Articles Posted in Personal Injury

In the state of Maine, there are around 1,170 miles of railroad tracks. Along these tracks, Pan Am; Maine, Montreal & Atlantic Railroad; and other railroad companies carry passengers and freight. In the vast majority of situations, the trains travel uneventfully along the tracks to their destination.

In some instances, however, a train doesn’t manage to stay on the tracks. This is called derailment. Our Bangor injury attorneys know that train derailments can be a very serious problem and can result in people aboard or near to the train suffering serious injury. Fortunately, train derailments in Maine are relatively rare, although when they do occur the consequences can be disastrous.

Train Derailments in Maine
According to the Bangor Daily News , 69 trains derailed along the railroad tracks of Maine over a ten year period between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2012.

This isn’t a lot of derailments over a decade, and the news is even better than it seems because many of the incidents happened earlier in the decade. From 2009 to 2012, for example, there were only six derailments each year, down from 11 derailments in 2006. This indicates that there is a downward and stabilizing trend when it comes to train derailments.

Also good news is the fact that many of these train derailments were relatively minor, with some small cars coming off of the track but the train and all its cars staying upright. These accidents generally occurred at very low speeds- less than 10 miles per hour- which helps to explain why little or no damage was done by the derailment.

With so few derailments and with such minor damage caused by trains going off the track, many people overestimate the risks of train accidents. The Bangor Daily News indicates that this is because derailments are often sensationalized and over-emphasized in the media, making them seem like a big deal and making them seem more newsworthy.

Train Accidents and Toxic Exposure
While the data on train accidents and damages might paint a rosy picture of railroad travel in Maine, the trains are not without problems. One of the biggest issues in recent years seems to be that the train accidents are putting people at risk due to the things that the trains are carrying.

For example, in August of 2009, 20 out of 80 train cars jumped the tracks near Gilead, a town on the New Hampshire border. One of the cars was carrying a cargo with ethanol. The car was punctured and ethanol vapors escaped the train, necessitating an evacuation of a nearby camp.

Another incident occurred when four train cars on a 31-car train fell off the tracks and into the Penobscot River, resulting in the spill of more than 400-500 gallons of nonhazardous synthetic latex chemicals used in paper making. And, more recently, a 15-car derailment occurred in March as the train was carrying crude oil through Mattawamkeag.

These recent derailments have raised concerns about the movement of crude oil and potentially dangerous substances because, while there may be few derailments, the consequences can be great if the train cars that leave the tracks result in poisons or chemicals entering the land, water or air.

Remember, train accident victims can include those hit by or hurt on a train but they can also include others who suffered illness due to toxins, property damage or any other injury arising as a direct result of the train derailment.

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Officials with the legislative delegation of Washington County recently met with representatives from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and other safety and health officials to discuss the recent closure of Calais’ only licensed nursing home.

According to BDN Maine, the closure eliminated more than 50 beds belonging to the Atlantic Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Calais. Not only were residents kicked out, but more than 90 health care workers were left without a job.Currently, there are nursing homes that are closing all over the country. All of these closures highlight what challenges the industry is facing. Nursing homes are typically run by large chain corporations and are for-profit organizations. To help to keep your elderly family members safe, you’re urged to do your part and to lookout for the signs of neglect or abuse among elderly residents when you visit a nursing home.

Our Bangor nursing home abuse attorneys understand state and federal budget cuts have further exacerbated the issue. Choosing the right nursing home for a loved one is a critical first step to ensuring they will live out their days with the peace and dignity they deserve.

To helpmake sure that elderly residents have a place to turn and that these healthcare workers get back to work, officials in the area are looking at various low-interest loan programs.

“I was impressed by the level of commitment from local officials to ensure that there is a nursing facility presence in this community,” said Kenneth Albert, director of the state’s Division of Licensing & Regulatory Services.

The closure of the facility came as a surprise to the community. Officials are trying to open a new location in Ellsworth, which is 90 miles southwest of Calais!sResidents and patients of the facility were left stranded and perplexed, wondering where they’ll go next as there’s been a chronic scarcity of nursing home vacancies throughout the county.

According to the CEO of First Atlantic, Kenneth Bowden, the closure was purely based on finances. The facility was costing more than it was bringing in. At one point in the decision, he suggested that the facility turn itself over to the city as another kind of nonprofit entity so that it would be eligible for higher levels of state reimbursement for resident care.

Before choosing a nursing home in the state of Maine, NursingHomeRank.com suggests the followingt:

-Visit potential nursing homes as much as you can before making a decision.

-Get input from the entire family. More people may be able to point out more bugs in the system.

-If you hear of any complaints or concerns from anyone, make sure you talk with the facility to get the entire story and to help to raise awareness.

-Make sure to look at the ratings of each potential home. Get consumer reviews and ask around.

-Be sure to visit homes during off-peak hours to see how many individuals are staffed and how much attention residents are getting.

-Consider cost, location, bed availability, quality of care, need and provision of services before choosing a home.

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Massachusetts lawmakers are mulling whether to change the state’s workers’ compensation laws – a move that those who have suffered workplace injuries in Bangor staunchly oppose.

Our Bangor personal injury attorneys are closely following the developments surrounding legislative request 2781, which would cap the amount of time people can receive workers’ compensation claims for partial but permanent injury to less than 12 years. As of right now, certain types of injury claims are limited to a cap of 10 years, though the most serious have no cap at all.

The portion of the proposal that is causing the greatest stir is that dealing with permanent, partial injury. This would not be a case in which you, say, broke your leg on the job and you are going to be receiving workers’ compensation benefits until it heals, and then you return to work. Instead, these are for cases in which you have suffered an injury on the job that is going to impact you forever. So instead of breaking a limb, say you lost one. Or, maybe your back has been permanently injured.

Workers’ compensation laws are fairly complicated, but they basically ensure that the 25 percent of people who have suffered the most serious permanent, partial injury are going to get benefits for life. The other 75 percent have a 10-year cap. Legislative request 2781 would change that.

Among those testifying at a recent hearing:

• A nurse who fell and seriously injured her back while treating a patient, leaving her unable to continue working in her field;
• An electrician who was jolted with more than 200,000 volts of electricity, rendering him disabled;
• The widow of a construction worker whose boss accidentally backed over him with a truck.

Each of these individuals is very much against the changes, though any alteration of the law thankfully would not impact those who are already getting workers’ compensation benefits.

Those who proposed the bill say the state’s decades-old workers’ compensation system is need of an overhaul. They say consistency is required because the law the way it is now is strange in that a person with a certain injury might not qualify for lifetime benefits one year, but someone with the exact same injury would the next. It would all depend on what kinds of other injuries there were in the state that year.

Payouts for these permanent, partial injuries are generally higher here – about $185,000 annually – than the national average – which is about $90,000 a year. However, they don’t represent a large portion of overall workers’ compensation claims in the state. For example, as the Bangor Daily News reported, there were about 2,200 workers’ compensation claims in the state in 2010, each of those averaging about 13 weeks. That was down a great deal from 1993, when there were more than 7,100 claims that generally spanned about 33 weeks.

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Many parents have embraced the Bumbo – a soft, foam seat that allows their infants to sit upright. However, consumer safety groups are now pleading with the U. . federal government for a recall, following a number of child injuries in Maine and throughout the country.

An article recently ran in the Bangor Daily News about this very issue.

Our Bangor child injury attorneys understand that there have been nearly 100 reports of infants being hurt while using this product. That is only in the last five years, following a voluntary recall in 2007, when the manufacturer pulled all the seats from the shelves because there weren’t adequate warning labels.

At that time, there were 46 injuries reported to the U. . Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 14 of those cases, babies suffered serious head injuries.

After the recall, the South African manufacturer of the Bumbo seat agreed to print warning labels on the side of the seats, saying parents shouldn’t put their children in the seats if they are on an elevated surface, like a desk or table.

But that apparently wasn’t enough because after the recall, there have been 45 more children who fell out of the seat when it had been placed on a tall surface. Of those, 17 infants had skull fractures. Another 50 babies were said to have fallen out of the seat when it had been on the floor. Of those, one had a concussion and two others suffered head injuries.

Still, the government has given no indication that it will issue a recall, though one official from the safety commission admitted it seemed as if there were a large number of injuries. What’s perhaps more confusing is that often times, recalls are issued when there haven’t been any reports of death or injury. So why would the government hesitate to recall a product that has been proven to cause injuries to babies?

Even if there isn’t a second recall, we believe this warrants parent attention – and perhaps avoiding use of this product, given its track record.

While some might argue the number of injuries is relatively small in comparison to the number of seats sold (about 4 million) you have to consider whether your child’s safety is worth the risk.

The Bumbo seat is designed in such a way that it does not have straps or buckles or restraints. There are tray tables that are also available for purchase with these seats, but they are not meant to act as a securing device.

Manufacturers of the seat say it’s safe when used as intended, and that parents should be nearby at all times. But there have been numerous reports of parents who HAVE been nearby, and their children were still seriously injured.

In one case, a father in Washington reported his son was seated in the Bumbo seat on the kitchen table. He was right next to him. The boy arched his back, and fell onto the kitchen floor, landing on his head. The baby boy had to be rushed to the hospital, and undergo emergency brain surgery for his injuries. While the child’s parents are hopeful he will make a full recovery, they are still watching him closely for signs that he may have suffered permanent injuries.

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