William D. Kickham
William D. Kickham
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Weather-wise, we had a beautiful day today in Boston, but it turned tragic for a 5 year-old boy and his family in Dorchester.

Chris Huynh was a struck by a car while crossing a street located in a Vietnamese neighborhood of Dorchester. Family members said the boy was crossing Whitten Street in that neighborhood to see his grandmother. According to witnesses, the boy suddenly emerged from between parked cars on one side of the narrow street, and was struck by an as-yet unidentified woman who was driving her car down the street. Whitten Street is a one-way street, and is extremely narrow, with apparently little to no room for a driver to swerve or take evasive action to avoid hitting a person or a child who might suddenly dart out in front of a moving car. According to neighbors, many children often play on this narrow street, and cars routinely drive far too fast down the street. Several neighbors spoke of several car-bike accidents having occurred there in the past.

Unfortunately, pedestrian-car accidents are nothing new to the Boston area. Many of the streets in this area, not only within the city of Boston but also in many suburbs, are narrow and difficult for car drivers to navigate. Throw in the fact that cars are often parked on one or both sides of streets like this, and this physical set-up is a disaster waiting to happen. As a Boston and Dedham, Massachusetts pedestrian-car accident attorney, I’ve seen far too many accidents like this happen, whether involving two-car accidents, or pedestrians. The resulting car accident injuries can be extremely severe, outcome can often be fatal.

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Getting exercise is important. Especially since statistics warn that in about 12 years, 42% of the American population will be obese. That is one scary statistic. That said, I’m all for everything that gets men, women and children out there, exercising.

Jumping on a trampoline can be a great way to stay in shape. Unfortunately, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission just this week recalled about 92,000 Sportspower BouncePro 14′ trampolines that were sold exclusively at Walmart. The hazard is that the netting that surrounds these trampolines can break, allowing children to fall through the netting and suffer a personal injury.

Already, Sportspower has received reports of 17 of the nets breaking, resulting in 11 injuries that include broken bones, back and neck injuries and contusions. Any customer who owns a Sportspower defective trampoline should stop using it immediately and contact Sportspower to receive replacement black netting for it. The recall hotline is (888) 965-0565.

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Oh those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Those days of soda, and pretzels, and beer.

But there’s one thing singer Nat King Cole forgot. Summer always bring with it swimming pools – and inevitably – and sometimes tragically – serious swimming pool accidents. That can involve everything from diving into the shallow end of the pool, causing brain injuries and death, to slipping on concrete surfaces, to fatal drowning accidents.

I’ve written several previous blog posts about how swimming pools bring with them inherent risks of serious personal injuries. The risks of swimming pool injuries are very high. This is an area of law known as “premises liability” or “product liability.” The pool might be an in-ground/built-in, or an above-ground portable. It often makes little difference. As a Dedham/Boston accident lawyer, I can assure you pools can be very dangerous – if not deadly.

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In the past few years, closer attention has been paid in this state to a series of Massachusetts car accidents that involved older drivers.

So, as a Boston/Dedham auto accident attorney, I’m happy to report that last week Massachusetts state health regulators approved rules that define when an older person is too cognitively or functionally impaired to drive safely. The regulations were based on advice from medical specialists and public hearings.

The new rules give health care providers guidance in evaluating when an older person should stop driving and relinquish his or her car keys.The new rules are expected to take effect in a few weeks. The decision to relinquish the car keys will based on “observations or evidence of the actual effect” that an impairment may have on someone’s ability to drive safely.

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As a Dedham/Boston car accident attorney, I’ve said this before, and it’s worth saying again. Being injured in a car accident is, according to statistics, one of the most likely events to happen in your life. That’s the unpleasant, inconvenient truth. Other than being the best driver you can be, there’s not much you can do about this. There are so many motor vehicles on our roads that vehicular and pedestrian accidents are bound to occur. When they do, there’s two tons of steel and glass hitting your car (or perhaps you directly, in a Massachusetts pedestrian-car accident) with tremendous force. Car accidents are usually very violent, and can be very traumatic, if not fatal.

Those statistics bore out again today, with the death of Fenway Park announcer Carl Beane. Mr. Beane, 59, was driving his Suzuki SUV in Sturbridge on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 9, when it crossed the double lines in the road. His car hit a tree and a wall. He was the only one in his car, and the only person in the crash. According to initial reports, Mr. Beane apparently suffered a heart attack while driving his car, and died.

Nearby, at the Hemlock Ridge Golf Course, golfers alerted police of the crash. Currently the Sturbridge car crash is being investigated by, among others, the Worcester District Attorney’s Office.

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The world of Cinnamon Spice, Pink Basket Case, and Rum Raisin may not be so rosy.

Welcome to the world of lipsticks, nail polishes, and blushes. Women use these products all the time; and most women love them. In fact, cosmetics is a $7 billion-dollar industry – that’s the amount that women in the USA spend on cosmetics annually.

Yet, cosmetics are not regulated by the U. S. Department of Agriculture or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Which means that it’s really up to the consumer to decipher which cosmetics are good and bad for you. Cosmetics are filled with all kinds of ingredients, including chemicals, color, and minerals, and unless you’re a dermatologist, it’s hard to figure out the good, the bad, and the ugly. One way to decipher the details might be to read websites devoted to cosmetics safety such as the Beautypedia website published by Paula Begoun, the “Cosmetics Cop. ” Ms. Begoun, who quotes from all of the dermatology and biology trade journals, rates all brands of comsetics and tells her readers what to try and what to avoid, based on their ingredients. (Note: I’m not endorsing Ms. Begoun’s website here, only noting its availability.)

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File this case under “Be careful what nursing home you choose for your loved ones.”

Here’s the story. An 82-year-old woman, who was confined to a wheelchair, and also had advanced dementia and impaired decision-making abilities, was admitted to a nursing home for care.

While there, staff members became increasingly suspicious that the woman was receiving inappropriate physical contact from a younger male resident. Some witnessed the young man touching her and having inappropriate physical contact with her. However, staff members who witnessed the improprieties were allegedly told to literally “keep their eyes shut.” As it turns out, the young male resident sexually molested the woman on several occasions.

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When it comes to investigating and litigating Massachusetts motor vehicle accidents, here’s the way it’s been for a long, long time: One car hits another, causing injuries. The victim in the car that was hit tries to prove that the other vehicle was speeding, causing the accident. As a Boston, Massachusetts car accident lawyer, I can easily say that in these types of Massachusetts personal injury cases, it has been sometimes difficult to prove who was at fault, especially when no witnesses were present and it was merely one party’s word against the other.

But that’s all changing, thanks to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In 2006, it mandated that all new vehicles were to be outfitted with Event Data Recorder (EDR) “black boxes” by 2013. Currently, about 85% of American vehicles have these devices, which record and highlight about 15 types of crash data. That information includes pre-crash speed, airbag deployment data, changes in forward velocity, and engine throttle.

Try to think about the “black box” as being just like a plane’s, which is used after crashes to explain how they happened, and what circumstances were in effect when the crash happened.

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Summer – it’s almost here. That’s when everyone enjoys summer barbecues, lemonade, and pool parties galore in the backyard.

I’ve written in this blog previously that swimming pools bring with them inherent risks. The risks of injury are very high. Depending on the type of swimming pool injury involved, an area of law known as “premises liability” or “product liability” will usually be involved. Whether the pool is an in-ground/built-in, or an above-ground portable pool, as a Boston/Dedham Massachusetts injury lawyer, I can assure you they can be very dangerous – if not fatal. Whatever type of pool is involved, numerous safety and liability prevention measures should be taken by all property owners who have a swimming pool on their premises.

Just last week, a Massachusetts judge upheld a $20 Million verdict that was returned by an Essex County Superior Court jury last fall in a swimming pool product liability case. The jury awarded the sum to the family of a Colorado woman who died after a Toys ‘R Us inflatable pool slide partially collapsed, as she attended a pool party in Andover.

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If you have placed someone that you love in a nursing home, signed a healthcare proxy on their behalf, and later decide you want to sue in court for Massachusetts nursing home abuse , or file a Massachusetts wrongful death suit, this blog post is for you. That’s because many Massachusetts nursing home contracts require the patient or the patient’s representative to submit to binding arbitration (outside of court) in the event of a legal dispute, instead of allowing the plaintiff to file a lawsuit in court, and argue his or her case to a jury. These are known as “binding arbitration clauses.” Are they always valid? No.

A recent court decision in Massachusetts illustrates that in some cases, these binding arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts can be defeated, allowing a plaintiff to bring his or her case in court, to a jury. This is important, because most nursing homes compel you to go to binding arbitration, waiving the right to a jury trial.

Here’s a brief version of the case that defeated such a nursing home binding arbitration clause. A man named Salvatore Licata admitted his mother to a hospital, as she was suffering from Alzheimer’s-type dementia. On the day after the hospital admission, Licata’s mother, Rita, signed a Massachusetts Healthcare Proxy appointing her son as her healthcare agent, with the authority to make all healthcare decisions for her, should a physician determine that she lacked the capacity to do so on her own.

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