Archives : 2008 : January
DUI Crash Case Under Probe
It’s bad enough when a person manages to injure, or worse, kill others under the influence of drugs at the wheel. But how do you deal with a woman who is responsible for the deaths of not one, but two of her loved-ones, and all because she didn’t think to hand over the wheel to someone else?
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Accident Victim Families Get Access to Tire Company Files
On the face of it, there’s nothing extraordinary about the lawsuit filed by the families of Utah State University students who were killed in a 2005 crash.
The lawsuit was filed against Cooper Tire, the company that made the tires that blew out as the students were returning to campus from a field trip. The van rolled over several times and the crash killed eight students and an instructor. The families, who have already settled with Chrysler, the maker of the 15-passenger van, have since then focused attention on the tire maker, alleging that their tires were faulty, a charge Cooper denies. Their company, they claim, always makes “safe and reliable tires.” This is where the case stops being ordinary.
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Siblings File Lawsuit Against Catholic Order in Abuse Case
When the family with four children was left fatherless in 1965, it didn’t take long for Father Titian Miani to jump to the rescue. He was kind and generous, and the children’s devout Catholic mother welcomed him into her home, thinking he would be a good male influence on her kids in the absence of their father. The mother worked long hours and took night shifts to make ends meet, leaving the kids in the company of the kindly priest.
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Widow Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit against Disney Cruise Line
It didn’t take long for Marilyn and Santo Piazza’s dream cruise to turn into a nightmare.
In July 2007, the couple and their daughter and her family began an 11-day cruise out of Barcelona aboard the cruise ship Disney Magic. While stepping into his cabin’s bathroom, 78-year-old Santo tripped over the raised threshold. He fell to his right and hit the bathtub, fracturing his rib. Unknown to him and his terrified wife, he had also punctured a lung. For the next several hours, the family waited as the crew demonstrated some of the highest levels of ineptitude in emergency responses. First, they administered some Tylenol to the hapless and injured man. Later that afternoon, after Santo had begun experiencing intense pain and breathlessness, they diagnosed him with a punctured lung.
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Los Angeles Division of Water and Power Implicated in Mining Disaster
The Crandall Canyon mining disaster in August killed seven persons and injured two others. Now the first claims in the disaster are being formally drafted. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, on Wednesday, lawyers for the families of seven miners who were killed sent claims notices to Intermountain Power Agency, and the Los Angeles Division of Water and Power.
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Thomas and Friends Toy Maker Settles Suit for $30 Million
RC2, the makers of the Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway Toys have announced a $30 million settlement in a lawsuit over its lead-tainted toys that were recalled in June of 2007.
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$12 Million Awarded to Mother of Murdered Burbank Woman
When 30-year-old Sharon Santos’ body was found in the trunk of her car near Chinatown, it didn’t take investigators long to find out that the person responsible for her horrific rape and murder was a man that her apartment building had entrusted its maintenance to. This week, a jury awarded $12 million to her mother in a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of her apartment house.
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Truckers Resorting to Fix-it Repairs to Cut Costs
In a cluttered yard in Los Angeles, California, body shop workers put the finishing touches to a crack on a big rig that’s obviously seen better days. A simple fix-it repair job, it’ll cost the truck driver a mere $700, as opposed to a getting it fixed the proper way at a dealership, where the costs would run up to $3,000. Not only is the cost lower, the trucker will have his rig back in a day at most, unlike the dealership, which involves a two-week waiting period.
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15-Passenger Van Crash Brings to Light Perils of the Vehicle
Sometimes it takes what’s happening across the border to make us see the light. Last week, a 15-passenger van crashed in New Brunswick, Canada killing 8 people, including students of Bathurst High School and a teacher returning home from a game in the middle of a snowstorm.
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Oakland Boy Paralyzed by Stray Bullet
You could forgive Richard Rodriguez if he was angry and vengeful – he has every reason to be.
Last Thursday, a stray bullet that was fired from the gun of an armed robber injured Richard’s 10-year-old son, Christopher, a bright, enthusiastic young boy with a passion for music and sports. Christopher at the time was practicing the piano at Harmony Road Music School on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California. The gas station across the street was being robbed and the robber fired a .40 caliber bullet at the attendant. The bullet missed and instead traveled across the street and smashed through Christopher’s spinal cord, pierced his abdomen and ended up lodged in his right side.
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