The story added that this proposed Oregon ATV law has the most decent chance of passing this session. As detailed here last week, an Oregon ATV helmet proposal has stalled. We’ll keep you update on the latest developments with this proposed Oregon ATV law, Senate Bill 101.

With Florida’s personal injury protection law requiring that drivers carry up to $10,000 of personal injury insurance set to expire on October 1st of this year, the state Senate and House are looking at different ways to address the issue. Earlier this week, the state Senate passed a bill that would extend the Florida personal injury protection law for three more years. The House on the other hand has proposed a bill that would get rid of this personal injury protection and rather require $15,000 dollars in coverage for emergency rooms and hospital-owned clinics.

Insurance companies have claimed that the current Florida personal injury protection law is wrought with fraud. Proponents of the law have disagreed and been willing to make a compromise by putting a cap on the reimbursements that insurance companies have to pay to hospitals, doctors and clinics that treat car accident victims. Insurance companies would rather see the law go for good, a move which a recent Insurance Journal story indicated could save them $350 million.

Under Senate Bill 1880, the current Florida personal injury protection law would be extended for three more years. During that time, the system would be studied to examine such claims of widespread fraud, areas for improvement and other factors by October 2010. This proposed Florida personal injury law would also prohibit this protection to be extended after January 2012 unless reforms are made to the system as mandated by the study.

A CBS4.com story said that the House is likely to take up this issue next week and amend its own bill, HB 7215, onto it. Florida lawmakers have only one week left to reach a compromise on this hot issue in the state before the session ends on May 4th. We’ll keep you updated on any developments with the status of the Florida personal injury protection law.

A recent Associated Press story in the Boston Herald contained one U.S. Representative’s assertion how traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become the signature injury in the Iraq War and then detailed how legislators are trying to improve treatment for this devastating personal injury. Representative Michael Michaud of Maine explained that many men and women could be currently serving in the Iraq War and have TBI without even knowing it since some of its symptoms present themselves in more subtle ways. Some war analysts estimated in the story that TBI symptoms may manifest themselves in as many as 15 percent of military personnel who have served or will serve in the Iraq War.

With such information in mind, various U.S. legislators have proposed legislation that would provide for more research and better screening of traumatic brain injury. Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine just recently joined presidential hopeful and fellow Senator Barack Obama from Illinois in introducing the Lane Evans Veterans Health and Benefit Improvement Act of 2007. This measure would screen soldiers specifically for TBI.

Another U.S. Senator from Maine, Susan Collins, has also introduced bipartisan legislation that would improve treatment of traumatic brain injury and also expand current support for injured victims and their families. Ron Brodeur, state inspector for the Maine Department of Disabled American Veterans, supported such types of legislation in the story and indicated what they could mean for returning war veterans in state.

While saying that the number of returning soldiers from Afghanistan or Iraq who could ultimately have TBI is certainly unknown, Brodeur provided an estimation. With nearly 2,000 soldiers from Maine serving in either war, Brodeur said at least 300 of them could have TBI in the future; thus requiring the need for better treatment, screening and support programs.

The parents of a 13-year-old boy who was killed in a 2002 Florida ATV accident were awarded a $20 million personal injury settlement earlier this month by a Pasco County civil jury. A St. Petersburg Times story detailed that Donald “D.J.” Roberts was killed when he lost control of someone else’s four-wheel all-terrain vehicle and crashed head-first into a barbed wire fence. Donald and Terry Roberts, the parents of the deceased boy, had alleged in their personal injury lawsuit that the defendant, Timothy Mark Taylor, had invited the boy to ride the ATV. The story said that neither Taylor nor any lawyers showed up to court for his defense.

Witnesses and investigators told the newspaper that D.J. and a 10-year-old boy were riding a nearby resident’s ATV without permission prior to the deadly accident. Despite their shouts to tell the boys to slow down on the vehicle, witnesses said that the boys did not listen to them and continued to ride at high speeds. D.J. Roberts then lost control of the vehicle and was nearly decapitated. The other boy on the vehicle was also injured in the accident.

In their 2004 wrongful death lawsuit, Donald’s parents claimed that Taylor invited their son to ride the 1986 ATV. While it is unclear if Taylor owned the vehicle, the lawsuit said that he was responsible for the ATV and consequently failed to provide adult supervision, “properly secure” the ignition key, and keep the vehicle in a “safe” condition.

Hendrik Uiterwyk, the family’s Tampa personal injury attorney, said in the story that Taylor never contacted the family after the accident. He added that while the family got the settlement they wanted, they could never bring back to their 13-year-old son.

The Injury Site blog appears to be very active, but in fact, nobody is really writing the Injury Site blog (injurysite dot com) at all. 

Instead, the entire contents of the Injury Site blog have been scraped from the Total Injury Blog. 

Total Injury has a staff of writers, designers, and developers, including several attorney writers and researchers.  The Injury Site apparently has no such thing, because this blogger has been unable to find a single post on the Injury Site blog that didn’t appear on the Total Injury blog first.  If you’re reading this post on the Injury Site blog, it’s a safe bet that no one at the Injury Site is even READING the blog—otherwise, they’d surely have prevented this post from appearing.

If you’re reading this post on Total Injury, thanks for visiting, and we apologize for the interruption.  We’ll have more timely personal injury news and commentary for you later today.

A Superior Court jury in New Brunswick has just recently awarded a $10.6 million personal injury verdict to a Toms River woman who suffered a paralyzed right arm after her 1997 Ford Explorer rolled over. Specifically, Rebekah Zakrocki-Parks was on her way to work on the Garden State Parkway in November of 2000 when the throttle on her truck got stuck. When the gas pedal became unstuck, Zakrocki-Parks’ truck surged forward and rolled over. Zakrocki-Parks’ arm was ejected through the sunroof during the rollover and consequently crushed and partially amputated. Following her truck accident injuries, she would have more than 20 surgeries on her arm and shoulder in order to reattach the arm.

The New Jersey personal injury attorneys of Zakrocki-Parks alleged in their client’s personal injury lawsuit that Ford Motor Company and Freehold Ford were aware that other Explorer drivers were experiencing throttle problems as early as 1996. They also claimed that these rollover accidents were occurring when drivers applied extra pressure to their gas pedals in order to combat the accumulation of sludging. They further said that this risk was even more significant in SUVs because they have a higher center of gravity than other vehicles and are more prone to rollover to begin with.

Following a four week trial and two days of deliberation, the jury came to the verdict in favor of the now 28-year-old Zakrocki-Parks. The approximate personal injury verdict came out to $10,668,799.89 in damages.

A Milford, Connecticut woman who suffered severe neck, back and shoulder injuries during a 2005 car accident with a drunken driver has settled for $495,000 before filing her personal injury lawsuit. A Saturday online story of The Connecticut Post detailed how 20-year-old Elisha Vernucci came to her near half-a-million car accident settlement on Friday with 23-year-old Megan Davis, who had already been convicted for DUI and driving the wrong way, sentenced to two days in jail and fined $1,000 for her role in the incident. 

Vernucci suffered her severe car accident injuries while driving on I-95 in Westport shortly after midnight on June 15, 2005. While proceeding north in the left lane, Vernucci told police that she saw a vehicle heading toward her. While she tried to avoid the car, Vernucci was hemmed in by other traffic and struck by the vehicle driven by Davis. Specifically, The Connecticut Post story described how Vernucci’s car was stricken on the passenger side and spun around before it came to rest backwards partially in the highway median.

Following the accident, Vernucci was rushed to Newark Hospital for her Connecticut car accident injuries. She later had back surgery for the various personal injuries that she suffered. At the time, Davis said that she did not know she was driving the wrong way and wasn’t sure how she got to be that way. While she did not suffer any injuries in the incident, Davis would later be convicted for DUI. Follow the latest news and strangest stories about drunk driving at The DUI Blog, and frequently visit us here at The Injury Blog for posts on all types of personal injury settlements!

In one of the more unusual Iowa personal injury settlements in quite a while, a Cedar Falls woman was awarded $35,000 for a thumb injury she suffered from a police officer during a fight at a 2003 junior high football game. Tracey Toles had claimed that officer Joel Oltrogge grabbed her thumb and twisted her arm around her back as she responded to the fight on the field. Specifically, a WCFCourier.com story detailed that Toles said she went on the field to see why an officer had pinned her daughter on the ground with his knee in her back during the fight.  That’s when Toles said Oltrogge violated her Constitutional Rights by excessive use of force.

This incident occurred during a September 2003 game between Waterloo Central Middle School and Holmes Junior High at the Holmes football field in Cedar Falls. A fight broke out during the fourth quarter of that game when someone in the stands came onto the field and confronted a Holmes player. Subsequent fights broke out on the field and in the stands. Toles alleged that an officer took her daughter Danaila to the ground, and that she went onto the field to see why her daughter was being arrested. Toles added that she would later have surgery on the thumb which Oltrogge grabbed.

Toles and her Iowa personal injury attorney first sued both the city of Cedar Falls and Oltrogge. However, the city appealed to be removed from the case, and its wish was granted. However, its attorney Bruce Gottman continued to represent Oltrogge and later agreed to this Iowa police brutality lawsuit. The city will pick up the bill of this settlement for Oltrogge, who is no longer with the force after being fired in September 2006 for violating the city uniform allowance policy.

A proposed Oregon ATV law that would have banned children under the age of 12 from riding all-terrain vehicles on public lands in an effort to prevent severe personal injuries and deaths was tabled earlier this month and will see no further action. As previously detailed here at The Injury Blog, Senate Bill 49 would have also restricted the size of engines in ATVs ridden by people ages 12-15. An Albany Democrat-Herald story detailed how more than 200 concerned ATV riders of all ages complained about this legislation on the steps of the Capitol in Salem and how other ATV user groups have influenced another Oregon ATV bill in the legislature.

Specifically, these groups have worked with legislators and state park officials to add amendments to Senate Bill 101, which would require permits for ATV riders age 7 and older. Amendments to this Oregon ATV bill include adult supervision of riders under 16 years of age while riding on public lands and mandatory safety training and fitting of riders to ATV sizes.

In addition to Oregon, the Sooner State has also made some progress on a proposed ATV accident law. An Insurance Journal story detailed that an Oklahoma bill requiring children under 18 years of age to wear crash helmets while riding on or operating an ATV on public land was approved by a Senate committee in early April. This bill has already passed the Oklahoma House and has gone to the Senate floor for consideration.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law, this Oklahoma legislation would mandate a $25 fine for anyone who fails to comply. This proposed Oklahoma ATV law would not apply to ATV use on private property. State Senator Andrew Rice sponsored this bill in large part to the deaths of six children in Oklahoma ATV accidents last year. Rice added in the story how Oklahoma currently has no safety requirement for ATV riders besides disallowing people from operating these vehicles on paved roads. We’ll keep you updated on any developments with these proposed Oklahoma and Oregon ATV laws.

A suspected shoplifter who was pinned beneath a Denver patrol car and suffered severe personal injuries during a June 2003 incident has been awarded $30,000 from the city. After allegedly stealing beef jerky from a convenience store nearly four years ago, Leonard Trujillo was chased by a police officer and accidentally run over twice by a patrol car during the pursuit. Trujillo sued the city in district court for his police injuries, and the Denver City Council agreed to the $30,000 personal injury settlement earlier this week.

A Rocky Mountain News story detailed the strange circumstances surrounding this case. After Trujillo allegedly stole the beef jerky, the convenience store owner locked the doors to the store to prevent him from escaping. Trujillo then kicked through the glass doors to escape, and a concerned citizen quickly notified police officer Gary Hise, who was sitting nearby in his patrol car. Hise began driving and noticed a man matching the suspect’s description. He then shined his lights on the suspect, which turned out to be Trujillo.

After being stopped, Trujillo claimed that he puts his hands up in the air to surrender. However, when the police car continued toward him and jumped the curb four or five feet from where he was standing, Trujillo said he began to flee towards a driveway out of fear. Hise followed Trujillo but stopped when he noticed that the suspect had encountered some “aggressive dogs.” After Trujillo got away from the dogs and ran back past the patrol car, Hise claimed that he lost sight of the suspect.

Hise then backed up his car and hit Trujillo in the small of his back. According to court documents detailed in the story, Hise did not realize that he hit Trujillo but did sense “an instability, like a flat tire, under his right rear tire.” Thinking that he had encountered a rough patch of gravel, Hise continued to back up his patrol car into the street. When he noticed the same instability in the street, he stopped his car and found Trujillo pinned beneath the rear. Trujillo remained under the car until a tow truck arrived.

Hise said in an interview with the newspaper that Trujillo’s injuries were an accident. He also added that he talked with the city’s attorneys and accepted their advice that the $30,000 personal injury settlement was the best way to resolve the situation.

A Wheaton, Illinois man who struck a Geneva teenager and left her to die by the side of the road has reached a $265,000 personal injury settlement with the family of the girl. Tiffany Baier was walking on the edge of a road on July 2, 2003 when she was struck from behind by a car driven by Jason Janega, who did not stop or call for help. While Baier’s death was ruled an accident, her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2004 and claimed that Janega was not looking out for pedestrians and thus careless.

A Daily Herald story said that Baier was walking home on the side of the road because there were no sidewalks in the direction that she was heading. A witness reported the accident and Janega’s car to police, and Janega was apprehended some two hours later at his Wheaton home. Janega pleaded guilty to one count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident in January 2004 and was sentenced to four months in the Kane County jail’s work release program, 48 months probation and 200 hours of community service.

The Daily Herald story added that Janega never went to trial in criminal or civil cases involving the accident, and thus never publicly stated when he exactly left the scene of the accident or what he was doing in the two hours between the accident and his arrest. Authorities believe that the accident was not alcohol-related.

Under the terms of this personal injury settlement, the Baier family will get $170,097 after legal fees. This money will be allocated to Tiffany Baier’s parents, Theresa and David, as well as her adult brother Anthony and younger sister Courtney, who was 12-years old at the time of the fatal accident. The story added that the $265,000 wrongful death settlement is $15,000 more than the cap on Janega’s insurance policy. Tiffany Baier was a 2002 graduate of Geneva High School.

The Hammond City Council recently approved the second and final installment of a personal injury settlement that has been described as one of the city’s largest settlements. Janine Daniels will now receive the final $132,500 of her $265,000 settlement with the city. Daniels incurred nearly $100,000 in medical bills for injuries that she sustained to both legs, her right arm and hip after her car collided with a city dump truck in 2004. 

An online Northwest Indiana story detailed the circumstances surrounding Daniels’ car accident injuries. Personal injury attorney Richard Komyatte claimed that his client, Daniels, was heading westbound and didn’t have stop sign when a city dump truck rolled out into the intersection to make a turn after either failing to stop at a stop sign or yield the right of way. Komyatte added that Daniels swerved her car to avoid contact with the dump truck before striking it.

Hammond defense attorneys claimed that Daniels was at least 50 percent responsible for the car accident because she was exceeding the legal speed limit and not paying attention. They added that the city’s truck driver, Juan Martinez, would have been able to complete the turn without incident if Daniels was doing the speed limit. Daniels and the city came to the $265,000 settlement last May.

A female employee of a Beaumont, Texas retirement home has filed a personal injury lawsuit against her employer for the injuries that she suffered at work. A story in today’s The Southeast Texas Record details the case of Cornelia Williams, who works at the Clairmont Beaumont retirement home. Williams claims that she was injured on October 5^th as a result of the retirement home’s negligence while she was performing her work duties. Williams also alleges in her petition that the retirement home does not carry workers’ compensation insurance.

Specifically, Williams has sued Summit Care Texas, LP, which operates as Clairmont Beaumont. She claims that the defendant caused her injury, which is not detailed in the story, because it did not adequately provide her with the necessary tools, training, safety equipment, and staffing and support to do her job. Williams is seeking a wide variety of damages, including mental anguish, past and future medical expenses,  physical pain and disability, and the loss of earning capacity and enjoyment of life.

This Texas personal injury lawsuit was filed in the Jefferson County District Court and has been assigned to Judge Donald Floyd in the 172^nd District Court. We’ll keep you updated on any more details and developments with this personal injury case.

A Portland, Oregon woman has filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of her son and against the Lake Oswego School District for an incident during a youth league basketball game two years ago. Therese Heaton has alleged that the District was negligent when it didn’t provide adequate protection for her son Nicholas Rhodes, who she said suffered a concussion and traumatic brain injury when he hit his head on an unpadded wall during the basketball game.

Specifically, The Lake Oswego Review detailed how this Oregon personal injury lawsuit explained how now 14-year-old Nicholas jumped up to block a shot during a fifth-grade basketball game when he lost his balance, fell headfirst into the unpadded, cement wall behind the out-of-bounds line and was immediately knocked out unconscious. Heaton added in the personal injury lawsuit that her son now suffers from a permanent injury that impacts his balance, hearing, vision and cognition

According to the personal injury lawsuit, the district should not have allowed children to even play on the court without first providing a safe environment and putting pads on the walls to lessen physical impact. In addition to the school district, the Lake Oswego Community School, Youth Basketball Association and Traveling Basketball Association were respectively listed as defendants. Heaton is seeking $13,000 in medical and other expenses and an additional $500,000 in non-economic damages, according to documents described in the story.

School district attorney Peter Mersereau said that the district will contest some of Rhodes’ injuries and his mother’s allegations. Specifically, the district alleges that Rhodes’ injuries were caused in part due to his own negligence because he did not look out for his own safety during the game. The district claimed that it was not liable because Rhodes signed a medical consent and release of liability form in order to play in the game.

The story did add that Mersereau and Heaton’s attorney David Sugerman both said that they expect the lawsuit to be settled out of court within a couple of weeks. This trial is set to begin on May 15^th. We’ll keep you updated on any developments with this Oregon personal injury lawsuit.

After much hard work on its behalf, the Poughkeepsie Journal recently obtained documents revealing that a man who alleged police brutality against two Beacon, New York police officers was awarded a $48,000 personal injury settlement this last January. Samuel Parker received the settlement as part of a federal lawsuit in which he claimed that police officer Shawn Barry held him up at the city’s police station house so that officer Frank Pompilio could punch him. The story said that both sides agreed to the settlement and detailed how Pompilio denied wrongdoing in previous interviews.

Court records detailed that Parker was taken into custody when he was 17 years old on January 8, 2003. He was charged with misdemeanor counts of possessing a weapon and controlled substance, and resisting arrest. He later reached a guilty plea to disorderly conduct and paid a $60 fine. The story said that the majority of Parker’s claim was paid by the city’s insurance carrier and that the city paid a $5,000 deductible.

Parker’s police brutality lawsuit was one of four against the Beacon PD. Barry is no longer with the Beacon PD and is now a member of the Village of Walden Police Department. Pompilio is on medical leave from the Beacon PD.

Of further interest, the Poughkeepsie Journal had to jump through hoops to get the documents about this case from the city. After seeking copies of the settlement agreement and other related documents under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, the city denied the request and said that it couldn’t do so because its lawyer had retained the documents. Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, disagreed and said that whoever had the documents was irrelevant since the city of Beacon was bound by the Freedom of Information Law to disclose the records.

After the newspaper filed an appeal, the city received copies of the document from the city’s insurance agent. Journal Executive Editor Stuart Shinske said that he was glad the city released the documents but maintained they should have been released regardless of who possessed them.