Articles Tagged with Boston personal injury

One popular activity in the summer months is going to local fairs and carnivals. While there are regular amusement parks in Massachusetts that have permanent attractions, there are also various fairs where the attractions are brought in on specially designed trucks that basically each deploy into a carnival ride.

While these can be a lot of fun, we tend to see more accidents at these types of fairs and carnivals than regular amusement parks. There a variety of reasons for this, including that the equipment is mobile.  This means it is often less expensive and less well constructed and maintained than rides at a traditional amusement park.  There are also a lot more issues with regulating the rides, as they may be from another state and not where the fair is being held. Continue reading

Head injuries – and traumatic brain injuries in particular – account for 30 percent of all injury deaths in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every day, more than 150 people die from TBIs. Although such injuries can happen to anyone, those in physically laborious professions tend to have higher rates.

It seems like every year, the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves locked in a fierce battle to get to the eastern conference finals of the National Hockey League. This rivalry includes two of the greatest hockey players to ever play the game – Alex Ovechkin for the Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby for the Penguins. Many consider Ovechkin to be the greatest offensive player in the game and Crosby is considered by many to be the best all-around hockey player.

Despite all of his success, including winning the Stanley Cup, Crosby has had a long history of concussions and has also had a history of taking a long time to recover from them.  He has missed a significant amount of playing time due to concussion symptoms. There is serious concern that he may have quality of life issues for the rest of his life following his eventual retirement from the NHL. Continue reading

According to a recent report from Fox News, a man driving his pickup truck on Interstate 80 and was towing a large BBQ trailer when he crashed.  Authorities alleged that the barbeque trailer managed to become disconnected from the black pickup truck and resulted in a major car accident involving four other vehicles.

Witnesses have said that when the trailer became unhooked, a woman driving a car directly behind it attempted to swerve out of the way to avoid slamming into the trailer.  Unfortunately, the three motorcycle riders that were directly following her vehicle did not have time to react and they all crashed into barbeque trailer at a high rate of speed, as this was a major interstate. Continue reading

In 2017, doctors and scientists know a lot more about traumatic brain injury (TBI) and other head injuries than they have every known before.  One major reason is that many of brave servicemen and women suffered traumatic brain injuries as part as of their efforts in fighting the global war on terror, as did many civilian contractors and third party nationals who were part of the effort.  Additionally, professional sports organizations, particularly the National Football League (NFL), have been paying special attention to TBI prevention.

However, while we definitely have a much broader base of knowledge of about traumatic brain injuries, there is defiantly a lot more to learn about how the human brain works and what is the best way to treat a traumatic brain injury. According to a recent news article from Tech Times, researchers are hard at work to develop medications to treat a TBI.  The reason for this is because, while there are surgical options, they are very invasive and many have left the patients with lasting brain damage. Continue reading

According to a recent report from CNN, a school bus driver deviated from his designated route and crashed the vehicle at a high rate of speed.  In this horrific crash, six children have been killed and more than a dozen were injured.  Some of these injuries were very serious, including possible traumatic brain injury (TBI).

At the time of this fatal school bus crash, there were 37 students on board. When first responders arrived at the scene, they could hardly believe what they were seeing.  Five of the young victims, ranging from ages six to ten, died that same day and the other died two days later in the hospital when doctors were unable to save the child after doing everything in their powers to help. Continue reading

In Fecke v. Bd. of Supervisors Louisiana St. Univ. & Agricultural & Mech. College, a case from the Supreme Court of Louisiana, a college senior went to an indoor rock climbing facility located on the university campus.  He had been enrolled in an Outdoor Living Skills Activity course and this rock climbing activity was actually a mandatory requirement.

Once plaintiff arrived at the rock climbing facility, she completed a participation agreement as the staff asked her to do.  Following her signing the participation form, there was instruction into how to make the climb, and she successfully climbed the wall.  However, on the way back down from the wall, she fell to the ground.  When she hit the ground, she landed on her foot hard and fractured the talus bone. Continue reading

In Huang v. The Bicycle Casino, an appeals court in California was tasked with weighing the issue of liability of a common carrier.

For example, if you are injured while riding in friend’s car, and that friend was at-fault in the accident, your friend would be held to the ordinary standard of care as in any other negligence case.  The reason for this is because your friend is not a common carrier of passengers. However, if you are riding with a driver working for a bus company and you were injured as a passenger – even as a guest of a free shuttle – the driver (and vicariously, the company) would be held to a higher standard of care.

In Huang, plaintiff was injured when she was getting on board a shuttle bus provided by defendant’s casino.  When plaintiff sued, defendant casino claimed it should not be held to a higher standard of care because as a casino, it was not a common carrier of passengers. Defendant that the free shuttle was provided as a courtesy for customers, but it were not engaged in the business of carrying passengers from one location to the other. Continue reading