Pennsylvania Personal Injury Blog

Two former University of Rhode Island students have settled a lawsuit that accused them of causing the death of a college student from Richboro, Bucks County, Pa., who was crushed by a bus in Newport, R. I. in 2004 in a bus accident.

According to this article by the Associated Press that appeared on Philly.com, the two students, Jarrad Rocheleau and Loren Welsh, reached the agreement with the parents of Francis J. Marx V, who accused them of scuffling with their son early on May 20, 2004. The accident caused the Fairfield University senior to fall into the path of a bus being used for a pub-crawl.

The wrongful death lawsuit began two weeks ago in Superior Court and was resolved before closing arguments on February 10.

Rocheleau and Welsh admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The article stated that the settlement was for less than the $5 million sought by Marx’s parents.

After a formal dance at one of Newport’s mansions with his girlfriend, Marx got into a heated argument with a group of URI students celebrating their impending graduation with a pub-crawl.

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A 3-year-old female pedestrian was struck and killed on Route 129 when a fire truck crashed into a pickup truck, causing the pickup truck to careen into the crosswalk center median and create the pedestrian accident. The pickup truck then struck the child, dragging her several feet down the southbound lanes of the highway.

According to this article that appeared in the Delaware County Times, the accident happened on January 30 around 7:20 p.m.

Several pedestrians were also injured when the fire truck careened into a light pole that then toppled over and landed on top of them.

The article stated that two adults, the 3-year-old girl, and a male juvenile were standing on the intersection’s median pedestrian crosswalk when the trucks collided and caused the Pennsylvania pedestrian accident.

Continue reading " Trenton 3-year-old Killed In Pedestrian Accident " »

Federal investigators are looking into what caused a tour bus accident on February 1 on a rural Arizona highway. The crash killed seven Chinese tourists and injured 10 others.

According to this article on Philly.com, tourists left Las Vegas for the Grand Canyon the Friday before the accident. They were returning from their trip when the bus went across a median and rested along the southbound lanes of the highway.

The National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said the investigative team would be measuring and photographing the site, evaluating the condition of the highway, and looking for skid marks.

After inspecting the bus accident site, the investigators will evaluate the bus, including checking whether the wheels and brakes were in good working order and if any mechanical malfunctions may have caused the accident.

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The first of about 8,000 lawsuits blaming the health problems and wrongful deaths of Florida smokers on tobacco companies went to trial this week.

According to an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, the first of those plaintiffs to go to trial is Elaine Hess. The key to her case is proving whether her deceased husband, Stuart Hess, was addicted to cigarettes made by Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris.

In 2006, the Supreme Court rejected a $145 billion class-action suit, saying the punitive damages awarded by a jury were excessive. They did agree that tobacco companies knowingly sold dangerous products and concealed the health risks of smoking for years. They also ruled that smokers or their survivors must prove their wrongful death cases individually.

Elaine Hess’s husband, Stuart Hess, 55, died in 1997 of lung cancer. Hess’s attorney told a jury that Hess smoked about two packs of cigarettes a day and tried numerous times to quit. He also said that medical and other evidence shows that Hess became addicted to nicotine in the mid-1950s, long before the hazards of smoking were widely known outside the tobacco industry.

Continue reading " Trial Opens In Fla. Widow's Tobacco Lawsuit " »

Christopher Donaghy, the 27-year-old host of a Super Bowl party on Sunday, was killed when a guest at his party shot him accidentally.

According to this article that ran in the Philadelphia Daily News, Donaghy hosted a party of about 8 people. One of those guests, an off-duty Plymouth Township Police officer, left a gun he owned on a table during the game.

The article said that another guest, Ronald Parcutt, was playing with the weapon when it discharged in his hands and struck Donaghy in the back. He died less than 2 hours later.
Donaghy, 27 was the son of a Philadelphia police officer.

According to police, the 9mm semiautomatic Glock lacked an external safety. Parnett was arrested and charged with murder.

Continue reading " Philadelphia Super Bowl Party Ends In Wrongful Death " »

New Jersey has paid $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Maria Caiafa, a Cape May County woman, whose daughters died in a car crash with a state trooper. According to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the state made no admission of culpability.

The settlement was signed in May, but the family didn’t announce it because publicity over the wrongful death case makes it hard for them to manage their daily lives.

Christina, 19, and her sister, Jacqueline, 17, were returning home after picking up milk when authorities say trooper Robert Higbee ran a stop sign and hit their minivan.

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Iva Peterson, a legally blind prison social worker, lost most of one leg after a branch from a falling tree impaled her as she was heading home from work in a SEPTA Paratransit van. She was awarded more than $5 million in damages in her personal injury lawsuit.

According to this article in the Philadelphia Daily News, Peterson is largely confined to a wheelchair because her right leg was amputated above the knee after the 2005 accident.

The 40-foot tree toppled from a median strip during high winds in March 2005 on a state road. The 8-inch tree limb crashed through the windshield of the Paratransit van, spearing Peterson’s leg and also injuring the van driver. Peterson had a long hospitalization and has been unable to return to her job.

The suit was settled this week on the basis that PennDOT and an engineering company under contract to inspect trees on state roads were negligent in not identifying the rotted tree and having it removed.

The settlement provided $240,000 from PennDOT, whose liability is capped by law at $250,000, and $4.8 million from SITE Blauvelt, the engineering company. Another firm settled separately for an undisclosed amount.

Continue reading " Philadelphia Woman Who Was Pierced By Tree Limb Awarded $5M " »

The family of Andrew Polakowski, a student killed by a dormitory elevator more than two years ago, is suing Ohio State University for more than $50,000.

According to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the suit claims that the school was negligent with regard to the elevator that crushed the 18-year-old boy from Erie, Pa. The freshman died in October 2006 when he got pinned trying to leave an overcrowded elevator that was stuck between floors.

Polakowski’s parents filed their wrongful death lawsuit this month in the Ohio Court of Claims. Their attorney says they want to be compensated for the loss of their son.

In a statement, an Ohio State spokesman said the university is in contact with the Polakowskis’ attorneys and is reviewing the family’s filings.

Continue reading " Parents Sue Ohio State Over Elevator Death " »

SEPTA said human error likely caused the train crash that sent nine people to the hospital causing some injuries on-the-job and delayed commuters for much of the morning.

According to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a southbound work train struck the rear of a stopped southbound R1-Airport train about 4:40 a.m., on January 27. Five crew members were on the work train, and 16 passengers and two crew members were on the commuter train.

Four people were injured on the work train and five on the commuter train. They were treated at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Richard Dixon was on the R1 train when it was hit. He said he was at the front of the train, with the engineer, when the accident occurred.

Dixon was knocked backwards into the wall and the engineer hit his head. Dixon was among those who went to the hospital, to be examined for back pains, and he said one of the passengers in the same ambulance received stitches for a cut on his chin.

According to the article, initial inspections of the signal, communications, and mechanical systems showed all were working properly.

A spokeman for Septa said human error, possibly by train crew or a dispatcher, is the probable cause. Although light snow was in the area at the time, he said weather was not considered a significant factor in the accident.

Work trains are treated differently under railroad operating rules than regular trains and must have specific authority from a dispatcher to proceed on a main line.

Continue reading " 9 Taken To Hospital After SEPTA Train Crash " »

Six workers were sent to a hospital after a Milwaukee-area power plant erupted in a fiery explosion. According to an article from Wisn.com, the blast occurred on February 3 in a dust collector of the We Energies plant in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

The injured were contractor workers for ThyssenKrupp Safway Inc., a subcontractor of U.S. Fire Protection, who were setting up scaffolding in the dust collector, which is a silo where residual coal dust is collected for eventual burning.

One 22-year-old man was in critical condition with burns on half his body in this on-the-job injury. Five other men had minor smoke inhalation and burns. Three were in fair condition and two were treated and released from an area hospital. According to the article, one of the three men has burns on about half his body and will need skin grafts on his hands.

The blast sparked a fire in the silo that took about an hour to get under control.

The plant, located along Lake Michigan, burns 5,000 to 10,000 tons of coal per day.

There are about 230 employees at the plant, as well as several thousand construction employees who are working on an expansion project.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the construction accident explosion.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board said the government has ignored repeated calls from safety officials for tougher standards to prevent dust explosions.

Continue reading " Explosion At Wisconsin Power Plant Injures 6 " »

A Philadelphia-area commuter rail employee was injured when she fell off a moving train on February 10. According to this article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she used her flashlight to wave down another train and get help.

The woman, whose name has not been released, fell from a SEPTA train just north of Levittown, PA, in this on-the-job injury.

The article said that police found her hat, a shoe, train schedules, and a ticket punch along the tracks. She was knocked unconscious, but regained consciousness and waved down a later Amtrak train with her flashlight.

The woman was taken by an ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Continue reading " Philadelphia SEPTA Worker Injured In Fall From Train " »

The Pennsylvania auto accident that killed two Drexel University students and seriously injured four others Sunday is still under investigation.

According to the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the students were on a fraternity trip in Lycoming County, PA when the driver’s SUV struck a “rock cut” along the mountainside around 3:30 a.m. that morning.
Ian Alexander, 22, of Royersford, president of Drexel’s Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, and John Patrick “Johnny” Williamson Jr., 21, of Havertown, died in the accident.

Police would not say whether alcohol was a factor in the crash, or whether the two who died had been wearing seat belts. Police are still investigating the accident.

Williamson’s mother was told by police that alcohol was not a factor in the car accident. Police also said that the four survivors, including the driver, Andrew Cardamone, 19, of Philadelphia, were all wearing seat belts. Cardamone and passengers Eric Rayburn, 18, of Quakertown, and Kevin MacDonald, 18, of Philadelphia, were taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, where they remained in serious condition last night.

Continue reading " Pennsylvania Car Crash That Killed 2 Drexel Students Poses Questions " »

Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis, settled a $1.42 billion pharmaceutical drug lawsuit after selling and marketing the drug Zyprexa for dementia, which it was not approved for.

According to a report from MSNBC, the company salespeople used a slogan “5 at 5”, meaning 5 miligrams at 5 p.m. to help dementia patients sleep.

Regulators never approved selling the drug for dementia and federal prosecutors say this type of marketing led to the lawsuit.

Lilly agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and pay $615 million to resolve the criminal case.

Although Eli Lilly said it admits no wrongdoing, they also agreed to pay roughly $800 million to resolve a civil case.

Zyprexa is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, court documents showed Lilly sales representatives also pushed it to treat generalized sleep disorder, aggression, Alzheimer’s-related dementia and depression, among other unapproved uses, from 1999 through 2003. Although doctors can prescribe drugs for unapproved uses, companies aren’t allowed to market drugs for those uses.

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The Department of Corrections recently settled a workers compensation claim with Carol Snyder, a former Graterford Prison guard, for $226,000.

According to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Snyder, as well as a medical expert, said she picked up a MRSA infection at the prison. The DOC settled with Snyder, although they are denying liability.

The CDC states that MRSA, also known as flesh-eating bacteria, is a staph germ that is resistant to most antibiotics. It is normally a skin infection and it can enter the body and kill. The disease has left Snyder’s face scarred and she has had recurring infections, including boils on her face, legs, armpits, and behind her ears.

The press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections denied Snyder’s contention that there were numerous cases of MRSA infections among prison inmate, including a death-row inmate. The secretary acknowledged there were “a handful” of staph infections, only half of which were MRSA. Snyder also claimed the cleaning was inadequate at Graterford prison and that inmates could have picked it up through the laundry.

Continue reading " Pennsylvania Ex-guard Blames Prison For MRSA Infection " »