It seems that the cancer may have been curable if it had been diagnosed in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, delays in treatment reportedly have led to the 41-year old woman dying this past March.
]]> A proposal known as "Lavern's law" is being considered by New York State lawmakers. A New York City councilman is urging lawmakers and the governor to pass this proposal so no other patient is placed in the same circumstance as the deceased woman.The statute of limitations for medical malpractice in New York is already relatively short. Victims of medical malpractice are required to file such a suit within 15 months after the alleged malpractice took place in a city hospital. The patients have 2.5 years to file a claim if the supposed malpractice happens in a private hospital. However, in either case, the statute of limitations will run under current New York law without giving the patient the benefit of first discovering that the claimed malpractice took place.
Unfortunately, attorneys can only lobby for changes to medical malpractice law. The actual language remains in the hands of politicians that may have little understanding of the issues. Still, attorneys can provide independent investigations for patients to determine whether malpractice actually did occur.
We very much hope that changes to the law do take place. As the above mentioned circumstances indicate many medical malpractice cases are not frivolous, and hospitals do need to be held accountable for the suffering that takes place to victims of medical malpractice.
Source: Daily News, "City Councilman James Vacca presses state lawmakers to pass 'Lavern's Law' to aid medical malpractice victims," by Heidi Evans, June 12, 2013
]]>The fatal tractor-trailer accident took place around 6 p.m. near Truxton. The truck, a 1997 Kenworth rig, was operated by a Georgetown-based auto salvage business called Newton Salvage Co., and the driver and his passenger were not injured.
It is not yet known whether negligence on the part of the driver or trucking company played any role in the tragedy, but accident investigators with the Cortland County Sheriff's Department has determined that the hitch connecting the trailer and the rig failed. Specifically, the problem was with the fifth wheel locking mechanism. The brakes deployed but failed to stop the swerving trailer.
]]> New York law requires commercial trucks to be professionally inspected at least once a year, and tractor trailers are also subject to random inspections by state troopers and the New York State Department of Transportation. Additionally, commercial drivers are required to perform a full visual inspection of the condition of the truck before getting behind the wheel. The trailer hitch is one of the items drivers are required to inspect.According to the owner of the Oswego-based scrap company that leased the truck to Newton Salvage, the tractor trailer was new and had been freshly inspected. Additionally, the truck received a random NYSDOT inspection in March, which found three minor violations, none of which are likely to have caused the accident. Newton Salvage was cited for lacking exterior reflective tape, having no fire extinguisher on board, and being 4 percent overweight.
The deadly tractor trailer accident was a major tragedy for Truxton, a small town where everyone knows their neighbors. In interviews after the wreck, first responders described their shock and an eerie sense of disbelief.
"What did we just see? Did that just really happen?" said one firefighter who responded to the crash. "You get all that training and you're not ready for it," he added. "You can't be if you're human."
Sources:
Failing to properly yield can be a very harmful type of conduct. Such conduct can result in motor vehicle collisions occurring.
]]> Auto crashes can sometimes result in multiple people getting hurt. This can be seen in a car accident that occurred earlier this week in Dutchess County.The crash happened in Milan on Monday. That afternoon, a car was attempting to make a left turn onto Route 199. The car contained four individuals. It was being driven by a 42-year-old woman.
Allegedly, the 42-year-old woman failed to yield during the above-mentioned turn attempt and a collision occurred between the 42-year-old woman's car and a car that was travelling along Route 199 which was being driven by a 44-year-old man. In total, the 44-year-old man's car contained five individuals.
According to the article on midhudsonnews.com which reported this story, all nine of the individuals who were in the two above-mentioned vehicles suffered injuries in the accident. They were taken to area hospitals after the crash. Reportedly, one of the individuals, a 13-year-old who was a passenger of the 42-year-old woman's car, may have sustained serious head injuries in the crash. The injuries the other eight individuals suffered reportedly are minor in nature.
It has been reported that authorities issued a summons for failure to yield at a stop sign to the 42-year-old woman in connection to this motor vehicle crash.
Source: midhudsonnews.com, "Nine injured in two-car Milan crash," May 28, 2013
]]>A company called Cellcontrol has developed a new device called DriveID, and it has just made major sales to trucking fleet managers, along with some major insurance companies, although Cellcontrol won’t say exactly who. However trucking companies are betting that the device will be highly effective at preventing truck accidents caused by commercial drivers talking or texting behind the wheel.
]]> Many trucking fleets already require commercial drivers to log in for work using a secure key fob to ensure the person behind the wheel is the person authorized to be there. DriveID can take over that function, but it also has the ability to block the driver’s cell phone signal when the truck is in motion.The solar-powered device is integrated directly into a car or truck’s electronics and can sense when the driver tries to use a cell phone. It then blocks that phone’s signal without affecting anyone else in the car. Even front-seat passengers will still be able to talk, text, email or surf the web, but the driver simply won’t be able to.
DriveID was rolled out at this week’s conference of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, or CTIA, the major industry conference for wireless technology companies, and it was very popular. It will be released sometime later this year, and a Cellcontrol spokesperson said a large number of fleet managers planned to order the device, hoping to substantially reduce their annual payments to people injured in commercial truck accidents.
If distracted truckers are prevented from causing tractor-trailer accidents, it could put a real dent in the number of people injured and killed on our nation’s roads each year. Do you think technology can help us prevent these tragedies?
Source: Insurance Journal, "DriveID Can Block or Track Driver’s Mobile Use," Don Jergler, May 21, 2013
]]>At the time of the latest news reports, there was as yet no word on what caused the accident. However, the commercial driver and the trucking company he works for were cited for failure to secure his load, along with several other traffic or regulatory violations. Commercial truck drivers and hauling companies are federally regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which holds truckers and trucking companies to a higher standard than ordinary drivers.
]]> With a full load of steel beams scattered across four lanes of busy highway, no one would be surprised that it took crews several hours to clear the wreckage. The GWB only has four lanes in each direction on the upper level, where the crash occurred, along with three lanes in each direction on the lower level. The cleanup did take a long time, as two upper-level lanes were still closed as of 6:00 p.m. that day. Nevertheless, Port Authority officers described the impact on the evening rush hour as “minimal.”Clearly, this truck accident could have turned out to be a catastrophe if the toll booth had been manned or if other vehicles had been in the way of the steel beams when they spilled. Since only luck kept other drivers or bridge staff from being seriously injured or killed, it can serve as a stark reminder of the magnitude of the potential consequences when truck drivers don’t properly secure their loads.
Source: CBS New York, "Tractor Trailer Crashes Into George Washington Bridge Toll Booth," May 13, 2013
]]>According to the AARP, fatal pedestrian accidents make up 14 percent of all traffic fatalities, and much of those tragedies could be prevented by adding sidewalks where they don't exist, improved sidewalk and road maintenance, and the elimination of unsafe road design.
The AARP also found that, of the more than 4,400 people killed in pedestrian accidents in 2011, fully one fifth (20 percent) were people aged 65 or older, although older people only make up 13 percent of the population. Worse, older people involved in pedestrian accidents are more likely to die than people in any other age group, and were much more likely than other age groups to be hit by cars in crosswalks, as opposed to while jaywalking or walking along the side of a roadway.
]]> Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of those killed were children 15 and younger. And, of children between the ages of 5 and 9 who died in traffic accidents in 2010, 19 percent were pedestrians.An advocacy organization called the National Complete Streets Coalition wants to make American streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists by working city by city to get its “Complete Streets” initiative signed into law.
The organization’s data show that many cities and towns in the U.S. lack full sidewalk systems or have no sidewalks at all. Missing or poorly maintained sidewalks and unsafe road design make sidewalks hard to use, particularly for older people and those with disabilities. Older people often risk slip-and-fall accidents when using them -- a serious hazard that the AARP says results in $19 billion in preventable medical costs every year.
Nearly 500 municipalities and states, including Ulster County, have already passed the “Complete Streets” initiative. Now is the time to implement these programs and reduce the truly tragic number of fatal pedestrian accidents in New York and nationwide.
Source: AARP Blog, "Road Safety for Every Age," Jana Lynott, May 8, 2013
]]>Over the past decade, we've all heard the statistics on the dangers of driver distraction. In 2011, for example, NHTSA says that 387,000 people in the U.S. were injured and 3,000 were killed in distracted driving car accidents. Nevertheless, despite cell phone and texting bans and a wide variety of other policy initiatives, we haven't made much progress on cutting down on the distractions behind the wheel.
One reason driver distractions seem to keep multiplying, says outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, is that automakers use technology as a selling point for new cars. The latest, sexiest new tech installed in vehicles is a major incentive to buy -- but that new tech isn't necessarily geared toward safety.
]]> After months of discussion and review, therefore, the Department of Transportation has released a set of voluntary guidelines for automakers when it comes to on-board electronics.Under the guidelines, automakers will ideally focus on installing technology that helps drivers pay attention to the road instead of distracting them. For example:
DOT decided not to make the guidelines mandatory because of the rapid pace of technology advances and because more data are needed about technological distractions for drivers. Hopefully, however, automakers will get the message and focus on ensuring that installed tech enhances driver safety instead of increasing distracted driving risks.
Source: CNN, "'Two second' safety guideline for cars of the future," Mike M. Ahlers, April 24, 2013
]]>That's a profound observation, considering the results of the study, which was just published in the online journal BMJ Quality & Safety. Researchers pored over some 350,000 medical malpractice claims that resulted in payouts to plaintiffs over the past 25 years, and discovered that misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis and failure to diagnose a patient's condition accounted for fully 35 percent of the approximately $38.8 billion in verdicts and judgments for victims between 1986 to 2010.
"We really have to make it a priority to measure and track diagnostic errors on an ongoing basis as we do other mistakes such as infection and wrong-site surgery," said the study's author, a Johns Hopkins neurology professor. "They are completely underrepresented in terms of what we pay attention to."
]]> Diagnostic errors were the clear leading cause of medical malpractice claims of permanent disability and death among patients. Researchers also found that while the majority of diagnostic errors took place in outpatient settings, those that occurred in hospitals were much more likely to be fatal.Based on the researchers' statistical analysis, misdiagnosis and late or absent diagnoses likely cause preventable, permanent impairments or wrongful death in as many as 160,000 patients every year in the U.S.
A medical malpractice defense attorney interviewed about the study was stunned by the findings. "Maybe things get off course right at the beginning," he commented, "but this has not been studied as much as other errors that result in malpractice suits."
What are patients to do? Diagnosis is a medical skill that requires years of training, and patients rely on their doctors either to correctly diagnose their conditions or to refer them to a specialist who can.
The Johns Hopkins researcher advises patients to openly discuss the diagnostic process with their physicians, asking how the diagnosis was determined, why they believe they are correct, and whether there are any alternative theories. And, he says, "'because it's the only thing it could be' is not good enough."
Source: HealthDay News, "'Misdiagnosis' Leading Cause of U.S. Malpractice Payouts: Study," April 23, 2013
]]>The problem with surveys, driving simulators and test track studies, researchers acknowledge, is that the ordinary driving behavior of the participants can't be captured by them. The participants are far too aware that they are being observed, and they're often on their best driving behavior.
To counter that effect, researchers at Virginia Tech recruited 100 people who were willing to drive cars with tiny sensors and unobtrusive video cameras installed. Some were their own cars and some were leased to the drivers, but the idea was that the group of volunteers would simply drive those cars as they usually would.
]]> This "100-Car Study" is an example of "naturalistic research," which attempts to observe people in their normal, everyday behavior instead of in a controlled setting. The equipment installed in the vehicles included five separate channels of video, radar units facing both forward and backward to gauge traffic, lane-tracking software, network sensors and accelerometers.More than the initial 100 people participated in the study, because others used the cars from time to time. Also, the researchers selected other, large samples of drivers, some of whom drove more than the average number of miles per year, and others in the 18-25 age group.
After matching up the sensor data, car accident reports and the videos, the researchers were quite surprised to learn that the drivers showed visible signs of driver fatigue in 20 percent of the crashes.
Another startling revelation was that far more driver fatigue-related wrecks happened in the daytime than at night. Moreover, teens and younger people were more prone to accidents caused by drowsy driving than the general population.
Larger naturalistic studies are already underway to verify the results, but it appears that sleepy driving is a much bigger problem than traffic safety experts guessed. So, please get a good night's sleep and drive safely.
Source: Insurance Journal, "Driver Fatigue Causes 20% of Auto Crashes: Study," Susan Trulove, April 15, 2013
]]>Poughkeepsie residents with medical concerns may be interested to know that, after hundreds of reported mishaps, the Food and Drug Administration is investigating robotic surgical devices made by Intuitive Surgical, the industry leader. The name given to these machines -- the da Vinci system -- perhaps betrays a romantic view of their benefits to patients.
]]> Still, there is a legitimate number of people who undergo robotic surgery and laud the effects of the procedure. But what about all of those patients who have suffered major or even minor injuries?In roughly the last four years, the number of robotic surgeries has shot up by 253,000 -- from 114,000 to 367,000. In terms of medical malpractice, maybe that increase represents a mitigated risk for doctors. But the reality is that surgical errors continue to happen, and surgeons are still charged with the job of expertly manning the machines.
Plenty of testimonials from doctors and patients confirm the success of particular robo-surgeries, but the key to an accurate evaluation is context and perspective. For instance, consider the price of a single da Vinci robot: $1.45 million, along with a minimum of $100,000 in annual service agreements. Those numbers are not likely to incline hospitals and manufacturers toward negative press about robotic surgery.
Dutchess County residents with health care concerns may want to visit our Poughkeepsie medical negligence page. Our firm represents clients who have been injured in surgery.
Source: The Sentinel, "FDA examines robotic surgery after hundreds of reports of problems," Naomi Creason, April 9, 2013
]]>According to preliminary data compiled from NYPD reports, 11,621 pedestrians were injured in New York City last year, and 155 were killed. With numbers like those, could cities and towns around our state benefit from decoy programs like those being run in Fort Lee?
Their police department publicly announced the program in March and has spent the last few weeks on a public information campaign, which included handing out flashing reflectors and fluorescent umbrellas.
"This is not a sneak attack," explained Fort Lee's deputy police chief. "We want to let [drivers] know we're doing it all over town. Our ultimate goal isn't issuing summonses. Our ultimate goal is compliance."
]]> In the decoy operations, over a four-hour period plainclothes officers repeatedly cross the street at intersections where pedestrian accidents are known to be a problem. If drivers fail to yield, uniformed officers are waiting just down the street to ticket them. In one four-hour stretch, officers issued 50 summonses at a single intersection, and those are $230 tickets.While many who received tickets were furious, the surprising truth was that many continued to blame pedestrians for causing these accidents.
Nevertheless, the deputy police chief believes the interventions will be effective. "As we do this program more and more, our summonses numbers will drop," he told reporters. "People are learning that pedestrians have a right to cross the street and they have to stop."
Sources:
The highway worker immediately reported the fatal car accident to the authorities, but accident investigators from the Oswego Town Fire Department are at a loss to explain the cause of the deadly crash except to say that excessive speed was likely involved.
According to local press reports, the stretch of the 0.6-mile long road where the accident occurred is preceded by a long hill flanked by sheer, thicketed embankments. The road was clear and dry.
Somehow, the car left the north side of the road, became airborne, struck a tree and then plunged down into the brush and rolled onto its roof. It is believed that all four young men were killed in the wreck.
]]> Once the wreckage was removed and investigators completed their survey of the site, friends and loved ones of the four young men came to the scene. Some were seeking any remaining possessions, while others merely sought remembrance."Joey was like my brother," said one young woman of the deceased driver. "He was just a really cool guy to hang out with."
The driver's cousin told reporters that his loss was very difficult for her entire family. He left behind two brothers -- one around his own age and one aged only seven. "They were so important to him," she said. "Family meant everything."
No suggestion has been made that alcohol was involved. Other than speed or distraction, the tragedy might have been the result of poor road design. The crash is still under active investigation.
Sources:
All of this was presumably meant to cut down on serious and deadly truck accidents caused by driver fatigue. In 2011, in New York State alone there were 145 commercial truck wrecks blamed on the driver either falling asleep or losing consciousness while driving. The FMCSA says large commercial trucks were involved in 3,484 fatal crashes in 2010, and its 2006 study estimated that as many as 12 percent of fatal truck accidents were caused by drowsy or incapacitated drivers.
]]> The trucking industry isn't taking the new rules lying down. The American Trucking Association argues that the new rules aren't based on evidence and would be onerous to both drivers and trucking companies. The association has sued in federal court to have the new rules struck down, and is asking for an injunction to keep the agency from implementing the rules as planned on July 1."The existing rules have a proven track record, and the agency's purported reasons for tinkering with them were baseless," the ATA's general counsel after a hearing before a three-judge-panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Advocacy groups such as Public Citizen support the new rules. Indeed, Public Citizen and a coalition of groups promoting traffic safety argued that the new hours-of-service rules don't go far enough to cut down on driver fatigue. Nevertheless, Public Citizen contends that the FMCSA was obligated by the evidence to make rules further restricting the number of successive hours truckers can drive -- during a workday, during a workweek, and across multiple weeks.
"We're hopeful the judges will see through the agency's mere pleas for deference and after-the-fact explanations for a rule that was agenda-driven rather than evidence-based," said the ATA's attorney after the hearing.
No date has been set for the court's ruling. Despite the trucking industry's pleas that a delay in implementation would save trucking companies and law enforcement a great deal of money otherwise spent preparing for a rule that might be struck down, the FMCSA plans to begin enforcing the rule on July 1 as scheduled.
Source: Truckline.com, "U.S. Appeals Court Hears ATA Challenge to HOS Rules," Sean McNally, March 15, 2013
]]>The accident happened last January, and the security guard filed a lawsuit against Brand in October. Even then, rumors were swirling that the pedestrian accident had been a hit and run, and those rumors continue to be repeated. However, in an interview shortly after the guard's lawsuit was filed, his attorney clearly denied that story.
In fact, the security guard's attorney said that Brand had acted entirely appropriately, under the circumstances. According to reports, Brand was at an LA-area hospital for unspecified reasons. The security guard accompanied Brand to his SUV, which was surrounded by paparazzi.
]]> "There was a lot of paparazzi around," the guard's lawyer said in October, adding that distracted driving may have been involved. "Paparazzi can drive you crazy."In any case, Brand's SUV apparently struck the guard, knocking him down and leaving him with a number of injuries. The most serious of these was a knee injury that the guard said would probably require surgery. Brand did stop, the lawyer says, and ask if the guard was OK. He appeared to be dazed but conscious, so Brand left a staff member at the scene to help with any insurance issues.
In addition to the false rumors that it was a hit-and-run accident, a number of celebrity gossip stories have implied that the guard had originally sought only $25,000 for his injuries but has now raised it to $185,000.
That turns out to have been a misunderstanding. The initial filing documents apparently noted that the case involved an amount in damages that "exceeds $25,000." This was merely a base level of expected damages that courts require to be specified so that they can establish jurisdiction. In this situation, "exceeds $25,000" only indicated to the court that this case was likely to involve a large amount in damages -- not a smaller amount more appropriately handled by a small claims court.
So, if Brand didn't leave the scene of the wreck and did hand over his insurance information, why is the security guard suing him over the pedestrian accident?
"The issue here is you're dealing with insurance companies," the guard's attorney told reporters. Brand's insurance carrier has apparently been dragging its feet.
Sources:
The truck was following too close, said officers, but the truck driver has not been charged. The trucking company he worked for, however, is being called to account for possibly dangerous and negligent operation. While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had given the company a "satisfactory" rating based on traffic stops and safety inspections, it had also put out an advisory to all states to inspect the company's trucks with special vigilance.
]]> Those killed in the truck accident include the 62-year-old driver, his wife who was also 62, a 92-year-old friend, an 18-year-old relative, a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, who were foster children of the driver and his wife. They were returning to Wisconsin from a Florida vacation. Two other foster children, a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy were hospitalized.Drivers in the opposite lanes were apparently distracted by the fire from the truck wreck, which caused a secondary four-car collision. A man involved in that accident was hospitalized for head and neck injuries.
In the trucking company's last two-year inspection period, its drivers had accumulated 17 traffic violations ranging from speeding, improper lane changes and following too close. In the 124 inspections over the last two years of individual drivers working for the company, 7 required drivers, or 5.6 percent, to be taken out of service. Surprisingly, that was only slightly higher than the national average of 5.5' percent.
Was this trucking company negligent? Was it pressuring its drivers to drive aggressively in order to meet deadlines? Had it allowed a "macho" driving culture to develop? Were their vehicles safe? These questions are important not only because they could shed light on what caused this accident but also, and more important, because the survivors need these answers.
Source: The Detroit News, "Michigan firm in crash had 17 tickets since '11," Brett Barrouquere and Steve Karnowski, March 5, 2013
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