The federal agency charged with overseeing the trucking industry is trying a new way to monitor the safety of new trucking companies. Will it work to keep unsafe truckers off the road?
In July 2013, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) began a revised program for checking the safety operations of start-up trucking companies. These companies are called "new entrants." After a new entrant begins operations, it is subject to the FMCSA's safety monitoring procedures for up to 18 ...
Healthcare providers are going to make mistakes. Tragically, their mistakes can be fatal. Some estimate as many as 440,000 people die in the United States each year from preventable medical errors, making them the third-leading cause of death in the country.
In this context, it was troubling to hear that the federal government pulled from public view data it has on serious medical errors made by hospitals. Fortunately, due to intense media reporting, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ...
Did you know you can check the safety performance of America's trucking companies and motorcoach carriers?
The information is available online at the website of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The agency's mission is to reduce fatal truck accidents and fatal bus accidents in Missouri and all 50 states.
FMCSA recently revamped its Compliance, Safety, Accountability program, which measures and reports on accidents involving commercial trucks and bus companies. The ...
Could well-known products that wash your hands and clean your teeth pose a dangerous health risk to American consumers? Scientific evidence, recently reinserted into the public spotlight, indicate the answer is yes.
Triclosan is an antibacterial agent used in numerous consumer products, from soaps to toothpaste, household cleaning supplies to kitchen utensils. It was first used in hospitals as a surgical scrub in the 1970s and has been used in many products since then. A Centers for Disease Control study in 2008 found ...
How do patients judge their physicians?
A recent survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research included random phone calls to 1,000 adults age 18 and older throughout the country to gauge how they evaluate doctors. Almost six in 10 gave a factor they considered most important in measuring a doctor's skill that was linked to the physician's personality and how he or she relates to the patient. Only 29 percent said that delivery of care or the treatment outcome was ...
The St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Mo., banned all drivers - regardless of age - from texting within the city limits with a new ordinance unanimously passed by its city council on July 3, 2014. It goes further than Missouri's anti-texting law, which bars only those 21 years old and younger from texting while driving.
Kirkwood is not the first St. Louis area city to prohibit all texting while driving. Previously, St. John, Manchester, and Florissant banned this dangerous practice.
And all enacted ...
Those who own or have been hurt in an accident involving any of almost 6 million vehicles recalled by GM this year may have legal claims against the automaker.
Following the recall of 2.6 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches in February and March of this year, General Motors recently announced a similar recall of an additional 3.16 million vehicles. This recall focuses on a defective ignition key. The new group of vehicles encompasses an entirely different list of makes and models than the previous ignition switch ...
Fatigued truck drivers cause numerous catastrophic accidents each year. Unfortunately, it took one such accident involving a well-known celebrity to focus the nation's attention on the fatal consequences of tired tractor trailer drivers.
As extensively reported by the media, comedian Tracy Morgan recently suffered multiple and severe injuries when a large commercial truck rear-ended the limo in which he was riding. The truck flipped the limo several times. Another passenger in the limo was killed in the crash.
According ...
General Motors recently announced another recall of its automobiles over safety concerns. That's a total of 29 separate recalls covering 12.6 million vehicles by the automaker - in the first five months of 2014 alone. GM's previous record high for car recalls in one year was 10.75 million vehicles.
The record number of recalled vehicles is troubling enough for U.S. consumers. Even more disturbing is that none of these dangerous products may have been recalled if it weren't for legal action brought ...
How serious are medical errors in this country? One out of every 20 patients is misdiagnosed in this country in outpatient settings every year, according to a new health care industry study. That's approximately 12 million people.
The study, published online by the journal BMJ Quality & Safety, also reports that the misdiagnoses for half of those patients - 6 million people - are very serious, such as missing or delaying cancer treatment, which can be fatal.
A researcher at the Baylor College of ...
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