Texas family petitions for upgraded 911 systems after hotel death

ALBANY, GA- Last month an East Texas family suffered the loss of a young mother, Kari Hunt Dunn. She was stabbed multiple times in a hotel room where she was staying with her family, her 9 year old daughter tried calling 911 for help but couldn't get through. She tried several times but heard nothing but static, she had no idea she had to dial a prefix before making the call from the hotel phone.

"We spend a lot of time doing that and we know 911 and young children just typically know 911 and they expect to hear a voice on the other end," Albany-Dougherty Emergency Management Agency representative Jim Vault said.

That's why the Hunt family is striving to get support for an online petition that would require every single hotel and business to upgrade their 911 systems and get rid of the dial out number. So far, over 400,000 people are have signed for the change called "Kari's Law," in honor of the mother's life who was lost.

"It impacts a larger number across the nation and again with any public safety time is essence," Albany-Dougherty EMS Training Supervisor Richard Roberts shares. "It can make the big difference whether it's EMS, law or fire."

Vault explains, "If they have to dial a prefix to get out then it can become confusing and time delaying and they never get the call through."

In the Albany-Dougherty area, the enhanced 911 system is in place, it gives location and number to which the caller is calling from and the prefix is also not a requirement. However, some cities and their businesses still require the dial out before. Emergency officials feel it's an important issue that sometimes falls under the radar.

"For us it would be much better if 911 means 911," Vault said.

The Hunt family hopes the requirement will help those in need get help faster.

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Source: WALB (Rosales, 1/13)

Dallas Cops Are Writing Half as Many Tickets as They Did Five Years Ago

Driving in Dallas sucks for a lot of reasons (traffic, terrible drivers, humongous potholes, et al), but overzealous traffic cops aren't one of them. This isn't just the anecdotal experience of a guy who, having been ticketed three times in five months as a teenager in Richardson, discovered similar infractions are routinely ignored by Dallas' finest. It's statistics.

As The Dallas Morning News' Scott Goldstein reports today, the number of traffic citations in Dallas dropped by 15 percent for the past year. The year before, the decline was 18 percent. The year before that, another 15 percent.

It's not a new phenomenon. A chart presented to Dallas City Council's Ad Hoc Judicial Nominations Committee shows a steady decline in tickets, from 495,007 in fiscal year 2007 to 211,843 in FY 2013.

The "no duh" explanation is that police are writing fewer tickets. The "focus of everyday Patrol Division Officers seems to have shifted away from writing citations," Assistant City Manager Joey Zapata noted in his presentation, noting that the average beat cop pulls out his ticket book almost 600 fewer times per year than he used to. In the traffic division, the number of "high writers" -- those writing more than 1,000 per year -- is half of what it once was.

The slightly more complex reason is that DPD is making a conscious shift away from traditional traffic enforcement techniques.

"The purpose of traffic enforcement is to improve traffic safety, not to raise revenue," Chief David Brown told Goldstein in an email last year. "We don't believe the citizens of Dallas want its police department writing citations to raise revenues."

And finally, the most complex reason lies with Dallas' beleaguered municipal courts system. A traffic citation can be costly to prosecute. Reforms implemented over the past year and a half have made things more efficient by disposing of more cases through guilty pleas and slashing the number of dismissals, but the city is still in the process of "rightsizing" its municipal court system.

The end result, though, is the same. You're half as likely to get a ticket in Dallas as you were five years ago.

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Source: Dallas Observer (Nicholson, 12/03)

Man who bought alcohol for a minor gets 90 days in jail

(BONHAM, TEXAS) -- A Texoma mother who lost her son in a drunk driving accident wants the adults who buy alcohol for minors to face harsher punishments after she says the man who bought alcohol for her son that day got off way too easy.

Thomas Calame Robinson and his friend Jesse Runyon were killed in December of last year when Robinson took the wheel after a night of drinking. The alcohol was purchased by 24-year-old Jeremy Horton who was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in jail.

Tamberly Robinson says her son was the love of her life.

All she has left of her 18-year-old son Thomas are pictures and memories.

Tamberly Robinson said that her son was "full of joy and happiness, he lived every day as if it were his last, he was a good kid, but like most kids he made a mistake and he paid dearly for his mistake and so did his friend."

On December 7th last year Thomas took the wheel with passenger 17-year-old Jesse Runyon after drinking alcohol that 24-year-old Jeramie Horton bought for the group of minors - two 30-packs of beer and a handle of vodka. Police say Thomas was driving at a high speed and lost control of the car, killing both of the boys. Tamberly said a text message confirmed Horton had supplied the boys with alcohol.

Tamberly Robinson " I saw it on his phone when I got it back from DPS that said here I go playing the hero again and now the hero got 90 days in jail and 2 boys are dead my son and his friend."

Robinson says the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

Tamberly Robinson said, "The laws aren't tough enough for the people that are buying alcohol for our children because our children are dying."

But Fannin County District Attorney Richard Glaser told Alexandra Carter this is the first time he's put someone in jail for providing alcohol to a minor.

Richard Glaser, " We insisted upon it in this case because of the serious consequences. We wanted to send a message to the young people in Fannin County that they need to stop and think before they either purchase it from friend or buy it from a friend because terrible things can happen."

Tamberly says she's writing lawmakers and starting a movement for harsher penalties for those who provide alcohol to minors.

Robinson, " and that's just a pain I wouldn't want anyone else to go through, but if and when it happens I would like them to have a greater sense of justice than what we got.

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Source: KXII (Carter, 8/23)

State to Feds: We Won't Enforce Insurance Reforms

Though Texas will join 26 other states in defaulting to a federal marketplace for purchasing health insurance — a major component of the Affordable Care Act — it is one of only six that will not enforce new health insurance reforms prescribed by the law. It's a decision some say could lead to confusion over who's responsible for protecting Texas insurance consumers.

Because Texas did not create its own state-based marketplace, known as a health insurance exchange, under the Affordable Care Act, it must use a federally facilitated one instead. By federal law, the state must enforce provisions and regulations related to the insurance exchange and market reforms unless it notifies the federal government that it cannot or will not. If a state does not enforce those reforms, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will step in to do it.

Texas, Arizona, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming have all notified the federal government that they will not be policing the health law. John Greeley, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance, said his agency cannot enforce regulations tied to the federal insurance exchange or market reforms because it is not authorized to do so.

"We can't act on anything that doesn't exist in state law," he said.

Officials with CMS, who sent a letter to TDI acknowledging the state's decision, declined to comment for this story.

Stacey Pogue, a health policy analyst with the liberal Center for Public Policy Priorities, said she doesn't believe TDI's hands are tied. In the past, she said, the agency has responded to federal laws by "taking actions that ensure that they do have oversight."

The practical effects of the state's decision are not entirely clear yet. In the first show of autonomy, Texas was not required to comply with a federal request for information about its insurance plans. Most states defaulting to the federal health insurance exchange had to submit that information by July 31.

In the states that will not enforce the exchange and market reforms, the federal government will have to review insurance forms and respond to consumer complaints about health insurance, said Kevin Lucia, an assistant research professor with the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. Those duties, he added, are “typically reserved for state insurance departments.”

Pogue said the state's decision could create an “administrative burden” for insurance plans and could result in confusion for Texans who purchase health insurance under the federal exchange. For instance, she said, if people worry their insurance providers are discriminating against them based on their gender — a practice banned by the federal reforms — they may not know whether to report a complaint to CMS or to TDI.

“There’s all this opportunity to be bounced back and forth, which is a burden for consumers,” she said. If consumers have to report insurance violations to the federal government, that could prevent TDI from having a complete picture of consumers’ experience with insurance providers, she added.

“Consumers can be experiencing a lot of problems on the market that the state regulator doesn’t know about,” Pogue said.

Greeley said TDI has worked to make sure “insurers understand what their responsibilities are” under the ACA. And he said even if the state does not enforce federal regulations, TDI will still work to protect insurance consumers.

“Anybody that buys an insurance policy in Texas — no matter what line or how they got to it — can come to the Texas Department of Insurance for their questions,” he said.

David Gonzales, executive director of the Texas Association of Health Plans, said it’s unclear what impact the state's decision could have on insurance companies.

“I suspect it will be more of a burden for some plans than for others,” he said.

Pogue said inefficiencies could stem from the state’s refusal to enforce insurance reforms. TDI is the agency best equipped to regulate insurance plans in Texas, she said.

“Without a doubt they are the appropriate body,” she said.

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Source: Texas Tribune (Luthra, 8/07)

Warrant issued for bar patron in fatal DWI

Montgomery County officials issued an arrest warrant for a man who allegedly gave drinks to an already intoxicated 24-year-old Nicole Baukus before she drove away from a bar and caused a fatal accident.

Baukus, who pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of intoxication manslaughter and one count of intoxication assault in the July 29, 2012, accident, was sentenced Friday to 38 years in prison.

After a night of drinking at a bar then called On the Rox, Baukus drove her pickup the wrong way on Interstate 45, colliding head-on around 2:50 a.m. with a Chevrolet Aveo near FM 242. The crash killed Nicole Adams, 19, and Travis Saunders, 18, and injured David Porras, now 23.

As an outgrowth of the trial, a warrant was issued Friday for Kambiz Michael Duran, 29, who is in the Harris County Jail after pleading guilty last month to possession of marijuana. On July 10, he was sentenced to 180 days in a state jail.

Harris County online records show that a hold from Montgomery County was placed on the Spring resident Friday, meaning that before Duran is freed, Montgomery County will have the opportunity to detain him.

Duran, a fellow bar patron, was seen on surveillance video giving Baukus a few drinks toward the end of the night, but authorities didn't know his identity, said Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam, co-prosecutor for the case.

"We could see him giving her drinks in the video but nobody would identify him," Diepraam said. "It was only during the trial when witnesses started testifying (that we learned his name)."

The same statute that makes it illegal to sell drinks to an intoxicated person also prohibits giving alcohol to someone who has already consumed too much, Diepraam explained.

On the Rox was cited for over-serving a customer and had its license suspended from Feb. 27 to March 28, according to the TABC. Since then, the bar's insurance company has agreed to a $1 million settlement for over-serving a patron.

The money is to be divided among Porras and the estates of Adams and Saunders.

Oscar Williams, a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent based in Conroe, testified during the trial that Baukus drank 17 shots and four beers. Most of the shots were a mix of bourbon, Red Bull and either peach schnapps or watermelon schnapps, William said.

Baukus and Duran apparently ran into each other at the bar, rather than arriving together, Diepraam said. He said he didn't know if the two were acquainted previously.

The bar is now known as the Flying Pug Sports Pub, according to the alcoholic beverage commission.

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Source: Chron (Christian, 8/03)

Victim of DWI accident shakes hands of officers making a difference

SMITH COUNTY, TX - On Friday, fourteen East Texans were awarded for their dedication to putting an end to drunk driving in Smith County.

The award ceremony took place at the Holiday Inn off of South Broadway in Tyler.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving of East Texas handed out five different types of awards: judiciary and prosecutorial service, leadership, DWI education and outstanding service.

At the end of the banquet, Amie Jo Robinson shook the hands of law enforcement officers recognized for their commitment to the fight against drunk driving.

In 2000, Robinson said she and her two-and-half year old daughter were hit by a drunk driver in Gladewater.

"She passed away while I was holding her. My daughter ShiAnn. That wasn't fair, basically. So, if we can stop it then that's a good thing," Robinson said.

Among those officers was Sergeant Blake Lockhart with the Tyler Police Department, awarded by MADD for his leadership in the county.

He said he cannot begin to count how many people he knows who have been affected by drunk driving.

"No, I couldn't even begin to estimate. It's something that's so preventable and that's why we need to work harder to tackle the issue," Sergeant Lockhart explained.

And as law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges work diligently to take unsafe drivers off the streets, these mothers work to get through each day.

For Robinson, part of that healing process was visiting the man who took the life of her little girl.

"I actually visited him last summer in the prison and he, for the first time, he said he was sorry and I forgave him," Robinson said.

With a holiday along with "No Refusal" weekend right around the corner, Sergeant Lockhart wants to remind drivers of one thing.

"The worst thing that can happen if you drink and drive is not that you get a DWI, the worst thing that can happen is not that you kill yourself, the worst thing that can happen is that you kill a family of four and you live," he said.

Several East Texas police departments have declared this July 4th, a "No Refusal" holiday. That means, if you are stopped for drunk driving and refuse to provide a blood sample or breathe sample, an immediate search warrant will be sought and a blood sample will be obtained through that warrant.

For participating departments, "No Refusal" will run through July 6th.

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Source: KLTV (Sanders, 6/28)

Construction accident at Texas A&M equestrian complex injures four

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Four workers were hurt, three critically, after a barn frame collapsed Saturday at an $80 million Texas A&M University equestrian complex that’s under construction.

The collapse happened on university property about a mile from the main campus, Texas A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson said.

College Station and Bryan fire departments, campus police and Texas A&M emergency medical personnel all responded to the accident, which happened shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday.

The accident involved an approximately 300-foot barn, according to the College Station Fire Department. Twisted metal beams could be seen at the site, where ground was broken last fall.

The injured workers were transported to hospitals. Their names and further details on their conditions were not immediately released. Nobody else was hurt.

For a time, emergency responders had to halt the search for the four because of concerns about another collapse.

“After that time search and rescue efforts were suspended until the remainder of the structure that was still standing could be stabilized,” according to a statement from the College Station Fire Department. “After the structure was secured a secondary search of the area was conducted to ensure that all patients had been located.”

Texas A&M police officials were trying to determine what caused the collapse. University police did not immediately return messages Saturday afternoon.

Conditions at the time were cloudy with temperatures in the mid-80s and winds gusting just above 10 mph, the National Weather Service said.

The first phase of the equestrian center was set for completion in 2014. The facility will include locker rooms, offices, a concessions building, a 50-stall barn, plus practice arenas and two covered competition arenas, according to the university.

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Source: Daily News (AP, 6/22)

Round Rock increases use of flashing yellow arrow lights

Motorists in Round Rock are undergoing a transition in how they manage left turns.

On Nov. 13, the city began converting the left-turn signals along some of its busiest corridors. The new systems, which add a flashing yellow arrow to the existing green, yellow and red arrow signals already in place, were first installed along University Boulevard and have since expanded to Gattis School Road.

The changes, which were done in compliance with new federal and state standards for left-turn signals, are designed to eliminate confusion as to the meaning of left-turn signals, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Round Rock transportation officials, however, admit the new system will take some time and experience for motorists to adjust to.

“There is no question there is a bit of a learning curve,” Round Rock Transportation Director Gary Hudder said. “But I have seen over the last weeks an improved understanding. At this point I would say I’m a believer.”

The flashing yellow arrows act as a replacement left-turn signal to the green circle light, which according to TxDOT was commonly confused to mean a protected left turn. When drivers are given a flashing yellow arrow signal, it indicates that left turns are allowed, but that motorists should yield to oncoming traffic and pedestrians in walkways. The remaining light signals act as they did prior to the change. A steady green arrow indicates a protected turn, a steady red arrow indicates stopping and a steady yellow arrow means drivers should prepare to stop.

“The No. 1 benefit is improved safety,” TxDOT spokeswoman Kelli Reyna said. “People already have it ingrained in their mind that yellow means slow down or stop, so it is helping them to be more cautious.”

Hudder said one benefit of the new system is improved traffic flow. The new system allows traffic systems to display the flashing yellow lights when in the past the lights would have remained red. The result is an increase in the amount of cars turning left during the average light cycle.

“We have seen up to a 30 percent improvement in left-turn through traffic,” Hudder said.

According to evidence collected by another Texas city that has been running the flashing yellow arrow system, the greatest benefit may be to traffic flow, not drivers’ safety.

The City of Waco began installing the flashing yellow arrow systems in June 2010, soon after the new federal mandates were released. The city is currently studying the effect of the light systems and has noticed an increase in accidents at several of the intersections since the change, said Colin Taylor, a City of Waco traffic analyst.

“Whenever you change a signal system, it is something that people take some time to get used to,” Taylor said.

The City of Waco’s Transportation Department released a study one year after the installation of its first flashing yellow arrow signals that found a slight increase in the number of accidents but a decrease in travel time along some corridors.

“While the safety for some approaches ... [has] not improved due to the allowance of permissive left-turns ... the amount of delays, stops and consumption of fuel has been greatly reduced due to this implementation,” the report stated.

The new systems are only required in newly constructed intersections. Round Rock’s Transportation Department, however, decided to integrate the system onto some of its busiest roads to coincide with the retiming of its light signals. Hudder said the city already has plans to add the flashing yellow lights to intersections along Old Settlers Boulevard and is also planning to include signals along Hwy. 79 and RM 620 in the near future.

Hudder said the conversion to the new system will cost the city an average of $1,500–$2,000 per intersection, paid from the city’s existing traffic signal budget.

“This is a pretty intricate process,” Hudder said about the light conversions. “It does require different [signal] hardware and sometimes computer software as well.”

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Source: Impact Newspaper (Eichmiller, 5/2)

To text or not to text

A proposed statewide law banning texting while driving may make Texas roads safer — but the question is if it’s enforceable.

The bill that would make cellphone texting while driving illegal passed its final reading in the Texas House on Thursday, April 18, by a vote of 97-45. The Senate will review the bill next, and if it is successful there, it will go to Gov. Rick Perry.

The governor vetoed a similar bill in 2011.

The current bill, HB 63, was sponsored by Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland. It is referred to as the Alex Brown Memorial Act in honor of West Texas teen Alex Brown, who was texting when she died in a vehicle accident in 2009.

If the bill becomes law, a driver caught texting would face a $100 fine for a first offense and a $200 fine for a second offense.

Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Bryan Taylor said he isn’t familiar with the bill’s language but personally supports any legislation that gets drivers off their phones.

“I think it’s gonna save lives,” Taylor said. “The whole concept is beneficial.”

As written, the bill would still allow people to look up phone numbers and talk on their cellphones. This aspect of the bill might cause problems for lawmen trying to enforce it.

An email sent to Craddick’s office asking why he didn’t include all cellphone use in the bill wasn’t immediately answered.

Lubbock Police Department Sgt. Jason Lewis said he hadn’t read the bill, but if people are still allowed to use their phones for some functions it could make enforcing the law a challenge.

Trying to determine just what a driver is doing on the phone could be difficult, but Lewis has an example to illustrate where it wouldn’t be. He said if an officer sees a driver sitting through a green light while using a phone, it’s pretty obvious what the driver is doing.

Taylor agreed with Lewis that the proposed law may pose enforceability issues for officers if suspected texters refuse to allow police to look at their phones to obtain definitive proof they were texting while driving.

Currently, Lubbock has a city ordinance that prohibits the use of electronic devices in active school zones. Some Texas cities have already enacted ordinances that are stricter than Lubbock’s ordinance or the proposed bill.

Amarillo enacted an ordinance last year that made cellphone use illegal while driving.

Amarillo Police Department spokesman Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said APD officers have written 25 tickets to violators of the ordinance since February.

If the bill becomes law, Amarillo’s ordinance will be voided because municipalities can’t make ordinances that are more strict than state laws.

Neufeld said his department isn’t worried about whether or not the bill is signed into law, and APD generally doesn’t comment on pending legislation.

“We’ll just follow the rules that are given to us,” he said.

The Texas Department of Public Safety isn’t commenting on the pending legislation either, according to Sgt. Bryan Witt. He deferred comment on the matter to Tom Vinger, the department’s spokesman in Austin.

DPS does not take positions on any proposed legislation, Vinger said in an email. Further, in certain cases, a department employee may provide testimony or serve as a resource witness during a committee hearing as requested by a member of the Texas Legislature.

He was unsure if any member of DPS had testified before the House on this matter.

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source: Lubbockonline (Loesch, 4/20)

Regional motorcyclists die in crashes at higher rate than other drivers

Motorcyclists for several years suffered injury and death in wrecks at a rate disproportionate to other drivers in the region, according to state transportation statistics requested by the friend of one killed motorcyclist and the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance.

The friend, Martin Munguia, is working with MOTRAN President James Beauchamp to create an event that will encourage biker safety, inspired by the death of 36-year-old Joe Anthony Montemayor in a Feb. 5 crash on Big Spring Street in Midland.

The statistics were provided by the Texas Department of Transportation and cover the 12-county Odessa District for the years 2008 through 2012. They show that the number of crashes, deaths and injuries involving motorcycles remained mostly consistent (see breakout).

But the statistics also show a persistent and deadly problem when compared to total accidents.

The last two years, coinciding with the oil boom, saw great increases in crashes. In 2012, when there were 425,091 registered vehicles in the region, crashes increased 18 percent. Fatalities increased 47 percent to a total 147. And 10 of those people killed in 2012 were motorcyclists or their passengers.

“Unless you’ve got 42,549 registered motorcycles out there, it means your fatalities among motorcyclists are higher compared to the rest of the population,” Beauchamp said.

Munguia and Beauchamp are lobbying Midland and Odessa to issue official proclamations declaring a biker awareness day and they are still finding both a date and location for the event. Munguia has said he hopes to have the event next month, and Beauchamp has said he hopes to fold the event into the Drive Smart campaign, which includes outreach about issues like distracted driving.

“The bikers, they’re a close knit group and I think a couple of these recent fatalities have hit them pretty hard,” Beauchamp told the Odessa American last week. “It all comes back to awareness.”

Beyond the greater risk of injury should an accident occur, motorcyclists are less visible than cars and trucks, and drivers tend to have greater difficulty gauging their speed, Beauchamp said. Most accidents involving motorcycles happen during a turn.

Odessa spokesman Gene Powell said 2011 figures show 470 motorcycle fatalities statewide, accounting for 16 percent of traffic deaths. Motorcyclists are five times more likely to be injured in a traffic accident and 25 times more likely to die.

TxDOT’s Share the Road motorcycle safety campaign begins next month, which emphasizes many of the same safety measures promoted by Munguia and MOTRAN.

For greater safety, MOTRAN urges drivers to give motorcyclists more space, wait longer before turning when one is approaching and, generally, to pay more attention. Meanwhile, the agency urges motorcyclists to wear helmets, obey traffic laws and make themselves more visible through means such as blinkers, hand signals and running lights.


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Source: OA (Paul, 3/13)

After Dozens of Deaths, Inquiry Into Bed Rails

In November 2006, when Clara Marshall began suffering from the effects of dementia, her family moved her into the Waterford at Fairway Village, an assisted living home in Vancouver, Wash. The facility offered round-the-clock care for Ms. Marshall, who had wandered away from home several times. Her husband, Dan, 80 years old at the time, felt he could no longer care for her alone.

But just five months into her stay, Ms. Marshall, 81, was found dead in her room apparently strangled after getting her neck caught in side rails used to prevent her from rolling out of bed.

After Ms. Marshall’s death, her daughter Gloria Black, who lives in Portland, Ore., began writing to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. What she discovered was that both agencies had known for more than a decade about deaths from bed rails but had done little to crack down on the companies that make them. Ms. Black conducted her own research and exchanged letters with local and state officials. Finally, a letter she wrote in 2010 to the federal consumer safety commission helped prompt a review of bed rail deaths.

Ms. Black applauds the decision to study the issue. “But I wish it was done years ago,” she said. “Maybe my mother would still be alive.” Now the government is studying a problem it has known about for years.

Data compiled by the consumer agency from death certificates and hospital emergency room visits from 2003 through May 2012 shows that 150 mostly older adults died after they became trapped in bed rails. Over nearly the same time period, 36,000 mostly older adults — about 4,000 a year — were treated in emergency rooms with bed rail injuries. Officials at the F.D.A. and the commission said the data probably understated the problem since bed rails are not always listed as a cause of death by nursing homes and coroners, or as a cause of injury by emergency room doctors.

Experts who have studied the deaths say they are avoidable. While the F.D.A. issued safety warnings about the devices in 1995, it shied away from requiring manufacturers to put safety labels on them because of industry resistance and because the mood in Congress then was for less regulation. Instead only “voluntary guidelines” were adopted in 2006.

More warnings are needed, experts say, but there is a technical question over which regulator is responsible for some bed rails. Are they medical devices under the purview of the F.D.A., or are they consumer products regulated by the commission?

“This is an entirely preventable problem,” said Dr. Steven Miles, a professor at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota, who first alerted federal regulators to deaths involving bed rails in 1995. The government at the time declined to recall any bed rails and opted instead for a safety alert to nursing homes and home health care agencies.

Forcing the industry to improve designs and replace older models could have potentially cost bed rail makers and health care facilities hundreds of million of dollars, said Larry Kessler, a former F.D.A. official who headed its medical device office. “Quite frankly, none of the bed rails in use at that time would have passed the suggested design standards in the guidelines if we had made them mandatory,” he said. No analysis has been done to determine how much it would cost the manufacturers to reduce the hazards.

Bed rails are metal bars used on hospital beds and in home care to assist patients in pulling themselves up or helping them out of bed. They can also prevent people from rolling out of bed. But sometimes patients — particularly those suffering from Alzheimer’s — can get confused and trapped between a bed rail and a mattress, which can lead to serious injury or even death.

While the use of the devices by hospitals and nursing homes has declined as professional caregivers have grown aware of the dangers, experts say dozens of older adults continue to die each year as more rails are used in home care and many health care facilities continue to use older rail models.

Since those first warnings in 1995, about 550 bed rail-related deaths have occurred, a review by The New York Times of F.D.A. data, lawsuits, state nursing home inspection reports and interviews, found. Last year alone, the F.D.A. data shows, 27 people died.

As deaths continued after the F.D.A. warning, a working group put together in 1999 and made up of medical device makers, researchers, patient advocates and F.D.A. officials considered requiring bed rail makers to add warning labels.

But the F.D.A. decided against it after manufacturers resisted, citing legal issues. The agency said added cost to small manufacturers and difficulties of getting regulations through layers of government approval, were factors against tougher standards, according to a meeting log of the group in 2000 and interviews.

Instead, in 2006, the F.D.A. issued voluntary guidelines, instructing hospitals and nursing homes on the use of bed rails. They recommended size limits for the gaps and openings in the rails and identified body parts most at risk for getting stuck.

Lara L. Mahoney, a spokeswoman for Invacare, a manufacturer of medical beds and rails in Elyria, Ohio, said newer hospital beds with side rails and stand-alone bed rails are better designed today and come with features like safety straps to prevent patients from sliding between parallel bars.

“The guidance has certainly had an impact on the industry,” she said.

In an interview, Mr. Kessler, the former F.D.A. medical device official who is now a professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health, acknowledged that the manufacturers’ resistance was a factor in not pursuing mandatory rules for bed rails.

But Mr. Kessler said a bigger factor in the F.D.A.’s decision was Congress.

“You have to remember that a few years before we began working on this issue, they had passed legislation telling us to ease the regulatory burden on companies,” Mr. Kessler said. “It would have been impossible to get a set of regulations through in that environment.”

One issue is that hundreds of stand-alone bed rail devices and beds for home use offered at medical supply stores or discount retailers may or may not be considered medical devices, depending on whether the manufacturer makes specific claims, saying, for example, the device will keep a dementia or Alzheimer’s patient from falling out of bed. Without such claims, it may be viewed as a consumer product, the F.D.A. said.

The F.D.A. said consumer safety devices were regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but the commission has long maintained that bed rails are medical devices and outside its mandate.

But that may be changing. Recently, the agency said it had begun reviewing death and injuries attributed to bed rails and will consider what actions it should take after the study is complete possibly by the end of this month. The commission said it was also coordinating with the F.D.A. to find a way to close the regulatory gap between the two agencies.

“As the elderly population increases we’re going to see more and more people cared for in their homes and assisted living facilities,” said Robert S. Adler, a commissioner with the consumer safety agency, who has made elderly safety a priority at the agency. “Bed rails are widely used in both of these settings and it’s something we need to get a handle on.”

Industry officials say despite the deaths and injuries reported from the use of bed rails, the devices can be an effective way of keeping frail older patients safe. The problem, they say, is when the bed parts — such as the mattress, rails and frame — come from different manufactures.

“This is when you get dangerous gaps in the assembly of the bed which allows a person to slip out between the mattress and rails and get injured,” said Lance Lockwood, an industry consultant and former employee of Hill-Rom in Batesville, Ind., a medical device company that makes hospital beds and bed rails. “This is something that should be explained to nursing homes and family members before they go out and buy these devices.”

In court filings, Ms. Black, whose mother died in a bed rail accident, claimed the staff at the Waterford home suggested the family buy a bed rail to keep her mother from rolling out of bed after she had been injured in a fall, and that no one warned her father when he bought bed rails for her mother. Washington state nursing home regulators said the nursing facility also never told Ms. Black and her father about the dangers of bed rails. Waterford did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Adler, the commissioner at the safety agency, credits Ms. Black’s advocacy with prompting the study of bed rail deaths and injuries, a point she plays down.

“Families need to be told about the possible dangers of bed rails,” said Ms. Black, who has since documented hundreds of deaths associated with the devices. “Dangerous bed rails with poor design should not be allowed to stay on the market.”

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Source: The New York Times (Nixon, 11/25)

Is Texas ready for 85-mph speed limit?

LOCKHART, Texas — For drivers who feel the need for speed, Wednesday is a big day in Texas.

A new 40-mile stretch of Texas 130 toll road bypassing Austin's east side will open with an 85-mph speed limit -- highest in the United States.

"I think people will routinely pass me going 100. Regardless of the speed limit, there's always going to be people who want to go past it," said Jeff Gibeaux, a civil engineer in Lockhart who plans to take the high-speed road to Austin on occasion.

While most states have raised speed limits gradually in recent years, Texas is going at it full throttle.

Since 2002, the Texas Department of Transportation -- at the urging of state lawmakers -- has raised the speed limit to 75 or 80 mph on nearly 6,507 miles of road.

Most of the increases have occurred since 2011, when a new state law broadened which roads qualified for higher speeds.

The speeds are now posted not only in rural areas but also on major roads such as Interstate 20 and Interstate 35 just outside Dallas-Fort Worth and other major metro areas.

On about 1 in 12 miles of Texas roadway -- including interstates, small highways and farm-to-market roads -- motorists may now legally travel at speeds once considered excessive and dangerous.

Safety experts in the U.S. and Europe warn that fatalities and injury accidents are likely to rise. Texas' fatality rate is already higher than the national average, with 3,015 people killed on roads in 2011.

"You need to take measures to counteract an anticipated increase in deaths," said Veronique Feypell de la Beaumelle, an analyst with the International Transport Forum, which publishes a road safety annual report with crash data from the U.S. and 31 other countries.

But state officials say they don't necessarily expect more carnage. On the contrary, they point to statistics showing that fatalities are declining along some West Texas highways that were the first to get higher limits.

They say their methods of studying a road before raising a speed limit are scientifically sound, although they are applied differently in various parts of the state.

Less certain is whether motorists have the proper training, or the self-discipline, to drive safely on a high-speed road. State officials say they are developing ways to promote better driving habits.

Last week, the Transportation Department began installing 3,400 signs reading "Left lane for passing only" on highways with a speed limit of 75 mph or more. The same message was flashed on more than 700 electronic highway signs statewide.

"We're going to have to teach Texans how to drive these safer speeds," said Bill Meadows of Fort Worth, a Texas Transportation Commission member.

Meanwhile, as lawmakers encourage the Transportation Department to raise speed limits in one county after another, researchers at organizations such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are taking issue with some of the state's guiding principles for determining when to raise a speed limit.

State officials have said they generally believe that motorists will drive at a comfortable speed, regardless of the posted limit, so it's important to set limits near the thresholds at which people are already traveling. But that philosophy can conflict with a belief held by critics who say drivers go whatever speed they think they can get away with and often exceed posted speeds because they perceive them to be conservative.

Economics are a factor, too.

The new section of Texas 130 toll road is being built by a private developer known as State Highway 130 Concession Co. Llc., which is led by the U.S. arm of Spain-based Cintra. Texas 130 is part of the Austin area's Central Texas Turnpike System.

The developer is spending $1.4 billion on the project for the right to collect tolls through Nov. 11, 2062. To protect its investment, the group is paying Texas an extra $100 million in return for setting an 85-mph limit, according to the contract.

The idea is to attract more motorists to the road with the promise of higher speeds, which in turn generates more toll revenue.

Speed studies

State law requires the Transportation Department to perform a speed study before raising the limit on a stretch of road but lets the agency decide how to go about it.

Two of the agency's top safety officials demonstrated the process for the Star-Telegram this month on a stretch of Texas 130 that is already open north of Austin. There, the limit was raised to 80 mph this year, and the road could be a candidate for 85 mph in the near future, they said.

The first step in the speed study was for the pair of state employees to conduct a "trial run" of the 19-mile stretch. Darren McDaniel, a speed zone engineer for the department's Austin district, was given the task of driving the length of the road in a department pickup. Carol Rawson, director of the state's traffic operations division, sat in a passenger seat and took notes on McDaniel's speed.

McDaniel purposefully avoided looking at his speedometer and focused instead on driving at a speed he felt comfortable with -- most of the time, he was going 80 to 82 mph. The two were helped in their work by a couple of gadgets installed in the truck: a digital instrument to help Rawson track the speed without having to continuously look at the dashboard and an inclinometer mounted on the dash that was programmed to sound an alarm if the truck took a curve with too much gravitational force.

The duo also took notes on factors such as visibility on the road and the amount of clear space available on the shoulders and in the median, in case a motorist has to take evasive action.

Texas highways are typically designed to accommodate speeds of at least 70 mph -- the state's default limit until a speed study can be conducted, six months or more after a road opens to the public.

But roads can be designed for higher or lower speeds.

For example, a small portion of the planned Chisholm Trail Parkway in southwest Fort Worth is being designed for 50 mph to ensure that traffic goes relatively slowly through some old neighborhoods.

And, as with the Texas 130 extension, roads can be designed to accommodate 85-mph limits from their first day open to traffic.

The next step in the speed study was taking a sample of at least 125 randomly selected cars to determine how fast people are traveling on the road -- typically known as an 85th percentile test.

McDaniel and Rawson parked their truck on an overpass in Pflugerville near Austin and, using a laser gun like what police use to issue traffic tickets, they determined that 85 percent of the vehicles on this stretch of Texas 130 were traveling 83 mph or less.

As a result, the road was a candidate for an 80- or 85-mph speed limit, they said.

The idea is to set a speed limit so that 85 percent of motorists are obeying the law. Rawson said it's a commonly accepted standard in traffic-engineering circles that 85 percent of drivers are traveling at a safe, comfortable speed -- regardless of the posted limit.

"Most people drive what's safe and prudent, because we know people aren't wanting to hurt themselves," she said.

"They're not wanting to get into a crash. Most importantly, they want to get where they're going, so generally they're going to drive a speed that's reasonable, and that's what we're looking for."

'A moving target'

A top official at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research organization that tracks collision data throughout the U.S., said placing so much weight on the 85th percentile standard is leading states such as Texas to raise speed limits beyond reasonable levels.

"The 85th percentile is a moving target," institute President Adrian Lund said. "People do pay attention to the speed limit: They use it as a guideline and figure out how much faster they can go without getting a ticket. Gradually, you end up with the same number of people exceeding the speed limit that you had before. There's an assumption that the government is always conservative, so if 85 is the speed limit, then 90 and 95 must be safe, right?"

Higher speed limits could hit Texans in the pocketbook, too. If accidents increase, the cost of auto insurance will go up, David Snyder, vice president of the American Insurance Association predicted in a 2011 column that ran in the Star-Telegram.

Texas' fatality rate is already higher than the national average, and Texans pay some of the highest insurance rates.

Lawmakers' mandate

In April 2011, a state House transportation committee approved a bill that gave the Transportation Department power to raise the speed limit to 75, 80 or 85 mph on thousands of miles of the highway system, as long as a speed study was conducted on at least one place in each segment of roadway.

The bill, which eventually became law, also eliminated lower speed limits for trucks and for all traffic at night.

The lone vote against the bill was from Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas.

"When you've got as many inexperienced drivers on our highways as we do, the last thing you want is people going 75, 80, 85 mph," Davis said this month in an interview. "I thought the whole notion of raising the speed limit that high was crazy."

The bill passed without comment, although Davis said it was clear in the Capitol hallways that the measure had plenty of support -- particularly among rural lawmakers who were hearing from constituents that they wanted to legally drive faster.

"It probably started with the rural representatives," Davis said. "But these speed limits are in urban centers, too."

Support for higher speeds tends to be particularly strong in cities that stand to benefit economically from the lure of traffic, although projects such as the Texas 130 extension can also brew controversy.

About 30 miles southeast of Austin, the new Texas 130 extension leads to Lockhart, a city of about 13,000 that is known for its barbecue joints.

Residents aren't too happy that the speed limit on the frontage roads of U.S. 183 running parallel to the Texas 130 extension has been lowered from 65 to 55 mph.

State officials have said the lower limit is needed because commercial development is springing up along the frontage roads, creating a safety issue for motorists pulling in and out of driveways.

But many residents say the real motivation is to force traffic onto the 85-mph toll road.

And on the toll road, there is little opposition to the 85-mph limit.

"We're thrilled about it," said Wendy Ramsey, owner of Wendy R Gift Shop on the town square. She regularly drives 80 mph on the portion of Texas 130 that's already open and, beginning Wednesday, she fully expects to drive 85 mph on the new part of the toll road.

"There's so few cars on 130 at this point," she said, "that right now it seems safe."

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Source: Star-Telegram (Dickson, 10/22)

TX Supreme Court Rejects Crash Victim's Case

The Supreme Court of Texas refused for a second time to hear the case of tragic accident victim Michelle Gaines on Friday.

Without any explanation, the high court denied her attorneys' request for reconsideration.

Gaines, of Palestine, suffered a traumatic brain injury at age 19 on June 11, 2006, when an 18-wheeler hauling an oil rig careened through a red light and crashed into her 2000 Buick.

Four years later, a jury awarded Gaines more than $8 million in damages. The truck’s driver, its owner and another businessman involved with the oil rig were held liable. Court documents show the truck lacked working brakes and a jury agreed with Gaines' attorneys that there was an attempt to cover up what happened.

The state’s 12th Court of Appeals overturned the verdict last year, ruling there was not enough proof that the businessman, Joseph Pritchett — the only defendant with the money to pay the damages — was liable in the accident.

Pritchett's lawyers have said that he had no role in the accident and that he vehemently disagrees with implications of a cover-up.

Gaines' attorneys appealed, and the case made its way to the Texas Supreme Court for the first time this summer. When the justices refused to hear it, Gaines' attorneys filed the motion to reconsider.

Gaines spent weeks after the wreck recovering from a broken pelvis and punctured lung, but she continues to suffer from the effects of the head injury. Her father, Mike Gaines, has said his daughter has the maturity of a 12-year-old.

Scott Clearman, Gaines' attorney, said the Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case likely means the end of the legal battle and that she will eventually be confined to a state facility when her father is no longer able to care for her.

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Source: The Texas Tribune (Rocha, 10/26)

Fan's death at Reliant Stadium ruled an accident

The death of a 25-year-old man who fell about 60 feet from an escalator at Reliant Stadium in August has been ruled an accident, officials said.

Jonathon Glenn Kelly died after he fell while he was allegedly trying to slide down the outside of the escalator handrail at the Coca-Cola Gate near the stadium's northeast side about 8:10 p.m. Thursday while he attending the Texans' last preseason football game.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled his death was an accident and he died of multiple blunt force injuries, said Tricia Bentley, institute spokeswoman.

Kelly was descending from level five to level three when he fell about 60 feet, Mark Miller, general manager at SMG Reliant Park, said during a news conference Friday.

Police could not confirm the man was horse-playing, said Jodi Silva, a Houston Police Department spokeswoman. Silva said HPD was investigating the case as an accidental death.

Kelly was attending the game with some friends, said a co-worker who was not at the event and asked that his name not be published.

The co-worker said Kelly had worked for about three months as a plant operator at a private water and wastewater utility company.

Miller said stadium staff are posted on each landing at escalators, and signs on the equipment encourage safety.

The day after Kelly's death, 20-year-old Isaac Grubb of Lenoir City, Tenn., was killed when he somehow fell over a 33-inch railing and plummeted to the lower level of the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta during the Tennessee-North Carolina State game, according to the Associated Press.

The Associated Press stated Grubb had been cheering Tennessee's second touchdown when the accident happened around 8:23 p.m., said Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which operates the stadium.

The fans' deaths come just more than a year after 39-year-old Shannon Stone died when he fell during a Texas Rangers game in Arlington last July.

Stone had grabbed a baseball tossed by outfielder Josh Hamilton toward the stands and toppled over the railing, falling about 20 feet to concrete below.

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Source: Chron (Lezon, 9/5)

A Tragic Accident and a Continuing Legal Battle

Michelle Gaines was the most popular girl at Palestine High School. The athletic, dark-haired 19-year-old was preparing to head off to Hill College on a soccer scholarship.

Her plans ended on June 11, 2006, when an 18-wheeler hauling an oil rig careened through a red light and crashed into her 2000 Buick.

“It’s as if my daughter died that day,” Mike Gaines said, “but God gave me back another one that I love and cherish just as much as the first one.”

The truck smashed the sedan into a mangled crescent and left Gaines with a broken pelvis and punctured lung. And, most devastating, a portion of her brain was sheared off. She was in a coma for about six months, and then she was in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation centers for another eight months.

Now, at the age of 26, Gaines has the mental maturity of a 12-year-old, no short-term memory and no peripheral vision. The former prom queen’s group of friends is long gone.

“I try to hire girls around her age to take her out to eat, maybe go do the girl thing, go shopping or something,” Gaines said. “I just try to make life as easy on her as I can.”

In 2010, a jury awarded Gaines more than $8 million in damages. The truck’s driver, its owner and another businessman involved with the oil rig were held liable, and the jury agreed with Gaines’ lawyers, who argued that after the accident there was an effort to cover up the businessman’s involvement with bribes and by destroying evidence.

But the state’s 12th Court of Appeals overturned the verdict last year, ruling there was not enough proof that the businessman, Joseph Pritchett, was liable in the accident. Mike Gaines and his daughter’s lawyers say that her future now rests with the Texas Supreme Court, which previously declined to hear the case. They say that if the court does not reconsider, it could set a precedent that allows defendants to avoid responsibility for their actions by destroying evidence and bribing witnesses.

“It has long been the story of humans that when they get caught doing a bad act, they lie about it and hide what they’ve done,” said Scott Clearman, a lawyer for Michelle Gaines.

Rob Roby, a lawyer for Pritchett, says that his client had no role in the accident. He vehemently disagrees with Gaines’ lawyers’ implication of a cover-up.

“This case never should have been submitted to a jury,” Roby said.

Scott Smith, a criminal defense lawyer in Austin who is not involved in the case, said he was appalled that the original verdict was overturned and that the Texas Supreme Court declined to hear Gaines’ appeal. He said it sets a double standard for criminal cases and civil cases.

The evidence implicating Pritchett, Smith said, is tantamount to circumstantial evidence that is routinely used to prosecute criminal cases.

“How do you have respect for a legal system that allows that kind of inconsistency and illogic?” Smith said.

But Olin Guy Wellborn, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said the appellate court’s decision was reasonable. Gaines’ lawyers, he said, failed to show that the destroyed evidence would have proved that the men each had equal control over transportation of the rig.

On the day of the accident, Kenneth Woodworth was driving the 18-wheeler to Corpus Christi, transporting a rig owned by Benny Joe Adkinson. Woodworth was headed to an equipment yard owned by Pritchett, where Adkinson planned to blueprint the rig’s parts so he could replicate them.
After the accident, Gaines’ lawyers sued all three men, claiming that Woodworth and Adkinson were negligent because Woodworth had no license and the trailer’s brakes were defective. Pritchett, they said, was also liable because he and Adkinson were engaged in a “joint enterprise” to profit from the rig.

Woodworth and Adkinson pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and received probation. Neither appealed the civil court’s decision that they were liable. But neither of the men has the money to pay the judgment, Gaines’ lawyers say. Pritchett, they argue, does.

Without money from Pritchett, Clearman said, taxpayers will have to pay for Gaines’ care. She can walk and talk, but her memory loss and impaired vision make it unlikely that she will ever be able to live independently.

Gaines tries to help improve his daughter’s memory with little exercises, like taking notes about TV programs she watches. But the messes she often makes because of her forgetfulness and limited sight upset and depress her. When she learned that the jury had awarded her $8 million that would pay for her rehabilitation, Mike Gaines said, she was ecstatic.

“I haven’t even told her that this happened,” he said. “I just know it’s going to shatter her.”

Pritchett’s lawyers acknowledge that the accident was tragic and that their client did business with Adkinson. But they say he had no control over how the rig was transported.

“There is a complete lack of evidence that Pritchett had an equal right to control or any control at all over the handling and/ or transporting of the trailer/rig in question,” his lawyers wrote in court documents.

The jury decided otherwise after hearing evidence that Pritchett paid Adkinson a total of about $96,000 after the accident. Gaines’ lawyers alleged in court that the payments were bribes to keep Adkinson from implicating Pritchett as having any involvement, an allegation that Pritchett and Adkinson deny.

Jurors also heard testimony that Adkinson burned his business records after the lawsuit was filed and that he and Pritchett had previously worked together to refurbish and sell oil field equipment.

Gaines’ lawyers told jurors that after they had arranged to inspect the rig at Pritchett’s yard, Adkinson hauled it away and cut it up for scrap. After it was destroyed, they said, bank records showed Pritchett paid Adkinson $60,000.
Pritchett said the money was a loan. Adkinson said it was payment for equipment.

Pritchett’s lawyers argued in court documents that he had had no part in Adkinson’s decisions to burn his records or to scrap the rig; Adkinson, they said, was responsible for the rig and the accident.

Adkinson, 81, said he pleaded guilty to criminal charges and did not appeal the verdict because he did not have money to fight the case. But he insists that he was not guilty and that Pritchett was not involved.

“They’re just trying to ruin Mr. Pritchett’s life,” he said.

When Pritchett appealed the $8 million verdict, the 12th Court of Appeals decided that Gaines’ lawyers had not proved that he was in a “joint enterprise” or that he had any responsibility for the accident.

Judge Brian Hoyle wrote in the court’s opinion that “none of the evidence shows that Pritchett had an equal right to control the alleged enterprise.”

The request for the Supreme Court to reconsider taking up the case is probably the last chance for the Gaineses to restore the $8 million judgment.

Until that decision comes — which could be soon, or could take weeks or months — Mike Gaines said he would continue working to get his daughter the best care he can afford.

“All I can do is just keep on fighting,” he said, “like I have been since Day 1.”

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Source: The Texas Tribune ( Grissom, 7/29)