Current Events

In the year since Amtrak Train 188 careened off the tracks near Frankford Junction, killing eight people and injuring hundreds of others, the rail company has spent $4.5 million on medical care for hurt passengers and settled at least 19 claims.

While in court earlier this month, Amtrak's attorney David Cook said the 19 settlements reached so far have been for amounts less than $50,000, according to an Inquirer report.

Amtrak has at least another 100 lawsuits to deal with, and those already settled will impact the remaining cases. A $295 million damages cap, set by law, could eventually pit victims and their families against one another as they vie for a piece of the compensation.
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A government watchdog urged the Department of Transportation on Monday to ramp-up its cybersecurity efforts as the automobile industry continues to roll out computer-assisted cars that pose the possibility of being hacked.

The 61-page report published by the Government Accountability Office states that while the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has taken steps towards addressing cybersecurity issues raised by modern automobiles, the agency has stalled with respect to ensuring the nation is able to reel back from a hypothetical hack attack.

Computer programs that control features ranging from cruise control and climate to acceleration and brakes are increasingly apparent in modern automobiles, and it’s not rare for modern luxury cars to be powered with software consisting of more than 100 million lines of code, the GAO wrote in its report.

Fiat Chrysler said on Friday that it was recalling 1.1 million vehicles that can roll away unexpectedly and cause injuries when the transmission is not used properly, adding to a spate of recent safety actions by carmakers.

Safety recalls in the United States have continued to mount this year as automakers react to tougher enforcement efforts by regulators.

This year’s total is unlikely to match the record of more than 60 million vehicles set in 2014 after General Motors recalled millions of small cars with faulty ignitions that were ultimately linked to 124 deaths. But over all, the pace of recalls so far in 2016 exceeds the number in a typical year before the G.

Organic by Nature brand frozen sweet peas are the implicated food this time, following Costco’s April 15 recall of Nature’s Touch brand organic berry cherry blend. The frozen organic fruit is linked to a Hepatitis A outbreak that has sickened at least 13, according to Canadian health officials.

Costco’s recall of the Organic by Nature frozen peas from locations in British Colombia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan comes a day after CRF Frozen Foods of Pasco, WA, recalled 15 frozen vegetable products in the U.

Americans are taking more prescription medications. They also are taking more supplements — everything from vitamin and mineral pills to fish and flax seed oils. The natural result: More are combining drugs and supplements. That may be riskier than many consumers realize.

Some are risking dangerous internal bleeding by combining certain supplements with blood-thinning drugs.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld actions taken by Congress and President Obama that held Iran financially responsible for acts of terrorism dating back to the 1983 bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.

The 6-2 ruling by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a victory for more than 1,000 victims and their surviving family members, who had sought access to about $1.75 billion in assets controlled by Iran in a U.S. bank.
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Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The parties reached the accord ahead of a Thursday deadline set by a federal judge for the carmaker to say how it would fix the vehicles. Volkswagen has been negotiating with U.

Things sometimes go wrong with airbags, food and drugs, prompting recalls. It can also happen with medical devices, though you’d think lifesaving devices like heart defibrillators or artificial hips would be closely monitored.

But the data needed to systematically and rapidly identify dangerous medical devices are not routinely collected in the United States.

It wouldn’t be that hard to do.

 Problems with medical devices are not infrequent.
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U.S. car owners can expect a letter from the company.

BMW bmw-hm has issued a recall of its 7-series luxury cars.

The car manufacturer has discovered an issue with the vehicles’ air bag deployment, Reuters reports.
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Models included are listed in three priority groups on the NHTSA website, with consideration for vehicles “originally sold or ever registered” in “high absolute humidity” areas including Florida.
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