To prevent contamination of local water supplies, several communities downriver from the accident closed the water intake valves drawing river water into local water storage. Because of the reserves already held, the temporary loss of river water access is not believed to be an issue for any of the parishes.
The barge accident occurred during what is typically a busy time on the river -- and on a busy stretch of the Mississippi so close to the river's entry into the Gulf of Mexico.
Media reports indicate that, shortly following the accident, one vessel at a time was being permitted to travel through the restricted stretch of riverway. The Coast Guard reported that the water would be reopened to regular traffic following clean up of all debris related to the collision.
Source: WWL TV, "Collision between barges puts oil in river, slows traffic," Feb. 17, 2012
]]>DMAA is widely touted by its fans for the salutary effects it can help achieve in body builders. Among a rapidly growing legion of critics, though, it is being excoriated for a lengthy laundry list of dangerous side effects.
]]> And deaths associated with its use. Two soldiers who used products containing DMAA recently died from heart attacks during fitness training, and military authorities have also reported cases of liver and kidney failure, seizures, heat injury, muscle breakdown and loss of consciousness.Those stark findings have led to a recall in all military stores of all supplements containing DMAA.
If anything, the DOD is tardy in its response. Major League Baseball has already banned DMAA use, as has the World Anti-Doping agency and the governments of Canada and New Zealand.
The FDA may yet take action, although the agency has not tipped its hand on how it might proceed. DMAA is marketed as a flower extract and a natural product, which has allowed its makers to circumvent rigorous FDA-mandated testing and review as a prerequisite to approval.
Many safety experts call the "natural" claim bogus, with one saying it is "all based on a house of cards that is completely false and erroneous."
DMAA continues to be widely sold in stores domestically.
Any person who has used a DMAA product and suffered any adverse side effect associated with its use may have a claim and be entitled to a legal remedy. An experienced drug liability attorney can answer questions and provide diligent representation.
Source: Stars and Stripes, "Military probe adding to skepticism of DMAA," Jan. 29, 2012
]]>Sometimes, unfortunately, vigilance is not enough, when the mistake of a driver directly and suddenly brings about a multi-car crash. That is what happened on I-10 early last Friday morning about 25 miles west of New Orleans when a Jeep Cherokee traveling in the wrong direction on a westbound lane of the interstate struck another car in a head-on collision.
]]> Both drivers and all the passengers involved in the crash -- five people -- died in the accident. All five of the victims were Louisiana residents. Two of them, both passengers in the struck vehicle, were from Baton Rouge.The fatal accident occurred near LaPlace in St. John Parish. Louisiana State Police troopers were apprised from motorists' phone calls that the Jeep was traveling in the wrong direction, but they were unable to intercept the vehicle prior to the accident.
Immediately following the collision, the driver of an 18-wheeler struck the vehicles and was in turn hit by another vehicle. Luckily, both those drivers sustained only minor injuries.
Troopers believe that the Jeep's driver may have mistakenly entered the interstate -- perhaps from an off-ramp -- rather than having crossed a median. They also note that the accident site occurred at an area with no median and a small shoulder, which would have made it hard for the driver of the struck car to avoid the accident.
Source: WWL TV, "Police: Not much victims' car could have done to avoid wrong-way driver" Maya Rodriguez, Feb. 10, 2012
]]>They're roundabouts, touted by transportation experts as the ideal tool for reducing car accidents and injuries and termed the "next big thing" in American road intersections.
]]> You get an immediate sense of both the confusion and the inevitability associated with roundabouts in Louisiana and the remainder of the country by doing an online search of the term.The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has an Internet Fact Sheet devoted to explanation of what roundabouts are, how they work, and why they contribute to traffic safety. The state's Transportation Research Center also takes up the theme and seeks to calm certain drivers unaccustomed to the circling traffic tools by inclusion of a bullet point entitled "Louisiana drivers can't handle it" in a section prominently titled "Roundabout Myths."
Transportation safety experts flatly state that roundabouts greatly improve road safety, for several reasons. For starters, motorists drive slowly through them, so there is more time to react and avoid a collision if someone does something wrong. Secondly, and owing to the reduced speed, car crashes that do occur are often comparatively minor. Further still, roundabouts eliminate the right-angle crash -- closely associated with fatalities and severe injuries -- that is common at four-way intersections.
Says an environmental engineer and transportation expert: "You may not like them personally, but roundabouts have significantly reduced the probability of a severe accident happening."
Source: Phys Org, "Roundabouts emerging as the ideal intersection between driver safety and efficiency" Renee Meiller, Feb. 2, 2012
]]>The doses are made with 28 pills in each packet, with 21 containing the ingredient needed to prevent pregnancy and seven placebo pills without the active ingredient. The pills are color-coded and placed in packets in a certain order. Physicians tell patients that taking three placebos in a row could destroy the pregnancy protection in the packet.
A Pfizer spokesperson said that the company was alerted to a potential problem in 2011 when a woman reported finding a pink placebo pill out of place in her packet of pills. Pfizer says that the problem was corrected in December and that pharmacists were issued a recall. However, the company did not issue a public recall until last week, when the Food and Drug Administration requested it.
Lo/Ovral is ranked 64th in the United States for birth control sales, with its generic brands -- Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol -- ranked at number 30, according to IMS Health, a national data firm.
Source: CBS News, "Pfizer birth control pill mix-up sparks pregnancy fears" Feb. 2, 2012
]]>Readers of our blog posts might remember the tale of Avandia, a much-hyped and, for several years, wildly popular diabetes drug made and sold by London-based GlaxoSmithKline (Glaxo). That drug was eventually banned in Europe and limited domestically, with regulators citing dangerous side effects associated with its use, chiefly potential blindness, heart attacks and strokes.
]]> A new class of experimental diabetes medications has now been developed by Glaxo competitors Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca. Thos companies sought approval last year to sell their offerings in the United States, but a letter from the FDA late last month squelched those hopes, at least for the time being.As was the case with Avandia, regulators are concerned with risks that they say might outweigh the drugs' benefits. Most often cited are breast and bladder cancer possibilities.
A main ingredient in the pills offered by both companies is called dapagliflozin, .which the companies developed to provide for the excretion of excess blood sugar through patients' urine.
The FDA is not yet sold on the safety of dapagliflozin. Although regulators concede its effectiveness in reducing blood sugar, they want more data on the possible side effects for patients.
More clinical trials might be required. In the meantime, and reflecting optimism, financial analysts are predicting global sales of more than $700 million for dapagliflozin in 2016.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, "Bristol, AstraZeneca diabetes drug fails to win FDA backing" Allison Connolly, Jan. 23, 2012
]]>Car accident experts note that the technology monitors the vehicle's activity through the use of external cameras. These cameras are designed to identify lane markers and use the vehicle's proximity to the markers to identify potentially dangerous trends, such as tendencies that indicate drowsy driving.
]]> If a vehicle starts to veer off the side of the road or into another lane of traffic, the lane-keeping technology will trigger vibrations in the steering wheel aimed at alerting the driver and waking him or her up. If the driver fails to respond -- as may be the case if he or she has fallen asleep at the wheel -- the lane-keeping technology takes over the car's steering mechanisms and forcibly keeps the vehicle on the road.Although the technology is expected to cut down on accidents, it is unclear how effective it will be in hazardous weather conditions or in places where lane markings are not easily identified. For that reason, and because of a lack of research regarding the use of the technology, some traffic safety groups are reserving judgment until more information is gathered.
But either way, it's expected that lane-keeping technology will continue to be improved over the years as automakers strive to produce a fully self-piloting vehicle.
Source: New York Times, "Trying to nudge drowsy drivers" Randall Stross, Jan. 21, 2012
]]>Regarding the latter, the type and variety of maritime mishaps understandably varies widely. Many accidents each year involve individuals and groups of people out fishing, both recreationally and commercially. Others involve Jones Act and seamen's claims. Diving and offshore injuries are commonplace, as are injuries and fatal accidents occurring on drilling rigs.
]]> Barges, too, factor in, with a lawsuit filed recently in federal court serving as a reminder of that.The lawsuit pertains to a deadly accident that occurred in 2009 in Cocodrie, a small fishing village near Houma in Terrebonne Parish. On an evening in May of that year, a boat carrying five oilfield workers slammed into and went beneath a moored barge. All five workers died.
Multiple state court lawsuits were filed following those deaths, including a complaint that the company owning the barge failed to properly light or moor it.
The federal lawsuit names two companies that insured the owner of the boat that hit the barge -- Tarpon Rental Inc. -- as defendants, alleging that they have broken Louisiana law by failing to pay Tarpon on the claims against it.
The complaint states that the insurers "denied coverage under their respective policies and refuse payment of any claims or damages."
No lawsuit relating to the matter -- either state or federal -- has yet been resolved.
Source: Claims Journal, "Another lawsuit in '09 Louisiana boat wreck that killed 5" Jan. 24, 2012
]]>If the changed strategy works, Toyota will convince the courts that it was driver error that caused the crash, which Toyota's strategy team will try to carry over to other cases. However, Toyota previously issued two recalls in 2009 and in 2010 for possible acceleration problems that totaled more than eight million vehicles. Also, the automaker has already settled in at least one other lawsuit for $10 million, after four people died following a crash in California.
Toyota argues that its vehicles routinely have a safety device in place that could have shut down the accelerator, but the victim in the upcoming trial did not have the particular system installed. The case is set to begin in February.
Source: Huffington Post, "Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuit defense revealed: Blame the driver" Sharon Silke Carty, Jan. 13, 2012
]]>As we reported in an earlier blog post (January 3, 2012), that chain-collision car accident took the lives of two people and injured scores more. Emergency responders, law enforcement officials and witnesses say that a combination of factors most immediately brought about the crash, especially bad street lighting and poor visibility owing to fog and smoke.
]]> Now the lawsuits are starting. One of them, filed by an injured New Orleans motorist last week, alleges that multiple parties were lax in their duty to take proactive steps to reduce known dangers and to warn drivers of them prior to the crash. He says that, had they done their jobs, the chain collision likely would never have occurred.The man was in the middle of the accident and driving a pick-up drive that crashed into a truck in front of him. He broke a bone in his foot.
His legal complaint cites negligence on the part of the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans and Pine Island Limited Partnership, which owns marshland adjacent to the interstate that has been burning over a several-month period.
That should have never been the case, the lawsuit alleges. The burning was creating a noxious smell and making people ill and, even more importantly, greatly reducing motorists' vision on the road, reducing it at points to zero visibility. The state and city were well aware of the adverse condition, the complaint states, and failed to provide either proper lighting or warnings concerning the poor visibility.
The marsh fire continues to burn on the east side of the city.
Source: WWLTV Eyewitness News, "Lawsuits filed in 40-vehicle fatal accident" Paul Murphy, Jan. 17, 2012
]]>That engagement is timely and necessary, given statistics showing that 48 veterans were fatal car accident victims last year. That is the highest such number in three years.
The study shows that the highest percentage of car accident victims were veterans of the Vietnam or Persian Gulf wars. Unique circumstances surrounded veterans who returned from Afghanistan and Iraq. These soldiers, including service members from Louisiana, were trained to drive closer to the center stripe to avoid roadside bombs. Combing the roadside for dangers and speeding up a vehicle through intersections to avoid gunfire were also reported.
Statistics also showed that veterans who are home longer than six months are less likely to cause a car accident; however, the anxiety associated with the dangers of war, as well as the driver training during combat, can manifest itself at any time while driving. Increased stress while being parked in a closed-in parking lot was also a trigger symptom for most veterans.
Source: New York Times, "Back from war, fear and danger fill driver's seat" James Dao, Jan. 10, 2012
]]>The survey -- entitled the 2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws -- is the ninth annual report put out by an organization called Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (AHAS). The group is a broad coalition of entities with a mandate to "work together to advance state and federal highway and vehicle safety laws, programs and policies."
]]> Overall, AHAS likes what it sees in Louisiana, although it does suggest steps for improvement in certain areas. The organization ranks states on whether they have adopted 15 basic traffic safety laws, and it also scrutinizes their efforts toward improvement.It then ranks them by assigning them a color code that is based, unsurprisingly, on a traffic signal. In other words, a strong scorre commands a green rating; a caution/questionable score earns a yellow; and a dismal effort comes up red.
Louisiana, along with 16 other states, qualifies for a green rating.
Among the laws looked at by AHAS are those relating to seat belt use, booster seats, motorcycle helmet requirements, drunk driving laws and graduated licensing programs for teen drivers.
The organization does suggest that Louisiana get just a bit more stringent with the latter, recommending that it up its minimum age for obtaining a learner's permit from 15 to 16 and that it also impose stronger nighttime restrictions on drivers with an intermediary license.
Source: Sacramento Bee, "2012 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws shows fiscal impact of highway safety gaps" Jan. 11, 2012
]]>The Switzerland-based drug maker announced the recall last Sunday after an internal review of complaints that certain of its pills are broken or chipped inside their bottles or other packaging. Consumers have additionally noted what has been termed "inconsistent bottle packaging," that is, stray capsules, caplets and tablets from other Novartis products.
]]> The recall applies to top-selling over-the-counter drugs, including the company's mainstay pain relievers Bufferin and Excedrin, as well as the well-known caffeinated product NoDoz.The mislabeling and broken-product issues relate to the manufacturing processes at a Novartis facility in Lincoln, Nebraska. Novartis has closed that plant down pending an investigation of its operations. The company states that the decision was made "to accelerate maintenance." A re-opening date for the plant has not been established, and all product shipments from it have been suspended.
Novartis shareholders will feel a pinch from the recall. A news release issued by the company states that costs for the recall and required facility improvements in Nebraska will likely run about $120 million.
Novartis stated that it consulted with and apprised the Food and Drug Administration of the recall.
Source: CNN Health, "Novartis issues voluntary recall because of broken, mislabeled pills" Jan. 9, 2012
]]>Source: MSNBC, "Curbing drunken drivers: Should ignition interlock be required on every car?" Jim Gold, Jan. 5, 2012
]]>We reported on that tragic pileup in our immediately preceding blog post and, based on material information that has come forth since the massive crash, update readers here.
]]> As we noted, a number of witnesses and persons involved in the accident say that poor visibility was a primary catalyst in the crash. Many observers cite a heavy overlay of smoke and fog.The focus now has turned to a lack of streetlights in the accident area, which motorists say has been a problem for many months.
In fact, large areas in the city's east side have been without streetlights since the summer, putting stretches of I-10 in virtual darkness for many hours of the day.
"It you come out here at 1 or 2 in the morning, you can't see," said one tow-truck driver. "It's like a forgotten area out here."
The lack of adequate lighting owes to two factors, namely, failed repairs of faulty light circuits, which the mayor's office states will now receive "priority status," and an excessive number of burned out and broken lights that have not been replaced owing to so what officials call "federal red tape."
The latter problem is severe, with Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant noting that the city must complete an environmental impact review before spending federal grant money to replace more than 1,700 lights that still remain inoperative.
Source: The Times-Picayune, "Street lights near deadly pileup on Interstate 10 weren't working" Danny Monteverde, Dec. 30, 2011
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