Toyota Halts Sales of 8 U.S. Models in US

Toyota Halts Sales of 8 U.S. Models in US

In a dramatic move, Toyota has halted sales of eight U.S. models of its vehicles out of fears regarding a sticking throttle issue.

The move is being “unprecedented” in the automobile industry and the automaker gave no indication as to when it will find a remedy or how long the sales halt will be in effect.

The models that are not being sold now are:
*Avalon, 2005-10
*Camry, 2007-10
*Corolla, 2009-10
*Highlander, 2010
*Matrix, 2009-10
*RAV4, 2009-10
*Sequoia, 2008-10
*Tundra, 2007-10

These vehicles reportedly make up about two thirds of Toyota-brand sales in the United States.

This sticking throttle recall is said to be different, according to the automaker, from the recall of 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles late last year where throttles could get jammed open by floor mats.  Toyota is trimming gas pedals and said it plans on replacing the gas pedals with a different design.  It should be noted, though, that 1.7 million of the vehicles in the latest recall are also included in the floor mat related recall.

Toyota U.S. Vice President Bob Carter told the media, “Restoring confidence in Toyota” and ensuring customer safety were the reasons for Tuesday’s halt.  Go to www.Toyota.com for more information on these recalls.
   

Red-Light Cameras Coming to a Halt?

Red-Light Cameras Coming to a Halt?    

In a front-page story in today’s USA Today, it is reported that some communities are putting the brakes on the publicly unpopular red light cameras that have been installed at many intersections, including perhaps in Illinois.

Billed as a safety measure, motorists have been complaining to lawmakers that they are merely revenue-generative devices for some communities.

Illinois Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), once a promoter of the devices when they were installed in Illinois in 2006, told USA Today that he will introduce bills this year in the legislature to “to sharply limit their use.”   He said, “They were sold to us in a different manner than what they’ve been used for.  The municipalities have put them in areas where they’re just to make revenue.”

He went on to tell the newspaper that since 2006, crashes have increased at half the intersections in Illinois that have these cameras, stayed the same at 25 percent of these intersections and decreased at 25 percent of the intersections.

Some states, such as Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wisconsin have banned the red-light cameras, according to the story that quotes Anne Teigen, a transportation specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

Eighteen lawsuits are pending in Florida filed saying that the devices are unconstitutional because they force drivers to prove their innocence rather than the government to prove their guilty, according to the story. 

The USA Today reports that red-light cameras are being used in more than 400 communities in 26 states and the District of Columbia.

Children's Toy and Jewlery Dangers Being Investigated

A recent speech by Inez Tanenbaum, Chair of the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), indicates that the agency is investigating reports that children’s toys and jewelry manufactured in China contain the toxic metal cadmium as both a surface material and a substrate.  This speech comes on the heels of an Associated Press (AP) investigation that revealed the widespread use of cadmium in these products.  Lab testing conducted in furtherance of the AP investigation revealed a piece that was composed of 91 percent cadmium, with others coming in at percentages of 89, 86 and 84 percent by weight.  The lab tests covered items that were all purchased at national or regional chains, including some from Wal-Mart and Claire’s, a popular costume/fashion jewelry chain.

Cadmium replaced lead as a substitute metal in children’s products since 2008 when Congress focused legislation on lead in children’s toys.  The Center for Disease Control’s list of Hazardous Substances places cadmium, a known carcinogen, in its 7th spot, after such substances as arsenic, lead, mercury and benzene.  The list can be found here.  According to research, cadmium exposure in the very young can alter brain development and exposure can come from oral contact with the jewelry.
This investigation reportedly has revealed a hole in the regulatory framework that should protect consumers from these products.  If the products were painted toys, they would reportedly be recalled and even more troubling, if they were industrial garbage, they would be considered hazardous waste.

According to Gib Mullan, the CPSC’s director of compliance and field operations, the agency has reportedly received dozens of incident reports related to cadmium in products in recent years.  Yet, despite the complaints and their statutory authority to enforce an action, agency representatives have admitted to the media that they have neglected to do so.  Mullan said, "We are a small agency so we can't do everything we think would be a good idea. We have to try to pick our spots."  He further said that, at most, the agency can investigate 10 percent of the tens of thousands of reports filed by the public each year.
Recently, there have been several other high-profile concerns over Chinese products, including the 2007 recall of children’s toys due to high levels of lead, the 2008 recall of melamine tainted milk that killed six babies in China, and the discovery of heightened levels of hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde in Chinese drywall.

Clifford Law Offices Files Petition for Discovery on Behalf of Aurora Man Injured by Flying Ice on Highway

An Aurora man was injured when a large chunk of ice crashed through the windshield of his car after sliding off of a semi-trailer that was driving under a viaduct on Butterfield Road.

The victim, Peter Morano, retained Clifford Law Offices to assist him in finding the truck from which the ice fell.  Timothy Tomasik, partner at Clifford Law Offices, filed a petition for discovery with the Cook County Circuit Court seeking access to logbooks, security camera footage of the area, schedules and other materials from a FedEx facility close to where the accident occurred to assist in locating the truck.

Yesterday, in a press conference, Mr. Tomasik made a plea to the public.  “We are asking for any witnesses who may have seen what occurred or who may have more information to help us locate the truck and truck driver,” said Tomasik.  “We will need to make sure that company’s drivers are more aware of the dangers involved in not clearing ice and snow off the tops of trucks and other vehicles before they take off at high speeds and pass under viaducts.”

Links for further reading:

Clifford Law Offices Press Release on the incident

Peter Morano's Statement (PDF)

Chicago Trucker Collides with Special Needs Bus in Ohio

Chicago Trucker Collides with Special Needs Bus in Ohio

A trucker from Chicago slammed into a bus carrying special needs adults in Springfield, Ohio, killing four and injuring eight more.

The truck’s driver, Zygmunt Wieckowski, 59, from Chicago was treated and released.  He reportedly had three speeding tickets and some citations in the early 1990s, according to media reports.  He had reportedly been driving for Highway Transport Chemical of Knoxville, Tennessee, for the last two years. 

He was traveling on Interstate 70 on Thursday in the southwestern Ohio town, about 309 miles east of Dayton, when his truck crossed the median and collided with the bus.  Some of those in the bus were in wheelchairs or restraints, according to reports.

It is a very tragic accident and the people in that area are mourning those who were very close.

Victims in Special Needs Bus a Tight-Knit Group

Victims in Special Needs Bus a Tight-Knit Group

Reporters describe those on the special needs bus as a “tight-knit group” who all looked out for one another.  They would work and play with each other all day, taking care of one another if the other was sick, according to media reports.

As the Ohio Highway Patrol investigate the cause of the truck slamming into the bus of special needs victims, the families of the four people killed mourn their tragic loss.  Among those killed was the 42-year-old bus driver from Springfield, Ohio.  Six others reportedly were injured, including the truck driver from Chicago who was treated and released for minor injuries from an Ohio hospital.  He was driving a Mack tanker truck.

The special needs adults were being driven to their home in Vienna Meadows where they all lived together when the bus in Springfield, Ohio, crossed the median line and slammed into them head-on.  The crash occurred Thursday, Jan. 7, just before 1 p.m.

It was reported that rescuers recognized the faces of many of those victims in the special needs bus.  And a former caretaker at their home told reporters that it will be very difficult on all of the residents of the special needs home in explaining what occurred and where their close friends are. 
   

Tanker Truck Kills Four in Special Needs Van

Tanker Truck Kills Four in Special Needs Van

A tanker truck collided into a passenger van transporting adults with special needs on Interstate 70 in the Dayton, Ohio area Thursday.  The Dayton Daily News is reporting that four people died and at least several more were injured.

The tragic crash occurred just after 1 p.m. on I-70 East in Springfield in southwest Ohio.  The shuttle van was serving the Creative Learning Workshop that provides vocational services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Reports indicate that the tanker truck cut into the oncoming lane and crashed head-on into the bus that was returning from the Springfield Vocational Training Center.  Ten people were on board that included two staffers.

The crash is under investigation.

Explosion at Northwest Indiana Steel Mill

Explosion at Northwest Indiana Steel Mill

An explosion at a Northwest Indiana steel mill killed one person and injured four others on Thursday night.  Portage, Indiana Mayor Olga Velazquez told reporters the explosion happened in the melt shop of the Beta Steel Corporation in Portage..

The four injured suffered serious steam burns. Fire rescue teams from various towns responded to reports of the explosion and reportedly workers were evacuated from the portion of the plant where the explosion took place.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been contacted and will conduct an investigation, according to media reports.  Beta Steel also experienced an explosion Nov. 14, 2009, just two months ago.  That incident reportedly involved slag that erupted in the company’s melting shop, sending four to hospitals suffering injuries such as blunt trauma and burns, according to Portage Fire Chief Bill Lundy at that time.

Detroit Hotel Fire Kills Three

The lighting of a cigarette reportedly has been found to have caused a deadly fire in a Detroit hotel that killed three people and left many homeless New Year’s Eve.

A residential hotel in Midtown Detroit was ripped by the fire when a drunken man used a piece of paper to light a cigarette, according to Detroit Fire Department officials.

The five-story Huntington Hotel on the 100 block of West Alexandrine was ablaze when bed sheets caught fire and then spread down the hall when the man left his door open to yell for help, according to fire investigators.

Two residents died including a 67-year-old wheelchair bound woman was found the next day in the rubble, according to fire officials.  Thee others were injured, including two firefighters.  The American Red Cross provided emergency shelter for some. 

Train Accidents in Lake Forest

According to a recent article in Gazebo News, an online news site covering Chicago’s North Shore, there have been six collisions between people and trains since 1988 at the Metra station in west Lake Forest.

In 1988, two people were killed when a woman, who had fallen on the tracks, and a man who attempted to assist her were struck by a Seattle-bound, 11-car Amtrak train traveling at 70 miles per hour.

Ten years later, in March 1998, a 56-year-old woman from Round Lake Beach was struck and injured by a north-bound Amtrak train.  The collision resulted in a broken leg and head injuries.

In 2003, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a freight train while crossing the tracks in the afternoon.

Five years later, in 2008, an Amtrak train killed a 51-year-old woman when she crossed the tracks in the pedestrian walk.

Most recently, on December 10 of this year, a 43-year-old woman was killed after being struck by Amtrak’s No. 7 Seattle-bound train.

The full article can be read here. 

50 Million Blinds and Shades Recalled

50 Million Blinds and Shades Recalled

Risk to children is the reason that 50 million roll-up blinds and Roman-type shades have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The government together with the window covering industry today (Wed., 12/16/09) recalled the products because of the risk that children may be strangled by the cords.

Five deaths and 16 near-strangulations have been reported in the last three years connected to Roman shades, and three deaths related to roll-up blinds have been reported since 2001, according to the CPSC.

Several major retailers, including Wal-Mart, JC Penney and Pottery Barn, are participating in the massive recall.

Consumers can obtain free retro-fit kits for the recalled items online at www.windowcoverings.org or by calling the Window Covering Safety Council at 800-506-4636.         

The CPSC recommends that anyone with small children at home should make sure that all blinds and shades do not have accessible cords.  They also are advising parents not to place cribs, beds or other furniture close to windows because children can climb on the furniture and reach the cords.  

To learn more about the recall and the products affected, please visit the CPSC website at: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10077.html

Robert Clifford Named Chicago Best Lawyers Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year for 2010

Robert Clifford Named Chicago Best Lawyers Medical Malpractice
Lawyer of the Year for 2010

Robert A. Clifford, nationally renown personal injury attorney in Chicago, has been named Chicago Best Lawyers Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year for 2010.

Best Lawyers, the oldest and one of the most respected peer-review publications in the legal profession for the last quarter century, is designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialities in large legal communities.  Only a single lawyer in each area is being honored as “Lawyer of the Year.”

Clifford, who has been on its list for more than two decades, was given the highest honor for 2010 after being designated the 2009 Chicago Personal Injury Litigator of the Year by the organization.

Best Lawyers’ compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.  The current edition is based on more than 2.8 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

As this year’s honoree, Clifford received particularly high ratings in its surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for his ability, professionalism and integrity.

Steven Naifeh, Managing Editor of Best Lawyers, said, “We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition of one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession.  We would like to congratulate Robert A. Clifford on being selected as the ‘Chicago Best Lawyers Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year’ for 2010.”
___________________

For further information, please call Jeremy Wilson, Communications Manager at Best Lawyers at (803) 644-1668 or email him at jwilson@bestlaywers.com.  Communications Partner at Clifford Law Offices, Pamela Menaker, can be reached at (847) 251-4877 or pammenaker@cliffordlaw.com

CTA Bus Crashes into House

A Chicago Transit Authority bus crashed into a house today on Chicago’s South Side.  The incident, which occurred about 5:40 a.m., resulted in sending three Morgan Park people and the bus driver, to area hospitals.

The Pullman 111th/115th Street bus was traveling southbound when it struck a brick home at West 115th Street and South Vincennes Avenue, according to a CTA spokeswoman.

Emergency crews at the scene reportedly shut off all gas and electricity to the house.  It was not confirmed if those injured were in the house, on the bus or pedestrians. 

Photos from the scene indicate the bus was several feet into the house.  Authorities are determining the structural damage to the house.

CTA Stroller Accident

According to reports, a stroller carrying a 1-year-old girl was stuck in the door of a CTA train yesterday as it left the Red Line’s Morse station.  The girl reportedly remains in the hospital after falling onto the ground near the tracks.  She was taken by ambulance to Children's Memorial Hospital.

According to witnesses, the mother and her child were attempting to board a southbound train when the train’s door closed on the stroller and the train began moving.  According to police, the mother chased after the train as the stroller turned sideways and dragged the child causing her to hit her head on the platform multiple times.  The child was reportedly ejected from the stroller and fell to the ground on the track bed.

The child reportedly did not fall onto the tracks, according to Police News Affairs John Mirabelli.

There are reported to be signals on the train that should activate in the event the train began moving with a door open.

Beware of Fraudulent H1N1 Products

To inform consumers the FDA has released a list of websites that are or were illegally marketing “unauthorized, uncleared, or unauthorized products in relation to the 2009 H1N1 Flu Virus (sometimes referred to as the “swine flu” virus).”

The products listed include hand sanitizers, herbal extracts, inhalers, shampoos, teas, masks and air cleansing systems, among other items.  The FDA also states that while some of the products may be approved, that approval is not based on its treatment of the 2009 H1N1 flu virus.  Moreover, the list is not comprehensive of all websites selling unapproved treatments; it contains only those sites to which the FDA has issued a warning letter.

To see the entire list please visit the FDA’s Fraudulent 2009 H1N1 Influenza Products List webpage.

Medical School Enrollment Up

Medical School Enrollment Up

For the 11th consecutive year, U.S. medical school enrollment is up as colleges seek to meet the growing demand for doctors.

First-year enrollment reportedly climbed 2 percent over 2008 and now totals nearly 18, 400 students, according to the Scripps Howard News-Service.  That accompanies the news that four new medical schools opened in 20009.  

The President of the Association of American Medical Colleges told the reporter that residency training slots need to increase to accommodate more medical school students.

Marching Band Bus Crash

Two days after a bus carrying members of a high school marching band, crashed, killing one of their instructors, hundreds of people showed up at the American Fork High School to celebrate the life of their beloved instructor, Heather Christensen.

According to reports, students in the marching band saw Christensen reach for the bus’ steering wheel after the driver reportedly blacked out. The bus rolled over, reportedly ejecting Christensen through a window.  The students gathered to praise how Ms. Christensen gave up her life to save the others on the bus.

Heather Christensen reportedly played multiple instruments, sang and was multilingual, speaking Hebrew and Russian.

Kevin Durkin Admitted to American College of Trial Lawyers

Kevin P. Durkin, partner at Clifford Law Offices, has become a fellow of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers.  The College is a premier professional trial organization in the United States and Canada composed of less than 1 percent of the lawyers in any state.

Durkin was inducted at its 59th Annual Meeting that was held in Boston, Ma.  Durkin, a graduate of DePaul University College of Law, handles many high profile and complex cases at Clifford Law Offices including aviation crashes and various transportation torts.

His $38.3 million verdict for a Chicago-area family involved in a tragic car-truck crash was named one of the Top 100 Verdicts in the nation in 2004 by the National Law Journal.

Founded in 1950, the College extends membership by invitation only to what it terms are “experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality.”  They must have a minimum of 15 years of trial experience.

Currently there are approximately 5,739 members in the United States and Canada including active Fellows, Emeritus Fellows, Judicial Fellows (those who ascended to the bench after their inductions) and Honorary Fellows.

Durkin and his family reside in Orland Park.

The Dangers of Cheerleading

The dangers of cheerleading are in the news again, this time discussed in a piece in today’s Chicago Tribune.  Safety precautions and proper oversight are reportedly lacking in cheerleading.  The resulting injuries are disproportionately serious and traumatic.  According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, “Cheerleading injuries resulting in hospital emergency room visits have increased almost sixfold since 1980, to nearly 30,000 in 2008,” the Tribune article points out.

Additionally, the article points out other statistics.  Statistics from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina reveal that from 1982 until 2008 disabilities or deaths resulting from head or spine trauma are almost double for female high school cheerleaders as compared with all female sports combined.

To read the article go here.

Robert Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, wrote a column on this very issue in the current October, 2009 issue of the Chicago Lawyer.  To view Mr. Clifford's article, please click here.

Plum Organics Baby Food Recall

California-based Plum Organics is reportedly recalling some of their apple and carrot baby food over concerns of botulism contamination.  The baby food pouches were reportedly sold nationwide through Toys-R-Us and Babies-R-Us stores.

According to Associated Press, the recalled product is in 4.22 ounce pouches with a “best by” date of May 21, 2010, and UPC 890180001221.  The "Best By" code is typed in black on the back of the package, on the bottom edge.  It reads as MAY2110.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the baby food.

The Plum Organics website reports that the product can be returned for a full refund and that no other products are affected.

Hundreds of Thousands of Children Suffer Bad Drug Reactions Yearly

Hundreds of Thousands of Children Suffer Bad Drug Reactions Yearly

More than half a million children in the United States have bad reactions or side effects every year from widely used medicines, according to new research reported by the Associated Press.

The number of children treated for bad drug reactions averaged 585,922 over a 10-year period.  Some of these reactions required medical treatment and sometimes hospitalization.

Children younger than age 5 are most commonly affected, according to the report.  Penicillin and other prescription antibiotics are among the drugs causing the most problems including rashes, diarrhea and stomach problems, AP reports.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Florence Bourgeois, a pediatrician with Children’s Hospital in Boston, warned parents to pay close attention when their children are started on medication since “first-time medication exposures may reveal an allergic reaction.”

The study appears in the October, 2009 issue of Pediatrics.  It is based on visits to clinics and emergency rooms between 1995 and 2005.

DC Metro Crash Investigation Leads to NTSB Safety Recommendations

On Sept. 22, 2009, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued nine safety recommendations as a result of their continuing investigation into the crash of two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains on the Red Line near the Fort Totten station in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2009.  The safety recommendations concern the train control systems that use audio frequency track circuits.
According to the press release, the NTSB investigation…

The recommendations, directed to the WMATA and to Alstom Signaling, Inc., the manufacturer of the track circuit modules, included working together on eliminating conditions that could affect these systems performance and the development by WMATA of a program that determines the performance of train control systems and their electronic components is within design tolerances.

According to the press release, Tte NTSB has also suggested that the Federal Train Administration (FTA) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) advise all rail transit operators and railroads using audio frequency track circuits about these findings in the Fort Totten investigation.  Additionally, the NTSB recommended the FTA and FRA also advise the transit operators and railroads using audio frequency track circuits to examine their circuits and work with their signal manufacturers to get rid of adverse conditions that could affect performance and to devise programs to determine that components are performing within design tolerances.

The safety recommendation letter to WMATA may be found here (PDF).
The safety recommendation to Alstom Signaling, Inc., may be found here (PDF).
The safety recommendations letter to FTA may be found here (PDF).
The safety recommendation letter to the FRA may be found here (PDF).

German Bus Crash Kills Five

German Bus Crash Kills Five

A bus sped off a road and plunged down a river embankment in western Germany Tuesday, killing five people and injuring several others, according to the Associated Press.

The late-morning crash occurred at Radevormvald, east of Duesseldorf and about an hour northeast of Cologne.  The driver, a 45-year-old man, was among those killed.  Six others escaped with injuries.

The bus reportedly was on a regular local route when it gained speed on a steep downhill stretch.  It then crashed through a barrier on a bend and plunged about 65 feet down the embankment of the Wupper River, coming to rest on its side at the bottom of the wooded embankment. Part of the rear section of the bus was in the river.  A crane had to recover the bus after fire officials cleared several trees.

Trucking Safety

Trucking Safety

President Obama nominated Anne Ferro, a major trucking industry lobbyist in Maryland, to lead the agency that oversees truck safety, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Obama has issued an order that bars hiring anyone who lobbied an executive-branch agency within the past two years, which technically means all federally registered lobbyists.  Ferro is the President of the Maryland affiliate of the American Trucking Association.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is considering her credentials for her confirmation hearing.

Some publications, such as The New York Times, have criticized the President in editorials for selecting someone with a potential conflict of interest, particularly in light of the 5,000 fatal truck crashes every year.  

In an editorial on Sept. 23, 2009, The New York Times pointed out that Ferro had implemented a graduated licensing system for new drivers and an ignition interlock program for drunken drivers, which were road safety pluses. 

But it also pointed to her supporting “the trucking industry’s efforts to thwart and defeat policies and programs needed to protect the public and promote the health and safety of truck drivers.”  For example, it pointed to a January letter to the editor of the Baltimore Sun that Ferro co-authored “defending the Bush administration’s loosening of regulations on drivers’ schedules and driver fatigue in defiance of considerable evidence of danger and two court decisions.”

It awaits to be seen what occurs at her Senate confirmation hearings.

Bob Clifford speaks on Fox Business Network Tonight

Robert A. Clifford, an outspoken person for the rights of personal injury victims, speaks tonight on America's Nightly Scoreboard on Fox Business Network at 6 p.m. CST.  He will appear on David Asman's show with Dr. Marc Siegal, Assistant Professor at New York University, discussing health care reform and how it needs to focus on preventative health care and insurance regulations, not taking away the rights of personal injury victims.

Video of the conversation can be viewed here.

Robert Clifford Appears on National Television

Robert A. Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, appeared on MSNBC this morning at 9:30 a.m. (CST) to speak about health care.

He spoke on Morning Meeting, hosted by Dylan Ratigan.  The conversation can be viewed here.

He also will be appearing on Fox National Business Network on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. (CST) on the David Asman show to speak on a panel on this important subject.

Please tune in to hear what he and others have to say about this timely topic.

Keith Hebeisen Obtains $5 Million Verdict

Keith A. Hebeisen, partner at Clifford Law Offices, obtained a $5 million verdict on behalf of a Greyslake woman who underwent an unnecessary hysterectomy.

The story received widespread coverage in the Chicago press.  Click here to see the coverage of the ABC affiliate.

Click here to see the coverage of the CBS affiliate. 

The Daily Herald also covered the story. 

For the press release issued by the firm on the verdict, please click here.

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has recently come under fire from members of Congress alleging that for years they have been waiving safety rules because of the close relationship with the industry they are tasked with regulating.

The PHMSA reportedly regulates more than one million daily shipments of dangerous cargo by land, sea and air.  They are accused of granting or renewing waivers of rules without looking at the safety records of the shippers, according to media reports.

In one particular case, a waiver was granted in 2004 even though the company had 321 prior safety incidents and five prior enforcement violations.  Moreover, the waiver was renewed two years later despite the company’s reported additional 26 incidents and five enforcement violations.

According to the chairman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the "culture appears plagued by a belief that it should make things as easy as possible for the industry that it should be regulating." "It's clear this agency's relationship with the industry it regulates needs to be completely overhauled. Its current state is unacceptable to say the least," Oberstar said. 

Officials with the agency, which regulates the transport of explosives, toxic chemicals and fireworks, among others hazardous materials, have issued about 1,250 active waivers and 118,000 written permissions.  These issuances are reportedly needed for actions with hazardous materials that would otherwise be prohibited in their absence.

Key points in the investigators' findings were outlined in an AP article and are reprinted below:

— The agency has granted 12 blanket waivers to trade associations for use by their members, which total more than 5,000 companies, without any evaluation of their fitness for waivers. Among the trade groups: The National Association of Chemical Distributors, The National Propane Gas Association and The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute.

— PHMSA staff told investigators the agency treats the companies it regulates like customers and is focused on keeping industry chiefs happy, rather than keeping the public safe. The committee's report says investigators were told lobbyists had unfettered access to the agency's time and resources, and the industry was effectively running the agency.

— PHMSA often fails to advise other government agencies of its decisions to waive regulations. In particular, PHMSA officials appear to go out of their way to avoid informing the Federal Aviation Administration of waivers involving air cargo.

— PHMSA's staff told congressional investigators they consider the agency's data "notoriously inaccurate, incomplete and virtually useless." A report by the House committee said, "We question how PHMSA can ensure safety is its highest priority if it cannot rely on its own data."

— The agency issues special emergency waivers of regulations for shippers without any meaningful justification for the expedited action. One shipper got an emergency waiver to transport nitric acid in checked baggage on a passenger airliner without special labeling or pilot notification even though leaking nitric acid led to a 1973 cargo plane crash in Boston that killed three crew members.

Twittering Jurors

Twittering Jurors

The question of jury objectivity and fairness is an ideal that all courtrooms seek to achieve.  This question has recently resurfaced in the news when some jurors posted comments about the trials in which they were sitting were found to be on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. 

Jury objectivity is a key component of a fair trial.  While traditionally, jurors have been allowed to speak only through their verdicts, some jurisdictions allow juries to clarify points of law or instructions during deliberations. 

Robert Clifford wrote an article for the Chicago Lawyer magazine that examines jury fairness in the context of the latest social media.  He writes about how being mindful of adherence to the rules will result in juries being objective and fair and, ultimately, just outcomes.

To read Bob Clifford’s article, please visit: http://www.cliffordlaw.com/news/attorneys-articles/twittering-in-the-jury-box 

Law Suit Filed Against Chicago Cubs in Death of Wrigleyville Man

Clifford Law Offices today (Friday, Aug. 21, 2009) filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Cubs for the death of a 21-year-old Wrigleyville man who died when a structure owned by the Cubs collapsed and fell on him, killing him, about 50 feet from the confines of Wrigley Field.  The press release, including a statement given by the young man's mother, can be viewed here.

Swine Flu Drug Makers Get Government Immunity

Since last April when it was first identified, swine flu has, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), caused at least 263 deaths.  And, health officials reportedly believe that the virus could add to a worse flu season or possibly mutate into a more dangerous variant.

So before embarking on a push to get individuals vaccinated, some media outlets are reporting that vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits surrounding new swine flu vaccines.  This is a result of a document recently signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.

The document, signed last month, reportedly provides immunity to the drug makers based on a 2006 law for public health emergencies but has provisions for a compensation fund should the need arise.

In 1976, vaccinations were administered to 40 million Americans in an effort to prevent another swine flu pandemic.  However, many injury suits were reportedly filed by individuals who claimed to be suffering from side effects of the vaccine, including Guillain-Barre Syndrome.  As a result, the government reportedly paid to settle many of the claims.

Tragic Death of Construction Worker

According to reports, a front-end loader at a construction site in Chicago fell seven stories to the ground, killing the construction worker who was operating it at the time.  The accident occurred this morning at a construction site located in the 2400 block of South State Street.

Chicago Fire Department personnel removed the driver from the vehicle and brought him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to Quention Curtis, spokesman for the Fire Department. 

A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed that they were notified of the man’s death this morning at Northwestern Hospital.

Individuals from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Chicago Police are reportedly investigating the scene and the accident.

Health Care Reform Talk

With all of the discussion surrounding President Obama’s health care reform, a new issue has come up for lawyers: a law that took effect July 1 regarding Medicare reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid claims involving personal injury claims.  Although the government has had a right to reimbursement since 1980, a new law was passed and lawyers across the country are trying to figure it out.

Robert A. Clifford, nationally recognized personal injury attorney, wrote a column for the Chicago Lawyer that explains the ins and outs of the new law.  He advocates for a course of action that is guided by protecting the client’s due process rights as money is being distributed to victims of personal injury.  Clifford goes on to describe a Medicare compliance process instituted by plaintiffs’ firms that would verify, negotiate and resolve Medicare’s reimbursement claims.

To read his article, please view it here.

Selecting a Lawyer

Selecting a Lawyer

When a person or a family is injured, the most important thing is to try to make everyone whole again.  Sometimes that just isn’t possible.         

People decide that for reasons unrelated to revenge, retribution or retaliation, they must pursue an action in the courts.  And the civil justice system responds in the only way it can – through money damages.

Hiring a lawyer who can help the injured or the loved one’s family through such a legal ordeal can be difficult and requires careful thought and consideration.

Keith Hebeisen, partner at Clifford Law Offices, wrote an article on what to expect when hiring a lawyer to pursue a personal injury action.  It offers great insight into what a client can and should expect from one’s lawyer.  To view the entire article, please go here.

Mayor Richard Daley Greets ABA Lawyers

Robert A. Clifford, Illinois State Delegate to the House of Delegates, had the honor of introducing Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to the American Bar Association Tuesday.  The Mayor greeted the policymaking body of the ABA and had many kind remarks.

Bob Clifford Introduces Mayor Richard Daley at ABA Meeting

Robert Clifford introduced Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago to the American Bar Association House of Delegates on Tuesday as the proceedings got underway.  Mayor Daley made a special appearance to greet lawyers from around the world to Chicago.  Below are Robert Cliffords remarks:

As the Illinois State Delegate to the House of Delegates, it is with great pride that I introduce Chicago's Mayor, Richard Daley.  Having served for 20 years -- with a mandate of 70 percent of the vote for his sixth term -- Chicagoans have been witness to seeing a city grow and flourish right before our eyes.  He is a man of vision, a leader with a reputation for innovative, community-based programs, and a courageous person who is unafraid of challenge and change.  Navy Pier and Millenium Park, Cellular Field and an expanded McCormick Place are just some of his initiatives.  We will find out in just a couple of months if we will see history made with the 2016 Olympics coming to Chicago -- at the very doorstep of our President's home city.  And we would expect to see all of you back here again.  It is exciting times in Chicago and that is because of the person who stands before you next -- the Honorable Richard M. Daley, Mayor of Chicago.

ABA Meets in Chicago

Bob Clifford, Illinois State Delegate to the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates - the policy-making body of the 400,000 member organization - stands before the House to speak on the proposed changes to its Constitution.  To see more on the 2009 annual meeting, go here.

Getting Your Medical Records

Getting Your Medical Records

Patients need to know that their medical records are theirs.  Oftentimes, there is a need to obtain these records, and health care providers may be hesitant to turn them over to the patient.  

An article appeared in the July 27, 2009 Los Angeles Times that provides some tips for people who are having trouble getting their medical records.  Although the article is written for California residents, it offers some pertinent tips that apply to Illinois residents as well.  

To read the article, please go here.

Medicare Reimbursement

A new law took effect July 1 that impacts claims involving Medicare, Medicaid and the SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (MMSEA).  Bob Clifford describes the compliance process regarding Medicare reimbursement for medical care claims of injury victims in an article entitled “Reimbursement Issues” that appeared in the Chicago Lawyer magazine.  To read the article, please see: http://www.cliffordlaw.com/news/attorneys-articles/reimbursement-issues

America's Best Hospitals From U.S. News and World Report

For the 20th year, U.S. News and World Reports has released their America’s Best Hospitals report.  The report attempts to rank hospitals based on their handling of complex situations such as replacing a heart valve in an elderly patient or diagnosing and treating a spinal tumor.
 
4,861 hospitals were evaluated in 16 different specialties.  Of those, 174 hospitals were ranked in one of the 16 specialties.  The three criteria required to be considered in the specialty ranking were: 1) being a teaching hospital, 2) having at least 200 beds and 3) having at least 100 beds and also having four of eight predefined important medical technologies.  Once qualified to be evaluated for the rankings, researchers looked at a number of variables including: death rate, number of nurses, patient safety, patient services and reputation.
 
To view the hospital Honor Roll (those hospitals that ranked near the top in at least 6 specialties), please click here.

 
To search the rankings of all hospitals go here.

 
 

Aviation Bill Debated in Senate Today

The Senate Commerce Committee is going to debate and vote today on S.1451, the “Federal Aviation Administration Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act.”

The bill proposed by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal), S. 1284, mandates additional aviation safety protocols.  A copy of the bill can be viewed here.

The committee session can be viewed today starting at 2:30 p.m. from the committee’s website here.

A copy of the bill can be downloaded here (PDF).

Update on Train Crash in San Francisco

Reports now indicate that the driver of the San Francisco train that collided into another one yesterday has told investigators that he blacked out shortly before the crash.  According to one witness, the operator of the Muni train that crashed in San Francisco at the West Portal station appeared to be slumped over at the controls. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began their investigation into the accident on Sunday.  Investigators have reportedly already determined that the moving train was going twice the normal speed when it collided with the stationary train.

At this point in the investigation, it has reportedly been discovered that the train was switched from automatic to manual mode while still traveling in the tunnel the accident occurred at the platform.  It is reported that Muni procedure is to wait until a train enters a station before switching to manual.  In manual mode the operator controls the brake whereas in automatic mode, the train’s emergency shutdown will stop the train if it gets too close to another train.

The accident, one of the worst in Muni history, seriously injured four people and left another 43 with minor injuries.

Detroit Tanker Truck Fire

A tanker truck carrying a load of gasoline exploded on Wednesday night in Detroit, Michigan, reportedly sending flames hundreds of feet into the air.  The driver of the tanker is alive and only one injury is reported.
 
The explosion reportedly occurred around 8 p.m. as the tanker passed under the 9 Mile Road overpass while traveling north on I-75.  While the fire burned for three hours, police worked to protect onlookers from toxic fumes by ordering them away from the fire, according to reports.
 
According to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, about 100 law enforcement personnel were on the scene, along with helicopters and the sheriff department's mobile command center.

San Francisco Rail Crash Injures Dozens

Two light-rail trains collided Saturday afternoon in San Francisco, injuring several dozen people including four reportedly in critical condition.  It has been reported that 44 people were taken to hospitals, many by ambulance. 

A one-car San Francisco Municipal Railway train rear-ended another stopped train near a boarding platform at the outbound West Portal Station about 2:30 p.m., according to officials, in what they are calling “one of the largest casualty incidents in recent years” there.

According to witnesses, a westbound train barreled into the other one as it emerged from a tunnel connecting downtown San Francisco to the city’s western suburbs in California’s third largest city.

Investigators reportedly are looking into “mechanical and human issues” to determine the cause of the crash.  Service on the system known as “Muni” was forced to be halted in both directions in the area following the crash.  Buses were provided to transport people between the closed West Portal and Castro stations.

Second Accident at Disney World

According to reports, on Thursday afternoon two buses collided into each other at Walt Disney World.  Twelve people were reportedly injured as a result of the accident.

A Florida Highway Patrol report says that about 50 people were on the two Disney buses when one of them rear-ended the other.  They dozen people were reportedly taken to four different hospitals; Florida Hospital Kissimmee, Dr. Phillips, Celebration and Health Central.
A Disney spokesman said, "Nothing is more important than the safety of our guests and cast members. We are focused on the well being of those involved in the situation. We are working with law enforcement.”

The accident comes 11 days after a Disney monorail pilot was killed when another train backed into his train at the resort.

Explosion on Chicago's West Side

An explosion at a vegetable oil and biodiesel plant on Chicago’s West Side today left two people injured.  According to a Fire Department spokesman, the two victims were taken to Stroger Hospital and others were being de-contaminated on the scene.  The two victims  reportedly were employees at the Columbus Foods Company in the 800 block of North Albany Avenue where the explosion occurred at 8:45 a.m.

According to officials, the blast occurred while chemicals were being mixed and a truck was being unloaded.  One report stated that the Police Department's Bomb and Arson unit along with fire investigators are working to uncover what caused the explosion.  All of the chemicals that were involved are not known, but nitrogen, sulfuric acid and glycerin are among those detected, according to Deputy Fire Commissioner Eugene Ryan.

The explosion disrupted other activities in the vicinity.  Metra's Milwaukee District North and West Lines reportedly experienced delays.  Also, 19 people from a Metra yard near the explosion were reportedly taken to hospitals with complaints of minor respiratory problems and skin irritation, fire officials said.

Underage Drinking Debate Continues on College Campuses

The debate over college amnesty programs policies is heating up, according to ABC News.

In a story posted today, "Can Medical Amnesty Bring Sense to Underage Drinking Debate," Robert Clifford was interviewed about the terrible tragedy that occurred a year ago at Northwestern University involving a New York native and freshman who died after those around him did not seek medical help that he needed following a party that involved drinking.

Clifford spoke to the ABC reporter of the Red Watch Bank Program, started at New York’s Stony Brook University where the freshman’s mother works.  It is a program, detailed in other blog entries below, that trains volunteers to act in alcohol-related emergencies while “promoting kindness and compassion while helping friends in need.”  So far, more than 100 colleges and universities and dozens of high schools have adopted the Red Watch Band Program.

The ABC story also talked about medical amnesty policies that have been implemented on many campuses across the country, but not at Northwestern, that allows students to seek help for students without fear of disciplinary action from the college administration.

October Deadliest Driving Time

Most think that the ice and snow of winter create the worst driving conditions and create the deadliest accidents.   

But a recent study released by the University of Michigan Transportation Safety Institute in Ann Arbor found that October experiences the year’s highest death rate per distance driven.  The danger of dying in a crash is 16 percent greater in October than in March, which, surprisingly, is the safest month, according to the study.

“Everything else being equal, inclement weather – snow and ice – should increase the risk of driving, said Michael Sivak at the Transportation Safety Institute, “however, because inclement weather also leads to general reductions in speed, the net effect is not clear.”   

Sivak studied crash deaths from 1994 to 2006 in the United States.  His findings were reported in the July issue of the Traffic Injury Prevention journal.

He reported that November and December were the next highest in deadliness, while February and April followed March as the next safest months.

Amtrak Train Crash Kills Three in Illinois

According to reports, just after 3 p,m. yesterday in LaSalle County, Illinois, an Amtrak train struck a car carrying five passengers and killed three of its occupants.  The crash happened approximately 70 miles southwest of Chicago in Somonauk, Illinois.

82-year-old Benjamin A. Rasmusen and 81-year-old Marilyn R. Rasmusen, both of Leland, Illinois, were killed in the accident according to a press release issued by the LaSalle County Sheriff and Coroner’s office.  The name of the third victim has not been released.  The two other individuals are reportedly hospitalized but their injuries have not been disclosed.  One was reportedly taken to Valley West Hospital in Sandwich and the other was taken by Life Flight helicopter to a Rockford hospital.

The train was headed from Chicago’s Union Station to Emeryville, California.

FDA Q&A on Acetaminophen

According to reports, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel has recommended limiting usage of drugs containing acetaminophens. To help explain potential dangers to the liver as a result of acetaminophen ingestion, the FDA has released a Q&A.

From the FDA website:

Q: What is acetaminophen?
A: Acetaminophen (pronounced: a∙seetžaminofen), is an active ingredient found in many OTC and prescription medicines to help relieve pain and reduce fever.
It is also found in combination with other active ingredients, called combination medicines, which treat conditions such as:

• symptoms of colds and flu
• allergy
• sleeplessness

Medicines containing acetaminophen are available in many forms, including drops, syrups, capsules, and pills.
Many people call OTC acetaminophen by a brand name, Tylenol. Others may know Percocet or Vicodin, which are prescription brand names that contain acetaminophen and other active ingredients to help relieve pain.
You might see acetaminophen abbreviated as “APAP” on prescription medicines.
In other countries, acetaminophen may have a different name. For example, acetaminophen is known as paracetamol in the United Kingdom.

Q. Are there risks from taking too much acetaminophen?
A: Yes, acetaminophen can cause serious liver damage if you take too much. It is very important to follow your doctor’s directions and the directions on the medicine label.

You may not notice the signs and symptoms of liver damage right away because they take time to appear. Or, you may mistake early symptoms of liver damage (for example, loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting) for something else, like the flu. Liver damage can develop into liver failure or death over several days.
Acetaminophen is generally safe when taken as directed. To lower your risk of liver damage make sure you do the following:

• Follow dosing directions and never take more than directed; even a small amount more than directed can cause liver damage.
• Don’t take acetaminophen for more days than directed.
• Don’t take more than one medicine that contains acetaminophen at a time. For example, your risk of liver damage goes up if you take a medicine that contains acetaminophen to treat a headache, and while that medicine is still working in your body, you take another medicine that contains acetaminophen to treat a cold.

Q: How can I tell which medicines contain acetaminophen?
A: Medicines have ingredients listed on their labels. On OTC medicines, check the “Drug Facts” label under the section called Active Ingredients. If your medicine contains acetaminophen, it will be listed in this section. On prescription medicine containers, the label will say “acetaminophen” or “APAP.”

Q: When should I talk to a doctor before taking acetaminophen?
A: Talk to your doctor before taking acetaminophen if you

• drink alcohol (three or more drinks every day)
• have liver disease

Under these conditions, taking acetaminophen puts you at greater risk of getting liver damage, even when taking acetaminophen at the recommended dose.
If you take the blood thinner warfarin, you should also talk to your doctor before taking acetaminophen because taking warfarin and acetaminophen together may raise your risk of bleeding.

Q: How can I safely take acetaminophen?
A: Follow this advice to take acetaminophen safely:

• Read all the information given to you by your doctor and follow
  
• Read the information on the OTC “Drug Facts” label or on the prescription label and follow directions.
• Be sure you understand the following:

- the dose, which is how much acetaminophen you can take at one time

- how many hours you must wait before taking another dose of acetaminophen
- how many doses of acetaminophen you can take safely each day
- when to stop taking acetaminophen and ask a doctor for help

• Never take more than directed, even if your pain or fever isn’t any better. Taking more acetaminophen than directed can put you at risk for liver damage.
• Never take more than one medicine that contains acetaminophen. Check the active ingredients of all your medicines to make sure you are taking no more than one medicine containing acetaminophen at a time.

Q: How can I safely give acetaminophen to my child?
A: You can safely give acetaminophen to infants, children, and teenagers if you

• Check the active ingredients in the other medicines that your child is taking (or that your child may take) to make sure they don’t contain the active ingredient acetaminophen. Your child should never be taking more than one medicine containing acetaminophen at a time.
• Read all the information given by your child’s doctor and follow directions.
• Read the information on the OTC “Drug Facts” label or on the prescription label and follow directions.
• Choose the right medicine based on your child’s weight and age. On OTC medicines, the Directions section of the “Drug Facts” label tells you:

- if the medicine is right for your child
- how much medicine to give
- how many hours you must wait before giving another dose
- when to stop giving acetaminophen and ask a doctor for help

If a dose for your child’s weight or age is not listed on the label, or you can’t tell how much to give, ask your pharmacist or doctor what to do.

• Use the measuring tool that comes with the medicine. It will give the exact dose. If you don’t have the right measuring tool, ask a pharmacist.
• Don’t use a spoon that’s meant to be used for cooking or eating. A spoon should not be used to measure medicine because it may give the wrong amount.
• Never give more than one medicine that contains acetaminophen. If you give more, it could harm your child.
• Prevent medicine accidents:
• Keep a record of the medicines you give your child. Write down the dose and time when you give the medicine. This will help everyone who cares for your child know how much medicine your child has had. This will help everyone avoid giving an extra dose by mistake.
• Keep medicine where it can’t be seen or reached by children and pets; a locked box, cabinet, or closet is best.

Q: What should I do if the pain or fever doesn’t get better after taking acetaminophen as directed?
A: Take the medicine only as directed. Don’t take more. If the medicine doesn’t help you feel better, talk to your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist.

Q: What should I do if I took too much acetaminophen? What should I do if I gave too much acetaminophen to my child?
A: Don’t wait! Call 9-1-1 or Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 right away to find out what to do. The signs or symptoms of liver damage may not be noticeable for hours or even days after taking acetaminophen. By the time you notice changes, the liver damage may be severe and could lead to death.

Five Killed in Amtrak Crash

An Amtrak train headed to Chicago from Detroit crashed and killed five people in a car at a railroad crossing track.

The train accident occurred at the Canton Township crossing, about 20 miles west of Detroit.

Of the 170 passengers aboard, reportedly no one on the train was injured.  All five passengers in the car reportedly were young people.

Northwestern University Student Newspaper Reports on Latest in Death of Student

The Summer Northwestern newspaper published an article today (July 9, 2009) on the latest developments in the death of 19-year-old Matthew Sunshine, a freshman from New York who tragically died of alcohol poisoning last June.

His parents have retained Clifford Law Offices to represent them in determining liability for their son’s death.  His mother also has been very active in promoting the Red Watch Band Program which is being implemented on campuses across the country to raise awareness of those on campuses of excessive alcohol consumption.  See the articles below for more on the Red Watch Band program.

And click here for the article in today’s Summer Northwestern.

NTSB Recreational Boating Safety Tips

The National Transportation Safety Board has just released a new safety alert promoting safe recreational boating.

According to a recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) release, recreational boating can be a dangerous activity if not done safely.  According to their statistics, in the past 10 years, 7,150 boaters have died.  The NTSB attributes those deaths to two main causal omissions: uneducated boaters and lack of a personal flotation device (life jacket).  In 2007, the NTSB’s report indicates that 86 percent of the deaths happened on boats where their recreational operators had not completed a boating safety education course.  Moreover, in 2007, up to 90 percent of drowning victims could still be alive had they worn life jackets.

To increase recreational boating safety the NTSB advises that all children wear life jackets.  Additionally, they recommend taking a recreational boating safety course approved by your state.

Read the full NTSB Recreation Boating Safety Alert here.

Food Safety Improvements Ordered by the Obama Administration

On Tuesday, the Obama administration reportedly created a federal post to oversee food safety activites and ordered new directives to lessen salmonella and E.coli contamination in food processing plants.
 
According to reports, these steps are based on the work of the Food Safety Working Group, a team created by President Obama in response to the peanut product recall of last March.  According to a White House statement, “The Working Group is recommending a new public health-focused approach to food safety based on three core principles: prioritizing prevention, strengthening surveillance and enforcement and improving response and recovery.”
 
The new post created by the administration is the Deputy Commissioner for foods and will be within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
 
Scott Faber of the Grocery Manufacturers Association said that centralizing the power of food safety oversight in a single person would “significantly improve the agency’s ability to target the most significant sources of contamination.”
 
New rules coming out of the FDA that intend to reduce salmonella and E.coli target the standards surrounding the production of eggs, poultry, turkey, beef, tomatoes, melons and leafy greens.
 
According to reports, every year 79,000 people become sick and 30 die as a result of egg-borne salmonella and E.coli accounts for 70,000 cases of sickness every year.

Red Watch Band Program Featured Sunday on MTV2

The President of Stony Brook University, Dr. Shirley Strum Kenney and the mother of a college student who died from toxic alcohol poisoning after students neglected to help him will be featured on MTV2 Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (EST).
 
They'll be talking about the Red Watch Band Program, a program that is meant to save lives that started at Stony Brook where the student's mom is a professor.  It's catching on at campuses across the country -- a program that provides the campus community with a greater knowledge, awareness and skills to prevent student toxic drinking deaths and to promote a student culture of kindness, responsibility, compassion and respect.  Fellow students are trained on appropriate steps to take when a fellow students passes out from consuming too much alcohol.
 
Learn more at www.redwatchband.org or watch MTV2 on Sunday.

Illinois Supreme Court Adopts Rules of Professional Conduct of 2010

The Illinois Supreme Court today adopted a number of new ethics rules that will take effect Jan. 1, 2010.  The Court adopted the new Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers who practice in the state following an extensive evaluation process that began in 2002.

Representing thousands of hours of work by judges, lawyers and legal ethics scholars, the new rules govern a broad range of lawyers’ conduct as well as commentary that demonstrates the purpose of each rule and a guide for their interpretation. 

“With their adoption, the rules governing the legal profession in Illinois come into phase with how the practice of law has changed over time, with once local law firms growing globally and with issues arising from the growing complexity of the practice, our culture and our world,” said Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald in a statement regarding the Court’s adoption of the new rules.

The new Rules can be viewed on the website of the Illinois Supreme Court.

The previous rules date back to the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Robert Clifford wrote about the rule changes in a column in May, 2008, in the Chicago Lawyer magazine.

Federal Security Guards to Patrol Metra Trains

Mark Brown, columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, had an interesting piece in today’s newspaper.  He writes about “More Security Getting Aboard on Metra Trains, Federal TSA Personnel Will Patrol Commuter Lines.” 

It is interesting that Metra riders on all 11 lines will soon be seeing federal Transportation Security Administration personnel patrolling their commuter trains.

They’re called VIPR teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) and pronounced “viper.”  They will consist of federal air marshals, transportation security officers, TSA-certified canine teams, surface transportation security inspectors and local law enforcement personnel.  They will be visibly uniformed.

As Brown wrote, “this definitely struck me as something Metra riders would want to be forewarned about before they encounter a VIPR team at the train station some morning before they’ve had their first cup of coffee.” 

Metra spokesperson Judy Pardonnet reportedly said that the decision to step up security is not in response to any specific threat but is part of a national mass transit effort since the 2004 train bombings in Madrid.
   

The Question of Product Liability for GM After Bankruptcy

GM has reportedly accepted changes to their original bankruptcy plan after being pressured by a group of state attorneys general.  GM has agreed to accept legal responsibility for injuries that result from vehicle defects after they emerge from bankruptcy protection.  The agreement reportedly allows injured consumers to bring product liability claims against GM in their post-bankruptcy form as a government owned entity.  Originally, the automaker had planned on shedding the responsibility of liability for vehicle defects, as Chrysler did in the wake of their bankruptcy.

According to court documents, GM claimed that it was not required to take the liability claims because federal pre-emption dictates that the bankruptcy code supersedes state law dealing with car-accident victim’s rights.  If GM’s original plan were accepted, these victims would have been treated as unsecured creditors.
 
But a group of state attorneys general, along with consumer groups, reportedly insisted that future car-accident victims would have no way of knowing they might be entitled to claims and would consequently be robbed of their legal rights.

However, the story is different for car-accident victims with claims against the current GM entity.  These parties include those with pending lawsuits, those who have won damages before GM filed for Bankruptcy and who get in accidents while they are in bankruptcy protection.  They reportedly will not be able to bring claims against the new GM and will remain unsecured creditors against the old entity.  According to one report, a committee representing car-accident victims with suits against GM said there are more than 300 people with personal injury claims in excess of $1.25 billion.  As unsecured creditors, they are reportedly likely to receive little or nothing.

Metra Train Accident Kills One, Injures Another

A man was killed on Chicago’s South Side when he was pinned by a Metra Electric train during the rush hour Tuesday evening, according to media reports.

Another man is in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn who was involved in the train accident at the Windsor Park station at 75th Street and Exchange in Chicago, police told the press.

Chicago police reportedly temporarily suspended all rail traffic as emergency crews worked at the scene.  Service was restored between Stony Island and South Chicago (93rd Street) about two hours later.
   

Hazardous Train Cargo

Recent incidents have reportedly reignited concern about the transportation of hazardous materials along the nation’s 140,000-mile rail network.  Safety issues reportedly associated with hazardous shipments are a growing concern to municipalities.  These issues are compounded by fears that terrorists could easily target trains carrying loads of hazardous materials as they pass through populated areas.  Competing groups are all weighing in as communities and big cities both try to protect their interests.  Moreover, environmental groups and the federal government also reportedly have a stake in the outcomes.

According to reports, a couple weeks ago a train with 18 railcars, each carrying thousands of gallons of ethanol, derailed and exploded in Rockford, Illinois.  One woman was reportedly killed while trying to escape and authorities evacuated about 600 homes.

Among the issues reportedly being debated is a new federal regulation that requires companies to reroute trains away from big cities that carry the most hazardous materials, including those that can vaporize, like chlorine.

According to U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, tankers carry enough chlorine to potentially kill 100,000 people.

But train companies reportedly insist that accidents are infrequent relative to historic numbers.  According to one report citing federal data, out of more than a million train cars that carried hazardous cargo in 2008, 21 accidents occurred where some material was released.  This is lower than the 118 accidents reported in 1980.

While the debate will continue, federal mandate reportedly requires hazardous materials to be transported by rail.  The new mandate that forces some trains to reroute because of their load is, according to Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, potentially increasing unsafe conditions.  “Rerouting can substantially increase the distance a material travels and the amount of handling it requires," White said. "That in itself can increase the safety risk."

Contact the White House to Protect Victims of Defective GM Cars

This Urgent Action Alert was issued today by the American Association of Justice:

Contact the White House THIS AFTERNOON to Protect Catastrophically Injured Victims of Defective GM Cars

Unless we act TODAY, the White House will allow General Motors to abandon over 300 consumers seriously hurt by defects in GM vehicles by extinguishing the company's responsibility for these victims. This is a cruel, immoral and un-American result because GM decided last Friday to take responsibility for injuries caused by vehicles in the future. But the company is washing their hands of consumers they have already hurt. PLEASE CALL OR FAX THE WHITE HOUSE TO STOP THIS TRAVESTY: PHONE: 202-456-1111. FAX: 202-456-2461.

What kind of company would abandon a catastrophically injured child, a woman paralyzed from the neck down, and hundreds of others who have been injured by defective GM cars?  How can our government leave these consumers with no protection -- especially when these are the same consumers who bailed out GM in the first place?  And who would want to buy a car from a company that treats consumers this way?
 
Time is running out.  On Tuesday, General Motors will attempt to officially leave these injured families behind in the bankruptcy process.  We must take action today to make sure that GM is responsible for the cars they have put on the road  -- as well as cars they build in the future.

The Obama Administration's "Auto Task-Force," which is lead by the Treasury Department, is directly responsible for this decision.  There are only a limited number of hours left in the bankruptcy process.  Contact them THIS AFTERNOON to make sure that they know Americans will not stand for leaving hundreds of injured families behind in the GM bankruptcy process.   Tell them we will not buy their cars until these families are protected.  And we will not stop speaking up until GM takes full responsibility for injuries caused by all GM cars.  PLEASE CALL OR FAX THE WHITE HOUSE TO STOP THIS TRAVESTY: PHONE: 202-456-1111. FAX: 202-456-2461.

Patients’ Concerns

A recent survey of patient satisfaction at emergency rooms across the country indicates that being kept well informed was the greatest concern as well as how well the staff cared about them as people and how well their pain was controlled.

Of the 1.4 million patients surveyed last year, waiting time in the ER was not of greatest concern but would have improved their overall satisfaction, according to the report that was done by Press Ganey, a consultant for more than 10,000 health care facilities.  The average time spent for each visit to an emergency room four hours and three minutes in 2008.
   
   

DC Train Crash Investigation

According to Deborah Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), anomalies in a 740 foot long circuit, a key component of the electric control system, were found near the crash site.  Ms. Hersman went on to say "these circuits are vital." "It's a signal system. It's providing information, authorization and speed commands to the following train," Hersman said.
 
The circuit reportedly malfunctioned during testing and investigators are looking at whether the same circuit malfunctioned on Monday when a DC Metro Red Line train crashed into another stationary train killing 9 people and injuring 80.
 
A recent Washington Post article clearly explains how the automated Metro system works.
 

"Metro to Review All Train Signaling Circuits in Wake of Accident", The Washington Post, 25 June 2009
 
 
According to John B. Catoe Jr., the Metro general manager, they began the process of inspecting all 3,000 of the circuits20in the Metro system as a precautionary measure and are requiring all trains to be run manually, without automated assistance, until all the control units are working perfectly.
 
Investigators are interested in the actions taken by the operators of both trains.  The operator of the stationary train was reportedly released from the hospital and will be interviewed by investigators.  The speed maintained by Jeanice McMillan, operator of the striking train who died in the crash, is reportedly a question for investigators. 
 
The NTSB has asked that any survivors, witnesses, or anyone who has photos or video of the accident contact officials at 866-328-6347 to arrange to be interviewed.

Washington DC Metro Crash Update

There are lots of questions surrounding the crash of the DC Metro train that killed nine people and left another 80 injured.  According to Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the emergency brake in the train was activated and there were markings on the steel rails consistent with that conclusion.

The train also was reported to have been in automatic mode which should have allowed the onboard computers to slow and stop the train a safe distance from the stationary train, the media has reported.

Further complicating matters is the report that the first two cars of the train were two months past due for scheduled maintenance of some braking components, according to officials.

These facts, taken together, are reportedly leading investigators to several possible plausible scenarios when trying to reconstruct what occurred.  The computers that are supposed to keep different trains from getting too close together malfunctioned; the operator activated the brakes too late; the brakes failed; or some combination of those are being investigated by the NTSB.

The NTSB is continuing its investigation and will likely conduct a simulation of the conditions surrounding the crash.  The NTSB is reportedly searching through everything surrounding the crash from the conditions of the track, trains, signals and computers to the actions of the operator and her supervisors.  The NTSB, according to their standard protocol, also will reportedly be looking into the train operator’s cellphone and text-messaging records, her work and rest schedule, and analysis of her blood samples.

Train Crash in Washington, D.C.

As National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials continue to sift through the wreckage, it was noted that the crash of the Metrorail trains yesterday occurred just as two Democratic senators called on Congress to approve $50 million in funding for a new railroad safety device designed to automatically prevent trains from crashing.

The NTSB called for requiring the so-called “positive train control” after a head-on crash last year that killed 25 people aboard a commuter train near Los Angeles, California.  These automated devices can sense when two trains are headed for each other on the same track and automatically stop them before a crash.  Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Cal) and Jay Rockefeller (W-W.Va.) called for this life-saving safety measure.

In the meantime, the NTSB is looking into whether the train involved was part of an aging fleet that federal regulators had recommended in 2006 to be phased out or re-trofitted.  Recorders on the train will provide information that might help determine why the crash occurred.
   

Rockford Train Crash

Several cars from a Canadian National Railway Co. train jumped the tracks and exploded into flames, hitting and killing an innocent bystander in Rockford, Illinois, Friday night.

A 41-year-old woman was killed and three others injured in the derailment..  She was sitting in her car at a rural Cherry Valley railroad crossing when the train cars loaded with ethanol derailed and started on fire.  Her 17–year-old passenger was flown to Stroger Hospital in Chicago in critical condition.

Three days later, crews are still cleaning up the debris after the wreckage.

The train was en route from Freeport to Chicago when 18 cars derailed about 9 p.m. Friday, according to a spokesman for the train company.  That section of track is still closed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cause of the crash which could take up to a year.  They are examining the track structure and maintenance, the integrity of the train cars, the crossing signals and the hazards materials associated with the crash, according to media reports.

Metrorail Crash Kills 7

The death toll is now up to six in Washington, D.C.’s deadliest crash on the Metrorail commuter train there.

Last night during rush hour, a train waiting at a station was plowed by another train that rear-ended it, launching the car up and over the train and tearing open the passenger compartment.  Dozens were injured, some very seriously, as rescue workers worked through the night to try to find people.  People were banging on windows trying to get the attention of others to get them out.  Washington City Councilman Jim Graham described the wreckage as “horror.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators sift through the wreckage to find out what happened.

Metrorail Train Crash

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are said to be on the scene trying to determine the cause of the crash of a Metrorail train in Washington, D.C. about 5 p.m. today.

Four people are reported dead, including the female operator of the trailing train.

Early reports indicate that one of the trains was waiting for another train to clear the station when it was struck from behind.  The train jackknifed in the air and fell on top of the other train.

Rescue crews were using steel ladders to get the passengers out of the train that was on top.  Many were treated and the scene and ambulances were taken the severely injured to nearby hospitals.

The train system in the Washington metropolitan area is said to carry some 700,000 commuters, including tourists, every day.  The train reportedly experienced another deadly crash in 1982 in its 33-year history.

Washington D.C. Commuter Train Crash

At least four people are reported killed and 70 more injured in an early evening rush hour crash and derailment on the Washington metropolitan rail network today, according to officials.

Two trains collided near the board of the District of Columbia and Maryland on the Metrorail system’s Red Line, according to early reports.  This line is said to be the busiest of the five lines that transport thousands of riders every day between the nation’s capital and neighboring Virginia and Maryland.

A District of Columbia fire department official told the media that the tragedy was a “mass casualty event.”  Rescue crews reportedly were cutting the trains apart to save people.

Photos taken by the press reveal one Metrorail train lying on top of another in what is being called a sideways position.  At least one car is ripped open which, officials have said, indicates at least one train was traveling at a high rate of speed.  Passengers even were said to be helping other injured passengers.

The train crash occurred above ground.  Much of the Metrorail system runs underground.  It opened in 1976, including a section that runs under the Potomac River. 

Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough Recall

 Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough is being voluntarily recalled by their U.S. baking division after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned of the risk of contamination with E. coli bacteria.

According to reports, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were investigating reports of E. coli sickness in people who also reported having eaten raw cookie dough.  The FDA reports that since March, 2009, there have been 66 reports of illness across 28 states.  Twenty-five persons were hospitalized.

According to Nestle, the recalled products include all varieties of Nestle Toll House refrigerated Cookie Bar Dough, Cookie Dough Tub, Cookie Dough Tube, Limited Edition Cookie Dough items, Seasonal Cookie Dough and Ultimates Cookie Bar Dough.

Further questions about these products should be directed to Nestle consumer services at 1-800-559-5025 and/or their Web site at www.verybestbaking.com.

For a complete listing of the recalled products go to the Nestle website here. 

Zicam Advisory

A press release sent out Tuesday by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) advises consumers to stop using three products marketed as cold remedies because they are associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia).  Anosmia may be long-lasting or permanent.

The products are:

•    Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel
•    Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs
•    Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs, Kids Size (a discontinued product)

The FDA has received over 130 reports of a loss of the sense of smell associated with the use of these products.  The loss of smell has reportedly come after the first use for many of the people.

The loss of sense of smell can greatly affect a person’s quality of life.  It can even be deadly in some instances where a person’s ability to detect the smell of gas or smoke is severely limited.

According to reports, the FDA said Zicam Cold Remedy did not submit to federal review because of its status as a homeopathic product, a group of remedies that are able to circumvent formal approval.  Homeopathic products often contain herbs, minerals and flowers.

Health care professionals and consumers are encouraged to report adverse events (side effects) that may be related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program online, by regular mail, fax or phone.

•    Online
•    Regular Mail: use FDA postage paid form 3500 and mail to:
     MedWatch
     5600 Fishers Lane
     Rockville, MD 20852-9787
•    Fax: 800-FDA-0178
•    Phone: 800-FDA-1088
 

Scaffolding Accidents

Two recent scaffold collapse accidents occurred this month, one in Texas and one in New Jersey.

Two construction workers died on June 10 when their scaffolding collapsed while they were working on a residential building near the University of Texas at Austin.  The scaffold they were on was between the 11th and 13th floors of the building.

Another man survived when he fell onto a roof seven stories down.  A fourth man escaped injury.

Austin Battalion Chief Harry Evans said the cause of the accident is under investigation.

In Bayonne, New Jersey, a scaffold holding three painters collapsed, killing two of them and seriously injuring the third.

According to reports, the men were painting a fuel tank when the collapse occurred on June 1st at 11 a.m.  Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the collapse occurred when a bolt securing a cable failed and the scaffold suddenly tipped vertically while the men worked about five stories above the ground.

Henryk Wyetecha, 56, and Stanislaw Bryjak, 55, were killed and Creslaw Saniewski, 56, was being treated for non-life threatening injuies.

Red Watch Band Program Growing Even More

With just a few clicks on www.redwatchband.org, a mother of a freshman at the University of Arkansas saw how easy it is for a college or university to join this new important program that is meant to alert students about the potential fatal consequences associated with toxic drinking.
 
It all started with the tragic story of a freshman at Northwestern University who died of alcohol poisoning.  His mom, a professor at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York, spoke with the President of the university there and together with the associate dean and director of the Center for Prevention and Outreach, the Red Watch Band Program began.
 
Students are encouraged to take the combined four hours of CPR training, alcohol education courses and role playing scenarios to become certified in the program.  It also emphasizes the importance of calling for medical help if someone has been drinking too much and passes out.  More than 90 students have gone through the program at Stony Brook, and they wear red bands that signify they are committed to watching out for their fellow students. 
 
Jenny Hwang, associate dean at Stony Brook, said that the red bands are on back order because of the popularity of the program.
 
For more on the possible start-up of the program at the University of Arkansas, please read the story that appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Times.

Red Watch Band Program

The brave fight of a mother who lost her son is helping others.  As the story in USA Today explains, Suzanne Fields' son died of an alcohol overdose last year, and she works to try to see to it that the same fate doesn't happen to others.

The president of Stony Brook University, where Suzanne is a professor, approached her to institute a program that empowers students to help their peers when they have had too much to drink.  And it appears to be catching on across the country.

Loyola University in Chicago has started the program as well.  Students complete a training program and receive a red watch that serves as a symbol of the band of students watching out for one another.  It is certain to save lives.

AAJ Response to President Obama's Comments at the AMA

The American Association for Justice President, Les Weisbrod, released the following statement regarding President Obama’s speech to the AMA earlier today:

“It’s clear that America’s health care system is in crisis.  Over 40 million people are without health insurance and costs are skyrocketing.  President Obama is right that health care reform is needed now and patient safety should be the top priority."

“Empirically-based practice guidelines, developed by independent experts, is an idea we can support, as long as it does not lower quality or standards of care.  Instead, these guidelines should lead to greater patient safety."

“According to the Institute of Medicine, 98, 000 people die every year because of medical errors.  Eliminating these errors, not further hurting the victims of negligence, is where lawmakers should focus their attention.  By taking away the rights of people to hold wrongdoers accountable, the quality of health care will suffer tremendously."

“However, the notion that ‘defensive medicine’ is leading to higher health care costs is not supported by empirical data or academic literature.  Recent news reports, CBO and GAO analyses, and statements from administration officials have shown that physicians will over-test and over-treat purely for financial reasons, unrelated to liability concerns."

“Limiting the legal rights of injured patients will do nothing to lower health care costs or aid the uninsured.  We will work over the coming weeks and months to educate members of Congress and the administration on how to best protect victims of medical negligence.”

Moreover, the AAJ has developed a primer on medical negligence and the role of the civil justice system in the current health care debate.  The primer can be found at www.justice.org/medicalnegligence.

Text of Obama's Speech to the AMA

The following is the text from Obama's speech today before the AMA's House of Delegates:

From the moment I took office as President, the central challenge we have confronted as a nation has been the need to lift ourselves out of the worst recession since World War II. In recent months, we have taken a series of extraordinary steps, not just to repair the immediate damage to our economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting and sustained growth. We are creating new jobs. We are unfreezing our credit markets. And we are stemming the loss of homes and the decline of home values.

But even as we have made progress, we know that the road to prosperity remains long and difficult. We also know that one essential step on our journey is to control the spiraling cost of health care in America.

Today, we are spending over $2 trillion a year on health care – almost 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation. And yet, for all this spending, more of our citizens are uninsured; the quality of our care is often lower; and we aren’t any healthier. In fact, citizens in some countries that spend less than we do are actually living longer than we do.

Make no mistake: the cost of our health care is a threat to our economy. It is an escalating burden on our families and businesses. It is a ticking time-bomb for the federal budget. And it is unsustainable for the United States of America.

It is unsustainable for Americans like Laura Klitzka, a young mother I met in Wisconsin last week, who has learned that the breast cancer she thought she’d beaten had spread to her bones; who is now being forced to spend time worrying about how to cover the $50,000 in medical debts she has already accumulated, when all she wants to do is spend time with her two children and focus on getting well. These are not worries a woman like Laura should have to face in a nation as wealthy as ours.

Stories like Laura’s are being told by women and men all across this country – by families who have seen out-of-pocket costs soar, and premiums double over the last decade at a rate three times faster than wages. This is forcing Americans of all ages to go without the checkups or prescriptions they need. It’s creating a situation where a single illness can wipe out a lifetime of savings.

Our costly health care system is unsustainable for doctors like Michael Kahn in New Hampshire, who, as he puts it, spends 20 percent of each day supervising a staff explaining insurance problems to patients, completing authorization forms, and writing appeal letters; a routine that he calls disruptive and distracting, giving him less time to do what he became a doctor to do and actually care for his patients.

Small business owners like Chris and Becky Link in Nashville are also struggling. They’ve always wanted to do right by the workers at their family-run marketing firm, but have recently had to do the unthinkable and lay off a number of employees – layoffs that could have been deferred, they say, if health care costs weren’t so high. Across the country, over one third of small businesses have reduced benefits in recent years and one third have dropped their workers’ coverage altogether since the early 90’s.

Our largest companies are suffering as well. A big part of what led General Motors and Chrysler into trouble in recent decades were the huge costs they racked up providing health care for their workers; costs that made them less profitable, and less competitive with automakers around the world. If we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of GM; paying more, getting less, and going broke.

When it comes to the cost of our health care, then, the status quo is unsustainable. Reform is not a luxury, but a necessity. I know there has been much discussion about what reform would cost, and rightly so. This is a test of whether we – Democrats and Republicans alike – are serious about holding the line on new spending and restoring fiscal discipline.

But let there be no doubt – the cost of inaction is greater. If we fail to act, premiums will climb higher, benefits will erode further, and the rolls of uninsured will swell to include millions more Americans.

If we fail to act, one out of every five dollars we earn will be spent on health care within a decade. In thirty years, it will be about one out of every three – a trend that will mean lost jobs, lower take-home pay, shuttered businesses, and a lower standard of living for all Americans.

And if we fail to act, federal spending on Medicaid and Medicare will grow over the coming decades by an amount almost equal to the amount our government currently spends on our nation’s defense. In fact, it will eventually grow larger than what our government spends on anything else today. It’s a scenario that will swamp our federal and state budgets, and impose a vicious choice of either unprecedented tax hikes, overwhelming deficits, or drastic cuts in our federal and state budgets.

To say it as plainly as I can, health care reform is the single most important thing we can do for America’s long-term fiscal health. That is a fact.

And yet, as clear as it is that our system badly needs reform, reform is not inevitable. There’s a sense out there among some that, as bad as our current system may be, the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t. There is a fear of change – a worry that we may lose what works about our health care system while trying to fix what doesn’t.

I understand that fear. I understand that cynicism. They are scars left over from past efforts at reform. Presidents have called for health care reform for nearly a century. Teddy Roosevelt called for it. Harry Truman called for it. Richard Nixon called for it. Jimmy Carter called for it. Bill Clinton called for it. But while significant individual reforms have been made – such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the children’s health insurance program – efforts at comprehensive reform that covers everyone and brings down costs have largely failed.

Part of the reason is because the different groups involved – physicians, insurance companies, businesses, workers, and others – simply couldn’t agree on the need for reform or what shape it would take. And another part of the reason has been the fierce opposition fueled by some interest groups and lobbyists – opposition that has used fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to socialize medicine.

Despite this long history of failure, I am standing here today because I think we are in a different time. One sign that things are different is that just this past week, the Senate passed a bill that will protect children from the dangers of smoking – a reform the AMA has long championed – and one that went nowhere when it was proposed a decade ago. What makes this moment different is that this time – for the first time – key stakeholders are aligning not against, but in favor of reform. They are coming together out of a recognition that while reform will take everyone in our health care community doing their part, ultimately, everyone will benefit.

And I want to commend the AMA, in particular, for offering to do your part to curb costs and achieve reform. A few weeks ago, you joined together with hospitals, labor unions, insurers, medical device manufacturers and drug companies to do something that would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago – you promised to work together to cut national health care spending by two trillion dollars over the next decade, relative to what it would otherwise have been. That will bring down costs, that will bring down premiums, and that’s exactly the kind of cooperation we need.

The question now is, how do we finish the job? How do we permanently bring down costs and make quality, affordable health care available to every American?

That’s what I’ve come to talk about today. We know the moment is right for health care reform. We know this is an historic opportunity we’ve never seen before and may not see again. But we also know that there are those who will try and scuttle this opportunity no matter what – who will use the same scare tactics and fear-mongering that’s worked in the past. They’ll give dire warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers; long lines and rationed care; decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors. We’ve heard it all before – and because these fear tactics have worked, things have kept getting worse.

So let me begin by saying this: I know that there are millions of Americans who are content with their health care coverage – they like their plan and they value their relationship with their doctor. And that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.

If we do that, we can build a health care system that allows you to be physicians instead of administrators and accountants; a system that gives Americans the best care at the lowest cost; a system that eases up the pressure on businesses and unleashes the promise of our economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, making take-home wages thousands of dollars higher, and growing our economy by tens of billions more every year. That’s how we will stop spending tax dollars to prop up an unsustainable system, and start investing those dollars in innovations and advances that will make our health care system and our economy stronger.

That’s what we can do with this opportunity. That’s what we must do with this moment.

Now, the good news is that in some instances, there is already widespread agreement on the steps necessary to make our health care system work better.

First, we need to upgrade our medical records by switching from a paper to an electronic system of record keeping. And we have already begun to do this with an investment we made as part of our Recovery Act.

It simply doesn’t make sense that patients in the 21st century are still filling out forms with pens on papers that have to be stored away somewhere. As Newt Gingrich has rightly pointed out, we do a better job tracking a FedEx package in this country than we do tracking a patient’s health records. You shouldn’t have to tell every new doctor you see about your medical history, or what prescriptions you’re taking. You should not have to repeat costly tests. All of that information should be stored securely in a private medical record so that your information can be tracked from one doctor to another – even if you change jobs, even if you move, and even if you have to see a number of different specialists.

That will not only mean less paper pushing and lower administrative costs, saving taxpayers billions of dollars. It will also make it easier for physicians to do their jobs. It will tell you, the doctors, what drugs a patient is taking so you can avoid prescribing a medication that could cause a harmful interaction. It will help prevent the wrong dosages from going to a patient. And it will reduce medical errors that lead to 100,000 lives lost unnecessarily in our hospitals every year.

The second step that we can all agree on is to invest more in preventive care so that we can avoid illness and disease in the first place. That starts with each of us taking more responsibility for our health and the health of our children. It means quitting smoking, going in for that mammogram or colon cancer screening. It means going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.

It also means cutting down on all the junk food that is fueling an epidemic of obesity, putting far too many Americans, young and old, at greater risk of costly, chronic conditions. That’s a lesson Michelle and I have tried to instill in our daughters with the White House vegetable garden that Michelle planted. And that’s a lesson that we should work with local school districts to incorporate into their school lunch programs.

Building a health care system that promotes prevention rather than just managing diseases will require all of us to do our part. It will take doctors telling us what risk factors we should avoid and what preventive measures we should pursue. And it will take employers following the example of places like Safeway that is rewarding workers for taking better care of their health while reducing health care costs in the process. If you’re one of the three quarters of Safeway workers enrolled in their “Healthy Measures” program, you can get screened for problems like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. And if you score well, you can pay lower premiums. It’s a program that has helped Safeway cut health care spending by 13 percent and workers save over 20 percent on their premiums. And we are open to doing more to help employers adopt and expand programs like this one.

Our federal government also has to step up its efforts to advance the cause of healthy living. Five of the costliest illnesses and conditions – cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease, and strokes – can be prevented. And yet only a fraction of every health care dollar goes to prevention or public health. That is starting to change with an investment we are making in prevention and wellness programs that can help us avoid diseases that harm our health and the health of our economy.

But as important as they are, investments in electronic records and preventive care are just preliminary steps. They will only make a dent in the epidemic of rising costs in this country.

Despite what some have suggested, the reason we have these costs is not simply because we have an aging population. Demographics do account for part of rising costs because older, sicker societies pay more on health care than younger, healthier ones. But what accounts for the bulk of our costs is the nature of our health care system itself – a system where we spend vast amounts of money on things that aren’t making our people any healthier; a system that automatically equates more expensive care with better care.

A recent article in the New Yorker, for example, showed how McAllen, Texas is spending twice as much as El Paso County – not because people in McAllen are sicker and not because they are getting better care. They are simply using more treatments – treatments they don’t really need; treatments that, in some cases, can actually do people harm by raising the risk of infection or medical error. And the problem is, this pattern is repeating itself across America. One Dartmouth study showed that you’re no less likely to die from a heart attack and other ailments in a higher spending area than in a lower spending one.

There are two main reasons for this. The first is a system of incentives where the more tests and services are provided, the more money we pay. And a lot of people in this room know what I’m talking about. It is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care; that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you can’t spend much time with each; and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it’s not truly necessary. It is a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession – a calling – to a business.

That is not why you became doctors. That is not why you put in all those hours in the Anatomy Suite or the O.R. That is not what brings you back to a patient’s bedside to check in or makes you call a loved one to say it’ll be fine. You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers. You entered this profession to be healers – and that’s what our health care system should let you be.

That starts with reforming the way we compensate our doctors and hospitals. We need to bundle payments so you aren’t paid for every single treatment you offer a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead are paid for how you treat the overall disease. We need to create incentives for physicians to team up – because we know that when that happens, it results in a healthier patient. We need to give doctors bonuses for good health outcomes – so that we are not promoting just more treatment, but better care.

And we need to rethink the cost of a medical education, and do more to reward medical students who choose a career as a primary care physicians and who choose to work in underserved areas instead of a more lucrative path. That’s why we are making a substantial investment in the National Health Service Corps that will make medical training more affordable for primary care doctors and nurse practitioners so they aren’t drowning in debt when they enter the workforce.

The second structural reform we need to make is to improve the quality of medical information making its way to doctors and patients. We have the best medical schools, the most sophisticated labs, and the most advanced training of any nation on the globe. Yet we are not doing a very good job harnessing our collective knowledge and experience on behalf of better medicine. Less than one percent of our health care spending goes to examining what treatments are most effective. And even when that information finds its way into journals, it can take up to 17 years to find its way to an exam room or operating table.

As a result, too many doctors and patients are making decisions without the benefit of the latest research. A recent study, for example, found that only half of all cardiac guidelines are based on scientific evidence. Half. That means doctors may be doing a bypass operation when placing a stent is equally effective, or placing a stent when adjusting a patient’s drugs and medical management is equally effective – driving up costs without improving a patient’s health.

So, one thing we need to do is figure out what works, and encourage rapid implementation of what works into your practices. That’s why we are making a major investment in research to identify the best treatments for a variety of ailments and conditions.

Let me be clear: identifying what works is not about dictating what kind of care should be provided. It’s about providing patients and doctors with the information they need to make the best medical decisions.

Still, even when we do know what works, we are often not making the most of it. That’s why we need to build on the examples of outstanding medicine at places like the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where the quality of care for cystic fibrosis patients shot up after the hospital began incorporating suggestions from parents. And places like Tallahassee Memorial Health Care, where deaths were dramatically reduced with rapid response teams that monitored patients’ conditions and “multidisciplinary rounds” with everyone from physicians to pharmacists. And places like the Geisinger Health system in rural Pennsylvania and the Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, where high-quality care is being provided at a cost well below average. These are islands of excellence that we need to make the standard in our health care system.

Replicating best practices. Incentivizing excellence. Closing cost disparities. Any legislation sent to my desk that does not achieve these goals does not earn the title of reform. But my signature on a bill is not enough. I need your help, doctors. To most Americans, you are the health care system. Americans – me included – just do what you recommend. That is why I will listen to you and work with you to pursue reform that works for you. And together, if we take all these steps, we can bring spending down, bring quality up, and save hundreds of billions of dollars on health care costs while making our health care system work better for patients and doctors alike.

Now, I recognize that it will be hard to make some of these changes if doctors feel like they are constantly looking over their shoulder for fear of lawsuits. Some doctors may feel the need to order more tests and treatments to avoid being legally vulnerable. That’s a real issue. And while I’m not advocating caps on malpractice awards which I believe can be unfair to people who’ve been wrongfully harmed, I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines. That’s how we can scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care.

These changes need to go hand-in-hand with other reforms. Because our health care system is so complex and medicine is always evolving, we need a way to continually evaluate how we can eliminate waste, reduce costs, and improve quality. That is why I am open to expanding the role of a commission created by a Republican Congress called the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission – which happens to include a number of physicians. In recent years, this commission proposed roughly $200 billion in savings that never made it into law. These recommendations have now been incorporated into our broader reform agenda, but we need to fast-track their proposals in the future so that we don’t miss another opportunity to save billions of dollars, as we gain more information about what works and what doesn’t in our health care system.

As we seek to contain the cost of health care, we must also ensure that every American can get coverage they can afford. We must do so in part because it is in all of our economic interests. Each time an uninsured American steps foot into an emergency room with no way to reimburse the hospital for care, the cost is handed over to every American family as a bill of about $1,000 that is reflected in higher taxes, higher premiums, and higher health care costs; a hidden tax that will be cut as we insure all Americans. And as we insure every young and healthy American, it will spread out risk for insurance companies, further reducing costs for everyone.

But alongside these economic arguments, there is another, more powerful one. It is simply this: We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women, and children. We are not a nation that lets hardworking families go without the coverage they deserve; or turns its back on those in need. We are a nation that cares for its citizens. We are a people who look out for one another. That is what makes this the United States of America.

So, we need to do a few things to provide affordable health insurance to every single American. The first thing we need to do is protect what’s working in our health care system. Let me repeat – if you like your health care, the only thing reform will mean is your health care will cost less. If anyone says otherwise, they are either trying to mislead you or don’t have their facts straight.

If you don’t like your health coverage or don’t have any insurance, you will have a chance to take part in what we’re calling a Health Insurance Exchange. This Exchange will allow you to one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose a plan that’s best for you and your family – just as federal employees can do, from a postal worker to a Member of Congress. You will have your choice of a number of plans that offer a few different packages, but every plan would offer an affordable, basic package. And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

Now, I know there’s some concern about a public option. In particular, I understand that you are concerned that today’s Medicare rates will be applied broadly in a way that means our cost savings are coming off your backs. These are legitimate concerns, but ones, I believe, that can be overcome. As I stated earlier, the reforms we propose are to reward best practices, focus on patient care, not the current piece-work reimbursement. What we seek is more stability and a health care system on a sound financial footing. And these reforms need to take place regardless of what happens with a public option. With reform, we will ensure that you are being reimbursed in a thoughtful way tied to patient outcomes instead of relying on yearly negotiations about the Sustainable Growth Rate formula that’s based on politics and the state of the federal budget in any given year. The alternative is a world where health care costs grow at an unsustainable rate, threatening your reimbursements and the stability of our health care system.

What are not legitimate concerns are those being put forward claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. I’ll be honest. There are countries where a single-payer system may be working. But I believe – and I’ve even taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief – that it is important for us to build on our traditions here in the United States. So, when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this – they are not telling the truth.

What I am trying to do – and what a public option will help do – is put affordable health care within reach for millions of Americans. And to help ensure that everyone can afford the cost of a health care option in our Exchange, we need to provide assistance to families who need it. That way, there will be no reason at all for anyone to remain uninsured.

Indeed, it is because I am confident in our ability to give people the ability to get insurance that I am open to a system where every American bears responsibility for owning health insurance, so long as we provide a hardship waiver for those who still can’t afford it. The same is true for employers. While I believe every business has a responsibility to provide health insurance for its workers, small businesses that cannot afford it should receive an exemption. And small business workers and their families will be able to seek coverage in the Exchange if their employer is not able to provide it.

Insurance companies have expressed support for the idea of covering the uninsured – and I welcome their willingness to engage constructively in the reform debate. But what I refuse to do is simply create a system where insurance companies have more customers on Uncle Sam’s dime, but still fail to meet their responsibilities. That is why we need to end the practice of denying coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions. The days of cherry-picking who to cover and who to deny – those days are over.

This is personal for me. I will never forget watching my own mother, as she fought cancer in her final days, worrying about whether her insurer would claim her illness was a preexisting condition so it could get out of providing coverage. Changing the current approach to preexisting conditions is the least we can do – for my mother and every other mother, father, son, and daughter, who has suffered under this practice. And it will put health care within reach for millions of Americans.

Now, even if we accept all of the economic and moral reasons for providing affordable coverage to all Americans, there is no denying that it will come at a cost – at least in the short run. But it is a cost that will not – I repeat, not – add to our deficits. Health care reform must be and will be deficit neutral in the next decade.

There are already voices saying the numbers don’t add up. They are wrong. Here’s why. Making health care affordable for all Americans will cost somewhere on the order of one trillion dollars over the next ten years. That sounds like a lot of money – and it is. But remember: it is less than we are projected to spend on the war in Iraq. And also remember: failing to reform our health care system in a way that genuinely reduces cost growth will cost us trillions of dollars more in lost economic growth and lower wages.

That said, let me explain how we will cover the price tag. First, as part of the budget that was passed a few months ago, we’ve put aside $635 billion over ten years in what we are calling a Health Reserve Fund. Over half of that amount – more than $300 billion – will come from raising revenue by doing things like modestly limiting the tax deductions the wealthiest Americans can take to the same level it was at the end of the Reagan years. Some are concerned this will dramatically reduce charitable giving, but statistics show that’s not true, and the best thing for our charities is the stronger economy that we will build with health care reform.

But we cannot just raise revenues. We also have to make spending cuts in part by examining inefficiencies in the Medicare program. There will be a robust debate about where these cuts should be made, and I welcome that debate. But here’s where I think these cuts should be made. First, we should end overpayments to Medicare Advantage. Today, we are paying Medicare Advantage plans much more than we pay for traditional Medicare services. That’s a good deal for insurance companies, but not the American people. That’s why we need to introduce competitive bidding into the Medicare Advantage program, a program under which private insurance companies offer Medicare coverage. That will save $177 billion over the next decade.

Second, we need to use Medicare reimbursements to reduce preventable hospital readmissions. Right now, almost 20 percent of Medicare patients discharged from hospitals are readmitted within a month, often because they are not getting the comprehensive care they need. This puts people at risk and drives up costs. By changing how Medicare reimburses hospitals, we can discourage them from acting in a way that boosts profits, but drives up costs for everyone else. That will save us $25 billion over the next decade.

Third, we need to introduce generic biologic drugs into the marketplace. These are drugs used to treat illnesses like anemia. But right now, there is no pathway at the FDA for approving generic versions of these drugs. Creating such a pathway will save us billions of dollars. And we can save another roughly $30 billion by getting a better deal for our poorer seniors while asking our well-off seniors to pay a little more for their drugs.

So, that’s the bulk of what’s in the Health Reserve Fund. I have also proposed saving another $313 billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending in several other ways. One way is by adjusting Medicare payments to reflect new advances and productivity gains in our economy. Right now, Medicare payments are rising each year by more than they should. These adjustments will create incentives for providers to deliver care more effectively, and save us roughly $109 billion in the process.

Another way we can achieve savings is by reducing payments to hospitals for treating uninsured people. I know hospitals rely on these payments now because of the large number of uninsured patients they treat. But as the number of uninsured people goes down with our reforms, the amount we pay hospitals to treat uninsured people should go down, as well. Reducing these payments gradually as more and more people have coverage will save us over $106 billion, and we’ll make sure the difference goes to the hospitals that most need it.

We can also save about $75 billion through more efficient purchasing of prescription drugs. And we can save about one billion more by rooting out waste, abuse, and fraud throughout our health care system so that no one is charging more for a service than it’s worth or charging a dime for a service they did not provide.

But let me be clear: I am committed to making these cuts in a way that protects our senior citizens. In fact, these proposals will actually extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by 7 years and reduce premiums for Medicare beneficiaries by roughly $43 billion over 10 years. And I’m working with AARP to uphold that commitment.

Altogether, these savings mean that we have put about $950 billion on the table – not counting some of the longer-term savings that will come about from reform – taking us almost all the way to covering the full cost of health care reform. In the weeks and months ahead, I look forward to working with Congress to make up the difference so that health care reform is fully paid for – in a real, accountable way. And let me add that this does not count some of the longer-term savings that will come about from health care reform. By insisting that reform be deficit neutral over the next decade and by making the reforms that will help slow the growth rate of health care costs over coming decades, we can look forward to faster economic growth, higher living standards, and falling, not rising, budget deficits.

I know people are cynical we can do this. I know there will be disagreements about how to proceed in the days ahead. But I also know that we cannot let this moment pass us by.

The other day, my friend, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, handed me a magazine with a special issue titled, “The Crisis in American Medicine.” One article notes “soaring charges.” Another warns about the “volume of utilization of services.” And another asks if we can find a “better way [than fee-for-service] for paying for medical care.” It speaks to many of the challenges we face today. The thing is, this special issue was published by Harper’s Magazine in October of 1960.

Members of the American Medical Association – my fellow Americans – I am here today because I do not want our children and their children to still be speaking of a crisis in American medicine fifty years from now. I do not want them to still be suffering from spiraling costs we did not stem, or sicknesses we did not cure. I do not want them to be burdened with massive deficits we did not curb or a worsening economy we did not rebuild.

I want them to benefit from a health care system that works for all of us; where families can open a doctor’s bill without dreading what’s inside; where parents are taking their kids to get regular checkups and testing themselves for preventable ailments; where parents are feeding their kids healthier food and kids are exercising more; where patients are spending more time with doctors and doctors can pull up on a computer all the medical information and latest research they’d ever want to meet that patient’s needs; where orthopedists and nephrologists and oncologists are all working together to treat a single human being; where what’s best about America’s health care system has become the hallmark of America’s health care system.

That is the health care system we can build. That is the future within our reach. And if we are willing to come together and bring about that future, then we will not only make Americans healthier and not only unleash America’s economic potential, but we will reaffirm the ideals that led you into this noble profession, and build a health care system that lets all Americans heal. Thank you.

Obama to Address AMA Today

President Obama will visit Chicago today to address delegates at an American Medical Association (AMA) annual meeting about his healthcare reform proposals.  The AMA’s House of Delegates is the 543-member policymaking wing of the association.

According to reports, getting the support of the AMA, a national doctor’s group that represents a quarter of a million physicians, is viewed as critical to the success of Obama’s final proposal.

While President Obama is attempting to make changes in current healthcare policy, the Chicago Tribune reports some healthcare changes desired by the AMA including “increased payments from Medicare and medical liability reform that caps non-economic damages and allows doctors to abide by the coming trend of quality measures that pay physicians based on performance without being penalized for mistakes.”

No president has addressed the AMA’s House of Delegates since Ronald Reagan did so in 1983.

The speech can be viewed in its entirety on C-SPAN.

Lawn Mower Dangers

The relatively benign task of mowing the lawn is exposed of its hidden dangers in statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  According to the CPSC, 200,000 people are injured in lawn mower-related accidents each year.  Moreover, 16,000 of those injured are children, the CPSC reported.  Some, however, can be avoided by adhering to a few safety tips.
 
The American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM), American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons (ASMS), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) have collaborated on the following tips:
 
-- Children should be at least 12-years-old before they operate any lawn mower, and at least 16- years-old for a ride-on mower.
-- Children should never be passengers on ride-on mowers.
-- Always wear sturdy shoes while mowing - not sandals.
-- Young children should be at a safe distance from the area you are mowing.
-- Pick up stones, toys and debris from the lawn to prevent injuries from flying objects.
-- Use a mower with a control that stops it from moving forward if the handle is released. -- Never pull backward or mow in reverse unless absolutely necessary - carefully look for others behind you when you do.
-- Start and refuel mowers outdoors - not in a garage. Refuel with the motor turned off and cool.
-- Blade settings should be set by an adult only.
-- Wait for blades to stop completely before removing the grass catcher, unclogging the discharge chute, or crossing gravel roads. (As a safety feature, some newer models have a blade/brake clutch that stops the blade each time the operator releases the handle.)

The ASPS website is hosting the companion video “When Lawnmowers Attack”.

 

 

The Dangers of Alternative Cancer Therapies

Associated Press is reporting some studies found that 60 percent of cancer patients try unconventional remedies and about 40 percent take vitamin or dietary supplements, which do not have to be proven safe or effective and are not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
 
People who try these unproven treatments risk not only money but also sometimes their only chance at beating the disease by foregoing conventional treatment or concurrently doing other therapies, according to the study. Harmless-sounding vitamins and "natural" supplements can also reportedly interfere with cancer medication or affect hormones that help cancer grow, the study reports.
 
While no alternative treatments can cure cancer, some reportedly can assist in easing symptoms.  One study reportedly found ginger capsules to ease nausea if started days before chemotherapy.
 
A recent trend is more troubling, however.  With the aid of the internet, online retailers and virtual "quacks" are selling fringe treatments and miracle cures supported by so-called testimonials rather than scientific proof.
 
"What I am noticing in the last year or two is a resurgence of these things. It's coming back," said Barrie Cassileth, integrative medicine chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a longtime adviser to the American Cancer Society.  Cassileth’s research has reported that about 7 percent of cancer patients go straight to an alternative approach, sometimes traveling to Mexico, the Bahamas or Europe for treatments not allowed in the United States.  And because of the slow spread of some cancers, people can be fooled into thinking their alternative approach is working, thereby wasting precious legitimate treatment time.
 
Alternative therapies can harm cancer patients in many ways, according to doctors.  Medically they can delay the time until the patient seeks effective treatment.  Financially they siphon off money that can be better utilized in other treatments.  Psychologically they can raise false hopes, and physically, they can interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy, radiation or hormonal treatments for cancer, doctors have reported.

Van Crash Kills Five in Tucson

On Wednesday, a van carrying Burundian refugees looking for work in Tucson, Arizona, crashed, killing five people and injuring 12.  According to reports, six people are listed in critical condition and five are in serious condition.

The accident occurred about 50 miles east of Tucson.  The van reportedly rolled over a guard rail and down an embankment before landing on its wheels in the oncoming lane of Interstate 10.  The cause is still under investigation.

The Burundians had reportedly been living in Tucson for a few years after having fled their home country for a refugee camp in Tanzania.  According to Ken Briggs, executive director of the International Rescue Committee, the van passengers were seeking work at Eurofresh, a hydroponic vegetable producer in Wilcox, Arizona.

Train Accident at Louisville Zoo

On Monday, a train transporting visitors around the Louisville Zoo derailed, injuring 22 people.  Of the 22 people, 17 were children.  All were taken to area hospitals following the derailment.  Fifteen children reportedly were treated and released that day but a young girl remained in serious condition and her brother, a two month old, was listed in good condition.  According to reports, the train was passed a full 35-point inspection on the morning of the incident.

Some reports are focusing on the driver of the train.  According to Mark Zoeller, assistant zoo director, employees who drive the train progress through an internal program to qualify for the job.

In addition to inspecting the train itself, zoo officials have reportedly said that the rails for the train are inspected at least once a month by zoo staff.

The top speed of the zoo train is reported to be 12 mph, yet some zoo visitors have said that they believe it is able to travel faster.

One zoo member, Rod Mitchell, is reported to have complained to zoo employees about the speed of the train and stated that he noticed its speed increasing in recent months.

The Soul of Medicine

The Soul of Medicine

That’s the title of a book recently published that asks doctors to talk about their most memorable patients.

What the author, Sherwin Nuland, found was, instead of touting all of the lives they’ve saved or the problems they’d solved, doctors talked about the mistakes they made.  And this is from some of the finest doctors in the country, according to Nuland.

There’s the story of an elderly Holocaust survivor who reluctantly agreed to have a cancerous colon polyp removed, but died three days later from a complication of the surgery.

An obese accountant nearly bled to death when a surgeon talked about slashing his aorta during gallbladder surgery.

There’s also the story of a Polish immigrant who dies from a side effect of anti-rejection medication two years after a kidney transplant.

The author told USA Today that “failures tend to be very complex.  You discuss them with colleagues, trying to figure out what the hell went wrong.”  He went on to say that, “Judgment is at the heart of medicine,” and that mistakes often are from errors of judgment.

Nuland, a doctor himself who stopped practicing medicine 15 years ago, is the author of a dozen books including “How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter,” a best seller for which he won the National Book Award in 1994.  He is a clinical professor of surgery at Yale University.

Tragic Accident in Arkansas

In Arkansas, five people were reportedly killed on Wednesday when a car traveling in the wrong direction collided with a van carrying handicapped people.  According to reports, the drivers of both vehicles along with two passengers in the van died at the scene while an additional van passenger died after being airlifted to a Memphis, Tennessee hospital.

The van was owned by Focus, Inc., an organization that provides services for developmentally disabled adults.

Memorial Day on the Road

Despite the best intentions of authorities, Memorial Day weekend is unfortunately a time when many injuries occur as a result of car accidents.  According to reports, this last Memorial Day was no exception.  Serious accidents occurred all over the country.  On Sunday in Illinois, a Cadillac sport utility vehicle reportedly crashed into a Pontiac about 50 miles east of St. Louis.  Four people were killed and five others were injured.  Three of those killed were reportedly ejected from the vehicle.

The Memorial Day weekend in Minnesota was reportedly one of the deadliest in memory.  In one accident, police still are investigating what caused the driver of a pickup truck to reportedly hit a minivan that left two critically injured.

North Carolina also saw tragic fatal crashes.  In one collision a minivan traveling from New York to a family reunion in Alabama was heading south on I-77 when it reportedly crossed into oncoming traffic.  The vehicle impacted head-on with two vehicles.  Five people died as a result of the crash. 

According to reports, a man in Connecticut reportedly crashed his pickup truck into a car killing two of the four people inside.  He has reportedly been charged with drunken driving.

Two people were reportedly fatally injured in Arkansas when their SUV flipped over while driving in a downpour.
Please drive carefully.

Man Killed on Motorcycle in Calumet City

A 34-year-old man was killed in Calumet City over the Memorial Day weekend.  It marks the fifth fatal biker crash in the Chicago area this holiday weekend.

Martez Nile of the 400 block of Hirsch Avenue was killed at Dolton Road and Crandon, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

It also was reported that a fatal motorcycle accident occurred in Country Club Hills Saturday night.  Part of Interstate 57 was shut down for six hours following the tragedy that involved four motorcycles.  Two men on the bikes were killed and one female passengers died later when another biker tried to make what police are saying was an illegal u-turn.  Another female passenger on one of the motorcycles was taken to an area hospital with severe injuries.

Tunnel Safety

National transportation infrastructure oversight is currently administered by a number of federal authorities: the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Highway Administration, etc.  However, a glaring gap in the nation’s oversight regime was exposed when a Boston woman was killed by a tile from the Big Dig’s tunnel ceiling; there is no federal tunnel inspection program.

According to reports, federal estimates place the number of highway tunnels in the U.S. over 300, many of which range from 51-100 years old.

One report quoted Wayne Klotz, the president of the professional organization for engineers that builds the nation’s roads.  “Tunnels and other infrastructure systems have a significant impact on the safety and security of the American people and economy, so the idea of an inspection program that could help improve their performance is certainly something the American Society of Civil Engineers supports,” he told the media.

The NTSB report on the Big Dig’s ceiling tile incident found that an inspection program would likely have prevented the tragedy.  The wrong adhesive was used to secure the tile to the ceiling.  In response, lawmakers promised to enact legislation aimed at fixing the problem by creating national standards that supplement the effort s made on the state level.

The Big Dig accident happened three years ago, in 2006.  To date no legislation to support nation highway tunnel inspections has been signed into law.

Are Artificial Turf Fields a Toxic Hazard?

The increased use of artificial turf fields for children’s sports is creating concern among parents and health professionals.  The fear of carcinogenic and toxic chemical contamination is currently being debated as more grass fields in our nation’s parks are being replaced by artificial turf.

Artificial turf fields provide tangible benefits because they contribute to reduced chemical and fertilizer use and require much less water than traditional grass fields.  However, “crumb rubber,” a controversial fill poured between the artificial blades of grass, is stirring up controversey.  Crumb rubber is composed of recycled ground-up tires.

According to reports, recycled tires contain carcinogenic toxins which are a cause of concern for the parents of children who play and sweat on these surfaces.  Recycled tires also contain metals and chemical toxins such as zinc, benzene and butadiene.  Elevated levels of lead, another threat to children on these surfaces,  was studied by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  They concluded that the contamination did not rise to levels that would be harmful but they still called for voluntary standards to be instituted to eliminate the problem.  According to reports, heat on the playing surface is also an issue as temperatures as high as 140 degrees have been recorded.

Studies evaluating different aspects of potentially dangerous exposures to these reported harmful compounds have been commissioned and reviewed in areas across the country including Connecticut, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle.  The conclusions have reportedly not found demonstrably dangerous levels of the compounds.  However, Dr. Philip Landrigan, professor and Chairman of Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, remains skeptical because he is not aware of any studies that measure the effects on children using fields that have crumb rubber.  According to Dr. Landrigan, "All those toxins are very available to kids, if kids are playing and running.   [A]ll this chemical soup is going to get on their skins and their fingers."

Chicago Bans BPA

The Chicago City Council recently passed a measure that bans the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups that contain the chemical BPA.  The ban reportedly makes Chicago the first city in the nation to enact a ban like this.

The chemical Bisphenol-A, or BPA, is included in the manufacture of plastics to harden the product.  Over time, BPA can reportedly leach into the container’s contents, especially when it has been put in the microwave or dishwasher.  Some studies have found that the chemical leads to an increased incidence of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  In contrast, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly said that the levels of BPA in American products are at a safe level.

The bill, proposed by Aldermen Manuel Flores and Edward M. Burke, initially was aimed at banning all products that contained BPA, but in its final form the ordinance bans empty food or drink containers intended for use by children under three years old.  The initial version was reportedly scaled back due to concern over enforcement and industry opposition.

The ban will take effect in January, 2010, but still requires the signature of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Machines May Dispense Prescriptions

Technology is going one step further. 

In Ontario, Canada, a pilot project has been underway since last June that dispenses medicine through machines that resemble ATM machines at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre..

Patients there have been feeding their doctor-issued prescriptions into the machine and are linked to a pharmacist via video.  The patients speak to a pharmacist through a built-in video conferencing system, they pay, then the medication comes out of the machine and a receipt is issued.  So far, 800 patients reportedly have been served.

Legislation is said to be introduced next week there that would allow for the dispensing of medication without the physical presence of a pharmacist, according to Ontario’s Health Minister David Caplan.  That means that these kiosks could begin appearing in doctors’ clinics, retirement homes and in remote areas throughout Ontario if enough pharmacists agree to be a part of the new drug delivery system.

Pharmacists can lease the machines for about $2,000 per month, according to media reports.  Narcotics will not be stocked but common drugs for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, antibiotics and heart medication are.

Driving Bill

It’s no surprise that the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee unanimously approved Tuesday a bill that strengthens the state law on distracted driving.

The vote comes in the wake of front-page news that a 56-year-old motorcyclist was killed near far northwest suburban Lake Zurich when a driver reportedly struck her on her bike while she was stopped at a red light.  The driver of the vehicle told police she was painting her fingernails at the time of the crash.

House Bill 72 which was proposed b y Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, passed the Illinois House on April 1.  The legislation stems from recommendations made by the state’s Distracted Driving Task Force, led by White, which was meant to reduce fatalities and injuries caused by cell phone use and other distractions of a driver.

The legislation now goes to the full Senate for a vote.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that at least 25 percent of police-reported crashes involved some form of driver inattention.

Bus Crash Not Reported

California agencies told Associated Press (AP) that it did not have a record of the 2005 accident of the tour bus driver that crashed the bus killing himself and Four French tourists Tuesday.

Following this deadly crash, it was reported that the driver had struck a woman in a Las Vegas, Nevada crosswalk.  It is required under state law that all driving infractions by commercial drivers be reported to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

A state official from the California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, however, told AP that its records only indicate that the driver had been cited once in 2008 for not wearing his seat belt. 

Court documents report that the driver pleaded no contest in a Nevada court in 2006 to a misdemeanor count of starting improperly from a stopped position in the Last Vegas accident.  He reportedly was fined $500 and was required to pay about $475 to the injured woman.

Four passengers were killed as well as the bus driver in Tuesday’s terrible tragedy.  Four other passengers remain in critical condition, according to AP.

Another Recall of Dangerous Cribs

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled cribs made by Jardine Enterprises for the third time.  This time, the agency said it feared that 96,000 more cribs could trap or strangle a baby.

Near a half million cribs now have been recalled by this manufacturer.  They are sold largely at Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores.  The cribs were made in China and Vietnam.

The CPSC said it received 31 reports of slats breaking, creating what can be a deadly gap.
The gap is large enough generally for a baby’s body to slide through, but not their heads.  This can cause babies to strangle or hang to death.

Consumers who have a crib that is recalled can return it and receive credit towards the purchase of a new crib.

For a list of the recalled crib models, please visit cpsc.gov.  For additional information about the cribs, Jardine can be contacted at 1-800-646-4106 from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (CST) Monday through Friday.

New Illinois Law Helps the Uninsured

The Hospital Uninsured Patient Discount Act, which went into effect in Illinois on April 1, protects uninsured patients by capping their hospital bills and mandating discounts.

On average, uninsured patients, unable to negotiate rates like insurance companies do, are reportedly charged in excess of 200 percent above a hospital’s cost.  According to Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General, “Medical care at hospitals…is the reason that 50 percent of people in this country end up in bankruptcy.”

The new law protects the uninsured in many ways.  It stipulates that charges to the uninsured cannot exceed the costs of the services plus 35 percent.  The law also places an annual cap on the amount hospitals can collect at no more than 25 percent of family income over a 12 month period.  Moreover, it protects your home, car, and pension by not allowing them to be included as part of your assets.

To be eligible, those seeking treatment at non-rural hospitals must earn within 600 percent of the federal poverty level which is $132,000 for a family of four in 2008.  Those seeking treatment at rural hospitals must earn within 300 percent of the federal poverty level which is $63,600 for a family of four.

To read related information about not-for-profit (NFP) hospital class action litigation go here.  Some NFP's have charged uninsured patients significantly more than those who are insured.
 

California Bus Driver had Previous Accident

Word now comes that the driver of the bus in the Soledad bus crash that killed him and four other people and injured dozens more on Tuesday was involved in a previous bus crash in 2005.

It has been released in the media that the bus driver, identified by the Monterey County Coroner’s Office as John Egnew, 69, of Corona, California, was driving a bus four years ago when he struck a pedestrian crossing the street.

Egnew died of head and neck injuries after he was thrown from the bus earlier this week after it overturned on a California freeway overpass, according to authorities.  In the earlier accident, he reportedly admitted he did not see the 71-year-old woman he struck who was walking in the crosswalk with her husband.  The woman reportedly suffered brain injuries and a fractured pelvis.

Weeks Enterprises owns Orion Pacific, the tour bus operator of the bus that overturned Tuesday.

Authorities said they are using witness statements and physical evidence, such as the position of the bus, the debris at the site, damage to the road and guard rail that the bus struck, and overall inspection of the vehicle to reconstruct the crash.

Victims of the California Bus Crash

Although authorities have not released the names of the passengers who were killed in the bus crash that occurred in a rural area of California in Soledad, it is known that they were tourists from France.

The bus driver, John Egnew, 69, of Corona, California, also was killed, according to the Monterey County Coroner’s office.

According to media reports, a group of 34 French tourists were on board for an eight-day tour of the wine country in northern California, heading from San Francisco and making several stops before scheduled to end in Los Angeles.  A Canadian tour guide also was on the bus as well as the bus driver.

Three of the people reportedly were killed on the scene and another person died in the hospital.  The driver also later died.  Another person is said to remain hospitalized in critical condition, according to Monterey County officials.  The other passengers who were injured reportedly are in stable condition in 10 hospitals in the area.  Four of the injured were younger than 18 years old, officials there said.

Jacques de Noray of the French consulate told the press that the French citizens were from across France – Paris, Bordeaux and Marseille – on a one-week trip through California that had already made stops in Monterey and Carmel before the crash. 

Associated Press is reporting that a representative from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that federal transportation officials plan to do a full review of motor coach safety.  It is not known whether the bus involved in this accident was equipped with seat belts.

Railroad Regulations

With the recent nomination of Joseph C. Szabo, the current Illinois Legislative Director for the United Transport Union, for the position of Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), national focus has been cast on railroad regulations put in place by the Bush administration.

The specific regulations reportedly weaken some safety protections in place to serve victims of railroad accidents by preempting state safety laws.  However, these regulations are not yet in effect because of an early Obama administration memo staying their enforcement.

In a statement, the American Association for Justice's (AAJ) Director of Regulatory Affairs, Gerie Voss,  told the media, “As the Obama administration continues the push to expand rail transportation and develop high-speed passenger trains, it is imperative [that] the new FRA administrator roll-back Bush-era regulations that protect corporations instead of injured consumers.”

Moreover, according to Voss, preemption language in the Bush era regulations could be used to prevent injured parties from filing state tort suits.  This consequence would strip tort suits of their public safety function which incentivizes manufacturers to make their products safer.

NTSB on the Scene at Soledad Bus Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sent investigators to the scene of a tragic bus accident in Soledad, California.

A tour bus traveling on the popular north-south 101 Highway on the California coast reportedly struck a center divider on the four-lane highway in Soledad, a farm town about 115 miles south of San Francisco.

According to reports, the bus skidded on its side, ejecting several passengers.  It is not known why the driver, who reportedly survived the crash, lost control of the bus.   It was reported that many of the passengers were French or French Canadian citizens and were taken to several area hospitals for treatment.

Just last week the NTSB announced that the probable cause of the motorcoach accident that occurred on Jan. 6, 2008, in Mexican Hat, Utah, was due to the “driver’s diminished alertness due to inadequate sleep resulting from a combination of factors.”  The NTSB goes on to say that, “The Board found that the driver’s state of fatigue affected his awareness of his vehicle’s excessive speed and lane position on a downhill mountain grade of a rural secondary road.”  The bus there overturned in a 360-degree turn and the roof of the bus separated from the body of the vehicle.  51 of the 53 passengers there were ejected from the bus.  Nine people were killed and 43 were injured.

Tour Bus Kills Four in Soledad

A tour bus overturned on a bridge on U.S. Route 101 that runs along the California coast, killing at least five people and injuring dozens more Tuesday afternoon.

The charter bus, operated by Orion Pacific, was heading from San Francisco to Los Angeles carrying an estimated 38 people when it overturned, ejecting passengers on to the overpass roadway and the street, 60 to 70 feet below.  Soledad Fire Department crews and medivac helicopters responded to the bus accident scene.

Many of the bus crash victims were taken to Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital.  The crash occurred in a rural area near Soledad, about 130 miles south of San Francisco.

The French consulate has confirmed many passengers were French tourists on an eight-day sightseeing trip.

This is the second major tour bus accident in California in the past year.  Last October, a casino-bound bus flipped over north of San Francisco, killing 10 people and injuring nearly three dozen people.

And in Utah earlier this year, a 56-passenger motorcoach flipped over, killing nine people and injuring 43 more.

Call for More Tort Lawyers

The editor of Forbes, William Baldwin, says there is a need for more plaintiffs’ lawyers because of all the food-borne illness in this country.

In the May issue of the magazine, Baldwin points out that these illnesses strike 76 million Americans a year, killing 5,000 people and running up $3 billion in hospital costs.  Instead of calling for more government regulation, he calls for more plaintiffs’ lawyers.

He wrote, “If it’s expensive to make mistakes, more money will go into the detection and prevention of microbes.”  He used the example of seeing changes in food safety practices such as fast food chains being forced to raise the internal cooking temperature of hamburgers after an E. Coli outbreak in Washington state.           

Baldwin's article is available here.

National Insurance Regulation

Allstate’s CEO Tom Wilson has taken what is being considered a “bold” move by calling for national regulation of insurance companies.

While most insurance companies have been fighting regulation for years, Wilson is launching a public campaign to change the state-by-state regulation of insurance companies which creates varied loopholes and differences in interpretations.  Instead, the head of the Northbrook-based company has asked for a congressional insurance regulation, charging that the current “hodgepodge” of state regulators “lack the expertise to properly oversee rapid innovation or systemic risks.”

In one of the print ads sponsored by Allstate, it reads, “A Man-made Disaster Just Cost America Trillions – Here’s how to keep it from happening again.”  It then calls for reform of all financial institutions and the regulatory agencies that supervise them.   Allstate serves 17 million American households.

In an April 16, 2009 op ed to the New York Times entitled “Regulate Me, Please,” Wilson wrote, “We have a duty to help stabilize the financial system” and “Millions of hard-working families are counting on us to get this right.”  He said regarding the global economic crisis, “accountability lies with all of us – the insurance industry, regulators, banks and credit rating agencies.  The insurance companies that wrote credit default swaps were happy not to be regulated.  Insurance regulators didn’t expand their oversight to ensure the solvency of these companies.” Credit default swaps are a form of insurance against certain securities defaulting.  It is said to what helped bring down AIG (American International Group) to the brink of bankruptcy last year and led to a government bailout of the company.

Many insurance regulators in each state are elected officials, with many of them taking contributions from insurance companies.  Their objectivity has been questioned by many.  In other states, they are career bureaucrats interested in keeping their jobs. 
   

Dangerous Toys

A $1.1 million fine has reportedly been levied against a toymaking unit of Mega Brands Inc. for not reporting that potentially-deadly magnets were breaking off of their Magnetix toys.

Initially, Rose Art, the manufacturer of Magnetix, reportedly sent federal regulators “useless” information, according to the settlement, when they requested customer complaint records.  Mega Brands, which purchased Rose Art in 2005, subsequently disclosed 1,100 consumer complaints when faced with a federal subpoena.

In one frightening incident with Magnetix, Clifford Law Offices represented Sharon Henry, the mother of a child injured by a Magnetix toy set when he swallowed the pill-sized magnets.  The powerful magnets connected together in his intestines and perforated his bowel.  Doctors told Henry that if she had waited 24 more hours her son would have died.

According to reports, more than 35 children have needed surgery to remove Magnetix magnets from their intestines.

Smaller Cars, Bigger Crashes

While the recent trend towards smaller cars will presumably lead to a decrease in fuel consumption and consumer savings, all of the consequences are not positive.  According to new crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers and passengers of small cars face increased danger as a result of collisions with larger vehicles.

Testing is normally done at a rate of 40 miles per hour into a stationary barrier.  These most recent tests reportedly featured two vehicles each traveling at 40 miles per hour simulating a crash into another larger car.  The vehicles, the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Daimler Smart, all received the top rating of “good” in the barrier test.

These same three cars reportedly faired worse in the two-vehicle test.  All received a “poor” rating.  According to reports, the test dummies in the three vehicles received significant head and leg injuries leading some critics to speculate on the trade-off between fuel efficiency and affordability with a decrease in crash protection that comes with some larger vehicles.

Crosswalk Sting Operation

The Chicago Police Department, in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), will reportedly be conducting an operation aimed at increasing pedestrian crosswalk awareness.  The operation reportedly involves an undercover police officer crossing the street in a crosswalk, as if they he or she is a pedestrian.  Vehicles that neglect to yield will be pulled over by a uniformed officer down the street and issued a moving violation that carries a $50-$500 fine.

The program hopes to improve pedestrian safety by increasing motorist awareness to the importance of crosswalk safety.  According to Kiersten Grove, pedestrian program coordinator at the Chicago Department of Transportation, last year’s program resulted in a 35 percent increase in adherence to the law.  Locations of the operation will be near recent pedestrian crash sites as well as with schools and senior housing facilities.

The operation begins on Thursday, April 23, at the intersection of Nagle and Peterson and runs through September.  Additional dates will be posted to the CDOT website as they become available.

Boat Accident in Florida Kills Five

A speed boat carrying between 12 and 14 people reportedly crashed into a docked tug boat on Sunday night, killing five and injuring seven people on board.  The accident occurred in the Intracoastal Waterway near Jacksonville, Florida.
 
The 22-foot 2000 Crownline powerboat repotedly was carrying the people from the Conch House in St. Augustine where the group had been regular visitors every Sunday for the last month.  Th e driver was reportedly a woman the group picked up at the restaurant.
 
The police are investigating whether alcohol or excessive speed caused the accident.  The crash reportedly happened in a man-made area of the waterway known as the ditch because it narrows.  There is no posted speed limit in the area.

Swimming Pool Safety

With the beginning of spring comes renewed focus on swimming pool safety.  Of particular concern this year is the topic of suction entrapment since the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Act went into effect in December.  This federal legislation is in response to the preventable injuries and deaths that result when a swimmer is trapped by the suction created near a pool’s drain when water is flowing out.  This phenomenon is not only limited to pools; whirlpools, spas and hot tubs can also cause suction entrapment.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), between 1999-2007 there were a reported 74 suction entrapment incidents, including 63 injuries and 9 fatalities.  54 of the incidents involved children ages 14 and under and 38 of them involved children aged 9 and under.

However, not all public pools reportedly are in compliance with the new legislation.  While the law was signed on Dec. 19, 2007, the CPSC did not issue its final regulations until six months before the Act went into effect.  This has left the industry and governing authorities reportedly scrambling to understand the requirements.  Moreover, according to reports, manufacturers have had little time to design and produce compliant pumps and drain covers.

The CPSC is reportedly leaving general enforcement to state and local authorities, citing constrained resources.  They are instead focusing their efforts on pools for younger children as they pose the greatest threat of suction entrapment.

This summer season be mindful of the risks associated with swimming pools and engage in the activity responsibly.  For more information on swimming pool safety visit the CPSC website.

Black Boxes in Cars

At the time, it was front page news.  A speeding hearse hits the car of a suburban officer who was driving on routine patrol.  The officer miraculously survives but requires numerous surgeries.

The hearse driver tells police he was trying to slow down as he approached a changing red light.  He didn’t know that a black box in the car would tell authorities otherwise.  The case at Clifford Law Offices settled for $10 million.

Now, this technology has become somewhat standard on vehicles much like the devices that are routinely used on airplanes and trains.

It’s called sensing and diagnostic memory modules (MVEDR) and since 1996 many cars and light trucks come equipped with it.  They can record whether or not brakes were applied, the speed at the time of an impact, the steering angle and whether seat belts were worn during a crash.  Some continuously record data, overwriting the previous few minutes until a crash stops it, and others are activated by crash-like events.

The National Safety Council’s statistics show that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death in those between the ages of 1 and 33 years old in this country.  That means a death is caused every 12 minutes and a disabling injury every 14 seconds.       

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) created the first universal standard for the MVEDRs.  It is the world’s largest professional society of more than 375,000 members in 160 countries.  Drawing experts from industry and government around the country, it is dedicated to the advancement of technology.

University of Chicago Acknowledges Failure to Follow Protocol in Man’s Death

The headline was surprising: “U. Of C.: Staff may have erred in ER death.” 

Officials at the University of Chicago Medical Center acknowledged in late March that its staff may not have followed protocol in dealing with a man who died in its emergency room in February.

“Our investigation found that proper policies and procedures were in place, but staff members may not have followed the protocol,” according to a statement released by the medical center.  “Appropriate disciplinary actions are being taken.”

The incident involved the Feb. 3 death of a 78-year-old man that prompted an investigation by the Illinois Public Health Department and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS).

According to authorities, the elderly man was in the emergency room for “a couple of hours” but “was not originally triaged when he first arrived.”  Reportedly, the man’s daughter had to bring it to the attention of a nurse who noticed he was not breathing. 

Officials there reportedly intend to submit an improved performance plan in the emergency room to the state Health Department and CMMS so that it would avoid being in danger of having its Medicaid certification revoked.
   

Pistachios Plagued by Salmonella for Months

After Kraft Foods voluntarily recalled Back to Nature trail mix that tested positive for salmonella, it has now been reported by the company that it has been plagued by the problem for months prior to the recall.

Skokie-based Georgia Nut Co. reportedly discovered a positive salmonella test in its trail mix last September, November and February, according to a Kraft spokesperson.  Because it was found and recovered before the trail mix hit grocery store shelves, there was no recall then.

Researchers have not been able to determine what has caused the salmonella tainting.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has urged consumers to avoid eating any pistachio-based products. 

FDA also announced that the nation’s second largest pistachio processor, California-based Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., was voluntarily recalling its 2008 crop.
   

NTSB Blames Amtrak Engineer for Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a report yesterday that blames the Amtrak engineer for 2007 crash that injured 71 people as it headed to Chicago’s Union Station.

The NTSB concluded that the engineer failed to correctly heed a signal that warned him to slow down and alerted him to the Norfolk Southern freight train stopped ahead.

On Nov. 30, 2007, the speeding passenger train from Grand Rapids, Michigan, crashed into a stopped freight train on Chicago’s South Side.  The NTSB faulted Amtrak for failing to make sure the engineer was trained to correctly understand the different signals used by railroads on routes he was operating.

The Amtrak train was traveling 25 miles per hour faster than what the warning signal allowed.  The NTSB also faulted the relief engineer’s failure to communicate immediately to the engineer that he had misread the signal.  Both engineers are reportedly no longer employed by Amtrak.

Clifford Law Offices represented several families of those injured in that crash.

Yamaha Recalls 120,000 Rhino Recreational Vehicles Over Safety Concerns

According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission

(CPSC), Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA has recalled about 120,000 Rhino 440 and 460 model off-highway recreational vehicles in response to 46 deaths and hundreds of reported injuries.  The CPSC reports that two-thirds of the incidents have involved slow speed rollovers.

To complete the recall Yamaha has instituted a free repair program and volunteered to stop selling the vehicles nationwide until the repairs are completed.

The CPSC reports that owners of the Rhino models are being asked to immediately stop using them and contact their dealer for a repair appointment.  The repair involves removal of a rear sway bar and the addition of a spacer on the rear wheels to improve stability.  They will also complete installation of half-doors and passenger handholds, if the vehicle was not already equipped with those options.

As with all recreational vehicles used in an off-road capacity, helmets and seatbelts should always be worn.  Users should also recognize and follow the safety instructions and on-product warning labels.

For more information contact Yamaha at 800-962-7926 or at www.yamaha-motor.com.

Also visit www.cpsc.gov for other recall related information.

ABA’s Role Restored in Federal Judge Nomination Process

The Obama Administration has reversed a decision of the Bush White House and has once again allowed the American Bar Association (ABA) to be involved earlier in the process of nominating federal judges.

The decision to do so was made public March 17 and will mean that an ABA select committee will be allowed to vet and rate potential judicial nominees before the president announces them.  The ABA had been doing so for years since the Eisenhower Administration until 2001..

H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Alabama and President of the ABA met with White House Counsel Gregory Craig to confirm the decision.  The practical effect has been reported to be that the judicial confirmation process likely will be sped up by about a month because senators won’t have to wait for the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary to finish its work. 

The ABA’s role now returning to the pre-nomination stage will give the Obama Administration the benefit of an outside evaluation by the Committee.  The ABA announced the decision in a statement by Wells on its website, here. 

Wells said the work of the Standing Committee “is fully insulated from, and completely independent of, all other activities of the ABA, and is not influenced by ABA policies.  The Standing Committee itself never proposes or endorses a particular candidate for the federal judiciary; is sole function is to assist the administration and the Senate in evaluation the professional qualifications of potential nominees for a lift-time appointment to the federal bench.”

Chicago Fish Filled with Medicines

Prescription drugs turned up in fish caught downstream from a Chicago-area sewage treatment planet, according to a new study that highlights consequences of medication and its improper disposal.

Anti-depressants, high blood pressure medication, seizure prescriptions and other medicines were found in the fish, raising concerns about the effects of long-term exposure of people eating this fish who are unaware they are ingesting small amounts of medication.

The study – the largest project of its kind – was conducted by researchers from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which found the pharmaceutical drugs in fish caught hear the North Side Treatment Plant at Howard Street and McCormick Boulevard in Skokie.  They also recorded similar results near sewage plants in Dallas, Orlando, suburban Philadelphia and Phoenix.

Treated sewage from the Chicago area is pumped into the Chicago River which was reversed during the last century to flow away from Lake Michigan, the source of most of the region’s drinking water.  Although collecting medications is helpful, most of the drug residue seeping into the environment comes through people’s bodies’ waste.

In Chicago, unused or expired medication can be dropped off at each of the five police area headquarters listed below.  Many suburbs suggest you drop off this medication at its village hall health departments. 

Chicago Police Area Headquarters:
2452 W. Belmont Av.
5555 W. Grand Av.
 3151 W. Harrison St.
5101 S. Wentworth Av.
727 E. 111th St.

For others, please visit the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's website.
Also, Chicago’s Household Chemicals and Computer Recycling Center, 1150 N. North Branch St., accepts medications.

Organic Eggs Recalled for Possible Salmonella

A Ripon, California-based company has issued a recall of brown organic eggs sold around the country at Safeway, Costco and other major stores for fears of them containing salmonella.

Although no illnesses have been reported as of this writing, den Dulk Poultry Farms says that Kirkland Organic Brown Eggs in 18-count cartons with the following expiration and plant codes are being recalled: April 1 062, 35 P1776 and April 8 069, 35 P1776.  Also 12-count eggs with the following code are effected: April 1 062, 35 P1776.

Customers who bought the products are urged to return them to the store where they were purchased.  If you have questions, you can call den Dulk at 209-599-4269.

Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections.  The eggs were sold mainly in the western states.

Link to Greater Risk of Heart Disease and Cancer

Maybe it’s something Americans dreaded to hear – evidence of a link to a greater risk of heart diseases and cancer to those who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats, something that prior evidence has pointed to.

In what is considered the largest study of its kind, it has been found that older American men face a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart diseases if they ate the equivalent of a quarter pound of hamburger daily for 10 years.  That was compared to those who had just five ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a whopping 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than those who ate less.  For processed meats, the increased risks were slightly lower.  Meats examined in the study included red meat such as hamburger and processed meats were meats such as hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

The federal study examined more than 500,000 men and women and was published in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

Defibrillator Recall

Medical Equipment Manufacturer Welch Allyn reportedly has recalled 14,000 external defibrillators after reported instances of low-energy shock, unexpected shutdown and susceptibility to electromagnetic noise interference.  According to reports, specific to the recall are 14,054 AED 10 and MRL JumpStart external defibrillators made between Oct. 3, 2002, and Jan. 25, 2007.

Company representatives told the media since the rate of malfunction is remote, they recommend patients keep using the devices until they receive their replacements.

The company reportedly received 39 reports of these malfunctions, two of which involved patient death.

Day Care Center Accident

Several children at a Little Rock, Arkansas daycare center reportedly consumed windshield wiper fluid after having accidentally been served the liquid.  The bright blue substance reportedly was put in the refrigerator after a shopping trip and apparently mistaken for Kool-Aid.  The children between the ages of 2-7 each consumed an estimated ounce of the liquid, according to media reports.

According to the Department of Human Services, the day care operator, Carolyn Bynum, has since had her license revoked.  The department’s spokeswoman expressed the grief felt by Bynum in the wake of this accident.

As of Friday morning, only one child reportedly remained hospitalized with blood samples demonstrating heightened levels of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness.

According to the toxicologist, bright solutions such as wiper fluid antifreeze can be mistaken for juices.  With this in mind, particularly those who care for children must take all proper precautions when storing and using toxic substances.

Online Doctor Ratings

The Chicago Sun-Times today wrote an editorial about the risks and value of online doctor ratings services.

Generally, opinion pieces take a stand, but this editorial rides the line – offering the good and the bad of these services.

On the one hand, it explains how some online rating services could be the work of a doctor’s mother or ex-wife.  Then it suddenly reverts and talks about how other services are open only to subscribers and are open to doctors’ rebuttals. 

So how is a web surfer to know?

The editorial concludes that people on the internet are so savvy that they will know the difference.  That may be true in picking a puppy or getting a good deal on a book, but medical care?  It just isn’t that simple.

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Accessibility to the Courts

The Supreme Court of the United States today, in a 6-3 ruling, upheld a Vermont jury’s decision that held a major drug manufacturer accountable for the injuries she suffered.  Diana Levine, a musician, suffered the loss of her arm, after taking a medication made by Wyeth that had an inadequate warning.

The following is the statement from American Association for Justice President Les Weisbrod:

“The Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle that state lawsuits perform a valuable and important function in ensuring accountability in uncovering drug hazards.

Also, the Supreme Court rejected the FDA’s attempts to use the preamble in drug regulations to provide complete immunity to drug manufacturers.

It is clear consumers retained their remedy under law when drug companies have failed to provide adequate warnings for the safe use of their drugs.

Today’s decision in favor of Diana Levine proved that even if you are just one person, you can fight for justice and hold your wrongdoer accountable.”       
Diana suffered through the legal battle for nine long years, and we commend her for fighting for what was right.

Three People Die in Tractor-Trailer Crash

Three people in eastern Kentucky died when a tractor-trailer collided with their vehicle.

Kentucky State Police reported that the crash occurred about 8 a.m. Friday on U.S. 460 at Staffordsville in Johnson County.  The three were in a pickup truck.  The tractor-trailer rig was owned by East Kentucky Bottling of Staffordsville, according to media reports.

Police were reporting that the driver of that rig was not injured.  The cause of that tragic crash is still being investigated by police.

Malfunctioning Medtronic Spirit Fidelis Leads

A recent study published by Dr. Robert G. Hauser and Dr. David L. Hayes in the medical journal Heart Rhythm reported higher findings of a malfunctioning heart defibrillator malfunction than findings reported by the device’s manufacturer, Medtronic.

According to the Hauser and Hayes study, the Spirit Fidelis lead, a type of wire that connects the implanted defibrillator to the patient’s heart, was still functioning in only 88 percent of the patients who have had the implant for three years.  These numbers are in contrast to the 95 percent rate of functioning reported by Medtronic.  The company has recalled the product.

The flaw in the Spirit Fidelis lead prevents the defibrillator from delivering electric shocks to the patient’s heart when necessary, a potentially life-threatening malfunction.  Further complicating the matter, the procedure to replace the lead poses serious risks with some patients having died from the surgery.

With more than 235,000 people having received the device before Medtronic instituted their recall the potential for product liability claims would seem to be high.  However, a federal judge recently tossed thousands of lawsuits filed by patients against Medtronic citing a Supreme Court ruling (Reigel v. Medtronic) that held medical manufacturers were protected from state product liability lawsuits unless the manufacturer violated FDA regulations.

In its opinion the Court said that the plaintiffs’ remedy was to be found in Congress.  And some in Congress are already working on a remedy.

Senators Kennedy and Leahy will soon reintroduce a bill that would nullify the Court’s decision in Reigel v. Medtronic and allow patients injured by some federally approved medical devices to proceed with their lawsuits.  In the House, Congressman Waxman and Pallone are also reintroducing similar legislation.

 

 

Psoriasis Drug Being Investigated for Possible Link with Rare Brain Infection

Three deaths as a result of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare degenerative brain condition, reportedly have sparked an investigation into a possible link with the psoriasis drug efalizumab, sold under the brand name Raptiva.

The three patients who have died reportedly were all treated with the drug for more than three years and were taking no other treatments that suppress the immune system.  According to media reports, other life-threatening infections have developed in people who have taken the drug for three years or more.  These include Guillain-Barre syndrome, encephalitis, meningitis and sepsis.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the drug’s manufacturer, Genentech, reportedly are taking steps to prevent further deaths.  Raptiva’s label was changed in October to highlight its blackbox warning about life-threatening infection.  A black box warning is an FDA mandated warning that appears on prescription drug packaging.  It was reported then that the FDA directed Genentech to develop a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS).

In Canada, the distributor of Raptiva, EMD Serono Canada Inc., reportedly has agreed to stop its marketing.

According to the The National Institutes of Health, the prognosis for PML "remains grim; the disease usually lasts for months and 80 percent die within the first six months, although spontaneous improvement has been reported. Those who survive PML can be left with severe neurological disabilities."

Peanut Corporation of America Files for Bankruptcy

Lynchburg, Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America, the company allegedly responsible for shipping many of the peanuts that caused the nationwide salmonella scare, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and will begin liquidating its assets.

The company, which, according to records, continued to ship peanuts after testing proved positive for the bacteria, is being sued by its insurance company and some of the companies it supplied.  In addition, a criminal investigation is underway on what occurred.

Peanut Corporation of America’s products have been linked to nine deaths and 636 cases of food poisoning in 44 states.  Many lawsuits have been filed around the country, but currently there is a court order preventing new lawsuits from being filed against the company. 

The Peanut Corporation of America carried $24 million worth of liability insurance during the period of the peanut contamination.  More than 2,000 products associated with its peanuts have been pulled from the market in one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

Amtrak Derailment in Hammond, Indiana

An Amtrak train destined for Chicago, originating on the East Coast, derailed this morning in Hammond, Indiana.  No injuries were reported when the last two cars, an unoccupied baggage car and unoccupied passenger car, left the tracks.

The passengers and crew have been evacuated from the train and are being bussed into Chicago.  According to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari, South Shore commuter lines and other Amtrak train in that area will not be delayed because there are other tracks that can be used.

Last Minute Bush Rule Impedes Nursing Home Cases

A last-minute move by the Bush Administration quietly passed a rule that shuts off information to loved ones about abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities.

This information is critical when suing nursing homes about residents’ care.  The change was enacted apparently with no public notice and little attention.

The rule designates state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees which means they are now part of a group usually shielded from providing evidence in private litigation.

The rule, reportedly pushed through by Bush, serves to protect negligent nursing homes while leaving patients without details of government investigations into abuse and neglect.

According to a report issued in September, 2008, by the inspector general to the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, more than 90 percent of the nursing homes in this country were cited for violating federal standards.  The new rule was issued by that same department in that same month.

Generally, that now means state health department workers and contractors who do auditing and other services for the government are prohibited from providing the information they collect if it involves a lawsuit connected with the federal assistance program unless receiving approval first from the head of HHS.

Legal counsel for the American Health Care Association in Washington told reporters that it did not ask for such legislation and, in fact, it will put nursing homes themselves in a difficult position to get information from inspectors in order to determine penalties, citations and orders to shut down homes.

Lawyers, legislators and lobbyists are reportedly considering approaching the Obama Administration leaders to try to get rid of the rule that impacts the $144 billion nursing home industry which includes about 16,000 nursing facilities and three million people under its care.

University of Chicago ER Policy Criticized

The University of Chicago Medical Center’s initiative to divert patients that it deems not to be emergencies to other nearby hospitals and clinics is coming under some severe criticism.

A national emergency doctors’ group Thursday said that the policy is “dangerously close” to violating federal laws.  The American College of Emergency Physicians, a group representing 26,000 physicians in the country, issued a statement that said it has “grave concerns that the University of Chicago’s policy toward emergency patients is dangerously close to ‘patient dumping.’” Transferring or discharging a sick patient for financial reasons violates federal law.  Medical experts debate the law at issue that allows for varying degrees of medical judgment on who is admitted and who is cared for elsewhere.

The national physicians’ group reportedly charged the U of C’s Urban Health Initiative as a way to “‘cherry pick’ wealthy patients over poor” and expressed fear that if other hospitals did the same, “It will leave many emergency patients virtually out in the cold.”

The physicians’ group is accusing the university of “failing in its obligation to treat emergency patients” by reducing the number of inpatient beds for emergency patients in an effort to cut costs.  The issue came to light last week when a 12-year-old boy on Medicaid was treated at U of C following a pit bull attack but was transferred to another hospital for surgery.

U of C officials have defended themselves saying that the group’s criticism were “reckless and uninformed and based on hearsay.”  They said its policy is about getting patients the right treatment at the appropriate location in tough economic times.

Earlier this month, the hospital, located on Chicago’s South Side in Hyde Park, announced an effort to trim $100 million from the hospital’s budget.  One of the initiatives was it decision to send patients who do not require urgent care to be transferred to other hospitals and clinics in order to allow its emergency room staff to focus on more complex treatment.

Bus Crash Leaves Sleeping Hockey Players Injured

As the Albany River Rats hockey team slept about 3 a.m. Thursday, the bus on which they were traveling went out of control on an icy road and rolled over, seriously injuring five, including its radio commentator.

The injured were transported to the Berkshire Medical Center in Massachusetts after their bus hit a guardrail and crashed along the Massachusetts Turnpike in Becket.

According to a Massachusetts State Police spokesperson, the bus landed on its left side. Players and coaches were forced to break open windows, the windshield and a roof hatch in order to escape. Most of the team members were asleep with the bus trip reportedly getting a late start afer the bus shut down twice, according to the team’s Coach Jeff Daniels. 

Hockey sticks, skates and pads were strewn across the highway.  The goalie’s mask reportedly was pressed flat by a vehicle.  Few players wore coats and some were barefoot as they limped across the road to the median.  The entire left lane and part of the right lane were blocked throughout the night and until 10 a.m. Friday.

None of the injures are reported to be life threatening.

CTA Buses Have Structural Crack

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has pulled 226 buses from its fleet reportedly because of a “structural crack” it discovered.

The decision first impacted Thursday’s rush hour commute and continues as the CTA cautions riders to allow additional time during rush hour periods or to switch to rail service.  Additional rush hour trains have reportedly been added by the CTA on the Red, Blue, Brown Green and Pink lines.  Most of the buses affected run along lakefront routes 6, 12, 146 and 147. 

As a precaution, the CTA told the media that it is removing the 60-foot-long articulated buses that are manufactured by the North American Bus Industries (NABI) and that these accordian-style buses will remain out of service until it has an independent structural expert examine them and advise the CTA on the safety of the vehicles.

The CTA has said that means that during the peak rush-hour periods, it will have the equivalent of 90 buses out of service.  The peak hours are 7-8 a.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m. weekdays.

The crack was first noticed on a five-year-old bus Wednesday that had 152,000 miles on it.  The crack, according to acting CTA President Dorval Carter, “is in a joint, a critical joint, that connects the front of the bus to the rear of the bus,” told the press.

The CTA reportedly purchased this fleet from NABI starting in 2003.  According to media reports, they carry a warranty for 500,000 miles or 12 years.  Articulated buses from another manufacturer, New Flyer of America, Inc., are not affected and remain in service. 

Illinois Considering Statewide Ban on Texting While Driving

The Vehicle and Safety Committee of the Illinois House approved a measure last week that would ban texting on cell phones while driving.  The measure now moves to the full House in Springfield.

As it moves through the Illinois legislature, supporters of the bill contend that sending text messages can lead to tragedies on the road when drivers aren’t paying attention.  Information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the driver distraction due to cell phone use and text messaging can be found here.

Truckers and trucking associations reportedly have objected to the bill because it also would ban computers that are widely used by truckers to even receive messages from dispatchers.

Popular GPS navigation systems would not be affected by the bill.

A similar text messaging ban while driving has been presented in the Illinois Senate by State Sen. Dan Rutherford (R-Chenoa).  Rutherford’s plan calls for a $75 fine but it would be a $200 ticket if it causes an accident. He said he wanted to push for the ban after seeing a mother with children in her car texting while driving.

Ald. Edward M. Burke proposed a crackdown in Chicago late last year on those who text message or surf the internet while driving. 

A statewide ban could be signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn as early as May or June.  Currently, seven states – Alaska, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington – ban texting while driving, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Nine other states, such as Maryland, ban novice drivers such as those with a provisional license or those under the age of 18 from texting while driving.  Six states – California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington – and the District of Columbia – ban the use of cell phones while driving unless they are hands-free devices. 
   

CTA Service to O’Hare Airport Restored After Derailment

The CTA has restored service on the Blue Line following a minor derailment that disrupted service for commuter passengers traveling to and from O’Hare International Airport.

Service was halted at the Rosemont stop, and shuttle buses had to be provided for travelers making the final stop to O’Hare. 

The derailment occurred on a southbound train this morning about 8:40, according to a CTA spokesperson.  Service was restored about 12:15 p.m.

The cause of the derailment is not known.  Preliminary reports do not indicate that anyone was injured, according to the CTA.   

Autism Ruled Not Connected to Children’s Vaccines

A United States court has ruled that children’s vaccinations are not related to autism, a brain development disorder.

Three special masters of the 5,500 cases that have been filed under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ruled that “the evidence is overwhelmingly contrary” to the theory that the vaccines cause autism.

At issue really was the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine that contains a mercury-based preservative.  Instead of suing the manufacturers of the vaccines, families are forced to file a petition for “no-fault” compensation with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The special masters of this fund function as trial judges in dealing with the thousands of autism-related claims.  Three test cases were selected to represent the theories of how vaccines can cause autism.  The Office of the Special Master found Thursday that the connection isn’t there.  

The families have vowed that they will appeal, and if they are unsuccessful there, they can then file a civil lawsuit in court asking for damages.

ABA Midyear Meeting Available on the Web

For the first time, the American Bar Association( ABA) will be making the proceedings of its House of Delegates meeting available via webcast.  The biannual meeting is being held in Boston and starts today at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Several important issues are going to be considered including amending the lawyers’
Model Rules of Professional Conduct that deal with a lawyer moving from one firm to another when clients might have adverse interests at the new firm and the implementation of effective screening measures.  Those proposals will be considered at 1:45 p.m. EST.

Also, Walter E. Dellinger III, former U.S. Solicitor General will be addressing the group on “America’s Greatest Lawyer – Abraham Lincoln in Private Practice and Public Life” will begin at 11 a.m. (EST) in commemoration of the 16th President’s 200th birthday this year.

Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, President of the Conference of Chief Justices and the 23rd Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will speak at 11: 45 a.m. (EST) Monday.

To view the Midyear Meeting in progress, please visit: http://www.totalwebcasting.com/live/aba/

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Illinois Delegation will make a special presentation inviting all ABA members to the Annual Meeting in Chicago that will be held in August.  Abraham Lincoln will be a “special guest” of the delegation at this time. 

Robert Clifford is serving a second term as Illinois State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates.

Scaffolding Collapses in California in Strong Winds

Eight cars were crushed and several others damaged when a scaffolding on the sixth story of a building in downtown Long Beach collapsed in strong winds Monday.

Thankfully no one was injured.  The scaffolding fell at about 11:30 a.m. on the west side of the Promenade Building which is under construction at Broadway and Long Beach Boulevard.

The accident is similar to the scaffolding that collapsed at the John Hancock Building in 2002 on a windy day in Chicago.  In that incident, though, among those killed and injured were two young women in the front seat of their car and their mothers were severely injured as they witnessed the incident from the back seat as they were on a shopping trip in Chicago.

Robert Clifford was co-lead counsel in representing the families in the tragedy that killed three and hurt seven others.  The consolidated cases settled for $75.2 million against the owner of the Chicago skyscraper and other companies.

The scaffolding, which was left up for facade improvement and repair at the Hancock Center, broke 66 winds on the building in 60-mile-per-hour winds before crashing to the ground below.

The 10,000-pound scaffold should have been lashed to the roof or the base of the building when severe weather was forecast.  In the wake of this terrible incident, Chicago officials in July of that year passed an ordinance that requires all scaffolding to be secured during bad weather and when work is not taking place.  In addition, the law requires all scaffold operators on downtown buildings 40 feet and higher to complete a safety course. 

People in Long Beach feel lucky that no one was hurt, including a parking attendant for the building who told the media that he drives cars in and out of the building all day.  He dove for cover when it occurred.

Inspectors are investigating the cause of the collapse there.

Obama Celebrates Abe Lincoln's Birthday Today

Today, the 44th President of the United States visits Illinois to honor the 200th birthday of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.  President Barack Obama quoted extensively from Abe Lincoln's speeches during his presidential race victory speech in Grant Park on that historic night last year.

Considered one of the most revered lawyers in the history of Illinois and perhaps the nation, the study of the life of this complex man is being considered by many organizations throughout the year.

The Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) is spearheading a number of initiatives in honor of the state’s first favorite son.  Please visit www.isba.org for programs, products and publications celebrating Lincoln the lawyer in classrooms, court rooms and living rooms.

Jury Service Rebate?

Rep. Mark H. Beaubien, Jr., (R-Wauconda) has proposed a bill in the Illinois State House that would give every person who serves on a jury a $50 tax credit for every day of jury service.

This bill applies to those who do not receive compensation from their employer..

Introduced last Friday, the bill would amend the Illinois Income Tax Act.

The bill does not speak of those who are retired or the unemployed, housewives or college students.

As was mentioned in the blog here on Dec. 19, 2008, some people need incentives to serve on juries.  Although it should be considered a civic duty, many view it more as an inconvenience.

Rep. Beaubien’s suggestion is innovative.  Let’s see the reaction to the idea and if other states follow suit.

Honoring Honest Abe

Clifford Law Offices sponsored a two-hour program on "The Ethics of Lincoln the Lawyer" in the state's capital yesterday.

Hundreds of lawyers attended in person or on the web, listening to three speakers who talked about Abe Lincoln's law practice and just how ethical a lawyer he was. The program was held at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois. PowerPoint presentations included interesting photos from the Library's collection as well as photocopies of actual letters that were written by the 16th President of the United States.

The speakers, Professor Roger Billings of the Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University; Professor Mark Steiner of the South Texas College of Law and author of "An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln"; and Professor Emeritus Vincent Vitullo of the DePaul University College of Law were most interesting in their presentations and in answering questions of all those who listened.

It certainly was informative and eye opening.

The program was the second annual such program by the firm which is an accredited provider of continuing legal education in the state. Stay tuned for details on next year's program.

To commemorate his birth, Lincoln's bust, cast in bronze, and housed forever in the Supreme Court Building in Springfield, was commissioned by the ISBA.  A beautiful calendar of the artwork is available for download here (PDF).

Don’t Drive and Talk

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said in a report released late last year that using a cell phone while driving quadruples the chances of being involved in an accident, even if it is a hands-free device.  

Founded in 1947 by AAA, the foundation is an independent, publicly funded charitable research and educational organization.

The report also cited studies that show cell phone laws don’t necessarily reduce cell phone usage by drivers. 

The Chicago City Council’s Traffic Committee recently recommended raising fines for drivers who talk on a cell phone without a hands-free device.  A 2005 Chicago ordinance fined motorists $75 and if the talking caused an accident, the fine is $200.  The Committee recommended raising the fines to $100 for being on the phone, and $500 if an accident is caused by use of the cell phone while driving.

It has been reported that from July, 2005, through April, 2008, 40,303 citations have been written by Chicago Police for motorists who have violated the ordinance.  North Side Ald. Vi Daley of the 43rd Ward who proposed the change in the Chicago city ordiance said she hopes that stiffer penalties will discourage further use of cell phones by drivers.

Don’t Blame the Weather

Finally, a voice of reason amid all of the bad weather. 

Michael Dresser, columnist for the Baltimore Sun, recently wrote a column on the real cause of traffic accidents during the winter season.

Although he points out there may be an occasional unavoidable incident, he explains how, especially in chain-reaction crashes, it oftentimes is human error.  People simply are not driving cautiously when the weather and roads are bad.

He points to a recent 47-vehicle pile-up in Maryland that left two people dead and at least a dozen others severely injured.  It included six tractor-trailers, drivers in rigs who should know that driving with snow and ice on the roads can cause a catastrophe.

Clifford Law Offices represented a beautiful young family who was involved in a chain-reaction crash in Illinois. 

The little girl was killed.  The little son was left brain damaged requiring round-the-clock care.  The young mother had to undergo 31 facial surgeries. 

The defendants, including trucking companies, blamed the fog.  Kevin Durkin and John Karnezis, partners at the firm, obtained a $38.3 million, what was considered the largest transportation verdict in the country in 2004.

As Dresser says, “What can we do?  First, stop blaming weather for crashes and keep an eye out for the real culprit: us.”

Please drive carefully.

Tour Bus Driver Worried About Stuck Door

As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continues to look into the cause of a tour bus crash that killed seven passengers near the Hoover Dam Jan. 30, one of the investigators has told the press that its driver was worried about a stuck door at the time of the crash.

Also, according to recent media reports, witnesses have said that the driver’s door was open right before the bus crash and the driver also “indicated he was blinded by sun glare” just before he lost control.

The bus was carrying a Chinese tourist group to Las Vegas from the Grand Canyon.

The bus did not have seat belts, according to the NTSB’s lead investigator.  Fifteen of the 17 passengers were ejected through the windows.

Six passengers remained hospitalized over the weekend, one in critical condition.  A tour guide and six Chinese tourists were killed in the crash along U.S. 93 in Arizona about 26 miles south of the Nevada state line. Ten others were injured, including the driver.

The NTSB estimates it will take a year to determine the cause of the crash.

Boy Struck and Killed by School Bus

A tragic story out of Indianapolis. 

A child was struck and killed by a school bus outside a public school on the north side of the city.

The young boy reportedly was struck in front of Spring Mill Elementary School this morning.  The bus driver has been interviewed and the accident is under investigation, according to Indianapolis police.

The school superintendent told reporters that classes will remain in session, but counselors will be available to talk to students.

The incident reminds Chicagoans of a tragedy in on the city’s south side years ago.  Clifford Law Offices represented a little boy who ran across the street to meet his father in front of school.  He was struck by a CTA bus that several witnesses said was traveling about 40 miles per hour in front of Holy Angels School with children in the area.

Six-year-old Anthony Pitts suffered permanent brain damage.  The case went to trial and Bob Clifford obtained $24.1 million for the lifetime care of the boy.

Cholesterol Lowering Drugs' Side Effects Questioned

An increasingly popular family of drugs, statins or drugs commonly known as Lipitor and Zocor, prescribed to prevent strokes and heart attacks comes with a number of side effects.

But a researcher at the University of California in San Diego who analyzed nearly 900 studies of the cholesterol-lowering drug says she has found that doctors may be downplaying the wide range of these side effects.  Failure to recognize these complications can put patients at risk of developing more serious health problems, according to this research that was published recently in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs.

Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a widely cited statin expert and an associate professor of medicine at the UCSD, reported that memory loss, insomnia, numbness in the fingers and toes, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, vision impairment and several dozen other conditions surfaced in the studies, conditions that are rarely blamed on statins, she said.  Muscle and liver damage are the most widely known side effects of the cholesterol-lowering drug.

Statins are prescribed to lower levels of LDL cholesterol which causes plaque buildup n the arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.  It works by blocking a substance that the body needs to make cholesterol.

Dr. Golomb is urging patients and doctors to look more closely at the possible side effects of statins which includes Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, Lescol, Pravachol.   

Hundreds of millions of prescriptions for these drugs are written annually across the world, with the bulk reportedly in the United States.  Sales totaled more than $25 billion last year, according to pharmaceutical industry associations.

About 1.3 million Americans suffer heart attacks each year and about 700,000 suffer a stroke, according to the American Heart Association.  More than 450,000 people die each year from heart attacks and at least 150,000 die from strokes.

Dr. Steven Nissen, a world-renowned cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said that patients shouldn’t let the new concerns become reasons for going off the medications, but it should trigger more interest in finding ways to prevent or treat statins’ side effects.

Congressional Hearings on Salmonella Outbreak

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry is expected to hold a hearing today on food safety oversight.  The House Energy and Commerce Committee scheduled a hearing on the salmonella outbreak next week.

All eyes are turning to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the wake of the salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 550 people in 43 states and is linked to eight deaths.  It appears to come down to a single peanut processing plant in Blakely, Georgia, Peanut Corp. of America that was last inspected by the FDA in 2001.  Since then it reportedly received more limited inspections by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

A new FDA inspection report (PDF) released last week revealed numerous unsanitary conditions at the facility.

Last year, an FDA advisory panel of outside experts concluded the agency was underfunded and understaffed to the point of putting consumers at risk regarding food and drug safety.

President Barack Obama has spoken up regarding the nationwide salmonella outbreak tied to peanut butter and peanut products, promising a “compete review” of FDA operations.

“That’s what Sasha eats for lunch probably three times a week.  And you know, I don’t want to have to worry about whether she’s going to get sick as a consequence to having her lunch,” the President said regarding his 7-year-old daughter.

But that’s just what apparently happened to hundreds when they unknowingly ate tainted food.  The importance of food safety has, at least, reached the ears of those at the highest levels, but, unfortunately, it has come a little late for some.

Boutique Medical Services?

Concierge or boutique medical practices are being marketed across the United States.  Some doctors are now catering to the privileged few who can afford to pay an annual membership fees upwards of $10,000 to ensure unrestricted access to a primary care provider who then limits his or her practice to a patient load of a couple of hundred patients as opposed to the average primary care doctor who may have several thousand patients in his or her practice. The membership offers not only access but “advocacy” in a complicated medical environment involving multiple specialties and sub-specialties.

The marketing used to attract medical consumers promises “unsurpassed care.” Critics question the ethics of this type of practice questioning the “truth in marketing” as well as the trend to pamper members with unnecessary tests which overtax the nation’s medical resources. Many of these practices market to attract wealthy foreign nationals unable to obtain quality care in other parts of the globe.

It remains to be seen how courts will handle the delivery of medical care by these providers who may not live up to the promises made to entice consumers.

Peanut Butter Recall Grows

The advice of health officials seems to be just don’t eat anything with peanut butter.  Major peanut better brands are not affected such as Unilever, maker of Skippy, and ConAgra Foods which sells Peter Pan.

But there are so many other products recalled because of the tainted popular food item, it just doesn’t make sense to take a chance.

Literally hundreds and hundreds of products have been pulled from shelves in what has been called one of the largest recalls in U.S. history.

More than 500 people have reportedly become ill and at least eight may have died from eating peanut butter in the last few weeks.  It started with one company, Peanut Corp. of America of Blakely, Georgia, and experts have said that a pound of the product ends up in 100 pounds of other products.

The U.S. Department of Justice has joined in the investigation on the heels of a senior lawmaker in Congress calling for a criminal investigation of the company.

Recall information is available at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm or call 1-800-232-4636.

Wisconsin Court Rules Cheerleading is a Sport

In what is believed to be the first opinion on the subject, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that cheerleading is a contact sport.

The significance of that ruling means that Wisconsin participants cannot be sued for accidentally causing injuries.  The decision reportedly was being awaited by the cheerleading world.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a former high school cheerleader cannot sue a teammate who failed to stop her fall while she was practicing a stunt.

A law in Wisconsin currently exists that prevents participants in contact sports from suing each other for unintentional injuries, but it didn’t spell out what sports are considered contact sports.  In a unanimous decision last week, Justice Annette Ziegler wrote that cheerleading involves “a significant amount of physical contact between the cheerleaders.”  She cited stunts in which cheerleaders are tossed in the air.

The lawsuit testing the rule was brought by Brittany Noffke who was a varsity cheerleader at Holmen High School in western Wisconsin. While practicing a stunt in 2004, the case reports that she fell backwards off the shoulders of another cheerleader and suffered a serious head injury.

She sued a 16-year-old teammate who was supposed to spot her, the school district and the school district’s insurer.  The decision, though, means that cheerleaders can be sued in Wisconsin only for acting recklessly.  The Wisconsin court also prevented the school district from being sued under a law that shields government agencies from lawsuits for the actions of its employees.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries have found that two-thirds of the roughly 100 cases of “catastrophic” sports injuries among high school girls since 1982 have involved cheerleading.  More than 95,000 female students and 2,100 male students reportedly take part in high school cheerleading every year, according to the 2007 North Carolina study. 

Tour Bus Accident Kills 7 Chinese Near Hoover Dam

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are expected to arrive today to investigate the cause of a 24-passenger tour bus crash that killed seven people about 190 miles northwest of Phoenix.

The tour bus reportedly rolled over on a U.S. highway south of the Hoover Dam in Arizona, killing seven passengers and injuring 10 other people on board.

The seven dead are Chinese nationals, six of whom died on the scene.  One other died at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the hospital’s spokeswoman.

The bus was traveling north on U.S. 93 Friday afternoon along the Grand Canyon when it veered left and then right, then crossed the median and flipped at least once, then came to rest on its right side, Commander Dean Hyhart of the Arizona Department of Public Safety told reporters.  It was carrying 16 passengers, some of whom were ejected from the bus upon the impact of the crash, according to the Arizona Patrol. 

Some bus crash victims were airlifted by helicopter ambulance.  At least eight are reported to be in critical condition at either UMC, the Kingman Regional Medical Center in Arizona or the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The 61-year-old driver of the bus is reportedly one of the people in critical condition. The tourists on the bus were reported to be Chinese nationals who had flown from Shanghai to San Francisco.

The tour bus is reported to be of D.W. Tour & Charter from San Gabriel, California. 

High School Student Develops Device to Protect Planes from Birds

Just days after the emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York of a US Airways jet due to what has been widely thought to be caused by birds clogging the engines, a high school senior in North Carolina presented her science project: “Deflection Over Disaster: Metal Deflection Devices to Prevent Airplane Engine Destruction.”  More specifically, Katie Stine of Hilton Head was talking about engine destruction caused by birds.

For the past few years, Stine has been working on her project which she just presented at the South Carolina Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, a progran that promotes student research and experimentation.  She was inspired to work on a prototype when she was in 10th grade and heard the news of a plane crash that occurred in Kentucky reportedly caused by birds.

Her solution is a cone-shaped metal device that can be placed over the front of an airplane engine to deflect aerial obstacles and hazards.  She tested it by mounting it on a fence and firing tennis balls at speeds of 100 miles per hour to simulate bird collisions with an airplane engine as well as other physics test of the project.

She said she hopes to find a mentor or engineer specialist to help her further her research and finalize a prototype.

Just last week, Clifford Law Offices’ partner Kevin Durkin spoke with a reporter from USA Today about the possible liability of the airlines and other parties regarding the US Airways crash involving 150 passengers and five crew members.  He pointed out to that reporter that there should not be one death or injury in aviation due to planes colliding with birds, and given the known history of this occurring, such a device should have been implemented years ago by aviation engineers. 

Katie Stine may be just the person to get it done.

CTA Bus Collides on Chicago’s West Side

Nine people reportedly were hospitalized Thursday when a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus crashed with a car near Jackson Boulevard and Kedzie Avenue on the city’s West Side, according to Chicago fire officials.

Those hurt were passengers on a No. 126 westbound Jackson bus.

The injured were taken to several hospitals for treatment.  One passenger is reported to be in critical condition, six were in fair condition and two were in good condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

The CTA rerouted the No. 126 bus and the No. 52 Kedzie route following the crash.

Flying Ice

Don Burlingame was driving on Route 110 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, when a block of ice came flying off the roof of the pickup truck in front of him.  It was just a matter of seconds and he had no time to get out of the way.  The four-foot-by-four-foot block of ice slammed into the windshield of his Toyota, shattering it.

“It looked like an iceberg coming at me,” Burlingame said.

Dan Tevepaugh was driving on the Everett turnpike in Merrimack, New Hampshire, on his way home from work.  Suddenly a sheet of ice flew off the truck in front of him that was traveling at more than 50 miles per hour.  It struck his windshield, shattering it.

“It hit my hand, and then the big sheet of ice came off and hit my shoulder, hit my head and went right through on my lap, right to the side of my car,” he told reporters in New Hampshire.

They were lucky.

Bob Brobst, a teacher and coach from East Troy, Wisconsin, was not.  He was driving through Rochester, Minnesota, the day after Christmas when a four-foot chunk of snow or ice flew off the top of a trailer that was traveling in the opposite direction on the two-lane highway.  It hit his windshield, activated his airbags and sent his car into an electrical pole on the opposite side of the road.  He never regained consciousness and died from his injuries two weeks later.  The driver of the white trailer never even stopped.

A New Hampshire state law requires drivers to clean off snow and ice from the roofs of their vehicles before they hit the roads.  A Minnesota law prohibits anyone from throwing, depositing, placing or dumping a list of items onto public streets or highways that includes snow and ice.  In Massachusetts, drivers can be fined up to $100 for failing to clear excess ice and snow off their vehicles.

Certainly countless drivers have been subject to snow blowing off from the vehicles traveling in front of them, making visibility poor.  It obviously can be very dangerous.  Police warn drivers to warm up their cars and clear off all snow and ice before beginning your journey.

And truckers, in particular, should pay particular attention to this danger.

Defective Cribs

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has recalled another 56,450 Jardine cribs because the wooden slats reportedly have the potential to break, pose entrapment hazards and suffocate babies. So far, 61 cases have been reported of the slats breaking on Jardine cribs. 

These cribs are sold at many popular stories such as Toys R Us, Babies R Us, KidsWorld and Geoffrey Stores. 

The models and dates of the latest recall are:
*DA715BC (2/04-1/07);
*0108L00 (7/06 - 11/07);
*0308C00 (12/05 - 11/07).  They were sold nationwide from March, 2004, through as late as this very month. 

If you have purchased one of these cribs, you need to call Jardine at 800-646-4106 or visit the recall website at www.jardinecribrecall.com

Clifford Law Offices reported on the widespread crib recall in its last newsletter.  There, the firm reported that in the last two years, more than 3.6 million defective baby cribs have been recalled and the CPSC is calling for federally mandated safety rules for these products rather than voluntary safety standards.

Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger, pointed out that some parents who were given vouchers to buy a new Jardine crib last year went out and purchased one of the ones that are recalled now.    That not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting children by improving the safety of children’s products reports that more infants die each year from cribs than from any other nursery product.  Kids in Danger reports that in the last 20 years, 1,100 babies have died from crib-related injuries.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has urged for a refund-only policy and has released a new comprehensive guide on recalled cribs, bassinets and play yards to help parents identify whether they have these dangerous products in their home. 

Consumers can obtain a copy of the free guide by visiting www.Illinoisattorneygeneral.gov or by calling its Product Recall Hotline at 1-888-414-7678.

Clean Air

Finally, some good news.  A recent study was released that said that clean air may be adding months to a person’s life.  Imagine that – Americans are living nearly three years longer than they were just two decades ago – and it is estimated that about five months of that increase may be to cleaner air.

The latest New England Journal of Medicine released the study by C. Arden Pope, a professor at Brigham Young University.  It covered 51 metropolitan areas in the United States and more than 200 countries.

“Our efforts to clean up our air appear to be worth it,” Pope said.

Chicago has made deliberate efforts since at least 1995 to clean up its air.  It was then that the city became involved in Partners for Clean Air, a coalition of about 300 area businesses, governmental agencies and environmental groups that promote voluntary actions for cleaner air.

The study revealed that on average cities reduced their pollution levels by one-third, cutting the level of small particles from 21 micrograms per cubic meter to 14 micrograms per cubic meter. 

The World Health Organization reportedly estimates that 1.4 percent of all deaths are a result of air pollution. 

Two Planes

Two separate planes over the weekend reportedly averted potential disasters when some quick decisions were made.

On Saturday, Associated Press reported that a JetBlue plane taking off from Orlando International Airport aborted its takeoff after the crew thought it hit a flock of birds.

An investigation reportedly found damage to one engine consistent with a bird strike.

The Airbus A320 was accelerating Saturday morning heading for New York when the incident occurred.  It returned to the gate.  None of the 136 passengers aboard were injured.  Another plane reportedly was put on the route.

The plane is the same type of aircraft that crash landed in New York City’s Hudson River earlier this month that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and experts are determining if birds sucked into both of its engines during takeoff.

Then on Sunday a Frontier Airlines plane returned to Denver International Airport after taking off Sunday because of engine trouble.

Associated Press reported that a Frontier spokesman said the Las-Vegas bound plane carrying about 126 passenger landed safety and no one was injured.  Flight 765 as well as the return Las Vegas-to-Denver flight were canceled, and the airlines tried to get passengers on other flights.

Ibuprofen Drugs for Children is Questionable

Children’s Motrin and other ibuprofen-related drugs reportedly has been associated with a life-threatening condition (pdf) called Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS) or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis Syndrome (TENS).

Children and even some adults taking Motrin, Advil or Children’s Motrin can develop serious side effects including swelling, asthma, shock at even serious skin disorders that cause the detachment of large areas of skin and the development of lesions in the mucous membranes.  Some patients can even die from this disorder due to infection caused by the loss of skin or due to heavy scarring-damage to major organs such as the cardiovascular system or the respiratory system.  Others have been left blinded or unable to speak.

Ibuprofen is an active ingredient in over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.  It is often given to those who suffer from fevers or to reduce minor aches and pains due to common colds, sore throats, headaches or the flu. It comes in liquid, chewable and tablet form and is recommended for children aged two to 11 years old.

Petitions have been filed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the governmental agency that regulates drugs.  Parents and family members of patients who have been inflicted with SJS due to ibuprofen-related drugs have been joined by a number of doctors who say they would like to see the FDA strengthen its warnings about the possible risks of SJS from these over-the-counter pain relievers.

Defenders of the drug say it is rare, but even one child is too many.  No parent would give their child such a drug even if there was the slightest risk of such side horrendous effects.

Robert Clifford has written articles about the FDA and drug warnings.  A battle has been brewing over whether state or federal law controls, a battle that now appears to being sorted out by the courts.

Veterans Administered Wrong Doses of Medication

A disturbing news report came out that about 50 veterans medical centers across the country administered patients wrong doses of medication due to faulty electronic record keeping.

On Wednesday, Jan. 14,  the top Republican of the House Veterans Affairs Committee demanded that the Veterans Administration (VA) explain how software glitches reportedly put the medical care of patients at several dozen of its health centers at risk.       

It was reported that Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) said he is concerned about veterans who may have been harmed by being given incorrect doses of medication, whose needed treatments may have been delayed or who may have been exposed to other medical errors due to faulty displays of their electronic health records.  The Associated Press revealed this problem from internal documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The concern also is that these glitches were not revealed even though they reportedly had been going on for some time, and some of the reportedly excessive doses involved life-threatening infusion of drugs such as heparin.

The initial goal of going to electronic medical record keeping was to avert medical mistakes attributed in part to a paper system.  Just two years ago, the VA touted its sophisticated and comprehensive electronic medical record system as being one of the “safest health care systems in the nation.” 

Instead, in a statement issued Jan. 13, the VA said that there were nine reported cases where patients at the VA medical centers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Durham, North Carolina, and Marion, Indiana, were given incorrect doses.

Representatives of the VA say they are continuing their investigation.

Health Care Interpreters Required

California has passed a new law that requires health insurers to provide interpreters for patients. 

The law, which took effect Jan. 1, is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.  It requires those patients with limited English skills be provided an on-site interpreter or access to one via telephone or web-hosted video conferencing.

It is estimated that nearly 43 percent of Californians do not speak English at home, according to 2007 census figures, or about 7 million Californians could be affected.

The reason for the law is that it reportedly had been found that those with limited English comprehension had problems receiving proper health care because of language and cultural barriers, sometimes waiting longer for care or receiving lesser service.  Since 2006, the California Department of Managed Care reportedly received 343 complaints from health plan members who said that their language or cultural barriers had hindered their medical care.

The new law also requires health plans to translate their standardized documents into the two top languages spoken by their members – Spanish and Mandarin or Cantonese. 

It is estimated that the statewide costs to implement the law will cost about $25 million.

It awaits to be seen if this law is enacted in other states.  

Older and Better?

A newly released study has concluded that older drivers are involved in fewer traffic accidents.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that crash rates for older drivers has dropped over the last decade, reversing earlier trends and contradicting projections. 

The number of fatal crashes involving senior citizen drivers who were 70 years and older fell 21 percent from 1997 to 2006.  At the same time, the number of drivers that age increased.

The number of fatal crashes among drivers aged 35-54 dropped by just 2 percent in that same time period, according to the study.

The study didn’t give reasons for the drop, but Anne McCartt, the Insurance Institute’s senior vice president of research opined that “some drivers may have benefitted from newer and safer vehicles, and older people generally are more fit than in years past.”

That’s good news for everyone.

Salmonella in Peanut Butter

Who would ever think that one could get very sick or even die from eating a common every day product like peanut butter.

The latest salmonella scare that the Peanut Corporation of America may have distributed tainted peanut butter that may have led to a severe outbreak of this deadly disease is scary.  The Food and Drug Administration is investigating this widespread problem.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the number of people with salmonella in 43 states has risen to 453 with five being in Illinois. 

First it was announced that the contamination was believed to be confined to bulk distribution involving institutional peanut butter containers.  Schools, hospitals and nursing homes were put on high alert.  And then came word that the snack and cereal giant Kellogg announced it is investigating the possible contamination of its peanut butter crackers and snacks that has a much wider distribution. 

That means that the company is asking that crackers such as the popular Keebler and Austin brands would not be distributed, they would be removed from store shelves and are “encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation...,” according to a Kellogg news release. 

Kellogg is recalling 16 products including:
    *Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich
    *Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
    *Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich
    *Peanut Butter-Chocolate Sandwich
    Kellogg has a consumer help number: 1-888-314-2060. 

Birds and Airplanes

In light of the US Airways Flight 1549 crash, attention suddenly is being given to an organization that probably few knew about before: the Bird Strike Committee USA (BSC).  It is a volunteer group of airline, government and wildlife experts that have been sharing information since 1991 on “understanding and reducing bird and other wildlife hazards to aircraft.”  

More than 400 people attended its annual meeting last year.  On its website, it says that birds and wildlife have caused $600 million annually in damage to U.S. civil and military aircraft. 

The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have BASH programs: Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard.  

Most airports have budgets to deal with bird strikes.  For example, the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport has about 300 takeoffs and landings every day.  It also reportedly has a $183,804 annual budget with the federal government for bird mitigation.

Airport mitigation plans include posting fences, netting or grading over culverts; changing the landscaping such as removing trees or filling in low lying areas to prevent standing water; keeping grass cut short or allowing a fungus to develop on the lawn makes it less appetizing for birds; making loud noises such as fireworks and shotguns; or posting decoys to frighten birds from flight paths.  The airport in Fort Myers, Florida, reportedly allows a border collie to roam its grounds.  Sometimes it is said that lethal methods are used but only as a last resort.

During heavy migration season, such as spring and fall, personnel often are assigned sometimes round the clock to monitor the airfields for birds.  At some airports or airfields, all personnel are required to take hazard training.  At other airports, pilots, navigators and engineers attend regular safety briefings that include bird migration updates. 

It has been reported that the US Airways aircraft involved in Thursday’s crash was powered by two CFM engines – a type that are certified to withstand sucking in five 1.5-pound birds or a single four-pound bird. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) continues its investigation into the cause of that crash.

FAA Rules on Bird Strikes

    As eyes immediately turned to a bird strike as the cause of the US Airways Flight 1549's emergency crash landing, it is interesting to turn to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) specific rules regarding Bird Strike Mitigation and Emergency Procedures.

    Although much of the language is left for aviation experts to sort out, it is interesting to note that the FAA rules deal with the ability of the aircraft to sustain damage from birds given certain velocity, flight of the aircraft, weight of the bird and numerous other considerations.

    The rules are specific on airworthiness when an airplane “ingests” a bird.

    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators will certainly be giving these rules a close look as it attempts to sort through what caused the air crash in the Hudson River.  Its findings will certainly be closely examined by FAA officials to see if they can do their jobs better of making it safer to fly.  

Lawyer Advertising Should Be Accurate

    That was the title of Bob Clifford’s column in the Chicago Lawyer just a year ago. 
    He stressed the importance of lawyers following state disciplinary rules that place restrictions on lawyers who advertise, noting that First Amendment concerns can be overrode by the concerns and needs of those who are trying to decide if and when they need a lawyer.
    In the past, many lawyers have overstepped the bounds of decency in contacting victims of air crashes.  To avoid that, the federal government has passed a 90-day moratorium on lawyers’ ability to directly contact victims of aviation disasters.  Robert Clifford has publicly endorsed a permanent moratorium.  Why should aviation attorneys be allowed to contact these families ever?  Is that the way sound decisions are made?
    Generally, Americans know how to seek out a lawyer.  The question is if lawyers are allowed to violate ethical rules, can consumers make truly informed decisions.
    In the case of the US Airways crash, where there certainly will be some injured passengers who may feel they have the right to sue, it awaits to be seen if they can make those decisions in the proper environment and with the proper protections.

Bob Clifford Speaks on NBC About US Airways Crash

Robert Clifford was interviewed by Lauren Jiggetts of NBC Channel 5 in Chicago about his thoughts on the US Airways crash yesterday.

The story appeared on the 10 o’clock news in Chicago as part of the station’s widespread coverage of the event.  It also is available for viewing on the station’s website which is the most highly viewed news website among Chicago area television stations.

NTSB Report on Aurora Crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a factual report yesterday on the medevac crash that killed four in Aurora last month.

The report said that the emergency medical helicopter that struck a radio tower was, in fact, equipped with a navigation device capable of displaying obstacles to the pilot but that the software was never installed. 

The interim report also said that the 69-year-old pilot was inexplicably flying several hundred feet lower than he should have been during night operations.

The Air Angels helicopter was en route to the heliport at Children’s Memorial Hospital with a sick infant.  Fourteen-month-old Kirstin Reann Blockinger of Leland, Illinois, was killed along with nurse William J. Mann Jr., 31; paramedic Ronald Battiato, 41; and the pilot, Delbert Waugh.

The report stated that the portion of the flight recorded by radar indicated that the chopper’s altitude remained at about 1,300 to 1,400 feet.  It struck a radio tower’s support wires which, at the top, was 1,449 feet above sea level.  The report said that the helicopter struck the tower about 50 feet from the structure’s peak.

It’s a Miracle

No question about it.  Any time a plane is up in the air for a few minutes and suddenly has to land in water because of problems, it is a miracle a life is not lost.

It’s been reported that US Airways Flight 1549 was flying about 176 miles per hour when it impacted the Hudson River near Manhattan, New York, yesterday afternoon.

The exit doors opened, and people were fending for survival in the frigid water.  Ferry rescue teams were there in minutes.  The New York Fire Department was on its way.  The Coast Guard arrived and waded in water to do what it could.  By the time rescuers arrived, the plane was submerged up to its windows with water.  The live television reports and photos from the scene seemed surreal with people standing across the wingspan, trying to stay above water.

Emotions were reportedly high.  People thought they were going to die.  Through it all, people were helping others, not quite sure even what was going on.

It is being reported as the first time in 50 years that a commercial jet made a water landing with no deaths.

Praises are pouring in from around the world for Chesley Sullenberger, 58, the pilot of the plane.  He has flown since the 1970s when he was in the U.S. Air Force flying F-4 fighter jets.  He has participated on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigations.

Now the world anxiously awaits what happened as the NTSB carefully goes over every detail in an effort to prevent it from happening again.

Plane Crash in the Hudson River

Authorities are calling it a miracle.  The Governor of New York called it “a miracle on the Hudson.”  And it appears it is.

Early reports indicate that everyone is accounted for in the air crash of the US Airways Flight 1549 this afternoon. 

As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) representatives head to investigate the cause of the crash, ferries were taking 150 passengers including a baby and five crew members to safety following the crash into the icy waters of the Hudson River.  Temperatures of the water were about 32 degrees.

A twin-engine had taken off from LaGuardia Airport heading to Charlotte, North Carolina, reported trouble three to four minutes after take off.  Early reports are centering on birds in the engines. 

The NTSB will sort that out, but it is reported that the plane crash landed into the frigid waters with no engines operating. 

Flight families may call US Airways for information at 1-800-679-8215 in the United States.

US Airways Plane Crashes in New York’s Hudson River

It has been reported that a plane carrying 155 people has splashed down intact into the Hudson River near 48th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York.

U.S. Airways Flight 1549 reportedly with about 150 people on board and five crew members has been surrounded by ferries in an apparent rescue attempt of the passengers in yellow vests. It is not yet known about injuries to those aboard.

New York television stations are showing water above the windows around the sinking plane. The plane had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport and was heading to Charlotte, North Carolina.

The plane was an Airbus 320. New York City firefighters have responded to the incident.

Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of US Airways’ hubs.

Free Radon Testing Kit

A new study released by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency found that 42 percent of homes in this state tested positive for excess levels of radon from 2003 to 2007.

42 percent!  People definitely need to be made more aware of this danger.

Radon is a colorless, odorless and tasteless radioactive gas.  It is emitted from radioactive decay of naturally occurring uranium in soil.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency has studied the serious health hazards of radon and has confirmed that it is the second leading cause of lung cancer.  

January is Radon Action Month and Illinois safety officials are asking residents to test their homes for radon.  It is offering 10,000 free radon testing kits that can be requested online.

Indiana Teenager Struck and Killed by Train

Eighteen-year-old Pedro Colazo had a break from his restaurant job Saturday and wanted to go home, as he has done so many times in the past, according to his mother.  But he never made it.

Pedro was struck and killed about 3:15 p.m. near Nuttman Avenue and Freeman Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana, when a Norfolk Southern train roared through a crossing.  It was authorized to go 25 miles per hour, and it is not reported yet how fast the train was traveling at the time.

That crossing reportedly has no wooden gates to stop traffic.  The Indiana Department of Transportation decides what crossings should have such safety devices.  Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, said the train company has about 21,000 miles of tracks in 22 states but he didn’t know how many track intersections had gates.

The rail company and federal and state taxpayers share the costs for the gates.  Based on 1998 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) statistics, Angels on the Tracks, a non-profit railroad crossing safety advocacy group, estimates just 20 percent of the 160,000 highway-railroad intersections have gates.  

It has been reported that between January, 1999, and October, 2008, there have been 3,622 train accidents in Indiana alone.     

Robert Clifford and Clifford Law Offices have represented many victims of train accidents.  Some of them tragically have been where there were no crossing gates. 

Clifford has written on this subject for years.  In 2000, he wrote an article on a case of the Supreme Court of the United States that involved Norfolk Southern Railway Company regarding inadequate warning devices at rail crossings. 

That case involved a Tennessee man who was killed at a crossing that did not have gates.  The driver apparently didn’t hear the train’s whistle because he was playing the car radio and his windows were rolled up.

Pedro was not scheduled to work Saturday but reportedly was filling in for a co-worker and was working extra hours.  The oldest of three children, he was trying to help his family buy a bigger home, according to media reports.  He had just celebrated his 18th birthday on Dec. 30.  Pedro is not another statistic to his family.

His death may spur officials to look at that crossing to see if it warrants safety devices that could prevent such a tragic incident.

Prescription Drugs Sales Slow

Driven by a number of economic factors, 2007 witnessed the slowest increase in prescription drug sales in four decades.

According to a recently released U.S. government report, the rising cost of generic drugs, increased drug safety warnings and discounted chain stores offering cheap prescriptions are the reasons.         

The report revealed that prescription drug spending increased 4.7 percent in 2007, much less than the 8.6 percent growth in 2006.  The United States spent $2.2 trillion on health care in general or an increase of 6.1 percent in 2007, according to the annual study released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of the Actuary.  The report said that meant $7,421 per person was spent that year on health care. 

Others attributed the slowdown to temporary expirations of patents on commonly used and expensive brand-name drugs such as cholesterol drug Zocor, sleep aid Ambien, allergy drug Flonase, and Zoloft, an anti-depressant.  That meant that competition from generic alternatives was allowed.

The government study also found that generic drugs accounted for 67 percent of all prescriptions filled, up from 63 percent the year before.  Generally, generics cost 30 to 80 percent less than brand-name drugs.  It also revealed that drug prices grew 1.4 percent in 2007. 

Micah Hartman, lead author of the report, found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued at least 68 “black box” safety warnings on prescription drugs in 2007.  These are drugs that carry a significant risk of serious even life-threatening type of warnings.  For example, warnings were issued on Avandia, a diabetes drug, linked to a greater risk of heart attacks, as well as several drugs to fight anemia that were linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular problems.

Health care costs make up 16.2 percent of the total U.S. economy and President Elect Barack Obama has stated that it is one of the top priorities for his administration to address in the next four years.

It will be interesting to view this same study a year from now after the U.S. economy has been through the recessionary times of 2008.

Golfers Beware of Hearing Loss

Doctors are warning golfers that a new generation of thin-faced titanium drivers that can propel the ball further may cause a hearing loss.

Ear specialists are suspecting that the “sonic boom” sounds that the metal club head makes when it strikes the ball damaged the hearing of a 55-year-old golfer they treated.  The case is detailed in the British Medical Journal.

The man had been playing with a King Cobra LD titanium club three times a week for a year and a half and he said that the sound of the club hitting the ball was “like a gun going off.”  He has suffered unexplained tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and reduced hearing in his right ear.

Testing by doctors at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital reportedly confirmed that his hearing problems were typical of those who had been exposed to loud noises.  They held an audiology symposium last June that talked about it.

Other golf clubs that the researchers found created the same loud bang was the Callaway, the Nike and Mizuno clubs.  They found that the Ping G10 registered at 130 decibels.

Although experts acknowledge it is only one golfer, they said they intend to conduct further research to see if hearing loss is more widespread due to this type of club.

Doctors are suggesting that golfers who use that type of driver wear ear plugs.  Dr. Martin Strangwood, an expert in sports equipment engineering at the University of Birmingham in England said that club manufacturers engineered the sound of the club so that players could use the noise as feedback in assessing how well they are playing and how well their equipment is performing.  Otherwise, he suggested that manufacturers would fill the head of the club with foam to reduce the sound.

As a golfer himself, Robert Clifford wrote an article on the liability of those hit by golf balls and the concept of assuming the risk.

Fore!

Significant Changes in ADA Law Further Protect the Disabled

Effective Jan. 1, new provisions of the American with Disability Act (ADA) took effect that in some circumstances offer further protections for the disabled.

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) of 2008 includes a wider group of people who are protected under the law.  This legislation overturns several Supreme Court cases that interpreted the law more narrowly.  People now are deemed disabled on the basis of their underlying medical condition, not the treatment they are pursuing. 

For example, that means that if someone’s multiple sclerosis, epilepsy or diabetes is in remission with medication, that person is still disabled.  If a person can do their job but only if they remain on medication, they are still disabled.

Also, the list of activities that qualify a person to establish that he or she has a mental or physical impairment that substantially affects a major life activity has been expanded.  Tasks now such as concentrating, thinking, communicating, working, bending, lifting, standing, reading, performing manual tasks and caring for one’s self are now included.  Major life activities also now include major bodily functions such as “functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, digestive, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive functions.”

Although Congress strengthened the new law in part for returning disabled war veterans, others will benefit from the new protections.

The Chicago Tribune recently told the sad story of a Peoria woman who is bringing a lawsuit against her employer, alleging that she was fired as a nurse because of her now deceased husband’s exorbitant medical bills for his prostate cancer.  The case will be heard in the 7th Circuit federal Court of Appeals under the ADA.

Robert Clifford wrote about health care discrimination and potential relief through the ADA more than 10 years ago.  The article also explains how the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) has been a vehicle for workers to ensure that employers or their family members are not unfairly being denied medical coverage under an employee benefit plan.

Denver Jet Crash

Investigators continue to determine what caused a Continental Airlines jet to skid off the runway at a Denver International Airport and burst into flames last month.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not said what caused Flight 1404 headed for Houston, Texas, to skid off the runway Dec. 20 while attempting to take off, but a preliminary report has been filed by the governmental agency charged with investigating aviation crashes. 

38 people were injured in the crash, five of them hospitalized, according to the NTSB preliminary report. 

As the pilot accelerated the Boeing 737 jet for takeoff, he reportedly attempted to keep it rolling straight by turning the small pair of wheels under the jet’s nose, according to a story reported in the USA Today and by Associated Press.  This turning device is called a tiller and is used generally when the plane is at a slow speed, according to the USA Today and accident investigators interviewed by the publication.  The newspaper reports that the tiller could cause the front tires to lose traction and start to skid.
   

NTSB Works to Find Cause of Texas Helicopter Crash

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesperson said that the cause of a helicopter crash that killed a pilot and his four passengers south of Sabine Pass, Texas, Dec. 11 may not be released for up to a year, according to reports from a Texas newspaper.

The helicopter was bound for a Gulf of Mexico oil platform with workers last month when it crashed less than 10 minutes after takeoff.   The preliminary report by the NTSB states that the pilot did not make the required 15-minute position report before it crashed. A search and rescue effort was initiated.

The wreckage of the Bell 206 was recovered and taken to Layfayette, Louisiana, where it is being examined further.  The aircraft was owned by Rotorcraft Leasing Co. L.L.C., a Broussard, Louisiana-based company.

On June 8 of last year, a medical helicopter reportedly owned by the same company crashed in the Sam Houston National Forest while en route from Huntsville to Houston, Texas.  The pilot, flight paramedic, flight nurse and patient on board all died.  That aircraft was a Bell 407 helicopter.  It was heading to Herman Memorial Helipad in Houston, Texas, with the patient.

Like the helicopter crash in Louisiana this month, rescue crews found the medevac helicopter in June with the help of the emergency locator transmitter.  The crash occurred in the middle of the night.

PHI Helicopter Crash

More details are emerging on what happened Sunday afternoon near New Orleans, Louisiana, when a helicopter crashed in a bayou, killing eight people and injuring another passenger.

U.S. Air Force representatives said that with its crew unable to call for help, a small radio beacon automatically notified rescuers, but apparently it is not very widely used.  A satellite in space alerted rescuers to a possible crash and helped pinpoint its location.  A Coast Guard helicopter reportedly arrived at the remote site and airlifted the lone survivor to a hospital.

The USA Today reports that the U.S. government has announced that it will no longer listen for distress calls on older beacons starting Feb. 1, and more than 85 percent of private planes do not carry the improved beacons.  The price for the newer beacon is said to be around $2,000 to $4,000.   

Congress first passed a law in 1970 after several well-publicized cases of lost planes, including the son of a congressman from Alaska crashed in a remote section of that state and no trace of the plane was ever found.  But it was reported that even football stadium scoreboards could trigger false alarms with the devices.  

The newer versions of the emergency digital beacons are part of two decades of work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies that reportedly attempt to better pinpoint a distress signal’s location and have attempted to minimize false alarms by moving to a second frequency. http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/faq.html#about_beacons 

The Coast Guard required the new beacons on commercial vessels in 2007.  Pilot lobbyists reportedly were able to dissuade Congress in 2000 from requiring the new beacons on aircraft. 

The USA Today reports that 30,000 pilots have registered the new beacons with the NOAA; however, that figure reportedly represents fewer than 15 percent of the 220,000 private aircraft in the country.
   

More Traffic Tickets

It isn’t just your imagination.  Police apparently are writing more tickets.

Two researchers set out to see if poor driving isn’t the only reason for a spike in officers writing a greater number of tickets and they found that the recession also appears to be another reason.

Thomas A. Garret, an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, along with co-author Gary A. Wagner, an economist at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, say they have confirmed a connection between the number of traffic tickets written and a fall in local government revenue.  The study was reported in the Jan. 6 St. Louis Dispatch. 

“Red Ink in the Rearview Mirror: Local Fiscal Conditions and the Issuance of Traffic Tickets” (PDF) was initially released in August, 2006.  It will be published next month in the Journal of Law and Economics.

Prompted by a traffic ticket that Garrett admits he deserved while on vacation in Pennsylvania a few years ago, he and Garrett set out to see if there was more to the anecdotes about why officers sit on the shoulder of the road with their radar guns.

And they think they did.

Local government authorities have realized, according to the study, that revenue from traffic tickets can “help offset periods of fiscal distress.”

The researchers quantified it and found that a 1 percentage point drop in local government revenue leads to a roughly one third increases in the number of traffic tickets in the following year.  The study examined 14 years of data from 96 North Carolina counties, trying to take into consideration the effects of police per capita, population density, tourism and median family income. 

Although the study is not implying that safety is not utmost on the minds of public officials, but Garrett said, “It seems quite reasonable that to me that city officials communicate to police departments” the need for more ticket revenue.

The National Center for State Courts reported that Illinois experienced (PDF) more than three million traffic and ordinance violation cases were filed in 2004.

The bottom line is: Drive Carefully.  No matter what the reason or the incentive.

NTSB Seeks Answers in Louisiana Helicopter Crash

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials arrived on the scene of a Sunday helicopter crash and are working to find the cause of what killed eight and severely injured another in Louisiana.

The sole survivor, Steven Yelton, a former Morgan City resident, headed a five-member crew of oilfield workers heading to a Shell Oil platform, according to authorities.  It is reported that he remains in critical but stable condition at the Oschner Medical Center in New Orleansl.  He had just moved to Texas with his wife who is five months pregnant, according to relatives who have spoken to the press.  He also reportedly has a stepdaughter and a 17-month old infant child.

The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter  went down in a marsh in Terrebonne about 10 miles south of Morgan City just seven minutes after taking off from an Amelia heliport operated by its owner, Lafayette-based Petroleum Helicopters Inc. (PHI).

Among those who were killed are Allen Boudreaux, Jr.., 23, of Ama; Ezequiel Cantu, 35; Andrew Moricio, 30, of Morgan City, and Randy Tarpley, 53, of Jonesville.  All lived in Louisiana and worked for the New Iberia-based Dynamic Industries.

Two other passengers, Jorey Rivero, 35, of Bridge City, Louisiana, and Charles W. Nelson, 24, of Pensacola, Florida, worked for MMR Offshore Services that is headquartered in Baton Rouge, according to officials.

Also killed in the crash were the pilot of the helicopter, Thomas Ballenger, 63, of Eufaula, Albama, and co-pilot Vyral Martin, 46, of Hurst, Texas.

The workers had planned to stay there 14 days, according to Dynamic Industries officials.

A spokesman for the NTSB said that PHI lost track of the helicopter when it stopped transmitting a satellite signal about 2:09 p.m. Sunday shortly after takeoff.  The Air Force picked up a distress signal from the chopper around 3 p.m. and notified the U.S. Coast Guard stationed in New Orleans.  The Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol searched for more than four hours for the victims, four of whom reportedly were stuck beneath a piece of the aircraft and had to be extricated.

The investigation could take months.  The NTSB is still working on a June, 2008 crash of a medical helicopter in Huntsville, Texas, owned by the same company.  Four people died in that crash.

Another PHI-owned helicopter reportedly made an emergency landing in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, because of a motor malfunction, the county Sheriff’s Office told reporters.

Snowmobile Accidents

Snowmobiling certainly can be fun, but it can also be very dangerous. 

On Saturday, three people, one of them from Elgin, Illinois, was killed in a snowmobiling tragedy in northern Wisconsin.  That brought the total to seven killed already in snowmobile accidents in Wisconsin in 2009.  Last season there were 25 deaths in Wisconsin from snowmobiling incidents.           

Among them was Randy Salerno, a popular television anchor who was killed when he was a passenger on a snowmobile while on a trip with friends in Eagle River, Wisconsin. 

Clifford Law Offices has represented victims of snowmobile tragedies.

In Illinois, there are “rules of the road” and many safety regulations for those who operate snowmobiles.  Now is a good time to review them. 

Helicopter Crash in Louisiana

A tragic helicopter crash has killed eight people in Louisiana about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.  A ninth person was severely injured.

The chopper reportedly was headed to an offshore oil platform when it crashed in Louisiana’s marshlands on Sunday afternoon, Jan.4.

Although all of the people aboard reportedly were wearing inflatable life vests, there apparently was not time to deploy them.

The aircraft was operated by PHI Inc., one of the Gulf Coast’s leading providers of helicopter services shuttling workers to offshore oil platforms.  The company reportedly has a fleet of 230 aircraft which it uses primarily in the offshore industry.  This is the second helicopter crash within a year for this company.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were dispatched and are trying to determine the cause of the tragedy.  Black boxes which hold the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder reportedly have been recovered from the Sikorsky S-76C helicopter that went down less than 10 minutes after it had taken off from a PHI launch pad.

The two pilots aboard the aircraft died.  The seven workers on board were being sent to perform maintenance on the offshore platforms damaged by Hurricane Ike, according to a spokesman for Shell Oil.       

Robert Clifford and Clifford Law Offices have represented many victims of helicopter crashes.  Clifford recently wrote of the rash of medivac helicopter accidents in this country in recent years.  He called for stricter safety measures by federal officials necessary in order to try to save lives.

Couple Killed in Joliet Plane Crash Identified

A Madison, Wisconsin couple have been identified as those killed in a small plane crash Thursday night, New Year’s Day, at Joliet Regional Airport.

The Will County Coroner’s Office identified the victims of the plane crash as Stuart D. Seffern, 50, and his long-time partner, Deborah A. Loiselle, 52, through forensic comparisons.  Autopsies revealed they died of blunt head and chest trauma, according to the coroner’s office.

Joliet Police Chief Patrick Kerr reportedly said the plane, a Lancair which is typically a homebuilt aircraft, was landing at 8:48 p.m. that night when it burst into flames near the end of the runway on the southeast corner of the airport behind a Joliet fire station.

Witnesses said the plane was burnt beyond recognition.

Although generally homebuilt, the small aircraft are regulated and certified for flight.  The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported at least nine aviation accidents in 2008 involving this type of aircraft with some resulting in fatalities. 

Too Cozy?

It is being reported that executives of major pharmaceutical companies are chairing state regulatory agencies that oversee prescription drug safety for the public.  On its face, that appears to be an apparent conflict of interest.

For example, the Chicago Sun-Times reported recently that the Illinois Board of Pharmacy is chaired by Philip Burgess, the national director of pharmacy affairs at the Walgreens’ corporate offices which is based in Deerfield, Illinois.  Walgreens is the nation’s largest drugstore chain. 

The article goes on to point out Bob Dufour, the former director of pharmacy services for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, chairs the Arkansas state board of pharmacy affairs.  The same is true for Target’s Kay Hanson who serves on the board in Minnesota, and CVS’ James DeVita sits on the Massachusetts board.

In fact, employees of major drugstores accounted for nearly one in four of the 295 pharmacists on the panels this year, according to the article initially released by Gannett News Service.

It is not just the appearance of impropriety, but the potential conflict of interest that is bothersome.  The story told of an incident in Florida involving a Walgreens’ pharmacist who failed to catch a dosage-instruction error for a pain relief medication.  The 46-year-old patient died 36 hours after getting the prescription.

When it was brought before the Florida state board, the Walgreens’ pharmacist who chaired the panel argued for a $500 fine, disagreeing with another unaffiliated member who sought to impose a $10,000 fine.  The board compromised on a $1,000 fine and requiring the pharmacist who erred to complete an education course.  The widow called the vote of the Walgreens pharmacist “a definite conflict.”  Others said the Walgreens’ pharmacist on the board should have recused herself.

Robert Clifford wrote an article about a similar situation involving the FDA for its “tight relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.” Clifford explained how the chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission had been flown to various events paid for by toy, appliance and children’s furniture industries – the very groups his governmental entity was supposed to be regulating. 

Clifford also talked about how it was “too close for comfort” in the aviation industry – how the Federal Aviation Administration lists the proud achievements of many of its top management people who are a virtual who’s who from the airline industry itself, the very entities they are to regulate.

An oversight commission is being considered by the Senate that would create ethics guidelines for governmental workers and linked industries, with a possible moratorium when workers jump from public to private, or back again, so that a potential conflict of interest is avoided.   That can’t come soon enough.

Nightclub Fire Tragedy

The latest nightclub fire on New Year’s Eve in Bangkok brought back horrific memories of the E2 nightclub fire in Chicago on Feb. 17, 2003.

Scores of people were rushing to the insufficient exit, trying to get out of a burning building in Thailand.  Many were injured or killed, not from the smoke and fire, but from the stampede to get out.  At least 61 are dead in Thailand and 200 more injured. 

In Chicago, 21 died and at least 50 were injured, all rushing to the one known exit on the first floor of a two-story structure.  Clifford Law Offices represented a woman who was hurt in the E2 tragedy and a family who lost a son in the blaze and ensuing deadly trampling.

These types of tragedies are so avoidable.  Using fireworks or pyrotechnic devices – no matter how small –  inside crowded rooms just isn’t smart.  And having insufficient exits available for hundreds of people demonstrates gross negligence and an apathy to human life and safety.

Some of the bodies in Thailand were burned beyond recognition so exactly who died is not yet known, but the list of recent deadly nightclub fires around the world does not end there.

100 dead on Feb. 20, 2003, in West Warwick, Rhode Island.  192 dead in Buenos Aires on Dec. 30, 2004.  309 dead in Luoyang, China, on Christmas Day in 2000.  The list goes on and on.

There are many lessons to be learned here, and it is tragic that it is taking hundreds of deaths and some still have not learned.

Fiery Plane Crash in Joliet

More details are becoming available as investigators worked throughout the night following the New Year’s Day small plane crash at the Joliet Airport outside of Chicago.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that the plane that killed two people was owned by a man from Madison, Wisconsin.  Authorities have not yet identified the two people in the plane, believed to be a man and a woman in the plane as they await identification from the coroner’s office and notification of the family or families before identifying them.

The plane reportedly took off from Buffalo Niagara International Airport.  Joliet Airport manager Jennifer McFarland reportedly said the plane on New Year’s Eve was landing on its own. 

The plane was a Lancair 360 single-engine aircraft that FAA authorities say was bought last year by Stuart D. Seffern and registered to his business address in Madison, Wisconsin. Wikipedia describes the aircraft and provides a photo of a prototype. 

The plane that crashed was reportedly purchased from Lantzair Flyers, Inc., a local flying enthusiasts’ club.  Seffern is identified on its website as its president. Its purpose is listed as the “Fastest and most Efficient Homebuilt Flying Club in the World.”

Small Plane Crash at Joliet Airport

A single engine plane crashed on New Year’s Day as it apparently was attempting to land at the Joliet Regional Airport in the far western suburb of Chicago.

Initial reports indicate that two people were killed in the fiery crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sending investigators to determine the cause of the plane crash.

Early reports indicate that witnesses said that the plane tried to land while in flames.  Witnesses could not confirm if the plane was on the ground or in the air on the runway at Joliet Airport located at 3000 W. Jefferson Street.

Several small planes have crashed in the Chicago area in recent years.  Popular WGN disc jockey Bob Collins was killed when two planes collided, the fault of the air traffic controller at Waukegan’s airport, according to a federal judge.

A Gulfstream IV small plane crashed at Palwaukee Airport. A Piper aircraft crashed in west suburban Schaumburg.

Clifford Law Offices is familiar with these small plane crashes, having represented victims or their families of those who were severely injured or died.

The process of accumulating all of the facts and details necessary to determine the cause of the crash can take months or years, depending upon the complexity of the crash and the circumstances surrounding it.

2008 in Review – A Look Back

As Chicagoans look back with reporters on the top stories of 2008, it is tearful to see that many memories are the tragedies through which we have suffered.   

Clifford Law Offices has been a part of the lives of many of those who have endured these events.  In April, the trial of the victims of the fire at the Cook County Administration Building was about to get underway when it settled for $100 million.  Robert Clifford and Kevin Durkin were about to select a jury.  Instead, the families decided they did not want to go through a trial after seeing many changes enacted in the Chicago Fire Department’s response to high rise fires.       

A bicyclist who was killed as he rode after work during Bike to Work Week was another tragedy that Clifford Law Offices is trying to find answers for the family.

Loved ones of a woman stabbed to death by her husband as she left her job at a pancake house in Lincolnshire was in the news for days.  They turned to Clifford Law Offices to try to obtain answers as to why the Waukegan Police Department didn’t act sooner in protecting a woman who had reached out many times for help.

An elderly couple was killed in their home in far southwest suburban Frankfort as a result of a gas explosion.

A senior at Southern Illinois University is killed on his way to a photojournalism assignment when a truck loaded with 40 tons of agricultural lime hit him from the rear in a line of stopped traffic.  It was just two weeks before his graduation.

A couple is injured as they are driving near a truck that hits an overpass on the Edens Expressway and its debris is scattered about the highway.

A young woman is trapped in the door of a CTA bus as she attempted to board and is dragged on a Chicago street, suffering multiple fractures and head injuries.

All of these families turned to Clifford Law Offices for help.

Certainly, there are many other stories – from Illinois Senator Barack Obama making history to Governor Rod Blagojevich fighting for his job (PDF).  Even the weather was in the news – tornados, record rain, flooding, ice storms, blizzards.  Chicago area residents tried to brace for the worst.

Clifford Law Offices sponsored the weather on WGN radio’s website so as to help people be better informed of what to expect.

As we turn to 2009, let us pray for happy, peaceful and healthful days.

To Shovel or Not to Shovel? That is the Question.

Chicago has endured more than 50 inches of precipitation in 2008, a record and as snow continues to fall in the final hours of the year, that age-old question also arises: does one shovel or not shovel when the snow hits?

Robert Clifford has written a column for the Chicago Lawyer offering some advice on this issue: “To shovel or not to shovel.”

Although the answer may differ from state to state, Illinois generally follows the natural accumulation rule.  As Clifford explains, that means one is not under a duty to remove snow that has naturally accumulated, but one who voluntarily does so can be subject to liability if he does so negligently.

The Illinois legislature, although in a minority of states, codified this rule in the Snow and Ice Removal Act which is based upon the public policy of encouraging property owners to clear public sidewalks adjacent to their property. 

Although each case turns on its own facts, Clifford advises everyone to be a good neighbor and to carefully shovel – even scattering some salt may be a good idea.  The U.S. Naval Safety Center offers some tips for snow shovelers.

Clifford Law Offices sponsors the weather on WGN radio to keep Chicagoans abreast of conditions.  Forecaster Tom Skilling answers weather questions and his research on Chicago winters are very informative.

Caps On Damages

Television viewers follow the hospital dramas each week – House, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, General Hospital.  But there is no greater real life drama than what is occurring in the Illinois Supreme Court.

The state’s highest court heard oral arguments in November on behalf of an infant who was born permanently brain damaged due to the alleged negligence and deficient care at a Chicago hospital.  The Illinois Channel videotaped those arguments and they can be heard in their entirety on the internet.

Because of an Illinois law that caps little Abigail Lebron’s damages, she not only will be treated unfairly, her damages will not be decided by a jury.  Instead, the law that was signed by Governor Blagojevich in 2005 limits Abigail to $500,000 in non-economic damages from her doctor and $1 million from the hospital.  That is what she would receive for a lifetime of pain, suffering, her loss of a normal life and the loss of love and affection.

Certainly it is difficult to quantify those damages, but it doesn’t make them worthless.  It doesn’t make them subject to an arbitrary cap.  Damages should be left to a jury to decide on a case by case basis, as the constitution allows.

Robert Clifford has written numerous articles on this important issue.  (“Tort Reform Must Broaden to Address Health Safety.”)

Twice before the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled similar laws to be unconstitutional. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Larsen ruled in 2007 that this law placed an unlawful restraint on the judiciary with the caps and, therefore, it was unconstitutional. The case then went to the Illinois Supreme Court which heard arguments from some very smart lawyers that this time it’s different.  But it’s not.  

Hopefully, the court will see the wisdom as the justices have in the past.

Stay tuned for further developments.

CTA Bus Accident

A CTA bus crash has reportedly sent at least nine people to local hospitals in Chicago. 

The accident reportedly occurred on Chicago’s South side and involved a westbound CTA #67 bus, a bicyclist and another vehicle Monday afternoon.   A CTA spokesperson said it occurred at the intersection of South Racine and West 69th Street.  At least one of those injured is a child, according to media reports.

This year has been marked by a number of tragic accidents involving bicyclists in Chicago.  Clifford Law Offices has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a mother whose son was hit on a bicycle as he was riding his bike after work during Bike to Work Week earlier this year.  

Chicago encourages bike riders in order to cut down on vehicular traffic.  The city offers a website with the latest news on bicycling in the area.  

Bicyclists still are out and about in the cold weather.  Drivers need to be watchful of them. 

Toy Recall

2008 may have been memorable in many ways, but it also represented a year of many popular toys being recalled.  A very sad statement at Christmas.

Parents’ Magazine issued a list of some of these recalled toys including pictures so that parents can see if they purchased one of the potentially dangerous playthings.

And just two days before Christmas, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued yet another recall -- a toy red, steel drum that has too much lead paint.

Starting Jan. 1, 2010, more stringent toy labeling will be required in Illinois in what is one of the nation’s toughest warning label provisions for toys that have lead.  Following an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, even small amounts of lead in toys, children’s jewelry and baby items must be labeled.  Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office drafted the legislation and pushed for its passage.  Illinois law already bars the sale of toys containing more than 600 parts per million of lead.

Robert Clifford has written about dangerous toys.  He represents the family of a young boy who required life saving surgery after he swallowed small, sharp magnets that ripped apart his digestive track as they began to cling together in his stomach and intestines. His brave mother testified before a senate hearing in Chicago chaired by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.

If you have any questions about recalled toys, call the CPSC Hotline at 1-800-638-2772 or visit the governmental agency’s website at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html.

Please stay safe this holiday season.

Denver Air Crash

Plane crashes are complicated events.  Families of loved ones or those aboard deserve answers but they are never easy or simple to obtain. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) immediately sent a Go-Team of more than a dozen investigators after it occurred, but piecing together the cause of a burned wreckage takes time.

All 115 people aboard, which included 110 passengers and five crew members, made it out of the fiery wreckage.  38 people were injured and miraculously no one was killed.  Its fuselage split, parts of the plane were melted away.  Investigators recovered the black box that offers a recording of what occurred as the Boeing 737 jet started to take off then careened off the Denver runway and burst into flames.

Reaching speeds of about 103 miles per hour, the Houston-bound flight left the runway after crossing over  2,000 feet of a taxiway, an access road and a grassy slope then slid to a halt on its belly in a ravine.  Its landing gear had been shorn off.

NTSB officials reportedly have said that a bumping and rattling sound was heard on the plane 41 seconds after the jet started speeding down the runway.  Four seconds later, one of the crew members called for the takeoff to the aborted, according to Robert Sumwalk, an NTSB spokesman, after an initial review of the flight data and cockpit voice records.  Interviews and measurements will continue by investigators of the governmental agency charged with finding the cause of the crash.     

The NTSB is estimating it could be a year before they put together all of the necessary information and come to a conclusion as to what went wrong.

Nursing Homes Rated

Imagine living in a nursing home over the holidays.  Sons and daughters want to make sure that their loved elderly relatives are well taken care of.  But how can you be sure?

The federal government has rated private and publicly financed nursing homes and has released some surprising statistics.  The government agency examined nearly 16,000 nursing home facilities and found that for-profit homes are more likely to provide inferior care than non-profit ones.  

They asked questions like how many patients developed bedsores, how many were placed in restraints and how many nursing staff hours were provided each day to patients.  The scores also reflect complaint investigations.  Tens of thousands of inspection records were collected in 2008 to put together the data.

For example, with 792 nursing homes, Illinois ranked with 82 of them being five-star.  The survey was conducted by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a Zagat-style system.

Robert Clifford wrote an article on nursing home abuse (“Torts Provide Best Relief for Nursing Home Residents“) and the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act.  The National Citizen Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, a consumer group, called the analysis useful (PDF).
   

New O’Hare Runway Causes Controversy

Park Ridge is a comfortable suburb snuggled along the northwest side of Chicago.  It’s not uncommon to see little league games in the summer filling the parks and people walking their dogs along the tree-lined streets.

So when airplanes began flying in on a new runway to O’Hare, just minutes away, right over the homes and schools, residents got mad.  Very mad.  They are saying they have been lied to by Chicago Department of Aviation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  They say their property values are declining.  They say they want the truth.

In early December, residents attended the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission to complain about being deceived on the number of daily flights and the size of the planes that would use Runway 9L/27R.  Some have called the noise “unbearable.”  Noise monitors reportedly have been set up at certain locations to measure the sound.  

As many as 450 complaints come in to Park Ridge City Hall every day.  A noise hotline to register complaints has been set up at 1-800-435-9569.

The runway opened Nov. 20.  The Commission is set to meet again on the issue at 8 a.m. Feb. 6 at Rosewood Banquets, 9421 Higgins Rd., Rosemont.

A year ago O’Hare was voted the Best Airport in North America (PDF) for the fourth consecutive year by Global Traveler, a national travel publication for business travelers.

Denver Plane Crash

It truly is a miracle that no one was killed when Continental Airline's Flight 1404 went off the runway during takeoff Saturday at Denver International Airport in Colorado.

Imagine sitting in a seat of that Boeing 737 aircraft as it plunges into a ravine, shearing off the landing gear and its left engine.  Fire burst out, smoke is everywhere and people are fearful that the plane is about to explode.

With four fire stations just a couple hundred yards away, rescue crews soon arrived on the scene, but the fright and chaos for the passengers and crew is something no one wants to experience.

It brings back the tragic memory of a little boy who was killed in Chicago just three years ago when a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 slid off the runway at Midway Airport and collided into the car of the Woods' family.  Six-year-old Joshua Woods died.  His family members in the car, including his two younger brothers, were injured and witnessed his death.

Robert A. Clifford and the Clifford Law Offices represented the family.  We worked to get answers for them, as they tried to pick up the pieces of what was left of their lives.

There, as here, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the accident.  Answers will be forthcoming.  It is indeed a miracle, as officials there said, that the Denver tragedy did not result in any loss of life.

DUI Law To Get Stricter in 2009

Also, summary suspension periods double and penalties will cost more.  The new Illinois DUI law (PDF) can be viewed at page 9819 of the Illinois Register, volume 32, issue 28.

States across the country are taking drinking and driving much more seriously.  Since 1997, it has been illegal for a person behind the wheel to drive in Illinois with a blood or breath alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or more.  Statistics in Illinois on drunk driving can be viewed on the Illinois Secretary of State's website.

Robert Clifford wrote about the liability of a Deerfield couple whose son had an underage drinking party that led to a fatal car crash involving teenagers.  It’s a very tragic story.

Please don’t drink and drive.  Not because of the new law.  Because it’s the right thing to do.  You will save lives.  Maybe even your own.

Jury Duty

A federal judge has appointed a lawyer for a man who said he lost his job because he missed work for jury duty.  (In re Steven Geocaris, a member of a petit jury, No. 08 C 7213.)
 
And it’s not the first time.

U.S. District Judge David H. Coar in Chicago earlier this year also appointed a lawyer for another juror who allegedly was dismissed from her job for trying to fulfill her civic duty.  (In re Karen McCoy, a member of a petit jury, No. 08 C. 2189.)

It is wonderful that courts are now calling everyone to take a turn to sit in judgment of their fellow citizens.  Back in 2004, it was front page headlines when Oprah Winfrey was called and served on a jury.  Robert Clifford wrote about it in the Chicago Tribune.

It is what our founding fathers fought so hard for.  It has as much to do with one’s civic obligation as it does with how the public views the legal profession.  It’s a chance to understand it first hand.

Everyone seems to have an interesting jury duty story – from the selection process to how they arrived at a verdict.  What’s yours?

Ice at the Airports

There certainly doesn't appear to be a shortage of ice this season, but already some cities are worried about a shortage of salt.

And now comes word there may be a shortage of the de-icing chemical used on airport runways. In a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) memo dated Oct. 29, 2008, it has been reported that federal officials are warning of 60 percent less of the de-icing fluid being available this winter.

"It is possible that runways may not be able to be maintained at the same level as previous years during winter storms," the memo said that reportedly was sent to the airlines. That could possibly lead to delays in takeoffs and landings during storms, according to the memo, although United Airlines officials told the media it does not expect the shortage to lead to delays.

It was recently reported that Midway Airport and O'Hare Airport in Chicago paid three times what it did for the chemical this year compared to last in order to ensure having enough of it. Potassium acetate, the fluid used to de-ice runways, soared to $11.49 a gallon this year compared to $3.81 a gallon last year.

Chicago's Aviation Officials said the supply should be adequate so they hope it doesn't spell delays. Chicago officials may be more sensitive to the issue after a Southwest Airlines airplane skidded off the runway and on to a nearby busy road in January, 2006, crashing into a car with a family. The little boy in the back seat, Joshua Woods who was singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," was killed. His other family members, including his two brothers, were injured. Robert Clifford represented the family along with other experienced aviation attorneys at the firm.

Other airports may not be as stocked up as Chicago that secured 2.4 million gallons. The media reported that Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Elizabeth Isham Cory warned airports that they may need to prepare for a possible shortage of the chemical. The November/December issue of the FAA's newsletter, Aviation News, talks about runways called "Surface Safety."

The reported announcement was in conjunction with the FAA's convening the Runway Safety Council, a joint government-industry body that will take a more systemic approach to improving runway safety. The goal of the council is to fundamentally change the existing safety culture and move toward a proactive management strategy that involves different segments of the aviation industry.

A strike by Canadian potash mine workers, Gulf Coast hurricanes and the general rising cost of the chemicals is reported to be the cause in the spike in the de-icer. The fluid to de-ice airplanes themselves is not affected because it is a different compound.

Let It Snow

Believe it or not, Chicago is NOT one of the snowiest airports in the country. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Cleveland, Ohio, holds that record with the most average annual snowfall: 62.4 inches. The next snowiest is Denver, Colorado, with 60.3 inches. Then, Salt Lake City, Utah, with 58.5 inches; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota with 54.4 inches; and Detroit, Michigan, with 42.6 inches.

Chicago enjoys an average snowfall (statistics collected from 1971-2000) of 38.0 inches. Sure seems more than that, but maybe that’s because many of us remember that great snowfall of 1978-79 when 89.7 inches fell. Not many of us recall the least amount that fell in the 1920-21 season of 9.8 inches.

Robert Clifford wrote a column for the Chicago Lawyer magazine about whether you should shovel your snow or not. The law varies from state to state. He explains how Illinois is one of the few states to follow the natural accumulation rule.

Visit the website of NOAA’s National Weather Service Office about Chicago’s snowfall.

There’s even a history of the Chicago Weather Service Office

Traffic Deaths Expected to be at Lowest Level in Two Decades

Traffic fatalities are down nearly 10 percent over last year and the number of people killed in car crashes this year is expected to be the lowest since the national government began tracking these statistics in 1966.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 31,110 people died in crashes from January through October this year compared with 34,502 during the same period in 2007.

The statistics reflect a time when Americans were driving significantly less because of high gasoline prices. The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced that Americans drove 8.9 billion fewer miles in October of 2008 than in October, 2007, which represents the 12th straight month of decline. In that 12-month period, drivers in this country logged 100 billion fewer miles than in the prior 12-month period.

Federal officials, though, say that it is too early to link the lesser number of deaths to the reduction in miles driven. “Our focus on safety ... has led to one of the safest periods in our nation’s transportation history,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. “Every American can be more confident than ever they will arrive at their destination safe and sound.”

The lawyers at Clifford Law Offices know too well the result of those who are careless on the roads.

Please be careful driving this holiday season. A Happy and Safe Holiday Season to one and all from everyone at Clifford Law Offices.

FDA Warnings on Colonoscopy Preparation Drugs

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it will add the sternest safety warnings available to prescription drugs used to cleanse the bowel before colonoscopies.

Federal officials said they received more than 20 reports of a rare but serious form of kidney failure linked to the drugs particularly in older patients, those who suffer from dehydration and kidney disease, or those who take medications that affect the kidneys. The new warning labels apply to Visicol and OsmoPrep.

The news comes on the heels of the FDA’s adding more than 1,300 professional staff people in an effort to protect the public health given the rapid technological and scientific changes.

The 10 percent rise in FDA’s work force is expected to provide critical expertise after years of reportedly losing valuable medical and scientific people who took jobs in their industry. Of the 1,317 positions being filled, 770 are new jobs and 547 are posts that were left vacant by people who left the agency for other jobs or for retirement.

About 40 percent of the new hires are being paid by industry user fees which means that they will mainly be evaluating new drugs or medical devices and, in some cases, monitoring safety issues.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the agency hired food inspectors to guard against the threat of bio-terrorism, but it gradually cut the program back. As a result, critics say the FDA was caught flat-footed by outbreaks of foodborne illnesses as the country has recently witnessed.

Robert Clifford wrote an article for the Chicago Lawyer magazine about a controversial FDA policy that stated state tort liability claims are preempted by federal law based on inadequate drug warning labels.

The FDA advises that health care professionals and consumers may report serious adverse side effects from any medications or product quality problems to the FDA’s Med Watch Adverse Event Reporting Program.

New Associate at Clifford Law Offices

Courtney Boho Marincsin, a recent graduate of Loyola University School of Law, has been hired as an associate attorney at Clifford Law Offices, a nationally renown personal injury firm in Chicago.

Marincsin has served as a clerk at the firm for the last two years.  She obtained her law degree in 2008 having made the Dean’s List at the law school.

Marincsin attended Villanova University in Philadelphia where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Ethics.  She lives with her husband on the near north side of Chicago.