Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Fort Worth Product Liability attorney and Bard IVC Filter lawyer, I am writing about this latest FDA warning regarding the Inferior Vena Cava filters.

Patients who suffer from the threat of pulmonary embolism and are contraindicated for anticoagulation therapy may find themselves receiving an Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) filter to prevent pulmonary embolism.

Inferior vena cava filters are an alternative treatment for patients at risk for a pulmonary embolism. They are often used when an anticoagulant is contraindicated or if such medications have not been effective. They contain a number of legs or struts that extend out like a spider to catch blood clots that may break free elsewhere in the body, such as the deep veins of the legs. But, if there is an IVC filter strut fracture, small pieces of the filter may travel to other parts of the body, such as the heart or lungs.

Since 2005, the FDA has received 921 device adverse event reports involving IVC filters, of which 328 involved device migration, 146 involved embolizations (detachment of device components), 70 involved perforation of the IVC, and 56 involved filter fracture.

These types of events may be related to a retrievable filter remaining in the body for long periods of time, beyond the time when the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) has subsided.

RECOMMENDATION: FDA recommends that implanting physicians and clinicians responsible for the ongoing care of patients with retrievable IVC filters consider removing the filter as soon as protection from PE is no longer needed.

Healthcare professionals and patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program:

* Complete and submit the report Online: www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.htm
* Download form or call 1-800-332-1088 to request a reporting form, then complete and return to the address on the pre-addressed form, or submit by fax to 1-800-FDA-0178

Read more here about the IVC Filters.

These IVC Filter devices have recently come under investigation due to a high number of Bard IVC filter fractures which can cause pieces of the devices to travel through the body and damage the heart, lungs and other organs, causing embolisms and possibly death.

In a study published in November in the Archives of Internal Medicine, two Bard IVC filters were found to have a particularly high rate of problems. According to Dr. Rita Redberg in an editorial published by the Archives of Internal Medicine, both of those filters, the Bard G2 and Bard Recovery, were approved with virtually no real clinical data showing they were safe or effective.

Redberg said that researchers suggest that the number of Bard G2 filter fractures is likely to increase as they stay on the market and have been in patients’ bodies longer. She said that data indicates about 62,000 people have received the implants, and as many as 7,000 can expect to experience a Bard IVC filter fracture.

A number of Bard IVC filter lawsuits have been filed against C.R. Bard over the last year alleging that serious injuries or deaths were caused by design defects associated with these filters.

Continue reading " FDA Warns Against Inferior Vena Cava Filters " »

As a Fort Worth Car Accident and Wrongful Death Attorney, I have the following accident to report.

According to the police, a 33-year-old Denton woman died after being ran over by a moving trailer.

Police said a group of people were helping friends move out of an apartment complex, when Andrea Noecker sat down on the tongue and hitch connected to a trailer. One in the group was moving a pickup truck to the street when Noecker fell off in the parking lot and was run over by the trailer.

Noecker was flown to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth where she died from her injuries.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family in their time of need.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Attorney, I am providing, what is in my opinion one of the most outrageous civil rights, medical malpractice and personal injury claims involving Taser usage.

A confused post-surgical patient at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford was tasered. Bedford police said that on December 14, an off-duty police officer working at the hospital responded to a report of a "violent situation."

According to the police, when the officer arrived, "there had been two hospital employees that had been assaulted" by the patient, and the officer "used his Taser to restrain the subject."

This is so outrageous and unprecedented, another example of the out of control Fort Worth police department. There should be a full independent investigation. Criminal and civil right violations, medical malpractice and personal injury claims should be filed against the police officer and the hospital.

The hospital is responsible for the actions of its employees for excessive use of force and civil right violations.

This year, Fort Worth paid a $2 million settlement to the family of a man who died after police Tasered him. Obviously the City of Fort Worth did not learn its lesson and put in place corrective actions. We have trigger happy police running amok in our city. Get ready to shell out more money.

What ever happened to human rights and patient bill of rights? In all my 27 years as a medical doctor, I have not seen a more egregious example of hospital brutality, abuse and patient rights violation involving hospital security.

It is fairly routine and expected that patients can suffer from delirium, agitation and confusion following anesthesia, but it is easily managed. If a patient becomes agitated, sedatives can be administered through IV access and the patient is restrained and observed to ensure that they do not harm themselves or others.

Many doctors and nurses have done this, this is routine hospital practice, used on a daily basis.

More than 150 people nationally have died because of Taser devices since 2001, according to Amnesty International.

In Florida, a man under police supervision refused to give a urine sample for a drug test. The man was both handcuffed and restrained by leather straps, and an officer kneeled on his chest while the patient thrashed to prevent the insertion of a catheter. The officer then used his Taser in drive stun mode twice before the man gave in.

Federal and state health officials later cited the hospital for violating the patient's rights.

The manufacturer warns that the Taser can cause changes in blood pressure, electrolytes, heart rate and rhythm, and respiration.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a medical malpractice, truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Dog Bite Attorney I am providing this Christmas dog bite story.

According to City of Fort Worth officials, a Fort Worth man is accused of owning a pit bull that is involved in an attack on an elderly man in July. Steven Woods, could owe thousands in outstanding tickets stemming from incidents between April and June.

"There are four incidents with Mr. Woods and his dogs," said Brandon Bennett, the city's director of code compliance. "Over a three-month period, his dogs terrorized a neighborhood."

In November, a municipal court judge ruled that Woods' dog Mimi was a dangerous dog, a case arising from an attack on an 84-year-old man in July.

According to a police report in April, Woods was issued nine tickets for three pit bulls that were running loose in his southeast Fort Worth neighborhood,

A June incident was far more serious. A 64-year-old woman was attacked by four pit bulls, including one that bit her repeatedly. The woman, who was seriously injured, said that Woods came outside and kicked one of the dogs to stop the attack.

The city's Animal Care and Control division said Woods refused to cooperate with demands to quarantine the dogs.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Wrongful Death attorney I am providing this news regarding this tragic wrongful death case.

A California family has filed a lawsuit against a big rig trucker and his employer over the death of a cyclist last month.

The accident happened as the cyclist turned right into the path of the truck. The lawsuit accuses the driver of negligence and violating the cyclist's right-of-way.

The trucker and his employer paid $1.5 million to settle a separate wrongful death suit stemming from a 2007 collision that involved the trucker and a bicyclist in Santa Cruz.

This trucker has been involved in three fatal collisions while on the job, according to CHP records, but investigators have never found him to be at fault.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Personal Injury and Premises Liability Attorney I am providing this news story.

A New York jury has rendered a premises liability negligence verdict for a Buffalo woman. The verdict awarded was $66 million for injuries she suffered on a Cybex weight machine.

The plaintiff, a physical therapist, had her vertebra crushed when the 500-pound machine fell on her in 2004. The injuries were so severe as to render her a quadriplegic.

The jury verdict in New York state Supreme Court was one of the largest personal injury awards ever in Erie County,

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Product Liability and Defective Drug attorney I am providing this update.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Upjohn Co have agreed to a settlement with two Nevada women who claimed hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer.

Court documents report that Nadine Bender, who died while awaiting trial began taking the drugs when she was 30 to help regulate her menstrual cycle. She continued once her menopausal symptoms started and stopped using the drugs when diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995.

Bender, who died while awaiting trial, and Scott, 81, claimed Wyeth's estrogen pill, known as Premarin, and the drug Prempro, as well as Upjohn's progestin pill, Provera, caused their breast cancer.

Shelia Scott began the estrogen-progestin combination in 1989 and stopped when her breast cancer was found in 2001.

Recently the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a $58 million jury award to three women who made similar claims against Wyeth, which "are among thousands filed across the country.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Medical Malpractice attorney I am providing this Texas medical malpractice update.

Texas lawmakers passed legislative changes in 2003, which made it more difficult for patients to be awarded damages in any health care medical malpractice setting.

The tort reform state lawmakers passed in 2003, the toughest in the country, capped medical liability for non economic damages at $250,000 per health care provider, with a maximum award of $750,000.

This is particularly true in emergency rooms medical malpractice claims, where plaintiffs must prove doctors acted with "willful and wanton" negligence. This standard means that they not only put the patient in extreme risk but knew they were doing it. Plaintiffs must prove that ER doctors acted with conscious indifference, or gross negligence, rather than simple negligence.

Tort reform advocates say the law is needed to protect ER doctors operating in volatile environments.

Medical malpractice attorneys argue the threshold is nearly impossible to cross, the “willful and wanton” rule means ER care in Texas is some of the most dangerous in the country, because no one can be held accountable for failure to diagnose, failure to treat or wrong care.

Unfortunately Texans are unaware that their Legislature has mandated a very low standard of care — almost no care, and heaven forbid they or a loved one gets injured by the negligence of an ER doctor, then they find out, the hard way, that they have no legal recourse.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth DePuy ASR Hip Recall attorney I am providing this latest update information involving the recent DePuy Class Action lawsuits.

The DePuy Articular Surface Replacement (ASR) hip, is failing at high rates, even though the device was designed to last for at least 15 years.

According to medical critics the failure of the ASR hip demonstrates a broken piecemeal medical implant system.

Medical implants can be sold without testing if a device, like an artificial hip, resembles an implant already approved. This is different from new drugs, which have go through a series of rigorous clinical trials before receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Until summer of 2010, DePuy Orthopaedics, stated that the A.S.R. was performing similarly toother hip devices. But doctors indicated that DePuy received repeated warnings that the implant was failing at an alarming rate.

Read full story here at the New York Times

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth DePuy Class Action Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a DePuy Hip Implant, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney I am very proud of the recent verdict announced this week against a major tobacco company.

Cigarettes in my humble opinion should be banned; they serve no purpose and are extremely dangerous substances in its present manufactured form. As medical studies have demonstrated, they are nicotine delivery systems, surely there are less dangerous ways to deliver nicotine. People get addicted and the immense cost to human life is clearly palpable and with the resultant medical care and untold pain and suffering.

A Massachusetts jury has ordered cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. to pay $81 million in punitive damages to the estate of Marie Evans, who suffered a deadly addiction to Newport cigarettes.

The punitive damages came on top of $71 million awarded last week in compensatory damages.

Evans's estate was awarded $50 million in compensatory damages, and her son, was awarded $21 million. Only the estate of Marie Evans, the person directly injured by the company's actions, was eligible to collect punitive damages.

The lawsuit alleged that the tobacco company’s marketing plans induced Evans to start smoking as a child. She died in 2002 from lung cancer.

According to the defendants, the company no longer passes out samples of Newport cigarettes, it no longer advertises cigarettes on radio or television, and the company agrees that cigarettes cause cancer and other diseases.

The jury had already that found the company seduced Evans into smoking when she was just 13 by handing out Newport samples.

The free samples was part of the marketing strategy to reach out to youngsters in black neighborhoods, where menthol brands are popular. The jury found that Lorillard acted with negligence, breach of trust, and in a manner that was wanton and reckless.

Finally Big Tobacco is having to pay the price for its negligent activities, but it is too little too late for the victims.

Now Big Tobacco has set its sights on the Third World masses with their free samples, unfiltered cigarettes and lack of any governmental oversights to breed a new crop of addicts.

Talk of putting profits before people. The moral outrage, continues dear friends, we are slowly winning, the flame of justice just burned a little brighter this week with the announcements of these jury verdicts.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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Virginia Jury Verdict: $10.5 Million in Wrongful Death

A Virginia jury has awarded $10.5 million to the family of a woman who died in 2007 after a concrete mixer truck fell onto her car.

The wrongful death victim was aged 25, and she died after eight days in hospital. The victim's husband survived the horrific accident. Their car was crushed as they drove on State Route 53 and were hit by a truck driven by William Sprouse, working for Allied Concrete Co. Sprouse later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served 30 days in jail.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth car accident attorney I am proud to relay this Texas jury verdict involving a bus accident.

An El Paso jury ordered a local Texas bus company to pay more than $132 million to the victims of a 2005 Colorado deadly crash.

The jury found that the van had bald tires and no safety belts. Two people died, and several others were severely injured in the crash. After a four-day trial, the judgment was reached against Los Paisanos bus lines and its owner, Uriel Chavira.

According to the plaintiff attorneys, and the lawsuit, the Los Paisanos bus company treated these victims like cattle, and the van, without seat belts, was driven over 188,000 miles in two years in an illegal interstate operation to move Mexican citizens across state lines.

33 people from El Paso and Juárez boarded a Los Paisanos bus in El Paso and headed for Denver.

According to witness testimony, the van was on a highway just outside Denver when the driver, Heriberto Flores-Garcia, began speeding and eating at the same time. He lost control of the van, which went over an embankment and rolled.

Read Article: El Paso Times

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a truck accident, car crash or bus accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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As a Fort Worth Toxic Tort attorney I am reporting this toxic air and ground water pollution story.

Two Texas environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobile Corp over excessive pollution from the company's Baytown refinery. The lawsuit claims the 8 million pounds of pollution released from the refinery over the last five years equates to "over 2,500 violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act." The lawsuit could result in more than $80 million in fines against Exxon,

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BD35920101214

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas toll free at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from environmental pollution, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether generic-drug makers can be sued for not warning patients about the risk of dangerous side effects.

The Court has agreed to hear the lawsuits involving Mylan Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. These lawsuits by two women allege that they contracted a severe neurological disorder, tardive dyskinesia, as a result of long-term use of metoclopramide.

A federal appeals court let both suits proceed, noting that a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that permitted failure-to-warn suits against brand-name drugmakers.

The drug companies argue that the 2009 ruling shouldn’t apply to them because federal law requires generic drugs to include the same packaging insert as the one used by the brand-name drug company that produces the medicine.

Trial courts across the country have rejected that argument.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a Defective Drug, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

As a Fort Worth Wrongful Death Attorney and Car Accident Attorney I am providing this latest update regarding the on going Toyota Product Liability Lawsuits.

The California federal judge said that he is inclined to let personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. move forward.

U.S. District Judge James V. Selna issued a preliminary opinion denying the automaker's motion to dismiss key causes of action in 51 lawsuits.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed since the Japanese automaker starting recalling millions of vehicles because of sudden-acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid.

If the order is finalized, Selna's order would be a victory for plaintiffs suing Toyota for negligence, design defects, failure to warn and fraudulent concealment.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a car accident, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

As a Fort Worth Levaquin Tendon Rupture Attorney I am pleased to report the jury verdict of the first Levaquin Bell Weather trial that was recently announced.

A Minneapolis, Minnesota federal court jury announced that Johnson & Johnson must pay $1.1 million in punitive damages to an 82-year-old man who claimed that it failed to properly warn of the risks of Levaquin linked tendon damage.

The jury awarded compensatory damages of $700,000 to John Schedin, who sued J&J and its Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit in 2008. Schedin, alleged that he ruptured both Achilles tendons after taking Levaquin, and that the companies failed to warn doctors and patients of the antibiotic drug’s association with tendon damage.

The trial was the first on more than 2,600 claims in U.S. courts alleging that Levaquin caused tendon damage in patients and that New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J failed to disclose the risk adequately. The jury, in ordering punitive damages, found the company acted with deliberate disregard for the safety of others.

In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required J&J and makers of related drugs in the class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones to include warnings on the risk of tendon ruptures. The risk was higher in patients older than 60, those taking steroids, and recipients of kidney, heart or lung transplants, according to the FDA.

The plaintiffs claim the label warning should have been improved earlier and remains inadequate. They also say J&J and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen boosted sales by downplaying risks.

The drug has been prescribed more than 430 million times worldwide. Sales of the drug through the first nine months of the year totaled $957 million, the company said in an Oct. 19 statement.

Ortho-McNeil-Janssen didn’t send doctors letters about Levaquin’s risks before the 2008 label change.

Schedin was prescribed Levaquin and a steroid for an upper respiratory infection in 2005, according to his complaint.

His doctor would have prescribed another antibiotic had he known “about the risks associated with Levaquin, especially when taken together with steroids,” Schedin said in court papers.

The case is Schedin v. Johnson & Johnson, 08-cv-05743, combined for trial in In re Levaquin Products Liability Litigation, 08-md-01943, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a Levaquin Tendon Rupture, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

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Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settled Over Chewing Tobacco Death

The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm is currently accepting and evaluating potential Smokeless Tobacco Wrongful Death claims.

A chewing tobacco manufacturer has agreed to a $5 million settlement with the family of a man who died from cancer, allegedly caused by the product. The man began chewing tobacco at age 13 and died of tongue cancer at age 43. The lawsuit and settlement is the first of its kind related to chewing tobacco.

Read Article: The Hartford Courant

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth DePuy Hip Injury Attorney Dr Shezad Malik. The Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm can be contacted in Dallas at 888-210-9693 or in Fort Worth at 817-900-8439. If you or a loved one has been injured from a defective DePuy Hip, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation regarding your defective product liability claim. Click here for Map and location.

A judicial panel has decided that all pretrial proceedings in federal lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson over recalled hip-replacement devices will be overseen by the Federal Court in Ohio. Once pretrial proceedings are completed, the individual cases are sent back for trial in the courts where they were first filed.

U.S. District Judge Katz in Toledo, Ohio, will supervise evidence-gathering efforts in cases over the ASR XL Acetabular System.

DePuy recalled both the ASR XL Acetabular System, a total hip-replacement product approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2005, and the DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System.

New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, and Warsaw, Indiana-based DePuy said they recalled the devices after researchers found many patients needed “revision surgery” after five years because of design defects.

Researchers in the U.K. found that, 13 percent of patients with complete hip replacements and 12 percent with resurfacing devices needed a second operation.

Other medical-device makers have faced costly product-liability cases in the past over hip-replacement systems.

Sulzer AG agreed in 2001 to a $1 billion settlement of suits alleging hip and knee implants made by its former Sulzer Medica unit were defective.

In the DePuy litigation, there are allegations of toxic exposure to trace elements, chromium and cobalt. A DePuy victim's damages include revision surgery to get the metal-on-metal implant out, systemic reaction to the excessive metal load in their body, bone loss around the implant, metal debris and metal ions in their tissues causing necrosis of the tissue, chromium and cobalt poisoning, non-malignant tumors, and increased risk of cancer.

Serious allegations indeed.

As a Fort Worth Car Accident Attorney I am providing this update on drunk driving related car accidents and fatalities. These incredible statistics reveal why drunk driving is a major public policy issue.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving MADD, these are the statistics for 2010 for the State of Texas.

Rank: 45

3 time offenders: 124,662

5 time offenders: 18,271

DUI Fatalities: 1,235

% of total traffic deaths DUI related 40%

% of change in DUI fatalities from previous to current year: -6

State subsidy of drunk driving fatalities: $5.8 Billion

Summary:

The Legislature rejected lifesaving interlock legislation and sobriety checkpoint legislation in 2009; MADD is working toward the 2011 session.

Alcohol use in past month among persons aged 12 to 20: 26%

Binge alcohol use in past month among persons aged 12 to 20: 17%

Source: SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2007 and 2008.

We are following closely this local story involving a drunk Fort Worth police officer and the tragic car accident that he was involved in. Read full Fort Worth Star Telegram story here.

An accident investigator said a former Fort Worth police officer's alcohol intoxication is to blame for a fatal car crash.

Jesus Cisneros, a former undercover narcotics officer, is charged with intoxication manslaughter in the wrongful death of a 27-year-old mother.

Sonia Baker died in December when a Fort Worth issued SUV driven by Cisneros crashed into her. The SUV apparently was speeding at 76 mph in a busy residential area when it collided with Baker's car. Baker could not have been able to avoid the accident, according to the investigators.

According to State Prosecutors, the crash came after Cisneros attended a birthday party for a fellow officer at a Fort Worth bar. Video that was recorded at the party show him drinking heavily.

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