On January 13, 2009, Connecticut police arrested a man for DWI. The man lost control of his car, went airborne and crashed into a tree. He fled the scene but was later arrested. While this single car accident is bad enough, the driver of this car was previously arrested for a hit and run that killed a pedestrian back in April. It is unclear from the news report whether alcohol played a role in the April fatal crash.
Tyson Foods pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Arkansas on January 6, 2008 and agreed to pay a fine of $500,000 for violating worker safety regulations that led to a worker’s death in its River Valley Animal Foods plant in Texarkana, Ark. A maintenance employee at the plant died in October 2003 after he was overcome with hydrogen sulfide gas while repairing a leak from a hydrolyzer. The company will also serve one year probation.
The Supreme Court on Monday handed a defeat to tobacco companies counting on it to put an end to lawsuits alleging deceptive marketing of “light” cigarettes. In a 5-4 split, the court ruled that smokers may use state consumer protection laws to sue cigarette makers for the way they promote “light” and “low tar” brands. Read more about the decision here.
In Washington D.C., a 39 year old man while at his home is suffering from shortness of breath and chest pains. His family per his instructions call for an ambulance. The EMS crew arrives and concludes that he has acid reflux and recommends that he take pepto bismol. Hours later, the man is found dead in his home from a heart attack. View the video of this tragic story and the obvious medical malpractice.
Black Friday took a grim turn when a New York Wal-Mart employee died after bargain hunters broke down the doors to the store, pushing him to the ground. The 34-year-old male employee was pronounced dead an hour after shoppers breached the doors to the shopping center in Valley Stream, Long Island, about 5 a.m. Friday and knocked him down, police said. It is absolutely shocking that a group of shoppers would be so worked up to get into a store to buy stuff that they would trample to death another human being. Furthermore, it is disturbing that Wal-Mart failed to provide adequate security (including the hiring of off-duty police) to ensure that the crowd did not get out of control.