Graco Cribs Recalled Due to Mattress-Frame Failure
According to reports made by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), product manufacturers Simplicity and Graco cribs issued recalls for multiple models of their baby cribs due to a malfunction in the hardware that holds the components together. The hardware for the mattress' tubular support frame has been known to fail and become detached. This then creates a void where small children can become trapped, strangled, and possibly suffocate or fall out of the crib.
This issue seems to be isolated to the product models where one side of the crib drops down to allow a caregiver to easily extract the child. So far 99 accounts of the failed mattress frames have been noted. In one of those instances, a one-year-old boy suffocated after becoming entrapped between the mattress and crib frame. All other failures resulted in minor injuries such as scrapes and bruises.
This recall targets roughly 217,000 Graco cribs in two dozen different models. Simplicity is no longer in business, after nearly all of their models have been recalled. Their products have been linked to 13 child deaths since 2005. Many of these cribs were available for sale at major retail outlets such as Target, Walmart and Babies R Us.
We understand how much faith you put into the products you purchase for your children and it can be horrifying to find out those items can cause serious injury or death. As a product liability lawyer, the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard has dealt with many cases regarding faulty products that have led to the injuries of small children. These products range from car seats, strollers, baby carriers and slings. If your child has been injured as a result of a defective product, we recommend that you contact an experienced, reputable attorney that can advise you on your legal rights. For more information on this recall, you can visit the CPSC website here.
New App Prevents Texting While Driving
After a Washington man watched his three-year-old daughter narrowly avoid being hit by a driver who was distracted by texting on his cell phone, he decided to take action. There's no denying that driving while texting shifts your attention away from the road and can result in a catastrophic, if not fatal, Seattle car accident. Car and Driver Magazine published a study conducted by Virginia Tech that concluded drivers that text have slower reaction times than intoxicated drivers. Not only that, but those who choose to text while driving are almost 25 times more likely to be implicated in an auto accident.
Erik Wood teamed with software writers to bring OTTER to life. His software, which is an acronym for "One Touch Text Response," serves to inhibit people's instinctual need to respond to a text-message right away, even when they're driving. The application is set-up so that when you travel faster than 10 miles per hour, a GPS sensor will trigger your phone to go into an auto-reply mode. The phone won't alert the driver in any way that a text message has been received and it will send a customized response automatically to the sender.
Wood claims the software was designed to be used as a "tool, not a shackle" and was not intended to "impede on anyone's civil liberties." OTTER has also paired up with the Break the Habit Campaign which serves to educate teenagers about the dangers of texting while driving.
An added bonus that the software provides is decreasing distractions while working or studying. Wood has heard from users that are now much more productive during school or work hours by setting their phone to the auto-respond OTTER mode. This application works on the Google Android platform only and is available to download for $3.99.
We hope that more people will come forward with other smart ideas to make our roads safer and to help decrease accident rates. At the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard, we've seen way too many accidents caused by texting while driving that could have been easily avoided. To learn more about the Break the Habit Campaign click here. For more information about OTTER, please click here.
Whoa, watch where you’re going!
The other day I told you about a car that is able to actually steer itself and how I hope that the technology would be able to prevent car accidents in the future. Well, I just finished reading an article where a team of Scientists at Freie Universität, working under the computer science professor Raúl Rojas, are developing technology that will allow you to steer your car with your eyes.
You read that right. There are cameras and software that monitor where your eyes track on the road, collect that data and then adjust the direction of travel based on where you look. Acceleration and braking work independently of the eye-tracking software, called eyeDriver. The technology behind it is rather complex and you can read more about it here and here.
The car operates in two modes under this technology, free ride and routing.In the free ride setting, the steering works in conjunction with visual and physical input from the driver. On the other hand, routing mode offers autonomous steering by tracking eye movement. Only when you come to fork on the road will the car prompt you for decision making.
The software actually has the technology to sense when your eyes close, and when this happens it automatically applies the brakes. I would love to see more advancements like this that can hep make driving safer. As we begin to live busier and busier lives car accidents appear to be happening more and more. It would be wonderful to be able to cut down on the number of accidents and have safer highways.
Is Safer Driving Around The Corner?
I was thumbing through Yahoo News when I stumbled upon this article about a car that is set to climb (switchback laden) Pike's Peak this fall. Big deal you might be thinking right now, but the catch is that it will do so without a driver!
The first thing that flashed in my mind was the old movie "The LoveBug" where "Herbie" had a mind and personality of it's own. While this car is nothing like that, it may very well be able to one day help save lives and prevent car accidents.
Stanford University researchers have been working on technology that can make driving a much safer experience for us in the future, and this is a major milestone in that journey. This is certainly not the first major break through in cars that operate themselves. We currently have cars on the market with adaptive cruise control as well as cars that parallel park without the aid of the driver.
If you'd like to find out more about this car (Shelley) you can read the full article here.
Goldman Sachs Slapped with Fraud Charges
As lawmakers attempt to crack down on the practices of the world's largest financial institutions that led to our current financial crisis, the Security and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and it's Vice President Fabrice Tourre. The basis of this case rests on the allegations that Goldman Sachs misled their clients to invest in a mortgage product that was designed to fail. The big question at hand now, is whether this is just the tip of the iceberg and if more charges will be filed against other financial institutions as well.
Renowned hedge fund company, Paulson & Co., was an integral player in developing this subprime product in conjunction with Goldman Sachs. Paulson was granted the opportunity to personally choose the subprime mortgages that would be available in this product, dubbed Abacus. Then, knowing that these mortgages were doomed to fold, Paulson shorted the investment and waited to cash in on their failure.
Welcome To My New Blog
Hello, my name is Kirk Bernard and welcome to my new blog. I will be using this site to keep you up to date on educational information regarding personal injury and car accidents.
Should you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to get to it in a timely manner.