Rashad Owens charged with capital murder in deadly SXSW crash

The 21-year-old from Killeen, about 70 miles north of Austin, remains in police custody after a district court judge set his bail at $3 million. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.

After being treated and released for minor injuries sustained in the crash, Owens agreed to a breath test and it showed his blood-alcohol content as .114, according an arrest affidavit. The legal limit in Texas in .08.

The officer who tried to stop Owens was looking for suspected drunken drivers when he spotted a 2012 gray Honda Civic that didn’t have its headlights turned on, the arrest warrant says. The officer then initiated the traffic stop after Owens made a turn out of a wrong lane, nearly colliding with a police cruiser, the warrant said.

By that time, Owens was in the southbound lanes of the Interstate 35 frontage road near Ninth Street. Owens pulled the car he was driving into a Shell gas station but then continued on, driving the wrong way on Ninth Street, the affidavit said.

Owens told officers he saw the lights in his mirror and got scared because he had warrants out for his arrest and did not want to go to jail, the document said. Owens said he had a kidnapping warrant and told police he was in a custody battle over his daughter, the warrant said.

After driving the wrong way down Ninth Street, Owens rammed through a barricade at Red River Street set up to divide SXSW crowds and traffic, forcing another police officer manning the roadblock to dive out of the way.

While reviewing video of the crash, police say Owens accelerated into crowds of people for nearly three blocks along Red River Street and did not hit his brakes, the document said.
The warrant says video “shows the Honda accelerating into crowds, not simply crowded areas but crowds of people who are hit by the car and flung into the air.”

At the intersection of 11th and Red River, Owens’ car slammed into a cyclist, a motorcycle and a taxi. Police say he continued on, driving onto a sidewalk and into a parking lot where it struck a van. Owens then ran from the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

An Austin police officer was able to catch up to Owens and used a stun gun on Owens to stop the pursuit and arrest him, the warrant said.

Jamie West, 27, of Austin, was killed when the car Owens was driving struck the motorcycle she was riding on with her husband. Steven Craenmehr, 35, of the Netherlands was also killed. He was riding a bicycle when the car crashed into him. Craenmehr was in Austin for SXSW.

Sandy Le died days later from injuries she sustained in the crash.

Owens pleaded guilty in November 2011 to intoxicated driving after a hit-and-run incident in Alaska. Records show Owens was charged with misdemeanor DWI and leaving the scene of an accident after an incident Oct. 17, 2011, in Fairbanks. The prosecution dismissed the second charge at the time.
Owens also faced 2012 charges in Alaska of criminal mischief, and a warrant was issued for him after he failed to appear in court. In 2010, meanwhile, he was arrested in Texas by Killeen Independent School District police for criminal trespassing and pleaded guilty.

There is a long legal road ahead for the Owens. KXAN Legal Analyst Mindy Montford took a deeper look at why he faces two counts of capital murder.

Generic drug makers fight rule on health risk warnings

WASHINGTON — Companies that make generic drugs, the medications most Americans buy, are fighting to kill a proposed federal regulation that would require them for the first time to warn patients of all the known health risks of each drug they sell.

The proposed rule change by the Food and Drug Administration "would be nothing short of catastrophic," said Ralph G. Neas, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Assn., an industry trade group. It could raise healthcare costs and "create dangerous confusion" for doctors and patients, he said.

At issue is a legal loophole created by Supreme Court rulings that drew a sharp distinction between brand-name drugs and lower-cost generics, which are the same products but usually are marketed under their chemical names.

In 2009, the high court confirmed drug makers could be sued if they failed to warn patients that a brand-name drug carried a serious potential health risk.

The decision upheld a $7-million jury verdict for Diana Levine, a Vermont violinist whose lower arm was amputated after she was injected with an anti-nausea drug made by Wyeth. The drug sometimes caused gangrene if injected into an artery.

But the Supreme Court majority flipped when confronted with a generic drug that also caused a horrible side effect.

Last year, a 5-4 ruling tossed out a $21-million verdict awarded by a lower court to Karen Bartlett, a New Hampshire woman who was disfigured, badly burned and nearly blinded after she had a rare, but previously reported, reaction to a prescription painkiller.

Had Bartlett taken the brand-name drug Clinoril for her shoulder pain, she would have won her claim. But her pharmacist gave her the generic drug sulindac. And at the time, the product label did not warn patients or their doctors of the rare reaction, known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

Nonetheless, the court ruled generic makers were shielded from lawsuits such as Bartlett's.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who cast a key vote, reasoned that because federal regulations say generics must be exact copies of the approved brand-name drugs, their makers cannot revise or update warning labels when new risks come to light. And so, he said, they cannot be sued for failing to warn consumers.

The dissenters said this made little sense. "Nothing in the court's opinion convinces me that … Congress intended these absurd results," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

In November, the FDA proposed to fix the problem by allowing generic makers to change their warning labels when reports of new problems arise.

"In the current marketplace, approximately 80% of drugs dispensed are generic drugs," the agency said. "Accordingly, there is a need for [generic drug producers] to able to independently update product labeling to reflect certain newly acquired safety information."

The proposed rule change would extend legal liability as well. Any company that makes generic drugs would have an "independent responsibility to ensure its product labeling is accurate and up-to-date," the FDA said.

The proposal met fierce opposition from the generic drug industry. Its members said they "cannot support a proposed rule that undermines public health merely to facilitate litigation against generic drug companies by the plaintiff's bar."

Neas, who heads the industry group, noted that generics had lowered many Americans' healthcare costs. A study by the independent IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics said generics had lowered healthcare costs by $1.2 trillion over the last decade.

Neas formerly led the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, and he was credited with helping organize a national campaign that helped derail the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert Bork in 1987.

Neas described his group's fight against the proposed rule change as a national public education campaign.

"Our aim is to get the facts out there," he said. "This will go for some time. I don't believe this [proposed] rule benefits anyone in the healthcare system."

The FDA had planned to complete work on the proposal after hearing comments through January. It agreed to postpone the deadline until March in response to complaints from the generic drug makers. But the rule change has the backing of congressional leaders who follow health policy. They include Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), cosponsor of the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act, which is credited with spurring the widespread adoption of generic drugs.

"Patients should have the same rights to seek compensation if they are injured by a drug, regardless of whether it is a brand-name or a generic," Waxman said in an interview. "It doesn't make sense," he said, to have patients' rights depend on which version of a drug they took.

A growing number of drugs are sold only as generics. That shift argues for changing the federal warning rules, said Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, a nonprofit organization.

"Many potential hazards are not discovered until years after drugs have been on the market," he said. "The proposed rule would remedy this public health problem" by requiring generic makers to disclose new safety risks as they are known, he added.

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Source: L.A. Times (Savage, 2/16)

Six Flags blames roller coaster company for fatal Texas Giant accident

Six Flags claims the Texas Giant train involved in a fatal accident in July was a “defective product that was unreasonably dangerous in design, manufacture, distribution and promotion."

Rosa Esparza, a 52-year-old grandmother, died instantly when she fell from the roller coaster. Her family is suing Six Flags and Gerstlauer Amusement Rides, the German firm that made the roller coaster trains.

Arnd von Waldow, an attorney representing Gerstlauer, said he was surprised Six Flags blamed Esparza’s death on the company in a court filing Friday. He said Six Flags was not a passive customer.

“This roller coaster was built according to the specific design specifications and was reviewed, tested and approved by Six Flags,” von Waldow said. “Six Flags was intimately involved in the design and production of this roller coaster. ... Six Flags had this designed exactly the way Six Flags wanted it to be designed.”

The Arlington amusement park’s allegations against the ride company don't signal the end of the Texas Giant.

A Six Flags spokeswoman wrote in an email that the ride is safe after additions, including seat belts, were made after the accident.

“We reopened the ride last fall following the addition of incremental and overlapping safety measures that included redesigned restraint-bar pads from the manufacturer and new seat belts,”

spokeswoman Sharon Parker wrote. “The Texas Giant is safe to ride, and we look forward to opening the park for our 2014 season next week."

The original Texas Giant, a record-setting wooden roller coaster, opened at Six Flags in 1990. It closed after two decades and was rebuilt as a steel hybrid roller coaster.

The park closed the renovated ride for about two months last summer for an internal investigation and redesign. In addition to seat belts, lap bar pads were added before the ride reopened in September.

Von Waldow blamed Esparza's death on the failure of Six Flags to follow safety procedures. He pointed to witness statements in the police investigation saying that it appeared Esparza’s lap bar was too high.

If the lap bar is touching the rider’s abdomen and legs, there isn't a danger of the person falling out, von Waldow said.

He said the ride maker has photos of Six Flags engineers in Germany hanging upside down from a roller coaster train exactly like the one involved in the Texas Giant fatality.

“If they followed these procedures, this accident never would have happened,” von Waldow said.

Esparza fell 75 feet from the roller coaster train in the opening moments of the ride.

In Friday’s court filing, Six Flags says it “followed all of the recommended operation and maintenance procedures on the ride as set forth by ... [Gerstlauer] and believe they met the standard of care with regard to the inspection, maintenance and operation of the ride.”

After the accident, test seats were installed at the entrance to the Texas Giant so riders can see whether they will fit safely in the trains. When the ride reopened, Six Flags said in a written statement that “guests with unique body shapes or sizes may not fit into the restraint system.”

An early deposition in this lawsuit questioned whether Esparza’s larger size should have raised questions about the fit of the lap bar.

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Source: Dallas News (Mosier, 2/20)

Community Comes Together After Fatal Accident

A coming together following a fatal accident that killed 16-year old Lexy Bertrand Vidor Friday.

It didn't take long before messages started pouring in from all over Southeast Texas.

"It's the community, it's the community coming together," Constance Ozio said. "It's been non-stop my phone has Facebook on it and every two seconds it's going off with more people messaging."

People offering donations for an auction to help Lexy Bertrand's family.

"I mean every child in this community is all of our children," Ozio said.

Police said Bertrand suffered serious injuries after a speeding car launched off the hump of a railroad crossing and landed on the minivan carrying her and her mother. Her mother had minor injuries. Police said Bertrand died Saturday. 

Constance Ozio didn't know Bertrand or her family before organizing donations for the family.

"You shouldn't have to go raise funds when it's your time to grieve so I decided to step up and do it for them," Ozio said.

She created a Facebook group Saturday. Nearly 2,000 people joined the group in less than 24 hours, including friends and strangers.

"We just care about community and care about the family. Even though we don't know them we want to try to do what we can to help," Paul Starkweather said. He donated an item Saturday.

Ozio spent the day picking up donations, including at Cindy Jones' home.

"I first had the privilege of meeting Lexy when she was about 6 years old. I used to do barrel clinics for barrel racing," Jones said. She didn't see Bertrand again until years later.

"She made such an impression on me at the time because I had never met a child that was so confident in herself. Her personality was just awesome," Jones said.

Bertrand's family sent KFDM News this message about her:

"Lexy was the most loving, caring person I knew. She was always trying to help in any way, shape or form. She had a beautiful heart and smile that would light up the room when she walked in. Lexy wasn't just a great daughter she was the best big sister, student, friend, and had love for everyone. She never met an enemy and always had room in her heart for another friend. She was beautiful, loving, smart, outgoing and everything anyone would strive to become. Lexy had hundreds maybe thousands of friends she kept in contact with. She was an amazing person and will never be forgot and missed terribly."

A young girl who touched the lives of her family , now bringing together the hears of an entire community.

"No matter is she's here or not she's left an impression," Ozio said.


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Source: KFDM (Bull 02/10)

Texas Hosts International Training Course

WACO - - Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is hosting the first Comprehensive Boat Accident Investigation course of 2014. This course provided by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) funded through a United States Coast Guard grant brings 60 law enforcement officers from all across the United States to one location to train on special techniques for investigating boating accidents.

"This course gives law enforcement officers the opportunity to develop their skills in boat accident investigation. The course also provides critical data to help shape boating safety regulations across the country," said Gary Haupt the Program Manager for the Accident Investigation Course for the NASBLA BOAT Program.

This class is being attended by a very diverse group from federal, state and local jurisdictions from states as far away as Alaska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Florida, and Virginia and one international attendee from Canada. The instructor cadre includes Marine Patrol Officers from Missouri, Wisconsin, Florida and Texas.

"The officers who complete this training receive a solid foundation in understanding the complexities of boating accident investigations. They'll have more confidence in conducting investigations because they'll have a better background. We are working towards a more consistent approach and this course provides a national training standard." said Assistant Commander Cody Jones, TPWD Texas Boating Law Administrator.

“In Texas, our game wardens will leverage this training within our STORM Team which conducts marine accident investigations and forensic reconstruction.” said Col. Craig Hunter, TPWD Law Enforcement Director. “The goal is to improve water safety and reduce water related fatalities. Networking and training with this group of officer’s helps us to improve what we do every day and we sincerely appreciate our partnership with the United States Coast Guard and NASBLA.”

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Source: The Gilmer Mirror (AP, 1/28)

Ford Recalls The 2013 Escape For Seventh Time

One of Ford Motor Company's most popular vehicles may also be one of its most troubled.

The company announced two more recalls Tuesday of its 2013 Ford Escape for problems that have caused at least 13 engine fires. The recalls affect 149,386 vehicles.

In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Ford officials said a "misinstalled fuel line could chafe and eventually leak fuel."

It's the latest in a string of problems for the '13 Escape, which has now been recalled seven times in roughly 17 months on the market. Ford said it knew of no deaths or injuries associated with the latest problem, but among 117 complaints filed on the car, several motorists told NHTSA they were afraid to drive their vehicles.

"The auto stalls randomly on occasion. I feel this is a dangerous situation, however, the dealer can't get a code so Ford will not fix," one vehicle owner wrote.

"We are concerned that we may get rear ended in a serious accident if the car stalls again, and the car/truck behind us doesn't stop in time, e.g. Harry Chapin on the LIE (Long Island Expressway)," wrote another. "We transport our two grandchildren two days a week from school and are extremely concerned."

The latest report of an engine fire arrived on Nov. 18, when a motorist wrote, "my car is still overheating after bringing it into the dealer 6 times."

NHTSA does not release the names of vehicle owners who file complaints.

The problems with fuel leaking, overheating and potential fires in the Escape is a vexing one for Ford. The company had issued three previous recalls to deal with the same problems on July 18, 2012, Sept. 4, 2012 and Dec. 3, 2012. It was not immediately clear why the first wave of recalls did not resolve the problem, and Ford did not return messages left seeking comment Tuesday.

The Escape remains a popular small SUV. Through October, Ford has sold 250,543 Escapes so far this year, trailing only the Honda CR-V in the crossover segment.

Among its crossover competitors, however, the Escape is the dubious leader among recalls by a wide margin for vehicles in the 2013 model year. The '13 CR-V has been recalled once. The Chevy Equinox, Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5 and Subaru Forester have not been recalled.

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Source: Aol Autos (Bigelow, 11/27)

Alcohol involved in fatal crash

The driver in a fatal car accident that killed three Sam Houston State University students last month had a blood alcohol content level more than twice the legal limit in Texas, autopsy and toxicology reports show.

The Houstonian student newspaper first reported on Thursday results from the autopsy conducted by Montgomery County Forensic Services.

Bianca Espinal, 19, was the driver in the Dec. 14 accident at the intersection of Bowers Boulevard and Avenue I on the SHSU campus. Espinal, Eric Torres, 22, and Alfonso Mata, 20, all died at the scene.

Espinal, according to the autopsy, had a blood alcohol level of .21g/100mL, and 2.0 ng/mL of tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive found in marijuana.

University Police Sgt. Ronald Cleere told the Item on Thursday that investigators are still waiting for an advanced reconstruction report that would give them a more accurate idea of how fast the vehicle was traveling at the time of the incident.

The Texas Department of Transportation crash report shows the 2006 Chevrolet Impala traveled northbound in the 2000 block of Avenue I “at a high rate of speed” when the front left tire struck the traffic island on the north side of the intersection at Bowers Boulevard.

The vehicle crossed into the landscaped area on the east end of Academic Building 4, struck a light post and handrail before going airborne.

“It’s the ultimate consequence to pay for consuming alcohol and driving,” Cleere said. “The ultimate bad outcome of this is death and it happened to students at this university. It’s really sad.”

Torres, according to the crash report, was partially ejected through the sun roof.

The Houstonian also reported SHSU officials admitting fault to misidentifying Roberto Rodriguez Guerra as one of the three students who died in the crash. UPD Chief Kevin Morris said the department made a mistake after identifying a piece of property that belonged to Guerra found on Mata.

Guerra told police that it was his iPod, which contained a copy of his class schedule and student ID, that police mistook for the victim’s identification.

There was one lone survivor, 23-year-old Thomas Roling, who the crash report indicates extracted himself from the vehicle and waited for emergency responders before being treated at Huntsville Memorial Hospital.

Police were dispatched to the accident shortly before 5 a.m., Saturday Dec. 14, just hours before SHSU held commencement ceremonies at Johnson Coliseum, a block away from the deadly scene.

ADAI makes effort to prevent similar incidents.

SHSU Alcohol and Drug Abuse Initiative Coordinator Edward Gisemba said even before the crash, the ADAI looked into relaunching a designated driver incentive program. Gisemba said the program, which faded years ago, saw positive reviews initially, but had poor marketing.

ADAI is reaching out to local bars to get them to hang banners outside their businesses to promote responsible drinking.

“Obviously it’s a tragedy that has hit many of the people in Student Services very hard, myself especially because this is the very thing I’m trying to prevent,” Gisemba said. “What we’re trying to do to the best of our ability is look forward and try to determine how to avoid this from ever happening again. And we’ll do that on a number of fronts.”

Gisemba said in discussions with colleagues at SHSU, there’s talk of something similar to the Texas A&M carpooling system that runs Thursday through Saturday, taking students home from bars.
But Gisemba also mentioned the importance of empowering bystanders and peers to effectively deter friends from drinking and driving.

“Even more so than a program to promote safety and responsibility, we need to be able to show students how important it is to prevent one another from drinking and driving,” Gisemba said. “We can have a program with certain hours of operation, but ultimately people might drink and need to get home at a time that’s not within that window. We want them to make the responsible decision.”



Source: The Huntsville Item, "Alcohol involved in fatal crash," Brandon K. Scott, January 17, 2014