Alabama Injury Attorneys Blog

Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, says they will not wait for federal approval to begin building sand barriers to protect Louisiana's coastline. Gov. Jindal and other state and local leaders have become increasingly frustrated with Obama's administration, which has yet to approve sand barriers along the coast. Jindal, who has been extremely critical of the amount of boom his state was issued, said the major complaint lies with the Army Corps of Engineers who has yet to give the "green light" to build sand booms to protect the Louisiana wetlands.

Jindal, who claims hard booms and soft booms do not work, used photographic evidence on Monday to prove his point that sand booms are what will ultimately corral the oil and therefore protect the wetlands.

According to Jindal, "We don't want oil on one inch of Louisiana's coastline, but we'd much rather fight this oil off of a hard coast, off of an island, off of an island, off of a sandy beach on our coastal islands, rather than having to fight it inside in these wetlands,"

"Every day we're not given approval on this emergency permit to create more of these booms is another day when that choice is made for us, as more and more miles of our shore are hit by oil."

Oil has now reached 12 miles into the Louisiana's Marshes leaving two pelican rookeries covered in crude oil.

Continue reading "Louisiana Will Not Wait For Federal "Ok" To Build Sand Barriers" »

If you are thinking about drinking and driving or speeding on Alabama highways, think again. This Saturday marks the forth annual "Take Back Alabama Highways" campaign. The Alabama State Troopers will be out in large numbers for 10 days to cut down on traffic violations and traffic fatalities through Memorial Day weekend.

The Alabama Department of Safety said 200 additional State Troopers and local law enforcement will cover the State. AL. Troopers will not only be watching for intoxicated drivers or speeding, but also improper lane changing and cars following too closely. The State Troopers will use every method to prevent car wrecks and traffic fatalities. Law enforcement will use radar guns, road blocks, and increase patrol cars at dangerous stretches of Alabama highways. Statistical Analysis of how and where accidents occur is the basis for selecting the operation location.

"Take Back Our Highways" coincides with "Click It or Ticket" a national campaign that focuses on seat belts. "Click it or Ticket" will begin Monday and run through June 6. About two-thirds of the fatalities in Alabama in 2009 were caused because of not using seat belts.

Alabama has already seen an 18% drop in traffic related fatalities compared to 2009. According to State Trooper, Chad Joiner, "We've stepped up our enforcement initiatives and it's made a difference."

Continue reading "Alabama State Troopers Begin "Take Back" Highways Campaign" »

Birmingham, Alabama City Council members are discussing the possibility of a city ban on texting. Vestavia Hills, Alabama just passed a ban on texting that went into effect this week. If the city of Birmingham passes the bill, it would make Birmingham the fourth city in Alabama to ban texting while driving. Jacksonville, Roanoke, and Vestavia Hill's have all passed city wide ban.

The State of Alabama has passed laws banning underage drivers to text but has not instituted a state wide ban on texting. Municipalities received their authority from the state and are concerned that municipalities may not have the authority to draft a ban on texting since there are no law has been passed by the State Legislature banning texting.

Vestavia Hills law not only bans texting while driving, but completely bans any input entered manually including laptop, global positioning systems (GPS), or any electronic messaging system.

Continue reading "Birmingham, Alabama Discusses City-Wide Ban on Texting" »

Five Pelham, Alabama firefighters recently filed a federal lawsuit in Birmingham, claiming they are owed years of back pay for overtime work and accumulated vacation/sick time.

The firefighters are seeking compensation for overtime claims and vacation/sick time dating back to 2003. They argue that that the city's current method for compensating firefighters-giving them comp time instead of pay- is giving them the run around by denying their overtime pay.

According to the lawsuit, the city has scheduled the firefighters for too much overtime, which results in the payment of more compensatory time (time off with pay) than the city can realistically afford.

The lawsuit also includes that firefighters, who routinely work more hours than a regular 40-hour-work week employee, earn less sick time and vacation. Also when firefighters take sick leave, they are deducted more hours than should be deducted.

The Alabama firefighters are seeking to represent all Pelham firefighters in the lawsuit, requesting their back pay, and also requesting the city change the current policy of paying firefighters.

According to Alabama State law, overtime claims known as FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) required employers to pay employees time and a half for hours works in excess of 40 hrs in any given work week. The law covers most hourly employees and some managers with some exceptions.

Continue reading "Alabama Firefighters File Overtime Pay Lawsuit in Jefferson County" »

BP just announced that the "top hat" oil containment device has reached the Gulf of Mexico sea floor and should be operational by the end of the week.

BP had previously attempted a larger containment vessel but was unable to stop the oil flow from the gusher some 5,000 feet underwater.

The "top hat" vessel, which is now officially deployed 5,000 feet underwater, is BP's latest attempt to stop the oil spill that is releasing some 210,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day. The 4-foot- diameter structure of the "top hat" container weighs less than 2 tons and stands 5-feet-tall. The "top hat," was built after a much larger vessel initially designed to cap the two leaks developed glitches on Saturday. The larger vessel, described as a four-story vessel, began to form ice-like crystals from the combination of gas and water and eventually blocked off the dome making in buoyant.

The "top hat" would designed to keep water out of the vessel during the capping process and allow engineers to pump methanol (a simple alcohol that acts as antifreeze) to keep crystals from forming inside the vessel.

According to Secretary of Interior, Ken Salazar, the success of the "top hat" containment vessel will be known in the next couple of days. In a statement made by Salazar, "On Thursday, we should know whether or not this alternative top hat cofferdam is going to work, and the next key date is Saturday, because by Saturday they will have the diagnostics completed through x-rays and gamma rays and pressure ratings to be able to make decisions about what the next steps are."

If the "top hat" fails, BP will have to plug the leak by shooting debris-- golf balls, shredded tires and similar objects--under extremely high pressure into the well in an attempt to clog it and stop the leak. Thanks to the blowout preventer the rig is partially closed but not completely sealed.

Continue reading "BP "Top Hat" Reaches Gulf of Mexico Floor" »

Vestavia Hills, Alabama becomes the next Alabama city to ban texting while driving.

The City Council voted on the texting ban Monday night, May 10, 2010, and the law officially goes into effect next week. The new city ordinance also applies to anymore manually entering information into any navigation or GPS system, laptops or electronic messaging device such as blackberries, i-phones, etc.

Vestavia Police Chief, Butch Wilson, has asked city officials for leniency in enforcing the new no-texting law. According to Chief Wilson, he would rather have officers issue warnings in the begging before issuing tickets, at least until motorist are aware of the new law.

Each violation is subject to $100 plus court costs.

Drivers texting or operating a cell phone while driving pose as large a threat to other motorist as driving with a blood-alcohol content of over .08% (over the legal limit). In other words, someone with too much to drink is just as big a safety risk as one using a cell phone.

Some other interesting driving statistics include:
-Drivers that use cell phones are four times more likely to be involved in a serious auto accident.
-The Number 1 source of driver inattention is the use of a wireless device.
- 25% of police reported crashes indicate distraction as a factor in their car wreck.
-10% of drivers between the ages of 16-24 are on their cell phones at any one time.
-Drivers using a cell phone reduce their brain activity associated with driving by 37%.

Continue reading "Vestavia, Alabama Bans Texting While Driving " »

The latest news in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster describes a new drilling method that could potentially seal the crude oil leak in as little as two weeks. According to BP CEO, Tony Hayward, the new method, known as "top kill," involves reconfiguring the current wellhead equipment to channel heavy liquid into the well. Ideally, by funneling the heavy fluid into the well, a permanent seal would form consequently stopping the oil flow. Ironically, the new method requires the use of the blowout preventer that failed on April 20, 2010 and triggered the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The top kill method has been used previously after blowouts to seal oil wells on land; however, has never been tried at the depths that Deepwater Horizon was drilling, some 5,000 feet under water.

According to BP executives, the oil spill is leaking around 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. One executive stated the oil rig could potential pour 12 times that amount, or as much as 60,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf. However, Hayward stated that would be "absolute worst case scenario." No one knows exactly how much oil is leaking into the Gulf each day. BP executives guess it remains around 5,000 barrels a day. As luck would have it, the damaged blowout preventer, along with a crimped pipe known as a riser, are both obstructing the well head, and therefore limiting the amount of oil released from the well.

BP also announced today they had sealed off one of the three leaks contributing to the massive oil release; however, officials report it is unlikely to reduce the amount of oil leaking out from the well.

While the "top kill" method remains the best option in the last 48 hours, engineers are continuing with short-term plans to place a containment box over the leak to gather the oil and send it to surface vessels. Trial and error is expected early on, since the containment method has never been used at this depth before.

BP as also continues to pursue the last-resort method of permanently sealing the well, and has a rig drilling a new well to intercept the existing one and plug it.

Continue reading "BP's Latest Oil Spill Containment Efforts" »