In 2004, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a study on vehicle-related road debris. The study revealed that it caused 25,000 accidents – and nearly 100 deaths – each year.
Here it is almost four years later, and I am still seeing tragic accidents that have occurred because there was junk in the road.
The most common way that road debris causes an accident is by forcing another driver to lose control of their vehicle, either by trying to avoid the debris or by actually striking it. Recently, I had a case in which the police had stopped the traffic to clean up the debris, when this family was struck from the back by another vehicle who did not see the road block.
Finding the responsible party can be tricky. In some cases, the government may be at fault but in others, the debris may have been cause by a passing vehicle and hard to pin down without witnesses. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney may be neccessary if there were injuries caused by the accident.
Here are some things drivers should do to avoid an accident:
- Secure your load and re-check while driving
- If you’re behind a vehicle that’s suspicious looking, drop back
- Move into different lane
- Look around you to see what your options are in case the worst happens
- Sometimes, it’s better to drive over small debris than swerve to avoid it, which can cause you to lose control of car.
Guidant Corporation executives knew of potentially deadly problems with their defibrillators six months before sharing those concerns with the public. In a state court trial proceeding, documents, including a slide-presentation dated October 20, 2004 warned that up to 55 Guidant defibrillators could short circuit by November 2005. Despite company’s knowledge of the problem, Guidant did not notify the public and recall devices until June 17, 2005. The New York Times estimated that more than seven people have died because of faulty Guidant defibrillators.
When an animal is tied up for extended periods of time, it becomes much more aggressive. The reason is simple. Every animal has a fight-or-flight instinct that regulates fear. The restriction to a dog’s movements and interaction with humans makes it maladjusted and insecure. And if a dog should feel threatened, it will have no recourse except to fight.
Most Florida counties have made it difficult to leave a dog tied up for long periods of time. But it is not a state-wide law. Dog bites can be very serious injuries, and the law can be difficult to navigate. It is advisable to hire an attorney to help sort out your legal rights.
A dog bite claim usually involves the insurance provider on the home or property. Things can be much more complex, however, if the situation differs from the usual circumstances in which dog bites occur.
With the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) rating dog bites as the number one health risk for children under 12, it’s no surprise that the legislation is difficult to follow. But the resources are extensive and helpful.
Five, provide mechanisms for reporting medical conditions. Already the Federal government requires special physicals every two years for commercial drivers. Much has been done to keep drivers from evading these conditions. So much for the honor system.
It happened just before 3 in the morning. A family traveling from Disney to a family reunion were just 10 minutes from their destination when a drunk driver going the wrong direction on the interstate slammed head on into the unsuspecting vehicle. No one in either car was wearing a seat belt. The drunk driver and the mother of the other family were killed instantly.
But granting that in our society an adult woman has the freedom to drink to impairment, she should have refrained from driving. As it was very late, or very early depending on your preference, it may have been unlikely that the woman would have waited another two hours or more to sober up. The thing to do is hand the keys over to someone better suited for the responsibility, or call a taxi.
Responding to backlash from the Vioxx disaster of 2004, the FDA has pledged to bar committee appointees with financial biased from voting on approval of drugs. The conflict of interests when screening members has up to this point been a non-issue. One reason, the industry is a small group and very interconnected. It is difficult in this industry to find someone without ties to the private sector. It is where the money is.
Among the new standards, appointees with more than 50,000$ invested in companies affected by the outcome will not be allowed to vote.
Good. That’s a lot of money. Of course, if a committee member has 45,000$ invested and there is nothing else objectionable according to the FDA regarding that person’s qualification, voting will be allowed. You know, that is a lot of money too. The FDA hopes to post its decisions and the reasons for waiving this restriction every time they do it. Good luck. From what I hear, you guys are pretty bogged down.
This is different than the proposal put forward a year ago, when FDA officials with financial conflicts up to 50,000$ would be allowed to attend the meetings, but not to vote.
Other disqualifications including working on the clinical trial of the drug, or working on a rival product…The more I learn about this the more I’m shocked that it has been operating in such fashion for so long. For example, the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen found that 73% of the committee meetings (from 2001-2004) had at least one member with a conflict of interest. These conflicts could be anything from receiving a grant for their own research or consultation fees exceeding 100,000$!
With that many zeros, I’m tempted to say “consultation fees” instead of consultation fees.
Four, enhance oversight and enforcement of invalid certificates. Apparently it can be very difficult to determine the validity of a medical certificate because of “the absence of procedures or information sources to validate the medical certificate”. We are not talking about Big Brother here. Most of this watchdog effort occurs on routine stops and checkpoints already in place and obeyed by the trucking industry. What the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is being asked to do is provide information to law enforcement officials and set up a way to confirm the validity of a certificate. You know, there’s this great new invention called the Internet…
