Connecticut Injury Attorney Blog

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently announced that its port investigators identified and blocked around 650,000 units of products deemed dangerous or in violation of U.S. safety standards. Investigators reportedly screened over 2,900 shipments arriving at U.S. ports during the period from October 1 to December 31, 2011. They blocked about 240 different products identified as noncompliant with safety standards, preventing them from reaching consumers and possibly causing injury.

The CPSC is an independent federal government agency created by the Consumer Product Safety Act in 1972. Its mission is to guard the public "against unreasonable risks of injuries associated with consumer products." It has authority to issue regulations regarding the sale of a wide range of consumer products. The only products not subject to its jurisdiction are ones put under the authority of a different agency by a specific statute. For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has authority to regulate automobiles, and the Food and Drug Administration has authority over pharmaceutical and most food products. The CPSC can ban products it deems dangerous, and it can compel recalls of dangerous products already in the market.

The CPSC has several programs that enable it to collect data about products in the U.S. market. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System collects data from a set of hospitals on injuries related to consumer products, then analyzes the data to create estimates the agency can use nationally. SaferProducts.gov, a website operated by the CPSC, allows consumers to report unsafe products online.

The list of products blocked by the CPSC at the end of 2011 is dominated by children's products, which comprised eighty-two percent of the total number of units stopped. Of the children's products blocked at ports of entry, the CPC found that they were dangerous or violative in six main ways:

- 47% contained lead or lead-based paint;
- 18% contained small parts not appropriate for children;
- 15% contained phthalates, a plastic product found to have serious health effects;
- 8% had tracking labels that were incorrect or non-compliant;
- 4% included art materials prohibited in children's products; and
- 2% contained incorrectly-branded toys.

The remaining six percent included products with sharp points, chemical hazards, heavily-regulated baby products, and toys requiring batteries that did not meet safety standards. Most of the products blocked by the CPSC originated in China, with some coming from Mexico and Japan.

Continue reading "Federal Government Blocks Almost 650,000 Dangerous Products at Ports in Fourth Quarter 2011" »

A pending rule intended to improve the safety of cars and other light vehicles by increasing the driver's field of vision has been delayed for a second time. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced last month that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) would not have final rules relating to requiring all cars to have backup cameras until at least December 31, 2012. Once enacted, every Connecticut passenger vehicle would need to have a backup camera installed by 2014.

The NHTSA's rule will require all vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less to have a backup camera installed that allows the driver to see the area immediately behind the vehicle while driving in reverse. This would apply to all passenger cars, vans and minivans, pickup trucks, and other commonly-used vehicles. According to the New York Times, forty-five percent of new cars currently have backup cameras as a standard feature. They are available as an option in another twenty-three percent of new cars. People who own vehicles without cameras will have to purchase equipment. People who own cars without embedded navigation screens will have to spend $159 to $203 dollars on equipment, according to estimates by the NHTSA. For cars with screens, which may be a feature included with GPS devices, the cost is estimated to be $58 to $88. The NHTSA estimates that the annual cost of the program nationwide will be $1.9 to $2.7 billion.

The NHTSA announced its intention to create this rule in December 2010. The agency issued a press release that month stating that vehicle "blind zones" cause an average of 292 deaths each year, as well as 18,000 injuries. Accidents such as these particularly affect children and the elderly. The NHTSA states that 228 fatal accidents, seventy-eight percent of the total, involve vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less.

The backup camera rule originated with a federal law, the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007, which was passed in early 2008 and signed into law by President Bush. Cameron Gulbransen was a two year-old accidentally killed when his father backed over him in his vehicle in the family's driveway. The law requires several vehicular safety improvements designed to protect children, including "blind zone" visibility features. It also requires features that would reverse power windows if the window encountered an obstruction, and a feature that prevents a car's transmission from switching to "drive" unless someone was simultaneously pressing the brake pedal.

Continue reading "Federal Government Puts Off Decision on Requiring Cars to Have Backup Cameras" »

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a series of non-binding guidelines to automakers last week, requesting that any integrated electronic devices placed in new cars have a feature disabling social networks like Facebook and Twitter while the car is in motion. DOT may also develop guidelines for handheld electronics like cell phones and voice-activated electronic systems. This is part of DOT's campaign to cut down on "distracted driving," meaning driving while using a device that takes the driver's attention off the road. This includes not only talking on a mobile phone but also texting and using social media.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of DOT, nearly ten percent of all traffic fatalities in 2010 involved distracted driving. The use of hands-free devices like headsets does not necessarily improve a driver's attention.

Auto industry analysts estimate that the number of sales of new cars that have smartphone and "embedded connectivity units" will increase by twenty-nine percent in the United States in 2012, with at least 5.8 million "in-vehicle units." These include not only smartphones and other mobile phones, but also devices physically embedded in the cars themselves such as GPS navigation systems. Some cars also feature attached or embedded devices that allow passengers, although ideally not drivers, to access the internet. By 2026, some analysts expect that all cars sold in North America and Japan will have some sort of embedded technology. Mobile phones have grown more sophisticated as well, allowing drivers to make and receive phone calls and to use multiple features of the internet.

In December 2011, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), another agency of DOT, recommended that states enact laws banning the use of mobile phones and other electronic communications devices while driving. In September, it had recommended a ban on mobile device usage by commercial drivers, such as truck drivers. The NTSB has no actual rule-making authority and can only issue recommendations to other federal agencies and state and local governments. This Connecticut Injury Attorney Blog reported on the NTSB's recommendation in December. Its recommendation specifically covered "non-emergency" use of call phones while driving, but it may expand its recommendations to request a ban on all mobile phone use. It has called distracted driving a public health crisis comparable to drunk driving or smoking.

Automakers are working on guidelines of their own related to distracted driving. Rather than disabling electronic devices, industry guidelines would seek to minimize the amount of time drivers must take their eyes off the road. This would serve to allow drivers to have access to electronic devices, which can come in handy in emergency situations, but would also work to prevent distraction.

Continue reading "Federal Safety Agencies Recommend Banning Almost All Electronic Device Usage While Driving" »

OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) recognizes plants and other sites as model workplaces that demonstrate the "highest levels" of employee protection and safety. Aside from being a great public relations tool, "star" status in the VPP program exempts work sites from regular inspections, and protects the companies operating them from punishment for standard violations if the violations are promptly corrected. Once in VPP's star program, companies are re-evaluated every three to five years.

So one would think that companies with "star" status in the VPP program would have exemplary workplace and employee safety records? Turns out that is not the case in Connecticut. For example, Covanta Energy operates a waste-to-energy plant in Wallingford, Connecticut. In 2007, while an application by Covanta for recognition of the plant by OSHA as a model workplace was pending, one of the plant's employees, Robert Gootkin, was pinned against a wall and crushed to death by a hopper lid. According to the victim's brother, Gootkin had been working a 12-hour overnight shift alone when the accident occurred, and it took facility personnel 30 minutes to respond to alarms that were triggered by the accident. In response to the accident, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill requiring operators of solid waste facilities to have at least two employees or a camera in the work area when waste is being fed into a hopper. Covanta lobbied against the bill.

Continue reading "Connecticut Companies Designated Model Workplaces by OHSA Not Models of Safety" »

Consumers in Connecticut and other States who purchase generic drugs instead of brand name prescriptions have had an important legal remedy taken away as a result of a ruling just issued by the United States Supreme Court A divided Court has ruled that those injured or killed by generic brand prescription drugs because the product warnings were inadequate to explain and articulate the risks of taking the medicine can no longer sue the manufacture for damages. A wrongful death or Personal injury claim could still be brought it would appear if the drug were manufactured defectively or designed improperly in a situation where either of which circumstance caused harm. However, if there was simply inadequate information disclosed within the product literature to somebody who went into a CVS pharmacy store in Hartford, for example, resulting in their consuming the drug and suffering harm, their legal remedy now has disappeared against the manufacturer and likely the seller of the generic drugs. Since almost 75% of all prescriptions sold are generic( and cheaper than brand name equivalents) this is a big deal to the consumers.

Continue reading "Generic Drug Manufacturers shielded from Product Warnings Liability" »

The immediate goal of initiating a lawsuit where governmental or Industry standards have been deviated from is obviously to compensate the unfortunate victims injured as a result. What may not be so obvious, however, is that in addition to providing remedies to those who have been injured, the evolving body of standards and practices recognized by governmental bodies and industry standards setting organizations benefits society as a whole, in that litigation premised on these principles often serves as a vital force for change, resulting in safer products, improved warnings, better regulation of work sites , and greater public awareness of the hazards. Over the last fifty years litigation involving these principles has caused significant changes in the way manufacturers do business and in the way businesses run their companies and regulate the safety of their own work environments. In the process, these changes have saved lives here in the United States and abroad, and prevented countless injuries.

Continue reading "Private Lawsuit Enforcement of Government and Industry Standards- " »