June 2009 Archives

If you have a kettle or canister style pool filter, it could be deadly. In California, a woman whose husband was killed by one of these units is leading a crusade to warn the public. You can visit her website to get more information on these units. Since 1982, there have been at least 22 other similar incidents reported to the CPSC. However, the CPSC does not know of every incident the reporting requirement are pretty lax, in my opinion.

Apparently these filters consist of a two piece design, held together by a fastener. At least four different manufacturers use this same design. Allegations are that the clamping system can become loose and not properly hold the two pieces together. Most of these filters have air relief valves that can fail to release all of the built up air. These two problems can add up to filter top turning into a missile and killing or seriously injuring the person who is inspecting or servicing the unit. A safer alternative involves a series of bolts that hold the two parts together. If you own a pool, I would recommend contracting the service and inspection of the pool out to a professional.

Ducati is recalling 732 of its 2009 1198 S, 1098 R and F1098 S Streetfighter models. The manufacturer announced that the right fork could develop a crack, which "may lead to a loss of steering control, possibly resulting in a crash." Obviously, this crash could result in the death or serious injury of the driver!

Harley-Davidson is recalling about 11,000 of its 2008 and 2009 FLSTSB, its 2008 FXSTSSE2 and 2009 FXSTSSE3 models because the acorn stud at the brake reaction link may fall out. "If this occurs the front brake and fender assembly would no longer be adequately retained. This condition could lead to a crash and potential injury or death to the rider," Harley said.

If you have one of these motorcycles, then stop riding it and take it in immediately for servicing. If you are buying any motorcycle or vehicle second hand, I always recommend checking the recalls on the vehicle and then confirming that the service repairing the defect was performed.

Recently I was attending a legal seminar , when another lawyer and I were discussing our current product liability cases. I was shocked to hear a defective product that many of you probably have in your home now, a gas can. It seems that most consumer gas cans, the ones you have around your garage that you use for your lawn mower or weed eater, do not contain a flame arrester. This flame arrester is a small piece of wire mesh that fits in the spout/tube of the gas can, that prevents flammable gas vapors from escaping. This device costs only pennies.

I was able to find a special piece done by Dan Rather, former CBS news anchor, now working for HDNET, about a victim of such a defective product. His story revolved around an 8 year old boy who knocked over a gas can in his basement. No gas leaked out of the container , however vapors did. The vapors were ignited by the pilot light of their gas water heater and an explosion occurred. The child was burned over 47% of his body. I have also heard of at least 5 injuries resulting from people pouring gasoline onto an open fire. The trash or leaves were being burned in a 55 gallon drum. All of these involved gas cans without the flame arrestor. I have also witnessed a video of two different cans, one with an arrester and one without. Gas was poured onto an open flame with the can that did not have an arrester and an explosion occurred. Gas was poured onto an open flame with a can that contained an arrester, and no explosion occurred---so they do work!!

According to the Dan Rather piece referenced above, this hazard has been known to the industry at least as early as 1973, when it was discussed in a Consumer reports magazine. The Consumer Product Safety Commission held a meeting  to discuss these in May of 2007. At least one major manufacturer, Blitz, held the position that these arresters were potentially dangerous. The document indicates another meeting was to take place but I cannot locate that the meeting ever took place. Blitz has been subjected to several lawsuits over their cans and they have not offered the arrester with their cans. One has to wonder how legitimate their objections to adding these arresters is. Blitz cans are sold at Wal-Marts across the country.

The Office of the Inspector General has released a report outlining the use and reprocessing endoscopes at VA medical centers. This report was released following the March 2009 discovery that VA medical centers in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida possibly exposed more than 10,000 people to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and/or HIV through the use of endoscopic equipment that was not properly sterilized. As of April 2009, less than a third of the patients possibly affected were notified. Recently the Washington Post reported that fewer than half of randomly selected VA medical centers had properly sterilized medical equipment, used to perform colonoscopies. Additionally, these facilities failed to obey ordered to comply with guidelines. However this is not a problem found only in VA medical centers. Private hospitals have also reportedly notified thousands of patients in recent years after similar concerns arose. So, how can you protect yourself from being a victim of poor infection control?

Medical professionals advise that you can take steps to protect yourself from medical negligence of this sort.  If you are going to undergo a surgical procedure or treatment of any kind, you have the right to:

1. Require that all health care providers wash their hands in front of you, before they render any physical care to you;
2. Require that any needles used are from new packages, opened in front of you;
3. If you are going to receive an injection, require that the medication administered come from a new container;
4. Require that all health care providers wear new gloves when administering care to your and/or drawing blood;and
5. If you are not comfortable with your treatment or the environment, ask to speak with the infection control personnel at your health care facility.

If you are the unfortunate recipient of poor health care and/or infection control, seek additional medical treatment immediately. You may also wish to speak to an attorney so you can be sure of your rights.

I was recently involved in a case involving a tractor trailer and an elderly driver. The elderly driver was rear ended by the tractor trailer and suffered injuries which left her unable to recall the facts of the crash. Interestingly, in an attempt to limit liability, the trucking company hired a lawyer to offer opinions regarding our client's speed at impact. This issue had never been raised prior to trial, so we had not had our client's vehicle's black box data downloaded. The case settled and we ended up not having to hire an expert to provide the information for us. Fortunately, we still had the vehicle, so this would not have been a problem.

However, in some cases the data contained in a vehicle's "black box" can be crucial to the case- it can indicate things such as braking, seatbelt use, speed at the time of crash, warning lights on vehicles etc. Unfortunately, in many cases, the vehicle is unknowingly sold or released to the insurance company, or an inexperienced attorney ends up hiring the wrong expert to download the data, ruining its potential admissibility at trial. Furthermore, there are few commercially available systems that can be used to download the data. It appears help is on the way, but is more than three years away. As of September 2012, NHTSA regulations (49 C.F.R. 562) will require vehicle manufacturers to provide commercially available systems which can be used to retrieve event data recorder (black box) information. Moreover, the information will have to be available in a standardized format. At present, the Bosch Vetronix retrieval system is the only commercially available system. However, the Bosch system cannot be used on all vehicles.