Missouri Injury Lawyer Blog

I wrote a few weeks ago, as a southern Illinois auto accident lawyer, about the federal study suggesting that electronic throttle systems aren’t responsible for unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. So I was very interested to see a Feb. 23 article in the Chicago Tribune about a family that is undeterred by the report — they still believe their father’s death was caused by an electronic problem, not by driver error. Just as interestingly, the article quotes Southern Illinois University professor Dave Gilbert, an automotive technology expert, who says he stands by his earlier report that an electronic short could have caused the unintended acceleration. A second federal study expected this summer could cast more light on the subject.

Gilbert testified before Congress a year ago about a report he’d prepared on the possibility that unintended acceleration, rather than faulty floor mats or gas pedals, could be responsible for the slew of accidents. He had found that inducing an electronic short in the drive-by-wire systems in the cars could cause unintended acceleration, something he was able to reproduce in a laboratory. Gilbert told the Tribune that NASA’s own report mentions finding “tin whiskers” — small, hairlike deformations of the metal — on the pedal assemblies of the Toyota vehicles. That suggests that the federal government might have overstated its conclusions, he said. Meanwhile, Toyota has just announced yet another unintended acceleration recall of 2.17 million vehicles, which are attributed to gas pedal entrapment problems.

As a St. Louis car accident attorney, I hope safety investigators keep this in mind as they continue to look into the possibility of flaws in the electronic throttle systems. This is very important, because most cars made in the last decade use this kind of throttle. If it has serious safety problems, literally millions of vehicles could be unsafe for their own drivers and everyone who happens to be around them. Alternative interpretations of NASA’s study may also be important for people like the man in the article, who lost his 87-year-old father after an alleged unintended acceleration incident in a 2006 Corolla. Surveillance video shows the car swerving to avoid pedestrians, so the driver clearly had enough mental presence to understand and avoid the danger — making driver error more difficult to believe.

Continue reading "Illinois Professor Stands By His Work on Unintended Acceleration in Toyota Vehicles" »

Surviving family members of a Beaver Dam, Alaska, woman killed in an auto crash on November 28 have filed a wrongful death suit against multiple parties.

22-year-old Diamond M. Avalos was riding in a 1996 Honda Civic driven by Guadalupe Rodriguez Jr., then 19. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the Civic collided with a curb, then struck a road sign and a tree before rolling completely over in front of the nearby Beaver Dam Middle School. Rodriguez was ejected from the vehicle in the accident, and suffered numerous injuries as a result. Avalos was killed almost immediately by blunt force trauma, according to medical investigators.

Velma Avalos, Diamond's mother, is named along with Diamond's estate as the plaintiff in the case. Defendants named so far include Rodriguez, Sentry Insurance and a Derek Hernandez, though Hernandez' role in the accident is as yet unclear. There are other defendants named as well, including numerous insurance companies.

One complicating factor is that the status of the vehicle's ownership is so far in dispute. This could be the complicating element that drew Hernandez into the matter. If he owned the vehicle that Rodriguez was driving, he can be held civilly liable for what happens when it is driven.

Additionally, a John and Jane Doe have been named in the case. Once more, the exact reasons for their involvement are unclear.

This case in particular highlights the complexity that can go into a civil wrongful death case. The exact nature of what is admissible or valid is very different from the standards in criminal cases, so the specific choices as to who is included in a case as defendants, plaintiffs or even witnesses is often a murky matter requiring expert attention from very skilled and veteran attorneys.

Representatives and council for each side of the case could not be reached for comment as of this writing.

In a recent tragic case, a man sued his wife for the wrongful death of their son, claiming that she acted willfully in suffocating the child to death.

Lloyd Rochester is suing Stephanie Rochester; both are residents of Superior, Colorado. According to Lloyd's attorneys, Stephanie deliberately chose to put a plastic bag and blankets over her son's head and hold them down until he expired. Lloyd is arguing that these intentional actions resulted in a loss of companionship due to his son's death, as well as his wife's ongoing legal troubles.

Specifics include claims that Stephanie was under the belief (false, as it turns out) that her son had autism. She believed this was emotionally and financially damaging, and acted to kill her son before he became too much of a burden on her life.

For her part, Stephanie has pleaded not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, though specifics are unavailable. The defense team has asserted that Lloyd's actions are going to damage the still-ongoing criminal case, as the suit calls his credibility into question. They argue that it has done the prosecution no favors, and that it makes Lloyd's motivations look primarily monetary in nature, rather than justice-oriented.

The original arrest took place on June 1st of last year. Stephanie was arrested after the child was taken to the hospital, dead on arrival. She told investigators at the scene that she had placed the plastic bag and blankets over the child's head and held them there until he died, so they arrested her immediately and arraigned her the next day. Her plea of not guilty was filed in December, while the wrongful death suit filed by Lloyd was only begun this past week.

Given the complicated nature of the case, attorneys for both sides are looking for a way to discredit the other team, and the matter is anything but clear cut.

About two years ago, I wrote a blog post as a southern Illinois auto accident attorney about the unnecessary deaths of three people in a drunk driving accident. So I was interested to read in the Alton Telegraph Feb. 13 that the family of two of those killed is suing a bar they say served the driver too much alcohol. Arnold Jackson Jr. and Takia Jackson are suing an establishment called Pink Galleon for allegedly continuing to serve alcohol to Newton Keene even though he was visibly intoxicated. Keene went on that evening to drive on the wrong side of Illinois 255, causing the accident that killed Tawanda Jackson, Takia’s mother, and Arnold Jackson III, her nine-year-old brother. Another passenger, 28-year-old Jon Moss of Dellwood, Mo., also died but is not a party to the lawsuit. Keene is currently serving 28 years in prison.

Tawanda Jackson and her children were former St. Louis residents who had moved to Tennessee but returned to the area for her grandmother’s funeral. They were on their way home on the evening of Feb. 5, 2009, with a friend, Jon Moss of Dellwood, Mo., in the car. Just north of Interstate 270 in Edwardville, they ran head-on into Keene, who was driving drunk on the wrong side of the road. Keene had six previous drunk driving convictions in Missouri and Illinois, but was still free. The crash killed everyone but Takia Jackson, who was 11 at the time, and kept her in the hospital for weeks. She and her father allege that Pink Galleon served Keene even though he was “obviously intoxicated. They are also suing Tawanda Jackson’s auto insurance company, saying their uninsured motorist coverage was not sufficient to cover the costs of the accident.

No insurance policy is sufficient to give Takia Jackson back her mother and brother, unfortunately. But as a St. Louis car accident lawyer, I suspect that this accident caused very high medical costs for her family. Weeks of hospitalization can easily cost six figures. If Takia Jackson was seriously injured, which is likely, she will need follow-up medical care that will also cost a lot of money. And of course, she is entitled to claim financial damages for the loss of her family and her own injuries. In Illinois and many other states, including Missouri, victims have the right to sue establishments that served alcohol to people who were visibly or obviously intoxicated. These establishments can make a lot of money catering to drunks – so the law makes sure that they also have an incentive to “cut off” people who could pose a danger to the public.

Continue reading "Family of Mother and Son Killed by Drunk Driver Suing Bar for Over-Serving Him" »

Multi- Piece wheels have been killing and injuring people who work on them as well as bystanders for years. Despite each multi piece wheel is unique and has different issues that can make it dangerous for people working on the wheels to take them apart and reassemble them safely. The manufacturers of multi-piece wheels have tried through OSHA regulations to put the fault on the user of the wheel when the fault lies with the wheels design.

On January 17, 2011, A 29-year-old man is in critical condition after an accident while inflating a dump truck tire. It happened at Best Auto Repair in Arnold. Tim Jacobs, who runs Auto Bodies Unlimited next door, said he heard an explosion and everyone in his business went running over.

It was the sound of a wheel blowing apart, the rusted rim of a dump truck turning into a projectile. A 29-year-old employee was struck and critically injured.

"The rim had rusted in half through the center, and the whole outer half of the wheel came out and hit him in the head," Jacobs said.

"The force and the concussion of that explosion knocked him back several feet and the man sustained extensive damage, serious injuries to his face and his head," said Ron Harder of the Rock Community Fire Protection District.

Witnesses said he was just supposed to be filling up the tires when this happened. They said it's something no one could have predicted.

Still, Jacobs said these so-called split rims are notoriously dangerous. He said people used to work on them in protective cages because there was often a problem with explosions. They are rarely used now, but some older trucks, still have them.

"It should have been made a law, I think, that all of them would be taken off of the trucks, that anybody with a truck with them had a certain amount of time to have them changed out," Jacobs said. The victim in this case was rushed to St. Anthony's Medical Center. And all friends can do now is wait for news.

Carey, Danis & Lowe has a special focus on lawsuits involving defective or dangerous products, or failure to warn about a product’s danger, including multi-piece wheels. In May 2000 Jeff Lowe was one of the lead attorneys that obtained a 105 Million Dollar verdict against Firestone for a defective multipiece wheel. This area of the law applies to almost any consumer good – clothing, toys, food, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, household furnishings and much more. Federal regulators are responsible for regulating the safety of many of these products, but unfortunately, they aren’t always ahead of the companies they regulate. And even when they do take action, people who have already been hurt by a defective product cannot benefit. Our southern Illinois dangerous product attorneys help clients recover compensation for the costs and pain of their injuries. That includes medical costs and lost income as well as compensation for pain, suffering and any death or disability.

If you or someone you love was seriously hurt by a defective product in Missouri or Illinois, Carey, Danis & Lowe can help. To learn more about us or set up a free consultation, send us a message online or call toll-free at 1-877-678-3400.

As a Missouri product liability lawyer, I have been very interested in the reports of unintended acceleration in some late-model Toyota and Lexus vehicles. As I’ve written here in the past, news reports have found an unusually high number of those vehicles involved in incidents when the vehicle seemed to accelerate out of control, often with the driver standing on the brakes to stop it. Multiple deaths are attributed to the problem, including the death of a California Highway Patrol officer trained in handling high-speed emergencies. This eventually led to a recall of millions of Toyota vehicles for retrofits of the pedal and the floor mats – but some safety advocates believed the real problem was the cars’ electronic throttle systems. As the Los Angeles Times reported Feb. 8, a new federal study has case doubt on that theory.

The study was released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but conducted by engineers on loan from NASA. Those engineers found no problems with the software used in Toyota’s electronic throttle control systems that could lead to unintended acceleration. Toyota gave NASA engineers access to 280,000 lines of software code as well as the circuitry used in the systems, also known as drive-by-wire. The team did find flaws, and conceded that it was possible for two of those flaws to converge in a way that would cause unintended acceleration under some conditions. But it said there was no evidence that this happened in normal use or was especially likely. Regardless, the NHTSA said it planned to propose rules requiring brake override on all vehicles – which is currently offered by Toyota.

These results concern me as a St. Louis car accident attorney. As the Times notes, reports of unintended acceleration went up dramatically after electronic throttles became standard. Another study sponsored by the federal Department of Transportation, this one conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, is expected in the summer and will provide another data point. In the meantime, however, the NASA results are still a victory of a sort for injured Toyota drivers and occupants, because they do validate the idea that Toyota’s gas pedals and floor mats were flawed – adding to the evidence provided by the recalls. Toyota has already paid two fines totaling about 48.8 million for delaying reports and recalls of those problems, and that is likely damning enough to fuel the lawsuits facing the automaker, which number more than 100.

Continue reading "Federal Report Rules Out Electronic Throttle Controls in Unintended Acceleration Cases" »

The parents of Luis Santos filed a wrongful death lawsuit against several parties late last week, including Esteban Nuñez, the son of former California Assembly speaker Fabian Nuñez.

Nuñez and several friends, all also named in the suit, began a street brawl when they were told they were not permitted into a fraternity party in 2008. In the following fight, Luis Santos was stabbed and killed. The defendants ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges, and Governor Schwarzenegger intervened to reduce Esteban Nuñez' sentence from 16 to 7 years.

This wrongful death lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages from Nuñez, Ryan Jett, Rafael Garcia and Leshanor Thomas, the defendants in the original case. Garcia and Thomas were charged with lesser offenses than Nuñez and Jett, who received the stiffest sentences.

Interestingly, this case is runs parallel to a case filed by Santos' parents against Governor Schwarzenegger. In that case, the parents are arguing that the Governor violated the California victim's bill of rights when he reduced Nuñez' sentence without contacting the Santos family. Their attorney argues that they should have had the right to be present at arguments for the sentence reduction and allowed to argue against it. Instead, the Governor made his decision unilaterally.

When asked for his rationale for the decision, Schwarzenegger said that the court testimony had revealed it was Jett, not Nuñez, who actually stabbed Luis Santos for the fatal blow. Thus it did not make sense to him that the two should receive the same sentence for what were essentially different crimes.

The attorney for the Santos family was quoted as saying that the civil trial would reveal the "true facts" of Nuñez' role in the case, and that in this matter the Governor would not be able to interfere, overturn or reduce the penalty imposed by the court in any way.

As a St. Louis product defects attorney, I was very interested to read about the start of a trial that pits St. Louis-area medical providers against tobacco companies. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Feb. 1 on the opening statements in the case. The long-running case was originally filed in 1998 by medical care providers claiming tobacco companies should pay the costs of treating patients who couldn’t or didn’t pay their medical costs. They said cigarettes are a defective product and unreasonably dangerous, and that tobacco companies knew about it long before they let the public know. The 37 plaintiffs, mainly Missouri hospitals, seek $500 million in damages from 11 tobacco companies.

The case has been delayed for nearly 13 years because of pretrial motions. Huge amounts of money are at stake, and large teams of lawyers are working for both sides. The case is expected to take as long as seven months, which lengthened the jury selection process as the court looked for people who could reasonably be available for so long. In opening statements, an attorney for the plaintiffs said tobacco company documents show they knew about the harm cigarettes can cause as early as the 1950s, but continued to sell them. The defense attorney who spoke conceded that tobacco companies have not always behaved well, but said the hospitals aren’t the ones who were damaged by that behavior. In fact, she argued, hospitals have made money from the ill effects of cigarettes on patients’ health. She also said a dangerous product is not necessarily a defective one; knives used to cut fruit can also cut fingers.

As a Missouri defective product lawyer, I don’t believe that analogy is right. Knives are tools that can be used for good purposes as well as to harm. Cigarettes don’t have a purpose other than pleasure, and they are harmful even when used as directed. And unlike kitchen knives, people not addicted to cigarettes can easily live without them. In cases involving defective products, people who were hurt by those products generally make the claim that they had a reasonable belief that the products were safe. All manufacturers have a legal obligation to make sure the products they offer the public are safe when used correctly, or warn the public when they can’t remove a danger. In this case, the hospitals are saying tobacco companies failed in that duty and they sustained damages – unpaid hospital bills – as a result. Whether that argument impresses the jury has yet to be seen.

Continue reading "Trial Opens in Lawsuit by City of St. Louis and Hospitals Against Tobacco Companies" »

The wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Reora Askew against the police officer who shot and killed her has been settled more than three years after the fact for a total of $500,000.

In September of 2007, officers received a call that Askew was threatening passengers on a Philadelphia bus with a knife. The officer in question, Thomas Ohm, soon found Askew in the park. Ohm testified that Askew lunged at him with the knife, at which point he fired on her, killing her.

However, the evidence rather blatantly contradicted the officer's assertions. The gunshots that hit Askew were in the arm and the back, not the front of her torso. This forensic evidence aligns strongly with the claims of Askew's advocates that she was actually turning and running away from the officer when he fired, rather than trying to attack him. There was some dispute over this because of wounds to her chest, but the shots to the back were the most telling.

The case dragged on for more than three years before finally coming to trial late last week. After the plaintiff presented testimony regarding their argument about Askew being shot in the back, the defense contacted the plaintiff's attorneys to begin negotiating a settlement.

That said, the settlement unfortunately did not include the officer's admission of guilt. The disciplinary body for officer Ohm's department has released its review of the case, claiming that the shooting was warranted and justified, despite the decision to settle. Officer Ohm remains employed by the police department, as he has been for eight years.

The family of Askew has stated that they are unsettled by the officer remaining on duty and not admitting responsibility in the shooting; however, they are willing to take the settlement and see it as some measure of justice for what happened.