Another major car company has made a large-scale recall due to a defective part that could cause serious injuries to drivers. Honda Motors Co. announced today that they would be recalling more than 600,000 vehicles worldwide from their Fit/Jazz and City models due to a defective master switch that could cause a fire in the vehicle. Two fire cases involving the malfunction have already been reported in the United States.
African-American students in Union City, Calif., are being killed, shot at and racially harassed and local school officials and police officers are doing nothing about it, a lawsuit filed this week claims. The lawsuit accuses Union City police officers of acting slowly following the fatal shooting of a middle school student in December 2007 and a recent incident where eight African-American students were shot at. No arrests have been made in either incident. The mother of the boy who was killed has also filed a civil rights lawsuit against the police department.
Technology advances in radiation treatment of cancer patients have moved so swiftly that doctors and hospitals are struggling to implement the necessary safeguards. Patients in New Jersey, Louisiana and Texas have suffered severe radiation injuries resulting from overexposure or improper dosages. While serious injuries are still infrequent, the fact that they happen at all shows that hospitals need to reevaluate their safety measures. The gap between advancing technology and outdated safety protocols leaves ??physicists and radiation oncologists without a clear strategy for maintaining the quality and safety of treatment.?
A Tennessee county has reached a $200,000 settlement with the family of girl who was hit and killed by a police car in July 2008. According to the lawsuit, former deputy Ron Killings had been speeding and had disposed of two bottles of alcohol at the crash scene before attending to the victim. Reports do not show if Killings was intoxicated at the time of the crash. A criminal case against Killings is scheduled for early February.
A Florida woman filed a lawsuit against an oral surgeon who allegedly left a drill bit burr in her right sinus cavity for over a year. According to the lawsuit, Donna Delgado had been experiencing severe pain, bleeding and dizziness since her surgery in August 2008. A scan at St. Joseph??s Hospital in July 2009 revealed the inch-long burr as the cause of her pain. The lawsuit claims that Delgado had sought medical attention from her oral surgeon on multiple occasions after her surgery, but he declined to help her, telling her the pain was ??normal? and demanded she ??stop complaining.? The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
A Massachusetts family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against more than 36 police officers they claim are directly and indirectly responsible for the fatal beating of Kenneth R. Howe at a North Andover sobriety checkpoint on Thanksgiving Day. While Massachusetts police authorities claimed Howe died of natural causes, the medical examiner??s report cited the beating as the cause of death. The family is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction ??that would prevent the incident from happening again.?
A lawsuit has been filed in Alabama against a Days Inn motel owner and an employee for the death of two girls in a Jan. 16 fire at the hotel. According to the lawsuit, maintenance worker Dhirajlal Bhagat left incense burning in one of the rooms, causing the fire. The lawsuit also claims that the motel owner failed to maintain working fire extinguishers, failed to notify the authorities and failed to alert guests. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages.
The Disney World theme park in Orlando is the target of a lawsuit after the death of a 21-year-old monorail driver at the park in July 2009. According to the lawsuit, filed by the victim??s mother, the monorail drivers at the park had been instructed to ignore certain safety issues in the driver??s manual to save time. The practice, the lawsuit said, endangered both the drivers and passengers. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Disney for a “serious” safety violation in connection with the crash.
A Chicago family filed a lawsuit Tuesday against salami maker Danielle International after the wife and infant child became ill with salmonella poisoning after eating the meat in early January. According to the lawsuit, Molly Keppler and her son became seriously ill after ingesting the food. While Molly recovered quickly, the suit states that the baby spent days in the hospital with a 104-degree fever. Danielle International has issued a voluntary recall of its salami products since they were linked to numerous other cases of salmonella across the country.
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against the city of Houston after two fire trucks collided in March 2009, killing a nearby cyclist. The Houston City Council will approve the $225,000 settlement to be paid to the family of Leigh Boone who died two weeks after a ladder truck rolled over onto her. According to the lawsuit, both fire trucks had been speeding to a fire that turned out to be a false alarm. The settlement will also include measures to help prevent similar incidents in the future.
