This blog presents Metropolitan Engineering Consulting & Forensics (MEC&F) claim management and claim investigation analyses of some of the typical claims we handle
Two elderly women were killed when a car in which they were traveling
slammed into a parked car and a concrete pole in a Glendale parking
garage Thursday, police said.
Glendale
police were investigating a fatal crash in a parking structure next to a
Ralphs on Glendale Avenue on July 9, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)
The crash occurred about 1 p.m. in the underground lot adjacent the Ralphs grocery store at 211 N. Glendale Ave.
The vehicle entered the south entrance off East Wilson Avenue and
traveled through the parking structure in front of the grocery store at a
high rate of speed, Glendale Police Department spokeswoman Tahnee
Lightfoot said.
“We have a lot of foot traffic, a lot of people grocery shopping at
this time of day, so very lucky that other individuals were injured,”
Lightfoot said.
It was not known if the driver had a medical condition or if there were problems with the vehicle, she said.
The two people found dead inside the vehicle were described by police
Sgt. Robert Williams as elderly women. Investigators with the county
coroner’s office arrived around 5 p.m., and police said the victims had
not been identified by early evening.
The vehicle appeared to be a bronze Mercedes-Benz sedan, video from the scene showed.
Construction worker killed after being trapped in tractor-trailer fire in Forsyth County, NC
Posted 9:26 pm, July 9, 2015, by Web Staff
FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. —
Investigators in Forsyth County say a
construction worker was killed Thursday when the tractor-trailer bed he
was in caught on fire, trapping him inside.
It happened around 1:30 p.m. on Belews Creek Road, according to an official.
The identity of the construction worker has not been released.
The victim was unloading a delivery of pine straw, pushing toward the
doors of the trailer, when a spark caught the pine straw on fire.
Anthony Borrelli, aborrelli@pressconnects.com | @PSBABorrelli
3:28 p.m. EDT July 8, 2015
Two
Owego residents are accused of insurance fraud after reporting theft of
a pickup truck that was later found in the Susquehanna River, police
said.
Tioga County Sheriff’s deputies said a 2008 Nissan Frontier
pickup truck had been reported stolen on Aug. 28, 2014, but it was later
recovered near the Marshland boat launch on the river.
Michael
Miller, 55, and Laura Miller, 50, were both charged on Thursday with a
felony count of third-degree insurance fraud and a misdemeanor count of
third-degree falsely reporting an incident.
Laura Miller was also
charged by the state Department of Environmental Conservation police
with four misdemeanor and three violations related to the case,
officials said.
The sheriff’s office said the investigation is continuing and further charges are possible.
Michael
and Laura Miller were arraigned in Owego Town Court and sent to the
Tioga County jail with bail set at $5,000 cash or bond, while awaiting
further court proceedings.
Columbia Falls, Montana Man Ordered to Pay Over $45,000 in Restitution to Montana State Fund
On Thursday, Columbia Falls resident
Salvador Maldonado-Medina pled guilty in Lewis & Clark County
District Court to felony theft and employer misconduct for receiving
Montana Workers’ Compensation benefits while working after claiming to
be injured at one of his businesses, when in fact he was injured at
another business he owned, where he elected to have no workers
compensation coverage for himself or his employees.
In March 2015, Maldonado-Medina, 36, was accused of defrauding the
Montana State Fund for $45,858.02 in wage loss and medical benefits he
received from 2013 to 2015.
Maldonado-Medina pleaded guilty to charges
of employer misconduct and felony theft in District Court in Helena and
on July 2 was given a six-year concurrent deferred sentence, and ordered
to pay a $2,000 fine and restitution to Montana State Fund in the
amount of $45,858.02.
Assistant Attorney General Mary Cochenour alleged that on February
18, 2013, Maldonado-Medina, who owns La Fiesta Mexicana Restaurant in
Kalispell and SM Roofing in Columbia Falls, lied when he filed a work
comp claim stating he had injured his knee after falling from a ladder
at his restaurant, where he had a workers compensation insurance policy
in effect.
Montana State Fund accepted the claim and paid medical
benefits and bi-weekly temporary total disability (TTD) benefits based
on information that Maldonado-Medina could not return to word due to his
injuries.
After State Fund received a physical therapy note that indicated
Maldonado-Medina was on his feet for long periods of time due to his
work, surveillance was conducted to determine if his roofing company was
in operation, whether it had any employees, and whether
Maldonado-Medina was earning wages while collecting TTD benefits under
his restaurant’s policy.
While Maldonado-Medina later told State Fund
he had not conducted any roofing since his knee surgery and that he had
no employees performing any roofing for the company during the policy
period, investigators learned he had purchased more than $45,000 in
roofing supplies which were delivered to 11 different residences in
Flathead County during that time.
Subsequent interviews with the homeowners indicated that
Maldonado-Medina had worked on several of the homes alongside two other
men. State investigators were able to confirm that these men were
Maldonado-Medina’s employees, and that their pay had not been reported
under work comp insurance to SM Roofing.
Investigators also learned
that Maldonado-Medina in fact injured his knee while performing roofing
work at a new home construction site in Whitefish, not at his restaurant
in Kalispell.
“This case was highly unusual because it involved a defendant who
defrauded Montana’s work comp system in two ways – both as an employer
and as an employee,” said Attorney General Tim Fox. “Let this serve as a
warning to anyone who tries to games the system, no matter how complex
your scheme is. If you don’t report your employees for workers’ comp
coverage while at the same time cover yourself at a lower premium rate
and file fraudulent claims, we will find and prosecute you,” Attorney
General Fox added.
Premiums for coverage in the roofing industry are
often many times higher than premiums in other businesses, such as those
in an office setting, or restaurant work places.
Between February 2013 and March 2015, Montana State Fund paid $39,092
in medical costs and $6,765 in wage loss benefits to Maldonado-Medina.
Curt Larsen, Special Assistant General Counsel at Montana State Fund,
said that had his agency known that Maldonado-Medina was injured while
roofing and not while working at his restaurant, Montana State Fund
would not have accepted his claim.
Larsen also praised the work of
Assistant Attorney General Mary Cochenour, the Division of Criminal
Investigation at the Montana Department of Justice, and his staff at
Montana State Fund for their proactive and collaborative work on the
complex and unusual case.
Massive Oak Tree Snaps, Smashes Cars in Summit, NJ
By
Brynn Gingras
Updated at 8:51 AM EDT on Wednesday, Jul 8, 2015
A
giant 200-year-old tree came crashing down on top of two cars parked in
a New Jersey driveway Tuesday, shaking the block and startling
neighbors, who are still stunned that no one was hurt.
Shadyside
Avenue in Summit is a lot less shady without the massive oak tree,
which went down Tuesday evening, falling smack on top of two cars,
smashing them and extending into the street.
"It
sounded like an earthquake was happening, the whole house was shaking,"
said homeowner Seamus McFadden. "It was pretty intense."
The old oak canopied the McFaddens' whole yard before it landed on the two cars.
The trunk appeared rotted, which is likely why it snapped. It took down power lines with it.
A bucket truck was brought in to chop up the massive trunk.
"We're going to miss her," said neighbor Daren Fryburg of the tree.
Neighbors say it's a good reminder for homeowners to look at their trees' conditions as summer storms arrive.
The recall affects 165,000 Hummer H3s and H3Ts in the United States.Credit
General Motors, via Associated Press
General Motors
is recalling about 196,000 Hummer sport utility vehicles because of an
electrical problem that resulted in at least two vehicles being
destroyed in fires, the automaker said on Wednesday.
An
electrical part of the heating and cooling system could overheat and
cause a fire inside the dashboard, the automaker said. Three people
suffered minor burns.
“There
was a funny smell. I immediately stopped and told my passenger to get
out and noticed a fire under the passenger glove box,” one Hummer owner
wrote the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
in June 2014. “I tried pouring milk and juice on the fire to put it out
under the dash but it didn’t put the fire completely out. The vehicle
quickly went up in flames.”
Hummer
owners filed at least 20 complaints with the safety agency about fires
inside the dashboard, and two said the vehicles were destroyed. The
safety agency began receiving complaints about the problem in 2008. Over
all, G.M. said that there were 42 reported fires.
The
recall includes 165,000 vehicles in the United States and includes the
Hummer H3 from the 2006-10 model years and the H3T from 2009-10.
“The
N.H.T.S.A. needs to investigate this or are you waiting for an actual
fire to cause G.M. to fix this issue,” one owner wrote the agency in
June 2013. There was no indication on the safety agency’s website that
regulators had opened an investigation.
An internal audit by the Transportation Department last month said that the safety agency had moved too slowly on many investigations.
Mark R. Rosekind, the agency’s administrator, told a congressional subcommittee last month that the agency lacked the resources it needed.
That statement contrasts with ones from his predecessors, including
David L.
Strickland, that the agency was adequately funded and doing a
good job.
Also
on Wednesday, G.M. said it would recall about 51,000 Chevrolet cars,
including almost 46,000 in the United States, because of a radio
software problem that could disable some audible warning functions
including seatbelts not being fastened or the door being opened with the
key still in the ignition.
That recall includes the 2014-15 Chevrolet
Spark and the 2015 Sonic.
robin brown and
Brittany Horn, The News Journal 7:49 p.m. EDT July 9, 2015
Three
people were injured, one of them critically, in a fiery crash that left
a box truck on its side and a driver trapped in wreckage at the busy
intersection of Del. 1 and Del. 273 just before the start of Thursday
evening rush hour.
A crash reported at 3:36 p.m. Thursday
prompted state police to warn drivers to avoid the New Castle-area
intersection, but massive traffic backups were reported to stretch
nearly a mile on Christiana Road and the Christiana Bypass.
The
male driver of the car remained trapped until emergency crews freed him
by cutting away the vehicle's doors and roof, said Christiana Fire
Company Fire Chief Richard J. Perillo.
The 76-year-old
man was treated on scene for an upper extremity injury and possible
internal injuries, said New Castle County Paramedic Cpl. Abigail E.
Haas. He then was transported with advanced life support assistance to
Christiana Hospital, Perillo said. He was in critical condition Thursday
night, Haas said.
A female passenger in the car was also
transported to the same hospital by basic life support services with
non life-threatening injuries, Haas said.
The truck driver declined treatment, Haas added.
Christiana Fire Company was assisted in the rescue effort by crews from Minquas of Newport Fire Company, Perillo said.
A
Department of Transportation hazardous materials team also has been
called to the crash site to deal with a diesel fuel spill, according to
dispatch reports.
DNREC officials and a hazardous
materials team from Belvedere Fire Company assisted with a large spill
of fuel and oil from the overturned box truck, Perillo said.
Only
one lane of eastbound Del. 273 remained open shortly after the crash,
reported at 3:36 p.m. Thursday, Delaware State Police Master Cpl.
Jeffrey R. Hale said. The crash scene has since been cleared, according
to Delaware Department of Transportation live traffic reports.
With
police in the preliminary stages of investigating the crash, Hale said
more information will be released when the investigation is completed.
Air4 photo of aircraft crash at Renton Airport, July 9, 2015.
RENTON, Wash. -
A pilot was treated by medics following a hard landing at the Renton Municipal Airport Thursday afternoon.
Firefighters responded to reports of a small airplane crash shortly after 3 p.m.
Only
one pilot was in the Cessna at the time of the crash. Firefighters say
the man was able to remove himself from the plane, and was treated by
medics.
Officials temporarily closed the airport while crews cleared the wreckage and cleaned up spilled fuel.
Fourteen people were sent to hospitals, including eleven young
children, after a truck crashed into the back of a church van Thursday
morning in Athens.
According to THP, the crash happened just before 9:30 am near the intersection of Highway 30 and McMinn County Road 554.
The
van was carrying eleven children, between the ages of 4 and 8, who were
attending a day camp hosted by the Zion Hill Baptist Church in
Englewood.
Troopers said Zachery Crager, 18, of Decatur, was
driving the pickup truck that crashed into the van. Crager said his
brakes failed. He was cited for failure to maintain an operating
vehicle. Crager was taken to Star Regional Etowah Hospital, then
transferred to UT Medical Center in Knoxville.
Gary Culberson, 61,
of Etowah, was driving the van. He was taken by ambulance to the
hospital in Etowah. A front seat passenger, Whitney Martin, 27, of
Englewood, was flown to UT Medical Center by medical helicopter.
Eleven children on the bus were injured. One of those, Kaiden Boyer, 6, was taken to UT Medical Center for treatment.
Ten other kids were taken to Star Regional Etowah Hospital: Brayden Martin, 4, from Englewood, TN Matthew Nichols, 8, from Englewood, TN Javon Batts, 6, from Etowah, TN Thomas Underwood, 6, from Etowah, TN Amos Landerth, 6, from Englewood, TN Casin Lee, 6, from Reliance, TN Noah Ownbey, 6, from Etowah, TN Jesse Holden, 6, from Etowah, TN Clark Patterson, 6, from Englewood, TN Aaden Fry, 6, from Athens, TN
Two men were injured when a boat exploded in Deale, Md. on Thursday.
The
explosion happened at Rockhold Creek Marina in the 400 block of Deale
Rd. at 11:50 a.m., according to Anne Arundel Fire and Rescue officials.
The
men, one believed to be in his 20s and the other in his fifties, were
working on the boat when the explosion happened. Officials say both men
have second degree burns on 40 percent of their bodies. They were taken
to Washington Medstar Burn Unit with non-life threatening injuries.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
Hundreds of BART commuters were
stranded for hours Thursday after service was suspended following a fire
that broke out beneath a car as it was leaving the Oakland Coliseum
Station.
By
David Louie
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) --
Hundreds of BART commuters were stranded for hours after service was
suspended at four East Bay stations following a fire that broke out
beneath a car as it was leaving the Oakland Coliseum Station.
It's the latest in a string of breakdowns and problems plaguing a system in dire need of new tracks and repairs.
The interruption to service lasted for nearly three hours.
There were some minor injuries and BART blames passengers for not following emergency evacuation instructions.
The
three passengers who were injured sustained cuts from broken glass and a
back injury when they broke out two windows to escape the smoke they
saw coming from underneath their car. It was the last of a three-car
train going north as it left the Oakland Coliseum Station.
The train
operator had been instructing them to move to the car ahead of them. The
track is about 60 feet above ground. "This is an aerial section of
track that this occurred on, which means that people would be getting
out onto a trackway with a thousand volts of electricity running through
the third rail and then there's the potential to fall off of that
section of trackway," BART spokesperson Jim Allison said.
Several passengers were treated at the Fruitvale station in Oakland, Calif. by medics on Thursday, July 9, 2015. (KGO-TV)
BART
thinks the fire was caused by an electric arc when the car lost contact
with the third-rail, which feeds power to the train's engine. The
incident occurred on a recently replaced section of track.
It
underscores that BART is showing its age. The breakdowns is a major sore
point among passengers. "There are a lot of problems happening
regularly and that's the frank reality of having a system that is as old
that it is today. I mean our cars are from 1972 and our trackway, 90
miles of it, is from the same era," BART Communications spokesperson
Taylor Huckaby said.
Some of us might drive a car for five or 10
years or maybe longer, but BART cars are 43 years old and some of the
tracks are even older.
A BART committee is working on plans to
submit a $3 billiion bond issue to voters next year to help pay for new
tracks and other repairs. "It's about really understanding what is the
track that is most at risk of failing and then making sure we're
investing in replacing that particular track, not the stuff, that even
though it's old, is still in pretty good shape," BART Board Director
Nick Josefowitz said.
Just two months ago, a tear in new track was discovered that could have caused a derailment.
Crews are still working to repair damage as an investigation is underway.
More well water sampling results are in, and
officials say no new detections of acrylonitrile have been found in
wells near the CSX train derailment site in Blount County, but the well
water advisory had not been lifted.
The results were sent to the City of Maryville, City of Alcoa, Blount
County, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
TDEC’s Water Resources Division was requested to monitor 100 wells in
the area. Results are back on 56 of those with no new detections of the
chemical acrylonitrile, but one well in which the chemical had been
detected continues to show elevated levels.
CSX says it will continue to aggressively sample and monitor the area.
The CSX Community Outreach Support Line will continue to be
operational from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The CSX
support line is 800-331-4031. Health-related inquiries can be directed
to 866-812-9565. The Center will be open through 8 p.m. on Wednesday,
noon until 8 p.m. on Thursday, and noon until 5 p.m. on Friday. At that
time, additional needed operational hours will be announced.
The special advisory is directed to the area between Mount Tabor
Road, Old Glory Road, West Lamar Alexander Parkway and Robert C. Jackson
Drive. City officials are advising residents within this area to
refrain from using well water after a sample within 350 feet of last
week’s train derailment tested positive for a small trace of
acrylonitrile. This flammable and poisonous material was inside of the
single-tank car that derailed and caught on fire July 2.
A surface water advisory issued Sunday after around 50 dead fish were
found in Culton Creek has been lifted. CSX says testing shows
significant declines in the hazardous chemical and it is now safe for
livestock and aquatic life.
Blount County beekeepers worried about derailment’s effects
Blount County beekeepers are worried their population and honey may
be impacted by the derailment. Two beekeepers say depending on the test,
the derailment could cost them thousands of dollars.
Bees work to cool the inside of their hives by bringing back water.
“Up to a gallon a day,” said beekeeper Coley O’Dell.
Four of his hives are about 100 feet away from Culton Creek. O’Dell
has been checking twice a day to see if his bees are flying strange or
if any are on the ground.
“With contaminants, it may show up in a day or two or two weeks or three weeks,” he said.
Beekeepers wonder if the current population is okay, as well as
larvae which hasn’t hatched yet. The other big question is if the honey
is safe.
“If the test is positive, then these hives will probably have to be destroyed,” said O’Dell.
“The state asked everybody to not extract their honey. Then they said
it’s okay to extract, but keep it in separate tanks and wash your
equipment,” said Howard Kerr.
That is exactly what he’s doing, but beekeepers all over Blount
County are not taking any risks and being more cautious until results
from tests are in.
“What I told CSX yesterday was, ‘Well, if my honey is contaminated
you guys will be buying about $50,000 worth of honey.’ They said no
problem,” added Kerr.
It’s now a waiting game.
“That derailment hopefully won’t cost me that much,” said O’Dell.
Some beekeepers are expecting officials with the state and EPA to
visit Thursday. They’ll be inspecting each hive and even taking samples
of the larvae back to test and see if in fact there was any kind of
contamination.
Beekeepers say the local honey that may be in your home or you’re
currently buying in stores is safe. That honey was extracted well before
the train derailment.
Sea levels could rise by at least
six metres (20 feet) in the long term, swamping coasts from
Florida to Bangladesh, even if governments achieve their goals
for curbing global warming, according to a study published on
Thursday. Tracts of ice in Greenland and Antarctica melted when
temperatures were around or slightly higher than today in
ancient thaws in the past three million years, a U.S.-led
international team wrote in the journal Science.
And the world may be headed for a repeat even if governments
cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to a UnitedNations goal of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above
pre-industrial times.
"Present temperature targets may commit Earth to at least
six metres sea level rise," the authors at the Past Global
Changes project wrote. Some greenhouse gases can linger for
centuries in the atmosphere.
Such a thaw would threaten cities from Beijing to London,
and swamp low-lying tropical island states.
Lead author Andrea Dutton, of the University of Florida,
said it could take many centuries for a six-metre rise, despite
some ancient evidence that more rapid shifts were possible.
"This is a long-term projection. It's not going to happen
the day after tomorrow," she told Reuters.
The United Nations' panel of climate scientists said in 2013
that global warming could push up world sea levels by 26 to 82
cm (10 to 32 inches) by the late 21st century, on top of a 19 cm
gain since 1900.
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Thursday's study, based on studies of everything from
ancient ice to fossil corals, said sea levels rose by between
six and nine metres in a warm period about 125,000 years ago
when temperatures were similar to those of today.
Ocean levels gained between six and 13 metres 400,000 years
ago when temperatures were up to about 1C warmer than present.
And in a warm period three million years ago, sea levels
were also at least six metres higher than now. The ancient
shifts were probably linked to natural variations in the Earth's
orbit around the sun.
Last year, some scientific studies indicated that parts of
West Antarctica's ice sheet had already passed a "tipping
point", and were locked in an unstoppable long-term thaw.
"Tipping is not just a theoretical possibility, it is a
reality," Ricarda Winkelmann of the Potsdam Institute for
Climate Impact Research told a science conference in Paris.
(Additional reporting by Laurie Goering in Paris; Editing by
Mark Trevelyan)
RCMP confirms a plane has crashed just north of Osoyoos on Highway 97. Traffic is said to be at a standstill in both directions.
Details are still coming in and we’ll have more information as soon as it becomes available.
The small plane crash near Osoyoos (Photo Credit: Kim Cameron)
According
to the Transportation Safety Board (TSB), they have yet to receive a
report from the Osoyoos RCMP regarding the incident and are waiting for
information from the detachment.
North of Osoyoos
Airport (CBB9), Osoyoos, Okanagan Valley, BC - Canada
Phase:
Landing
Nature:
Unknown
Departure airport:
Oliver Muni (CAU3)
Destination
airport:
Boundary Bay
(CZBB/YDT)
Narrative:
The aircraft impacted a vehicle and adjacent trees north of Osoyoos in the southern
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, during a force landing. The airplane was
partially consumed by the post-impact fire and the sole pilot onboard received
serious injuries.
