Articles Posted in Information/Personal Interest

Veterans today are facing more challenges than ever before. They are probably the most criticized and underappreciated segment of our population. What most of us forget is that we owe our freedom to these brave men and women who have put their lives on the line. But what happens when they return from duty? They face a slew of challenges from combat stress and readjustment issues to changes in family roles, bonding with children who were born in their absence, job changes and unemployment. If ignored, these issues can turn out to be catastrophic for veterans and their families. Veteran fatalities caused by suicides are said to be at an all-time high among veterans now.

According to studies conducted by The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, about 283,000 veterans are struggling with reintegration issues and won’t seek mental health assistance because of the stigma associated with it and the consequences it could have on their career prospects.

This is where a great group of people called Freedom & Honor come in. This group conducts training and education programs for members of the U.S. military, whether they are veterans or on active duty. These programs have in fact been designed by training experts with the help of combat veterans. The flagship program of Freedom & Honor, Return to Honor, is a 2.5-day cognitive and experiential program using training methodologies proven effective with trauma victims. These workshops takes a peer-to-peer approach that helps these veterans learn how to re-establish connections, with friends, families and society and how they can effectively reduce the impact of combat trauma on their lives. These are not mental health programs, just a training program to help veterans get back to living their lives and becoming productive citizens.
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California will become the sixth state in the nation to ban texting while driving. The new law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2009. Motorists caught texting and driving at the same time could start facing fines of up to $100. This ban came after a couple of bills took effect in July 1. One allows adult motorists to use only hands-free devices while driving. The other prohibits drivers under 18 from using cell phones in any way while driving. This new law drives home the point and makes it clear that it is not OK for adult drivers to be texting while driving. Our source for this blog was this Associated Press news report.

According to statistics from the California Highway Patrol, cell phone use was a factor in 61 deaths and 3,489 injuries on California’s roads and highways from 2002 to 2007.
Under the new law, texting while driving could result in a $20 fine for a first offense and a $50 fine for subsequent violations. But the total expenses for the violator can add up because a number of fees could be tacked on to those penalties.
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I came across this interesting column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that talks about an issue that has been of great concern to me – runaway trailer accidents. Runaway trailers usually occur as a result of not being properly secured to a vehicle and can cause catastrophic accidents with serious injuries or deaths.

This news report is about an activist, Ron Melancon from Glen Allen, Virginia, who has taken it upon himself to document accidents involving passenger vehicles that tow trailers. A 43-year-old retail sales manager, Melancon is working to get national safety standards in place to prevent these tragic accidents from happening. Most recently in Pennsylvania, 36-year-old Michelle Kott was killed on a local highway when a trailer came loose from a truck and crashed into the car she was driving. In fact, this tragedy was similar to a horrific April 2006 accident in Richland, Pennsylvania, where a wood chipper detached from a truck and slammed into a minivan killing 37-year-old Spencer Morrison and two of his 4-year-old triplets.

California is no stranger to these tragic runaway trailer accidents. Statistics on these accidents are not readily available because the government does not keep track of these incidents very well. However, a recent Los Angeles Times investigation identified 540 runaway trailer accidents from news reports and court files between 2000 and 2007. These accidents resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of injuries and at least 164 deaths. It is very likely that there were many more runaway trailer accidents, injuries and deaths that were not reported by news sources.
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The Orange County Board of Supervisors has rejected their own health department and grand jury’s recommendations that Orange County restaurants adopt either a color coded system or a letter-grade system to let consumers know how their establishment scored on their last inspection. According to this news report in The Orange County Register, county supervisors voted down the changes saying that they could burden restaurant owners with added costs during this period of economic crisis. Supervisors also said the county’s existing system is “doing a good job” at protecting local diners safe from food borne illnesses.

What was this big financial burden on the restaurants as a result of these changes? It would have increased the payment by no more than $7 a year for the biggest restaurants! It is a shame that the supervisors voted against both a color-coded and a letter grade system. As an Orange County personal injury attorney who has represented numerous victims of food borne illnesses over the years, I know that the current system of displaying inspection placards outside the restaurant has been woefully inadequate when it comes to preventing food borne illnesses. A color-coded or letter-grade system would definitely have been more effective and user-friendly.
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A much-awaited federal vehicle roof strength rule is being relegated to the back burner yet again by the Bush administration for the next administration to handle. The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that it would not meet the Dec. 15 deadline for final adoption of a new roof strength rule. The department has set a new target of April 30, 2009 – more than three months into the Obama administration. Our source for this blog is this news report in Automotive News.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not changed the standard in more than 30 years. It is outdated to say the least and has cost Americans tens of thousands of lives and millions, if not billions, in medical and related costs. The NHTSA estimates that out of about 40,000 fatal accidents each year in the United States, close to 10,000 deaths may be attributed to rollover accidents.
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has approved a new rule that will require merging commercial truck and bus drivers’ licenses with medical examination certificates into one electronic record. According to this Associated Press news report, this is part of the federal agency’s effort to get medically unfit truck and bus drivers off the road.

Apparently federal officials have been dragging their feet on issuing this rule, which would have prevented medically unfit truckers and bus drivers from getting behind the wheel. FMCSA has also proposed creating a registry of doctors or physicians qualified to award health certificates to these drivers. Medical examiners who fail to meet minimum standards could be banned from issuing these fitness-to-drive certificates.
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This week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a new rule governing the number of hours that commercial truck drivers can drive each day. These are known as the truck drivers’ hours-of-service. What’s special about this new rule? In my opinion – nothing. The so-called new standard is in fact identical to the previous two rules that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down last year and in 2004, according to the Public Citizen, which challenged those ineffective regulations.

The new FMCSA’s rule authorizes truckers to drive 11 consecutive hours with 34 hour restart provisions. Under the rule, drivers may continue to work a physically and mentally exhausting 77 hours behind the wheel of a big rig over a seven-day period. They may then take 34 hours off and then hit the road to start all over again. In addition to all that time they are allowed to drive, they can be required to work 14 hours a day, which includes loading and unloading cargo. This new rule also fails to require electronic on-board recorders that are very much needed to assure that the rule is effectively enforced.
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This week the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) issued a statement supporting the long-due amendment of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. The amendment would require motorcycle manufacturers to install antilock braking systems (ABS) in all motorcycles. The changes, proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in September, will create minimum performance standards that have been tested successfully in other parts of the world. It will also keep motorcycles with unsafe brakes from being sold in the United States.

According to IIHS statistics, both the rate of fatal motorcycle accidents and the frequency for which insurance collision claims are filed are lower among motorcycles with ABS compared with the same motorcycles without ABS. The IIHS study shows 6.7 fatal crashes per 10,000 registered vehicle years among motorcycles not equipped with ABS during the year 2005-2006. For motorcycles equipped with ABS that number was much lower at 4.1.
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A case handled by my good friend Charles Boyk’s Ohio truck accident law firm recently resulted in a $1.25 million jury verdict for the plaintiff, who lost his leg in a truck accident. This case was brilliantly handled by Boyk and his law firm. The case was initially dismissed in Wood County Court of Common Pleas, but was reversed earlier this year. The trial resulting in the $1.25 million verdict for injured victim, Sean McMahon, took place September 30, 2008.

Here’s what happened. McMahon was parked at a truck stop in Wood County, Ohio, when McMahon left his truck and observed a fight between two other truckers. McMahon saw Raymond Blake, who was inside his trailer, push a man who was standing in front of Blake’s truck by lunging his truck forward. Seeing the other man lying on the ground in the path Blake’s large trailer, McMahon rushed and pushed the man on the ground to safety. But the trailer ran over McMahon’s right leg, which had to be amputated later.
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Top scientists and career employees at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a report to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform objecting the federal agency’s own rule that weakens consumers’ ability to file product liability lawsuits against drug manufacturers for not labeling medicines and medical devices properly. According to this Associated Press article, the report highlights internal FDA documents, which show high-ranking career officials in the agency repeatedly pointed out the dangers of drug makers not being required to update labels to give consumers complete information about the medications they use.

The 2006 drug-labeling rule basically limits when people can sue in state court over personal injury claims involving medications. The FDA maintains that federal regulations prevail when it conflicts with state law. This concept is called pre-emption.

Preemption was a strategy consistently adopted by the FDA, other federal agencies and the Bush Administration to shield manufacturers of dangerous and defective products.
According to a recent report called “Get Out of Jail Free” issued by the American Association of Justice(AAJ), the Bush Administration has authored language aimed at preempting product liability litigation to 50 federal rules that govern everything from auto products to drugs and medical devices.
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