South Carolina Lawyer Blog

The USDA ordered a meat recall after an investigation revealed a disturbing story about the inhumane methods by which one of our nation’s slaughterhouses treats its animals. According to an Associated Press report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse which is the subject of an animal abuse investigation. Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, said that his department has evidence that the Chino based Westland/ Hallmark Meat Co. did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became unable to walk after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/ Hallmark after an undercover Humane Society video surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts. Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing “downer” animals that apparently were too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino county prosecutor Michael Ramos said. Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they might pose a higher risk of foodborne illness and contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems often are weak.

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Posted In: Recalled Products

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In an alarming statement on the lack of safety on the roads in South Carolina, a group of business leaders released a report on Tuesday, February 12th that details the loss of life and economic toll of accidents on South Carolina roads. The statistics paint a grim picture: Someone dies in a South Carolina auto accident about every eight hours. Economically speaking, the carnage inflicted by the state’s dangerous roads is $3.7 billion a year.

That breaks down to $863 per South Carolinian to cover medical costs, lost economic and household productivity, psychological or emotional trauma, property damage and travel delays. Given these numbers, the report contends that the state is not spending enough to fix the problem.

Of particular concern are South Carolina’s rural roads. The traffic fatality rate on those roads in 2005 was the highest in the nation at 4.61 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel, the report says. The most dangerous local road on the list was a mile-long stretch of Harmon and Dreher streets in Lexington County – ranking 15th most dangerous and accounting for two deaths and eight injuries.

Continue reading "South Carolina Rural Roads Ranked Among Nation’s Most Dangerous" »

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Posted In: Auto & Car Accidents

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In a prime example of the lengths to which an employer will go to maintain profits and maintain a seemingly spotless safety record, a Greenville poultry plant has been accused of forcing workers with on-the-job injuries back on the job only hours after having medical procedures to repair things like lost digits and broken bones, according to an Associated Press report.

House of Raeford Farms boasts that its Greenville plant has gone more than 7 million hours without a “lost-time accident,” meaning no worker has been injured badly enough to miss an entire shift. But according to the company’s own safety logs, at least 8 workers at the plant suffered amputated fingers or broken bones – all during the time the plant claimed to have millions of safe working hours dating back to 2002. Managers kept the streak alive by requiring injured workers to return to the plant – in some cases hours after medical procedures. When none of the injured workers missed a complete shift, the company was able to keep its safety record intact.

The article details the story of Cornelia Vicente, an employee who was packing chicken tenders at the House of Raeford when a conveyor belt snagged her glove, snapped her right arm and ripped off the tip of her index finger. Only hours after her surgery, a House of Raeford nurse who had come to the hospital told Ms.Vicente that the company would expect her back at the plant early the next day. The following morning, managers put Ms.Vicente to work wiping down tables and handing out supplies, she said.

Continue reading "Poultry Plant Forces Injured Workers Back On The Job" »

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Posted In: Workplace Injuries

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In response to the laundry list of unsafe toys and recalled children’s products in the past calendar year, the nation’s top two toy sellers in the U.S., Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us, have announced that they will be imposing stricter measures on their suppliers – including tougher lead content standards. According to an Associated Press report, the new measures are meant to exceed federal standards expected from Congress in the wake of last year’s recalls of millions of toys because they contained excessive amounts of lead or other hazardous material.

Among the announced changes, Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us are:

• Setting a much tighter standard for the amount of lead allowed on surface paint for toys shipped to their chains on or after March 1.
• Phasing out chemicals found in PVC or vinyl that have raised safety concerns for young children

A top priority is to dramatically reduce the lead content in unsafe toys since lead can be very toxic to children. The current federal standard is 600 parts per million in surface coatings, but new legislation is being considered that would lower that to 90 parts per million. Both Wal-Mart and Toys R Us are requiring their suppliers to conform to the 90 parts per million standard for products shipped on or after March.

Continue reading "Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R’ Us Impose Stricter Safety Measures" »

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Posted In: Recalled Products

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Trasylol, a defective drug manufactured by Bayer AG, may have claimed as many as “1,000 lives per month” in the time before it was recalled, according to a doctor who presented a study to the FDA in September 2006. It wasn’t until November 2007, however, when the Canadian Data Safety Monitoring Board had stopped a Trasylol trial after a data analysis indicated that the 30-day mortality risk in the study’s patients was nearing “statistical significance”, that Bayer suspended sales of the drug in the US at the FDA’s request.

Trasylol is a drug used to prevent bleeding during heart bypass surgery, and before it was removed from the market, about a third of all bypass patients had received Trasylol. The initial reports from the Canadian study suggested an increased risk of death for Trasylol users compared with two other antifibrinolytic drugs. There had also been reports linking Trasylol with kidney problems, amputations, heart attacks and strokes.

Dr. Dennis Mangano, who presented his study to the FDA which found that Trasylol increased the risk of kidney failure requiring dialysis, as well as death, believes Trasylol should have been taken off the market when he published his study in 2006. Bayer executives, in fact, attended Mangano’s presentation in order to defend Trasylol. What they did not tell the FDA was that their own Trasylol study, known as the 13 drug report, confirmed Mangano’s findings. That study, which analyzed a database of hospital patients who were given the drug, suggested the drug’s use could also increase the likelihood of serious kidney damage, congestive heart failure and strokes. Even after learning about the 13 drug report, however, the FDA allowed Trasylol to remain on the market, adding only a warning label to its packaging explaining that the drug placed patients at high risk of kidney failure. Between the study’s publication and November 2007 when Bayer removed Trasylol, close to half a million patients received the drug.

Continue reading "FDA Suspends Marketing of Trasylol" »

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Posted In: Prescription Drugs

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Victims of last summer’s August 1st bridge collapse in Minneapolis, which claimed the lives of 13 people while injuring 145 others, have filed preliminary paperwork to sue the state, according to an Associated Press report published on January 22nd. The dozens of victims who were injured when the Interstate 35W bridge plummeted 60 feet into the Mississippi River had a deadline of 180 days from the accident to notify the state of their intent to sue for personal injury, that deadline date was January 27th.

As of the time of the report, Attorney General Lori Swanson’s office had received notice of potential legal claims from 73 injured bridge victims and their family members. Families of six of those killed also had outlined plans to sue the state for compensation, as did 3 insurance companies and the owner of a school bus that was destroyed in the collapse.

“This is a predecessor to the lawsuits,” said Chris Messerly, a wrongful death attorney for a pro bono coalition of law firms representing more than 60 bridge victims.

Continue reading "Bridge Victims Prepare To Sue" »

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Posted In: Personal Injury

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If you have read our blog for any amount of time, you have seen countless entries about the recall of toys that contain lead paint. This recent rash of unsafe toy recalls reached a predictable end on Wednesday, January 30th when according to an AP article, lawmakers have stepped up and are asking the largest toy manufacturer in the U.S. to change the way it does business.

Dozens of federal lawmakers are demanding that Mattel stop selling toys that contain any amount of lead, claiming the toy maker is not going far enough to address safety concerns. The demand comes after Mattel’s issuance of recalls for millions of Chinese made toys last year because of concerns that lead paint levels exceeded U.S Standards. The demand, which was contained in a letter released by U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, was signed by more then 50 fellow lawmakers.

Continue reading "Lawmakers Demand Toymaker Stop Selling Toys With Lead" »

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In a tragic example of the worst kind of South Carolina Bus Accident, ten children and their driver were injured when their bus overturned, according to an AP Report posted January 24th. The church bus overturned in Pickens County on the evening of Wednesday, January 23rd on U.S. 178 near Lakeview Baptist Church, where the children were returning from service. Four children, ranging in age from 9 to 13, were taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital. One child was in critical condition and another was in serious condition the morning after the accident. The driver was listed in fair condition.

South Carolina bus accidents can be some of the most dangerous of all motor vehicle accidents. When any vehicle overturns in an accident the results can be tragic. School buses do not have seatbelts and very often small children can be thrown around in the cabin, resulting in serious injury.

Very often in wrecks like this one, the cause of the accident must be determined. Was the driver negligent in some way? Did the condition of the bus contribute to the accident? Was it properly maintained? What role does the church play in restitution for injuries suffered in the crash? These are all questions best left to an experienced South Carolina auto accident attorney from the Louthian Law Firm.

Continue reading "Children Injured When Church Bus Overturns" »

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Posted In: Auto & Car Accidents

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The state Department of Motor Vehicles came out with some good news for South Carolina drivers this month. According to The State, the number of uninsured drivers involved in accidents in our state has dropped by half in the past few years, from 18% in 2003 to 9% in 2006, thanks to laws passed in 2002 and 2005. And because those are only the uninsured drivers who get into car wrecks, those numbers are probably even higher for the state as a whole. Industry and issue groups estimated that the uninsured rate could have been as high as 28% before the laws went into effect. As most of us know, this is a problem because uninsured motorists drive up insurance costs for those who do the right thing by buying insurance. They also don’t pay vehicle registration fees, depriving our state of needed tax revenue.

But there’s a more immediate threat posed by uninsured drivers, which many people don’t realize until they or someone they care about are hit. If you’re in an accident with someone who has no auto insurance, you may not be able to collect any compensation at all. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was, or what other circumstances might apply. The money just isn’t there, because the other driver illegally failed to buy insurance. As auto accident lawyers in South Carolina, we know how devastating this can be for seriously injured accident victims, who often have very expensive medical needs they cannot cover on their own.

Continue reading "Uninsured Drivers Put South Carolina At Risk" »

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Our neighbors in Georgia bore the brunt of a South Carolina company’s mistake on Jan. 24, when bad brake maintenance caused an avoidable accident in Effingham County. According to an article in the Savannah Morning News, a tractor-trailer that belonged to Smith Logging of Grays tried to stop for a stop sign and discovered that his brakes were not working. Rather than yielding the right of way as intended, the truck, which was fully loaded with logs, slid into the intersection and hit a van belonging to Effingham County, Ga. Fortunately, nobody involved was seriously hurt; two of the van’s passengers sustained minor injuries. A fire and rescue worker was quoted in the article expressing surprise that nobody was killed.

According to the article, the logging truck’s driver will likely be cited for failing to maintain the vehicle. That may sound minor, but it’s an important penalty, because statistics from the federal Department of Transportation show that shoddy vehicle maintenance is a critical cause in 10% of all large-truck crashes. The department’s Large Truck Crash Causation Study found that vehicle failures caused about 8,000 crashes involving large trucks -- and brake failure alone was responsible for approximately 1,000 crashes. When you include failures that mislead other drivers, like missing headlights, those numbers may grow even bigger. In fact, brake-related problems, including but not limited to failures, contributed to 29% of all truck accidents, according to the study -- the largest single contributing factor. In that light, trucking companies and truck owners must be held strictly responsible for maintaining their brakes and other essential truck equipment. Lives are in the balance.

Continue reading "Truck Accident Shows Importance of Maintenance" »

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Posted In: Truck Accidents

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