It is a problem we have all witnessed: careless and inconsiderate behavior on the road is almost as widespread as cars themselves. But the behaviors that sometimes only amount to minor annoyances for other drivers in the middle of Montana can have devastating consequences when they cause a crash on Pennsylvania’s well-traveled roads. A variety of bad habits contribute to car accident risk for commuters and other drivers, especially in more populous states, where more vehicles on the road equals more concentrated danger.
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Pennsylvania Gas Explosion Points to Danger of Aging Natural Gas Lines
In the United States, a network consisting of 1.8 million miles of pipelines delivers natural gas directly to consumers. Homes and businesses rely on this clean-burning and convenient fuel source every day for heating, cooking, and even power generation.
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Pennsylvania Motorcycle Fatalities Rise While National Fatalities Drop
A recent state-by-state survey by the Governors Highway Safety Association found that motorcycle fatalities in the U.S. dropped by at least 2 percent in 2010. This is the second consecutive year of declines after eleven straight years of rising motorcycle fatalities.
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Defective Medical Devices Result in Harm, Death to Patients
With the advances in medicine and technology, Americans expect the highest quality when it comes to medical devices. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
Worldwide, demand for medical devices has exploded, with the United States claiming a large share of the demand as well as the devices. In many countries, testing and regulation standards are overseen by for-profit organizations. However, in America, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tasked with the duty to govern companies who manufacture, package, label or import medical devices sold in the United States.
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Pennsylvania Legislature Considers Highway Safety Issues
Pennsylvania has a long way to go to meet national best practices for highway safety. The risk on the road is real: 1,256 people died in fatal car accidents in 2009.
Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering three bills that supporters believe will make the roads safer for all drivers. One proposal is a bill that would allow municipal police to use radar to catch drivers who speed. Another proposal would allow red light cameras statewide. And, once again, the state is trying to enact a ban on talking or texting on cell phones while driving.
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules on Notice to Employer of a Worker’s Injury
The July 2011 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Gentex Corp. v. Morack addressed the issue of the degree of specificity that an employee needs to use when giving an employer notice of a workplace injury. The court ruled that an employee can meet the statutory requirement of notice to an employer of a workplace injury even if the notice of the injury occurs over time through a series of communications. This form of notice is acceptable when the employee is not immediately aware of the nature of the injury or is uncertain that the injury is work-related. This case illustrates the difference between the workers’ compensation system and a personal injury lawsuit in compensating those who are injured.
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Pennsylvania Patients Participate in DePuy Hip Implant Litigation
Hip replacement surgery was supposed to offer a relief from pain and restore the ability for someone to lead an active life. Instead, for many hip implant patients, it has only lead to more pain. For some people, it has even caused severe illnesses when metal from the failing implant gets into the bloodstream.
On October 4, 2011, NBC Nightly News broadcast a report on the early failure of metal-on-metal hip implants. The report called it one of the nation’s largest medical device failures ever. That failure has in turn lead to significant product liability litigation.
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How Much Is an Apology Worth?
Everyone makes mistakes, but when a mistake results in the death of a newborn baby, an apology may not be enough. In Philadelphia, a young couple filed suit against a local area hospital for just that, the death of their newborn. Shortly after being born severely premature, the child died in a neonatal care unit. The child’s path of recovery was risky from the beginning, but the death was nevertheless preventable.
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State Reps Hope to Help Injured Students Through “Ashley’s Law”
Pennsylvania State Representatives are proposing a bill, called “Ashley’s Law” that would abolish the current law capping the amount of money a school district can pay toward a defendant. The law is named for Ashley Zauflik, a Pennsbury High School student, who was severely injured when an out of control school bus struck and ran over her at Falls High School. Because of the accident, Ashley lost one leg above the knee and suffered a crushed pelvis.
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The Rising Trend of Mediation Has Both Benefits and Drawbacks
Mediation is an alternative way of settling a legal dispute without using the court system. A recent uptrend in the use of mediation has caused a noticeable decline in civil lawsuits across the state of Pennsylvania. In 2010, people in Pennsylvania filed 140,764 civil cases, which was a 21 percent decline from 2006.
There has been steady growth in mediation of medical malpractice cases in Pennsylvania because physicians want to try to control their liability exposure to patients.
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