First Quarter 2005 Personal Injury Law News & Recall Articles

Reuters, "Hyundai, Kia, recall 30,000 SUVs in U.S.; Problem with anti-rollover devices cited"

          Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. and Kia Motors Corp. are recalling more than 38,000 sport utility vehicles on the U.S. market because of a problem with their electronic stability program, or anti-rollover devices, federal safety regulators said Thursday.
          The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said vehicles from the Korean automakers affected by the recalls included 30,558 Hyundai Tucson and 7,619 Kia Sportage SUVs. Both are from the 2005 model year.
          The problem with the electronic stability program may cause the engine on the SUVs to reduce power automatically, and it could also cause a brake on one of the wheels to be applied without brake pedal activation by the driver, NHTSA said in an advisory on its Web site, the agency said.
          "Brake application caused by inadvertent ESP activation may result in a crash," the agency said.

The New York Times, "Lawsuit Documents and a Study Raise Questions on the Safety of Ford Explorer Roofs"

          A new study and documents from a recent lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company raise fresh questions about the safety of roofs on Ford Explorers. The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen released a study on Wednesday that accuses Ford of ignoring evidence that stronger roofs would lead to fewer injuries. More...

The Kansas City Star, "Flavoring maker must pay couple $15 million"

          A former popcorn-plant worker and his wife were awarded $15 million Friday after a jury found that exposure to butter-flavoring fumes led to his severe lung problems. More...

Associated Press, "U.S. Agency to Investigate More Than 3.7 Million Ford Motor Co. Pickups, SUVs for Defect"

          The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday it would investigate more than 3.7 million Ford Motor Co. pickups and sport utility vehicles for a defect in a cruise control switch that led to a January recall.
          The agency said it would examine Ford F-150 pickups from the 1995-1999 and 2001-2002 model years, and Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators from the 1997-1999 and 2001-2002 model years.
          NHTSA officials said they have received 218 complaints of engine fires from the cruise control switch in those models. No injuries or fatalities have been reported.
          The new investigation does not include the 2000 model years of the vehicles, which was covered by the January recall of nearly 800,000 vehicles. Ford said the cruise control switch could short circuit and cause an engine compartment fire when the vehicle was parked or being driven, even if the cruise control was not being used.

KPRC Click2Houston.com, "1999 Ford SUV Suspected Of Sparking Deputy's House Fire"

          A Harris County deputy's home in northwest Harris County caught fire Friday morning and investigators think his Ford sport utility vehicle, parked in the garage, may have sparked the blaze. More...

Times-Union (Jacksonville), "Defects in Explorer blamed for fatal crash; $10.2 million awarded"

          A Jacksonville jury returned a $10.2 million verdict against Ford Motor Co., finding defects in its Explorer's roof and seat belt systems. After the four-week trial, the jury said the death of a Jacksonville woman could have been prevented if the roof had not collapsed. The plaintiff's attorneys are calling the verdict the first in the nation finding fault with the popular SUV's roof. More...

Reuters, "GM's Blazer Ranked Deadliest Car on U.S. Roadways"

          The two-door Chevrolet Blazer from General Motors Corp. has the highest driver death rate of any passenger vehicle on U.S. roadways, a research group with links to the insurance industry said on Tuesday. More...

The New York Times, "Is the Car Unsafe, or the Driver?"

          One way of reading the new report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is that the Mercedes E-Class sedan has the safest design of any car or truck and the two-door Chevrolet Blazer the worst. Another way to read the report, to be released Tuesday, is that E-Class drivers tend to drive more carefully than Blazer drivers. More...

San Francisco Chronicle, "Couple warns some Land Rover seats are dangerous"

          A Danville, California couple plans to launch a foundation warning drivers of what they consider the danger of inward-facing "jump seats" in some Land Rover SUVs after settling a lawsuit with the company over the death of their 9-year- old son, who was partly ejected in a rollover crash. Joey Moore was wearing a lap belt in one of the two third-row, fold-down seats in his parents' 1995 Land Rover Discovery in the July 2001 crash on Highway 50 in El Dorado County. More...

USA Today, "Antidepressant 'black box' labels start this month"

          "Black box" labels warning that antidepressants can increase suicidal behavior in children should be on the drugs most widely prescribed to kids by mid-March, five months after the Food and Drug Administration ordered them, according to FDA documents. More...

The New York Times, "10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills Had Industry Ties"

          Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records. More...

Crossvilee Chronicle, Tennessee, "$7 million awarded in Ford Motor Co. lawsuit"

          A Cumberland County record $7 million judgment was returned by a jury in a product liability lawsuit against Ford Motor Company filed by a Morgan County woman who suffered permanent injury in a 2002 traffic accident. The lawsuit centered around a seat that Betty and Martin Potter claimed broke during a crash and resulted in Betty Potter suffering a broken back that has left her a paraplegic. More...

Washington Post, "Drugs Raise Risk of Suicide"

          Adults taking popular antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as patients given sugar pills, according to an analysis released yesterday of hundreds of clinical trials involving tens of thousands of patients. More...

The New York Times, "Merck's Actions on Vioxx Face New Scrutiny"

          The spotlight is likely to be on Pfizer tomorrow when federal drug regulators begin hearings on cox-2 drugs, the class of arthritis and pain medicines that include the company's Celebrex and Bextra brands. After all, Merck, which made the other drug in that class, Vioxx, pulled it off the market last fall, citing its safety risks. More...

USA Today, "Suicide Alert Has Parents Rethinking Antidepressants"

          Use of antidepressants by children and teenagers declined sharply last year after the drugs were linked to suicidal behavior, according to an analysis for USA Today by pharmacy benefit managers Medco Health Solutions. More...

Medical News Today, "Study Finds Long-term Treatment with Bosentan Improves Outcomes in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension"

          Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating disease that carries a poor prognosis. Untreated, about half of patients die within two years. Only recently have specific medicines for this disease become available. While effective, the first available therapy, epoprostenol, proved difficult for patients to use because it is delivered on a continuous intravenous basis rather than in a pill form. More...

The Associated Press, "Merck in hot seat over latest Vioxx report; Scientists say company tried to distance itself from own study"

          Merck & Co. forced one of its researchers to remove her name from a study linking Vioxx to heart attacks, then criticized the findings before ultimately pulling the arthritis drug from the market last fall, two of the scientist’s colleagues said. More...

San Francisco Chronicle, "Studies confirm arthritis drugs raise heart attack risk"

          Two studies released Monday have turned up new evidence that all of the popular arthritis painkillers known as COX-2 inhibitors may put users at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes. COX-2 inhibitors, which are promoted as being less likely to cause gastrointestinal bleeding than other widely used painkillers, were aggressively advertised after they came on the market in the late 1990s. More...

The Detroit News, "Automakers find safety means sales - As new technology becomes widespread, savvy consumers come to expect it"

         Here's another sign that times have definitely changed for the auto industry: safety is selling. More...

Reuters, "Researcher says 139,000 harmed by Vioxx"

          The U.S. drug safety officer who warned months ago about risks from Merck & Co. Inc.'s painkiller Vioxx won clearance to publish a study arguing the now-recalled drug may have caused up to 139,000 heart attacks and strokes, his attorney said Monday. More...

St. Petersburg Times (Florida), "Papers link Prozac, Suicide"

           British medical journal said Friday it had given U.S. regulators confidential drug company documents suggesting a link between the popular antidepressant Prozac and a heightened risk of suicide attempts and violence. More...