2008 October Archive

With the stock market as volatile as it is lately, many investors are wondering if they have any recourse for investments that came highly recommended, yet tanked.

One case in point – The Reserve Yield Plus Fund (RUPQX) sold by TDAmeritrade to clients claiming it was a “money market” fund. That was the presentation at least. Investors who purchased Reserve yield Plus Fund have formed an internet group to share war stories and consider possible litigation. Several arbitration claims are in the works.

Some elderly investors put their entire life savings in the fund because it was supposed to be so safe. Now their money is completely frozen since mid September. Read the rest »

In order to reduce aggressive driving as part of the teen web site, recently mentioned in another blog Take The Wheel, Florida is defining aggressive driving.

Aggressive driving is responsible for 2/3rds of all fatalities on the road each year, or 27,000 deaths. That number is four times the number of deaths resulting from DUI or drunk under the influence.

Aggressive driving is driving under the influence of “impaired emotions” which then leads to high-risk decisions. It is a choice and can be modified with attitude and behavior modification.

Aggressive driving can precede Road Rage when others react on the roads from aggressive and careless drivers.

In order to crack down on teens who take out their aggression, the state is defining “aggressive driving” (Florida Statute 316.1923) as committing two or more of the following acts simultaneously or in succession:

1) Exceeding the posted speed limit by 15 mph or more
2) Unsafely or improperly changing lanes
3) Following another vehicle too closely
4) Failing to yield the right-of-way
5) Improperly passing
6) Violating traffic control and signal devices

Unfortunately this statute is not a charging statute. The office can mark the ticket that the driver was an aggressive driver. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in Tallahassee then takes this data to provide statistical information on aggressive driving in the state which is used to make new laws.

Road Rage is a felony and a criminal assault using an automobile on another driver/passenger of an automobile. There are at least 200 deaths a year in Florida attributed to road rage. #

A driver from Kingsland, Georgia died Friday afternoon after a chain-reaction on the road involving a tractor-trailer.

The tractor-trailer was hauling a load of beer, heading south near Pecan Park Road, when he rear-ended a pickup truck that was pulling a cement mixer. All of this occurred on North Main Street in north Jacksonville, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The 45-year old driver, Tony Baker, was in a truck heading northbound when his truck hit the jackknifed tractor-trailer.

Baker was pronounced dead at the scene while the other drivers were okay.

There is no word on what caused this accident but it should remind us all of a report issued by the Associated Press last summer. It was reported that sick and disabled truck drivers carry commercial licenses even though they also qualify for disability payments. The Associated Press identified drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered major health problems behind the wheel of vehicles that can weigh 40 tons or more.
Read the rest »

This story found its way on the front page of our paper complete with a picture of a smiling, friendly looking elderly couple.

James and Blanch Whiddon had been married for 65 years. They told relatives recently they could never live without each other. After a car accident, they died three days apart last week.

James, 85, and his wife who was 79, were on their way home from the grocery store September 30th. They had gone to dispute a bill, and did many things together.

Just before noon on U.S. 1 a tractor-trailer ran a red light and James, traveling on a green light, drove his pickup under the trailer.

James died at the scene. His wife was hospitalized in a coma. Both had their seat belts on. Blanch died in three days.

She leaves behind her daughter, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. “They wouldn’t have been able to survive without each other,” their daughter, Marie Copeland tells Jacksonville.com. “It’s just a tragedy.”
Read the rest »

With more than 36,000 teen drivers involved in car crashes in Florida last year –and a teen killed every 6.5 minutes nationwide, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles has created an interactive web site to drive home the message of safety on the road.

With great graphics, bold music, and production techniques, TakeTheWheel.net was created by teens for teens. It’s a very powerful and effective way to communicate the truth about the responsibility of taking the wheel, including the facts:

• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) more than two-thirds of teen passengers and drivers who die in nighttime car crashes are not wearing their seat belts.
• Teens are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers.
• Distractions such as loud music, texting, cell phone use, driving tired combined with inexperience and speed and drug use all aggravate the problem.
• In addition to the 36,000 involved in teen crashes last year, more than 479 people were killed in auto accidents where a teenager was behind the wheel.
• Auto accidents remain the number one cause of death for teenagers.

In the teen videos- Alexa tell story of her cousin Mandy, now in a vegetative state, after an accident in December of 2004. She was in a car that was t-boned by another car driven by a student driver.

Alexa says, “She starts to cry and she has feelings she needs to get out but she can’t because of the way she is. Being in an accident and almost dying changes everybody life not just around them, but the whole school. People may not realize it but people have a lot of value. People take their life for granted.”

Dustin watched his 19-year-old cousin, Frankie die after his car flipped 15 times. Frankie had been drinking and driving. His much larger cousin stopped him when depressed and drunk, Dustin tried to get behind the wheel. ” I broke down and cried and my parents came and picked me upl. I will not let anybody get in the car if they’re drunk,” he says.

Megan was in a car that hit the back of a truck, then split into a “V”. Her boyfriend died, as did the driver of the other vehicle. Megan begins crying on camera when she tells her story. “I have friends who street race and they still do it, and I don’t undertand why. If someone is in the car with me I make them put their seatbelt on. I’m really serious about it. You’re not going to die while I’m driving.”

Kudos on talking to teens in a language that matters. I hope every young driver in Florida takes the time to listen to the experiences of people who have suffered from the loss of a loved one. I can happen to you. It happened to them.

The web site is here TakeTheWheel.net.

This week a couple of teens riding an all-terrain vehicle in Baker County, smashed into a tree after losing control of the ATV on a dirt road.

They were both in serious condition; neither of them wore a helmet according to the Florida Highway Patrol. 17-year-old Michael Jewel of Sanderson was driving. The passenger was Thomas Harvey, 17, of Glen St. Mary.

Riders and passengers of ATVs frequently suffer spinal cord injuries as they dive over the handlebars.

Parents seem sharply divided on the issue of ATVs. Some believe their kids can handle the freedom; others ban them, or insist on matching a child to the machine with supervision. Others don’t believe 17-year-old boys can be taught anything.

ATV accidents killed at least 555 people in 2006 at least 100 children among them, according to government safety officials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates another 146,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for ATV-injuries that year, more than a quarter of them children.

In Florida, at least 71 kids under the age of 16 died from 1982 to 2002. More recent statistics are not complete. Florida riders under the age of 16 are required to wear a helmet and eye protection.

An ATV is a vehicle that travels on four low-pressure tires, with a seat and handlebars. It’s designed to handle mountain terrain, and other environments off-street.

There is no cage around the rider who sits and rides like a motorcycle. The speed can go up to 80 mph or higher depending on the engine. ATVs are associated with trespassing, land defacement, erosion and noise and dust pollution. Engines range from 49 cc to 1,000.

ATVs are supposed to carry a label from the manufacturer telling consumers that machines greater than 90 cc should not be attempted by riders under the age of 12. This is a recommendation only.

The industry says ATVs have never been shown to be an unsafe product, but there is little to keep a child safe during a rollover when they are thrown from the vehicle. Then there is the issue that many youngsters ride adult-size ATVs which are too big for them.

Dealers are not supposed to sell ATVs to parents who will allow children to ride them, but that is an unverifiable system.

A couple of years ago, national pediatrician and consumer groups called on the commission to ban the sale of adult size ATVs for children under 16 because the machines were too big and fast for the young drivers. The agency decided not to change its policy when its director of compliance, a former lawyer for the ATV industry said the system of voluntary compliance was working.

Many at the CPSC have quit in disgust when, facing a shrinking budget, they try to regulate industries that appear to be calling the shots. One woman in a poison prevention expert said “there is only so much that a few people there can do.”

Many inside say the prevailing attitude is that business can regulate itself. But we’ve all seen lately what happens when industries are in charge of regulating themselves. We hope these young men fully recover- our best to them and their families. #

Florida has joined eight states all suing drugmaker Merck & Co alleging deceptive marketing of the recalled painkiller Vioxx.

The lawsuit claims that while Merck offered Vioxx to the Medicaid program it was hiding the drug’s adverse effects in direct violation of the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum says the state wants to be reimbursed for more than $80 million spent on health programs, such as Florida’s Medicaid program, which included Vioxx as an approved drug. He wants that money back plus interest and he seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

Vioxx was pulled from the market in 2004 after patients taking the drug for arthritis pain began having heart attacks and stroke. Merck says its own research showed the pill doubled the risk.

Merck’s promotional campaign convinced doctors and patients that the drug was safe and desirable, and McCollum says in a statement that “The company also allegedly tried to intimidate physicians and researchers who questioned the safety of Vioxx.”

Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck said in a statement that Merck acted responsibly. “We intend to defend ourselves against the complaint,” said Ron Rogers. Merck has already agreed to settle about 50,000 claims for damage from Vioxx for $4.85 billion, all being handled out of a New Orleans District Court. At the present time the heart attack victims, or their survivors, are supposed to be receiving payments.

Florida joins Alaska, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Texas, Utah and New York City which have all brought substantially similar complaints against Merck. #

Six months after her son died in a car she was drunk driving at 100 mph, Angela Harper has been sentenced to spend nine years in prison for DUI manslaughter.

Her 13-year-old son Jesse Harper, was one of several teens in the back seat thrown from the car at the time of the crash. 31-year-old Angela was the only one wearing a seat belt, her blood level was measured at .11, and she was speeding. She pled guilty to DUI manslaughter.

In other words she was doing everything wrong that she possibly could.

But the mother of two other teens involved in the crash, believes the sentence is too harsh.
“Something inside of me said I have to forgive her. I have to forgive her because she lost her son,” the unidentified woman said to Channel 4.

“We felt it was significant and important enough to go ahead and prosecute this case aggressively to try to let people know that we treat this just as seriously as if she had killed a complete stranger,” said Assistant State Attorney Mark Borello.

Last April, Harper lost control of her Saturn and hit a metal guardrail on Interstate 295 in Jacksonville.

Sentencing guidelines can send her to prison for 15 years for DUI Manslaughter in the state of Florida.

It is against Florida law to fail to have seat belts on children ages 6 -15. The driver is responsible for passengers under the age of 16 who are not buckled up. Florida has a secondary safety belt law, meaning officers can only write you a ticket if they’ve pulled you over for something else.

The sentence may be too harsh, but this is a tragedy all around. Maybe someone will buckle up next time they think of this story. If there is anything to be learned, it is that had her son been wearing his seat belt, he might be alive today.