Archive for June, 2009

The train car that slammed into the back of another on Washington’s Metro system, killing nine people, was an older model that U.S. safety investigators had called for replacing or overhauling 13 years ago.

The car “telescoped” in the accident during the evening rush hour yesterday, Debbie Hersman, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said today at a press conference. The front end of the car was sheared off.

The board, which is investigating the deadliest accident in the Washington system’s 33-year history, had advised Metro that cars of that type would crumple in a crash after a January 1996 collision between two trains that killed a train operator. The agency recommended that Metro improve its rail cars’ crashworthiness.

NTSB investigators on the scene of yesterday’s accident will review the train operators’ phone and texting records and examine the track and signals, said Hersman, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the safety board’s chairman.

“We don’t know at this point whether or not the operator could have seen the train ahead of them in time to stop,” she said. “We’re going to be conducting a thorough accident investigation.”

Washington’s Metro, run by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, is the second-largest U.S. heavy-rail transit system after New York City’s subway, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Have you been injured in a Washington Car Accident, Train Accident or Truck accident? If so do yourself a favor and Contact a Washington Accident Lawyer.

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The University of Miami Medical School is part of a new national consortium of 52 top medical institutions being created to study and treat what it calls the leading cause of death and disability in children — brain injury.

The medical schools and hospitals are joining forces with a New York lawyer/lobbyist whose daughter suffered a brain injury when shaken by a nurse to raise $125 million or more for the consortium. Its goal: national coordination of the prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and further study of pediatric brain injuries.

”This is huge,” said Gillian Hotz, co-director of the Pediatric Brain & Spinal Cord Injury Program at the UM med school. “All of us in trauma centers around the country have been sitting in our little silos all these years. This is a chance to have a national program get more resources, more programs for children with catastrophic injuries.”

The new group is called the National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan. Its goal: to spend $125 million a year to address seven categories of care of brain injury — prevention, acute care, rehabilitation, adult transition, rural/telehealth, mild traumatic brain injury and a virtual center.

The Sarah Jane Brain Project was created in 2007 by New York lobbyist/lawyer Patrick Donohue after his infant daughter, Sarah Jane, was shaken by a nurse, causing a severe brain injury. The new initiative was announced Friday on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Sara Jane’s fourth birthday. She cannot walk, talk, crawl or sit up.

5,000 DEATHS A YEAR

Pediatric traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability for children and young adults from birth to 25 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It causes 5,000 deaths a year. It includes all traumatic causes plus brain injuries from tumors, strokes, meningitis, insufficient oxygen, poisoning, ischemia and substance abuse.

Since the brain is not fully developed until age 26, many brain injuries to service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are considered pediatric cases, Hotz said.

The project will attempt to set up ”centers of excellence” to develop plans to standardize acute care, hospital treatment and rehabilitation for brain injuries based on future studies.

Robert Kornfeld has 25 + years of experience in handling spinal and traumatic brain injury cases which can be caused by another’s medical negligence,or by motor vehicle accidents involving pedestrians, cars, bicycles. motorcycles and trucks, or in on the job settings, such as, maritime, fishing and construction. Traumatic spinal and traumatic brain damage injuries can occur at any time as result of the negligence of another.

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Sarah Jane, a 4 year old Washington girl, was violently shaken by a nurse when she was 5 days old. Sarah Jane Donohue’s brain is so damaged she cannot speak or crawl. She lives in Washington with her father.

The girl’s plight and her father’s activism are catapulting doctors and hospitals across the nation to figure out how best to serve children with brain damage.

A doctor at UNC-Chapel Hill is developing a plan to standardize the care that adolescents receive after their brains are compromised in accidents or by abuse or disease. Around the country, grants will enable a researcher in every state to map out similar plans.

Children with Brain Injury

More than 1million adolescents are hospitalized each year because of brain injuries across the country. Some are hurt in car accidents, playground accidents or ballgames. Others are shaken or battered. The brains of others are damaged by disease.

About 5,000 of these patients die, and 17,000 are permanently disabled.

Washington Brain Injury Lawyers

Our Washington brain injury law firm has 25 + years of experience in handling spinal and  traumatic brain injury cases which can be caused by another’s medical negligence,or by motor vehicle accidents involving pedestrians, cars, bicycles. motorcycles and trucks, or in on the job settings, such as, maritime, fishing and construction. Traumatic spinal and traumatic brain damage injuries can occur at any time as result of the negligence of another.

Call for an initial consultation at no charge to determine if Mr. Kornfeld can help you recover what you deserve if you, a loved one or family has suffered a serious spinal injury or traumatic brain injury.

Do you know Washington Personal Injury Laws?

If a Washington accident results in an injury to you―whether physical or mental―you might be entitled to more compensation than the payout by the at-fault party’s insurance company. In fact, unless you specialize in tort law, you might not realize either how difficult your injury might make things for you―or the extent of your right to be paid for your trouble.

An experienced Washington Personal Injury lawyer will make it much simpler for you to get money in your pocket and fully compensated for your Washington personal injuries.

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