1. Avoid drinking and driving.


2. Minimize distractions such as reading newspapers or talking on the cell phone when driving.


3. Properly maintain vehicles. Tune up cars according to maintenance schedule, and especially take note monthly of tire condition.


4. Do not encourage aggressive drivers. Let other aggressive driving behavior roll off your back, or call the police. Losing your temper could worsen the situation.


5. Leave a safe distance between your cars and others. For every 10 miles per hour of speed, leave at least one car length space between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead.


6. Maintain a constant speed. Don’t continually slow down or speed up.


7. Adjust mirrors properly and check the side and rear-view mirrors every 15 seconds.


8. Take defensive driving classes to improve your ability to drive and be better prepared for the unpredictable behavior of other motorists.


9. Proceed with great caution through intersections. Intersections are the center of most accidents. When entering an intersection, look left, then right, then left again to ensure the area is clear.


10. Be sufficiently aware of road conditions and be more visible. Keep your lights on at dusk and dawn and during rain, as is the law in most states. Understand basic vehicle dynamics, such as knowing how to recover from a skid.

The collision was strong enough to push the compact car back over 100 feet. The driver and the passenger survived but suffered life-threatening injuries. Both victims were in the hospital for over a month with medical bills amounting to  $320,000.

Although the victims were willing to settle for Davis’ minimal insurance policy limits of $50,000, his carrier, Allstate Insurance Co. (click on Allstate to read a recent report on America's 10 worst insurance companies), did not respond until six months later. That was substancially after the statutory 60-day limit for accepting the offer had expired.

Now Allstate is paying and paying deeply! This week in Kansas City the Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a jury verdict requiring Allstat to pay over $16 million in damages to the victims.

Once again it is easy to see just why it is up to each of us to protect ourselves when it comes to dealing with insurance companies after an accident. 

A report from the Department of Transportation (DOT) NHTSA details these dangerous behaviors behind the wheel ? in order of highest occurrence first:

1. preparing to eat, eating or spilling food or drink
2. reaching for something or leaning
3. cell phone use (including dialing, answering, and talking)
4. manipulating audio controls
5. smoking

Younger drivers are more likely than older drivers to engage in distracted driving behaviors.  So, the next time you get behind the wheel take note ? you aren?t one of these dangerous distracted drivers, are you?  And take a few minutes to talk with the young people in your life about the importance of focusing on the road and avoiding the tragedy of an auto accident.

It seems counterintuitive, but new statistics from the NHTSA show that seatbelt use actually goes down at night, when drivers are most likely to need the extra protection.   Teenagers and males of all ages are the worst offenders, and they are much more likely than other drivers to fail to buckle up when the sun goes down.

Now that the nationwide Click It or Ticket seatbelt awareness campaign is drawing to a close, the NHTSA and state law enforcement officials will begin compiling statistics about the effectiveness of this year?s outreach efforts.  Hopefully they?ll find that more people are getting the message about the importance of safety belts in reducing auto accident injuries and fatalities.

EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock stated that lead emissions in the air have declined 98% since current standard was established in the late 1970's. Unfortunately, and unacceptably, nearly 1,300 tons of lead is still released yearly into the environment.  Expert research in the impact of this toxin on our children has consistantly confirmed even low levels of exposure to children is damaging.

Lead poisoning is one of the most devastating chronic environmental illnesses impacting children today.  Exposure to lead in children (and to a fetus) can cause brain and nervous system damage, behavioral and learning problems, slowed growth, hearing problems, headaches, mental and physical retardation, and a variety of other health problems. 

Once poisoned, no organ system is immune and a major concern is the damage of lead poisoning to the developing brain.  Lead can be inhaled or ingested and is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.

Through education, enforcement, outreach, and legislation, NHTSA's motorcycle safety initiatives focus on comprehensive programs that prevent crashes, prevent injury when a crash occurs, and reduce the seriousness of injury after a crash. NHTSA's initiatives foster promoting motorcycle rider education and licensing; reducing the number of impaired motorcyclists; increasing motorist awareness of motorcycles; and increasing helmet use.

Make no mistake: lead poisoning cases are time consuming and expensive to handle.  This is true, most importantly, in the proof of lead poisoning injury. If you do not have the right data, the right expert, and the right presentation, it is likely that your efforts will be for naught.

Early investigation regarding your client and his or her family should help you screen out cases that can not be won, regardless of how well they are worked up. Do this preliminary investigative work before you spend the $15,000 to work the case up medically. 

Careful review of ALL of the medical records for your child can also avoid a costly mistake. Has there been some severe medical problem which also impacted the child?s development? Ask your expert about these BEFORE your exhaustive and expensive neuropsychological testing. But do not run from issues like pre-maturity and fetal distress. Although these are risk factors for developmental problems, it is often possible to demonstrate that they had no effect on the child in his or her early development. That is, UNTIL they were poisoned by the defendant?s negligence.

One key injury that is now a lot easier to prove is ADHD. Cutting edge research has shown that children (especially boys) with lead poisoning are FOUR times more likely to develop ADHD.

This is for good reason ? each year, 1.7 million Americans are infected and more than 100,000 people die from these infections.  It?s enough to scare even the most pragmatic of patients away from a stint in the hospital.  But avoiding surgery and necessary hospitalization isn?t always possible.  Fortunately, there are steps that patients can take to ensure their own safety, and possibly avoid contracting MRSA or another type of hospital infection.

To find out more about what you can to do stay safe during your surgery or hospital stay, please read the article ?Avoiding Hospital Acquired Infections? in our legal library.  You can find more information about hospital infections in our other article, ?Hospital Infections: A Serious Epidemic?.

Have you or someone you know been affected by a hospital acquired infection?  Do you have a scheduled surgery or hospital stay coming up, and are you concerned?  If you have thoughts to share about hospital infections, we?d like to hear them.  Please leave us a comment.

A Chinese subsidiary of Scientific Protein Laboratories has been identified as the source of the contaminated heparin.  Scientific Protein Laboratories claims that it tried to get to the bottom of the contamination, but was stopped by Chinese authorities.  Since being identified as the source of contamination, the Chinese plant Changzhou SPL, has been barred by the FDA from exporting product to the US due to problems found during FDA inspection.

Apparently the contaminant, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, cost $9 a pound compared with $900 a pound for heparin.  It is tragic and shocking that 81 people had to lose their lives because somebody saw an opportunity to make money off of a lifesaving medication.  However, Baxter and the FDA are not innocent bystanders in this case.

Baxter bought heparin from this source from 2004 to 2008, yet did not inspected the plant themselves until September 2007.  The FDA fared no better ? the plant was never inspected by the FDA until the heparin controversy broke this year, and the first inspection was performed on the wrong plant due to confusion over the name.

With so mistakes by individuals, companies, and federal agencies the American people have every reason to worry about the safety of the US drug supply.  We can only hope that this tragic case underscores the need for change in the way drugs are manufactured, inspected, and approved.

Why does the federal government care whether or not you wear your seatbelt?  Wearing a seat belt means you are 45% less likely to be injured in a fatal auto accident and 60% less likely to be fatally injured in a pick-up truck, SUV or mini-van accident.  Less fatalities on our nation?s roads and highways means less police time at accident sites, less manpower and money spent on investigations, less money spent on emergency medical treatment ? and not to mention saving lives is good for everyone.

Virginia listed occupant safety ? translated as seat belts for everyone ? as its number one priority in its fiscal year 2008 funding application.  The state?s occupant safety objectives for this year are:

1.      To increase safety belt usage in Virginia from 79.9% to 82% by June, 2008

2.      To decrease lives lost by 1 percent from 961 to 951 by December, 2008

3.      To decrease injuries by 1 percent from 73, 348 to 72,614 by June, 2008

4.      To convert 16% of non-seat belt users to become seat belt users by June, 2008

These goals mean that there will be more ?Click It or Ticket? checkpoints on our roads, and more police officers looking out for drivers who aren?t wearing their seatbelts.  Do yourself a favor ? make sure that you buckle up every time you get in your car, and make sure your passengers do the same.  The life you save may be your own!

You can read more about Virginia?s 2008 Highway Safety Plan in our library, and more about the Click It or Ticket program as well.

A recent research study from the University of South Florida College of Public Health concluded that instead of reducing accidents from red light running, these cameras actually increase the number of collisions caused when drivers slam on their brakes to avoid traveling through a red light.  Studies done in North Carolina, Virginia, Ontario, and Australia support these findings.

Why does this matter to residents of the Newport News region?  Right now red light cameras are planned for three intersections: Jefferson Avenue and Mercury Boulevard; Jefferson Avenue and Oyster Point Road; and Jefferson Avenue and Fort Eustis Boulevard ? if approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation.  The area?s first red light cameras were installed in 1995 in Virginia Beach.

How do you feel about more red light cameras being installed in our region?  Do you think they?ll make a positive difference ? or is the study right, will they cause harm instead?  Leave us a comment and let us know.

On February 28, 2008 President Bush signed the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act into law.  Parents and safety advocates hope that this new law will have two effects.  First, the government is now required to research and produce public education materials on non-traffic accidents involving vehicle blind spots, power windows, and brake transmission shift interlocks.  Second, the federal government will now be required to collect and share information about non-traffic accidents, which is not done currently done.

This new law closes a gap in the DOT and NHTSA coverage of motor vehicle accidents.  Up until the passage of this law, injuries and accidents from non-traffic accidents were tracked primarily by a non-profit group, Kids and Cars.  However, without a law requiring collection of such statistics, there is no way to know how many of these accidents really happen every year.  Kids and Cars suspects that the numbers they?ve collected over the years are much lower than they are in reality.

We hope this new law meets its intended goals ? to prevent the needless accidents and injuries that happen every year in non-traffic auto accidents.  You can read more about the law and these accidents in our library, ?New Law Aims to Enhance Auto Safety for Children?.

Do you know somebody who was injured in a non-traffic accident?  What do you think about this new law?  Leave us a comment and let us know.

Probably the most surprising finding was that the FDA thought they had inspected the Chinese plant that supplies Baxter with the raw ingredients for heparin, however it was found later that a plant with a similar name was inspected instead.  This means that the factory supplying Baxter with the raw ingredients for heparin ? which are derived from pig intestines ? was never inspected by the FDA.

According to draft findings from a recent FDA inspection of the correct plant, the following troubling items were noted:

• A lack of specific procedures outlining removal of impurities.

• Workers reprocessed the drug that didn't meet specifications without determining what caused the initial problem.

• No records showing suppliers' source of the products.

• Some apparently improperly cleaned and maintained equipment.

With these latest findings, we have to wonder what is going on at the FDA.  This probably isn?t the last we?ll hear about trouble at the FDA because of mistakes and poor oversight.

What do you think can be done to fix problems at the FDA?  Are you concerned about this latest heparin debacle?  Leave us a comment and let us know.

The Senate bill hit an interesting snag earlier this week, when a 130-year-old state Supreme Court ruling was found that prohibits lawmakers from ordering local courts to stop the collection of fees or fines that have been assessed.  The original ruling was made in the 1878 Ratcliffe v. Anderson case, and upheld by a number of subsequent rulings.

The Senators were able to work on a compromise and their bill now states that the DMV can?t suspend the driver?s license of anyone who fails to pay the fees.  In addition, the DMV must send letters to people required to pay the fees with instructions on how to get the court to dismiss them.  This version of the bill was passed unanimously.

Once the House and Senate iron out their differences, all that?s left is for Gov. Kaine to sign the bill into law.  Dare we ask? are you glad to see the end of these fees?

Last year the Virginia General Assembly was successful in passing a law banning cell-phone use by drivers under the age of 18.  So far, they?ve not been successful in passing laws aimed at older drivers.  However the latest targets of lawmakers are those who DWT.  You may already know this acronym; it stands for Driving While Texting.

Studies have found that DWT is a major distraction, especially among younger drivers.  So great is the concern that this year Virginia lawmakers proposed two bills that would make it illegal to read, send, or receive text messages while driving.  These laws won?t go into effect anytime soon, though ? they were sent off for further study, so we?ll have to wait until next year?s General Assembly.

What do you think ? are laws aimed at restricting cell-phone use and DWT justified?  Will they make a difference on our roads?  Leave us a comment and tell us what you think, and then read our article about drunk and distracted drivers.

In a recent lead poisoning case I handled, the defendant ?suggested? that lead comes from many possible sources, including the former use of lead in gasoline and toys from China.  But against the compelling and detailed proof of lead paint hazards, including graphic representation and references to the key literature, these suggestions fell flat.

"A vessel operator owes passengers and visitors aboard its vessel a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances to not negligently injure them and to warn them of any dangers of which he knows or should know.  Liability of a passenger carrier for creating and maintaining a dangerous condition must be predicated on actual or constructive notice of its existence."

"A split authority whether a vessel operator owes to passengers a duty of "reasonable care" or the "highest duty of care" has been resolved that the duty is one of reasonable care under the circumstances, the circumstances requiring more diligence on teh part of the shipowner with respect to risks that are not normally encountered by passengers in their shoreside lives."

"46 U.S.C. App. Section 183c invalidates any provision in any contract for carriage of passengers on a voyage to or from a port of the United States which purports to exculpate the carrier or limit its liability, or limit the claimant's right to trial, for death or injury to a passenger."