Third Quarter 2004 Personal Injury Law News & Recall Articles

Sacramento Bee, "Warning spurs caution on antidepressants in kids"

          There's a lot of hand-wringing going on in doctors' offices now that the federal government is poised to throw a wrench into the widespread practice of prescribing antidepressants to children. More...

Detroit Free Press, "U.S. keeping crash data secret"

          Federal auto safety officials are backtracking on a pledge to give consumers access to detailed data on which cars and trucks may be linked to deaths, injuries and property damage. The reason: Tire makers have sued to prevent its release. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says it will hold off indefinitely on releasing the information while the lawsuit by the country's largest tire makers is argued and decided, which could take months, if not years. Consumer advocates have been clamoring for the release of such data since the 2000 Ford-Firestone rollover debacle. More...

The New York Times, "In Britain, second thoughts over antidepressant rules"

          It was Britain's warning to physicians last year not to treat depression in young people with six antidepressant drugs that set off an international debate and gave impetus to U.S. health authorities who made similar recommendations this week, saying the drugs largely failed to treat depression in children and teenagers and led some to become suicidal. More...

Forbes, "Vioxx Safety Debate Renewed After FDA Report"

          A new study linking high doses of Vioxx to an increased risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths has re-ignited a running debate about the safety of the arthritis drug. More...

Religion News Service, "Lawsuit filed over van rollover deaths"

          The estates of five young people killed in a single-vehicle church van rollover accident last year have sued Ford Motor Co. and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, claiming Ford was negligent in manufacturing its Econoline E-350 15-passenger van, and Enterprise knew the vans were dangerous. More...

The New York Times, "Safety Gap Grows Wider Between S.U.V.'s and Cars"

          The gap in safety between sport utility vehicles and passenger cars last year was the widest yet recorded, according to new federal traffic data. People driving or riding in a sport utility vehicle in 2003 were nearly 11 percent more likely to die in an accident than people in cars, the figures show. More...

Detroit News, "Feds link injuries to weak roofs; Auto industry will challenge new drive to toughen regulations"

          A new federal study that could have major implications in the growing debate over vehicle roof strength found a strong link between fatalities and injuries, and the severity of crushed roofs in rollover accidents. Automakers have contended for years that there’s no solid evidence of a correlation between roof strength and the likelihood of injury and death in rollover accidents. More...

Associated Press, "Wyeth Agrees to a Fen-Phen Pact"

          More than 40,000 former fen-phen users who contend the diet drugs caused minor heart-valve damage would be compensated faster -- but get substantially less money -- under a proposed deal to speed review of less-serious cases in the protracted litigation. More...

The Dallas Morning News, "Big rigs, big risks on highways"

          The truck had two bad brakes and a tired driver. It carried a load of cars. And it slammed into the back of an SUV carrying two young boys and their fathers. One of the dads was a firefighter, the other a state trooper whose job was to keep bad rigs off the road. Everybody died. More...

New Jersey Law Journal, "New Jersey Judge Readies First Batch of Fen-Phen Lawsuits for Trial"

          Calling the drug manufacturer's protests "overblown," a Bergen County, N.J., judge last week consolidated five fen-phen diet drug cases as the first of 5,800 to go to trial in New Jersey. More...

The Wall Street Journal, "Safety Data Give SUVs Poor Grade In Rollover Tests"

          More than a third of the most popular 2004-model sport-utility vehicles show a tendency to roll over, federal car-safety regulators said yesterday, giving auto makers another dent in their SUV lines. More...

The Associated Press, "Lawmaker calls for stronger guardrails on highways"

          A lawmaker called for stronger guardrails along Florida's highways Monday after a church bus plunged into a canal and killed three children. State Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, said highways should be lined by barriers similar to those used to keep airplanes on aircraft carriers. More...

Associated Press, "Government releases new rating system for vehicle rollovers"

          The government's traffic safety agency is expanding its rollover rating system for cars and trucks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's old rollover ratings were based on height and width as well as a test that includes a sharp turn at up to 80 kph (50 mph) Five stars are given to vehicles that roll over 10 percent of the time or less, and one star to vehicles that roll over between 40 and 50 percent of the time. More...

Detroit Free Press, "U.S. regulators to gauge rollover risk; Vehicles to be ranked good to bad"

          U.S. safety regulators will begin predicting the probability that a vehicle will roll over, cause of more than half the fatalities for sport-utility vehicles. More...

Philippine Daily Inquirer, "A Roof-Crush Lawsuit"

          Despite multimillion-dollar lawsuits arising from rollover accidents involving sport utility vehicles in the United States, SUVs and pickup trucks continue to outsell passenger cars. A series of lawsuits have charged General Motors, Ford and other auto manufacturers with failing to protect occupants in rollovers of SUVs and pickups. More...

Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT), "Carbon Monoxide Kills Man; Wife Ill"

          A man was found dead and a woman seriously poisoned by carbon monoxide Wednesday in their Bar Harbor Road townhouse condominium in the north end of town. More...

Tri-City Herald (Washington), "Large vans focus of lawsuit"

          Tim and Frances Bardessono couldn't help but notice the large number of 15-passenger vans on the road as the Prosser couple drove to Seattle. Their daughter, Corinne Bardessono, 15, was killed in December when the 15-passenger Ford van she was riding in hit black ice on Highway 395 near Ritzville and rolled. Belen Campos, 17, also died in the accident. The two girls were classmates at Prosser High School. More...

The New York Times, "Suspension Failure on Saturn SUV's in Rollover Tests Prompts Inquiry"

          The suspensions on two Saturn Vue sport utility vehicles broke during rollover tests performed by the government last month, causing the left rear wheels of the vehicles to collapse. The suspension failures occurred in separate tests of the two- and four-wheel-drive versions of the Vue, which is made by General Motors. More...

Associated Press, "Wyeth, Fen-Phen Lawyers Propose New Settlement"

          Former fen-phen users seeking compensation for heart problems under a national class-action settlement would get payments sooner but would receive less under a proposed new agreement between drug maker Wyeth and claimants' attorneys. The new agreement must be approved by a federal judge after some details are ironed out over the next couple weeks. More...

Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia), Albemarle Inn Sued Over Blaze

          A New York lawyer injured in a November fire at the Clifton Inn and the husbands of two others who died in the blaze are suing the Albemarle County retreat's owners, with one suit alone seeking $10 million. More...

Associated Press, "Popcorn worker's lawsuit claims lung damage"

The Washington Post, "27 Fires Linked To Oil Changes In Honda CR-V"

          At least 27 Honda CR-V sport-utility vehicles from the 2003 and 2004 model years burst into flames shortly after getting their first oil changes, according to records provided to the federal government by the manufacturer. While no injuries were reported, many of the vehicles were destroyed, usually with 10,000 miles or fewer on their odometers. More...