According to Rolling Stone, the frontman of the band Weezer was injured severely enough in a tour bus accident that the band was forced to cancel their remaining December tour dates.  Cuomo suffered three cracked ribs, “painful internal damage” (the injuries were later described by Rolling Stone as a cut on his spleen and a small puncture in his lung) and a lower leg injury, which was not a result of the accident, according to band associate Karl Koch.  Cuomo was transported to a larger hospital for observation.  Koch wrote on the band’s official website that Cuomo’s condition is improving.  “He went from being barely able to talk and open his eyes yesterday to partially sitting up, talking clearly, reading books and checking the Internet, plus his color and energy seemed much brighter.”

Band assistant Sarah Kim was also injured in the accident and fractured a lower vertebrae and two ribs.  Koch indicated that Kim was released from the hospital and will begin her “frustrating and painful 3-4 weeks of recovery.”  Cuomo’s wife, two-year-old daughter and her nanny and the driver were not injured.

Koch described the accident and wrote that the tour bus skidded on ice and careened across several lanes of traffic on I-90 in upstate New York, crashing over a guardrail and into a muddy ditch.  Cuomo was alone, sleeping in the bus’ back lounge at the time of the incident, and he was trapped and unable to speak immediately after the crash due to his injuries.  Emergency responders used the “jaws of life” to pry the back window of the bus off to free Cuomo, and Koch writes that he was horrified by the scene once the other buses in the convoy caught up to the accident site.

Koch posted several photographs on the band’s website of the accident and the bus’ extensive damage.  He writes, “I couldn’t believe what was happening in front of me, as Rivers lay so helpless, shivering in the center of the chaos, and meanwhile the sun was coming up and revealing an utterly beautiful light covering of snow on the surrounding trees.”

According to the New York Times, Jennifer Smith, 35, is suing the companies that provided phone and wireless service to the driver who was talking on his cellphone when he hit and killed her mother.  She hopes to prove that the companies should have foreseen the dangers and that they failed to provide adequate warnings.

Legal experts say that her lawsuit faces steep challenges as it is currently the only such case and one of only a handful ever filed.  The lawsuit raises interesting questions about responsibility for behavior that is a threat to everyone on the road. 

The lawsuit involves a crash in Oklahoma City on September 3, 2008.  Ms. Smith’s mother, Linda Doyle, 61, died after her Toyota Rav4 was hit by Christopher Hill, then 20, who was so distracted by a cellphone call that he ran a red light in his Ford pickup at 45 miles an hour.  He hit Linda Doyle as she crossed in front of him.

Hill was talking on a Samsung UpStage phone on the Sprint Nextel service. Samsung declined to comment. Sprint Nextel said that it “rejects the claims of negligence” in the suit and that it includes safety messages on packaging and user manuals, on its Web site and in its advertising.

Past lawsuits involving similar situations have been dismissed for reasons that include the unforeseeability of the accident and the absence of a legal relationship between the plaintiff and the service provider.  Also, the courts have said that the crashes are caused by driver inattention, not by cellphones, adding that drivers often talk on phones without crashing. 

Hill plead guilty to negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, does not blame the cellphone companies.  He indicated that “It’s our choice if we’re going to talk on the cellphone while driving or walking down the street or in the office.”

According to the Associated Press, Tiger Woods accident outside his Florida home caused $3,200 in property damage.  Woods wasn’t wearing his seat belt, was driving erratically and ultimately crashed into a tree.

A six-page was released on December 2, 2009 and only describes the accident and does not include statements from Woods, his wife, Elin Nordegren, or witnesses.  105 photos of the accident scene were included.  The report was released hours after Woods released a statement saying that he had let his family down with “transgressions” he regrets “with all of my hear.” 

That statement follows the claims of a cocktail waitress that she had a 31-month affair with Woods, as reported by Us Weekly magazine.  The magazine published what it said was a voicemail, provided by Jaimee Grubbs, that Woods left on her phone on November 24, three days before the car crash outside his home in Isleworth, an exclusive gated community outside Orlando.

An illustration in the report shows that upon leaving his driveway, Woods’ vehicle rubbed up against a line of bushes, crossed over a curb, onto a grass median and into a row of hedges before swerving left into the hydrant and crashing into the tree.  The golfer was traveling 30 mph in a 25 mph zone. His vehicle sustained an estimated $8,000 in damage.

Several photographs of the accident show damage to both front sides of the Cadillac Escalade and the windows on the back passenger doors were broken.  Woods’ wife told Windermere police she used a golf club to smash the back windows to help Woods get out.

The Floriday Highway Patrol ended its investigation into the crash on Tuesday.  Woods was charged with careless driving, which carries a $164 fine and four points on his driving records.  He has refused to talk to authorities about the incident.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Tiger Woods will not be playing in his golf tournament in Thousand Oaks this week and canceled his appearance Tuesday at a pre-tournament news conference following an accident in his car that left him with facial cuts and sparked worldwide speculation about what happened.

The accident occurred at 2:25 a.m. on Friday in front of his mansion near Orlando, Florida, when he backed his black Cadillac Escalade out of his driveway and then ran over a fire hydrant before hitting a tree on a neighbor’s property.  The vehicle sustained bad damage to the front end.  According to police, Woods’ wife said that she used a golf club to break through a window to remove him from the vehicle.  Woods was treated for injuries including cuts on his face.

Woods stated that the situation was his fault and was embarrassing but did not address any details of the accident that he termed “a private matter.”  He has declined to speak with state troopers since then.  The Florida Highway Patrol is seeking a warrant for Woods’ hospital records that would document the treatment Woods received after the accident.

A statement on his website indicated that “due to injuries sustained in a one-car accident last week, Tiger Woods will be unable to play in the 2009 Chevron World Challenge” and also “will not participate in any other tournaments in 2009 and will return to action next year.”

According to Daily News and Analysis, in London, Jennifer Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony are facing a 3-million-pound lawsuit launched by an airhostess who claims she was bitten by Anthony’s guard dog, Floyd. Lisa Wilson, a flight attendant for NetJets, claims that the couple’s military-trained German Shepherd attacked her while she was working on a private jet on July 3, 2006 while flying from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, Long Island, to Burbank, California.

Wilson claims that the “personal protection” dog growled at her as she walked past, before biting the leg of her trousers and causing her to fall over. Wilson alleges that she injured her back so badly she can no longer work and is now suing the couple in New York’s Brooklyn Federal Court for 3 million pounds. She claims that she had been warned to be careful around Floyd, suggesting the couple knew he was a threat. She also indicated that Anthony told her not to make eye contact with the dog and to call Floyd by his name if she needed to pass.

It has emerged that a vet who examined Floyd concluded that the singer and her husband were responsible for the alleged attack. Wilson was carrying silverware at the time of the alleged attack and the vet found that the couple’s personal chef had also been targeted by the dog when he carried sharp objects.

Wilson’s lawyer William Cafaro was quoted by the Daily Express as saying, “The dog was obviously dangerous and we will prove at tirla that it was only a matter of time before he hurt someone.” He also stated that Floyd should have had a muzzle or leash on and Lopez and Anthony should have warned Wilson “to stay completely away from the dog.”

Lopez and Anthony’s lawyer responded in court papers that the pair had hired their own animal-behavior expert to evaluate Floyd.

Destined to Increase in the Future?

According to a recent report, the number of slip-and-fall injuries that occur each year at businesses and commercial properties is expected to rise significantly in the near future because the population of aging baby boomers will lead to an increase in the number of seniors. Seniors are statistically the most likely to fall, and when they do, they tend to require more medical care and more time to recover from their injuries.

Contrary to this report, some suggest that the number of slip-and-fall cases is likely to grow not because of America’s aging population but because commercial property owners and managers are taking money-saving shortcuts that result in more property defects and more falls.

Whatever the cause, the report has a number of suggestions for reducing the chances of falling, most of which are just good common sense. Among its suggestions for reducing the number of slip-and-fall injuries at places of business:

Use high-traction flooring materials and low-slip cleaning products;

Limit the difference in height between mats and floors to one-half inch or less;

Regularly inspect floors and floor coverings for wear, spills, and other dangers; and

Train employees how to deal with spills.

            Maintenance on a vehicle can be expensive. As U-Haul recently found out, lack of maintenance on a vehicle can be even more expensive.

            A suit was brought by a renter of a U-Haul truck who was severely injured when the parking brake did not hold and the truck rolled over him. The man’s pelvis and spine were crushed, his bladder was ruptured, and he suffered a number of other injuries. Treating him required numerous surgeries, and he is partially paralyzed and bedridden. The cost of treating him for the rest of his life has been estimated to be $25 million.

            The renter sued U-Haul for negligence, and the evidence showed that U-Haul failed to properly maintain the brakes and transmissions of many of the trucks in its fleet. The renter presented evidence showing that almost a third of the trucks that U-Haul rents had brakes that did not work properly, and that the truck which had rolled over the renter was 18 years old and had been banned from being rented in Canada because of poor maintenance. Rather than fixing the problems, U-Haul chose to ship the truck to the United States for use as a rental.

            Although U-Haul argued that it could not reasonably be expected to know that the parking brake was faulty and that the accident was the renter’s fault, the jury did not agree. It awarded the renter over $84 million in damages, including $63 million in punitive damages, although the law required that this amount be reduced to a judgment of $46 million.

According to the Press Association, Brad Pitt was involved in a minor accident while biking through Hollywood.  It seems that the Pitt was riding his motorbike when it clipped a parked car.  He walked away seemingly unhurt.

The incident occurred as the 45-year-old attempted to make his way through a line of cars.  He brushed one vehicle and was forced to swerve to avoid hitting another at the lights.  As he did so, he fell off the two-wheeler.  Although he was uninjured, the bike was damaged and needed to be towed away.

According to Sign on San Diego News, 20-year-old Reyes Miranda pleaded not guilty in a Vista Superior Court to felony charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence causing great bodily harm in the death of his 17-year-old passenger, Gerardo Chacon, a junior at Vista High School.

Miranda was driving a 1990 Ford Mustang on East Vista Way near Mason Road, just north of Vista at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 8.  According to authorities, he was drunk.  The CHP said he hit a guardrail and bus-stop shelter before rolling several times.

Gerardo was not wearing a seat belt and was partially ejected from the car.  According to the Medical Examiner’s Office, he died at the scene of the wreck from multiple blunt-force injuries to his upper body.

Miranda suffered moderate injuries and was treated at the Palomar Medical Center in Escondido where he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.  He appeared in a courtroom Thursday in a wheelchair with a brace on his neck and back.  Miranda’s bail was set at $200,000.

According to the Huffington Post, actor James Woods, along with his nephew Peyton, is suing a hospital for the wrongful death of his brother, Michael Woods, 49, who died from heart disease at Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island, on July 26, 2006, after going into cardiac arrest on a gurney.  At the wrongful death trial, James Woods’ lawyer told jurors that the hospital did not do enough to care for Michael Woods when he went to the emergency room complaining of a sore throat and vomiting in 2006.  

According to the attorney, Michael Woods wasn’t seen by a doctor until an hour after he arrived and was initally treated in a section of the emergency room generally reserved for less-urgent cases.  The results of an EKG came back abnormal but he was not given oxygen, aspirin or hooked up to heart monitoring to track further deterioration.  These procedures are all part of the standard of care in treating someone in Woods’ condition, according to Mark Decof, James Woods’ attorney.

Michael Woods was instead taken for additional X-rays and afterward was left on a gurney in a hallway near a nurse’s station because no room was available.  He went into cardiac arrest and died nearly three hours after his arrival at the hospital.

The hospital’s lawyers said that Michael’s symptoms were inconsistent with someone having a heart attack.  They said that he tried to downplay his illness by assuring her that he was fine and didn’t need so much attention.  Further, the lawyers said that he denied to the nurse that he was having more typical symptoms like chest pain. 

Decof said the death could have been prevented had hospital staff recognized Woods’ condition early enough, but lawyers for the hospital say that his heart and arteries were already so diseased that there ws no way to save him and that he died before any potentially lifesaving measures could even have been taken.  Woods was overweight, had high blood pressure, an artery severely narrowed by plaque, and also suffered from myocardial ischemia, a condition caused by lack of blood flow to the heart.  According to the hospital, they ordered tests and “didn’t rule anything in and didn’t rule anything out.” 

Michael Woods, a businessman who lived in Warwick, was also an actor who appeared in several of his brother’s movies and ran twice unsuccessfully for mayor of the city, which is several miles south of Providence.