A bill that will set an award limit in medical malpractice lawsuits was passed by Missouri lawmakers. It was passed as a compromise between Republicans and Democrats, who had disagreed about previous efforts to pass damages caps through the State Senate. A Closer Outline of…
The prescription drug Zofran, made by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, is under fire for unapproved use. Most recently, the popular nausea drug has been linked to birth defects. Zofran was initially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help cancer patients that were…
Nearly 40 percent of all train derailments in the United States result from broken rails or other track problems. Looking only at train crashes that occur outside of rail yards, the percentage of derailments that happen when switches fail to close, rocky ballast subsides or…
An April 27, 2015, crash on Highway 29 in Belton, South Carolina (SC), involving a moped and a car appears to have been no accident. According to television station WYFF, Anderson County police investigating the collision that left the moped rider needing hospital treatment for…
News of train derailments and accidents that result in massive oil-fueled fires and explosions have become almost routine. While few such railroad instances in the United States have led directly to losses of life, the risks for injuries and extensive damage to property, the environment…
Losing a loved one is a traumatic, heartbreaking event. No amount of money will ever be able to bring your spouse, sibling, or other relative back. Nevertheless, under the law, the mechanism designed to bring some semblance of justice to a grieving loved one who…
The first sentence of a 2015 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety factsheet on teens and distracted driving highlights the need to reduce all causes of car crashes involving drivers younger than 20: “963,000 drivers ages 16-19 were involved in police-reported motor vehicle crashes in 2013, which result
A survey of teenaged drivers in the Pacific Northwest revealed that while warnings about the dangers of texting and driving have largely gotten through, much work remains to curb distracted driving among the group most prone to causing, getting injured in and dying from car…
An Amtrak train collided with a commercial tractor-trailer in Halifax County, North Carolina (NC)recently. Over 40 people suffered injuries in this horrific collision. The impact was so severe that it caused a portion of the Amtrak train to derail. This terrible railroad accident highlights just…
A few days after a California commuter train rammed a truck whose driver had abandoned it at a railroad crossing outside Oxnard, California (CA), on February 24, 2015, Insurance Journal published an analysis titled “Replacing Unsafe Train Crossings Deemed too Expensive.” The headline writer exaggera
The latest federal report on measures being taken to ensure the safety of natural gas pipelines across the United States raises serious concerns. While acknowledging that catastrophic, and fatal, failures such as the 2010 explosion of a Pacific Gas & Electric gas transmission line in…
A February 2015 report from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration should give pause to anyone who believes that the proverbial “just two glasses of wine with dinner” leaves them safe to drive. My Virginia Beach-based attorney colleague Randy Appleton has already highlighted other