Florida Personal Injury Blog

Orlando, Florida Theme Park Injury Reports

Ed Normand — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:55:02 GMT

For the second consecutive quarter, Disney World was the only major theme park in Florida to report any guest injuries. None of the other major theme parks - including Universal Studios, Sea World, Wet ‘n Wild, or Busch Gardens in Tampa, reported a single guest being injured in that time period. Disney World reported eight injuries occurring during the third quarter. Neither the Federal Government nor the State of Florida regulate the big theme parks and they are under a Florida based voluntary reporting system that has many loopholes. The lack of reported injuries for the last 6 months at all of the theme parks except Disney shows that the voluntary reporting system is not working and injuries are happening that are not being reported. This is clear from an examination of lawsuits filed against the theme parks. The lawsuits consistently relate to injuries at the parks that the parks never report to the State of Florida or anywhere else.

The injuries at Disney during the third quarter of 2009 include the following:
A 31-year-old woman had a seizure after riding the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, and a 50-year-old woman experienced chest pains and shortness of breath after riding the same ride. A 54-year-old man had a seizure riding Star Tours, a full-motion flight simulator based on the Star Wars films. A 40-year-old man fell and broke his right wrist while getting off of Test Track, a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that GM uses to evaluate its cars, culminating in a high-speed drive around the exterior of the attraction. A 52-year-old woman complained of dizziness and memory loss after riding Mission: Space, which boasts that it realistically simulates an astronaut’s trip to Mars. A 66-year-old man felt sick after riding Expedition Everest, a high-altitude, high-speed roller coaster train ride to the “Roof of the World.” A 74-year-old woman lost her balance getting off of Peter Pan’s Flight, fell, and hit her head and broke her wrist. Finally, a 57-year-old woman passed out after riding Splash Mountain, and fractured her skull after collapsing on a concrete floor.

State regulators rely on the big theme parks to voluntarily report any significant injuries to guests. It is clear that many injuries are not being reported. According to these records, Disney is now falling far behind the other big theme parks’s safety records for the second straight quarter. With the lack of regulation it is not clear if this is a sign of safety issues at Disney or, more likely, that other parks are not reporting all the injuries at the parks. It is time that state regulators need to step in. Government oversight is needed as self-policing is clearly not working. For my previous blog on the injuries at the big theme parks for the second quarter of 2009, please check our prior blogs on Disney Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ed Normand

FDA Addresses Medical Errors And $4 Billion Pricetag

Eddie Farah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:29:47 GMT

As we look at saving money on health care spending, Americans should consider drugs, specifically the huge cost of medical errors involving prescriptions.

Medication interactions, a mix-up in the pharmacy such as switching out the wrong prescription, an inability read a doctor’s handwriting, all can lead to drug dosage errors which cost us all about $4 billion a year, not to mention lives and injuries.

Now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it is trying to identify the most serious threats to better understand and get a handle on the problem. Consider this- errors with medication happen often - about 1.5 million errors every year according to a two- year-old study by the Institute of Medicine.

A recent Hearst Newspaper group investigation, "Dead By Mistake" profiles many who lost their lives through medication errors.

It so astonishing that even the new FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, who is a doctor, was stunned by the numbers. She announced a new plan called “Safe Use Initiative” by saying it “doesn’t require a new scientific discovery or a budget appropriation.”

In holding public hearing and gathering information from the public about that problem, the FDA would be wise to speak with personal injury attorneys.

Every week we hear of the adverse events that can occur from drugs, even when they are used as directed of prescribed. Consider Tylenol that can cause liver damage when taken in excess, and the devastating outcomes of drugs when they are not.

Public Citizen is onboard with this scrutiny of package labels, and inserts, and instructions given to dispensing pharmacists. Dr. Sidney Wolfe says that about 99.5 percent of pamphlets are missing critical information.

While medication is supposed to make us feel better and perhaps save lives, patients and doctors forget almost every medication eventually has a side effect. The presumption of safety needs to be challenged.

Instead of relying on a “Pill for every Ill” Americans need to remember that “safe medication” is an oxymoron. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Disney Replaces Crashed Monorail

Ed Normand — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:40:54 GMT

Recently, Disney announced that a “new” monorail train, named Teal, is now up and running at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The monorail at Disney received heightened media attention over the summer, as two trains were involved in a deadly crash which killed 21-year-old Disney employee Austin Wuennenberg. According to reports, Disney decided to use the undamaged, leftover parts from the two trains involved in the crash to build the new Teal train.

For my blog posting over the summer about the crash, please see Disney Accident.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ed Normand

Tort Reform, Lies, and Lady Justice

John Hopkins — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:37:17 GMT

It is all about reforming our tort system, right? I mean fixing the health insurance problem for millions of uninsured people is all about preventing the filing of lawsuits against negligent doctors and hospitals, right? We need to limit or eliminate the constitutional right to jury try for a certain class of citizen to provide health insurance for our citizens, right? We need to provide special immunities to certain professionals to fix the health insurance problem?

Who has a “problem” that any of this fixes? One class of “people” has a problem that this will fix: insurance companies. The insurance industry wants tort reform so the insurance industry can increase profits. It is, in fact, that simple.

No one has ever been able to provide me with objective evidence that contradicts any of the following:

There are not an abundance of frivolous malpractice suits being filed now and there has not been in recent memory.
Malpractice claims do not, watch my lips, do not drive up insurance costs. In fact, under oath, many insurance executives have repeatedly testified as such.
Doctors are not fleeing states because of malpractice claims. In fact it is the very, very small minority of doctors who are sued for malpractice.
Malpractice claims do not drive up insurance premiums across the whole population of physicians. Empirical evidence demonstrates that little correlation exists between malpractice claims and increased premiums. Insurance executives have, under oath, also testified to that fact.
Tort reform will never lower insurance costs. The insurance industry simply does not have a track record for doing that.

All of this is a distraction from accomplishing a solution to the real problem. How do we provide health insurance to millions of citizens who are without it? Legislators indebted to the insurance industry need to throw up road blocks and provide distraction they can trump up to be popular with many people in this country.

When 98,000 people die every year and many more are injured from medical malpractice. I must wonder if the tort reformers would be making statements they know are not true if medical negligence killed their wife, their husband, their mother, or their child. Of course they would not. In the height of absolute indifference to the suffering of victims, tort reformers fabricate, invent, and misrepresent; all to benefit an industry who is dumping big dollars into their pockets.

So, if they are successful with roadblocks and propaganda campaigns, the victim will include justice herself.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Hopkins

Chinese Drywall Defendant Agrees to Accept Service of Class Action Lawsuit

Joe Saunders — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:51:46 GMT

Chinese drywall defendant Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd. has agreed to accept service of process concerning a Chinese drywall class action lawsuit in which Knauf is being sued for manufacturing and importing the contaminated Chinese drywall into the United States.

This is a major victory for the thousands of homeowners who've had their homes contaminated with the drywall. The agreement means that all the drywall lawsuits can be consolidated into a class action and the homeowners won't have to pay the $15,000 fee for each lawsuit filed in the court.

However, Chinese drywall homeowners must submit proof that their home has been contaminated with the drywall and secure a lawyer to represent them by December 2, 2009.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders

Unemployed and Uninsured

Ed Normand — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:41:17 GMT

So far in 2009, almost 300,000 Floridians have lost their health insurance, along with their jobs. The link between health coverage and the rise in unemployment is important, because nearly two-thirds of people under the age of 65 get health coverage through their employment, or the employment of a spouse. Florida ranks third in the nation, among working age-adults, in the number of people who have lost their health insurance since January 2009, behind only California and Texas.

Several options are available to those who become unemployed, including COBRA, where you pay to extend current health coverage, but oftentimes individuals do not have the necessary financial means. However, the current trend of citing tort reform as a means to reduce health insurance costs are misplaced. During a time when more and more individuals are needing to purchase insurance on their own, it might be easy for some to point the finger at the alleged “evil” of medical malpractice lawsuits. Much has been proposed about the potential reduction in insurance costs if awards in medical malpractice cases were capped, or eliminated altogether. What individuals don’t realize is that in actuality, little to no savings in premiums have resulted from current attempts at tort reform. In fact, insurance companies in Florida like Aetna, have stated that tort reform has produced little or no savings in insurance rates in Florida, due in part to lawsuits only making up a tiny fraction of the overall healthcare spending in the United States each year. Reducing costs needs to come from within the system, starting with reducing the myriad of preventable medical errors committed by the small percentage of bad apple physicians each year.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ed Normand

More Dangers of Distracted Driving

Ed Normand — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:38:14 GMT

A client of mine was forever maimed in a recent car crash, but she wasn’t even driving. Jane was walking in her neighborhood, in broad daylight, when a car veered off the road, and mowed her down. Jane now has a broken hip, a collapsed lung, and two broken legs, a fractured spine and may never walk again. What is even more sad is that this was all completely preventable. Jane’s husband is the Home Owners Association President in their neighborhood, and has witnessed countless reckless drivers for months. In fact, he’s been trying to get help from anyone to improve safety in his neighborhood, but to no avail. Drivers have hit everything from light poles and fences, to even homes. Jane’s husband set up multiple surveillance cameras in the area before his wife’s accident, and was able to catch the entire accident on video.
Jane faces months of recovery, and most likely will never be the same. She’s in critical condition at a local hospital, with severe injuries. The video shows the terrible accident, and clearly shows how the car in question ran Jane down. The driver admitted to being distracted when he ran off the road.
I’ve blogged previously about the dangers of distracted driving. For my previous article, please visit: orlando.injuryboard.com/automobile-accidents/dangers-of-distracted-driving.aspx
It is about time the Florida Legislature does something to stop driving while texting and other forms of distracted driving. Studies have confirmed that distracted drivers are less safe than drunk drivers! Lets fix both, perhaps we need a Mothers Against Distracted Drivers group before the carnage stops.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ed Normand

Halloween Safety at the Forefront After Clermont Child Struck by SUV

Angela Pulido — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:13:07 GMT

Halloween ended tragically for a Central Florida family when their eight year old son was struck by an SUV and killed while crossing Highway 50 to attend a Halloween party. This is a stark reminder of the need for drivers and pedestrians to be extra careful on Halloween.

According to WESH:

Officials said Mitchell Trompeter was crossing the street with his father's girlfriend to attend First United Methodist Church's annual Halloween event, called Trunk-or-Treat, when they were struck by a white Ford Explorer.

The woman suffered minor injuries.

"He was struck along with another family member," said John Johnson, of the Clermont Police Department. "He was pronounced dead at the scene and the other family member is being treated at Southlake emergency room."

Children are more than twice as likely to be killed by a car while walking on Halloween than any other night of the year, according to Safe Kids USA. More than 540 kids under age 14 are killed in pedestrian accidents each year. In an analysis of deaths from 2002 to 2006, the group found an average of 2.2 children are killed in pedestrian accidents from 4 to 10 p.m. on Halloween, compared with one child every other evening at the same time.

According to SafeKids, Halloween is consistently the most dangerous day of the year for kids to walk. Kids are at greater risk on Halloween simply because they're more likely to be walking after dark, sometimes without their parents around. Additionally, Masks can make it hard for youngsters to see around corners, and dark costumes can make it hard for drivers to spot them.

Drivers should be more cautious on Halloween. They need to slow down, turn lights on and be prepared that there will be more kids out. Most importantly, they need to understand that children are generally unpredictable. Unlike adults, children are more likely to dart out between cars, especially when excited. That makes it more important than ever for drivers to avoid distractions, such as cellphones and texting, and of course, driving under the influence.

In Florida, drivers have a duty to keep a proper lookout for children around streets and highways. In fact, there is a specific standard jury instruction on the subject which states:

Duty of Motorist Toward Children

A motorist must exercise reasonable care to guard against the unpredictable and erratic behavior of children on or near the street or highway if he knows or should know of their presence.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Angela Pulido

25-Year-Old Loses Life In I-95 Explorer Rollover

Eddie Farah — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:27:55 GMT

It seems like we are reporting on these Ford Explorer rollover deaths on a weekly basis. Now there has been another.

A 25-year-old Orange Park woman lost her life on I-95 Saturday.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that Kathleen Lugo was heading south on Interstate 95 in Flagler County when she lost control of her 1999 Ford Explorer SUV and crashed Saturday afternoon around 3:15 p.m. Lugo reportedly tried to pass slow traffic and when she moved to the shoulder of the road she lost control and rolled several times. Not wearing her seat belt, Lugo was ejected from the Explorer and taken to Halifax Hospital where she was pronounced dead. No one else ws injured.

Our condolences go out to the family of this young woman who has left us all too soon.

In 2002, Ford installed a fully independent rear suspension in the Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer leading to more stability to the Explorer which has a high center of gravity and a tendancy to roll.

In 1999, Explorers involved in rollover had non-independent rear suspensions and many of the tires were found to be defective. And in May 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) contacted Ford and Firestone about the incidence of tire failures and separating tread in Explorers, Mountaineers and the Mazda Navajos with Firestone tires.

An accident investigator will need to be involved in this case if there could be a cause of action concerning a faulty tire as well as any defects in the Explorer or in dropoff in the pavement along the side of the interstate which may have caused Lugo to lose control of the vehicle as there are still many unanswered questions here.

The one thing that is not unanswered is that seat belt use saves lives. It is now the law in Florida and young drivers have the worst record in using seat belts.

Fortunately in 2009, the second generation of Ford Explorers built from 1995 to 2005, had five among the seven top spots traded in the “Cash for Clunkers” program, with the 1998 model at the top of the list.

That’s little consolation to the family of Kathleen Lugo, but it may mean that one less person loses their lives in these notoriously unstable vehicles. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Officials Release Cause of Tragic Bus Accident

Sandy Grinnell — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:05:00 GMT

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its findings on the cause of the bus accident that took the lives of 17 and injured 38 more back in August of 2008. The bus left the highway at about 68 miles per hour, broke through a metal bridge railing and ended up 8 feet below the bridge.

After an extensive review of the crash, it was determined that the bus had been driving for a significantly long distance with an under-inflated tire. The low tire pressure resulted in such a complete tire failure that there was no way the driver could have possibly maintained control of the bus.

The report revealed that number of deaths and the significant injuries were also the result of the fact the brdige railing failed in keeping the bus from plunging over the side. To make matters even worse, the luggage racks inside the bus failed and prevented passengers from exiting and impeded the rescue of the injured.

The most significant recommendations coming from the NTSB were to:

the Federal Highway Administration by increasing the requirements for bridge railings and repair of older bridges, and

the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which was asked to impose a requirement that all new motorcoaches over 10,000 pounds have tire pressure monitoring systems, and develop performance standards for the luggage racks. In addition, the NTSB asked NHTSA once again to develop requirements for passenger safety restraints, including restraints for children, on all new buses.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Sandy Grinnell