DECEMBER 18, 2008 – The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday that a settlement has been reached in a January 2 charter bus crash that killed a 55-year-old Houston man and injured 44 other people.  A settlement reached with the bus driver, owners, and managers was made public yesterday. The bus companies had limited insurance, and the $10 million settlement represented the maximum insurance proceeds available in the case.

The accident happened on January 2, 2008 on U.S. 59 near Victoria, Texas. The bus driver fell asleep and went off the road near the U.S. 77 interchange, flipping the bus on its side.  The bus was en route from Monterrey, Mexico, to Houston, Texas.  The driver of the bus had multiple convictions for driving while intoxicated, although  he was not drunk at the time of the crash.

The family of Pedro Mendez, 55, of Houston, who died in the accident, was awarded $4.3 million.  The other 44 injured victims who filed claims will share the remaining $5.7 million settlement. 

DECEMBER 11, 2008 – The North County Times reported yesterday that the friends and family of an Oceanside woman killed in a balloon accident at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October 2007 have reached a wrongful death settlement for $1.4 million dollars.  The amount was the limit that the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was insured for.

The victim, Rosemary Wooley Phillips, of Oceanside, fell 70 feet to her death when she fell out of a hot air balloon that became caught in power lines. The NTSB reported the pilot, Tom Reyes, was distracted when he saw another balloon crash into a house.  Phillips’ partner, Cheri Dias, was also injured in the accident along with two friends. Dias and Phillips’ two siblings and the survivors of the crash also sued the companies that owned and operated the balloon and the pilot, Tom Reyes, but he recently died.

Seven people have died in power-line related accidents at the annual balloon fiesta between 1990 and 2008, including two people in 2008. The annual balloon fiesta is considered to be the most widely photographed event in the world. 

NOVEMBER 21, 2008 – Cumberland County, New Jersey, will be paying Eugene Williams, of Bridgeton, $1.5 Million for injuries he suffered in a motorcycle accident in March of 2005, after jury awarded Williams the verdict on Wednesday. The New Jersey accident was caused by dangerous, damaged road conditions.  Williams, a trained motorcycle rider wearing full protective gear, suffered a closed injury, ruptured spleen and lacerated liver in the crash.  He was unconscious from the accident and had to be flown to a hospital in an air ambulance.

In the three years leading up to the accident, the county had only made minor, temporary fixes to the road with cold tar, which did not correct the roadbed failure problem. County officials did not comment on the case or the verdict.  The head of the Cumberland County legal department confirmed that repairs on the Route 555 road had been made. 

NOVEMBER 18, 2008 – A jury in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania awarded $20.5 million yesterday to the family of a boy born in 2001, for negligence on the part of the physician and hospital the day the child was born.   The suit was filed in 2003 following mistakes made at the boy’s birth on June 30, 2001, that resulted in him having lasting, permanent medical problems, including cerebral palsy, retardation, and near blindness. The boy will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life.

The physician did not arrive at the hospital for two hours, after a fetal monitoring system at Community Medical Center indicated the baby was in distress.  When the doctor arrived, he decided to induce labor. It took about 4 hours for the baby to be born, in which time lasting medical problems had developed.

The jury deliberated for four hours before assigning 60% of the negligence to the physician, and 40% of the negligence to the hospital. The award gives $2 million for medical and health care expenses and costs, and $18.5 million to the boy for medical costs, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering which he will receive when he turns 18. The award was the largest medical malpractice jury verdict in recent history.

NOVEMBER 14, 2008 - After Emily Rae Rice, 24, bled to death in the Denver City Jail on February 19, 2006, the city is poised to pay her family $3 million to settle a federal lawsuit.  The City of Denver also agreed to make changes in policies handling inmate medical problems. Rice died in jail from injuries sustained in a drunken-driving crash 20 hours after she was released from the hospital. Her cries for help from here cell were ignored, and she ultimately bled to death from her injuries.  Rice had suffered a lacerated spleen in the accident, which was not detected at the hospital.  The Denver City Council will be voting on the settlement, as well as disciplinary and policy changes, next week. The settlement would be the largest ever paid by Denver for a personal injury case.

NOVEMBER 13, 2008 — A jury in Miami-Dade county has awarded a 21-year-old man hit in the groin by a baseball at Sluggers batting gage in nearly $1.2 million. Lhyvann Felipe, who was 19 at the time of the accident, was struck by a 60 mph batting cage pitch at Tamiami Park in West Miami-Dade, Florida, according to his attorney. The judgment ordered $160,000 for Felipe’s medical expenses and $1 million for pain and suffering. The jury decided the batting cage operation was negligent in supervising its employees.

NOVEMBER 6, 2008 – Bloomberg News reported yesterday that the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) is looking into the safety of the Yamaha Rhino, and other similar recreational off-road vehicles, including  the Polaris Razor, the Honda Big Red, Kawasaki Mule, and Arctic Cat Prowler. The news of the investigation comes after reports of more than 30 fatalities involving these vehicles. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Yamaha Rhino was the focus of the investigation. 

One such Yamaha Rhino fatality accident was on October 18, 2008, when two 11 year old girls were killed when a 2005 Yamaha Rhino rolled on a paved, flat road in DeSoto County, Mississippi.

The Yamaha Rhino, a sort of hybrid between a larger utility vehicle, a golf cart, and smaller recreation vehicles, is not subject to standards of traditional ATVs because it has a steering wheel instead of handle bars. Passengers on a Yamaha Rhino sit side-by-side.

Since the Yamaha Rhino was released in 2003, there have been several hundred lawsuits filed by injured riders and family members in wrongful death cases. Although Yamaha has mailed warning stickers to owners to be placed on vehicles, they have not recalled the Rhino.  Yamaha contends the Rhino vehicles are safe as long as they are used responsibly.

Estey & Bomberger, LLP is a personal injury law firm with offices throughout the state of California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of off-road ATV accidents and auto accidents. If you would like a free consultation with a personal injury attorney, please call us at (800) 672-1036 or contact us online.

A 20 page report released this week by the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the United States Department of Justice revealed plaintiffs won more than half of all civil trials in state courts in the year 2005.  The report was the first of its kind to represent national statistics for civil trials.

Out of the approximately 26,950 civil trials held in 2005, a jury decided nearly 70% of them.  For both jury and bench trials, plaintiffs won about 60% of trials, or 14,000 cases.   

60% of civil trials involved tort claims, including motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, medical malpractice, product liability, animal attacks, and professional negligence. The most common tort claim involved motor vehicle accidents, which accounted for 35% of civil trials in 2005, or 9,431 trials.

While the median compensatory awards for all trials in 2005 was $28,000, certain tort cases saw much higher awards.  Asbestos related claims, for example, had a median award of $682,000. The largest award was $172 million, a class action lawsuit brought by 116,000 Wal-Mart employees.

Estey & Bomberger, LLP is a law firm with offices throughout the state of California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents and wrongful death accidents. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 672-1036 or visit our web site.