Already on the hook for the lion’s share of a $17.7 million judgment and waiting for a decision from a jury that was out considering punitive damages, Ford Motor Co. decided to settle with a couple who sued following a Christmas 2005 wreck that left the woman paralyzed.

The agreement came after a Clayton County, Ga., jury ordered Ford on Dec. 18 to pay more than $16 million of the judgment to compensate for what the plaintiffs argued were design defects in the 2002 Explorer sport utility vehicle in which the woman was a passenger.

Lynn Wheeler, then 58, was seated in the back seat between her two grandchildren, who were in booster seats, as her son drove to church that morning along Noah’s Ark Road in Clayton County . . . Wheeler, who was restrained only by a lap belt, slammed forward and down as the rear seat latch failed, and it collapsed on her.

“As a result,” says the pre-trial order, “Lynn Wheeler’s head and neck were driven down and forward into the front seat and/or center console, catastrophically injuring her spinal cord.”

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The complaint asserted that the automaker’s design for both the rear seat latch and decision to install a lap belt rather than a three-point shoulder belt constituted negligence, and it also said Ford should have warned the Wheelers and the general public “of the dangers in a reasonably foreseeable collision presented by the design of the Ford Explorer rear seat, occupant restraint system and surrounding structures.”

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a product defect such as a poorly designed restraint system, please call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free consultation.

. . . NPR introduces us to James Millard Wilson, an art student in Baltimore who missed the news of the American Medical Optic (AMO) Complete MoisturePLUS Multipurpose Contact Lens Solution. He used to solution and got a painful eye infection that could have lead to blindness if he hadn’t gone to the hospital.

How did he miss the news? James doesn’t watch tv or use the internet.

“We rely on the media to a greater or lesser extent depending on the particular recall we’re working on,” Tim Ulatowski of the Food and Drug Administration says. Is that enough? What about people who don’t like the media? From NPR:

“Now the problem with that, of course, is that if you’re not reading, watching or listening in the right place, you’re gonna miss the news,” says Donald Mays, senior director for public safety planning for Consumer Reports magazine.

Many people did miss the announcement. The company checked and found stores that still had Complete MoisturePLUS Multipurpose solution on their shelves.

Reports of new infections came in to the CDC. The FDA had to send out a second press release a couple of weeks ago. Ulatowski said the challenge was the size of the recall — 28 million bottles since May 2005.

“It’s difficult to reach into everyone’s medicine cabinet to determine that that product has been controlled and returned or disposed of by the consumer,” he says.

To listen to the full report from NPR click here.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

A New Jersey judge upheld a $13.5 million verdict against drugmaker Merck & Co., won by a couple who sued over injuries the man sustained after he took the company’s Vioxx painkiller.

The Aug. 7 ruling by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee denied Merck’s request for a new trial or a reduction in the damages, which included the jury’s punitive award of $9 million. Higbee also awarded the couple $2 million in attorney fees and costs plus $2,552 per day in interest.

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John and Irma McDarby sued Whitehouse Station, New Jersey- based Merck in 2005 after John McDarby, who used Vioxx for four years, suffered a heart attack. Their suit is one of more than 10,000 filed against the company.

Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of a heart attack in patients after 18 months of use.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

. . . Stand ‘N Seal is an aerosol chemical spray containing Flexipel — an ingredient that should never have been produced in aerosol form. Two people have died after exposure to Stand ‘N Seal, Ilardi said. Others . . were hospitalized and left with permanent lung damage.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

BAKERSFIELD – A New Jersey importer of Chinese-made tires is asking the federal government for help in recalling almost half a million defective tires that may have already contributed to one death.

The tire recall follows other major recalls of Chinese-made products, including pet food, toothpaste, and toy trains, prompting widespread consumer concerns.

Now consumer groups wonder if Chinese-made products are safe, given the recalls made in recent months.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said a New Jersey company—Foreign Tire Sales—has announced a recall of at least 450,000 tires made in China, although who is going to pay for the recall and tire replacements remains in question.

The defective tires, used on light trucks and SUV’s, have been sold under the names of Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS.

Lawyers are blaming the tires for a fatal accident last year near Philadelphia.

“Check your tires,” said Jeffery Killino, a lawyer for accident victims. “Make sure that you’re not riding on these tires!”

This tire recall follows several other recent recalls of Chinese-made products, including toothpaste containing a poisonous chemical, contaminated pet food, and Thomas the Train Engine toys decorated with lead paint.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to the negligence of another, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

July 5, 2007 — WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Mag Stix Magnetic Building Sets
Units: About 800
Distributor: Kipp Brothers, of Carmel, Ind.

Hazard: Small magnets inside the plastic sticks can fall out. Magnets found by young children can be swallowed or aspirated. If more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract each other and cause intestinal perforation or blockage, which can be fatal.

Incidents/Injuries: CPSC has received one report of an eight-year-old girl who was hospitalized after swallowing loose magnets. Extensive surgery was required to remove the magnets and repair intestinal perforations.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

The New York Times reports: “The toy maker RC2 Corporation pulled a number of its Thomas & Friends trains and accessory parts off the shelves yesterday after learning that the red and yellow paint used to decorate more than 1.5 million of the toys contained lead. The James Engine is . . . being recalled because the red and yellow paint used to decorate them contains lead. Lead, if ingested by children, can cause long-term neurological problems that affect learning and behavior.”

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a defective product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) stresses the importance of protective gear while engaging in a particularly new phenomenon…heeling. Heeleys – also known as roller shoes or street gliders – are shoes that have a wheel on the heel. These types of shoes fall into the category of inline skates which qualifies them as a sport, and carries warnings for their use including wearing protective gear such as wrist guards and helmets to avoid injuries.

According to James H. Beaty, MD, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and president of AAOS, “Orthopaedic surgeons are in fact seeing children come into their practices with injuries due to heeleys, mostly of a fracture-type within the hand, wrist or elbow.”

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission now reports over 1,600 emergency room visits in 2006 due to wheel and roller shoes.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

In the first of 400 suits to be tried over the acne drug Accutane’s propensity to cause inflammatory bowel disease, an Atlantic County, N.J., jury has assessed $2.62 million in damages against Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. and its Swiss parent company. However, the jury of six women and four men did not award punitive damages under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act because they found insufficient evidence the manufacturer intentionally failed to warn the drug can cause IBD.

Read more here.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.

WASHINGTON – The government warned consumers on Friday to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.

Out of caution, the Food and Drug Administration said, people should throw away toothpaste with labeling that says it was made in China. The FDA is concerned that these products may contain diethylene glycol.

For more details go the FDA website here.

If you or a loved one have been injured due to a dangerous product, please call Keating, O’Gara, Nedved & Peter at 888/234-0621 or fill out the contact form on this site. Your first consultation is free and we handle cases on a contingency fee basis.