Personal Injury and Automobile Accidents
- Drive Safe Hampton Roads to provide free child safety seat checks
Sep 23, 2008Drive Safe Hampton Roads is kicking off National Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week with a free Child Safety Seat Check on September 20, 2008, 10:00am to 1:00pm, at AAA Tidewater, 5366 Virginia Beach Blvd. in Virginia Beach.
The week of September 21-28 is nationally designated as Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week to promote the increased and proper use of child safety seats and safety belts when children are riding in motor vehicles. To help educate parents and caregivers about the potential dangers of improperly installed child safety seats, Drive Safe Hampton Roads and their community partners will be offering to check safety seats for proper installation as part of the national "Safety Seat Saturday" kick off.
Drive Safe Hampton Roads would like to remind parents and caregivers that Virginia law requires all children under the age of eight to be properly restrained in a Department of Transportation (DOT). This law applies to any driver, not just the parent or the guardian, in any vehicle on any highway in Virginia. In addition, all children between the ages of eight and sixteen years of age must be properly restrained in a safety seat or belt, in any seating position in a vehicle.
- Woman on cell phone hits state trooper in car
Sep 17, 2008We are an unabashed nation of multitaskers. With lengthy to-do lists and limited hours in the day, we squeeze as much as we can into every waking moment.
There's nothing wrong with that - unless we're driving. Then the affinity for multitasking veers into a dangerous habit, one that too often leads to accidents, injuries and even deaths.
So it was Sunday when, according to the State Police, a 24-year-old woman's Chevy Suburban struck a trooper's car parked along Interstate 264 in Virginia Beach. The trooper said Sabrina Farbor, of Virginia Beach, was talking on her cell phone when the accident occurred.
The trooper had stopped a pickup truck for speeding on eastbound I-264 near Mount Trashmore and had returned to his car. The Suburban hit his car, then the pickup; the Suburban flipped several times before coming to a stop. The trooper suffered minor injuries, while no one in the pickup was hurt. Farbor was taken to a hospital, but her injuries were not life-threatening. She faces reckless driving charges, said State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Cotten.
- Chesapeake schools, bus driver settle with parents over accident
Sep 17, 2008The Chesapeake school system and one of its bus drivers have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the parents of a 14-year-old girl who was injured when she was hit by a school bus last year.
The settlement is for $18,000 as a result of injuries the child suffered, according to court records. The accident occurred May 31, 2007.
A petition has been filed in Chesapeake Circuit Court, and must be approved by the judge before it becomes final. A hearing is set for later this month. The school system and the bus driver agreed to the settlement, which would be paid by the Virginia Municipal League Insurance Programs.
School officials confirmed this week that there was an accident but said they had no details of the event. The child was on foot when she was hit by the bus, said Scott Barney, the attorney for the child's mother, Silva Valenzuela.
The bus had dropped off children at the intersection of Country Road and Country Circle in South Norfolk and was making a left turn, Barney said. An argument between students occurred on board the bus and the driver became distracted and "clipped'' the juvenile pedestrian, Barney said.
- Police chase of carjacking suspects ends in crash, 6 charged
Aug 28, 2008Police across Hampton Roads are working a carjacking case that crossed over from Newport News, into Hampton and finally ended with a crash in Norfolk.
Newport News police spokesman Harold Eley told WAVY.com, around 1:45 a.m. Friday, August 15, police were called to the 1100 block of Garden Drive for a carjacking.
Police say a man got out of a white minivan, then walked up to the 26-year-old victim and ordered him to hand over his Pontiac Grand Am, at gunpoint. That suspect drove away in the Grand Am. Another suspect took off in the minivan.
- Police: charges pending against injured Virginia Beach motorcycle rider
Jul 25, 2008Police say charges are pending against the 29-year-old motorcycle driver who slammed into the back of a car early Sunday morning, causing himself life-threatening injuries.
The rider was listed in critical condition at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
Police received a call at around 4:50 a.m. about an accident at the intersection of Lavender Lane and Longfellow Avenue, said police spokesman Wayne Gilbert.
A 1998 Toyota Corolla traveling west on Lavender Lane was making a righthand turn onto Longfellow Avenue when the motorcycle, a 2008 Eagle motor scooter, also traveling west on Lavender, crashed into the rear of the car, Gilbert said. The Eagle is considered a motorcycle because it has a 150 cc engine.
- Bicyclist Killed After Being Struck By SUV
Jul 25, 2008A bicyclist is killed after being struck by an SUV. The accident happened Thursday evening on North Witchduck Road in Virginia Beach.
Police say 38-year old Kenneth James Carver was traveling southbound when he turned into southbound traffic. That's when a female driver of a Durango struck the bicyclist.
No word yet on whether the SUV driver will face any charges.
- W&L professor formally sues Virginia Lottery
Jun 30, 2008A Washington and Lee professor formally takes his complaint against the Virginia Lottery's scratcher games to court.
In a news release sent out this morning (Monday), attorneys for business statistics professor Scott Hoover say they filed a complaint in Richmond Circuit Court last Friday, June 27th, against the Virginia Lottery. The lawsuit is based on Hoover's claims that the lottery sells scratcher tickets promising a chance to win the top prize, when that top prize has already been won and the tickets do not have a chance.
Hoover's lawsuit asks a judge to award "equitable relief to all affected customers," by essentially wiping the sales of the lottery scratcher tickets, and giving the money back to the people. That adds up to $85 million for the purchase of an estimated 26.5 million scratcher tickets, during the past five years.
Since Hoover and his attorney gave the state formal notice that they would file a complaint in the past month, the lottery admitted to some problems in the past with their scratcher games.
- Salmonella can ride water into tomatoes
Jun 30, 2008Pick a tomato in the blazing sun and plunge it straight into cold water. If that happened on the way to market, it might be contaminated. Too big of a temperature difference can make a tomato literally suck water inside the fruit through the scar where its stem used to be. If salmonella happens to be lurking on the skin, that's one way it can penetrate and, if the tomato isn't eaten right away, have time to multiply.
That doesn't mean people shouldn't wash their tomatoes - they should, just probably not in cold water.
But as the Food and Drug Administration investigates the nation's outbreak of salmonella from tomatoes, the example shows the farm isn't the only place contamination can occur - and checking things like water quality and temperature control in packing houses and other supply stops is one key to safety.
Raw fruits and vegetables are crucial to a healthy diet. But they're also the culprits in a growing list of nasty outbreaks: E. coli in spinach and lettuce. Hepatitis A in green onions. Cyclospora in raspberries. Salmonella in cantaloupe. Shigella in parsley.
This newest salmonella outbreak is the 14th blamed on tomatoes since 1990.
- Man in critical condition after being hit by car in Norfolk
Jun 18, 2008A man is in critical condition in a hospital this morning after being hit by a car on Virginia Beach Boulevard.
The man, described by police as being in his 50s, was walking a bicycle across the street about 11 p.m. in the 6000 block of E. Virginia Beach Blvd. when he was hit by a vehicle that was headed east, said Chris Amos, police spokesman.
The man, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital with injuries that were considered life-threatening.
- Two Naval Men Injured in Va. Beach Wreck
May 24, 2008Two sailors were injured in a crash on Shore Driver in the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Police say that the wreck trapped the men inside the vehicle. They were transported to a local hospital with life threatening head injuries.
The men were headed east on Shore Drive just before 1 a.m. when they lost control of the vehicle, left the road, and slammed into a utility pole. After rolling several times the vehicle came to a stop. The force of the crash knocked the pole over.
Police believe that alcohol and speed were both factors in their crash, but it remains under investigation.
