Law Tech Headlines

July 20, 2009 (by Horatio Algren) According to reports investigators involved in the San Francisco light rail crash that injured as many as 44 people are now looking at the actions of the train operator.

Federal investigators are looking closely at the actions of the train operator, according to Ted Turpin of the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators are trying to figure out why the train operator switched the controls from automatic to manual while the train he was operating was in the tunnel in the vicinity of the West Portal Station.

The federal investigators are also looking at the fact that he never applied the emergency break prior to the crash at the West Portal Station. According to NTSB, spokesman Ted Turpin if the train would have stayed on autopilot there would not have been at crash.

There are two National Traffic Safety Board investigators from the Los Angeles office that have been interviewing witnesses, assessing the train tracks, the signal system, and if they played a role in the train crash. Investigators know that at the time of the crash the light rail train that was traveling out of the tunnel was traveling at a 23 miles per hour when it struck the train that was stationary. They also know the operator of the train did not engage the emergency brake prior to the crash.

According to Mr. Turpin of the NTSB they are also looking into whether a cell phone was in use at the time of the crash by the train operator. Cell phone use, along with drug testing of the operator is standard after a train crash.

The train operator was hospitalized after the crash and his identity or condition has not been released, after the fourth major train crash in the United States in the past 10 months.  San Francisco train accident attorneys are always looking to operator failure.

One of the other California major train crashes took the lives of 25 people including the train operators of both trains involved in the crash between a passenger train and freight train. Evidence was later found that the operator of the train was sending text messages seconds before the deadly accident. Another of these crashes occurred in Boston injuring 50 people.

In bizarre news out of the aloha state, according to reports by the Chief of the Honolulu prosecutor’s office Christopher Van Marter, this is the biggest single legal case involving identity theft which they have prosecuted, due to the number of credit card issuers and the numbers 9over one hundred of them) of offenses. All in all, the former Miss Hawaii International Susan Shaw is basically set to start her court trial for the charge of identity theft on July 20th in Circuit Court. If convicted of this, the defendent could be sentenced to life in prison, says Van Marter. Furthermore, she has likewise been convicted of a 1993 theft at the Holiday Mart store. She requires counseling, in my own opinion, along with the incarceration. maybe she will get both actually. By the way, if you happen to require some sort of credit counseling services then I recommend Commcredit.org. They can assist with Debt Management, Non Profit credit counseling plus various types of Debt consolidation services. For her part, the defendent was convicted of theft in the second degree in March of 1994. According to Van Marter, while not divulging how Shaw found her victims, did state the documented facts of the alleged case began in April of 2008 and investigators continue to investigate the case in Honolulu and in Manhattan Beach.

In California safety and legal news, a lawsuit was filed following a tragic incident where a runaway vehicle hit a Girl Scout Stand. According to reports, a woman has filed suit against a Sonnenschein partner Paul Glad, after this vehicle ran into a group of Girl Scouts that were selling cookies in front of a grocery store. Glad according to the lawsuit filed by a woman and her daughter that were injured in the accident, when he failed to put his Lexus in park. Talk about a major league type of safety violation. Glad stopped to purchase cookies from the Girl Scouts and exited the vehicle without putting it into park. When he realized the vehicle was moving in an attempt to stop it he hit the accelerator. Go to California News for additional safety, legal and regulatory headlines from the golden state.
Holly Rogers age 49 and her 7year old daughter were both injured when the car careened into the Girl Scouts. Rogers suffered injuries including having her leg amputated. Rogers daughter Caroline Schoustra sustained multiple leg fractures. This is one of the most horrible safety violations I can remeber in California in quite a while.

July 10, 2009 (by Horatio Algren) According to reports the Simplicity cribs that have been voluntarily recalled by the Chinese company that manufactures the cribs comes after at least one reported death.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has stated there is a voluntary recall of the Simplicity crib models: 8050, 8325, 8620, 8745, 8748, 8755, 8756, 8765, 8778, 8810, 8994, 8995, and 8996.

These models according to the U.S. Product Safety Commission have a danger of suffocation to infants. The hardware on the drop side deforms or breaks leaving a gap where the infant can become trapped against the mattress and suffocate.

The cribs are sold at department stores, children’s stores and mass merchandisers nationwide. They have been sold between January of 2005 and through June of 2009, ranging in price between $150 and $300 according to the U.S. Product Safety Commission. They state that owners of the cribs should immediately stop using them and return them to the place they were purchased for a full refund or store credit.

There have been reports of the death of an 8-month-old infant from Houston Texas that became trapped and suffocated. There have also been two other reports of infants becoming trapped, but were found prior to suffocating. There have also been at least 25 reports of incidences that involved the drop side detaching from the crib.

If you need a baby crib injury law firm, contact Michael Ehline Ehline Law, Injury Lawyers, P.C. michael@ehlinelaw.com Address: 633 West Fifth Street, 28th Floor, Los Angeles, CA, 90071; 6700 East Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 275, Long Beach, CA 90803; 14007 Palawan Way Marina del Rey, CA, 90292; 201 Wilshire Blvd, Second Floor, Santa Monica, CA, 90401; 620 Newport Center Drive, Suite 1100 Newport Beach, CA, 92660. Phone: 888-400-9721; 213.596.9642.

The Attorney General Rob MeKenna warns consumers about debt relief scams, and also urged them to take advantage of low cost credit management services. He stated that when a person is drowning in debt, they are desperate for help and this is when not choosing the right credit management company could be equated with being thrown an anvil. McKenna stated that there is no right solution to financial debt problems, and that needing help means finding a legitimate credit counseling company that will help to strategize the right budget planning and money management plan.
There are some ways to know which companies are scams according to the Attorney General, these are companies that offer credit repair for bad credit, and companies that wish to have payment prior to services being rendered. The companies that do not explain your rights as a consumer or that warn against contacting the credit bureaus. It is also suggested that before choosing a credit management company several should be looked at and also because it might be a non-profit credit counseling company it might not be free or affordable, so the fee should be checked. of course, this is part of anyone’s suggested due diligence process, but sometimes it get’s lost in the shuffle when you are in a desperate situation where you really need fast debt help or non-profit credit counseling services in general.