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Transocean's massive oil rig sinks in the Gulf of Mexico

Tom Methvin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:21:02 GMT

The U.S. Coast Guard has reported that the Transocean offshore oil platform that caught fire after an explosion Tuesday night has sunk.

Massive efforts to extinguish the fire and save the rig have been underway since the explosion Tuesday night, but in vain. The immense facility sunk Thursday afternoon – a day that is celebrated around the world as Earth Day – leaving a 5-mile swath of oil sheen across the Gulf waters.

The Transocean explosion is one of the biggest oil industry disasters to occur in U.S. territory in decades. Ironically, the oil rig explosion came less than two weeks after an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine killed 29 miners, one of the worst mining disasters in U.S. history. The two incidents have cast a pall on the energy industry by drawing attention to environmental hazards and underscoring the risks workers must face, whether they mine for coal or drill for oil.

Eleven workers are still missing after Tuesday’s explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Teams of rescue workers continue to search 2,000 square miles of sea around the blast site, covering the area a dozen times by air and 5 times by boat.

A U.S. Coast Guard official said today that the 11 workers “may have been in the vicinity of the explosion.” Another has said that the workers may not have been able to evacuate the fire. Meanwhile, a life vessel from the Deepwater Horizon was brought to shore today but there were no occupants.

The other 115 workers have been accounted for. One hundred and eleven made it to shore, where 17 were being treated for burn injuries, broken bones, and smoke inhalation. Four of the injured are in critical condition. The injured workers have been taken to hospitals in New Orleans and Mobile for treatment.

Four of the 126 workers who operate a drilling robot from a boat are safe and continue their work offshore.

The Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which is about twice the size of a football field, was located about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Built in 2001 by Hyundai in South Korea in 2001 and owned by Transocean, the offshore platform had been under contract to oil giant BP.

Seventy-nine Transocean employees, 6 BP workers, and 41contracted workers were concluding exploratory drilling when the explosion occurred. They were reportedly days away from announcing a “commercially attractive” oil deposit discovery when the explosion occurred.

Transocean vice president Adrian Rose said the blast was likely a blowout caused by natural gas forcing its way up the well pipe. The incident remains under investigation.

Offshore oil rig work has become safer in recent years due to improved training, safety systems, and maintenance, but it remains an extremely dangerous occupation.

In the last nine years, 69 people have been killed and 1,349 injured in oil rig accidents just in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the federal Minerals Management Service, there have been 858 fires and explosions in the Gulf during that same period of time.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Tom Methvin

Deaths, injuries linked to Toyota sudden acceleration continue to rise

Tom Methvin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:14:59 GMT

A surge of new complaints involving sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles has hit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the last three weeks. The additional reports came as the NHTSA and two different congressional committees step up their probe of Toyota and its handling of the acceleration problem that affects between 8 and 9 million of its U.S. vehicles.

Until January 27, the day after Toyota suspended production and sales of eight different models because of faulty accelerator concerns, the NHTSA had on file 17 complaints of acceleration-related Toyota crashes involving 21 deaths between 2000 and 2009.

However, the agency has received reports of an additional 13 deaths and 10 injuries allegedly caused by sudden acceleration accidents since 2005, bringing the total number of people killed to 34. Government officials and safety experts alike expect the number of cases reported to the NHTSA to keep rising.

Currently, the number of deaths allegedly linked to Toyota amounts to more than all other auto manufacturers combined -- a fact that has shaken the core of a company that has built its entire reputation on safety and quality.

According to Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington D.C., more sudden acceleration incidents involving Toyota vehicles are on their way.

"We are going to go over 100 without a doubt," Ditlow told the Los Angeles Times. "The only question is what is the true number. So many fatalities don't get attributed to sudden acceleration, especially as you go further back in time before people were paying attention to Toyota," Ditlow said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “A number of lawsuits and police reports also indicate that Toyota vehicles suffering runaway acceleration led to fatalities, but those cases have not been registered as complaints in the government database.”

Toyota has not yet disclosed internal communications and information from its consumer complaint logs pertaining to sudden acceleration incidents. In general, consumer complaint databases of private companies are considerably larger than those operated by the government. Therefore, if Toyota submits accurate information to the NHTSA, a number of new sudden acceleration cases will likely be revealed.

New reports submitted to the NHTSA show that Toyota’s sudden acceleration problem is likely older and more extensive than most reports indicate and that not all affected vehicles are covered by the recent safety recalls.

The oldest case of sudden acceleration currently on file at the NHTSA involves a 1988 Camry that crashed into a brick wall. The majority of the incidents, however, occurred between 2002 and 2009.

For more information, including a timeline of Toyota's recalls, visit our Toyota web site.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Tom Methvin

Toyota and NHTSA officials to be grilled on Capitol Hill

Tom Methvin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:55:27 GMT

It appears that Toyota’s CEO and President, Akio Toyoda, is headed for the hot seat on Capitol Hill, where he will meet with U.S. legislators who seek answers to what Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) called “the number of outstanding questions surrounding Toyota’s relationship with U.S. regulators.” No specific date has been set, but according to ABC News, Toyoda, who is also the grandson of his company’s founder, plans to visit the U.S. in the coming weeks.

Rep. Issa also asked House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) to invite Toyoda to a hearing on February 24. The hearing, part of a congressional probe into Toyota’s handling of complaints and other reports of sudden, unintended acceleration, was originally scheduled to take place today but was postponed because of the snowstorms pounding the mid-Atlantic states.

Toyoda apologized profusely to consumers after the crash that killed California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor and his family last August and has apologized several times since for his company’s slip in its trademark quality. He announced Tuesday that he is taking personal responsibility for Toyota’s recalls and its campaign to regain the trust of American consumers.

"Let me assure everyone that we will re-double our commitment to quality as a lifeline of our company with myself taking the lead," Toyoda said from the company’s headquarters in Japan, adding that he would be heading to the U.S. soon “to explain the conditions and the situation to those people.”

Toyota’s conciliatory tone follows a series of allegations that it ignored or brushed aside consumer complaints for more than a decade. One senior official from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the New York Times that Toyota executives “were dragging things out” in response to his agency’s questions. “And we’d had it,” the official said.

The NHTSA’s sudden tough stance in turn follows recent allegations by safety experts and legislators that it could have done much more to protect American consumers from cars that accelerate out of control.

Since 1999, more than 2,000 incidents of sudden, unintended acceleration have been reported in Toyota vehicles. Of those cases, 815 separate crashes have occurred, resulting in 19 deaths and 341 injuries.

The Center for Auto Safety’s Clarence Ditlow, who will testify as a witness at the House oversight hearing, told the New York Times that the NHTSA isn’t serving the American people.

“Where were they before this?” he asked of the NHTSA. “The whole relationship is really too cozy. They view their constituency as the auto industry and not the consumer. It’s a classic case of a regulatory agency that over time becomes captured by the industry it regulates.”

You can visit the Beasley Allen web site for more information about unintended acceleration and a full list of the vehicles currently recalled by Toyota for this problem.

Sources: ABC News, New York Times

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Tom Methvin

Toyota inists electronics aren't to blame for sudden acceleration

Tom Methvin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:14:54 GMT

Toyota’s top executives steadfastly deny that the acceleration problems plaguing millions of Toyota and Lexus vehicles have anything to do with electronics, despite a growing body of evidence that strongly suggests electronics are actually the cause of many sudden, unintended acceleration incidents.

Recently, the widow of a man who died in Southlake, Texas, when his 2008 Avalon sped out of control in December told ABC News that she had experienced ongoing acceleration problems with the vehicle. Linda Hardy said that she took the Avalon to her dealer three times between Thanksgiving and Christmas, complaining that the vehicle would suddenly race out of control.

“I said please fix my car,” Hardy told ABC.

Each time, however, the dealer told her nothing was wrong with the car.

Then, on the day after Christmas, the Avalon sped out of control, crashed through a fence, and landed upside-down in a pond, killing Hardy’s husband and three fellow church friends who were also in the car. Investigators found that the floor mats had been removed from the vehicle and stored in the truck, which is what Toyota told owners of the recalled vehicles to do to prevent an unintended acceleration incident.

Hardy told ABC that money wouldn’t bring back her husband, but that it could help fix the problem “so no one else will die.”

Because of cases like Hardy’s, the federal government has launched a new probe of the electronics that link the gas pedal to the throttle in many Toyota models. According to Keith Armstrong, an electromagnetic interference expert called upon by the federal government as part of the federal investigation, “it’s the electronics, not the pedal,” that cause so many Toyota vehicles to speed out of control.

Armstrong’s conclusion echoes the findings of other experts who believe either a software glitch or electromagnetic interference with the cars’ microcomputers are to blame for Toyota’s sudden acceleration troubles.

Last week, a new scientific study conducted by Quality Control Systems Corporation of Crownsville, Maryland found substantial evidence that Toyota’s sudden problem is linked to Toyota electronic throttle control system (ETCS-i). The study sought to rest Toyota’s conclusion that there was “no indication” of an electronic malfunction in the recalled vehicles using data pulled from the NHTSA’s records.

That QCS report found that, contrary to Toyota’s claims, very strong indications exist that the electronic throttle system is the most probable culprit in some of Toyota’s unintended acceleration cases.

You can read the QCS report on Beasley Allen’s web site.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Tom Methvin

Toyota expected to recall 2010 Prius sedans for brake problem

Tom Methvin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:23:16 GMT

The hits keep coming for owners of Toyota vehicles. First, the major car manufacturer announced that some of its car mats were causing brake pedals to stick on some models and that the mats should be removed from the cars. Then Toyota announced it was recalling eight million vehicles worldwide because faulty brake pedals were causing numerous reports of sudden and unintended acceleration. Now Japanese news outlets and the New York Times are reporting that Toyota will likely announce this week that it plans to recall more than 300,000 third-generation Prius hybrids to fix a brake problem, adding yet another scar on a car manufacturer that until recently had a near-stellar reputation for reliability and customer satisfaction.

Toyota’s prized Prius has earned the car manufacturer bragging rights as the “most efficient hybrid” since it was introduced three years ago. But some Prius owners have reported that the brakes can momentarily stop working after the car hits a bump. The issue has been blamed for several accidents, but no deaths.

When reports of the Prius brake issue first surfaced late last December on a small automotive site, TheDetroitBureau.com, Toyota downplayed the complaints, putting blame on drivers’ inexperience with anti-lock brakes. Last week, Toyota did a swift turn-about, announcing it was in the process of confirming the reports and investigating the driving conditions in which the problems occurred. By week’s end, Toyota admitted there was a defect, and that weeks earlier it had already found and fixed the problem. As for the 300,000 vehicles that rolled off the assembly line with defective brakes, a recall announcement from Toyota is expected as early as today.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Tom Methvin

Toyota customers scared, skeptical after massive automobile recalls

Tom Methvin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:44:48 GMT

“The gas pedal got stuck on my way to school this week, and my car kept going and going and it wouldn’t stop,” says Queanna Cole, an Alabama woman who drives a 2009 Camry. The incident put a scratch on her car, but it left a bigger dent on her peace of mind. “I’m scared to dive my car. It’s been parked since Tuesday. I haven’t driven it anywhere. I’m scared,” she said.

Cole is one of millions of Toyota customers whose cars or trucks fall under a massive recall due to sudden and unintended acceleration. Though Toyota says the defect is rare, the company has received so many reports of similar incidents that it had to take action. More than eight million Toyota vehicles around the world have been recalled to date because of the unintended acceleration problem.

Car dealers are beginning feeling the heat. The company has suspended sales of its cars and trucks this week to make the necessary repairs on them before they are sold to the public, a move that will dampen sales by an estimated 75 percent for the year 2010. On Monday, Toyota announced parts were being shipped to dealers and many dealers will work extended hours to complete the recall campaign as quickly and conveniently as possible.

Toyota dealers, like Bruce Limbaugh with Limbaugh Toyota in Birmingham, Ala., are urging customers with affected models to call dealerships for answers to questions regarding the recall. “Our first consideration and concern is for our customers, their safety, for them and their preconceived concerns,” he said.

But many consumers remain skeptical of the carmaker with the once-stellar reputation. According to the New York Times, which received information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 19 sudden accelerator deaths involving Toyota vehicles is more than reports from all other automakers combined.

Sources: WBRC-TV, New York Times

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Tom Methvin

Recalled Digitek Digoxin Tablets Could Affect Many with Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation

Margaret Embry — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:59:23 GMT

Digoxin is a drug used to treat congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation by making the heart beat stronger and with a more regular rhythm. To understand the importance this drug plays in those who suffer from the above mentioned conditions, a general understanding of these conditions is needed.

According to US Recall News from April 2008,

A class I recall is being issued on all Digitek (digoxin) tablets, which may contain twice the approved level of digoxin.The existence of double-strength pills pose a risk of digitalis toxicity, which can result in nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, cardiac instability, bradycardia and even death.

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), according to the American Heart Association, is a condition in which the heart is not able to pump enough blood to the body's other organs. The heart is working, but not as efficiently as the body needs. Because of this, a person with CHF cannot exert themselves because they become short of breath and tired.

As blood flow out of the heart slows, blood returning to the heart through the veins backs up, causing congestion in the tissues. Often swelling (edema) results. Most often there's swelling in the legs and ankles, but it can happen in other parts of the body, too. Sometimes fluid collects in the lungs and interferes with breathing, causing shortness of breath, especially when a person is lying down.

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is a disorder in which the heart's two small upper chambers (the atria) quiver instead of beating effectively. Blood isn't pumped completely out of the atria, so there is a chance for it to pool and clot. If a piece of a blood clot in the atria leaves the heart and becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke results. About 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation and about 2.2 million Americans suffer from AF.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Margaret Embry

Construction Worker In Serious Condition After Accident

Chrissie Cole — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:33:00 GMT

A man buried in a construction accident in St. Clair County on Tuesday, is now listed in serious condition at UAB Hospital.

The man was using a backhoe to move dirt at an auto salvage yard on Old Coal City Road when portions of the dirt wall collapsed and buried him inside the cab of the backhoe.

Rescuers arrived on the scene and it took them nearly two hours to dig him out.

He was airlifted to UAB Hospital for treatment of his injuries. No further information is available at this time.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction accidents account for over 400,000 injuries each year.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Defective Valve Stems - What You Should Know

Gibson Vance — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:42:32 GMT

Tech International, one U.S. distributor of Chinese-made valve stems, issued a massive recall of approximately 6 million “Replacement Snap-In Tire Valve Stems.” The stem has been tentatively linked to at least one fatal rollover crash of an SUV in Orlando, Florida.

The valve stems were made for Dill Air Control Products of Oxford, N.C., by Shanghai Baolong Industries Co. in China. The National Highway Traffic Safety administration has opened an investigation of Dill Air Controls Products, which manufactured approximately 30 million of the Dill TR400 Series tire valves in 2006. Per the NHTS report, the “tire valves can crack and leak air. A leaking tire valve could result in tire deflation, tire damage (e.g. overheating, rupture) and possible vehicle control problems.”

Consumers should check their tires to make sure they do not contain the rubber replacement tire valve stems. This is especially important if you have had a tire replaced since July 2006.

Unfortunately, that is easier said then done because once a valve stem has been installed the only way to check to see if it is in fact one of the defective models is to completely dismount the tire from the wheel and check it from the inside. Also, most service centers do not keep records of any valve stems they may have installed on a vehicle. Once they are out of the box and on a vehicle there is no tracking, so customers can’t be notified.

Eugene Petersen, program leader for tire testing at Consumer Reports, says, “At a minimum, motorists should conduct a visual inspection of their valve stems. To do this, remove the hubcap and move the top of the stem around, checking for any signs of cracks in the base of the stem where it meets the wheel. Ideally, the consumer should have the tire removed from the wheel and checked by a professional to make sure the valve is not one of the defective models.”

Below is a list of the model numbers your mechanic should look for:

TR-413

TR-413 CH

TR-414

TR-415

TR-418

TR-423

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gibson Vance

American Dream turns to American Nightmare in Mortgage Lending Crisis

Gibson Vance — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:06:25 GMT

Home ownership, “The American Dream,” has for many families all across America become “The American Nightmare!” Home foreclosures are at an all-time high.

According to Stanford University Hoover Institution, “Foreclosure filings have more than doubled during the past year.” The report goes on to say that 739,714 households received foreclosure starts, which is 1 out of every 171 households in the United States. That’s an increase of approximately 121 percent compared to one year ago.

What can account for such a dramatic increase in home foreclosures? The economy certainly plays a role, but for the most part subprime loans, and predatory lending practices, are part of the problem as well.

A report from the National Housing Institute (NHI), dated in 2005, says that “the growth of subprime lending (higher cost loans to borrowers with blemishes on their credit records) in recent years clearly indicates a surge in a range of exploitative practices.” The report goes on to say that “not all subprime loans are predatory, but virtually all predatory loans are subprime.”

Predatory lenders target mostly low- and moderate-income families. A lot of these families already struggle and when the economy climate changes, such as higher gas and food prices, it causes them to struggle even more.

What is Predatory Lending? The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) describes predatory lending as:

Loan Flipping – mortgage originators refinance borrower’s loans repeatedly in a short period of time.
Excessive Fees and “Packing” – fees that far exceeded what would be expected or justified based on economic grounds.
Lending without regard to the borrower’s ability to repay – the borrowers clearly did not have the capacity to repay the loan. (i.e. Elderly living on a fixed income)
Outright fraud and abuse – certain groups, like home improvement contractors, appraisers and lenders, who prey on certain groups like the elderly and minorities.

There is help for people who are about to lose their home to foreclosure. The Alabama Bar Association has launched a campaign to assist homeowners facing foreclosure. State Bar President-elect Thomas J. Methvin of Montgomery (Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.), chairs the Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force and says “help is available” and “homeowners need to know their options.” He also says, “early intervention is the key to a successful outcome.”

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Gibson Vance