Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.cdc.gov
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of injury in the US—harmful and expensive.
What works to prevent crash injuries?
Using primary enforcement seat belt laws that cover everyone in the car. A primary enforcement law means a police officer can pull over and ticket a driver or passenger for not wearing a seat belt. A secondary enforcement law means a police officer can ticket a driver or passenger for not wearing a seat belt only if the driver has been pulled over for some other offense.
Having child passenger restraint laws that require car seat or booster seat use for children age 8 and under, or until 57 inches tall, the recommended height for proper seat belt fit.
Using sobriety checkpoints, where police systematically stop drivers to check if they are driving under the influence of alcohol.
Requiring ignition interlocks for people convicted of drinking and driving, starting with their first conviction. Ignition interlocks check and analyze a driver's breath and prevent the car from starting if alcohol is detected.
Using comprehensive graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems, which help new drivers gain skills in low-risk conditions. As drivers move through the different stages, they receive more driving privileges, such as driving at night or with passengers. Every state has GDL, but the specific rules vary.
Each of these strategies can prevent injuries and save medical costs. Much has been done to help keep people safe on the road, but no...
BECKLEY — A Raleigh County man is suing over claims he was fired after returning from a leave of absence to recover from a workplace injury.
Dale Davis filed a lawsuit Aug. 29 in Raleigh Circuit Court against Kentucky Fuel Corporation, citing wrongful discharge.
According to the complaint, Davis was employed as a truck driver by the defendant in October 2013, when he was involved in a collision while riding in the passenger’s seat of a company vehicle. Davis says he received workers’ compensation, including a six-week leave of absence, but when he returned, he was laid off after only three days. The complaint states other employees who had just returned to work were also laid off. The defendant is accused of wrongful discharge, workers’ compensation discrimination and disability discrimination.
Davis is seeking back pay and benefits, damages, attorneys’ fees and reinstatement or front pay. He is being represented in the case by attorneys Stephen B. Farmer and Matthew H. Nelson of Farmer, Cline and Campbell in Morgantown. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge John A. Hutchison.
Raleigh County Circuit Court case number: 14-C-855
Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.dallasnews.com
Two lawsuits have been filed in Tarrant County against Quickway Transportation and its driver, Russell Wayne Staley of Saginaw, following a Sept. 26 crash that killed four college softball teammates.
The parents of Brooke Deckard filed their suit in district court Monday. Deckard, 20, of Blue Ridge; Jaiden Pelton, 19, of Telephone; Meagan Richardson, 19, of Wylie; and Katelynn Woodlee, 18, of Dodd City were killed in the wreck.
Staley’s northbound truck crossed the grass median of Interstate 35 about 47 miles into Oklahoma and slammed into the southbound bus that was returning the team to North Central Texas College in Gainesville after a game.
Another lawsuit was filed Friday on behalf of Rachel Hitt, 19, of Scurry. She was one of two players, both from Kaufman County, who required several days of hospital treatment.
Each suit seeks a jury trial and more than $1 million in damages.
The suits accuse 53-year-old Staley of distracted driving and say that Quickway was negligent in letting him drive.
Investigations into the crash are expected to take several weeks. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is conducting a criminal investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting a safety investigation that could lead to possible road improvements at the site near Davis, Okla.
Investigators have said the truck left the roadway at highway speed, 70 mph, and crossed about 950 feet of median without braking or swerving. However, some deceleration may have occurred, and no...
Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.usatoday.com
Eloise Soler at her home near Oso Bay, Texas. Soler was sickened by contaminated medication that she received during heart surgery at the Corpus Christi Medical Center. Tests showed that Soler and others were sickened by Rhodococcus equi, a soil bacteria that typically infects horses and other grazing animals.(Photo: Todd Yates for USA TODAY)
The infection came out of nowhere, 36 hours after Eloise Soler's heart surgery last summer at the Corpus Christi Medical Center in South Texas. As her fever spiked to 103, other patients developed similar symptoms. Doctors raced to pinpoint the cause.
Tests showed that all of the patients had been sickened by the same bacteria, Rhodococcus equi, which typically infects horses and other grazing animals, and they all fell ill after infusions of the same drug, calcium gluconate.
The drug was made 200 miles away by Specialty Compounding, which sits in a category of pharmacies that mix unique or hard-to-find drugs not only for individual patients, but also in batches for doctors and hospitals. By the time the company recalled the medication days later, investigators believed it had sickened at least 15 people; two had died.
"You think because there are so many controls on drugs that you're not going to be given something that will make you sick," says Soler, 60, who spent months recovering. "I just couldn't believe it."
Two years after contaminated drugs linked to a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts killed 64 and...
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At the Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna of the Medical University of Vienna and the Vienna General Hospital interdisciplinary research collaboration with a focus on translational thoracic oncology has been in place for some years. In addition to lung cancer, the main focus is on pleural mesothelioma (pleural cancer). Michael Grusch from the Institute for Cancer Research at the MedUni Vienna says: "Until recently, pleural mesothelioma was regarded as a rare disease. Unfortunately, this is changing now. One of the main causes triggering the disease is asbestos. The long incubation period for this disease means that the damage done 20, 30 years ago is just coming to light now. A reputable study predicts that, by 2029, 250,000 people will die of pleural cancer in Europe."
Says thoracic surgeon Mir Alireza Hoda: "We are very struck by the fact that we are increasingly seeing younger patients between 30 and 50 years old. Earlier it mainly affected people over 65." Pleural mesothelioma is treated with a combination of chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. Says Hoda: "Our goal is to find markers for mesothelioma and to develop personalized approaches to treatment. There still aren’t any but they would help us to select the right treatments for the patients affected." This could have a decisive impact on improving the success of treatment as, at present, the average survival rate after diagnosis is nine to twelve months.
The...
Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.washingtonpost.com
The Supreme Court on Wednesday pondered when the working day ends for hourly employees at an Amazon.com warehouse: when the worker punches the time clock, or later, when he clears a security check to make sure he hasn’t stolen anything.
Several justices seemed to think it was the former. But others seemed sympathetic to a lawsuit filed by workers at a Nevada facility arguing that enduring the wait to go through security — up to 25 minutes, according to those who filed the suit — was part of the job, and they should be paid for it.
The implications are great: there are more than a dozen class-action suits filed against Amazon and others who believe security checks are necessary to make sure none of their inventory walks out with the workers. A win could open the way for hundreds of millions of dollars in pay. Paul D. Clement, representing Integrity Staffing Solutions, a company that supplies workers for Amazon.com, said waiting to go through a security check is a “classic” example of the kind of activity, like commuting, for which courts have said employers do not have to pay.
Going through security is not “integral and indispensable” to the job for which a worker is hired. Justice Elena Kagan was not convinced, especially at companies where a tight control over their warehouses is essential.
“I mean, what makes it Amazon?” Kagan asked Clement. “It’s a system of inventory control that betters everybody else in the...
Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.miamiherald.com
Workers who fill customer orders for Internet retailer Amazon might be out of luck in their quest to be paid for time they spend going through security checkpoints each day.
Several Supreme Court justices expressed doubts Wednesday during arguments over whether federal law entitles workers to compensation for security measures to prevent employee theft.
The case is being watched closely by business groups concerned that employers could be liable for billions of dollars in retroactive pay for security check procedures that have become routine in retail and other industries.
Workers have battled for decades with employers over what tasks they should or shouldn't be paid for. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that workers must be paid for time putting on protective gear for work, but not for time waiting to take it off. And the court has found that butchers deserve to be paid for time sharpening their knives, which are essential to working at a meatpacking plant.
The latest dispute involves two former workers at a Nevada warehouse who say their employer, Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc., made them to wait up to 25 minutes in security lines at the end of every shift. Integrity provides staffers for Amazon warehouses.
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman says the company's data shows that warehouse employees walk through security screenings "with little or no wait."
A federal appeals court ruled last year that the workers, Jesse Busk and Laurie Castro,...
