California Injury Blog

Published on: November 2, 2007

Massachusetts Nursing Home Indicted On Manslaughter Charges

By Brian Chase

Life Care Centers of America, a nursing home chain based in Tennessee that operates 13 nursing homes here in California, was recently indicted by a Middlesex, Mass. grand jury on charges of manslaughter, abuse and neglect of a long-term facility resident. According to the Boston Globe, this is the first time in Massachusetts that a national corporation has faced criminal manslaughter charges, said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.

The charges stemmed from the death of Julia McCauley, a patient at the home who was prone to wandering the facility in her wheelchair. So her worried doctors had McCauley fitted with a tan plastic bracelet, called WanderGuard, that would set off an alarm and lock the doors if she wandered too close to the exits. So, how is it that McCauley was found in her overturned wheelchair dead at the bottom of the nursing home’s front stairs with a 3-inch gash in her forehead?

And where was the Wanderguard bracelet mandated by her doctor? McCauley’s WanderGuard was nowhere to be found! Her doctor’s orders required that the WanderGuard be checked once a day to ensure that it was on the patient and fully operating, but strangely those orders were not ever entered into her chart and she had not been wearing the bracelet for 2 ½ months prior to the fall that led to her death.
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Published on: October 31, 2007

DUI Crash Was A Halloween Horror Story Comedian Couldn’t Laugh About

By Brian Chase

In 1991 John Henton won the Johnny Walker National Comedy Search and then he captured a coveted spot on the Johnny Carson show. In April of 1993, John Henton was cast, and lauded as a ‘break-out’ star, in the FOX-TV series Living Single starring Queen Latifah and Kim Fields Freeman. Then, came a starring role on “The Hughleys”.

However, in September 2000 Henton starred in his very own horror story when he was involved in a near-fatal car accident that destroyed his left eye socket, shattered both of his legs, broke nine teeth and ripped up his stomach. Henton, who had been drinking and doesn’t remember the crash, was driving at least 100 mph at the time of the accident, which happened shortly after he finished partying with friends and co-stars to celebrate the filming of “The Hughleys” Halloween segment. Henton’s injuries were so severe and deformed his features so badly that his agent went to Henton’s home to retrieve pictures to be used by plastic surgeons to rebuild Henton’s face.

A year later, in June of 2001, Henton, still hobbling around, had this to say: “There’s no time for a pity party. I have too much stuff to do.” As of 2006, it looks like Henton is still performing despite his horrible car accident. He calls his drunk driving accident his ‘wake-up call’.
Henton was one of the few involved in such a horrific crashto be lucky enough to “wake up.”
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Published on: October 30, 2007

Defective Products Made in China – Just Plain Creepy?

By Brian Chase

Lately, the newspapers have been filled with articles about children’s toys tainted with lead paint. Most of these products were made in China. Now, we’re almost on Halloween Day and it’s interesting to note that last year at this time the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of “Creepy Capes” sold by Family Dollar, Inc. It seems that these products failed to meet the standards for the flammability of vinyl plastic film, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers. And yup, you guessed right. They were made in China too.

So far, China has been recognized as importing dangerous foods and toys and they are promising tighter safety controls on what they export, but the proof is ‘in the pudding’. This year U.S. inspectors have banned or turned away a growing number of Chinese exports including wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine, which has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America. And, Monkfish containing life-threatening levels of toxins were discovered. Further, drug-laced frozen eel, and juice made with unsafe color additives have been banned in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ceased all imports of Chinese toothpaste too to test for a deadly chemical reportedly found in tubes sold in Australia, the Dominican Republic and Panama.
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Published on: October 30, 2007

Big Rig Accident Round-Up

By Brian Chase

October was a horrible, nightmarish month when it came to fatal big rig crashes in California. The fiery Santa Clarita multi-big rig crash topped all others as the most horrific one, killing three people and injuring more than a dozen people. Then, there was the most recent one last week when a speeding big rig driver slammed into two cars on Pacific Coast Highway. Two people died in that crash.

Here is a list of truck and big rig accidents this month from around the country although an overwhelming majority of recent truck accidents seemed to be in California:

Fiery Westchester Crash: One person was killed in this explosive crash this morning that snarled traffic for miles during the morning rush hour. It blocked several lanes on the 405 Freeway in Westchester near LAX. The driver of the truck reportedly died in the crash. No other fatalities or injuries were reported.
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Published on: October 29, 2007

Montana Trucking Company Reaches $1 Million Settlement With Injured Motorist

By Brian Chase

A trucking company in Montana reached a $1 million settlement with a driver who was severely injured in an accident involving one of the company’s dump trucks. According to the article on Lawyers USA’s Web site, the accident occurred on April 30, 2004 when Lucy Jones-Parker, 54, was driving with her 10-year-old daughter, Arianna, asleep on the front passenger seat.

Jones-Parker’s attorney said that two dump trucks operated by Dave’s Trucking tried to cross a highway at an intersection and when one of the trucks pulled directly in front of Jones-Parker’s van, she hit the truck’s rear axle. She was pinned against the steering wheel with her chin on the dash, unable to breathe until a passer-by helped extricate her. Her daughter fortunately suffered only minor injuries.

But Jones-Parker suffered a fractured pelvis. She needed to undergo a lot of surgery, which put her out of a job. The trucking company claimed that their driver stopped at the stop sign at that intersection. But the plaintiff’s attorney cited eyewitness reports, which stated that the dump truck driver did not stop at the posted sign.
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Published on: October 28, 2007

1 Million Baby Seats Recalled For Lack of Safety Information

By Brian Chase

A South Africa-based company has recalled about 1 million infant baby seats because there were several reports of children falling out of these seats and getting badly hurt. According to a Reuters news report, the seats were sold by many large retailers in the United States including Target, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Sears and Babies’R’ Us.

The article states that of the 28 young children who fell out of these “sitter” seats, three suffered skull fractures because the seats were kept on table tops. The company, Bumbo International, is voluntarily recalling the products so it can update its safety label to include the warning that the seats should never be placed on a table, counter top, chair or any other elevated surface. The company states the product is otherwise safe and does not consist of any defective parts that will compromise a child’s safety when used correctly.

The company has also announced on its Web site http://www.bumbo.co.za/ that it will stop selling these seats until the safety information and packaging have been updated. The company stresses that there are no product defects. More information about the recall may also be found on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Web site.
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Published on: October 27, 2007

2 Killed and 1 Injured in Fiery Malibu Truck Accident

By Brian Chase

Two people were killed and a firefighter was injured in a fiery three-vehicle collision caused by a big rig that was traveling illegally on the Kanan Dume Road in Malibu, which is usually closed to truck traffic. According to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News, the crash occurred at Pacific Coast Highway at Kanan Dume and both victims died at the scene.

Officials told the newspaper that this was not the only big rig driver who used that route illegally during last week’s wildfires that shut down Malibu Canyon Road. But this truck driver, it turned out, was speeding downhill at 70 mph, hauling his load of gravel and then ran through the red light at PCH and crashed into two cars.

The truck driver was struck by the gravel in his own big rig, causing his death. The driver of a Mercedes was killed on impact and a county firefighter, who was in another vehicle on his way to work, suffered a broken ankle. Fortunately, he was pulled out of his car by a passer-by before the vehicle burst into flames, the newspaper reported.
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Published on: October 24, 2007

Watchdog Group Demands Documents Be Made Public In DUI Crash Case

By Brian Chase

By: A Staff Writer
A watchdog group is questioning a New Jersey court’s decision to seal documents in a high-profile personal injury lawsuit involving a drunk driving incident that left a young girl paralyzed. According to a news release posted on Public Citizen’s Web site, the 1999 case, which brought the issue of holding alcohol vendors and establishments liable in DUI accidents, is now completely buried under this veil of secrecy created by the courts.

The case basically involves an auto accident caused by a drunken fan who left a Giants football game and crashed into a car paralyzing a little girl. The girl’s family filed a personal injury case against the driver as well as the stadium’s beer vendor and won a $105 million jury verdict.

Last year, an appellate court overturned that verdict and everybody watching the case was waiting for the case to go back to trial. But apparently it never got there. And no one knows why or how because the court ordered that all future proceedings in the case be sealed, which means neither the public nor the media can look at the filings.
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Published on: October 23, 2007

Family Files Negligence and Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Illinois Nursing Home

By Brian Chase

By: A Staff Writer
An Illinois family is suing Manor Care for the nursing home death of an elderly resident who was at the nursing home for rehabilitation after she fractured her hip and was diagnosed with dementia. According to a news report in the Southwest News-Herald, the suit seeks $200,000 in damages and attorney’s fees.

The lawsuit alleges that the nursing home completely neglected to take care of 75-year-old Helen Edwards’ physical needs including cleaning and dressing her bed sores and infections. The complaint also says Edwards suffered “unrelieved pain associated with both her hip fracture and wounds.”

According to the report when Edwards’ daughter came to visit her at the nursing home, Edwards complained of severe discomfort. When her daughter took her mother to the hospital to see what was wrong, doctors told her Edwards suffered from pneumonia, dehydration, severe malnutrition and infection. Edwards had lost 13 pounds during her stay at the nursing home. She died shortly afterward from severe infection that could not be cured, the article stated.
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Published on: October 22, 2007

Defective Air Bags May Have Caused 1,400 Deaths Over the Last 6 Years

By Brian Chase

By: A Staff Writer
A recent investigation by the Kansas City Star newspaper has found that 1,400 people may have died in head-on or frontal collisions because their front air bags did not deploy. According to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it was a phenomenon that baffled traffic accident investigators.

For example, when Atlanta wife and mother Brooke Katz died three months pregnant, police officers who recall that violent crash also say that they thought it was “curious” that Katz’s 2005 Dodge Caravan’s air bags had not deployed. The Kansas City Star’s investigation reportedly found that this didn’t only happen in Katz’s accident, but happened in hundreds of traffic accidents. In fact, here’s an interesting statistic.

The newspaper found that more people had died over the last six years from air bags not deploying than all those who died from injuries caused by air bags that deployed easily or forcefully. Not only that – the newspaper also reports that only 300 people died since 1990 from forceful deployment of airbags. But the body count is a whopping 1,400 when it came to those who died because their front airbags did not deploy at all. What’s more, the death count rose to 1,900 when the Star took into account side and rear impact crashes.
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