August 2011 Archives

Boston Sports Guy Bill Simmons only had his website Grantland up for a couple months and now wrestling legend Ric Flair is already threatening a defamation lawsuit. It's probably not that surprising that the often-controversial Simmons would subject his employer, ESPN, to a lawsuit, but what makes the potential Ric Flair lawsuit so interesting (and amusing) is that Flair is threatening suit over things Flair said himself -- in his autobiography.

Last week, Grantland put up a piece chronicling the downfall of Flair. The piece was not that flattering to the "Nature Boy" as it listed his many run-ins with the law, as well as an apparent medical condition, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, which was brought on by alcohol abuse.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Boston Archdiocese will reveal a priest sex abuse list. The list will include the names of 159 clergy members who have been accused of sexually abusing children. However, not everyone was happy with the extent of the list, as O'Malley was criticized for omitting dozens of names from religious orders, other dioceses, and those priests who left the priesthood.

The list includs priests with allegations of abuse that reach back to as much as 70 years ago. It is an attempt by the Cardinal to assure parishioners that the Church is safe and doing all it can to protect children from abusive clergy, reports The Boston Globe.

Do you know what to do after an accident? Boston car accidents are so prevalent that Massachusetts legislators are even considering a road menace bill to permanently revoke licenses of certain drivers. So everyone should know the basic steps of things to do immediately following an accident.

Below is a summary of some of the first steps to take after a Boston car accident.

A Walpole deck collapse injured three partygoers last Thursday night. About 20 people were standing on the deck when it gave way, reports MyFox Boston.

A large group of young people in their late teens and early 20s were celebrating a friend's birthday on Hitching Post Road in Walpole, reports MyFox. Suddenly, the party came to an end when a deck carrying about 20 people came crashing down. Despite the number of people on the deck, only three people suffered injuries ranging from broken bones to concussions.

Anyone who has been injured in a car accident can generally seek damages against the driver at fault if that driver’s careless or reckless behavior caused the accident. But most of us would agree that when someone is seriously injured in a car accident, or even killed, no amount of money will be enough to make one whole.

Now, Massachusetts legislators are considering implementing a road menace bill that could permanently revoke the licenses of habitual traffic offenders. The purpose of this bill is to prevent accidents and injuries from occurring in the first place, by attempting to keep drivers who cause most of the accidents off the road.

Michele Dufault died this April in a tragic lab accident at Yale University. Now, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is saying that the Yale student death may have been preventable as Yale violated several safety requirements at the time of death.

Dufault, a Scituate native, was a physics and astronomy student at Yale, reports the Associated Press. One night, Dufault was working alone in a school lab when her hair got caught in a fast spinning lathe. Dufault was pulled into the machine and killed.

A 39-year old Framingham housekeeper died a day after she received breast implants at Destination Beauty Medspa. Results of an autopsy are pending for Adriana Paula Da Silva Toledo that can show whether the woman suffered a breast implants death.

According to MetroWest Daily News, Toledo went to Destination Beauty Medspa over the weekend for her surgery. Toledo was reportedly groggy following the surgery and fell in her bathroom the next day. She was taken to MetroWest Medical Center and was pronounced dead due to a clot in her heart, said doctors. An autopsy may determine whether that clot was related to the breast implants.

Hingham traffic data shows that the leading cause of traffic accidents leading to serious injuries in the town is tailgating. According to The Patriot Ledger, tailgating sent more people to the hospital than either speeding or drunk driving.

The Ledger reports that there were 851 car crashes in Hingham last year, with 93 of those accidents causing serious injuries. Of those 93 accidents, 30 were caused by tailgating. Surprisingly, only six serious crashes were caused by speeding and four by drunk driving. The second leading cause of serious car accidents was drivers who crossed into another lane, and the third leading cause was drivers who ran stop signs.

The City of Fall River is now subject to two lawsuits stemming from alleged EMT negligence by the same EMT -- Daniel Viveiros. The two incidents happened just months apart, and you have to wonder what Fall River city officials were thinking in allowing Viveiros to continue working as an EMT.

In the first incident, Viveiros is alleged to have contributed to the death of 46-year-old Antonio Carvalho, reports The Herald News. Carvalho had made an emergency call complaining of difficulty breathing. The man was suffering from cardiac arrest, but Viveiros allegedly failed to diagnose the problem. Carvalho's family claims that Viveiros was negligent in failing to bring his medical equipment in responding to the call and not taking Carvalho's vital signs. In a wrongful death suit, the family is claiming $2 million in damages.

A deadly Yarmouth accident was narrowly averted — twice. In separate incidents, two tourists staying at two different Yarmouth motels both almost suffered two deadly pool drownings.

In the first incident, The Boston Globe reports that a 20-year old Russian tourist nearly drowned at the Yarmouth Resort Motel. According to the Globe, Ainura Akhmetova had trouble swimming and needed to be pulled out from the water by a motel employee. Police performed CPR on the woman and used a defibrillator. She is reportedly breathing on her own at Cape Cod Hospital.

A 14-year old boy from Needham fell 150 feet from an Aubrey Falls rock and lived to tell about it. This accident is just the latest in a series of accidents this summer at national parks and campsites that show the natural dangers of the wild.

According to WCVB TV, the unidentified teen was standing on the edge of the rock at the Canadian park when he fell 150 feet into a gorge. Due to the steep grade, it took a five-man technical team to rescue the boy, who miraculously, was not seriously injured.