Florida Personal Injury Lawyers
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Last week, a plane travelling from Fort Pierce to Knoxville, Tennessee when their small plane experienced mechanical failure and crashed into a Palm Coast house before bursting into flames. The plane attempted to land at a central Florida airport but was unable to make it. The pilot, Michael Anders, told air-traffic controllers that the plane had been smoking and vibrating, while dealing with oil pressure and bad weather problems right before the crash.

Florida Highway Patrol has identified the three victims of the crash as pilot Michael Anders, Duane Shaw and Charissee Peoples. Controllers were trying to “use a surveillance approach to guide the plane into the Flagler County Airport,” but Anders warned the controllers that the plane was going to drop quickly. Moments later, the plane fell.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board were at the site of the crash the day after to investigate the matter. The crash “produced an intense heat fire that consumed a lot of the wreckage.” Investigators plan to send the plane’s engine to the manufacturer for closer analysis.

3 victims ID’d after plane crashes into Fla. home, www.miamiherald.com January 05, 2013

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A Hialeah woman is now dead after the boat she was riding crashed into a concrete piling underneath the MacArthur Causeway. Thirty-five year old Janette Africano and her boyfriend were spending the day out on the water in an 18-foot read and white boat when a cruise ship entered their path near the MacArthur causeway. When the cruise ship was making a turn in front of them, the couple decided to turn around.

As the couple turned around, the currents near the bridge became rougher and the couple drifted toward the pilings. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission spokesman stated that they believe Africano may have stood up to prevent the boat from colliding into the pilings. Regardless the boat “violently slammed into the piling, fatally injuring her.” Africano suffered severe blunt trauma to the head and she later died at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission spokesman stated that the accident is “considered ‘unusual’ because it involves a single boat and neither excessive speed or alcohol appear to be a factor.'” No charges have been filed as of yet but investigators are “looking at every possible cause, including mechanical failure and the experience of the driver.”

Investigators to determine cause of fatal MacArthur Causeway boating accident, www.miamiherald.com January 13, 2013.

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Seven people were injured after a crane collapsed at a construction side near the East River in New York City last Wednesday. Of the seven injured, three victims needed to be extracted from beneath the fallen machinery. They suffered a range of injuries, including several broken bones, but none suffered from life-threatening injuries.

With popping cables and snapping metal, the crane toppled over around 2:30 in the afternoon. One witness stated, “Once that snap came, that was it. I just heard guys yelling, “Run, run!” Another witness noted, “I saw the cable whipping toward the deck…You could just hear it buckling.” The impact shook the scaffold where the witness was standing, while the crane cut down the framework of the building.

Engineers are investigating the cause of the crash, which happened at the construction site for a new twenty-five story apartment building. The building, being by residential and commercial real estate developer and property management company, TF Cornerstone, is in shambles. The crane was leased by subcontractor New York Crane and Equipment Corporation.

Cranes have been a concern for many New York City construction sites even since two giant rights collapsed months apart in Manhattan in 2008 and killed nine people. New York Crane owned one of the cranes involved in the 2008 accidents as well. The accidents led to new safety measures, including the hiring of more inspectors and the expansion of training requirements and inspection checklists.

NYC crane collapses at construction site; 7 hurt, www.miamiherald.com January 09, 2013.

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Last October, a parking structure collapsed on the Miami Dade College’s Doral campus, killing four workers. One worker, Samuel Perez, was trapped underneath the rubble in the garage for almost seventeen hours before rescuers were able to get to him. A rescue team was forced to amputate his leg in order to get him out of the rubble. Perez died three hours later at a Miami hospital.

His widow, Migdalia Lopez, filed a wrongful death suit against five major construction companies in charge of the project. The suit alleges that the companies’ negligence led to Perez’s death, accuses the companies of rushing the project and asserts that the contractors did not comply with minimum safety requirements. The companies in the suit include general contractor Ajax Building Corporation, Inc., management company M.A.R. Contracting, Inc., engineering and inspection company MEP Structural Engineering and Inspections, engineering company Bliss & Nyitray, Inc. and architecture firm Haryard Jolly, Inc. The United States Occupations Safety and Health Administration is currently investigating the cause of the collapse.

The collapse also killed Carlos Hurtado de Mendoza, Jose Calderon, and Robert Budhoo, whose family has also filed suit. Two days prior to the crash, a crane had crashed against one of the columns of the structure; after an investigation, construction work commenced. According to Lopez’s lawsuit, the work should not have continued. Her attorney states, “When we are talking about this type of tonnage and this type of error, which was reckless, there is going to be a loss of lives and serious injuries.” Perez was located inside a cement truck when the crash occurred. Prior to his death, Perez worked in construction for twenty years and was the family’s primary breadwinner.

Family of worker killed in MDC garage collapse has filed suit against contractors, www.miamiherald.com December 03, 2012.

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A young Kentucky boy had his nose reattached this week after he was mauled in a pit bull attack. Ten-year-old Matthew Weaver was visiting a friend’s home and playing in the yard with two others and the dog, before he was attacked. The play made the dog rowdy, so the dog’s owner brought the children and the dog into the home. While sitting on the couch next to the dog, Matthew was staring at the animal, when the pit bull lunged at him, bit off his nose and swallowed it. Matthew suffered other small wounds, including a split lip and a small puncture wound on his forehead.

Matthew was taken to Kosair Children’s Hospital for surgery, while the dog, which had no prior history of violence, was euthanized. Matthew’s nose was recovered from the dog’s stomach and doctors were able to reattach it. Matthew’s great uncle stated that the reattached nose “looks as good as you can possibly imagine after something like that.” Doctors anticipate that the reattachment surgery will be a success, but must wait a few days to be sure. Police stated that Matthew is handling the attack as best as possible and is recovering well at the Children’s Hospital.

Ky. boy recovering after pit bull bites off nose, www.palmbeachpost.com January 11, 2013

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Earlier today, a commuter bus headed into New York City collided with a mini school bus. Daniel Jean-Pierre, a driver for Academy Bus Lines, was carrying roughly thirty people into the City when he rear-ended the school bus, which then flipped over. The Academy Bus then veered off the roadway and struck both a telephone pole and a tree. The driver of the Academy bus suffered severe leg injuries and was take to a local hospital for surgery. Fortunately, at the time of the accident there were no children on the school bus.

At least seventeen people were injured aboard the Academy bus, with two currently in critical condition at local hospitals. The other fifteen passengers were taken to local hospitals and are in stable condition. When the bus crashed into the tress, the tree caved, “shattering its windshield and pinning the drivers leg, while a large branch protruded from the vehicle’s roof.” The school bus has slowed down to make a right hand turn to pick up students from an apartment complex when the Academy bus hit it from behind. The bus flipped onto its side, “atop a fenced-off backup power supply station.” The school bus driver and an aide aboard the bus were able to escape via a roof hatch.

NYC-bound commuter bus, school bus, crash in NJ, www.miamiherald.com January 10, 2013

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Four sisters, each having suffered from breast cancer, settled a lawsuit this week with drug manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co. after the sisters claimed a drug manufactured by Eli Lilly that their mother took during their pregnancy caused their breast cancer. Over fifty women, including the sisters, have filed claims in Massachusetts against a number of drug manufacturers that made or marketed the synthetic drug diethylstilbestrol, also know as DES. DES was prescribed to millions of women during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, believed to prevent miscarriages, premature births and other pregnancy problems. At the time, DES was recommended for women who had suffered multiple miscarriages. The drug was taken off the market in the 1970’s after researchers linked it to a rare vaginal cancer in women whose mothers were prescribed the drug. It was later discovered that the drug did not prevent miscarriages. The sisters, who all developed breast cancer in their 40s, claim their mother took DES while pregnant with them, but not their sister, who has not developed breast cancer.

The sisters’ case went to trial earlier this week, but the settlement came just two after it began. In opening statements, the attorney for the sisters stated “Eli Lilly failed to test the drug’s effect on fetuses before promoting it as a way to prevent miscarriages.” Eli Lilly’s attorney contended that there was no evidence linking the drug to breast cancer. Further, he argued, if their mother took DES, there was no evidence that Eli Lilly had manufactured the drug their mother was prescribed.

The settlement between the sisters and Eli Lilly could indicate that more settlements are to come. “When one settles a case, they recognize that they can lose it. The reason they can lose it is because there is enough evidence for the plaintiffs to be able to win it,” stated one Massachusetts malpractice attorney. Other women who have filed suit against Eli Lilly revere this settlement as a “huge victory for DES daughters.” Another plaintiff against Eli Lilly stated, “The bottom line is that this company put out a drug without test, without knowing the consequences of the drug.” Thousands of other lawsuits were filed, alleging the links between “DES and vaginal cancer, cervical cancer and fertility problems;” most of those cases have been settled as well.

Eli Lilly settles Mass. pregnancy drug-cancer case, www.miamiherald.com January 09, 2013

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An eastern Oregon bus crash killed nine passengers on December 30, 2012 and now two of the survivors have filed lawsuits against the bus company. The lawsuit alleges that the driver was tired, did not head to warnings and was going too fast on a road with patches of snow and ice. The two survivors, two teenage South Korean exchange students, were among thirty-eight total people injured in the crash.

The lawsuit against Mi Joo Tour & Travel states that the bus driver “doubled” as a tour guide and had worked over 90 hours without any relief in the first eight days of the nine-day tour package. Federal regulations limit driver to a maximum of 70 hours in an eight-day span. On the last day of the tour, the bus departed a hotel in Boise, Idaho and traveled about 200 miles over the course of three hours before crashing through a guardrail and falling 200 feet down an embankment. Police have yet to determine the cause of the crash, but the crash occurred on a cold, overcast morning on a flat and straight stretch of the road. The posted speed limit for trucks and buses was 55 miles per hour, but police are still unsure of how fast the bus was travelling. The attorney for the exchange students stated that the driver “was going ‘just too fast
for the ice and the snow and the fog’ and not necessarily exceeding the speed limit.”

The driver of the bus, Haeng-Kyu Hwang, was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. One of the two exchange students was knocked unconscious during the crash and both were hospitalized for eight hours after the accident. The lawsuit has not listed a damage amount as the attorney stated that the extent of the injuries remains unknown at this time.

2 survivors of Oregon bus crash file, www.miamiherald.com January 07, 2013

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The Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation Inc. and several affiliated organizations filed for bankruptcy protection this week after several reports of abuse and neglect. The Institute, once a well-known brain injury institute, was facing several lawsuits for putting patients’ welfare in jeopardy. The Institute has not paid any insurance companies, law firms, medical supply companies, utility bills or taxes for the past several months.

Last August, Florida officials ordered the Institute to remove 50 patients from the Wauchula, Florida location to other facilities. The Institute’s financial problems and mismanagement came to light after an investigation revealed a “history of violence.” Patients were subjected to brutal beatings from caregivers, were encouraged to fight with one another while their caregivers looked on and male patients were encouraged to fondle female employees.

Read more about the abuse occurring at the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation by clicking here.

Florida Brain-Injury Facility Files for Bankruptcy, www.miamiherald.com January 07, 2013

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A three-car collision on Wednesday night left three dead and one in critical condition. Around 10:00 p.m., a Lexus SUV and its four passengers careened through a fence and drove into a roadside lake off of I-95. The driver, Nadege Theodore and sixteen-year-old Guivens Daverman were pulled from the water and transported to local hospitals, where they both later died. One survivor, twenty-year-old Sandalie Jean-Baptiste is currently on life support at Broward Health North. In the dark of night, rescuers were unable to find the fourth passenger. When they returned in the morning light, they were able to find the fifteen-year-old girl’s body in the lake and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The passengers were on their way home from the Town Center at Boca Raton mall when they collided with a Hyundai Sonata and a Nissan Altima. Neither of the other cars suffered major damage. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

This part of I-95 has been problematic and rescuers have had difficulties locating victims in the past. In July, it took rescuers three days to local a crash victim in a canal that runs parallel to the northbound lanes of I-95. The vehicle, which had veered off the road, drove through a chain-link fence and crashed into the water. The driver was taken to the hospital and told rescuers that there had been a passenger in his car, but the passenger was not located until three days later, when he was found about 200 feet south of the crash site.

Three dead, fourth person critical after SUV careens into lake off of I-95, www.sunsentinel.com January 03, 2013

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