A 2-year-old boy has died after becoming entangled in a drapery cord in his Damascus, Maryland home. Thapelo Andre Kwofie’s parents found him unconscious at around 3pm. They administered CPR to him before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital. He was pronounced dead soon after his arrival at Shady Grove Hospital.
Montgomery County, Maryland police are investigating the tragic accident.
Window Cord-Strangulation Accidents
A 26-year-old Germantown, Maryland man has died from burn injuries he sustained in a fire at a gas station pump in Frederick. Ainsley Gordon caught fire, as did his sport utility vehicle and the gas pump that was next to the vehicle. Gordon was filling up a gas can when the fatal burn accident happened.
Investigators are trying to figure out what happened. They are saying that the victim wasn’t smoking or using his cell phone when the fire broke out.
Gasoline Burn Accidents:
• 1.1 million burn injuries a year occurred because of gasoline fires.
• 4.500 gasoline fire-related fatalities are a result of burn injuries while 10,000 other deaths involve infections from the burn wounds.
• Approximately 4,700 gas fires occur in the US each year.
If you or your loved one sustained serious burn injuries from a gasoline fire that was caused by another party’s negligence, you may have grounds for filing a Maryland injury lawsuit.
A gas station is one of the worst locations for a fire to happen. Unfortunately, gas station fires are not as uncommon as we’d like to think. Just last March, a woman died when a pickup truck crashed into gas pump, causing the pump to explode. The woman, who was pumping gas, became trapped between the pump and another vehicle.
In another gas fire accident earlier this year, a man who accidentally lit a match caught fire, as did the SUV that his friend was pumping gas into. Fortunately, the driver was able to retrieve his baby from the back seat and another passenger, a woman, was able to exit through the back window. The burn victim sustained injuries on 20% of his body.
Some fires at gasoline stations are a result of customer carelessness or driver negligence. There also may be certain hazards at the station, which the station owner or gasoline company should have remedied, that caused a blaze to break out.
Man fatally burned in Md. gas station fire, Washington Times, November 5, 2009
Man Catches Fire At Gas Station, KPHO, March 30, 2009
Woman Killed After Gas Station Pump Explodes, Fox, March 17, 2009
Gasoline Safety, Mass.gov
Related Web Resources:
Burns, Medline Plus
Service Station Safety, National Fire Protection Association
According to federal transportation safety officials, multiple human errors contributed to the Maryland medevac crash that claimed the lives of four people in Prince George’s County on September 27, 2008. One of the people who died was 17-year-old Ashley Young, one of the Maryland car accident victims with low-level injuries who was being flown to a hospital. The other Waldorf, Maryland car crash victim, 19-year-old Jordan Wells, survived the Maryland medevac accident has undergone over 20 surgeries.
The helicopter Trooper 2, had bypassed Prince George’s Hospital Center because of fog. It crashed in Walker Mill Regional Park.
According to investigators, air traffic controllers were not very helpful, not paying proper attention, and sloppy. The troopers who were monitoring the air rescue did not realize in a timely enough manner that the chopper was lost and did not conduct a thorough enough search. However, pilot error is considered the probable cause of the helicopter accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board says pilot Stephen Bunker brought the helicopter down too fast, crashing into the ground. The board says the 59-year-old may not have had the skills to safely land the chopper when having to rely solely on aircraft instruments during poor visibility.
Bunker, volunteer medical Tonya Mallard, and paramedic Mickey Lippy also died in the Maryland medevac accident.
Aviation Accident Lawsuits
Plane crashes, helicopter accidents, and commercial airliner collisions seldom leave survivors. When anyone does survive such a catastrophic accident, the injuries are usually quite serious.
Pilot error, aircraft malfunction or defect, air traffic control negligence, ground crew mistakes, and poor weather conditions are some causes of plane crashes.
Extensive failures found in medevac crash, Washington Post, October 28, 2009
NTSB: Several factors contributed to fatal Md. medevac crash, Baltimore Sun, October 27, 2009
Related Web Resources:
National Transportation Safety Board
Medevac Helicopter Crash Kills 4 in Maryland, Fox/AP, September 28, 2009
More than 15 years after Dontae and Searra Wallace’s mother moved them into a City Homes rental in an effort to protect them from additional lead exposure, a Maryland jury has awarded the siblings over $2.5 million for their Baltimore personal injuries caused by lead poisoning.
Searra, 17, and Dontae, 20, sustained permanent behavioral and cognitive disabilities. They are unlikely to graduate from high school or get a GED, and their IQ’s are below average. Dontae dropped out of school four years ago and Searra failed two grades.
Their mother, Tiffini, says that the family moved out of a rental that used lead paint into a City Homes Inc. home. She says the nonprofit group told her the Baltimore City row house was safe.
Miriam Frankl, 20, died on October 17 from the serious head wounds and other injuries she sustained during a Baltimore hit and run accident that occurred the day before. Frankl, a Johns Hopkins University student, was struck by a white Ford F-250 moving at a high speed on St. Paul Street during a hit and run Maryland truck crash. Witnesses say that the driver of the truck, a man, did not stop. Instead, he allegedly made an illegal left turn onto East University Parkway.
Frankl was placed on life support at Maryland Shock Trauma Center where she died at 2:30am the next day. Thomas Meighan Jr., the 39-year-old truck owner, was initially arrested on at least 18 driving offenses.
Witnesses say that Meighan’s truck drove erratically for hours that day, tailgating, attempting to cut off other motorists, making abrupt lane changes, running several red lights, driving at high speeds on small roads and driving the wrong way.
Most of the lesser charges have been dropped. The remaining charges against Meighan include driving on a suspended license, failure to remain at the scene of an accident involving death, failure to stop vehicle at bodily injury accident, failure to stop vehicle at death accident scene, failure to render reasonable assistance to injured person, failure to furnish required ID and license, failure to stop after accident involving vehicle damage, and failure to remain at scene of vehicle damage accident.
Police are trying to figure out whether they can charge Meighan with vehicular manslaughter in the hit-and-run death of Frankl. Meighan claims he was not driving his car on the day of the deadly Baltimore car crash that claimed the 20-year-old’s life.
Prior to the October 16 Maryland pedestrian accident, Meighan already had 21 motor vehicle convictions. 8 of those convictions were for drunk driving. Over six of the offenses took place in Carroll County.
Driver’s truck terrorized Baltimore before killing student from Wilmette, Chicago Tribune, October 27, 2009
Charges pared in hit-and-run, The Baltimore Sun, October 28, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Hit and Run Maryland, Deadly Roads
Maryland Department of Transportation
Robert Williams, 43, is suing Franklin Square Hospital Center’s emergency room for Maryland medical malpractice. Williams, who is a diabetic with a history of abscess infections and diabetes, had to undergo emergency surgery to remove necrotic tissue from his scrotum and penis. In his Baltimore County medical malpractice lawsuit, Williams claims the procedure could have been avoided if ER workers had checked his medical history, performed the right exam, provided the correct antibiotic therapy, and admitted him to the hospital when he arrived at the emergency room in February 2007.
At the time, Williams was in pain because the left side of his scrotum was swollen. His doctor told him to go to the ER.
At Franklin Square Hospital Center, medical workers diagnosed him as suffering from testicular pain. They gave him medication, triaged him, and sent him home.
A Maryland jury has awarded a Greenbelt woman a $261,000 Prince George’s County police brutality verdict. Kimberly Jones says sheriff’s deputies forced their way into her residence, assaulted her, and maced her.
The alleged Prince George’s County, Maryland personal injury incident occurred on September 15, 2006. Jones, 35, woke up to the sound of knocking. She put on a robe and slightly opened the door. Two Prince George’s County sheriff deputies, Gerald Henderson and Billy Falby, allegedly forced their way in without a warrant.
Not only did the two men allegedly assault her, but they are accused of making her change into dirty clothes at the arrest scene without making sure a female deputy was there to help her. A neighbor, who would later testify in court, called 911 to report seeing the two deputies assault Jones.
Maryland’s highest court is going to review the constitutionality of the state’s personal injury noneconomic damages cap. This court hasn’t done this since 1995. Currently, the cap for a plaintiff’s pain and suffering is $725,000.
The Maryland wrongful death case that brings the noneconomic damages cap issue to the state’s highest court is the one involving the parents of 5-year-old Connor Freed. The young boy drowned in 2006 in a country club swimming pool in Anne Arundel County in 2006.
A jury awarded his parents, Debra Neagle Webber and Thomas Freed, over $2 million for his drowning death. Because of the Maryland personal injury cap, which was $665,000 when their son died, their wrongful death award would go down to $1.3 million.
In Baltimore County, the business editor of the Baltimore Sun died last week when the car he and his nine-year old daughter were riding in was involved in a Maryland truck accident with a UPS vehicle. Tim Wheatley, 48, died at the traffic site. His daughter, Sarah, was seriously injured and was transported to a hospital.
Police are investigating the truck accident to see if anyone involved ran a red light and if charges should be filed.
Truck Accident Cases
A Harford County woman has died after the sport-utility vehicle she was driving collided with a semi-truck on Sunday morning. Linda Buckland, 57, was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma. Her husband, 62-year-old Charles Buckland, sustained critical injuries.
Buckland was reportedly driving a Chevy Tracker west on Pulaski Expressway when the semi-truck crash happened. The Kenworth tractor driver, Irvine Jones, was charged with multiple violations.
Involvement in any kind of large truck crash can be overwhelming and frightening. This is not the kind of Maryland injury case that you want to handle alone. An experienced Maryland truck accident attorney can help you explore your legal options. In the meantime, there are steps that you or your loved one can take to help your case, including:
Maryland Accident Law Blog
