2008 May Archive

For at least five years, safety advocates have been calling on the government to study the dangers posed by aging tires that can degrade and rot from the inside out even when stored and never mounted on a car.   

It is a problem in Florida, where heat and humidity can be especially hard on aging rubber.

Countless thousands of Americans may be driving on tires prone to fall apart, especially in hot climates and at high speeds, due to the age of tire.

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Merck and its aggressive legal team are on a roll, overturning jury verdicts across the country that ruled in favor of patients injured by the arthritis drug, Vioxx. 

Last Thursday, the Fourteenth Court of Appeal in Texas overturned a $26 million verdict brought by Carol Ernst. Her husband, Robert died after taking Vioxx in 2001. The three judge panel threw out the conclusions of a jury and the plaintiff’s expert and ruled there was no evidence that the drug caused the blood clot that killed Ernst. 

And the same day, a New Jersey Appellate Court overturned a $9 million punitive damage verdict awarded in 2006, saying that the jury shouldn’t have been allowed to award punitive damages against Merck, or find the drug maker committed fraud.  

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Is the newly renovated Mathews Bridge in Jacksonville inviting more traffic that is driving faster? That may be why we are seeing more accidents on the span.

One of seven main bridges going into Jacksonville, the Mathews underwent a major renovation in 2007. Instead of the grated surface that was sort of bumpy, a decking material was used that provided resurfacing, a major part of the $13 million project.

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As school wraps up in Florida, graduates and their parents are looking forward to the summer, sleeping in, barbeques, pool parties. And no doubt kids are looking forward to a beer, or two or three or ……

Parents beware! 

Graduation parties for high school students are fine, but without the alcohol please.  

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Mourners from Orange Park said goodbye this week to a Clay County athlete killed in a train accident.

Wes Whiddon, 17, and two friends were fishing from a train trestle right next to SR- 220. A CSX train approach.  All three of the teens tried to get out of the way but Whiddon could not.

He was killed immediately, his two friends were hurt. 

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The smoking cessation drug has already been linked to vivid dreams, suicide, depression and psychosis.  And now organizations in charge of public safety are getting worried.

This week, the Federal Aviation Administration banned the use of the smoking cessation drug for pilots and air traffic controllers.

Now the trucking industry wants drivers of big-rigs to stay off the drug.

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Americans are frightened by heavy and big trucks on our nation’s highway. We don’t need a poll to tell us that, but a poll exists anyway.

Taken by Lake Research Partners, it finds that 66 percent of drivers oppose a proposal to allow bigger trucks carrying heavier loads on the highways.  The American people have to share the roads and they find that two or three-trailers are even more frightning than a single-trailer.  That sentiment crossed race, income, sex, age and region.

The poll was released to coordinate with a demonstration project being proposed by shippers and lobbyists for trucking companies that would allow trucks weighing as much as 100,000 pounds on the roads in six states. 

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It was probably a lot of fun for toddlers to go to Chuck E. Cheese in an overcrowded van, sitting on each other or standing. 

But the ride has ended in a Northside Jacksonville day care center, Kids Creations and More receiving a notice of intent to have its license revoked.

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Rarely do we find out what goes on behind the doors of a day care center. But in this case the director of a Jacksonville child care center is fighting state plans to shut down the center. 

Kid’s Creations and More took the little kids on a field trip to Chuck E.  Cheese. Because they only have one van, they packed nearly 40 kids into a van that seats only 15.

Kids were sitting on top of each other and on the floor, an incredibly unsafe situation. Even in the best of situations a 15-passenger van is one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road. When you double up, it’s doubly dangerous.  And one of the drivers only had a learner’s permit. Another has a criminal record. 

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Florida’s Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is working on a deal that will get Allstate Floridian back into business in the state. 

Allstate is barred from writing new business  - auto, property or health – until it turns over thousands of documents that will reveal how it does business.  Allstate has been accused of cancelling policies at its own discretion and escalating premiums.

This does not affect the two million existing policies. But company agents can’t write any new business.  

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