Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

October 30, 2014

Mechanical Failure May Have Caused Deadly Halloween Hayride Crash

According to officials, a mechanical issue may have caused the Jeep serving as the Gauntlet Haunted Night hayride vehicle at Harvest Hill Farms to go down a hill at rapid speed, strike a tree, and overturn earlier this month in Maine. 17-year-old Cassidy Charette sustained fatal injuries in the crash. 22 others were injured.

Charette was with seven other students from her high school for their annual hayride when the tragic vehicle crash happened. Among the injured were two with critical injuries, including 16-year-old Connor Garland and David Brown, 54, who was driving the Jeep. Garland was transported to Boston Children’s Hospital. According to Fox News, Brown was hauling a flatbed trailer as part of the ride.

Following the hayride accident, State Police impounded the 1979 Jeep CJ5a. A safety probe was conducted.

October 29, 2014

MIT Survey Reveals Prevalence of Sexual Assault on Campuses

by Altman & Altman

MIT has attempted to put a precise estimate on the prevalence of sexual violence on its campus in a comprehensive survey taken anonymously by its students.

According to results, which were published on Monday, about one in six female undergraduates at MIT who responded reported being sexually assaulted at least one time while enrolled at the university. 5 percent of those respondents said they reported the crime, according to results released Monday by the school. The Boston Globe reported that 3,800 students responded to the survey out of 10,800 who were invited to participate.

According to The Boston Globe, “MIT became the highest-profile college to put such a specific estimate on the prevalence of sexual violence on campus, amid heightened national attention on the issue. Many schools have been hesitant to conduct such surveys, but advocates have urged colleges to do so because victims are more likely to reveal that they were assaulted if they can remain anonymous. Undergraduates, in particular, are viewed as most at risk.”

MIT university president L. Rafael Reif said in a mass email sent to students and faculty of the school, that he was “disturbed by the extent and nature of the problem” reflected in the survey results.

“Sexual assault violates our core MIT values,” Reif wrote. “I am confident that, with this shared understanding and armed with this new data, the MIT community will find a path to significant positive change.”
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October 28, 2014

National Transportation Safety Board Announces Likely Cause of NY Train Derailment

by Altman & Altman

Nearly 11 months since a Metro-North train derailed in New York City, killing four people and injuring dozens more passengers, federal investigators believe they have reached a conclusion as to what caused the horrific wreck.

According to WCVB reports, the National Transportation Safety Board said it is prepared to announce today the probable causes of the December 1, 2013 train derailment and address four other Metro-North accidents in both New York and Connecticut, which all occurred within 11 months in 2013 and 2014.

The NTSB said it has poured over hundreds of documented findings from the investigations. It is only now that the board has reached probable conclusions as to why the crash occurred. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut stated that he has seen the report, which, according to Blumenthal, “document[s] the cascading catastrophes over a single year illustrating the urgent need for dramatic upgrades and improvements in safety and reliability.”

Though no confirmation has yet been made, early reports in April suggested that the engineer of the derailed train, William Rockefeller, suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea, which ultimately interrupted his sleep dozens of times each night. Likely, Rockefeller was overly drowsy at the time the accident occurred, according to these preliminary reports. Investigators questioned Rockefeller on whether he was clearheaded enough to realize he was hitting the curve at such a high rate of speed, to which Rockefeller replied, “apparently not.”

According to WCVB, other accidents within the 11-month span include a derailment and collision in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that injured more than 50 people on May 17, 2013; the death of a track foreman who was hit by a train in West Haven, Connecticut, on May 28, 2013; the derailment of a freight train on Metro-North tracks in the Bronx on July 18, 2013; and the death of a Metro-North electrician who was hit by a train in Manhattan on March 10, 2014.
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October 27, 2014

GranuFlo Plaintiffs Want Massachusetts Law Applied to Their Dialysis Lawsuits

by Altman & Altman

127 plaintiffs want the courts to apply Massachusetts law, not Mississippi law, to their GranuFlo injury claims against Fresenius Medical Care North America. Even though the dialysis patients are from Massachusetts state, they filed their complaints in Massachusetts.

The manufacturer is seeking to have the claims dismissed, noting that they exceed the three-year statue of limitations in Mississippi. The plaintiffs contend that there is a discovery exception to the statute that mandates a case-by-case assessment.

The dialysis patients claim that using Fresenius’ GranuFlo Dry Acid Concentrate and NaturaLyte during dialysis can lead to cardiopulmonary arrest and even death. The two products are dialysate components that are designed to maintain the correct base-acid balance in the blood during hemodialysis. Unfortunately, say the plaintiffs, the powders can also cause unsafe modifications in the blood.

October 22, 2014

Two Young Women Sue Website in Boston for Sex Trafficking

by Altman & Altman

Two young women are suing Backpage.com after they became the victims of sex trafficking. Their Massachusetts lawsuit, filed in Boston is accusing the company of setting up a business model that enabled child sex trafficking in the U.S. The plaintiffs’ lawyers describe Backpage.com as a website that carries advertisements for illegal commercial sex.

One of the plaintiffs says that sold for over 1,000 times in 18 months when she was 15 and 16 in ’12 and ’13. The other girl says she was trafficked as a teen between ’12 and ’13. The two girls were purportedly trafficked in separate “stables” of girls who were moved to different cities, including Boston, other Massachusetts cities, and Rhode Island.

The plaintiffs claim that Backpage.com and parent company Camarillo Holdings LLC violated the Massachusetts Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2010 and the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Act of 2008. They also are accusing the defendants of succeeding in purposely becoming a lead player in the online sex trade and making misrepresentations to non-profits and law enforcement to make it appear as if the website was trying to get rid of the child sex traffic ads when that wasn’t the case.

October 21, 2014

Massachusetts Suspends ET-Plus Guardrail Use Because of Traffic Injury Risks

by Altman & Altman

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has decided to stop the use of a guardrail-end terminal over concerns that there may be safety issues. The rail-end guardrail pieces, known as the ET-Plus, are made by Trinity Industries of Texas. The manufacturer has already have been the subject of products liability lawsuits by motorists claiming they lost their legs in traffic crashes.

This week, a federal jury ruled that Trinity should pay $175 million in a whistleblower lawsuit that exposed the hazards involved with using the guardrail end caps. It was guardrail installer Josh Harman who accused Trinity of making the ET-Plus unsafe when the company redesigned it.

He sued Trinity under the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions. As the whistleblower, Harman is entitled to a percentage of what is recovered. Because of statutory mandate, the $175 million figure is expected to triple.

October 18, 2014

$15.6M Auto Defects Case Against Toyota Dealership is Upheld

by Altman & Altman

A three-judge panel has upheld a jury’s verdict awarding $15.6 million to a driver and passengers of a Toyota minivan. They sustained injuries when the auto malfunctioned and went into a ravine.

The defendant of this auto defects case is Center City Toyota in Pennsylvania, which had serviced the auto. Early on during the civil trial, it tried to settle with the plaintiffs for $1.7 million.

The plaintiffs also had sued Toyota Motor Corp., several Toyota affiliates, and PhillyCarShare, which had rented the vehicle to the plaintiffs, for auto products liability. These defendants were later dismissed from the lawsuit.

October 14, 2014

Nursing Home Chain Settles Medicare Fraud, Whistleblower Claims for $38M

by Altman & Altman

Extendicare Health Services Inc., a nursing and rehabilitation facilitation chain, has agreed to pay $38 million to settle Medicaid and Medicare fraud claims that were originally brought in a whistleblower lawsuit. The chain is accused of billing for substandard care and submitting claim for therapy services that were medically unnecessary. Extendicare is one of the largest nursing home chains in the United States.

The primary whistleblower in this Medicaid fraud case is Tracy Lovvorn, a physical therapist who was retained as a rehabilitation director by an Extendicare subsidiary. Lovvorn is entitled to $1.8 million of the government’s settlement. Another relator, Donald Gallic, also filed a qui tam case against the nursing and rehab chain. He is entitled to a nearly $260,000 award.

The allegations against Extendicare include the failure to adequately staff its 146 facilities in 11 states, inadequate catheter care, failure to follow protocols for pressure ulcers and falls, and improper administration of medications. According to officials, the nursing and rehab care was so unsatisfactory at certain Extendicare facilities that staff failed to prevent head injuries, fall accidents, and bedsores. Certain patients developed infections or became dehydrated or malnourished. Some individuals needed hospital care because of the negligent nursing care provided to them. These residents and their families could be entitled to nursing home neglect compensation.

October 11, 2014

CPSC Votes to Make Mandatory Standards for Window Covering Cords

by Altman & Altman

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has voted to start a rulemaking process that would protect kids from the strangulation hazard that comes with window coverings with exposed or dangling cords. October is Window Covering Safety Month.

A child’s neck can get caught and tangled up cord, resulting in strangulation or suffocation. Some children that are lucky enough to survive such an incident are left with permanent brain injuries.

According to the CPSC, between ’96 and ’12 approximately 184 young children and babies died from window cord strangulation. There were over 100 non-fatal strangulation accidents involving the cords of window shades and blinds during that time period, with 1,590 kids needing medical care because of incidents involving these products.

October 7, 2014

Over 1,800 Massachusetts State Police Car Crashes in the Last Five Years, Reports The Boston Globe

by Altman & Altman

According to The Boston Globe, in the last five years, there have been over 1,800 Massachusetts car crashes involving State Police vehicles-that’s nearly one collision a day. Law enforcement authorities say that hundreds of these accidents occurred because troopers were speeding, disregarding traffic signs, or breaking other safety rules.

Records indicate that approximately 100 people annually are hurt in Massachusetts State Police car crashes. In 2013 alone, there were over 400 collisions, including 306 Boston auto collisions.

Also, in the last ten years the department has paid over $3 million in collision settlements. The amount could have been more if there wasn’t a $100,000 statutory limit on negligence claims brought against government agencies in the state. At least four of the Massachusetts police traffic crashes involved fatalities.