Virginia Personal Injury Blog

Children Hurt at Daycare Centers

John Cooper — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:22:31 GMT

With more Americans having to have two incomes to make ends meet, more and more people have to put their kids in daycare from early ages. Parents often assume that they are entrusting their child's safety to a responsible and caring adult, but this is sadly not always the case. Stories of children dying from neglect at daycares, or suffering from physical or sexual abuse at the hands of their work day guardians are becoming more and more frequent.

The story of a 22 year-old Virginia woman who is accused of "striking, slapping and sitting on" an 18 month-old baby at the daycare center where she worked is no exception.

According to a local news source:

Ila Howell of Suffolk, who worked at the First Baptist day care center on Main Street, is accused of striking, slapping and sitting on the child who was in the care of the center, said Debbie George, police spokeswoman. The incidents reportedly occurred in the last two weeks of October.

Police issued warrants for Howell's arrest Friday but could not locate her, George said. She turned herself in to police Saturday morning.

Howell faces three counts of misdemeanor simple assault. She was released from Western Tidewater Regional Jail on $1,000 bond.

This is a woman who was hired to be a caregiver to young children. The fact that she exhibited this type of aggressive behavior while on the job is inexcusable. What makes this story worse is that this daycare had already been investigated for inappropriate forms of discipline, but the complaints were thrown out.

We need to know that our children are safe, even when we cannot personally see to their safety. This is the responsibility of daycare owners and employees, and anyone who would shirk such an important responsibility should not be in the daycare business.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Ethical Law Firm Marketing?

Michael Phelan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:51:49 GMT

The endless quest to improve search engine optimization may have landed one Wisconsin personal injury firm in hot water. Wisconsin’s largest personal injury law firm, Habush, Habush & Rottier, is suing another firm, Cannon & Dunphy alleging that Cannon has been hijacking Habush's name in Google searches. The suit claims that Cannon is paying Google and other search engines to direct people who search for Habush to the Cannon website. The suit says consumers could be confused when their search for the Habush law firm turns up a competitor. "Defendants' obtaining and using the keywords 'Habush' and 'Rottier' is an intentional and illegal effort to trade on the hard-earned names, personal reputations and good will" of the plaintiffs, the suit claims.

If these allegations are true, I hope the Habush firm prevails. Aside from the privacy right and consumer law implications, the alleged hijacking seems, in my opinion, to be plain wrong and unethical. I cannot imaging making the decision to try or allowing a SEO marketing company I hired to try to divert consumers searching for a competitor firm to my website. Aside from the obvious appearance of an impropriety, and the concern about false and misleading information, the activity is just wrong. I'm sure most lawyers know this and would never undertake such Rambo marketing tactics.

In fairness to Cannon & Dunphy, its name partner Patrick Dunphy said he thought a marketer made arrangements with search engines, and that his firm never requested that Habush and Rottier keywords bring up his firm in search results. On the other hand, Dunphy does not concede that there is anything wrong with the alleged diversionary tactic. If Dunphy's professed ingorance is true, I believe C &D should have instructed their marketer to stop the practice as soon as they learned about it.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Phelan

Feds link toxic Chinese drywall to corrosion in homes

Emily Mapp Brannon — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:06:00 GMT

Federal officials have found a “strong association” between toxic Chinese drywall and corrosion of electrical systems in homes, according to The New York Times.

The conclusion is one of the few public statements from the federal government that the drywall is at fault for problems in thousands of homes.

The toxic drywall issue is important to many Hampton Roads homeowners, where toxic drywall has forced countless people from their homes.

My colleague John Cooper wrote recently about a number of area homeowners who traveled to Richmond to lobby lawmakers and regulators on the issue.

“The real suspect can now be confirmed,” Jack McCarthy, president of Environmental Health & Engineering, told The Times. His company studied 51 homes for the government. “There’s a strong association with the drywall and hydrogen sulfide and the corrosion that we see in these homes. Temperature, humidity and air exchange rates are contributing factors.”

Homeowners in the South are most at risk, the study found. High temperatures, high humidity, and confined air circulation in well-insulated air-conditioned homes all bring the toxic hydrogen sulfide out of the drywall.

The finding comes from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency that has been the locus of complaints from homeowners. More than 2,000 homeowners have complained to the federal government about the drywall.

The commission declined to link the toxic drywall to the health problems that many homeowners have suffered. However, it is studying how to get homeowners financial aid. It has also asked the Internal Revenue Service to permit deductions of drywall-replacement costs as a casualty loss.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers.

(MM)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Emily Mapp Brannon

Man sentenced in Williamsburg DUI crash

Emily Mapp Brannon — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:52:00 GMT

Mark Schneider will spend a year in jail after drunkenly hitting pedestrian Irene Carson last Christmas Eve, a Williamsburg-James City County circuit court judge ruled this week.

Schneider, 39, struck Carson, 72, as Carson crossed Francis Street East in Williamsburg, the Daily Press reported. Francis Street runs along the southern edge of what is generally considered historic Williamsburg.

"You are an example to the community of what can happen when you drink to excess and drive," Judge Samuel Powell of Williamsburg-James City County said to Schneider during the sentencing hearing.

Carson, of Chadds Ford, Pa., was apparently not at the hearing. But the Daily Press said she suffered multiple skull fractures in the crash and will likely never recover fully.

Schneider works as a historic interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg; a manager there testified at the sentencing hearing that Schneider can keep his job.

Schneider can serve his sentence at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail on weekends; he is to report for his first day on Dec. 24, a year after the crash.

Schneider had a blood-alcohol content of .19, meaning almost two-tenths of one percent of his blood was alcohol. In Virginia, .08 is the legal minimum for intoxication, though drivers can be arrested with lesser levels if they are driving in a manner a police officers thinks indicates intoxication.

Schneider pleaded guilt to a charge of felony assault, the Daily Press said. A charge of maiming while driving was not ruled upon by the judge, who can dismiss it later if he chooses.

(MM)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Emily Mapp Brannon

Seat Belt Enforcement a Priority for Virginia (VA) State Police This Thanksgiving

Jim Lewis — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:05:00 GMT

Seventy-five Virginia (VA) State Police officers will be patrolling the commonwealth's highways this Thanksgiving. Near the top of the list they will have for stopping motorists traveling to and from holiday meals, Black Friday sales and is failing to wear seat belts.

Statistics released to Virginia newspapers on Nov. 24 indicate that 12 motorists died in accidents on Virginia roads during Thanksgiving 2008. Nine of those people were not wearing seat belts.

Virginia's seat belt laws cover drivers and all front-seat passengers. Also, children younger than seven years of age must be properly restrained in age- and size-appropriate child safety seats in the back seat of a moving car, truck or van.

Locally, the Daily Press is reporting the Newport News police will be out in force between Wednesday and Monday and also that AAA is projecting that 970,000 cars will hit the road throughout Virginia this long weekend.

Drive safe, buckle up and have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, whose attorneys work out of offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.

EJL

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Safety concerns face Washington, D.C. Metro expansion to Dulles in northern Virginia

Jim Lewis — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:15:48 GMT

Serious safety issues have emerged concerning the Washington, D.C. Metro rail line currently being extended to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Concerns center around underground foundations built for the line 32 years ago – built and then forgotten, The Washington Post reported in a recent special investigation.

Builders and local government officials now want to use the rediscovered foundations – called footings – without testing all of them to make sure they can carry the load of a bridge and trains on the bridge.

"We have genuine, factual concerns about their engineering plan," Peter Rogoff, head of the Federal Transit Administration, told The Post.

Metro has had a mixed safety record in recent years. Nine people died in a June accident that was the worst in Metro history, an accident written about by my colleague Rick Shapiro.

The contractor building the Silver Line, Dulles Transit Partners, has tested two of the 11 foundations and plans to test seven more. That will leave two foundations untested.

The bridge, when built, will take the Silver Line over a tangle of roads: The Dulles Toll Road, Interstate 66, and the Metro’s Orange Line. The 23-mile line is expected to cost $5.2 billion.

The original construction drawings and associated paperwork for the foundations – including “as-built” drawings that show what was actually constructed – have been lost, the newspaper said.

The foundations themselves had been buried and forgotten until 2007, when workers conducting soil bore tests rediscovered them.

Engineers on the project decided to use the old foundations – along with additional new foundations – for the bridge.

Federal officials have strongly encouraged the contractor to test all the foundations. However, the matter still remains unresolved – and construction on the line continues.

(MM)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Plane piloted by Virginia Beach (VA) man was low on fuel, investigators say

Jim Lewis — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:10:25 GMT

Mado McDonald, a Virginia Beach (VA) small-plane pilot whose plane crashed in South Carolina earlier this month, told controllers he was low on fuel, The Associated Press reported.

McDonald had flown the Raytheon Beechcraft King Air 200 twin-engine aircraft from Norfolk International Airport to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, S.C. for maintenance at Stevens Aviation.

The crash came the morning on Nov. 9 during what was described by the Spartanburg Herald-Journal as a “service ride,” not unlike taking a car for a drive with a mechanic after a repair.

Investigators found just half a gallon of fuel in the plane’s tanks after the crash, the Herald-Journal said, and eyewitnesses saw the engines “feathering” – going so slow the propeller blades were visible – just before the crash.

The plane crashed onto a highway just short of the airport grounds. Stevens Aviation technicians Ed Wilk and Derrick Holliday have both been released from the hospital, The AP reported, while McDonald remains in good condition at Greenville Memorial Hospital.

The plane is registered to MDTR Holdings LLC of Virginia Beach, The Virginian-Pilot reported, a corporation that shared the same address with the ECPI College of Technology.

The latest revelations come as part of a preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. The technicians told the NTSB that the plane took off with just 400 pounds of fuel in it, according to the AP report. The plane crashed just 19 minutes later.

No one on the ground was injured.

(MM)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Toyota Recalling 110,000 Tundra's in 20 States

Greg Webb — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:04:02 GMT

Toyota, in yet another in what seems to be a stream of recent recalls, is recalling 110,000 Tundra pick-up trucks from the model years 2000-2003. The recall is attempting to address excessive rust on the trucks' frames, and the government (NHTSA) is urging owners to remove the spare tire from the vehicle because it is concerned the tire could drop into the roadway, which could cause hazards for motorists.

The corrosion can also cause problems with the rear brake lines, leading to brake system failures, according to NHTSA. This is, of course, a potential safety issue for motorists as well.

The recall is for 20 "cold weather" states, including Virginia and the District of Columbia. Other states include: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Owners are asked to take their trucks to a local dealer who will repair the damaged portion of the frame, or apply a rust resistant compound to the affected area, depending upon the severity of the corrosion.

This is the second major recall by Toyota in the past several months, with the other affecting Toyota and Lexus models because of safety issues concerning floor mats.

I am afraid Toyota is slipping some. I own a Toyota that has 70,000 miles on it, and I have had to have more work done to it than other Toyotas I have owned. I also think Toyota got caught up in the big truck, SUV, craze that overcame many other manufacturers, and got away some from what it did best: building high quality, high value, economical cars. I suspect, however, that Toyota will right the ship and get back on track at some point in the near future.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb

Woman Gets $8 Million Verdict from Richmond, Virginia (VA) Jury

John Cooper — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:47:13 GMT

A Richmond Circuit Court jury has returned an $8 million verdict to a Richmond woman in a law suit against the Greater Richmond Transit Bus (GRTC), the company that provides mass transit throughout the Richmond, Virginia (VA) area.

The accident happened within sight of the Richmond, Virginia (VA) courthouse. The woman was walking to the Library of Virginia, where she is a research Liberian, when she was struck by a GRTC bus on Marshall Street. The accident caused her to suffer fractures in her right shoulder blade, back, right sacrum, and left hip socket.

Thankfully, she mostly recovered from her injuries; however, she incurred $180,000 in medical bills. The woman also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. According to her lawyer, the extent of her mental anguish was so severe that she was advised by a counselor and a psychotherapist not to be present in the courtroom during the trial. She will require $400,000 for future medical treatment.

The bus company admitted liability for the woman’s injuries and the jury returned an $8 million dollar verdict.

The lawyers at Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton would like to congratulate Jason Konvicka on obtaining a strong result for his client. It was truly a job well done.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

NFL Concussion Policy: a Very Slow Work in Progress

Michael Phelan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:36:43 GMT

With every new round of concussions in the NFL, it seems to me that the press and the NFL react as if dangerous concussions were a new issue in football. The multitude of stories about the brain damage, alzheimers-like symptoms, memory loss, depression, and suicidal behavior of former players like Andre Waters, Mike Webster, Tim Johnson and others get swept under the carpet as the NFL takes its predictable stance of delay and double talk on the issue of brain injuries. And, with the exception of the New York Times series on brain injuries in the NFL, the sports media typically looks the other way. Until now. Sports Illustrated's Ann Killion has written a piece in her Inside the NFL column accusing Commissioner Roger Goodell of business as usual just as he announced a new policy requiring teams to consult with independent neurologists following a concussion to one of the teams' players.

Ms. Killion cites the cases of the two quarterbacks who played in last year's Super Bowl. The Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger left Sunday's game against the Chiefs after taking a blow to the head and suffering concussion-like syndromes. But by Monday reports out of Pittsburgh described the Super Bowl winning quarterback as "fine" and capable of playing this week. Arizona's Kurt Warner also left his game against St. Louis after his head slammed into the turf. But the Cardinals are "optimistic" Warner will play this week. This, despite the fact that Big Ben suffered a serious head injury in a motorcycle crash and Warner suffered multiple concussions in the past. Ms. Killion concludes that "[t]he culture of denial and quick turnarounds runs too deep in the NFL to be changed by a commissioner's mandate."

This SI column follows a recent article in The New Yorker, in which Ira Casson, who co-chairs an NFL committee on brain injury, said he isn't sure what the solution is. "No one has any suggestions -- assuming that you aren't saying no more football, because let's be honest, that's not going to happen," he said.

Commissioner Goodell's new policy addresses an issue that has long been part of the problem in the NFL: the onflict of interest posed by leaving the decision about when a concussed player should return to full contact to a doctor employed by the team and the league.

Ms. Killion points out that the culture of denial trickles down to college, high school and youth football. Every day, coaches and administrators struggle with medical issues far beyond their capability. At Cal, Jahvid Best has been sidelined for two weeks after suffering a horrific end zone collision and concussion. In Florida, Tim Tebow -- who, in September, was knocked out cold and carted off the field vomiting -- hasn't missed a game (the Gators had a bye the week after Tebow suffered his concussion). But some observers think he hasn't been the same since.

On high school fields around the country, kids are carted off with concussions every week. In New Jersey last year, a junior linebacker was cleared to play after suffering a concussion. He suffered another hit, which ended up killing him. His parents are suing the high school and their doctor.

The violent hits are celebrated. The early returns to the field are deemed courageous. The head traumas of star players are underplayed.

The NFL sets the tone for it all. Commissioner Goodell took a step forward this week. But there's a long way to go.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Phelan