Pennsylvania Personal Injury Blog

A Philadelphia man was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide in the deaths of a 91-year-old man and his 84-year-old wife in a Sept. 21 crash in Bensalem. According to the an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, he was also charged with reckless endangerment and other offenses.

The article stated that the charged man “was the direct and substantial cause” of the crash that fatally injured the couple on their way home.

The man responsible for the wrongful death car accident should be held both criminally and civilly responsible for the death of the two individuals. Their family would be well advised to seek the advice of an experienced wrongful death attorney.

Continue reading " Philadelphia Man Charged for Double Fatal Crash in Bucks " »

An 18-year-old from Delaware County was asleep in the backseat of a friend’s car when an SUV driven by a drunken driver crashed into the car, severely injuring his spinal cord and leaving him paralyzed.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that on September 22, the driver of the SUV was sentenced to three years and eight months to 14 years and six months in prison. On Aug. 17, the driver pleaded guilty to aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, fleeing police, and other charges. He has been ordered to pay about $35,000 in restitution.

According to the article, the driver had numerous legal charges, including underage drinking, curfew violations, fighting, and harassment. He was truant from school and had his driver’s license suspended for juvenile drug charges. He was ordered twice by the courts into drug rehabilitation.

On April 29, 12 days after getting out of rehab, the man stole the family SUV and drove drunk. The police followed him for 1.7 miles and attempted to stop him as he swerved back and forth and blew through stop signs and a red light before crashing into the car carrying Jewell and two other Ridley High School teens.

The injured victim is still in pain from the accident and is dependent on others for most of his care.

The driver in this incident should be held both criminally and civilly responsible for the victim’s injuries. His family would be well advised to seek the advice of an experienced personal injury attorney.

Continue reading " DUI Crash Leaves Victim Paralyzed: Delco Driver Sentenced " »

On September 16, the FDA ordered the drugmaker Wyeth to put the strongest warning possible about the risks of IV push and Phenergan (promethazine) on the drug label. According to an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the drug caused one woman, a Vermont musician, to lose her arm. Levine fought drugmaker Wyeth all the way to the Supreme Court and won.

In the spring of 2000, this particular woman had a migraine headache and got the drug Phenergan to treat associated nausea. The drug was administered via a method known as intravenous push, which can cause infection and gangrene. That happened to her and doctors amputated her lower right arm.

She sued Wyeth and the Supreme Court decision in her favor was viewed as upholding all consumers’ rights to sue drug companies.

The article stated that although Wyeth no longer sells Phenergan, many makers of generic drugs still do, and the FDA ordered them to put the strongest warning possible about the risks, sometimes called a “black box,” on the label.

The stronger warning would let medical professionals know that the preferred way to administer promethazine is through intramuscular injection.

Continue reading " Phenergan Ordered to Display Black Box Warning " »

The operator of a motorcycle whose passenger was ejected from the rear seat and thrown over the railing of a highway bridge into the Schuylkill has been charged with vehicular homicide in her death. According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the 21-year-old man was speeding on a stolen motorcycle when he struck the rear of a car while trying to pass it. The accident happened on the Dannehower Bridge on Route 202 in Norristown on June 23. The 19-year-old passenger from Norristown was thrown off the bike and over the side of the bridge, suffering fatal injuries.

The operator of the motorcycle suffered serious injuries but survived. He was charged with vehicular homicide, driving with a suspended license, receiving stolen property, and other offenses.

The man in this motorcycle wrongful death accident should be held both criminally and civilly responsible for the death of his female passenger. Her family would be well advised to seek the advice of an experienced Pennsylvania wrongful death attorney.

Continue reading " Motorcyclist Charged for Wrongful Death of Passenger " »

A federal investigation concluded that a bus driver is to blame for a school bus crash in Bucks County, PA that injured 20 students, including a girl whose leg had to be amputated.

According to an article from phillyburbs.com, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the January 2007 accident happened when the driver hit the wrong pedal.
The bus drove into a crowd outside Pennsbury High School. It hit a retaining wall and injured the students.

In March 2007, police said the accident happened due to unintentional acceleration after the bus driver confused the gas and brake pedals. The driver said that he didn’t hit the wrong pedal and that the bus suddenly lurched forward.

The families of the injured victims here would be well advised to obtain the services of an experienced, skilled, and knowledgeable personal injury attorney who will do a thorough investigation.

Continue reading " Federal Board Blames Driver for 2007 Bus Crash in Bucks " »

A construction worker from Eatontown, Monmouth County, NJ was injured after falling 20 feet while making repairs to a home in Barnegat. According to this article in the Press of Atlantic City, the construction worker was working in an attic at 12 Carriage Way and fell through a ceiling.

He landed on a stairway, breaking his left arm and inuring his elbow.

Police, fire, and paramedic crews responded right away to help him and he was airlifted to Jersey Shore Medical Center.

The construction worker would be well advised to contact an experienced worker’s compensation attorney who can carefully examine the incident to identify any negligence or wrongdoing. An experienced attorney would also look into a “third party claim.” These are claims that are filed against parties that are not the worker’s employer. It could be a contractor, a sub-contractor, or even the manufacturer of a defective product. If it is determined that one of those parties was responsible for the accident and any injuries, then they could be held liable.

Continue reading " Construction Worker Injured After Fall at Barnegat, NJ Home " »

The Delaware County driver who lost control of her car while reaching for an iPod, killing one woman and injuring another, was found to have drugs in her system. According to an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the 20-year-old female of Havertown tested positive for marijuana and Difluoroethane, an ingredient found in Dust-Off, a can of compressed air used to clean computers.

The Upper Darby superintendent of police said they are recommending the District Attorney’s office charge the young woman with homicide by vehicle involving DUI, manslaughter, and other related charges. On August 15, two females, a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old, were struck from behind by the car the intoxicated driver was operating.

The 19-year-old was killed instantly; and the 20-year-old was hospitalized with multiple injuries. She is now at home recovering. According to police, the driver was heading south on Lansdowne Avenue when she lost control of her car, crossed two lanes of traffic, drove onto the sidewalk for 30 feet before striking the women. There were no skid marks at the accident scene.

The driver in this case should be held both criminally and civilly responsible for the death of the young teenage woman and for the injuries of the other female. Their families would be well advised to seek the advice of an experienced wrongful death attorney.

Continue reading " Driver Who Killed Woman Had Been “Huffing” " »

The Ford Motor Co. has settled a lawsuit filed by residents of a northern New Jersey town over toxic waste dumped there nearly 40 years ago. According to an article, the settlement was announced in state Superior Court. The residents of Ringwood, about 25 miles northeast of New York City, will receive about $10 million.

An attorney for the Plaintiffs alleged that they had been injured by exposure to toxic chemicals at the Ringwood landfill site. After more than three years of litigation, the parties have entered into a settlement that will resolve all the claims in the litigation.

Under terms of the settlement, Ford and two other defendants, URS Corp. and Arrow Group Industries, admitted no liability for the residents’ claims of health problems caused by the waste.

The article stated that during the 1960s and 1970s, contractors hired by Ford dumped thousands of tons of paint sludge and heavy metals from a car manufacturing plant in nearby Mahwah into landfills, open pits and an abandoned mine that dates back to the 18th century.
The Ringwood site was placed on the federal Superfund list, a ranking of the country’s worst environmental dump sites, in 1983.

Large amounts of hardened paint sludge and other waste were discovered. A joint federal-state report released that year found the site contained potentially unsafe levels of metals and chemicals.

Residents blamed the toxins for serious illnesses including certain cancers and skin diseases, and about 700 of them joined a lawsuit in 2006.

Continue reading " NJ Toxic Waste Exposure Lawsuit Settled by Ford " »

The family of two workers sued International Paper (IP) after an explosion killed a contract worker and injured 22 others at its Redwood, Mississippi plant on May 3, 2008.
According to this Associated Press article on Philly.com, the blast killed a 28-year-old male employee. The two workers who filed the lawsuit and several other workers were severely burned when the 12-story boiler exploded during an attempt to restart it after annual maintenance.

In the lawsuit filed last year, the IP plant acknowledged that the boiler had been shut down for maintenance, there was an explosion, and the company knew workers would be present that day. The company argued that workers did not exercise reasonable care for their own safety.
One of the employees, who was burned over 60 percent of his body, said that workers should have been cleared from the area before the boiler was restarted.

OSHA fined International Paper $77,000 in the months following the explosion for one alleged willful violation and one alleged serious violation.

OSHA also found that some company officials did not share an internal memo about starting the boiler with workers in the facility’s control room, the report said.

A settlement conference is scheduled for Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court in Gulfport.
Any worker who has sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of their employment has a potential workers’ compensation claim. The injury can occur while traveling on business, doing a work-related errand, attending a required business-related social function, or even while on a break or using restroom facilities and you are still legally covered by workers compensation.

Continue reading " IP Mill Explosion Settlement Proposals Due " »

On September 6, two firefighters were hurt after a ladder they were climbing collapsed in western Pennsylvania. According to an article, the accident happened Sunday morning at a fire scene in Monongahela, just outside Pittsburgh.

The men were on a 100-foot ladder when it collapsed and they fell. Fortunately, the injuries are not life-threatening. The article said that the fire started at a downtown pizza shop and then spread to two adjacent buildings.

The injured workers are entitled to Worker’s Compensation. By law, it is required that every company in Pennsylvania carry Worker’s Compensation Insurance in the case an employee is injured on the job, becomes ill due to circumstances surrounding their job or even if death results from their job. Benefits can include medical expenses, lost wages and death benefits. Workers’ compensation exists both as a way to benefit injured workers and as a way to protect employers. Workers' compensation is a no-fault insurance system, which means that no guilt needs to be proved in a case; only that the injury sustained occurred while on the job.

Continue reading " PA Ladder Collapse Injures 2 Firefighters " »

A 29-year-old male motorcyclist was killed in a crash on September 5 on Route 1. State police are searching for a vehicle that may have caused the accident. According to this article in The Delaware County Times, the motorcyclist from the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby, lost control of his motorcycle on Route 1 north approximately a quarter-mile north of Route 352.

A witness told police that a black sedan changed into the right lane and cut the motorcyclist off, causing him to brake hard and lose control of the motorcycle. The motorcycle did not make contact with any other vehicles. The Pennsylvania State Police (Media Barracks) are still investigating.

The motorcyclist’s family deserves to be rightfully compensated for their tremendous loss. They would be well advised to contact a skilled Philadelphia motorcycle accident attorney.

Though motorcycle accidents in Pennsylvania have a variety of causes, common causes include unsafe road conditions, inclement weather, defective motorcycle parts, driver fatigue, drunk drivers, and driver error. The latter is the most common cause of motorcycle accidents.

Continue reading " Route 1 Accident Kills Motorcyclist " »

On August 21, attorneys filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Cubs on behalf of the mother of a 21-year-old who died after a wall near the team’s stadium collapsed on him during a storm in 2007. According to a report, the lawsuit says the Cubs owned the structure near Wrigley Field that fell on the young man.

The suit claims the wall was slated for demolition but the Cubs failed to cordon off the area.
The man who was killed took shelter by the wall after a powerful storm struck. Workers found the badly injured man while clearing the rubble and he died a week later of head and neck injuries.

When needless death occurs due to negligence of another party, wrongful death lawsuits can be filed. In these lawsuits, the decedent’s heirs sue the negligent party or parties for damages related to the loss of life and their own pain and suffering.

Continue reading " Chicago Cubs Face Lawsuit Wall Collapse that Killed Man " »

Two men were injured while working with electrical cables in downtown Washington.
According to an article, D.C. fire crews had received a report of an explosion at the site of several high-voltage feeds.

A utility company (Pepco) spokesman said the contractors were pulling an old underground cable when it touched a live cable, triggering an electrical shock on August 24. One man suffered facial burns and the other suffered smoke inhalation.

The injured utility company workers would be well advised to contact an experienced worker’s compensation attorney who can carefully examine the incident to identify any negligence or wrongdoing. An experienced attorney would also look into a “third party claim.” These are claims that are filed against parties that are not the worker’s employer. It could be a contractor, a sub-contractor, or even the manufacturer of a defective product. If it is determined that one of those parties was responsible for the accident and any injuries, then they could be held liable.

Continue reading " Electrical Accident Injures 2 Workers in Downtown DC " »

On August 27, a worker for a lawn irrigation company was trapped for nearly five hours before being rescued from a muddy hole in Burlington County, NJ. According to an Associated Press article on Philly.com, a 24-year-old of Berlin, NJ was pulled out of the 6-foot deep hole by members of Task Force 1, the state police urban search and rescue unit.

The worker was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Fortunately, his injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

The worker became trapped shortly before 1 p.m. on August 27 while trying to repair a leaking water line in a Southampton Township retirement community. Soil and mud around him collapsed, covering him up to this thighs.

The worker in this incident would be well advised to contact an experienced worker’s compensation attorney who can carefully examine the incident to identify any negligence or wrongdoing. An experienced attorney would also look into a “third party claim.” These are claims that are filed against parties that are not the worker’s employer. It could be a contractor, a sub-contractor, or even the manufacturer of a defective product. If it is determined that one of those parties was responsible for the accident and any injuries, then they could be held liable.

Continue reading " Construction Worker Trapped in Muddy Hole Rescued " »

Six companies recalled millions of window blinds and shades after the deaths of three children who got caught in cords that help the coverings move up and down.

According to this article by the Associated Press on Philly.com, the recalls were announced on August 26 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The recalls involve Pottery Barn Kids and IKEA as well as smaller companies that sold their window covers at retailers such as Target.

No deaths were associated with the blinds and shades from Pottery Barn Kids and IKEA, but CPSC says there have been six reports of children becoming entangled in the inner cord of the Pottery Barn Kids shades.

According to the CPSC, the three deaths, which date back to 2006, involved blinds or shades made or imported by Vertical Land Inc., of Panama City Beach, Fla., and Lewis Hyman Inc., in Carson, California.

A one-year-old was killed in 2007 when he became entangled and strangled in the lift cord loop of a roll-up blind from Lewis Hyman that had fallen into his portable crib, The company is recalling about 4.2 million of the blinds.

Continue reading " Wrongful Deaths Cause Blinds and Shades to be Recalled by Six Companies " »

According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline used a “ghostwriting program” to promote its antidepressant Paxil. This allowed doctors to take credit for medical journal articles mainly written by company consultants.

An internal company memo instructs salespeople to approach physicians and offer to help them write and publish articles about their positive experiences prescribing the drug.

The document was uncovered by a Los Angeles law firm, which is representing hundreds of former Paxil users in personal injury and wrongful death suits against GlaxoSmithKline. The firm alleges the company downplayed several risks connected with its drug, including increased suicidal behavior and birth defects.

Ghostwriting is legal in principal, but that said, it could contribute to illegal activity if the information is misleading and causes harm.

Articles from the company’s program appeared in five journals between 2000 and 2002, including the American Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Continue reading " Ghostwriting Used by Glaxo to Market Paxil " »

A Georgetown couple and their daughter died after a crash in Milton, DE. The couple’s other daughter remains in critical condition. According to an article in the Delaware County Times, a New Castle, DE man crossed into oncoming traffic on Del. Route 30 on August 23 and hit the family’s car.

The 33-year-old man and his wife, 32-year-old, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their 14-year-old daughter was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Their other daughter, an 8-year-old, was listed in critical condition at another hospital in Delaware.

The driver of the other car, a 22-year-old man, is charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of vehicular assault. The accused driver should be held both criminally and civilly responsible for the deaths of the parents and their daughter. The victims’ family would be well advised to seek the advice of an experienced wrongful death attorney.

Continue reading " Delaware Couple and Their Daughter Die in Crash " »

On August 13, two construction workers working on a residence hall at Montclair State University in New Jersey were injured when the hydraulic lift they were working from tipped over.
According to an article, a University spokeswoman said the workers suffered “broken limbs” in the accident and were taken to a nearby hospital.

The building under construction is an unnamed six-story residence hall. It was not immediately clear how high the workers were when the accident happened and the cause is under investigation.

The injured workers at Montclair State University would be well advised to contact an experienced worker’s compensation attorney who can carefully examine the incident to identify any negligence or wrongdoing. An experienced attorney would also look into a “third party claim.” These are claims that are filed against parties that are not the worker’s employer. It could be a contractor, a sub-contractor, or even the manufacturer of a defective product. If it is determined that one of those parties was responsible for the accident and any injuries, then they could be held liable.

Continue reading " 2 Construction Workers Injured at NJ University " »