Pittsburgh Wrongful Death Law Blog

Car accidents are one of the most common causes of injury and death in the United States. Sadly, all it takes is just one second for two vehicles to collide, and people's lives to be forever changed.

Recently in North Franklin Township in Pennsylvania, two drivers were injured when one vehicle broadsided another. The impact caused one of the vehicles to crash into a tree, and the driver inside of that vehicle had to be extricated from the vehicle he was operating.

Having to go through any kind of medical procedure can be nerve-wracking enough. However, many people find some comfort in the fact that the medical staff will be on hand who are supposed to be highly skilled and trained, and know exactly what they are doing. And while this may be the case for some health care professionals, sadly there are also many instances every year where medical negligence leads to a permanent injury for a patient.

Recently, one woman who was supposed to be treated for having severe back pain filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against her health care providers. Her claim is that their negligence led to her having not only more pain, but that she has also since been diagnosed with insomnia, depression and anxiety following their mistake.

Families of two people who were killed by a drunk driver have filed lawsuits against not only the driver, but also several establishments in Lehigh Valley, Berks and Kutztown counties in Pennsylvania, where the convicted drunk driver had supposedly been consuming alcohol. An organizer of a bus trip to a hockey game where the driver had between 15 to 20 beers is also named in the wrongful death lawsuit.

Looking back at the tragic accident, two women and a designated driver were on their way back from a wake, when the drunk driver ran a red light and smashed into the vehicle the three were in. All three died.

Residents around Perry Highway in Summit Township are concerned every morning when their children board buses to go to Fort LeBoeuf Middle School. They are distraught because their kids are crossing busy Route 97. In December, a 13-year-old girl was struck and killed by a 19-year-old who was not paying attention to the school bus or the fact that there were kids crossing the road.

There were about a dozen students at the scene that witnessed the wrongful death and the driver is now facing several charges including vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, simple assault, and involuntary manslaughter.

In retrospect, Fort LeBoeuf administrators say that they have always taken school bus stop safety seriously, and that particular stop met all safety requirements, but that there has certainly been added focus placed on the situation after the young girl's death.

The initial change was an alternate route for the bus. Instead of crossing Route 97, students can board the bus directly from the entrance into the mobile home park where the accident occurred.

Nearly 7,000 cars and trucks travel the stretch of Perry Highway between Townhall and Robison roads every day according to PennDoT. Most of that traffic is obviously moving through the area during the busy morning and late afternoon hours when people are going to and coming home from work. And these times coincide with children going to and coming home from school. PennDoT has reported that there have been a ridiculous number of crashes in that short stretch of road in the last decade or so-twenty-seven just from 2006 to 2010.

Thankfully, the school bus's route changes will not only be affecting children who live at Popp's Mobile Home Park; administrators say that bus stops were adjusted all along Route 97 to keep students from having to cross the highway. In addition, the district is still looking at ways it can change bus routes on the busy roads that cut through the district such as Route 19, Route 99, and Route 6 North. They have also added bright LED lights to the stop signs that are mounted on the buses and deployed at stops, signifying to all drivers that they must stop their vehicles at least 40 ft. from the bus while children are boarding and exiting the bus.

There is talk of new road signs and cameras being installed on the school buses as well. These cameras will be highly effective in capturing the license plate numbers of negligent drivers who illegally speed past buses when their stop signs are deployed and they are picking up children. School bus drivers are also being trained to record general information about cars and trucks that break this law by writing down the make, model, color, and license plate number if possible when they witness a driver breaking this law.

Being stuck behind a school bus, especially when you're late, can be frustrating; however, it is extremely important that drivers stay patient and follow all laws regarding school bus safety. Five minutes is not worth the life of an innocent child and a lifetime in prison.

http://goerie.com/article/20120208/NEWS02/302089961/Fatal-accident-leads-to-enhanced-safety-for-Fort-LeBoeuf-bus-stops

In Pennsylvania there are strict laws regarding who is allowed to purchase and carry firearms. The reasoning behind these laws is to ensure that a dangerous person is not in possession of a firearm. Sadly, some people find ways to skirt these laws, and then use these guns to commit unspeakable crimes.

Currently, this is the issue at hand in a Pennsylvania wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit was recently filed by the parents of a 39-year-old who was shot dead by the jealous husband of the mistress he was having an affair with.

Look at the opening between the ground and the back of most tractor-trailers. Most likely you will notice that this opening is enough room for a car to simply slide right underneath the trailer in a trucking accident. However, safety officials know this, which is why most semitrailers are required to have an underride guard, also known as an ICC bar, attached to the back of their trailer. This bar is supposed to stop a car from sliding underneath.

In theory, this makes sense. The ICC bar is made of steel, and is either welded or bolted on. But, even though this seems like a pretty safe strategy, it turns out that these bars tend to break and bend, and passenger vehicles still slide underneath the trucks. This puts the driver of the vehicle in great danger, as the car can continue to slide until the back of the trailer is touching the driver's seat.

Shoulder dystocia is a birth injury that happens when a baby's shoulder becomes stuck -- typically behind the mother's pubic bone -- during labor. In some cases, this can result in the nerves in the brachial plexus being ripped, which in turn can lead to the child losing function in their shoulder, arm and hand. These injuries can also last a lifetime.

Sadly, one family knows this all too well, as their daughter suffered from a shoulder dystocia during delivery on February 2007. Since then, the little girl has had to undergo two separate surgeries that cost $74,000. And while she does have some range of motion in her arm, more surgeries will most likely be needed, and she will still probably never have a normal full range of motion in that arm.

A jury in a medical malpractice lawsuit recently awarded a 30-year-old woman $1.5 million for the debilitating injuries she sustained -- and will continue to suffer from -- after a surgeon decided to cancel her surgery. Now, the woman is left with only a small portion of her intestine, and she is not able to work.

According to the lawsuit, in 2003 the then 21-year-old went to the doctor complaining of abdominal pain. At the time, a surgeon found her condition severe enough to schedule a surgery for the next day. However, in the morning he decided to cancel that surgery, and then left for a pre-planned out-of-town event for the weekend.