Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

Before the end of the year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wants to eliminate drop-side cribs from the market. Toward that end, the CPSC and seven manufacturers this week announced they were recalling the troublesome cribs that can entrap and suffocate infants, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

The picture on the Web site of CPSC shows how easily a little one can become wedged between the crib and the mattress when the hardware comes loose.

So far, 32 infants have died from being trapped in these cribs, and more than a dozen other deaths are suspected to have resulted from a failure of their drop-side crib. The drop-side crib is intended to make it easier for parents to place or remove a child from a crib.

More than two million cribs are included in this recall from big names in children’s products such as Evenflo and Simmons. Nine million drop-side cribs have been recalled in recent years.
The CPSC says do not try to fix the crib yourself with a handmade remedy or duct tape. The manufacturers will send out the appropriate hardware.

Here is a list of the cribs that were made between 2002 and 2009. Many cribs are resold in consignment stores and garage sales and likely will never be taken off the market.

• Child Craft, (this firm is out of business): Fixed-Side | Drop-Side


• Delta Enterprise Corp., of New York, N.Y.


• Evenflo, of Miamisburg, Ohio


• Jardine Enterprises, of Taipei, Taiwan


• LaJobi, of Cranbury, N.J.


• Million Dollar Baby, of Montebello, Calif.


• Simmons Juvenile Products Inc. (SJP), of New London, Wis.

Jacksonville child product recall attorneys will continue to monitor the latest news regarding the drop-side recall.

We often report on adults who make the very bad decision of providing alcohol to young drinkers. It has happened again and we are hearing the specifics of the case. This time, two adult men in Palm Beach Gardens admit that they hosted an open-house party attended by teens that were provided alcohol. Following one party last August, three teenagers were killed in a Florida wrongful death car crash at a construction site. The two adult men have been arrested.

Craig Frick, 24, and David Harper, 28, turned themselves into police. Frick and Harper have been charged with allowing teens to drink on their property. WPBF is now reporting details of the arrest report.

The two adults admit to having a house party in August, 2009. Conner Graver, 16, and his friends, Christopher Briglio and Nicholas Coady, both 18, all died together when their SUV slammed into a front-end loader after they left the party. Toxicology tests prove all of the teens had been drinking. Coady, the driver, had a 0.251 blood alcohol level, more than three times the legal limit for intoxication.

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by Graver’s parents against the construction company for failing to have adequate lighting at the site.

Continue reading " Teens Die in Accident from Alcohol Provided by Adults " »

A Jacksonville attorney says it was a defective tire that caused a crash that killed four teenagers on the last day of school in June of last year. He has filed a lawsuit against Cooper Tires. A News4Jax article reports that on Tuesday, June 22, a judge in the case denied a gag order requested by the tire company that would have prevented any information on the case from reaching the media. Even though the gag order was denied, the parties were reminded that they must follow the Florida Rules of Professional Conduct which prevents them from seeking out an audience from the media.

Attorney Eric Block has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Shannon Broome, who was injured on the Interstate 295 crash that killed four teens. Cooper Tires is named for allegedly selling a defective tire which experienced a tread separation before the Florida auto crash. Also named is Ford, the maker of the 1997 Explorer that rolled, Big Chief Tire that installed two tires on the SUV, (neither one which blew). Block says Big Chief Tire should have been alert enough to warn the car’s owner about the faulty tire when it was in their shop just two weeks before the crash. Also named is Imagine Tour, based in Orlando, that sold the SUV.

The driver of the Ford Explorer was Brandon Hodges, 15, who did not have a driver’s license at the time of the crash. He was the only one wearing a seat belt and not surprisingly, the only person not injured. He did manage to steer the Explorer with the blown tire to an emergency lane where it overturned. He is facing manslaughter charges and a trial.

More lawsuits on behalf of all eight in the vehicle are expected to be filed says Block, including on behalf of the four teens who died - Kimber Krebs, 15, Erin Hurst, John Kiely, and Dennis Stout, all 17, who died in the crash.

None of the vehicle’s occupants was wearing their seat belts.

Based on a www.tallahassee.com A federal judge in New Orleans has given the green light to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. You heard that right. The Obama administration had imposed a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects in response to the tragedy in the Gulf caused by BP and assorted other companies including Halliburton and Transocean.

The president imposed the ban because, as we clearly see, drilling at such depths doesn’t make sense, puts rig workers in danger, not to mention has the potential to pollute the Gulf for the next 20 years. But the judge said the administration acted rashly in imposing the ban just because one rig failed.

The White House plans to appeal.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and puts the safety of those involved and the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now.”

Sounds like stating the obvious.

The U.S. District Judge is Martin Feldman of New Orleans. Companies in the area that service offshore oil rigs had asked him to overturn the moratorium so that some workers could make a living again and he complied.

Despite the fact that the BP Deepwater Horizon has spewed more than 100 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, Judge Feldman didn’t see the need to stop future deepwater drilling. Judges are not always right and the ruling essentially keeps federal officials from enforcing any moratorium until there is a trial, though he did not set any trial date.

Delay and deny justice, the environment suffers, and no one really gets back to work, unless they are part of the cleanup crew.

Meanwhile, the Interior Department will study the potential risks of deepwater drilling. All they really need to do is turn on their television and begin to grasp the vast number of unanswered questions by an industry that is supposed to be filled with experts and promises. Just how many strikes should this industry get?

If you or a loved one has been injured by the BP oil spill, Farah & Farah is currently investigating claims of loss and injury and will consult with you on your property damage, the loss of a business or employment, injuries or wrongful death claim.

According to a Miami Herald report, Miami-Dade jury has found Miami-based Banner Supply at fault for a couple’s home that was built with defective Chinese drywall and on Friday, June 17, awarded them $2.5 million. This is the first test of a Chinese drywall case that has gone before a jury and the outcome is not a good omen for the industry.

In this case, the couple, Armin and Lisa Seifart, sued Banner Supply, the drywall company that provided the defective drywall from China. They were building their dream home in Coral Gables, but instead, the home was a nightmare. The air conditioner corroded and the home had a strange sulfur odor.

During the discovery process, the Seifart’s attorney found a document that said Banner replaced 2.3 million square feet of Chinese wallboard with U.S. produced wallboard, but only in the homes whose builders complained. The award was a little more than half of the $4.4 million they had asked for from the jury to recover the cost of taking the house down to the studs and rebuilding it. It still is not home, but they had more than $1 million in repairs and in rent, not to mention the approximately $200,000 in the lost value of their home on the resale market.

The couple said they didn’t want to sue but were left with no choice. Drywall from China imported between 2004 and 2008 was found by the Environmental Protection Agency to contain sulfur and the metallic element strontium at ten times the level of domestic drywall. It also contains compounds found in acrylic paint.

There are thousands of homes in Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and California that were built with Chinese drywall who have cases pending against the supplier.

There seem to be a lot of these cases lately.

A Florida SUV rollover accident on Monday, June 21, left a woman critically injured after she rolled her car and it burst into flames on I-95.

Florida Today identifies her as 19-year-old Katherine Parker of Stanford, Florida. Parker was heading northbound on I-95 in the Palm Bay area when her tire separated. Her SUV drifted into the median and then rolled at least three times. It burst into flames, but Parker had been thrown from the vehicle and was pulled out of the erupting car by a witness. The accident happened in Palm Bay at Mile Marker 170 and Palm Bay Fire-Rescue crews responded.

Parker is lucky to be alive and is in critical condition at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida. Her friend writes that she always wears her seat belt.

The accident is the second one in the area in less than 24 hours that likely resulted from a tire that blew on an interstate. The other accident occurred Tuesday, June 22, in north Brevard County. Also in this case a driver, age 19, was involved. He was behind the wheel of a 1999 Ford pickup that blew a tire and then rolled. That driver is also in critical condition and his passenger is in serious condition.

Though we don’t know what kind of SUV Parker was driving, Ford Explorers have a higher rate of tire-related accidents than other SUVs, especially those equipped with Goodyear or Firestone Tires.

It has been unusually hot in Florida and on the highway the combination of heat and speed and under-inflated tires can all lead to tire separations. It is advised that you check your tire pressure this time of year. Let’s pray that these young drivers pull through their injuries.

A Florida doctor is facing a $5,000 fine for removing the wrong organ from a patient. Dr. Bernard Zaragoza of Coral Springs removed a healthy kidney rather than the gallbladder that he had intended to remove. The Harvard-trained doctor says he made a mistake in thinking that the kidney was the gallbladder during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The Florida Board of Medicine levied the fine. In addition to the fine, Dr. Zaragoza will have to serve 50 hours of community service and has to pay the state $25,000 for the investigation it launched into the medical error which occurred in October 2007 in Margate, Florida at Northwest Medical Center.

The medical board ruled that this was an error and a violation of the Florida Medical Practice Act even though the patient, an 83-year-old man, did have an unusual anatomy with the kidney located where his gallbladder should have been.

The patient died of heart failure three weeks later. The board members felt that the surgeon was a capable professional, who was not inept or careless, despite the error.

Dr. Zaragoza is a summa cum laude graduate of University of Miami and earned his medical degree from Harvard. He did his five-year residency at New York Medical College's Westchester County Medical Center and is board-certified in general surgery, according to Health News Florida.

Hospital errors take an estimated 98,000 lives a year. When patients sue doctors and hospitals, the first response from the business community it to cap any damages the injured may receive. That just adds insult to injury. It would be far better to eliminate the medical error in the first place.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a medical error, there are many things to consider, as this story highlights. A consultation with a Jacksonville medical malpractice lawyer may provide you with the information you need to decide how to proceed. A consultation is always comprehensive and complimentary.

Good news for a change concerning the BP oil spill and BP’s commitment to pay for its mess. A News4Jax article reports that BP announced Tuesday, June 15, that it will set aside $20 billion to pay victims of the massive oil spill. That move came after pressure from the White House following a meeting with BP executives Wednesday. The fund will be independent and overseen by lawyer, Kenneth Feinberg. He is the lawyer who oversaw the payments to September 11th terrorist attack families.

Those whose livelihoods have been devastated by the April explosion and subsequent leak of thousands of gallons of crude into the Gulf include fishermen, restaurateurs, oil rig workers, and hotel owners among others. There is no word yet on when claims will be processed and who and what will be covered, but BP is now committed to paying $5 billion a year for four years into an escrow account.

So far the company has promised to commit $25 million for research in the aftermath of the spill. The Florida Institute of Oceanography will receive $10 million. In signing up to receive the money, the institutions say they were careful to erect a firewall so BP could not alter or in any way influence the research.

Also on Wednesday, the chairman of BP, Tony Hayward, apologized to the American people for the worst oil spill in U.S. history. To put its money where its mouth is, $100 million has been set aside to help oil workers. shareholders won’t be happy as they will not be receiving any dividends for the rest of the year. Scientists are now estimating that the spill is dumping up to 2.5 million gallons a day into Gulf waters and is still not contained, 58 days after the explosion.

Hayward is not off the hot seat yet. He will face a congressional committee Thursday, June 17, to answer how the company is handling, or not, the containment of the spill. Rep. John Dingell said to “expect a very unpleasant afternoon.”

The bottom line will be how to prevent this type of disaster from ever happening again.

DUI checkpoints are a fact of life and are frequently conducted throughout Florida. On Saturday, June 12, one motorist decided he didn’t have the patience to participate in the driving-under-the-influence check and tried to flee. Unfortunately, he struck a trooper when he ran and did not stop.

Based on a News4Jax story, the Florida Highway Patrol is looking for this hit-and-run driver, who sped through a nearby neighborhood being chased by troopers. He still has not been located. Fortunately the trooper who was struck was not seriously hurt.

The checkpoint was set up in front of the Florida Highway Patrol headquarters in Orlando. One lane was set up for cars that needed a further investigation.

Time Magazine recently reported that Florida is top in the nation for hit-and-run fatalities. The nonprofit group, Transportation for America, reports that the four top dangerous metropolitan areas for pedestrians at risk of being injured in a Florida pedestrian accident are Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa.

For some unknown reason, the number of hit-and-run cases is increasing in the state. In Jacksonville there were more than 2,000 in 2007 and 2008. Compare that to 349 in 2006. This trooper is very fortunate that he was not seriously injured.

Hit-and-Run Laws in Florida
The driver of a vehicle involved in a crash that results in death or injury must stop the vehicle immediately under Florida law. If they do not do that, they can be charged with a first degree felony which can result in a fine of $10,000 and as much as 30 years in prison.

Generally the person flees the scene because they have something to hide. They may be intoxicated, may be driving without a license, may be in this country illegally or wanted by the law. If you or a loved one has been the victim of a hit-and-run driver, you would be well-advised to contact a Florida accident attorney who can be your advocate throughout the investigation to find this individual. Families of the deceased can file a wrongful death claim to seek the costs involved with a funeral, lost future earnings and companionship. The injured can help recover the costs associated with the hit-and-run accident and get this individual off the road.

Jacksonville defective product injury lawyers are noting that children swallowing batteries is becoming a growing problem as people increasingly are using button batteries. A Reuters story reports that there has been an increase in the number of children that put the tiny batteries in their mouth where they can become lodged in the esophagus or ingested.

If the lodged batteries are not removed within two hours, they can cause tears, burning or internal bleeding. The studies - published in the June issue of Pediatrics - come to the same conclusion – that the number of cases of battery swallowing are on the rise. Research suggests a 6.7 fold increase in the percentage of button batteries swallowed between 1985 and 2009. That increase mirrors the increasing use of the little lithium cell batteries that go in remote controls, cameras, watches, children’s toys, and many household products.

So far, there have been 13 deaths from swallowing or ingesting the batteries.

The researchers suggest that manufacturers take more care by creating a childproof battery compartment that may require a tool to open, and creating an education campaign so parents know what to look for if a battery is lodged or has been swallowed. That data shows that swallowing a lithium cell battery begins to severely burn a child internally within two to 2.5 hours. Data from the national batter ingestion hotline shows that children under the age of six were involved in the majority (62.5%) of button cell battery ingestions.

Parents need to be aware of the situation. The majority of small batteries were lying around or removed from household products. Believe it or not, some elderly individuals ingested the small items in 15.5% of ingestion incidents, believing that the batteries were pills.

Health care providers may not even know what to look for, so widespread education needs to include doctors, nurses and emergency room personnel. More than 54% of the time, cases were initially misdiagnosed. Symptoms of battery ingesting can include vomiting, fever, lethargy, irritability, cough, poor appetite, wheezing, and dehydration.

Please take seriously this alert about a potentially deadly product hazard that may be lying around your house.

According to a News4Jax article, the lawyer who represents many of the families of the high school students who died in an SUV rollover crash in Jacksonville on the last day of school a year ago, sued Cooper Tire and Rubber Monday, June 7, 2010.

Attorney Eric Block called the “Cooper Tire” case a “preventable accident.” The 35-page complaint names Cooper Tire, Ford Motor, Big Chief Motor Company, and Imagine Cars of Orlando that sold the family the 1997 Ford Explorer that rolled.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Shannon Broome, one of four students from Ed White High School who piled in a Ford Explorer on June 5, 2009 heading for the beach. Behind the wheel and wearing his seat belt was 15-year-old unlicensed driver, Brandon Hodges. When the rear left tire experienced tread separation at 65 mph on an I-295 ramp, the driver lost control of the Explorer and the vehicle rolled.

Broome was injured in the crash but survived along with four others. Kimber Krebs, 15, Dennis Stout, 17, John Kiely, 15 and Erin Hurst Livingston, 15, all died. The driver, Hodges, was the only one wearing a seat belt and was not seriously injured. Block says this is the first of eight complaints.

Why file against Cooper Tire? Block says the American company knowingly manufactured a dangerous product then lied to the public that the tire was worn and had no tread, shifting the fault for the crash on the car’s owner. Indicating what his arguments in court will be, he says the Explorer was in the shop just two weeks before the accident and Big Chief Auto put two new tires on the front, not including the one that blew, but did not warn the car’s owner about any visible problems with the tire. “It’s their job to sell new tires,” he says, and if the Cooper Cobra tire looked worn they would have suggested replacing it.

“Big Chief would not let them leave the premises in a worn condition,” Block said to reporters at a news conference Monday, June 7.

Cooper Tire is facing hundreds of lawsuits over tire tread separation.

Continue reading " Lawsuit to Be Filed in Fatal High School Crash " »

Palatka, Florida had an estimated population of 10,800 in 2007 and a population density of approximately 1,553 people located within the 6.96 square mile limits of the city. Situated in Putnam County, Palatka is home to several commuter residents, with only 20% both living and working within city limits. Nevertheless, many Palatka inhabitants utilize bicycles as modes of transportation as well as for personal enjoyment and exercise.

In being such a busy city, bicyclists may find themselves at a major risk of suffering injury in a Palatka bike accident when motorists exercise negligent or reckless driving practices. Common bike accident injuries in Palatka include brain injury, broken bones, fractures, torn ligaments, laceration, bruising, and even death. These injuries often bring about tremendous financial, emotional and physical calamities for a bike accident victim to face. Palatka bike accident lawyers help injury victims obtain the compensation that they deserve to pay for medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of wages, and other damages associated with their accident and injuries.

No matter what kind of personal injury accident in Palatka has affected your life, a skilled Palatka personal injury attorney will aggressively protect your rights and hold negligent parties legally responsible. If you or a loved one has been injured in a bicycle accident in Palatka or another kind of personal injury accident, please contact the skilled attorneys at Farah and Farah. Our Florida injury accident legal team has years of experience in personal injury litigation involving bicycle accidents and several other accidents. Call us at our Palatka office today to schedule a free case consultation:

(386) 328-2889
417 St. Johns Avenue
Palatka, Florida 32177


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Four brands of children’s PediaCare medications have been recalled because they were made in the same facility as the troubled and recalled children’s Tylenol. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) coordinated with Blacksmith Brands Inc. just before the Memorial Day holiday to issue the voluntary recall. Blacksmith doesn’t believe there are any problems with the four formulations, but “in an abundance of caution” recalled its Multi-Symptom Cold, Long Acting Cough, Decongestant, and Allergy and Cold - all 4 ounce.

Blacksmith stresses that the recall is not being undertaken on the basis of any adverse medical events. If you have any of these medications in your possession, the company says to discontinue their use. If you have the medications in your home you are advised to dispose of them in ways other than down the sink or in the toilet. The www.smartxdisposal.net has information on disposal. To find the lot number and expiration date on the product look on the label above the brand name. The lot number and expiration dates are found on the back and side label of the bottle. Blacksmith says it will offer you a free bottle when replacements are available.

Among the products recalled are:

• PediaCare Multi-Symptom Cold 4oz. UPC #30045-0556-059


• PediaCare Long Acting Cough 4oz. UPC# 3 0045-0465-047


• PediaCare Decongestant 4oz. UPC# 3 0045-0554-04 8


• PediaCare Allergy and Cold 4oz. UPC# 3 0045-0552-04

As to the reason for the recall – the Blacksmith brands of cold and allergy medications are made in the same Fort Washington, Pennsylvania plant as the recently recalled children’s Tylenol, Benadryl, Motrin, and Zyrtec products made by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, McNeil Healthcare. The problems stem from a Food and Drug Administration April 30th inspection report that found bacterial contamination, filthy conditions, a hole in the roof and inconsistent formulations, leaving some “super potent.”

The plant remains closed and there is no word whether any of the PediaCare meds suffered from the same production mistakes, and again no illnesses were reported. This is a bigger story that indicates a systemic problem with the production of over-the-counter pediatric liquid medications. A Florida defective drug attorney may be able to help your family if you believe a family member has been sickened by liquid children medications.

General Motors will recall 1.4 million vehicles to fix a potential fire hazard. The problem is a windshield washer fluid system that can heat up, thus sparking a fire. Two years ago, GM recalled more than 900,000 vehicles for the same problem but the “fix” was not adequate. Instead, the automaker will now disable the system, according to a CNN Money article.

Although it’s not needed in Florida, General Motors had created a way to heat windshield washer fluid in cold climates so it would work better. Two years ago, GM dealers put a fuse in the vehicle to prevent a short circuit which was causing a grounding wire to overheat, leading to smoke and problems with other electrical components. The company that made the heating system went bankrupt in 2008.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports there have been five incidents of fires in GM vehicles that had the original repair, so the overheating is not being stopped by the fuse. There have been no injuries reported.

Among the 1.4 million vehicles affected by the recall are the Buick Enclave and Lucerne; the Cadillac CTS, DTS, and Escalade; the Chevy Avalanche, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe and Traverse; and the GMC Acadia, Sierra, and Yukon; the Hummer H2; and the Saturn Outlook, reports CNN. The models fall within the 2006 to 2009 years.

Any owner will receive $100 from GM as compensation and can contact GM customer service or NHTSA at 1-888-327-4236.

Jacksonville vehicle defect injury lawyers will continue to monitor updates regarding the GM recall as they are announced.

A Destin, Florida woman has filed a lawsuit against BP, Halliburton and Transocean, among others alleging that her vacation rental business is ruined and will cost her thousands of dollars. Vickie Nobles’ lawsuit is a class-action. That means she will head the class on behalf of other who are similarly situated, meaning they likely own beachfront property. According to The Florida Independent, among her claims are gross negligence, trespass, products liability, and liability for an abnormally dangerous activity. The Gulf oil spill, she contends, violates the state’s Pollutant Discharge Prevention and Control Act, which requires the plaintiff to prove that pollution did occur. That will not be tough.

Also named in the action is the maker of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer. That was supposed to be the backup but it failed and allowed the discharge of thousands of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Adding to the complaint Nobles says that BP has not done enough to stop the oil from fouling Florida’s beaches and the booms that BP has erected are ineffective. That’s because anything higher than a three-foot wave can clear the boom taking the oil slick with it. Just this past month, the Gulf has had seven to 10 foot-swells, her complaint says.

How many barrels of oil are leaking due to the Gulf oil spill? Nobles says that nobody knows, but that BP’s representation is misleading the public by underestimating the damage. At the same time, the company is operating its Atlantis rig in the Gulf and Nobles says it is doing so negligently “with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents, which one official warned could lead to ‘catastrophic operator error."

So far the restaurant and lodging industry estimates that reservation and occupancy are down 30% since the April 20th spill from the explosion of BP’s Deepwater oil rig.

Ever since the 1960s it’s been understood that cigarettes are bad for your body. But American cigarettes may be worse than foreign brands. That is according to scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). HealthDay Reporter mentions that in a study, CDC researchers compared the main cancer-causing ingredient in cigarettes, nitrosamines, in the cigarette butts of American cigarettes and those from other countries. They found that not all cigarettes are the same in the amount of carcinogens they deliver to smokers. And that is an understatement.

The amount of nitrosamines in U.S. brands was about three times that of brands from Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia, says Dr. Jim Pirkle with the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. Tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) are known to vary among different brands of cigarettes but what’s of concern is that American smokers are exposed to even more of the drugs linked to cancer.

American blend tobacco has higher levels of TSNAs, while tobacco from other countries is called “bright” tobacco and is flue-cured, creating cigarettes with lower levels of TSNA, according to the CDC.

The bottom line is that all cigarettes are unsafe, regardless.

How will this information be used? Just in time for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to flex its new muscle and authority over dangerous tobacco products under the newly created Center for Tobacco Products.

Under the landmark law, signed by President Obama, the FDA plans to first address menthol cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, then any false promises the industry makes of one tobacco product as being safer than another. If the FDA decides that reducing the TSNA levels in cigarettes will benefit public health, we may see the agency address those standards in all tobacco products on the market.

The irony and danger here is that changing the TSNA levels will still not make cigarettes “safer” so critics say there is a danger in public perception in requiring cigarettes to have fewer carcinogens. Farah and Farah has years of experience in litigating cases against Big Tobacco and while this information is not surprising, it is further indication that the tobacco industry has no interest in protecting public health.

The numbers continue to come in from consumers concerned about their runaway Toyotas. Based on a recent report, new data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) suggests there may be as many as 89 fatalities due to unintended acceleration since 2000. From 2000 through mid-May NHTSA has received about 6,200 complaints regarding Toyotas taking off on drivers including 57 injuries and the 89 deaths. Previously, NHTSA said that 52 fatalities were possibly involved with runaway Toyotas.

The problem has been that law enforcement in the past did not always look at such a possibility. While Toyota says its fixed nearly 3.5 million vehicles for defective auto parts among those recalled, the giant automaker insists that electronics are not to blame for the unintended acceleration. 5.4 million Toyotas have been recalled to fix a floor mat that was suspected as trapping accelerator pedals, but that explanation is increasingly the focus of skepticism. In addition Toyota has recalled another 2.3 million vehicles, including trucks to repair a sticking accelerator pedal. NHTSA says it has not seen any evidence that pedals were entrapped or accelerator pedals stuck in any vehicles that were properly repaired. A glitch in the computer system has long been suspected of causing the cars to speed out of control.

Toyota has already paid $16.4 million, a record fine, for its delayed response to the accelerator pedal recall. Hundreds of state and federal lawsuits are waiting to be heard.

Toyota said in a statement that it "sympathizes with the individuals and families involved in any accident involving our vehicles. We are making an all-out effort to ensure our vehicles are safe and we remain committed to investigating reported incidents of unintended acceleration in our vehicles quickly."

The entire Toyota debacle has NHTSA reinventing itself asking Congress for upgraded auto safety laws, and to stiffen penalties against automakers. NHTSA also needs more power to demand recalls rather than waiting for the automaker to comply with a request from the agency in a classic tail wagging the dog scenario. If you or a loved one has had a trouble or been in a crash with a runaway Toyota, call the dealership, call Toyota and certainly call an experienced Florida auto accident attorney to make sure your rights are preserved.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing about the recall of about 40 types of popular children and infant Tylenol products made by Johnson &Johnson subsidiary, McNeil Healthcare.

Panel members on Thursday, May 27, discussed what little authority the FDA actually has in ordering a recall. Most consumers don’t realize that the Food and Drug Administration must work with the company, in this case Johnson & Johnson, before a recall can be issued. If J & J wants to be difficult, the FDA must then obtain a court order to get a recall and defective medications off store shelves. That means a delay. It is sort of like the tail wagging the dog.

On the other hand, to work strictly through the courts would also mean a delay at the risk of consumers. Rep. Jackie Speier of California asked the FDA’s Dr. Joshua Sharfstein if having stronger enforcement powers would help the agency. As the FDA tries to be more effective in inspections and enforcement that is the 800-pound elephant in the room, said Ms. Speers.

As it stands now, McNeil’s Pennsylvania plant that makes about 40 types of children’s cold and allergy medications is closed ever since FDA inspectors found holes in the ceiling, filthy conditions, and bacteria in the formulations. Of most concern was a lack of quality control. Some of the product was “super potent” and some had little active ingredient. This is just the tip of the iceberg for J & J.

The FDA even went out on a limb and told consumers not to purchase the McNeil/J & J brand and to instead purchase generics.

Before the plant reopens, the FDA will insist that manufacturing standards meet all requirements for health and safety, which should have been done all along of course. So far, no direct link has been established between the 40 types of medications and the 775 reported adverse events reported to the FDA, including 7 deaths.

Recalled medicines include - Motrin, Benadryl, and Zyrtec, along with Children’s Tylenol pain reliever and other mediations, in all, about 70% of the children’s over-the-market liquid medications. Jacksonville drug recalls injury attorneys will be monitoring what is noted as the largest recall of children’s medicine in the history of the FDA and the third for McNeil over the last eight months.

You can thank Toyota for this legislation. The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 was approved by a House Energy and Commerce Committee, the first step to making it law. The overriding component is that proposed legislation would require all vehicles sold in the U.S. be equipped with a brake override system. That means that a brake and accelerator could not operate at the same time. The brake would win. That is exactly what drivers behind the wheel of Toyotas experiencing unintended acceleration needed to get their vehicles under control. Instead, what was likely a computer glitch, caused an override in the mechanics of the vehicles and led to a number of fatalities.

Not to be outdone, Honda says it plans to have a brake override system installed in some vehicles beginning in August with fleet-wide installation for Honda and Acura after next year. General Motors says it plans to install brake override systems in all of its vehicles.

Other provisions include increasing the authority of the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration by increasing funding and power.

The Act also mandates automakers add automotive event data recorders or black box recorders in new vehicles. Some vehicles, namely General Motors and Ford, already contain the integrated black boxes in the vehicle’s electronic control unit. Jacksonville Beach car accident attorneys and lawyers throughout Florida and the United States have used the information they contain in some landmark cases in recent years.

A final vote on the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 could come in the fall after a vote by Congress.