June 2011 Archives

There was a Fall River pool drowning death, and the woman's body was found days after she died. According to The Boston Globe, thirty-six year old Marie Joseph is believed to have drowned on Sunday in a public pool, though her body was only found Tuesday night.

From Sunday to Tuesday, the pool was open to the public and patrons swam in the pool unaware that there was a dead body floating beneath them, reports the Globe.

After discovering the body, state officials closed the pool and thirty other public pools until investigators could determine how Joseph died, how lifeguards did not notice the drowning or the dead body, and other safety protocols.

A Boston College chemistry student was injured in a lab explosion when a beaker exploded cutting her face and forcing the evacuation of the lab. The student, Hee Yeon Cho, is a fourth year doctoral student at Boston College and she suffered non-life threatening injuries, reports The Boston Globe.

According to the Globe, Cho was working alone with thionyl chloride, a chemical that can be used to make mustard gas and other nerve toxins, when the beaker exploded. After the lab explosion, Cho left the lab, drove herself home, and checked herself into a hospital to treat her injuries.

Elbert Foster, a former Weymouth High School substitute teacher, is not going to be charged with assault and battery for allegedly hitting a student during a fight. A judge ruled that there was insufficient probable cause to criminally charge Foster reports The Patriot Ledger. Basically, the judge found the facts and circumstances surrounding the fight to not warrant criminal charges.

In February, Foster was accused of hitting his student, 14-year old Carl Morcy, during a fight in Foster’s math class. According to the Ledger, Foster kicked Morcy out of class for being disruptive. Morcy’s refusal to leave the classroom led to a physical fight between the two. Foster claims that Morcy hit him first and defends his actions stating that, “I do think a teacher has a right to defend himself when he’s pushed beyond his limits or attacked in certain situations.”

A two-story porch collapsed in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood resulting in serious injuries to 12 party-goers. The Boston Globe reports that more than a dozen people were partying on the deck of the multi-family home when the deck buckled under their combined weight and collapsed onto the deck below. No life-threatening injuries were reported though all 12 injured people were taken to the hospital.

According to the Globe, building inspectors are investigating the accident to determine what happened. Depending upon what the inspectors find, the owners of the home could be exposed to a variety of legal claims.

One hundred people were arrested, 150 were injured, 15 cars were burned, over 50 businesses were vandalized and looted following fan riots after game 7 of the Stanley Cup championship between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks. Boy, did the Boston police department have the right idea when we earlier posted about their advanced preparations and security measures for fan violence following the game.

Unfortunately, the Boston police could not have stopped the fan rioting — it happened 3,000 miles away in Vancouver.

According to ESPN, following the Bruins 4-0 victory in the decisive game 7, rioters took to city streets in Vancouver’s main shopping district burning cars, breaking store windows, and generally creating havoc. In the melee, nine police officers were injured and two police cars were torched.

As the Boston Bruins prepare to face off against the Vancouver Canucks in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Boston police are preparing for post-game Stanley Cup celebrations that can turn deadly in an instant.

According to The Boston Globe, three people have died since 2004 in riots that broke out during post-game celebrations. Most famously, Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove was accidentally killed after celebrating the 2004 Red Sox championship when police shot a pepper pellet into a crowd that hit Snelgrove. The city eventually paid $5 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Victoria Snelgrove’s family.

An unidentified woman and her eight-year old son had to be rescued after nearly drowning in a swimming pool at the Cape Cod hotel the Winstead Village Inn. According to The Boston Globe, the woman found her son at the bottom of the pool and jumped in to save him. However, the woman did not know how to swim and was soon also in need of rescue.

Two men staying in a nearby house overheard the screams for help and rescued the mother and son reports the Globe. Both mother and son are reported to be in good condition.

The family of the boy killed in an escalator accident at Auburn Mall is now suing the company responsible for installing the escalator claiming that its negligence caused Mark DiBona's death. Last March, four-year-old DiBona stepped onto an Sears escalator at the Auburn Mall when the momentum of the escalator handrail pulled him into a gap between the escalator and a plexiglass barrier reports The Boston Globe. DiBona fell one story and he later died from head wounds suffered in the accident.

In its wrongful death lawsuit, DiBona's family claims that the escalator accident could have been avoided had the company followed state safety regulations and its own construction plans. According to the Globe, a building permit for the escalator had been approved in 2009 that required barriers to be installed to cover the gap that DiBona fell through. DiBona's family claims the company blueprints explicitly call for constructing the barriers, but in the two years since construction, the barriers were never installed.

Eight people were injured in a collision between a MBTA bus and car in Milton. Albert Hale, 72, allegedly made a sharp left turn in front of the MBTA bus causing the accident, reports The Milford Daily News. The MBTA bus driver broke quickly to avoid a major collision with Hale, though the bus still struck Hale’s car.

According to the Daily News, seven bus passengers were taken to area hospitals for neck, back, shoulder, and head injuries. Albert Hale was also hospitalized with a neck injury. Adding insult to injury, Hale will also be cited for failing to yield when turning.

The Somerset Water Department lifted a ban on drinking tap water after testing showed that contaminants in the drinking water were either very low or undetectable. The Herald News reports that the ban was issued last week after Hydrograss Technology, a landscaping company, possibly tainted the town's water supply with its hydro seeding material.

According to the Herald, Hydrograss Technology workers connected its hydroseed mix to a fire hydrant. As the hydroseed mix backed into the hydrant, it mixed in with the town's water supply contaminating it. The hydroseed mix contained fertilizer and other materials.

No drug is entirely safe and without potential risks or side effects, we all know that. The struggle, legally and medically, comes with understanding when a drug’s manufacturers knew of safety issues and how well they communicated that knowledge to doctors and the patients using the drug. One good example of this is announcement this week by the FDA that it is investigating whether some versions of the birth control pill pose a higher risk of blood clots than others.

Since TV ads for the pill including brand names such as Yaz or Loestrin are now familiar to most of us, the side effects are also a bit better understood. Common side effects from oral contraceptives include headaches, dizziness and nausea, but there are less common, much more serious problems as well. According to The Boston Globe, the FDA is looking into which pills may cause a greater likelihood of blood clots. Blood clots can occur even in young users of the pill and can result in strokes, or break off and travel to the heart or lungs.

Is no one safe from the random bike accident in Boston? It seems not, on news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer suffered a bike accident while riding near his home in Cambridge. According to a Supreme Court spokeswoman, Justice Breyer suffered a broken collarbone from the fall which took place over the Memorial Day weekend.

Despite the broken bone, the accident did not keep the Justice from his speaking engagement in New York, reports the Associated Press. Justice Breyer was not present in court on Tuesday morning, but his absence was unrelated to the accident said spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.