December 31st, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
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Safety Tips – DWI
About every 20 minutes in Texas, someone is hurt or killed in a crash involving alcohol. We urge you to take responsibility for your actions. Don’t drink and drive.
How Much is too Much?
Impairment begins with the first drink. Your gender, body weight, the number of drinks you’ve consumed and the amount of food you’ve eaten affect your body’s ability to handle alcohol. Two or three beers in an hour can make some people legally intoxicated. Women, younger people and smaller people generally become impaired with less alcohol.
The Law on DWI
In Texas, a person is legally intoxicated and may be arrested and charged with DWI with a .08 BAC (blood or breath alcohol concentration). However, a person is also intoxicated if impaired due to alcohol or other drugs regardless of BAC. Whether you’re the driver or the passenger, you can be fined up to $500 for having an open alcohol container in a vehicle.
DWI with a Child Passenger
You can be charged with child endangerment for driving while intoxicated if you’re carrying passengers younger than 15 years old. DWI with a child passenger is punishable by:
a fine of up to $10,000,
up to two years in a state jail, and
loss of your driver license for 180 days.
What Happens if You’re Stopped
If you’re stopped, be ready to show your driver license, proof of insurance and vehicle registration. If you refuse to take a blood or breath test, your driver license will be automatically suspended for 180 days.
Punishment for DWI varies depending on the number of convictions:
First Offense
A fine of up to $2,000
Three days to 180 days in jail
Loss of driver license up to a year
Annual fee of $1,000 or $2,000 for three years to retain driver license
Second Offense*
A fine of up to $4,000
One month to a year in jail
Loss of driver license up to two years
Annual fee of $1,000, $1,500 or $2,000 for three years to retain driver license
Third Offense*
A $10,000 fine
Two to 10 years in prison
Loss of driver license up to two years
Annual fee of $1,000, $1,500, or $2,000 for three years to retain driver license
*After two or more DWI convictions in five years, you must install a special ignition switch that prevents your vehicle from being operated if you’ve been drinking.
How to Stay Safe
Don’t drink and drive.
Designate a driver.
Call a cab.
Spend the night where you are, if possible.
Who’s driving tonight? If you’ve been drinking, it’s not you.
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December 31st, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
Though the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities in the state has decreased over the past few years, Texas continues to lead the nation when it comes to alcohol-related traffic fatalities. In 2007, 1,485 people died in
alcohol-related crashes on Texas roadways.
According to transportation safety experts, during December in Texas alone,
more than 27,000 traffic crashes will injure 20,000 people and kill around
335 more. About 150 of those fatal crashes will involve someone who was
drinking. (Estimates are based on an analysis of Texas crash data since
2001.)
This year, TxDOT and Santa Claus have some advice for Texas motorists: drive sober this holiday season and avoid a stiff fine, losing your driver’s license, jail time and a lump of coal in your stocking. For the 11th
consecutive year, TxDOT is sponsoring a holiday-themed public education campaign to remind Texans not to drive if they¹ve been drinking.
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December 31st, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
New Data Show Drinking Age Laws Saved 4,441 Lives Over 5 Years
Minimum 21-year-old drinking age laws prevented an estimated 4,441 drunken driving deaths in the last five years alone, according to a new report released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
NHTSA Acting Administrator David Kelly, who presented the report at a symposium on the subject led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) said, “Turning our back on these laws would be a deadly mistake. Minimum drinking age laws are among the most effective measures ever used to reduce drunken driving deaths among America’s young people.”
In addition to estimating lives saved due to 21-year-old minimum drinking age laws, the new NHTSA study shows the number of lives saved by motorcycle helmets has risen sharply in recent years, paralleling an increase in motorcycle use. Agency estimates indicate that lives saved by helmets rose from 1,173 in 2003 to 1,784 in 2007. For the five-year period ending last year, fully 7,502 lives were spared because motorcyclists used helmets.
The new statistical report examined a series of additional safety issues, and showed that in 2007 alone: frontal air bags saved 2,788 passengers age 13 and older; child safety seats saved 358 lives of children age 4 and under; seat belts saved 15,147 and could have saved another 5,024 lives had they been worn by all vehicle occupants involved in fatal crashes.
(original story can be located on www.nhtsa.gov)
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December 30th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
NHTSA: Preliminary stats show record-low fatalities in 2008
The number of people killed in traffic crashes will reach a record low in 2008, according to preliminary data (.pdf file) released Dec. 11 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
According to a news release, preliminary statistics indicate 31,110 people died in motor vehicle crashes from January through October, compared with 34,502 during the same period in 2007. This represents a nearly 10 percent decrease. The fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled for the first nine months of 2008 is 1.28, compared with 1.37 in 2007.
NHTSA also said seat belt usage rose to 83 percent in 2008 – the highest rate in history. Transportation officials estimate this increase has saved 2,700 lives since 2001.
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December 30th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
Train Crash Victims File Lawsuits
Several victims of the worst train accident in the United States in more than a decade filed lawsuits Tuesday alleging negligence on the part of the company that employed an engineer suspected of causing the crash. Investigators hypothesize that the engineer, employed by French-owned Veolia Transportation Services, was distracted as he sent and received cell phone text messages moments before the crash. The Los Angeles-area crash killed 25 people and injured 134 others. Ari B. Bloomekatz, LA Times 12/24/2008
Read Article: LA Times
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December 30th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
Driving trucks may have link to lung cancer.The Florida Times-Union (12/23, Patterson) reports, “Trucking jobs…appear to carry added risks of lung cancer, a new nationwide study suggests” and “that risk grows incrementally each year that workers remain in jobs as drivers, loading-dock workers and other roles that involve regular exposure to diesel fumes and other pollutants, reported researchers who studied work histories of more than 31,000 Teamsters.” These “findings represent a greater concern for Northeast Florida, where trucking and logistics represent a larger share of the job market than in the rest of the state or the nation. A little more than 10,000 people in metropolitan Jacksonville worked in truck transportation last year, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated.”
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December 30th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
Telemedicine prosecution may lead into new legal territory.
The San Francisco Chronicle (12/29, Egelko) reported, “In August 2005, John McKay, a 19-year-old Stanford student and former high school debate champion, committed suicide by rolling up the windows in a car at his mother’s Menlo Park home and piping in exhaust fumes” and “in the next few weeks, a Colorado doctor who had prescribed a generic form of Prozac for McKay after receiving his request over the Internet, without ever seeing or examining him, will go on trial in Redwood City on possibly precedent-setting charges of practicing medicine in California without a license.” The teen’s “parents settled their suits against the pharmacy and JRB and dropped their suit against Hageseth, who surrendered his Colorado medical license after coming under investigation in the youth’s suicide.” However, “in contrast to the civil suit, which would have required the parents to prove that Hageseth’s actions contributed to their son’s death, San Mateo County prosecutors must show only that he practiced medicine in California without a license.”
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December 9th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
NEWARK, N.J. - The family of a girl left paralyzed after a car accident caused by a drunken driver leaving a New York Giants game will receive a $26 million settlement.
The amount of the settlement had been sealed until Wednesday, when a state appellate court overturned a lower court’s decision and allowed it to be released.
The panel’s decision brings an end to the lawsuit filed by the family of Antonia Verni of Cliffside Park, who was paralyzed from the neck down as a 2-year-old in 1999.
The family sued Aramark, the stadium’s concessionaire, claiming that employees continued to serve beer to Daniel Lanzaro of Cresskill after he was visibly intoxicated and slurring his speech. Lanzaro was judged to have a blood alcohol level of 0.226, more than twice the legal limit at the time, after the accident.
A Bergen County jury awarded the Verni family $105 million in 2005, but that ruling was reversed on appeal the following year. The parties reached a settlement last year before the case went back to court, but the agreement was sealed.
According to Wednesday’s decision, Antonia Verni, now 11, and her mother, Fazila, sought to keep the settlement private because of concerns over how the girl’s estranged father, Ronald, handled funds received from earlier settlements with other defendants.
The family reached separate settlements with the Giants, the NFL and Lanzaro for a total of about $1.2 million, according to David Mazie, an attorney representing Antonia and Fazila Verni.
The $25 million settlement with Aramark represents about 90 percent of the compensatory damages awarded in the initial $105 million jury verdict, Mazie said. The remainder of the original award was for punitive damages.
“It’s a great deal from our perspective,” he said. “She needed to get the appropriate care, and this will more than take care of her for the rest of her life.”
David W. Field, an attorney representing Philadelphia-based Aramark, did not return an after-hours message seeking comment Wednesday.
(original story can be located at www.philly.com)
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December 9th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The family of a man killed in a stampede of frenzied holiday shoppers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Wednesday, seeking unspecified damages.
Shoppers on New York’s Long Island broke down doors and surged into the Valley Stream Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, known as “Black Friday,” traditionally the busiest retail shopping day of the year.
Jdimytai Damour, 34, was knocked to the ground and trampled to death. He had been assigned to cover security as an independent contractor.
Damour’s death was caused by “the carelessness, reckless negligence, wanton disregard for public safety and gross negligence” in the “staging, conducting and advertising for sales events,” said the lawsuit, filed in Bronx Supreme Court.
The lawsuit also named the shopping mall where the incident occurred and the security company employed by Wal-Mart.
In a statement, Wal-Mart said the company planned to reach out to Damour’s family “to do what we can to help them through this difficult time.”
“Tomorrow morning we will release our sales numbers for the month of November,” the statement said. “This event is overshadowed by the tragic death of Jdimytai Damour at our Valley Stream, New York store on November 28.”
New York’s largest grocery workers union has urged authorities to investigate what it called “Wal-Mart’s failure to provide a safe workplace.”
Wal-Mart said it provided additional internal security and employees and third-party security and worked closely with police to prepare for “Black Friday,” which once marked the day retailers would turn a profit — or get into the black — for the year.
(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Peter Cooney)
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December 9th, 2008 Roberts & Roberts
What’s a holiday party or even the traditional Christmas morning scene itself without a beautifully decorated tree? If your household, as those of more than 33 million other American homes, includes a natural tree in its festivities, take to heart the sales person’s suggestion—”Keep the tree watered.” That’s good advice and not just to create a fragrant indoor winter wonderland atmosphere. Christmas trees account for 200 fires annually, resulting in 6 deaths, 25 injuries and more than $6 million in property damage. Typically shorts in electrical lights or open flames from candles, lighters or matches start tree fires. Well-watered trees are not a problem. Dry and neglected trees can be.
Water That Tree
The video clip above from the Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology illustrates what happens when fire touches a dry tree. Within three seconds of ignition, the dry Scotch pine is completely ablaze. At five seconds, the fire extends up the tree and black smoke with searing gases streaks across the ceiling. Fresh air near the floor feeds the fire. The sofa, coffee table and the carpet ignite prior to any flame contact. Within 40 seconds “flashover” occurs - that’s when an entire room erupts into flames, oxygen is depleted and dense, deadly toxic smoke engulfs the scene.
Wet trees tell a different story. For comparative purposes, the NIST fire safety engineers selected a green Scotch pine, had it cut in their presence, had an additional two inches cut from the trunk’s bottom, and placed the tree in a stand with at least a 7.6 liter water capacity. The researchers maintained the Scotch pine’s water on a daily basis. A single match could not ignite the tree. A second attempt in which an electric current ignited an entire matchbook failed to fire the tree. Finally they applied an open flame to the tree using a propane torch. The branches ignited briefly, but self-extinguished when the researchers removed the torch from the branches. As NIST fire safety engineers say: REMEMBER, A WET TREE IS A SAFE TREE!
(original story can be located at firesafety.gov)
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