And over Memorial Day weekend, one of the busier travel holidays during the calendar year, those risks are magnified. This year proved no different. Authorities on Long Island announced this week that they made 136 arrests for DWI (driving while intoxicated) charges between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, according to a New York Newsday report.

Most of the arrests happened in Suffolk County, where police made 50 arrests over the holiday weekend. Add to that figure an additional 36 arrests by police departments in Nassau County and 33 more between sheriff’s deputies and state police and it adds up to a particularly dangerous weekend on some already treacherous roadways. Police in Southampton nabbed 17 more drunk drivers over Memorial Day, Newsday reports.

We regularly report on the dangers posed to motorists on Long Island, which has some of the most dangerous roads in the U.S. The Southern State Parkway that runs through Long Island is of particular note: One 10-mile pass on the parkway has been dubbed “Blood Alley” because of the fatal injuries sustained in vehicle accidents that happen on it.

During the Memorial Day weekend, several accidents were reported on Long Island roads. The New Hyde Park Patch.com site reports that one vehicle overturned and hit two parked cars there on Sunday night. The accident resulted in injuries to the driver and blocked traffic on two roads. In another incident, a car made a wrong turn and ended up stuck on a rail line. The car had to be removed and the mishap resulted in halted train service into the New Hyde Park station. Patch.com does not indicate whether any charges are pending against the drivers in these two incidents.

Despite enforcement efforts over the weekend, including a multijurisdictional taskforce on Saturday, the rate of DWI arrests on Long Island was at least on par with the total accounted for last year. Several agencies that were tapped to gather this year’s total were not tallied last year, Newsday adds in its report. In 2012, police in Suffolk County made 52 DWI arrests, about the same as this year.

Late last week, according to a New York Times report, the agency warned that women should only be taking about half as much Ambien and other sleep aid drugs that contain the Active Ingredient zolpidem. After compiling several years’ worth of complaints from people saying they felt extraordinarily drowsy the morning after they took Ambien.

That information, combined with lab tests that showed women do not absorb zolpidem as quickly as men and pertinent driving statistics, prompted regulators to issue an order to scale back prescriptions for these drugs, especially for women.

If people have too much of the drug in their body when they wake up from their sleep, it is likely to impair their functioning as they start the day. That equates to an increased risk of being injured in an automobile accident.

The Times cites an FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research spokesman who said, paraphrasing, “An estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of women will have a level of zolpidem in their blood that could impair driving eight hours after taking the pill, while only about 3 percent of men do.”

The amount of Ambien prescribed in the U.S. has boomed in recent years. Most of the prescriptions written are for drugs containing zolpidem, namely Ambien. Of the 60 million prescriptions written for a sleep aid in 2011, the agency said, two-thirds of the drugs contained zolpidem. The total of 60 million is a steep hike, up 20 percent, from the total written in 2006.

As stated, this warning from the FDA was prompted by years of complaints from patients taking drugs containing zolpidem. The announcement likely comes years after many physicians have already known about the effects of the drug, especially on women. The FDA said it has at least 700 reports compiled from women who associated a driving mishap with a dose of Ambien the previous night. The most incidents were reported in 2007 when the agency ordered a label change on the drug.

Other side effects of the drug include bizarre and sometimes dangerous behaviors performed in the middle of the night while fully under Ambien’s effects. In the morning, many people will have no recollection of doing these things.

Testing of the zolpidem-containing sleep aid Intermezzo and its effect on driving helped link side effects of this and other drugs with impaired driving skills.

According to a report from MorichesDaily.com, police say 57 were hurt when the ferry carrying commuters from New Jersey crashed into the pier. Two riders on board were deemed to have suffered critical injuries and at least one had a serious head injury following the crash.

The crash was reported around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. Later that morning, officials with the New York Police Dept., the Coast Guard, and other city officials were at the scene to determine how it may have been caused. The report indicates that officials with the National Transportation Safety Board were expected at the scene later Wednesday.

One person told a local news source that the ferry failed to slow as it approached Pier 11. However, other reports from the scene taken from supposed eyewitnesses say the boat appeared to be approaching the dock normally just before the crash. 

Panic ensued in the seconds after impact on board the ferry. Passengers aboard the vessel were thrown from their seats. Others who may have been standing were tossed forward and backward and people in stairwells were thrown into pipes and walls as the boat hit the dock, likely resulting in more serious injuries. The ferry was secured to the dock after the crash and emergency officials were able to get aboard it and provide aid to passengers.

The starboard side of the ferry sustained the brunt of the damage in the crash. The ferry is named the Seastreak Wall Street and is a daily line that has a $26 one-way fee and a $45 round-trip from New Jersey to Lower Manhattan. The vessel is owned by the Seastreak company. It departs daily from Atlantic Highlands and Conners Highlands. The ferry had 326 passengers on board at the time of the crash, according to the report.

It's widely accepted that falling asleep while driving an automobile is a dangerous combination but just how dangerous and just how many people have admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel is cause for alarm.

According to a New York Times blog post, some people are more likely to fall asleep while driving than others and it is more based on their behaviors rather than any demographic. Those who sleep less than six hours a day or who snore while they sleep are more likely to get drowsy and possibly fall asleep behind the wheel. Men, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are more likely to fall asleep behind the wheel than women. Younger drivers were more likely to fall asleep than older drivers, too. Just 1.7 percent of people over the age of 65 told researchers that they have fallen asleep at the wheel while 5 percent of people between 18 and 44 have dozed off while driving.

The study found data from 2009 and determined that as many as 730 fatalities on American roads were linked to a sleeping driver. Being asleep at the wheel may have caused more than 30,000 traffic accidents that resulted in varying degrees of injuries in that year, alone, the study found. Injuries and death are more likely in car accidents that involve a sleeping driver because they're unlikely to apply their brakes and often veer off the roadway at higher rates of speed than motorists who are awake through their accidents and may try to avoid more serious injuries.

People suffering from sleep apena were singled out as those who are most likely to be tired during the day and prone to drifting off to sleep behind the wheel of their automobiles. Sleep apnea causes disrupted sleep patterns and leads to excessive drowsiness during the daytime. Being awake for a full day without sleep is the equivalent to a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.1 percent, higher than all states' maximum allowed limit to determine drunk driving, the Times report added.

About 4 percent of people contacted for the CDC's study admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel at some point in their lives but not recently. Researchers believe the actual figure of sleeping motorists may be much higher either because people are hesitant to admit these things and because people are not likely to remember if they've fallen asleep while driving. Even just a few seconds asleep could lead to serious injuries or death as a fast-moving automobile could move hundreds of feet in just a short amount of time.

According to a report at Jacksonville.com, a tractor-trailer that jacknifed on Interstate 95 in the city sent two police cruisers and an SUV into a ditch after it smashed into the vehicles. Those inside those vehicles were forced to visit a local hospital for treatment of their injuries. An empty school bus with just the driver aboard was also hit by the wrecked truck but no injuries were reported from that vehicle. 

Authorities have identified the officers who were hit and injured in the incident: Douglas Molina, 32, and Alexander Chambers, 53. Their injuries at the time of the accident were not considered life-threatening, according to the same report. They were near the scene of the jacknife as they invested a separate roll-over accident that happened prior at the on-ramp to the Interstate from Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The driver of that car was already transported to a local hospital when the tractor-trailer jacknifed and sent the responding officers to the hospital.

After the tractor-trailer jacknifed and the officers had been hit along with the other SUV, a third accident happened in the moving lane of traffic, likely caused by curious motorists passing by the scene. A person involved in that accident was also taken to a local hospital for treatment of their injuries.

No other updates on the extent of the injuries to everyone involved was disclosed to the media.

According to the Jacksonville.com report, the police described the incidents as follows: 

"... In the police-involved crash, an SUV was apparently behind the school bus entering the interstate from MLK about 5:20 a.m. Hurst said the tractor-trailer rig was in the center lane when its right front fender was struck by the SUV. The truck driver attempted to brake and move over but couldn’t because of traffic. The rig, which included double trailers, began to jackknife and veered to the right, pushing the SUV into the police cars.

"One police car and the SUV were pushed into a chain-link fence while part of the disabled tractor-trailer rig extended into the roadway.

"The school bus pulled over just north of the accident scene. The bus driver and driver of the SUV were taken to Shands Jacksonville."

According to a FoxNews.com report, some of the passengers who survived the crash were preparing on Tuesday to go home to Canada, collecting their passports and what remains of their personal effects that they had on their 9-day trip with them and another 14 are still in hospitals in three different states recovering from the serious injuries they suffered in the crash.

Previous reports indicate that the tour bus was traversing the area of I-84 near Pendleton, Ore., on Sunday morning when it encountered an icy stretch dubbed by locals as "Dead Man's Pass" and slid through a guard rail and down a slippery embankment. Rescuers were forced to literally haul bodies from the wreck back up the slope so they could be transported to local hospitals for treatment.

The latest report indicates the bus was 200 feet from the highway and much of the passengers' personal belongings was strewn along the hillside. The passengers who were healthy enough to be out there on Tuesday were allowed to comb the hillside where the bus slid one-by-one to look for their property.

The bus was headed to Vancouver, B.C., Canada, and was on the final leg of its nine-day tour. The group on board, a total of at least 47, had previously stopped in Las Vegas as the final part of their holiday travel excursion. They were due back in Canada on Sunday.

Because some of the passengers told a local chapter of the American Red Cross that they couldn't stand to get on another tour bus following the incident to finish their journey back to Canada, Fox reports that a local car dealership offered to take those passengers across the border at no charge in smaller vehicles. As many of the passengers aboard the tour bus were Korean-Canadian, the local community in Pendleton has attempted to offer them some of their traditional foods as they await clearance to return to Canada.

Federal highway officials were on the scene of the crash on New Year's Day to determine what exactly caused the crash. The bus driver, according to a previous report, had sustained too serious of injuries and could not fully recount the crash on Monday. 

Only one of the nine victims has been identified. He is a Washington state man who had his wife on board with him for the trip. The man's wife survived the crash but remained hospitalized.

A multi-vehicle pile-up on the eastbound Long Island Expressway Wednesday afternoon resulted in one fatality and at least 32 other people suffering varying degrees of injuries.

According to an Associated Press report from Shirley, N.Y., the pile-up happened just before 3 p.m. There were multiple vehicles involved in the accident and several of them, including at least one car and one tractor trailer, were on fire at the scene. AP relies on a local news helicopter (Chopper 12) and its footage for portions of its report.

The eastbound lanes of the Long Island Expressway were closed from Exits 65 through 69 through the evening hours as authorities and emergency crews responded to possible injured motorists and to clear the highway of the numerous vehicles involved in the accident.

Vehicles were damaged in varying degrees, as well. Some cars were burned beyond recognition while others suffered only minor damage. Vehicles, though they were traveling east, were arranged in different directions all over the highway, according to the eyewitness reports.

One motorist who was traveling just a few vehicles ahead of the accident said he saw another motorist behind him suddenly slow down, pull to the side of the road, get out of his car, and he knelt down and began praying. It was at that time that the witness motorist said he saw a wall of fire and smoke headed their way.

Several motorists came to the rescue of one tractor trailer driver who was involved in the wreck. As his truck began to smoke, several others pulled him from his vehicle and out of the way. Just as they removed him from the wreck, the truck burst into flames. Police arriving on scene urged those motorists to run from the truck because they feared it could explode.

More details on this accident on the Long Island Expressway will be updated as investigators begin their investigations into the cause and the exact extent of the injuries and damage.

According to an Associated Press report from Shirley, N.Y., the pile-up happened just before 3 p.m. There were multiple vehicles involved in the accident and several of them, including at least one car and one tractor trailer, were on fire at the scene. AP relies on a local news helicopter (Chopper 12) and its footage for portions of its report.

The eastbound lanes of the Long Island Expressway were closed from Exits 65 through 69 through the evening hours as authorities and emergency crews responded to possible injured motorists and to clear the highway of the numerous vehicles involved in the accident.

Vehicles were damaged in varying degrees, as well. Some cars were burned beyond recognition while others suffered only minor damage. Vehicles, though they were traveling east, were arranged in different directions all over the highway, according to the eyewitness reports.

One motorist who was traveling just a few vehicles ahead of the accident said he saw another motorist behind him suddenly slow down, pull to the side of the road, get out of his car, and he knelt down and began praying. It was at that time that the witness motorist said he saw a wall of fire and smoke headed their way.

Several motorists came to the rescue of one tractor trailer driver who was involved in the wreck. As his truck began to smoke, several others pulled him from his vehicle and out of the way. Just as they removed him from the wreck, the truck burst into flames. Police arriving on scene urged those motorists to run from the truck because they feared it could explode.

More details on this accident on the Long Island Expressway will be updated Thursday as investigators begin their investigations into the cause and the exact extent of the injuries and damage.

According to a CBS News and Associated Press report, 22-year-old Alex Fermin, of Passaic, N.J., died when his car lost control in a westbound lane of the interstate highway over the weekend near Saddle Brook, N.J. Fermin’s car slammed into another vehicle in the other lane, forcing both cars onto a grass median on the side of the road.

As the cars flipped when they reached the median, Fermin was ejected from his vehicle and killed. Passengers in his car were seriously injured and transported from the scene to a local hospital for treatment.

The other car involved in the crash was carrying six people. They all sustained minor injuries. They were taken to a local hospital and later released.

There are no other details available about the accident.

Automobile accidents occur hundreds of times a day across the country and they seem to be happening at an increasingly alarming rate. They most often involve younger drivers who are less experienced behind the wheel and are more likely to become distracted while driving.

Recently, in response to the growing popularity of mobile devices like phones and tablets and their availability to the Internet and younger drivers more often being distracted behind the wheel, local and state governments have launched campaigns warning of the dangers of distracted driving, namely texting while driving.

According to data compiled in 2009 by AAA Foundation, more than 1 in 6 automobile accident fatalities are caused by a driver who was distracted by a cell phone or other device.

A new study found that one in every three pedestrians is walking around likely unaware of their surroundings because they’re more engaged to the screen on their smartphones. Texting while walking is a growing social trend among pedestrians and is bound to result in more injuries and fatalities just as distracted driving has for people who can’t seem to avoid texting behind the wheel of an automobile.

According to a HealthDay report at CBSNews.com, researchers from Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center at the University of Washington find that one in three pedestrians use their phones while walking, even while they cross a busy street intersection, where most pedestrians are struck by motorists.

Federal data shows that 60,000 pedestrians are injured in automobile accidents every year. Pedestrians die at a rate of about 4,000 times per year. These figures  stand to rise dramatically in coming years as long as social trends see more pedestrians looking down at their phones than up at the road ahead. If it's any sign of foreshadowing, as texting while driving has become more common, figures for automobile accidents have increased and texting while driving, also known as distracted driving, is most often to blame. Many of these accidents result in serious injuries and sometimes even fatalities.

For its study, researchers at University of Washington observed pedestrians crossing 20 streets in Seattle over the course of the 2012 summertime. More than half of the walkers they observed were between the ages of 25 and 44.

At least 80 percent of all those observed for the study were walking alone. Surprisingly, 94 percent of all the pedestrians observed obeyed laws in regard to crossing in designated areas and 80 percent crossed only when a signal indicated it was safe. Conversely, only 25 percent looked both ways before crossing.

Many walkers appeared to be engaged in other activity as they walked and it was determined that this likely caused them to lose their focus while they walked. Nearly one-third of all pedestrians observed for the study were involved in some form of "distracted walking" as they crossed the street. Eleven percent of people were listening to music. Seven percent were texting as they made their way across a crosswalk and another 7 percent were talking on their phone.

It takes a person texting on their phones a full 2 seconds longer to cross an intersection than a person not distracted while they're walking, the research also found. Texters who make their way on foot were also four times more likely to ignore crosswalk signals and also to jaywalk.

The researchers advocate for stiffer penalties for people who choose to be more attentive to their phones than the sidewalks and other pedestrians while walking. They wrote, according to the report's citation: "... a shift in normative attitudes about pedestrian behavior, similar to efforts around drunk driving, will be important to limit the risk of mobile device use."

According to a local CBS News report, 60-year-old Chenugor Dao was killed when an Acura SUV first ignored a stop sign at the intersection of West Fifth St. and Quentin Rd. in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. The SUV then smashed into a Jeep Cherokee, flipping it, and then going up onto the curb where it struck Dao and three others.

With Dao on the sidewalk were her husband, her pregnant daughter, and her granddaughter. Dao was fatally injured at the scene when the SUV crashed into them. The other three members of her family were reportedly in stable condition and taken to a local hospital for treatment.

An eyewitness to the incident told CBS News that one of the victims was pinned under the car and had to be removed by lifting the SUV off him.

The Jeep Cherokee that was in the path of the out-of-control Acura SUV was carrying a driver and three passengers. One person was critically injured and three others sustained minor injuries in the crash. The critically injured person is a man reportedly in his early 20s, the report indicates.

The driver of the Acura SUV has not been formally charged in connection to the incident. Police told reporters that criminal behavior is not suspected but that an investigation would reveal why the SUV began its fateful charge through that intersection. The driver has only been identified as a 60-year-old man.

Other locals contacted by CBS News said the intersection that served as the scene for this crash has been the scene of other incidents in the past. Neighbors say that many vehicles either race through the intersection, coast through the stop, or avoid the stop sign altogether. Most of the vehicles traveling the fastest are turning on to Quentin Rd.

According to a report from DNAinfo.com, the city's Department of Education records show that 1,700 school bus accidents were reported last year. This fact came to light after a recent rash of accidents involving buses transporting special needs students occurred.

Based on the information available from the Dept. of Education, there are no details on just how many of the 900 injured were students and there is no indication what type of school bus was involved in the crash. Some of those injured could have been drivers or other passengers in addition to students. The reported accidents include anything from a fatality to a fender-bender where no damage to either vehicle occurs but is still logged. Many of the incidents involve minor mishaps, like a bus hitting a parked car, even just grazing it without causing damage.

Still, others are more serious and worthy of logging, certainly.

At the focus of the investigation are the 50-plus private bus contractors the city hires each year to handle the many bus routes in New York. Some contractors have a much spottier record than others in regard to safety and the number of accidents involving their buses. According to the report, "Allied Transit Corp., the numbers show, was the most dangerous provider, with 19 accidents logged last year, even though it only drove 34 routes in the 2011-'12 school year — a ratio of more than one accident for every two routes."

The figure for accidents involving Allied Transit buses is a whopping 18 times higher than another company hired by the city, Tufaro Transit, which had just three accidents on the record in 2011 despite having the same number of student routes as Allied.

Another bus company under the city’s employ for transporting students is Amboy Bus Company. This contractor was involved in the most bus accidents last year, a total of 408. The company gets 1,406 routes per year, making it an average of just about one accident for every three routes. Records indicate that other bus companies also seem to have a high number of accidents: Logan Transportation System buses were involved in 120 incidents last year and Little Richie buses were involved in 104 during 2011.

Each day, New York is responsible for transporting at least 170,000 students via bus to and from school. Of those, at least 57,000 are students with special needs.

The accidents caused by the bus driver - where they were deemed at fault - is actually dwarfed by the total number of accidents involving buses. The report cites Dept. of Education data showing that 60 percent of all the bus accidents reported last year were not the fault of the bus driver but of the other motorist. The department, despite the concerns from the public about the number of accidents, says that the rate of accidents per the number of trips taken each year by bus is relatively low. New York school buses make about 2.5 million trips during a 180-day school term.

Chief among those products subject of a report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group entitled "Trouble in Toyland" are those known as Buckyballs. These are the small desktop novelties that contain numerous small high-powered magnets that can be manipulated into different shapes. These products are typically marketed to older children and adults and warnings on most of the products say they are only intended for adults but they possess all the visual stimulants to gain a child's attention, too.

If these magnets break free of their form, they possess a significant health risk, especially if they're accidentally ingested by children. Once inside the body, these magnets can cause sudden and severe injuries that require emergency medical treatment. The strong but small magnets can easily fuse together inside the body, even through the walls of the large intestine, posing a serious risk of perforation, severe bleeding, and even death.

In the report, USPIR recorded at least 1,700 incidents which required emergency medical attention due to the ingestion of these small magnets, like those found in Buckyballs and others, like Zen Magnets products. Most of the incidents involved children between the ages of 4 and 12. Children may put these magnets in their mouths for numerous reasons, everthing from pure curiosity out of younger children or older ones who place them on their tongue to mimic a piercing, the report notes.

These products are likely to be big sellers this time of year and given as gifts. Many people buying them as gifts may not be aware of the dangers they pose. Earlier this year however, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urged the makers of these products to stop marketing them altogether. Bound by its regulatory limits and the fact that these makers do make the required warnings about their safety, federal regulators were essentially muted and these products are still widely available, especially on the Web. It was not until late this summer did the company that markets Buckballs say it would cease those sales but they're still likely available elsewhere.

Among the other toys making this dubious list are a Dora the Explorer guitar that USPIR researchers found to be too loud and was above federal limits for such toys. Also, a dragster car with very small wheels also made the report for safety violations that could result in serious injuries. The group examined more than 200 toys available at retail and discount stores nationwide. Among them, just a dozen were found to be in violation of federal safety standards, including those for lead paint, small parts, or other common safety concerns.

Locane-Bovenizer, who appeared regularly during the first season on the once-popular drama in the 1990s, was convicted on charges of vehicular homicide and assault by automobile earlier this week by a jury hearing the case for the last few weeks. Jurors were split and acquitted the former actress on charges of aggravated manslaughter. She now faces up to 10 years in prison and was sent from the courtroom on Tuesday in handcuffs after a New Jersey Superior Court judge revoked her bail. Locane-Bovenizer faced up to 30 years in prison if she were convicted on all charges. 

The former actress was accused of driving drunk on June 27, 2010, in Montgomery Township, N.J., when she collided with a vehicle driven by Fred and Helene Seeman. The crash killed Helene and seriously injured her husband, Fred. The couple was turning onto the driveway of their home, crossing the lane in which Locane-Bovenizer was driving. Details on the incident noted that Locane-Bovenizer was completely unaware of what she had done once emergency responders were able to track her down. 

The fatal accident was one of the final incidents in a dangerous path Locane-Bovenizer traveled that day and she still faces charges on at least nine other incidents in two New Jersey municipalities. The former actress claims she was being followed by a woman she had previously rear-ended with her vehicle when she struck the Seeman's vehicle. 

Reports from the scene clocked Locane-Bovenizer's SUV at 53 miles-per-hour in the zone marked for 35 at the time of the accident. She was found about an hour after the accident in a ditch away from the scene of the accident. 

Most of the people in the courtroom for the decision this week were classified as supporters of the former actress, according to a report from the courtroom from The (Newark) Star-Ledger newspaper. Fred Seeman could not be reached for comment by the source for his reaction to the verdict. One juror told reporters, "There were no winners," as a result of their decision and called it, "a sad end to a tragic story."

Locane-Bovenizer still faces civil charges in connection with that accident. He is being represented in that lawsuit by the national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP. 

Bed rails are designed to keep patients safe in their beds, namely older patients in assisted-living, nursing home, and hospital settings. These rails extend along a bed. For many patients who are prone to roll out of bed for various reasons, these beds could be a life-saver but for many more people each year, they’ve become a serious health hazard. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other conditions that could cause them to fall out of bed may benefit from bed rails but some older models could cause more injury than benefit.

If a patient were to fall from bed and slip between the spaced-apart rails on common bed rails, they could become trapped, putting them at risk of suffocation or strangulation. These injuries are more common when people are using beds with older model rails. Most newer models of bed rails are not designed to allow a patient to slip through them.

According to the New York Times, there are about 4,000 injuries each year that require emergency room care that are blamed on bed rails. In the last decade, about 150 people have died as a result of being trapped in a bed rail. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received at least 36,000 reports of injuries blamed on bed rails between 2003 and May of this year.

Most of the injuries are among the elderly, often in hospitals or nursing homes. Despite the rising rate of injuries blamed on bed rails, federal health officials have continually allowed manufacturers to talk them out of requiring safety warning labels to be placed on all bed rails detailing their injury risks.

The source found that the Food and Drug Administration and CPSC have repeatedly balked at issuing warnings or requiring that safety labels be placed on all bed rails that would at least make most consumers aware of the potential dangers. Experts told The Times they believe that many of the injuries and deaths caused by these bed rails could have been avoided with more awareness among both health care professionals and patients.

The FDA did issue a warning about the potential hazards of bed rails in 1995 but only issued voluntary guidelines for their use instead of requiring a warning label in 2006. Again, as the injury and death reports continue to accumulate, both federal agencies are being bucked to require that safety labels be placed on these ubiquitous devices.

Newer model bed rails aimed to prevent many of these injuries and some health care facilities have made their employees aware of these potential dangers have reduced the rate of injuries blamed on bed rails since 1995, but many facilities and home health patients still rely on older model rails.

According to several reports last week, a garbage truck en route in North Bellmore, Nassau County (N.Y.), collided with a car on Tuesday afternoon. The driver of the large garbage collection truck was uninjured in the accident but the impact killed two of three people in the 2002 Hyundai Accent that was hit by the garbage truck.

One eyewitness to the incident told NBCNews.com it sounded like an explosion when the vehicles collided. According to that report, the garbage truck is owned by Jamaica Ash and it entered an intersection courtesy of a green light at Camp Avenue and Newbridge Road in Bellmore, N.Y.

The truck driver in this incident drove about two blocks after the accident until realizing what had happened. Police told NBC that they do not expect charges to be handed down, especially against the driver of the garbage truck.

Details on the incident remain sparse. The two who lost their lives in the incident likely died upon impact with the garbage truck. They were seated in the front seat of that vehicle at the time of the incident. A third person, seated in the back seat, was critically injured by doctors told the press that she's likely to command a full recovery effort.

According to a press release from the national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP, that firm is working alongside attorney Kenneth Mollins and the Manhattan law firm of Douglas & London in filing a formal Notice of Claim against LIPA and its contractor, National Grid, at the power company’s home office in Nassau County, N.Y.

The serving a Notice of Claim is required by law because LIPA is a public utility. The notice tells LIPA and National Grid that the firms plan to pursue claims the companies were negligent in their preparations and reactions to Superstorm Sandy. The Notice of Claim gives the power company and National Grid the opportunity to offer settlements to affected businesses and individuals and avoid costly litigation.

Last week, Mollins filed a class-action lawsuit against LIPA and National Grid. The lawsuit sought to cover any business that was or continues to be affected by the storm, namely regarding the impact of the loss of electricity. The claims allege that LIPA did little to protect Long Island's electrical grid prior to the crippling storm and that has compounded problems these businesses and individuals face in the weeks following the storm.

Mollins turned to the services of Parker Waichman LLP, a leading national law firm in aiding those who’ve been adversely affected by natural disasters. Douglas & London also joined this effort. Together, they represent a high-powered team of attorneys able to represent affected businesses in the Long Island and greater New York area.

It’s been more than two weeks since the area was affected by Sandy and for some, power has still not been restored. These and other businesses believe LIPA was negligent in its poor planning prior to the Sandy’s landfall and just as careless in the days and weeks following it. This has allowed damages to multiply as each day out-of-business for some puts them one day closer to having to shut their businesses forever. 

According to the release from Parker Waichman, “Having already filed a Class Action lawsuit on behalf of individual homeowners affected by the loss of power caused by LIPA’s failure to prepare for Sandy, these firms have now moved aggressively to proceed on behalf of Long Island’s business owners who suffered substantial economic losses while under LIPA’s care.”

Anywhere between 650,000 and 1 million Long Island residents may qualify to join the class-action lawsuit originally filed by Mollins. Damage estimates just for these businesses is likely to reach into the tens of millions of dollars. As many as one-quarter of all businesses close for good following a natural disaster simply because they're unable to recover after suffering catastrophic damages. 

LIPA and National Grid's negligence could compound those figures drastically if business owners are not able to hold the power authority accountable for their inaction.

According to a WNYC.org report, eight of the ten people on LIPA's board of directors has political affiliations with state leaders in Albany, N.Y., and have no experience in managing or even the basic functions of a power company. Just one board member, the report indicates, has any experience in energy. 

LIPA is currently facing increasing public scrutiny and impending legal trouble as businesses and individuals begin to learn that the power company was negligent in its preparations and response to Superstorm Sandy. Tens of thousands of its customers lost electricity during the storm and those outages persisted as the company failed to enact a plan in dealing with the widespread catastrophe.

Thousands of business owners in the Long Island area, served by LIPA, believe the company's negligence in its resopnse to Sandy, has continued to cost them tremendous losses, losses that are multiplying by the day and threaten to put them out of business entirely. Three high-powered law firms serving the Long Island and New York area, including the national law firm of Parker Waichman LLP, have combined to serve those businesses and individuals affected by LIPA's alleged negligence.

Of the 10 board members currently seated with LIPA, the one with a background in energy companies told WNYC that getting people to serve on the volunteer organization is difficult and compared the preparations and response to Superstorm Sandy a "Herculean task" but the source indicates that LIPA's board has only met once since the storm hit on Oct. 29. 

The watchdog group, Environmental Advocates for New York, told WNYC that the way LIPA is organized and managed does not meet the needs of the public, particularly regarding its growing demand for electricity. 

Even though he is technically responsible for the make-up of the board at LIPA currently, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that he is organizing a special committee to investigate how organizations like LIPA can be improved to prevent careless responses to natural disasters and other widespread power outages in the future.

November 14, 2012 by Joshua Sophy

Frustrations are mounting on Long Island as residents continue to deal with the aftermath of the powerful Hurricane Sandy and the Nor'easter that followed immediately on its heels.

According to a CBS News and AP report, utility companies that have been slow to restore electricity to thousands of disgruntled residents of Long Island, which appears to be one of the most affected areas of the country from Sandy, are now facing legal action from those residents. Two electricity companies operating on Long Island have been named as Defendants in civil lawsuits in the last two weeks by residents who are frustrated their power had not been restored in a timely manner.

It was on Oct. 29 that Sandy swept ashore in southern New Jersey, causing billions of dollars in damage and virtually crippling one of the most populated areas in the country. Although the storm made landfall as a hurricane late that evening in New Jersey, the massive "hybrid" storm spread a swath of damage over a large area. Strong winds and a damaging storm surge eventually took its toll on Long Island's infrastructure, as well as many other areas in the storm's path, from the shore to hundreds of miles inland to Ohio and West Virginia.

Millions of people were left without electricity, a situation that became increasingly more dangerous and flood water rose and temperatures dropped. One of the more unique features of this so-called superstorm is that it "morphed" into a Nor'easter, a coastal winter storm that commonly drops snow and heavy, cold rains in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast.

In a lawsuit filed this week in New York Supreme Court, Long Island Power Authority, along with its contractor National Grid, were named as Defendants. The companies declined to comment on the pending legal matter to the press.

More residents who still remain without power several weeks following the storm are beginning to get frustrated with the pace of recovery. Some claim they've never been offered any assistance in their recovery, either from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or any state agencies, or utility companies. Residents contacted by CBS said they haven't considered a lawsuit against the company but said they'd tell the power companies to pick up the pace on restoring electricity.

Losing power to one's home likely will force them to find a temporary housing solution, and incur the costs of doing so. It will also delay the time at which they'd be allowed to return to their homes to begin their personal recovery efforts following the historic storm.

According to a press release announcing their lawsuit against the makers of Remington rifles, a husband and wife were nearing the end of a hunting trip in Carter County there in late-October 2007. As the husband was unloading his Remington Model 600 Mohawk rifle, the gun discharged one of the bullets, hitting his wife in the left foot.

The shot caused serious damage that required several surgeries to correct and even then, resulted in the amputation of one of her toes.

The gun fired as the woman’s husband was unloading the Remington rifle by cycling the bolt, according to the firm's statement citing the complaint. The couple is being represented by Parker Waichman LLP. The firm represents several other victims of unexpected gun shots from this and other Remington rifles with the defective Walker trigger mechanism. Remington Arms Company, Sporting Goods Properties Inc., and DuPont de Nemours and Co., have all been named as Defendants in the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on Oct. 12.

The Model 600 Mohawk used by the couple during that hunting trip featured the Walker Fire Control trigger mechanism. The trigger device is supposed to give users a smoother fire action but the lawsuit alleges that Remington has known for years that this trigger mechanism is defective and has resulted in numerous injuries during the time it has been used.

According to previous reports on the dangers posed by some of these Remington rifles, the Walker firing mechanism can become faulty if the gun is jarred or dropped or jostled in any manner. This causes the gun to fire without any warning. The suit claims that Remington has received more than 3,200 complaints about the defective Walker trigger mechanism between 1992 and 2004 but continued to market it as safe and hid any reports of problems associated with it.

Most of the problems have been linked to the popular Remington Model 700 rifle but the defective Walker trigger device has been installed on many other Remington rifles, including these models, according to the Parker Waichman press release:

* Model 11-48 Shotgun
* Model 552 Speedmaster Rifle
* Model 572 Fieldmaster Rifle
* Model 740/742/7400 Rifle
* Model 760 Gamemaster Rifle
* Model 770 Bolt Action Rifle
* Model 870 Pump Action Shotgun
* Model 878/879 Shotgun
* Model 1100 Shotgun
* Model 7600 Rifle
* Model Four Rifle
* Model Mohawk 48 Shotgun
* Model Six Rifle
* Model Sportsman 48 Shotgun
* Model Sportsman 58 Shotgun

Parker Waichman continues to investigate claims of injuries as a result of an unexpected shot from Remington rifles and believes it has evidence that the company is fully aware of the problems with the defective triggers. According to the release, “the company is so accustomed to such occurrences that they have developed acronyms for the when the gun misfires.”

According to the Complaint, the Plaintiff is a man from Nassau County, New York who slipped and fell in Sears in May 2009. The lawsuit alleges that the Plaintiff suffered this accident and subsequent adverse effects as a result of the dangerous and defective conditions on the premises. The suit claims that the Plaintiff’s injury caused pain, shock and mental anguish. Furthermore, the suit alleges that these effects are permanent and that the Plaintiff has and will continue to incur medical expenses from conditions related to the incident.

Allegedly, the damage suffered at Sears has left the Plaintiff unable to perform his normal everyday activities. The suit is also seeking compensation for loss of consortium on behalf of the Plaintiff’s spouse. The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants were aware of the unsafe conditions, yet invited the public to enter the premises nonetheless.

Parker Waichman LLP is a leading mass tort, environmental and personal injury law firm that represents plaintiffs in slip and fall lawsuits in New York and nationwide. The firm has offices in New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Florida. For more than two decades, Parker Waichman LLP has assisted thousands of clients in receiving fair compensation due to the negligence of others. For more information on Parker Waichman LLP, please visit: http://www.yourlawyer.com or call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).

Contact:
Parker Waichman LLP
Gary Falkowitz, Managing Attorney            
(800) LAW-INFO
(800) 529-4636

According to court documents, the lawsuit alleges that the Plaintiff's injuries were the result of the careless, reckless, and grossly negligent manner in which the Defendants owned, operated, managed, maintained and controlled their respective motor vehicles, without any negligence or fault on the part of the Plaintiff contributing to those injuries.

Parker Waichman offers free legal evaluations to the victims of car accidents in New York and nationwide. If someone you love was injured in a motor vehicle crash, please visit our car accident lawsuit page at yourlawyer.com. Free lawsuit evaluations are also available by call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).

Parker Waichman LLP is a leading personal injury, mass tort, and environmental law firm that represents plaintiffs in car accident lawsuits in New York and nationwide. The firm has offices in New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Florida. For more than two decades, Parker Waichman LLP has assisted thousands of clients in receiving fair compensation due to the negligence of others.

Contact:    
Parker Waichman LLP
Gary Falkowitz, Managing Attorney
(800) LAW-INFO
(800) 529-4636
http://www.yourlawyer.com

According to the complaint, the Plaintiff, a resident of Queens, New York, was employed by RCJ Construction, a subcontractor of Top 8 Construction Corp, at premises owned by 39 Prince Realty located at 39-16 Prince Street in Queens. On March 16, 2012, the Plaintiff allegedly suffered injuries that are permanent in nature, and will cause him to suffer permanent and continued pain. The lawsuit further alleges that the Plaintiff's injuries required medical care and will continue to need medical care in the future. The complaint also claims that because of his injuries, the Plaintiff has been unable to attend to his usual occupation and avocation in the manner required.

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that the Plaintiff's injuries were sustained solely and wholly as a result of the Defendants' negligence. The complaint further alleges that the Defendants knew and should have known of the defective and dangerous conditions on the premises prior to the Plaintiff's accident, and breached their duty to provide the Plaintiff with a reasonably safe place to work.

About Parker Waichman LLP
Parker Waichman LLP is a leading personal injury law firm that represents plaintiffs nationwide. The firm has offices in New York, New Jersey, Florida and Washington, D.C. For more than two decades, Parker Waichman LLP has assisted thousands of clients in receiving fair compensation due to the negligence of others and injuries resulting from defective drugs, medical devices and other products.

For more information on Parker Waichman LLP, please visit: yourlawyer.com or call 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636).

Contact: Parker Waichman LLP
Gary Falkowitz, Managing Attorney
(800) LAW-INFO
(800) 529-4636

According to an Associated Press report from Columbus, Ohio, the derailment on tracks owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. did not result in any injuries but three train cars, each carrying 30,000 gallons of ethanol, exploded in the incident. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the scene later in the day Wednesday searching for a possible cause to the derailment.

Witnesses to the 2 a.m. derailment said the explosions could be felt for blocks in the northern area of Columbus and flames from the fire that was sparked by the burning ethanol could be seen from much farther away. On Wednesday night, the derailed ethanol tankers were still burning and fire officials have decided to allow the fire to extinguish itself. Once it does, they’ll spray a chemical foam that’s designed to prevent reignition of the flames. Any remaining ethanol will be taken from the scene and the train will be cleared from the snarled tracks.

 A local NBC report indicates the Norfolk Southern train had two locomotives and 98 freight cars. Not all cars in the train contained hazardous chemicals. The burning ethanol did prompt safety officials to order people living within a mile of the incident to stay indoors until further notice. 

Some people living nearest to the incident were worried about the potential hazards posed by the burning ethanol. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman said the incident could have endangered thousands more lives had it occurred near a more populated area of the city. Freight trains traverse the tracks in Columbus on a daily basis and many carry dangerous chemicals and fuels. 

Several residents of the northern Columbus neighborhood where the incident occurred were moved to a local Red Cross shelter as evacuees. About 30 homes were evacuated following the derailment, all within a one-mile radius.

A full investigation into the incident could take up to a year to complete. Two officials investigating a subsequent explosion at the scene did suffer minor injuries while they were walking along the train tracks but took themselves to a local hospital for treatment.

This is the eighth train derailment of a Norfolk Southern vehicle this year, according to the NBC report. This is the first to occur on one of the company’s main lines that connects through a residential community. There were 20 Norfolk Southern train derailments last year in Ohio. The company has not reported any injuries from those incidents.

Dram shop liability involves giving or serving alcohol to a person who then injures a third party as a direct result of the impairment from the alcohol.  While such laws may vary, the majority of states hold retailers accountable if they who know or should have known they are selling alcohol to obviously intoxicated people or minors.

On Tuesday, April 19, 2012, the New York Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of a lower court that requires Citizens Insurance Co. of America (d/b/a Hanover Insurance Group) to defend a dram shop liability lawsuit that was filed on behalf of a young woman who was killed in a drunk driving accident in 2008.  The victim was a passenger in a car driven by the drunk driver, who eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and other charges. The Court of Appeals decision can be viewed here.

The victim’s family had filed a dram liability lawsuit against the bar that had served the driver alcohol in the hours prior to the car crash.  The bar's insurer, Citizens Insurance Co. of America, filed a motion for summary judgment with the Supreme Court of New York, asserting that it timely disclaimed coverage for the underlying accident by letter dated July 9, 2008.  In response, the defendant insured held that the July 9, 2008 letter was not a notice of disclaimer, but a reservation of rights, and that plaintiff did not disclaim coverage until commencing the declaratory judgment action more than two months after receiving notice of the underlying action, which was untimely as a matter of law. In an order entered on July 9, 2010, the Supreme Court agreed with defendants and denied plaintiff's motion.

The insurance company then moved to renew based on the "new facts" that it actually sent a letter disclaiming coverage on July 16, 2008 and that it never sent the "draft” dated July 9, 2008 that was submitted with its original motion for summary judgment.  The Supreme Court of New York denied that motion in an order entered July 18, 2011.   The lower court did not buy the insurance company’s excuse that its counsel inadvertently attached the wrong letter in its prior motion papers, given that, in reply to defendants' opposition to the original motion, plaintiff submitted a sworn affidavit from its agent attesting to the fact that the July 9, 2008 letter was the disclaimer letter sent to defendants .Citizens Insurance Co. of America then filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division. 

In an order dated April 19, 2012, the Supreme Court agreed with the lower court ruling, stating that the Supreme Court properly determined that the "failure to submit the July 16, 2008 letter was more than mere law office failure." The Appeals Court affirmed that Citizens Insurance Co. of America was not entitled to a summary judgment and must defend the dram liability lawsuit.

"No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life," NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman said in a statement announcing the Board's proposal.

The NTSB wants all 50 states and the District of Columbia to ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices - with the exception of those that support the act of driving - for all drivers.  The states would have to pass such laws, as the NTSB lacks the authority to do so.

According to the Associated Press, Hersman acknowledged that complying would involve changing what has become ingrained behavior for many Americans.

"We're not here to win a popularity contest," she said.

The NTSB's call for the drastic measure came on the heels of its investigation of a fatal pile-up in Missouri last year that killed two passengers on a school bus.  The probe revealed that just prior to the accident, the teenaged driver of the pickup that started the chain-reaction crash had sent or received 11 text messages within 11 minutes.

According to a survey of more than 6,000 drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, two out of 10 American drivers overall - and half of drivers between 21 and 24 - say they've read messages or emailed from the while driving.  According to the NTSB, more than 3,000 people lost their lives last year in distraction-related accidents.

Numerous studies have highlighted the danger that comes with cell phone use and driving.  A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of commercial drivers found that a safety-critical event is 163 times more likely if a driver is texting, e-mailing, or accessing the Internet, according to the NTSB.  Research from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has found that simply listening to someone speak on the other end of a cell phone reduces by 37 percent the amount of brain activity associated with driving, compared to driving alone.  Another CMU study revealed that making cell phones hands-free or voice-activated is not sufficient in eliminating distraction to drivers.

Initially, 173 of roughly 300 workers evacuated from the Tyson Foods facility were sent to area hospitals after complaining of respiratory problems hospitalizied.  As of today, 14 remain hospitalized, with one still in ICU.

According to local media reports, the chlorine fumes were first noticed Monday morning in an area of the plant where chickens are cleaned. A hazmat team was called to the scene, and the Fayetteville Fire Department had to set up a decontamination tent at Washington Regional Medical center to aid patients from the Tyson leak.

At a news conference yesterday, Tyson officials said a health clinic will be set up at the plant to provide follow-up medical attention for employees who return back to work over the next several days. Anyone who did not receive a medical evaluation after the accident on Monday will be able to undergo one there.

Tyson said it will not comment further on the accident until its own investigation is complete. 

Those other defendants would include Transocean LTD., owner of the doomed Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and Halliburton Co., which performed cement work on the rig. 

According to Reuters, the proposal on the transfer of legal rights is part of a final set of rules being circulated by Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the BP oil spill compensation fund. If adopted, the rule would still offer victims the opportunity for full payment for documented damages, Reuters said. If it is adopted, the rule could help BP’s efforts to collect billions of dollars from its partners on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

According to the Reuters report:

“Language in the draft proposal requires that claimants transfer, or subrogate, their legal rights to BP. Claimants would sign over their right to sue those responsible for the spill in the same way a car owner might when accepting an insurance payment after being hit by a negligent driver.”

That would enable BP to pursue its partners for a portion of the claims it paid.

Feinberg circulated the proposed rules to lawmakers and attorneys for comment, but he has made clear the decision to implement the rules will be his, not BP’s, Reuters said.

Over the summer, BP agreed to set aside at least $20 billion to pay economic loss and physical damage claims stemming from the BP oil spill. Feinberg, who had previously administered the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund, was tapped to oversee the BP fund.

Businesses, individuals and government entities who suffered economic losses or physical injury as a result of the BP oil spill are eligible to file two types of claims: Emergency Advance Payments and long-term final damage claims. They have until November 23, 2010 to file Emergency Advance Payment claims for up to 6 months of economic losses or physical injuries. Claims forms for final payments must be submitted by August 23, 2013.

Claimants may accept an Emergency Advance Payment without waiving any of their legal rights. Accepting a final payment of long-term damages requires that claimants waive their right to sue BP or any of the parties responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Any Emergency Advance Payments will be deducted from any final long-term damage payment a claimant receives. However, it is important to note that claimants may accept an Emergency Advance Payment and still reject the final payment if they find it to be unsatisfactory.

Help filing claims and other legal assistance for the victims of the BP oil spill is available at www.bigspill.com.

The two groups are examining the probable causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, fire, and oil spill at the request of the US Department of the Interior in order to identify measures for preventing similar harm in the future.
 
According to a report in The Washington Post, the committee of academic experts conducting the study appears to have been taken aback by the education and training levels of people on the rig.

“Personnel on the Deepwater Horizon were mostly trained on the job, and this training was supplemented with limited short courses,” the report said. “While this appears to be consistent with industry standard practice and current regulations it is not consistent with other safety-critical industries such as nuclear power or chemical manufacturing.”

The panel also takes issue with the cementing job on the BP well, The Washington Post said. It noted that the well design complicated the drilling operation, especially given that there were multiple hydrocarbon zones. It also criticized the failure to run one kind of cement test and the failure to pay any attention to bad results from another test of the cement. The rig workers’ failure to determine why a critical pressure test failed, “suggests a lack of onboard expertise and of clearly defined responsibilities” and “a lack of management discipline that is inconsistent with the stakes involved,” the report said.

The study does not address any issues associated with the subsequent fire and release of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico, such as the rescue and fire response, plans for the spill response, spill response and clean up, or the related consequences of the oil spill on the environment or human health.

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

Help filing claims and other legal assistance for the victims of the BP oil spill is available at www.bigspill.com.

The Carnival Splendor had only left Long Beach, California on Sunday on a seven day Mexican cruise. The Carnival Splendor’s itinerary was to include stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but the voyage had to be scrapped. The ship was 200 miles south of San Diego at the time of the engine fire, and began drifting about 55 miles off shore. The cause of the fire, which was put out by the crew and the ship’s automatic fire-suppression system after about three hours, is unknown. 

While engineers aboard the Carnival Splendor were able to restore enough electrical service to get the ship’s toilets and cold water working again, the 4,500 passengers and crew aboard were forced to live without air conditioning, hot water, or hot food. Lack of refrigeration also meant that food supplies were running low. On Tuesday, the US Navy ferried 70,000 lbs of provisions to the ship, including canned crab meat, croissants, Pop Tarts and Spam.

It wasn’t until a small flotilla of tugboats hauled the 952-foot cruise liner into a San Diego dock Thursday that those aboard were finally able to leave. Now they are telling their stories.

“Until the Coast Guard and the US Navy and the Mexican Navy came out, I was pretty scared. We didn’t know what was wrong with the ship. Everything was dark. The toilets were overflooded,” passenger Maria Avila, 41, told Reuters.

“It was scary,” Avila said. “People were sleeping everywhere — in the lounge, in the Lido lounge and on the decks. I cried every morning.” She told Reuters that, due to broken toilets, one end of the Carnival Splendor smelled like “crap.”

Another passenger spoke of eating “hot dog salad” and yogurt sandwiches.

Newlywed Stacy Noreiga told ABC’s “Good Morning America” the situation was particularly concerning for her because she’s pregnant.

“It was very difficult, especially because the smells were unbelievable,” she said. “It seemed almost like every floor we went up there was a different odor.”

Others described the eerie, total darkness that engulfed the ship, according to the Associated Press.

“Some people said it was like a coffin, it’s so dark,” Karyn van Latum said. “We left our front door open, so that we had some little light, but it looked like a coffin. We stayed on the deck.”

Now that the nightmare cruise is finally over, attention has turned to the cause of the disaster. According to a report in USA Today, some experts are baffled as to why the fire knocked out power to the entire ship.

Clark Dodge, former chief engineer for Washington State Ferries, said large passenger vessels are designed to ensure that such a fire doesn’t cause a loss of all power. An engine-room fire and damage to a generator and a switchboard shouldn’t shut down other generators and engines, he said.

“What happened makes no sense to me,” said Dodge, a consultant. “If things were designed properly, all the power shouldn’t have gone out.”

According to a Newscore report, the US Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Panamanian authorities will be investigating the Carnival Splendor fire. The vessel is flagged in Panama, but officials there have agreed to allow US authorities to join the investigation as most of the passengers on board the ship were Americans.

Carnival said that guests on the Splendor’s nightmare voyage will be receiving a full refund along with reimbursement for transportation costs. Additionally, they will receive a complimentary future cruise equal to the amount paid for this voyage.

Carnival also canceled the Splendor’s next voyage, scheduled to begin on November 14. Those guests will receive a full refund of their cruise fare and air transportation costs, along with a 25 percent discount on a future cruise, Carnival said.

At the symposium, it was pointed out that five years after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the region’s herring fishery collapsed, at least in part because of the oil spill. The scientists hope that by planning now, similar collapses can be avoided in the Gulf of Mexico. 

To that end, the group is recommending the creation of a unified research and monitoring effort to detect the first signs of trouble with Gulf species and provide that information to management agencies in an effort head off disastrous effects.

“Right now there is no agency that pulls together and coordinates all the information we need about the Gulf,” marine biologist Michael Crosby, senior vice president for research at Mote Marine Laboratory, said at the end of the two-day gathering. “Scientists at different institutions might be collecting different pieces of data — but if we don’t put those together, we could miss the big picture until populations crash.”

The scientists expressed concerns about some changes already being observed in the Gulf. That includes dead and dying coral discovered near the site of BP’s ruptured well that we reported last week. The scientists who made that discovery noted that the coral was covered with a brown substance thought to be rotting tissue. Tests are needed to determine if the coral is being killed off because of the spill.

Some of the scientists expressed concerns that predatory species already endangered, including sharks or blue fin tuna, could be pushed closer to extinction because of the spill. Other wildlife that could face long-term impacts include shrimp, menhaden, blue crabs, various types of plankton, coral reefs, sargassum algae, seabirds, tuna, dolphins, sea turtles, and mackerel, tarpon and other sport fish. On Monday, researchers reported that non-toxic components of oil already have made it up the food chain from oil-eating microbes to plankton that are an important food source for fish.

The symposium plans to release a final report in January. In addition to recommending a unified research and monitoring effort, it will recommend the creation of science-based models of how oil could affect the Gulf, creation of long-term research sites to monitor for future oil spill effects and other environmental problems, and money to pay for the new research programs.

The fire caused the Carnival Splendor cruise ship to lose power early Monday morning, just one day after it left port in Long Beach for a seven-day Mexican cruise. Scheduled to stop in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the cruise was canceled as the ship drifted 200 miles from San Diego awaiting a tow. 

With no power, passengers were forced to wait in hot, dark rooms eating rations delivered to the ship by the U.S. Navy when the ship’s refrigeration system lost power, said the News.

Tug boats pulled the 952-foot, 113,000-ton ship into the San Diego Bay today with two tug boats bringing the ship from the coast of Mexico and four additional vessels on hand to steer the ship to the dock, explained the News, citing Coast Guard Petty Officer Rachel Polish. Rigging was expected take about one hour, with another two hours needed to reach the dock said Petty Officer Polish, adding, “It has to come in at a certain angle,” she said. “You can’t just pull it in as you would at a parking spot,” quoted the News.

The ship, according to emerging reports from the LA Times, is docking now, ending a days-long ordeal.

Passengers had to cope with limited food, massively long food lines, stinky toilets, no showers, and no lights, said the News. “… Guests have been magnificent and have risen to the obvious challenges and difficult conditions onboard,” said John Heald, Carnival’s senior cruise director, also on the Splendor, quoted the News. “I don’t smell of roses at the best of times but as the laundry is not working and I only have two pairs of underpants I smell like Paris on a hot summer’s day,” said Heald in his blog, reported the News.

Electrically powered appliances and equipment have been down since Monday meaning that there was no air conditioning, no hot water, and no swimming pools and passengers and crew had to eat shelf-stable or packaged foods, waiting for hours on lines for cold foods. According to Gerry Cahill, Carnival Corp.’s Carnival Cruise Lines chief executive said that most room toilets were operational and the bar was giving out free drinks.

According to Cahill, speaking at a news conference yesterday, the crankcase on a six diesel generator “split,” which caused the fire. “We’ve never had anything like this happen before, so I really don’t think we have any risks to other ships…. This is a very unusual situation,” quoted the News.

Passenger issues went beyond the discomfort of hot, dark rooms and cold food. Some passengers complained of the stench of spoiling food, stopped up toilets, and smoke. One passenger, a diabetic, said she did not have sufficient food to take her insulin. When her husband asked a crew member for food for his wife, he was told to give her a Tic-Tac, the News reported.

The cruise ship lost power early Monday morning, after a fire broke out in the engine room. The Carnival Splendor had only left Long Beach on Sunday on a seven day Mexican cruise. The Carnival Splendor’s itinerary was to include stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but the remainder of the cruise has been canceled. 

The ship was 200 miles south of San Diego at the time of the engine fire. It began drifting about 55 miles off shore. Around 6:30 a.m. on Monday, passengers were directed from their cabins to the ship’s upper deck, but eventually allowed to go back to their rooms. Carnival is reporting that there were no injures.

The fire was extinguished after three hours. While engineers aboard the Carnival Splendor were able to restore enough electrical service to get the ship’s toilets and cold water working again, passengers and crew have been living without air conditioning or hot water, and because the refrigeration systems were knocked out, the ship was running low on food.

The vessel’s command is in contact with the US Coast Guard which has deployed aircraft and cutters to the cruise ship’s location, Yesterday, US Navy helicopters began ferrying 70,000 lbs of provisions from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. Instead of the gourmet fare cruise ship passengers expect, those aboard the Carnival Splendor will be given canned crab meat, croissants, Pop Tarts and Spam. The Mexican navy is also part of the relief effort.

Originally, the tugboats were to tow the Carnival Splendor to Ensenada, Mexico, and passengers were to be bused back to California. But late yesterday, Carnival announced that given the ship’s speed and current position, the Splendor would be towed back to San Diego. The ship should arrive sometime tomorrow night.

Carnival said guests on the current voyage will be receiving a full refund along with reimbursement for transportation costs. Additionally, they will receive a complimentary future cruise equal to the amount paid for this voyage.

Carnival also canceled the Splendor’s next voyage, scheduled to begin on November 14. Those guests will receive a full refund of their cruise fare and air transportation costs, along with a 25 percent discount on a future cruise, Carnival said.

Bill Reilly, the commission’s Republican co-chair, said in his opening statements yesterday that each company was “responsible for one or more egregiously bad decision,” called them “safety laggards,” and said the firms were “in need of top-to-bottom reform.” Reilly, former Environmental Protection Agency chief under during the George H.W. Bush administration, also singled out BP for having “been notoriously challenged on matters of process safety.” 

BP owned the Gulf of Mexico oil well, Halliburton performed critical cement work on the well, and Transocean was the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

In making his remarks, Reilly pointed to the commissions’ staff reports that cited a host of decision made by the companies. These included “failed cement tests, premature removal of muds underbalancing the well, a negative pressure test that failed but was adjudged a success, apparent inattention, distraction or misreading of a key indicator that gas was rising toward the rig,” Reilly said.

Reilly and another co-chair, former Democratic Senator Bob Graham, also commented on statements by the commission’s chief investigator that his probe did not find any evidence that the companies cut corners on safety to save money.

“The problem here is that there was a culture that did not promote safety … leaders did not take risks seriously enough, didn’t identify risks that proved to be fatal,” Graham said.

Reilly noted that the investigators “didn’t rule out cost, just said they weren’t prepared to attribute mercenary motives to men who cannot speak for themselves because they are not alive.”

The BP oil spill began with an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 men on April 20. All attempts to staunch the gusher failed, until a cap was successfully deployed over the well on July 15. By that time roughly 4.4 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

When Accidents Happen, Victims and Their Families Should Be Compensated

It's inevitable that many of us will one day fine ourselves the victim of a car, bus, truck or train accident, or at the receiving end of a variety of mishaps, ranging from slip and falls to construction site accidents. Injuries sustained from these different scenerios will vary in terms of resulting degree of harm,  although brain damage, broken bones, spinal cord and burn injuries, among other things, are typically associated with these accidents.

The most common types of accidents are traffic accidents, accidents at work and home, slipping and falling, assaults, product defect accidents and accidents that happen during the hubbub of the holidays.

A serious injury does not only adversely affect you, it can have an impact on your entire family. Injuries you  sustain can keep you in a hospital bed or recuperating at home, rather than getting up each morning to go to the office or other workplace to earn your living. For a period of time – weeks, months, years or even possibly the rest of your life – your injuries may render you incapable of performing the physical tasks necessary to care and provide for your family, never mind getting some enjoyment out of life.

Victims of accidents caused by the negligence of others have the right to seek compensation for damages, lost wages, and medical expenses.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an accident and have suffered a personal injury that makes you believe you are entitled to compensation, please click on one of the links below. If your specific accident is not listed, please complete the contact form on the right or call us at 1-800-LAW-INFO (1-800-529-4636) for a free case evaluation.