Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

A N.J., man who suffered a head injury in a shopping center accident accepted $10.3 million to settle his suit.

On July 9, 2008, Michael Hess was leaning on a metal railing on an elevated walkway outside a store at Echo Plaza in Springfield when the railing gave way. He fell four feet to the pavement below, hitting his head. The railing had broken the day before, but the shopping center used wire to hold it together and did not post warning signs, says the plaintiffs attorney, Raymond Gill.

Hess suffered three fractured vertebrae, dislocated his left shoulder, and suffered nerve problems in his feet from walking on crutches.

Continue reading " N.J. Shopping Center to Pay $10.3 M in Premises Liability Suit " »

Exxon Mobil Corp., showed “reckless and reprehensible” behavior by failing to protect workers from dangerous radioactive material in used oil-drilling pipes, a lawyer for 16 men told a Louisiana jury.

“Exxon recklessly put profits above workers' safety,” Frank Buck told jurors in Gretna, Louisiana, in his closing argument at the end of a five-week trial.

Buck told jurors they should award more than $17 million to a group of 16 pipe workers who sued Exxon, claiming they were exposed to high levels of radium in the residue, or “scale,” that built up inside the pipes and now fear they may develop cancer.

Read full story here at the Houston Chronicle.

Continue reading " Plaintiffs in Personal Injury Suit Say Exxon ‘Reckless' With Worker Safety " »

For what appears to be the first time, a former resident of Camp Lejeune, N.C., has been permitted to move ahead with a claim against the Marine Corps for years of water contamination that she says led to the development of her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The U.S. Department of the Navy, which includes the Marines, this week lost its bid to dismiss the case of Laura J. Jones of Iowa, who lived at Camp Lejeune from 1980 to 1983 as the spouse of a Marine officer.

In 2005, more than two decades after she left North Carolina, Jones was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Continue reading " Judge: Lejeune Resident Can Move Ahead With Injury Claim " »

Monty and Linda Hardy had taken their 2008 Toyota Avalon to a Grapevine dealership "several times" with complaints about uncommanded acceleration but were told there was nothing wrong, their attorney says.

On the day after Christmas, Monty Hardy was driving the Toyota in Southlake when it sped through a T-intersection, barreled through a steel fence, struck a tree and landed upside down in an icy pond. He and all three passengers in the car were killed.

Read full story here at Dallas Morning News

Continue reading " Toyota Owners Took Concerns to Dealership Before Fatal Southlake Crash " »

GlaxoSmithKline Plc rejected allegations that it concealed safety information about its diabetes drug Avandia or acted inappropriately in marketing it, saying a U.S. Senate staff report was inaccurate and incomplete.

The company diligently studied the drug’s safety and effectiveness, and communicated its findings to governments, regulators, scientists and doctors, London-based Glaxo said in a statement.

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading " Glaxo Backs Avandia’s Safety Says That US Report Biased " »

A jury has awarded a woman $23.4 million in a civil judgment against Ford Motor Co. for a 2007 freeway accident that left her a quadriplegic.

Cynthia Castillo lost control of her 1997 Ford Explorer when the tread separated from her left-rear tire as she drove on the freeway.

Her attorney, Brian Brandt, said the SUV veered off the freeway and rolled three times down an embankment, leaving her legs and most of her body paralyzed. Flaws in the vehicle's design caused it to lose control when the tire tread separates, Brandt said.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Woman Gets $23.4M for Personal Injury Ford Crash " »

An Idaho Springs man was awarded $18.5 million for catastrophic injuries he suffered when a driver drunk on alcohol and high on marijuana left a mountain road and slammed into him as he was changing the oil on his wife's car in their driveway.

Clear Creek District Court Judge Granger assessed the award against the driver, Kevin Ruszkowski, 24; the owner of the Jeep, Randall Guy; and Guy's son, Justin Guy, 20, who had allowed Ruszkowski to drive the vehicle.

Paul Savage, 46, who was injured, was head waiter at the Alpenglow Stube at Keystone at the time.

Ruszkowski had no license because his driving privileges had either been suspended or revoked for prior driving misconduct.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14419648#ixzz0gN2hsQw2

Continue reading " Idaho Springs Man Awarded $18.5 M in DUI Case " »

The pressure on Toyota Motor Corp. intensified as the company disclosed subpoenas from a federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission related to sudden acceleration in its cars, while the leaders of a congressional panel accused Toyota of misleading the public about safety problems.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, in an 11-page letter, previewed issues its members likely will raise at a hearing Tuesday. The letter criticized Toyota for resisting the possibility that electronic defects could be responsible for the reports of unintended acceleration.

Read full story here at the WSJ.

Continue reading " Federal Subpoenas Hit Toyota on the Eve of Hearing " »

The Food and Drug Administration, under fire from a new Senate report questioning the safety of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's diabetes drug Avandia, told doctors that patients taking the medicine should stay on it unless their doctors say otherwise.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), the chairwoman of the House appropriations panel that controls the FDA's budget, said: "I strongly urge the FDA to remove Avandia from the market until a truly independent, science-based advisory panel can evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug."

Read full article here at the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading " FDA Faces More Pressure to Pull Avandia Diabetes Drug " »

A pedestrian wearing a hooded jacket has been killed by a commuter train in Dallas.

The woman walked into a Trinity Railway Express train, which links Dallas and Fort Worth and carries about 10,000 passengers daily, during afternoon rush hour Monday.

Read full story here at the Fort Worth Star Telegram

Continue reading " Texas Woman Dies After Walking Into Train in Dallas " »

Three years ago, Dr.Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, conducted a landmark study that suggested that the best-selling diabetes drug Avandia raised the risk of heart attacks. The study led to a Congressional inquiry, stringent safety warnings, a sharp drop in the drug’s sales of GlaxoSmithKline, Avandia’s maker.

The battle between Dr. Nissen and GlaxoSmithKline was waged from afar in news releases and published papers. But on May 10, 2007, 11 days before Dr. Nissen’s study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, he and four company executives met face to face in a private meeting whose details have not been disclosed until now.

Read the full article here at the New York Times.

Continue reading " Heart Attack and Heart Failure Side Effects of Avandia Diabetes Drug " »

Tobacco smoke contamination lingering on furniture, clothes and other surfaces, dubbed thirdhand smoke, may react with indoor air chemicals to form potential cancer-causing substances, a study found.

After exposing a piece of paper to smoke, researchers found the sheet had levels of newly formed carcinogens that were 10 times higher after three hours in the presence of an indoor air chemical called nitrous acid commonly emitted by household appliances or cigarette smoke. That means people may face a risk from indoor tobacco smoke in a way that’s never been recognized before, said one of the study’s authors, Lara Gundel.

Read the full Bloomberg article here.

Continue reading " Third hand Smoke Forms Cancer-Causing Residue Indoors " »

The maker of Poligrip denture cream will stop making formulas containing zinc amid lawsuits claiming years of excessive use caused neurological damage and blood problems in consumers, allegedly crippling some.

GlaxoSmithKline will stop making and marketing Super Poligrip Original, Ultra Fresh and Extra Care products in the U.S. The company plans to reformulate the creams without zinc.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Continue reading " Glaxo to Remove Zinc From Denture Cream " »

Confidential studies by Food and Drug Administration officials recommend that GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia, a diabetes medicine, get pulled from the market because it is linked to heart attacks.

The studies, released as part of a report on Avandia by staff of Senate Finance Committee members Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Max Baucus (D., Mont.), also say any head-to-head trial where patients get Avandia and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s diabetes medicine Actos would be "unethical and exploitative." GlaxoSmithKline is currently sponsoring a study, called TIDE, where patients get either Avandia, Actos or other medicines.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Story here

Continue reading " GlaxoSmithKline Knew of Avandia's Cardiac Risks, Senate Report Says " »

Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

Read full New York Times dtory here.

Continue reading " FDA Report Avandia Diabetes Drug Harms Heart " »

A range of health problems are linked to the pits on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Toxic substances have been found in the smoke.

The noxious smoke plumes that wafted over the military base in Balad, Iraq, alarmed Lt. Col. Michelle Franco. The stench from a huge burn pit clung to her clothing, skin and hair.

She wheezed and coughed constantly. When Franco returned to the U.S., she was diagnosed with reactive airway dysfunction syndrome. She is no longer able to serve as an Air Force nurse.

Read full story here at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading " US Army Veterans Blame Burn Pits For Toxic Injury " »

The jury ordered pain pump manufacturer I-Flow Corp. to pay $4.5 million to a man whose implanted pump caused the cartilage in his shoulder joint to wear almost completely away, a condition known as chondrolysis.

In the first verdict of its kind, an Oregon jury has found for the plaintiff in a case against the manufacturer of a pain pump, awarding $4.5 million to a man for permanent damage to his shoulder joint. The verdict, which included damages paid to his wife for loss of consortium, comes in what many considered a test case for the defense. (Beale v. I-Flow Corp., No. 080101554 (Or., Multnomah Co. Dist. Jan. 22, 2010).)

Read full story here Trial

Continue reading " Oregon Jury Finds for Plaintiff in First Pain Pump Verdict " »

Toyota Motor Corp. and U.S. regulators are looking into possible steering problems in the company's popular Corolla compact, the latest quality issue to surface in the wake of two recalls that covered millions of vehicles and forced Toyota to halt U.S. sales of eight models.

The Corolla investigation could start as early as Thursday, said a U.S. Transportation Department official. The inquiry will cover about 500,000 model-year 2009 and 2010 Corollas, officials said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 163 complaints about the steering in Corollas from those model years, according to the safety agency's Web site.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Article here.

Continue reading " U.S. to Probe Toyota Corolla Steering Reports " »

U.S. regulators on Tuesday opened an investigation into whether Toyota Motor Corp acted in a timely way to recall cars for acceleration problems, and the automaker moved to slow its U.S. production to avoid a costly ballooning of inventories.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had requested production data, consumer complaints and other documents expected to shed light on how and when Toyota learned of problems affecting about 6 million vehicles it has recalled in the United States.

Read full Reuters story here.

Continue reading " U.S. Opens Probe into Toyota Recalls; Output Cut " »

Roche Holding AG, the Swiss drugmaker, must pay $25.16 million in damages to a former user of its Accutane drug who blamed the acne medicine for his inflammatory bowel disease, a New Jersey jury ruled.

Andrew McCarrell, 38, won the verdict at a retrial in Atlantic City, New Jersey. An appeals court ordered the new trial after overturning a $2.62 million award he won in May 2007. McCarrell, a computer technician from Birmingham, Alabama, testified he got sick after taking the drug for acne in 1995. He needed five surgeries, including one to remove his colon.

Read the full story here at Bloomberg.

Continue reading " Roche Ordered to Pay $25 M to Accutane User " »

A year after Continental Connection Flight 3407 plunged into a house near Buffalo, killing all 49 people on board and a man in the house, lawyers are preparing to negotiate in dollars and cents the price of raw grief and loss.

Thirty-four lawsuits filed by the husbands, wives and children of passengers demand compensation for negligence, wrongful death and punitive damages from Houston-based Continental Airlines and Colgan Air, the Manassas, Va., regional carrier operating the Feb. 12, 2009, flight. Also named are Colgan parent Pinnacle Airlines of Memphis, Tenn.; Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace, which made the plane; and FlightSafety International, which helped train the pilots.

Click here to read full story.

Continue reading " Families of Plane Crash Victims Must Put Value on Grief " »

Roche Holding AG, the Swiss drugmaker, must pay $25.16 million in damages to a former user of its Accutane drug who blamed the acne medicine for his inflammatory bowel disease, a New Jersey jury ruled.

Andrew McCarrell, 38, won the verdict at a retrial in Atlantic City, New Jersey. An appeals court ordered the new trial after overturning a $2.62 million award he won in May 2007. McCarrell, a computer technician from Birmingham, Alabama, testified he got sick after taking the drug for acne in 1995. He needed five surgeries, including one to remove his colon.

Read the full Reuter story here.

Continue reading " " »

Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles have been linked to 34 deaths by consumers filing complaints with the U.S. government over unexpected acceleration, according to the Transportation Department.

The total jumped by 13 fatalities since Jan. 27 as nine more filings were added to a database the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses to track deaths, injuries and consumer complaints.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601209&sid=aPso41xXZS60Read the full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading " Toyota Acceleration Complaints Cite 34 Deaths, U.S. Data Show " »

The wife of the driver of a 2008 Avalon that shot into a pond in Southlake and flipped, killing four people, said she believes quicker action by Toyota could have prevented the tragedy.

Linda Hardy's husband, Monty, was behind the wheel of his car that landed upside down in a small pond in Southlake.

Read full story here at WFAA

Continue reading " WFAA: Wife of Southlake Texas Driver Who Died Slams Toyota " »

Federal investigators found scores of problems at UC Irvine Medical Center during a fall inspection that again put the troubled hospital's Medicare funding at risk, according to report released Thursday.

In an 85-page report on their surprise October inspection, regulators said they observed poor oversight and mistakes by UCI doctors, nurses and pharmacists, leading to inadequate care that in some cases harmed patients.

Read full story here at the Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading " More Medical Malpractice Problems Discovered at UCI Medical Center " »

Los Angeles is awash in billboards and other outdoor signs advertising the weight loss treatment.

One feature of life in Southern California that's become hard to avoid is the relentless advertising for a weight-loss procedure known as lap-band surgery.

The billboards feature a willowy blond in a red tank top and the phone number 1-800-GET-THIN in huge red letters. "LOSE WEIGHT WITH THE LAP-BAND!" they say.

Read the full story here in the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading " Los Angeles Lap-Band Ads " »

The company vigorously denies that its vehicles' acceleration problems might stem from an electronic or software glitch. But it remains an open question, and any such finding would be devastating.

In the nearly five months since it launched a string of recalls to stop its cars from accelerating out of control, Toyota Motor Corp. has been adamant about one thing: It's not the electronics.

Company officials first put the blame on floor mats that could entrap the accelerator, later amending that to include gas pedals themselves that could stick.

Read the full story here at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading " Toyota Car Recall: Now Electronics Questions " »

A teenager badly injured when he was shocked by a fallen power line near a state beach in late June has filed a lawsuit against the utility company that operates the wires.

Jacob Kirkendall, a 17-year-old Aptos High student with strong family ties in Los Gatos, names Pacific Gas & Electric Co., as well as the county of Santa Cruz and State Parks, as defendants in the suit.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Santa Cruz Family Sues Over Burns From Downed Powerlines " »

A Colorado man has fought mostly unsuccessfully to get his concerns heard since his wife's Prius car accident in 2006.

Before his wife's Prius suddenly accelerated uncontrollably to 90 miles per hour on a mountain highway, you'd have been hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of Toyota than Ted James.

A middle-school science teacher and ardent environmentalist, James got a Prius for his wife, Elizabeth, and a Corolla for himself.

Read the full story here at the Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading " Colorado Man's Crusade to Bring Attention to Defective Toyota Cars " »

State and local governments across the country may have to replace their water systems because of defective pipes, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed this week.

The whistle-blower, John Hendrix, accuses his former employer, one of the world’s largest pipe manufacturers, of falsifying test results about the quality of its products. Pipes that should last 50 years are in some cases rupturing in their very first year, according to Mr. Hendrix and some state documents. This can lead to explosions, leaks, fires and other dangers.

Read full New York Times story here.

Continue reading " Defective PVC Bursting Pipes Lead to a Legal Battle " »

Former regulators hired by Toyota Motor Corp. helped end at least four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration by company vehicles in the last decade, warding off possible recalls, court and government records show.

Christopher Tinto, vice president of regulatory affairs in Toyota’s Washington office, and Christopher Santucci, who works for Tinto, helped persuade the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to end probes including those of 2002-2003 Toyota Camrys and Solaras, court documents show. Both men joined Toyota directly from NHTSA, Tinto in 1994 and Santucci in 2003.

Read full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading " Ex NHTSA Regulators Hired by Toyota Helped Halt Investigations " »

Four Toyota Motor Corp. units were named as defendants in a racketeering lawsuit that claims the companies collaborated to sell cars they knew were unsafe.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 8 in federal court in Covington, Kentucky, targets Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., as well units that produce Toyota’s Camry and Avalon models and handle leasing and engineering.

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading " Toyota Units Named in Suit Claiming Racketeering " »

Legal expenses and damages could add billions to Toyota's recall costs, with dozens of suits pending over injuries and deaths and at least 30 seeking class-action status over lost use of vehicles.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive recalls for acceleration and braking problems are creating a huge legal liability for the company -- and Toyota owners may share in the pain.

Toyota faces dozens of lawsuits over injuries and deaths attributed to safety problems, with many more suits expected. Lawyers and legal experts said the lawsuits could be particularly expensive for the automaker if plaintiffs prove that Toyota was aware of problems but failed to correct them.

Read full story here at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading " Toyota Faces Massive Legal Liability From Defective Cars " »

Two defibrillator brands made by Boston Scientific Corp. have a design flaw that can result in the devices delivering potentially life-threatening shocks to the hearts of patients, authors of a medical journal article say.

The defect can cause the Cognis and Teligen brand defibrillators to deliver the shocks when they aren't needed in the many patients who get the devices implanted just under the skin, according to an article in the journal HeartRhythm. The potential malfunction, while appearing to be extremely rare, could in theory affect any of the more than 90,000 devices implanted, said the authors. They advised physicians to look for the problem should the devices malfunction.

Read the full story here at the Wall Street Journal

Continue reading " Boston Scientific Defibrillator Safety Questioned " »

A Jefferson County jury has found Christus St. Mary Hospital negligent in its treatment of a 41-year-old woman who died of a heart attack within hours of an emergency room visit.

In the verdict, filed Jan. 21, the jury found that the Port Arthur hospital along with Dr. Michael Peterson committed “willful or wanton negligence,” in their treatment of Stacy Meaux.

The jury awarded a combined $1.3 million in damages to Meaux; her mother, Mary Ann, Licatino; and her two children.

Limitations on the amount of money that can be awarded for mental anguish pain and medical malpractice will limit this to $250,000 per defendant.

Read the article here

Toyota said that its dealers are working overtime to fix sticking gas pedals on some 2.1 million recalled vehicles at a rate of 50,000 per day and have so far repaired 225,000 cars.

Toyota recalled 3.8 million vehicles last fall to repair what it called floor-mat "entrapment" of the gas pedal, and an additional 2.1 million cars last month to fix what it calls an unrelated sticky-gas-pedal problem.

Read the full story here at the Washington Post.

Continue reading " Toyota to Fix Gas Pedals as Lawsuits Increase " »

The parents and daughter of a man killed in a car crash have sued the bar that allegedly sold alcohol to the driver who was not only drunk, but also underage.

Michael Slay Chapman died on Nov. 27 when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by a vehicle driven by Bo Pillsbury. Before the incident, the 19-year-old Pillsbury had been drinking at the Dixie Dance Hall in Beaumont's Crockett Street Entertainment District.

Chapman's parents, Wayne and Teresa Chapman, and his daughter, Zoe Jane Chapman, filed a lawsuit against Dixie Host Ltd. on Feb. 1 in Jefferson County District Court.

"Despite being obviously intoxicated and/or showing obvious signs of intoxication that a reasonable person, especially a provider of alcohol should recognize, employees of Defendant continued to serve Bo Pillsbury alcohol," the suit states.

"After drinking for an extended period of time at the Dixie Dance Hall, Bo Pillsbury was allowed to leave the premises and drive away. As he was driving in an intoxicated state, Bo Pillsbury lost control of his vehicle and struck a vehicle in which Michael Slay Chapman was a passenger."

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Family of Crash Victim Sues Dixie Dance Hall for Serving Drinks to Driver " »

A Texas attorney is moving at full speed with a proposed class action against Toyota over accidents allegedly caused by stuck gas pedals, even as the automaker announced it has a remedy to put the brakes on the problem.

Representing Corpus Christi residents Sylvia and Albert Pena III and others similarly situated, attorney Hilliard filed suit against Toyota Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. The suit was filed Jan. 29 in the Corpus Christi Division of the Southern District of Texas.

"This is a civil action against defendants based upon information and belief that defendants, and each of them, designed, manufactured, distributed, and sold certain automobiles equipped with the Electronic Throttle Control System with Intelligence (ETCS-i) and/or Electronic Throttle Control System (ETC) that is defective in that it will allow sudden unintended acceleration of the vehicle engine," wrote Hilliard.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Breach of Warranty Claimed in Texas Class Action Against Toyota " »

Cardiac Science Corporation and FDA notified healthcare professionals and consumers of a recall because the automated external defibrillator (AED) may not be able to deliver therapy during a cardiac resuscitation attempt, which may lead to serious adverse events or death.

Each of the approximately 12,200 devices affected in this recall can be confirmed at the Cardiac Science Web site, www.cardiacscience.com/AED195.

The affected AEDs were manufactured or serviced between October 19, 2009 and January 15, 2010 and include the following models - Powerheart 9300A, 9300E, 9300P, 9390A, 9390E, CardioVive 92532 and CardioLife 9200G and 9231. Each affected AED should immediately be removed from service since it may not deliver the expected therapy.

Read the complete MedWatch 2010 Safety summary, including a link to the firm press release, at: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm200138.htm

It occurred to Anne Mitchell as she was writing the letter that she might lose her job, which is why she chose not to sign it. But it was beyond her conception that she would be indicted and threatened with 10 years in prison for doing what she knew a nurse must: inform state regulators that a doctor at her rural hospital was practicing bad medicine.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Continue reading " Texas Nurse to Stand Trial for Reporting Doctor Malpractice " »

Bayer Healthcare Corp. clearly stated its oral contraceptives Yasmin and Yaz contained possible side effects, the pills' maker said in response to lawsuits.

More than 50 women in Indianapolis have filed suit against the company, joining dozens of women nationwide who allege the birth control pills caused heart attacks, strokes, blood clots and other health problems, The Indianapolis Star reported Monday.

Read full story here.

As she walked toward the supervisor's office, Tyson Foods employee Gwendolyn Miles says she slipped on a wet floor and fell. Miles claims a leak in the roof caused the floor to become a hazardous condition.

Miles filed a personal injury lawsuit against Tyson Foods Inc. on Feb. 2 in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas, arguing the Tyson building was not a safe place to work and was in violation of the Texas Labor Code.

Read full story here at Southeast Texas Record

Continue reading " Tyson Employee Files Slip and Fall Lawsuit at Carthage Texas Facility " »

Toyota said that it would recall 437,000 of its 2010 Priuses and other hybrid models worldwide because of a glitch in the braking system. 155,000 are in the United States and another 53,000 in Europe.

Separately, Toyota also recalled 7,300 of its latest-model Camrys in the United States to fix a power steering pressure hose in the engine compartment that may be the incorrect length. This could cause a hole in the brake tube and deplete the braking fluid, interfering with braking.

Read the full New York Times story here.

Continue reading " Toyota Recalls 2010 Prius for Brake Problems " »

A power plant under construction in central Connecticut exploded with earthquake force that shook homes as workers purged natural gas lines in preparation for the plant to open this year. At least five people were killed and more than two dozen were injured as a section of the plant collapsed and burned.

Witnesses said the explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, 15 miles south of Hartford, occurred at 11:17 a.m. in a thundering convulsion of flames and smoke seen for miles around.

Read the full New York Times story here.

Continue reading " 5 Dead in Connecticut Power Plant Blast " »

More than 50 women claim in lawsuits filed in Indianapolis that they suffered strokes, heart attacks or other serious health problems while taking the birth control pills Yasmin or Yaz, manufactured by Bayer Healthcare Corp.

Across the nation, dozens of lawsuits have been filed in the past few months by women claiming similar health problems after taking the pills.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Indiana Women sue Bayer over Yasmin pill " »

A year after peanut butter crackers nearly killed him, Claude Ivester still has not fully recovered, and the food safety net remains largely unchanged.

The 74-year-old feels weaker than he did before he contracted salmonella food poisoning.
Ivester, lives in Elbert County in northeast Georgia, across the state from the plant in Blakely where the tainted peanut butter originated.

Read the full story here.

Toyota has told dealers it's preparing a plan to repair the brakes on thousands of hybrid Prius cars in the U.S.

In a message sent last night to dealers, a Toyota group vice president, Bob Carter, said the company is working on a plan and will disclose more details early next week. More than 100 drivers of 2010 Prius cars have complained that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The U.S. government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.

Read full story at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading " Toyota Preparing to Announce Prius Fix " »

Faced with an unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles and rivals swooping in on its customers, the public relations machine at Toyota Motor Corp -- one of the most savvy brand-creators in Asia -- is floundering.

Toyota has consistently played down recurring complaints of unintended acceleration, breaking what PR experts said is the cardinal rule in crisis management: assume the worst.

Read full article here.

Continue reading " Toyota Grapples With Huge Car Recall " »

A Cincinnati couple has filed a lawsuit against Toyota charging fraud and negligence over a safety issue involving gas pedals that has caused a massive auto recall.

The lawsuit, filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, seeks class-action status on behalf of all Ohio residents who have bought or leased vehicles Toyota-manufactured vehicles subject to the recall. Attorney Chesley, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hugh and Pamela Cox, said Wednesday that the class could involve thousands of Ohio residents.

Read full story here Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Continue reading " Ohio Couple Files Lawsuit Against Toyota Over Recall " »

The trip was one that Guadalupe Alberto had made many times before, just a few miles through her neighborhood to the small grocery store her family had owned for years.

It was a Saturday afternoon, April 2008, and Mrs. Alberto, a 77-year-old former autoworker, was driving her 2005 Toyota Camry. Within blocks of her home, witnesses told police, the car accelerated out of control, jumped a curb and flew through the air before crashing into a tree. Mrs. Alberto was killed instantly.

Read the rest of the NY Times article here.

Continue reading " More Crashes Adds toToyota’s Problems " »

Toyota Motor Corp. said it knew previously about complaints related to the brakes of its Prius hybrid car and Thursday expanded a safety probe to all its hybrid models.

The Japanese auto maker said it found and corrected problems with its new 2010 Prius hybrid and said it did not try to "cover up" the glitch. But the disclosure and the expansion of its investigation to include such models as its Lexus HS250h and Sai luxury hybrid sedans comes amid intensifying government and public scrutiny of the world's No. 1 auto maker by vehicle sales.

Read the full story here at the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading " Toyota Investigates Brakes on All Hybrids After Problems With Prius " »

Toyota Motor Corp said its North American and Japanese dealers had received several dozen complaints concerning what drivers characterized as insufficient braking on its new Prius hybrid car when driving over bumpy or frozen roads.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Toyota Says Complaints on New Prius Brakes " »

Legal attacks against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. increased this week following fresh reports of product-safety defects afflicting some of the most popular vehicles in the automaker's fleet.

Toyota announced on Jan. 26 that it would stop selling eight models because of accelerator pedals that can stick in the depressed position, causing the cars to speed up out of control. The company has recalled 2.3 million vehicles with that problem. Earlier, Toyota recalled another 4.2 million vehicles, blaming a problem with floor mats.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Lawsuits Beginning to Pile Up Against Toyota Dallas Car Accident Attorney " »

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised owners of recalled vehicles to stop driving their cars, later characterizing the remark as a misstatement.

LaHood's explosive comment at a House of Representatives hearing fueled new confusion over how consumers should respond to a January recall of 2.4 million cars and trucks due to
faulty accelerator pedals.

Read breaking news here

Continue reading " US Transport Secretary Comment Shakes Toyota " »

News 8 has confirmed that a sticking accelerator is being investigated as one possible cause of a crash in Southlake in December that killed four people driving in a Toyota Avalon.

Recently, Toyota issued an extensive recall of close to 3 million vehicles for that very reason.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Update Southlake Toyota Wrongful Death Car Crash " »

The family of a Houston woman whose car smashed into a cement wall, killing her on impact, filed what is likely the third acceleration-related wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota in the nation.

Trina Harris, a 34-year-old mother of two, died on impact when her 2009 Toyota Corolla slammed into an East Hardy Toll Road cement divider, leaving no skid marks.

Her husband, filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., gas pedal maker CTS Corp. and Fred Haas Toyota World, which leased her the car.

Read the full story here.

In response to a nationwide recall of approximately 5.3 million Toyota vehicles for defective accelerator pedals, plaintiff's attorneys have filed three lawsuits in New Orleans asking Toyota to return profits it made from the sale of the vehicles.

The lawsuits state that the accelerator mechanism of the vehicles can become stuck in a depressed position and fail to return or return slowly to the idle position causing, "extreme, uncontrollable and inherently dangerous acceleration."

The Toyota models affected by the January recall include the 2009-2010 RAV4, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe, 2010 Highlander, 2007-2010 Tundra, 2008-2010 Sequoia and the 2007-2010 Camry.

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Continue reading " Class Actions Against Toyota Over Gas Pedals Filed in New Orleans " »

– Toyota Motor Corp is facing a growing number lawsuits from consumers who complain their vehicles suddenly accelerate or may do so, and want the world's largest automaker to pay for it.

Last week, Toyota stopped selling eight models in the United States and Canada, including its popular Camry and Corolla, because of possible unintended acceleration.

Some 8 million vehicles are up for repair worldwide over problems including alleged faulty accelerator pedals made by the supplier CTS Corp, and the possibility that floor mats could jam the accelerator pedal.

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Pfizer Inc. persuaded a Pennsylvania state court judge to slash by 93 percent a $75 million punitive-damages award to a woman who blamed the company’s menopause drugs for her breast cancer.

Judge Ackerman in Philadelphia reduced the award to Connie Barton to $5.6 million after finding it was excessive. Jurors also awarded Barton $3.7 million in compensatory damages in her lawsuit against Pfizer’s Wyeth unit over the hormone- replacement drug Prempro. Ackerman left that award undisturbed in his post-trial ruling, according to court docket entries.

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In the world of fashion magazines, beauty editors have often relied on prominent dermatologists and plastic surgeons to keep them current on advances in cosmetic medicine. This relationship has benefited magazines eager for beauty scoops and doctors seeking visibility — and patients.

But now the Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on one of the most widely quoted cosmetic doctors, sending shudders through the ranks of opinion leaders in fashion publishing and vanity medicine. Read the FDA Warning Letter here. Download file

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