57-year-old James Mitchell was killed when a fire trapped him inside a burning boarding house in Columbus Junction, Iowa. A Louisa County, Iowa jury has now awarded $750,000 in damages to Mitchell’s family.
The NTSB is reporting that the commuter train that crashed in the Bronx on November 29 was going about 82 miles per hour as it entered a 30-mph curve. At least four passengers died and at least 67 were injured after the train derailed about 10 miles north of Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal.
Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll, a recent report in the New York Times, suggests that accidental shootings probably occur about twice as often as records indicate. The Times report begins by summarizing just a few of last year’s tragedies.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago recently heard arguments in a personal injury case involving a southern Illinois grain elevator explosion that led to a $180 million jury verdict against ConAgra Food Inc. and West Side Salvage. The two companies are asking the court of appeals to reverse the judgment or at least…
In June 2011, Jonathan Palacios spent an evening drinking at Cabaret and Pocket’s Billiards, two bars in Corpus Christi, Texas. Later, while driving the wrong way on North Padre Island Drive, Palacios crashed head-on into another car driven by 18-year-old Bryant Hernandez. The accident killed both drivers.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that seamen may recover punitive damages for their employer’s willful and wanton breach of the general maritime law duty to provide a seaworthy vessel. McBride v. Estis Well Service, L.L.C., No. 12–30714 (5 th Cir. October 2, 2013). The case involved Estis Rig 23, a barge supporting…
According to an annual report recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”), fatalities in the oil and gas industry increased by 23% in 2012. The total number of workers killed in this industry reached a new high in 2012 even though general worker accident rates actually decreased in 2012. The BLS reported an…
The parents of a young girl who died suddenly at a Southwest Houston day care center in February have filed a lawsuit against the day care center where their daughter died. The lawsuit alleges that three-year-old Rayne Stanley was left alone in a bathroom at the Kidizone Academy day care even though she suffered from…
A Texas woman, Rosy Esparza, fell to her death from the Texas Giant roller coaster at Six Flags over Texas near Dallas on July 19th. Witnesses claim that the woman complained about the operation of her safety bar. She apparently was thrown from the ride when the coaster took a sharp turn. The Texas Giant…
Gene Marie Gann was an 86-year-old resident of Three Fountains Apartments in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She would take a short flight of stairs every Friday on the way to her appointment at a salon in the same building. The hand railing stopped just short of the top step. The too-short railing failed to comply with…
A preliminary investigation of Sunday’s Asiana Airlines plane crash in San Francisco has revealed that pilot error may have been responsible for the accident that left two passengers dead and dozens more injured. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said that the South Korean Boeing 777 jet was traveling too slow as it…
Ten-year-old Luke Bresette was killed and three other members of his family were injured in as they were returning home from a spring break vacation. A large cabinet with screens listing arrivals and departures in a new terminal at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport fell on them. The sign weighed between 300 and 400 pounds.