Boston Injury Attorney Blog

Massachusetts bikers, motorists and pedestrians may soon have additional company on the road. The City of Boston will be receiving a $3 million grant award from the Federal Government for a bike sharing program. It is expected that the program begin in the spring of 2011. Under a bike sharing plan, people would pay for a membership, for unlimited access to a network of bikes and stations. The bikes can be rented at one station and returned at another.

Local sponsors have already pledged $2 million. This money, together with the grant money, will be used to purchase 500 bicycles and 50 rental stations, which is expected to make Boston more bike-friendly.

According to the Boston Globe, bicycle sharing was established in Europe. In the United States, the first programs began this year in Minneapolis and Denver and another is pending in Washington, D.C.

Advocates see it as a missing link to connect MBTA subway and bus routes, which is why the Federal Transit Administration selected the Boston bike sharing program. For Boston, bike sharing will be a viable component of a robust, green public transit network.

The City will have a year to make the streets more inviting for cyclists. By fall, it is expected that Boston will have created 35 miles of bike lanes, up from zero, and added 750 public racks.

Continue reading "Boston bike sharing plan gets a 3M grant" »

New Massachusetts legislation on the books should have an impact on cutting down on cell phone related car accidents. According to a press release by the Massachusetts Governors office, on July 6, 2010, Massachusetts became the 29th state to ban texting while driving and to ban all cell phone use for drivers under 18. The ban includes sending a text or instant message, use of electronic mail, accessing the Internet, or using your phone for GPS navigation. The ban applies to phones, laptops, pager or other handheld devices. In addition, these devices cannot be used while stopped at traffic lights or a stop sign. A GPS device is still allowed but a phone used as a GPS device is not.

The law also requires drivers 75 and older to have vision tests and to renew their licenses in person, rather than online.

The law will take effect in 90 days, in October of 2010.

The texting ban covers e-mailing, Internet searching, and other non-calling activity on a phone, laptop, or handheld electronic device by anyone operating a motor vehicle. It also applies to drivers not only while they are driving but also while waiting at traffic lights and stop signs. Texting and talking for those under 18 will still be allowed by a driver in an emergency or when the car is pulled over and parked.

Violations will result in a $100 fine, but the offense will not be considered a moving violation and will not result in an insurance surcharge. The fine for the second offense is $250, and any offense after that is $500. If you are under 18, your license or permit will be suspended for 60 days for the first offense, 180 days for a second and one year for a third, with an additional fine of $500.00 for reinstatement of the junior operator license after completion of a program and an additional driving test.

Continue reading "Massachusetts texting ban becomes law" »

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires restaurants to address diner allergies to foods such as nuts, dairy products, and other ingredients that cause adverse reactions.

The allergy legislation, S.2701, requires that restaurants take precautions in order to ensure the safety of their diners with food allergies. Restaurants will need to hang a pre-approved poster providing general information on food allergies as they relate to food preparation. In addition, all menus must include a statement that the customer should inform the wait staff of food allergies. Finally, all standard food service courses will include the viewing of an approved food allergy video.

The Massachusetts Department of Health will be required to develop a program for restaurants to be designated as "Food Allergy Friendly", and maintain a list of restaurants on the agency's website that have received the "Food Allergy Friendly" designation. To receive a "Food Allergy Friendly" designation, restaurants will be required to make a master list of all ingredients used in the preparation of each food item on the menu available for the public. Participation in this part of the program is voluntary.

Trends show a rise in food allergies and associated anaphylaxis. From 1997-2002, peanut allergies in children doubled and today more than 12 million Americans (including 3 million children) have food allergies. Milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (e.g., walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans), wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish account for 90 percent of all food-allergic reactions in the U.S.

In the United States, the reported annual number of emergency room visits due to food-induced anaphylaxis ranges from 50,000 to 125,000, depending on the source. Even a small trace amount of a food allergen can cause a reaction.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Food Allergies Legislation" »

In Massachusetts, by law, patients can obtain copies of their medical records and providers are limited to the amount they can charge for these copies. Generally, a patient will be charged $15.00 for each transaction. In addition, physicians may charge up to $.50 per page for the copying costs of the first 100 pages of medial records, and $.25 per pate in excess of 100 pages.

A physician must maintain patient medical records for seven years from the date of the last patient contact. After seven years, a physician can give his/her former patient their original medical records back or destroy them. It is wise to request a copy of your medical records when changing physicians.

The Board of Registration in Medicine requires that a physician maintain the original to ensure that a patient's medical history will be available to assist any future health care provider.

A physician must provide copies of a medical record in a timely manner. Two to three weeks is considered "reasonable".

If the patient is deceased, the executor or administrator of the Estate may obtain copies.

The provider may summarize mental Health records if the physician believes the information would be harmful.

Continue reading "Patient Access to Massachusetts Medical Records" »

REPORT AND RECORD THE ACCIDENT

1. First attend to your medical needs if you are injured.

2. Report the accident to the proper authorities If the accident involved in a truck, motorcycle or car, be sure to call the police to file an accident report. Do not discuss fault. Call your insurance company. If you were the victim of a slip and fall, contact the management of the building, company or facility where you fell as soon as possible..

3. Take photographs of the accident scene and your injuries. Be sure to record accident details such as what happened immediately before, during and after the accident. Make a notation of the weather, road or surface conditions. If your vehicle was damaged, try to obtain pictures before you get it repaired or go to the repair shop or dealer where it was towed.

4. Get witness names. Be sure to collect the names, addresses and telephone numbers of any witnesses.

5. Save your medical bills. Keep track of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all medical providers and dates of treatment.

6. Keep a record of your lost wages, along with the name and address of your employer.

7. Be sure to protect your rights, by contacting a competent attorney.

Continue reading "What to do if you are injured in a Boston accident " »

Massachusetts Parents beware! Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 138, Section 34: Delivery of Alcohol Beverages to Person Under 21 (as amended by Chapter 175 of the Acts of 2000) makes it unlawful for a person to furnish alcohol to a minor. Furnish is defined as providing alcohol to a minor except on one's own property to one's own grandchildren.

A person may be charged with violating the social host law if he or she allows a person who is under 21 to possess alcohol while on property owned or controlled by him. The statute was passed to address the issue of teenage alcohol parties being held with the full knowledge of parents.

The focus of the law is to curtail the irresponsible behavior of parents permitting minors to drink at their homes. In addition, the statute may also be used to charge minors who host alcohol parties. If a minor is left in charge of the home while his parents are away, then he or she is in control of the property. If he or she allows friends who are under 21 to bring alcohol to the home, he or she could be charged under this statute.

The penalty for violating this statute is a fine of $2,000.00 or imprisonment for one year.

Continue reading "Social host liabilty in Massachusetts" »

According to the Boston Herald, a Dorchester woman who averted a Boston accident is being hailed a hero after she ran into traffic to save a 2-year-old child from personal injury who had wandered into a South End street. Apparently the toddler walked along Columbus Avenue for about a third of a mile at 5:30 p.m. She was following her 11-year-old autistic sister. Her sister was on a scooter heading to a park.

Driver Tammy Thompson spotted the little girl, as the child stepped off the curb. She parked in the middle of the street and jumped out of her car to save her. The cars coming toward her were actually swerving around the child, but no one got out to help. The toddler just kept walking. Luckily for the little girl, Thompson grabbed the child and pulled her to safety.

According to a police report, the girls wandered from their home on Warwick Street while their mother, Rory Johnson, 40, was at a funeral and their father, Lloyd Moore, slept.The state Department of Children and Families is investigating.

As there is no legal duty to come to the aid of one in need, in the wake of the recent news out of New York City where a good Samaritan was stabbed assisting a crime victim and left to die on the sidewalk, this story is heartwarming. Ms. Thompson is a local Boston hero, who no doubt prevented this little girl from becoming seriously hurt.

Continue reading "Dorchester hero saves toddler in the South End of Boston" »

According to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, a Middlesex Superior Court jury's verdict that an orthopedic surgeon should not be held responsible for the death of a patient who suffered a massive pulmonary embolism days after undergoing knee surgery was overturned by the judge. Ruling in the case of Howard v. Brassard, , Lawyers Weekly No. 12-065, that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, Judge Thomas P. Billings, a District Court Judge, granted a plaintiff's motion for a new trial.

The decedent, John L. Howard injured his knee while playing basketball in March 2004. He went to the emergency room where doctors found that he had ruptured his patellar tendon. He had a prior knee surgery in 1998 to reconstruct his knee ligament . He subsequently developed deep vein thrombosis and was admitted to the hospital. For the 2004 injury, a second surgery was performed. The plaintiff initially did well, but died within a few weeks of the surgery from a pulmonary embolism. Howard's estate claimed the doctor failed to prescribe medication that could have prevented his death.

During trial experts agreed that the standard of care in 2004 required that a surgical patient known to have this history be given medication following surgery. The defense expert testified on cross examination that most doctors would ask for a history, but when questioned on re-direct, defendant's expert said failure to do so was not a deviation from the standard of care. The jury found that the defendant was responsible but did not deviate from the standard of care. Plaintiff's counsel filed a motion for a new trial based on the weight of the evidence. The judge found that it would be surprising for a surgeon, not to ask about prior surgeries and complications.

Continue reading "Massachusetts defense verdict in medical malpractice case overturned" »

According to the Boston Globe, on May 16, 2009, 18-year-old Jonathan Caruso struck and killed a woman who was walking her dog and seriously injured her daughter. After drinking at an all night post-prom party, Caruso was driving home and fell asleep behind the wheel. He then drove off the road and hit and killed 67-year-old Carol Marean and seriously injured her daughter. Caruso carried minimum automobile liability insurance, which does not cover the $400,000.00 in unpaid medical bills for the surviving daughter.

On March 23, 2010, he was sentenced to 2 ½ years in the Essex County House of Correction with 6 months to serve in jail and 4 years probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of motor vehicle homicide by reckless operation. He will also be required to speak to 10 middle and high schools describing how he was responsible for Carol Marean's death. Judge Michael C. Lauranzano, who decided on the sentence, said the case was among the toughest of his 10 years on the bench.

Caruso was initially charged with operating under the influence, but those charges were dropped when a chemical breath test given two hours after the crash showed his blood alcohol level was .02, below the legal limit. A blood test performed 10 hours after the crash showed no signs of alcohol.

A victim impact statement by one of the deceased daughters said that Caruso knew that he should not have been driving -he told police he had 10 beers in the hours before the crash - but chose to do so anyway.

Continue reading "Boston Area Prom Driver who hit Pedestrians Sentenced" »

House lawmakers have unanimously approved a bill designed to clamp down on school bullies. The Massachusetts bill would ban bullying, require school districts to come up with bullying prevention plans and expand the definition of bullying to include the growing problem of internet cyber bullying through the use of e-mails or text messages.

The legislation would also require school officials to inform parents of their anti-bullying curriculum and alert both the parents of bullies and their parents of their victims after a bullying incident. On March 18, 2010, lawmakers approved the bill on a 148-0 vote after debating the measure for more than three hours.

The push for anti-bullying legislation has gained momentum following the recent suicides of students in South Hadley and Springfield. The explosion of social networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook, means bullying can continue long after the school day is over, and bullies can entice others to gang up on their victims. The bill also requires principals to report all incidents to police.

Bullying is defined as "the severe or repeated use by one or more students of a written, verbal, or electronic expression, or a physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at another student that has the effect of: (i) causing physical or emotional harm to the other student or damage to the other student's property; (ii) placing the other student in reasonable fear of harm to himself or of damage to his property; (iii) creating a hostile environment at school for the other student; (iv) infringing on the rights of the other student at school; or (v) materially and substantially disrupting the education process or the orderly operation of a school."

With the new law, Massachusetts became the 42nd state to prohibit electronic bullying.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Approves Ban on Bullying " »

Massachusetts resident Carolyn Riley wasn't a good parent, her former neighbors said, but they doubted that she intentionally overdosed her 4-year-old daughter with psychotropic drugs. According to the state medical examiner, Rebecca died of a combination of Clonidine, a blood pressure medication for ADHD and Depakote, an antiseizure and mood stabilizing drug for bipolar disorder and two over the counter cough suppressants and an antihistamine. Carolyn Riley was charged and convicted of second degree murder in Massachusetts in the death of her daughter, Rebecca. Riley's husband, Michael, will face the same charge when his case goes to trial next month.

The defense argued the girl died of rapid-onset pneumonia and that Carolyn Riley routinely followed the doctors orders in dispensing medications to her children.

During the murder trial, a Boston psychiatrist testified that the girl's mother, Carolyn Riley of Hull, acknowledged occasionally giving her daughter more than the authorized dose of certain medicines, at times even doubling them. Despite these admissions, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center said she was justified in prescribing potent psychotropic drugs for the girl at age 2 and trusting that the mother would generally administer them appropriately. Rebecca was diagnosed with hyperactivity disorder and prescribed sedating medication, clonidone, based on the mother's accounts of aggressive behavior, sleep problems and a family history of mental illness without consulting other clinicians or pre-school staff.

Kifugi still faces a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the estate of Rebecca Riley. She also had faced possible criminal charges after Rebecca died, but after a long investigation, a jury refused to indict the doctor.

Continue reading "Medical Massachusetts Malpractice Case Follows Guilty Verdict for Mother" »

Massachusetts's consumers should be aware that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning consumers about the dangers associated with recalled Simplicity drop side cribs manufactured by Simplicity, Inc. and CFCA Inc. of Reading, PA. The CPSC also is aware of as many as 11 deaths and an additional 25 incidents involving the drop side detaching from the crib.

To date, CPSC has recalled over 2 million Simplicity drop side cribs due to problems with the crib's plastic hardware. The plastic hardware can break or deform, causing the drop side to detach. When the drop side detaches, it creates a space between the drop side and the crib mattress. Infants and toddlers can roll into this space and become entrapped which can lead to suffocation. All Simplicity drop side cribs have been recalled. The recalled drop side cribs were sold in department stores, children's stores, and mass merchandisers nationwide from January 2005 through June 2009 for between $150 and $300.

The agency says caregivers should check their cribs to see whether they have a recalled Simplicity crib. If they do, consumers should stop using them immediately and should not attempt to fix the cribs.

Federal regulators have approved a new rule that will require manufacturers of durable infant and child products to maintain a registration list of customers, making it easier to notify parents about dangerous and defective products. The new safety rule, will require manufacturers of cribs, high chairs, gates, strollers and other infant and toddler furniture to provide registration cards with each product and maintain a list of registered consumers. The registration would be used to alert as many consumers as possible if there is a product recall.

CPSC officials hope that the new rule promulgated on December 16 will allow the commission to quickly and efficiently contact a large number of purchasers immediately when a problem with the products have been detected, as opposed to having to rely on media, word-of-mouth, or non-uniform methods which may vary from company to company.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, injuries are among the leading causes of death in the United States. Mortality data from 2006 show that unintentional injuries, including those in Massachusetts,were the leading cause of death for those 1- 44 years of age, and the 5th leading cause of death for all ages. Injuries cause a relatively small number of deaths compared with the number of injuries seen in hospitals and emergency departments. In 2006, for each death by injury, there were nearly 11 times as many hospitalizations and 179 times as many emergency department visits. Determining how an injury occurs is the first step towards preventing future injuries. Motor vehicle traffic accidents were responsible for 24 percent of injury deaths, followed by poisoning (21 percent), and firearms (17 percent). Falls accounted for 25 percent of non-fatal injuries in 2006. The body region specified most often for injury deaths was the head and neck. Nine out of ten head and neck injuries were classified as traumatic brain injuries (TBI). In 2006, TBI resulted in 53,000 deaths, 210,000 hospitalizations, and 330,000 initial emergency department visits.

Data on the nature of injury provide important information on health care utilization and assist in targeting prevention strategies. Fracture accounted for 53 percent of hospitalized injuries. Among adults 65 years and older, hip fractures were mentioned in 38 percent of hospitalizations and in 15 percent of injury deaths. Home was the leading place of injury occurrence, accounting for 47 percent of the respondent-reported non-fatal, medically attended injury episodes. More than one-third of respondent-reported non-fatal, medically attended injury episodes occurred while a person was engaged in leisure activities including sports.

Continue reading "Massachusetts Personal Injuries" »

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling all Roman-style shades and roll up blinds after reports of babies and toddlers dying from strangulation. The CPSC said the product recall affects more than 50 million Roman shades and rollup blinds, which have cords that can get caught around children's necks. 25 million Roman shades were recalled.

CPSC said 5 children have died of strangulation and 16 others have been nearly strangled since 2006 because of the Roman shades, which pose a problem because of space between the inner cord and the shade fabric. The recall affects 25 million Roman shades. Roll-up blinds have a large loop at the end of the cord that can strangle young children, the CPSC said, adding that 3 children have died from the roll-up blinds' hazard since 2000. The recall affects 27 million roll-up blinds. The commission said about 5 million Roman shades and 3 million roll-up blinds are sold each year.

CPSC said it is working with the Window Covering Safety Council, an industry trade group, to provide repair kits for Roman shades and roll-up blinds sold at Massachusetts's retailers such as Wal-Mart, JC Penney, Pottery Barn and Ace Hardware. The repair will eliminate the cord from the Roman shades and instead provide rings for consumers to install. Shade owners will have to manually lift the rings to raise the shade. The kit will provide a device for roll-up blinds that will force the cord to separate into 2 pieces if a force equal to a baby's head is applied. The CPSC said the cord cannot be eliminated from the design of the roll-up treatment because it would strip its functionality.

For a free repair kit, consumers can contact the Window Covering Safety Council at www.windowcoverings.org or 800-506-4636.

Boston residents might be interested to learn that according to a report by the 2006 National Hospital Ambulatory Medicare Survey, written for the Department of Health and Human Services, in 2006 there were 119.2 million visits to hospital emergency departments, or 40.5 visits per 100 persons, continuing a long-term rise in both indices. The rate of visits per 100 persons was 36.1 for white persons, 79.9 for black persons, and 35.3 for Hispanic persons.

Emergency Department occupancy (the count of patients who had arrived, but not yet discharged, transferred, or admitted) varied from 19,000 patients at 6
a.m. to 58,000 at 7 p.m. on an average day nationally. Though overall Emergency Department visits increased, the number of visits considered emergent or urgent (15.9 million) did not change significantly from 2005, nor did the number of patients arriving by ambulance (18.4 million). At 3.6 percent of visits, the patient had been seen in the same Emergency Department within the previous 72 hours. Median time to see a clinician was 31 minutes. Of all Emergency Department visits, 35.6 percent were for a Boston personal injury. Patients had computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging at 12.1 percent of visits, blood drawn at 38.8 percent, an intravenous line started at 24.0 percent, an x ray performed at 34.9 percent, and an electrocardiogram done at 17.1 percent. Patients were admitted to the hospital at 12.8 percent of Emergency Department visits in 2006. The Emergency Department was the portal of admission for 50.2 percent of all nonobstetric admissions in the United States in 2006, an increase from 36.0 percent in 1996. Patients were admitted to an intensive care unit at 1.9 percent of visits.

Continue reading "Boston Area Hospital Emergency Rooms Are Busy" »