Sunset Commission Says TRCC Flawed, Harmful

Thank God.

The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission is recommending that the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) be abolished.

Their report, the full text of which can be found here, minces no words: “Current regulation of the residential construction industry is fundamentally flawed and does more harm than good.”

Consumer groups stand with the Sunset Commission. Here’s what Alex Winslow, Executive Director of Texas Watch, had to say:

“Like many of the homes built by bad builders in our state, the TRCC is beyond repair. We need to scrap it, go back to the drawing board, and implement a process that truly protects homeowners.

“We endorse the Sunset staff’s recommendation to bring an end to the TRCC as we currently know it. Lawmakers should replace the feckless TRCC with real reforms that ensure builder accountability, quality building standards, and true oversight and regulation of the homebuilding industry. Instead of a builder protection agency like the TRCC, homeowners need an agency designed to serve their needs.

“Consumers need real protections against unscrupulous builders who build shoddy homes, and the TRCC has never provided homeowners with that kind of protection. Indeed, homeowners – not builders – are the ones regulated by the TRCC.

“We look forward to working with the Sunset Commission and the Legislature to develop real solutions to the problems facing Texas homeowners”

As attorneys know and, unfortunately, many consumers find out, the TRCC’s dispute resolution process to settle issues between homeowners and builders is a disgrace and waste of time. Recent legislation designed to increase penalties on negligent builders has done nothing to relieve the nightmares that homeowners are having, since the Commission has no power to enforce.

Of course, the TRCC sees it differently. The Quorum Report's Daily Buzz posted the TRCC response to the Sunset Commission on Tuesday. The TRCC worries that if it is abolished, “Texas families will be left to fend for themselves if an issue arises with their home.”

Let’s be honest. Texas families have been alone on this front for a long time without help and in most cases, with hindrances, from the TRCC.

Without the TRCC, at least homeowners can proceed directly to the one arena where they still stand a chance – the courtroom.

Baby Trend Car Seat Recall Reminds Parents: Be Responsible, Be Safe

My grandchildren have brought much joy and much concern about the safety of children’s toys and car seats. Since the arrival of our first granddaughter, our family has weathered the recall woes of Mattel, the Thomas the Train tragedy (no mommy, not that one!), and even a recall of a part on one of the supposedly highest rated car seats on the market.

Today, Baby Trend, Inc. http://www.babytrend.com/ announced the recall of nearly 6,000 Latch-Loc car seats. It seems that the “locking pawl” can detach during a severe crash. This, of course, defeats its purpose and endangers the occupant.

When problems persist to the point that manufacturers are willing to admit some fault, or at least some flaw, these recalls give them an opportunity to issue a warning. As a responsible consumer, it’s important to be aware of these recalls. Not surprisingly, most recalls are not announced on the evening news. You can stay on top of manufacturer notices by checking out these sites on a regular basis. And, always mail in registration cards for products so that when a recall is issued, you can be notified.

Here are some websites that will help you stay informed:


Recalls.gov U.S. Government portal for recall information http://www.recalls.gov/

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls and product safety news site. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html

U.S. Food & Drug Administration recalls, market withdrawals and safety. Alerts .http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.HTML

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service information about recalls and public health alerts that involve meats, poultry and egg products. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_RECALLS/

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) defects and recalls site. http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/recalls/

Consumer Affairs.com - an independent Web-based consumer news and resource center. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls/recalls.htm

Consumer Reports blog about safety. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/

Truckers’ Poor Health: More Accidents Waiting to Happen

The trucking industry is under fire once again for its inability to self-regulate. This week the U.S. Government Accountability Office announced the findings of its investigation into commercial drivers license holders and serious medical conditions. Given many in the industry’s disregard for regulations, the findings are, sadly, not surprising.

Following a 12-state study, the Government Accountability Office stated, “our analysis of commercial license data from DOT and medical disability data from the Social Security Administration, Office of Personnel Management, and Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor found that about 563,000 of [commercial drivers] had commercial driver licenses and were determined by the federal government to be eligible for full disability benefits.”

I’m not insensitive to people with health conditions, but there are good reasons why drivers with disabilities shouldn’t be allowed on the road. For years the government has issued warnings that fell on deaf ears. According to the Dallas Morning News, “hundreds of deaths and injuries” have been “blamed on commercial truck and bus drivers who blacked out, collapsed or suffered major health problems behind the wheels of vehicles that can weigh 40 tons or more.”

No state is safe as medically-unfit drivers have been found in all fifty states. Texas is listed in an AP article as one of 12 states “where drivers were sanctioned most frequently for breaking medical rules, such as failing to carry a valid medical certificate.”

The AP article also provides a list of cases, including the New Orleans bus wreck shown in this photo that killed 22 people . In this instance, the driver was seen slumped in his seat shortly before the crash. “Investigators said he was treated at least 20 times in the 21 months before the accident for various ailments.”

More Bad Truckers on the Border

Police in Weslaco, Texas are on the hunt for a trucker suspected of causing an accident that killed four people on the Pharr International Bridge five months ago. Allegedly, the 18-wheeler was entering the United States, when the driver made a U-turn that sparked the series of events leading to the fatalities.

Officials on the U.S. side of the border are looking for the 18-wheeler.

Mexican authorities don’t believe it exists.

Texas Combats Truckers Working for Cartels

Texas’ Governor Rick Perry announced a new plan to stop smuggling operations bringing drugs and illegal immigrants across the border from Mexico.

The Austin Bureau of the El Paso Times reports:

Standing with U.S. Border Patrol sector chiefs from Texas, Perry said that cartels have started coercing commercial truck drivers into hauling narcotics and humans. Starting now, he said, Texas will aggressively pursue drivers who fall prey to that temptation and permanently revoke their commercial drivers' licenses.

According to Perry, Border Control has already caught over 400 truckers hauling nearly 2,000 illegal immigrants and more than 112,000 pounds of drugs.

One wonders: how many of these truckers are abusing the illicit substances they’re hauling?

Sprains, Strains and Other Confusing Diagnoses

Sitting in the doctor’s office following an injury, you try to listen to every word he or she says while laying out the facts about the cause of your pain. Some terms are familiar; some sound like a foreign language. You leave thinking, what does all that really mean?

Cut through the confusion with some easy definitions for common injuries:

• Sprain. A sprain is a stretching or tearing of ligaments. Ligaments are tough bands of fibrous tissue that connect one bone to another. Common locations for sprains are your ankles and knees.
  
• Strain. A strain is a stretching or tearing of muscle or tendon. People commonly call strains "pulled" muscles. Hamstring and back injuries are among the most common strains.
  Source: Mayo Clinic
  
• Fracture. A break or crack in a bone.

Healing time for sprains, strains and fractures vary from person to person. It is a general rule that strains take less time for recovery, because injuries to areas which have a good blood supply, like muscles, heal faster. Since ligaments have very little blood supply, they take longer. Fractures to bones with a greater blood supply are also known to heal more quickly than injuries to bones with a lesser supply.

• Contusion. A bruise, or contusion, is caused when blood vessels are damaged or broken as the result of a blow to the skin (be it bumping against something or hitting yourself with a hammer). The raised area of a bump or bruise results from blood leaking from these injured blood vessels into the tissues as well as from the body's response to the injury. (from Medicinenet.com)

Spinal injuries have a set of terms all to themselves. Many are interchangeable and some are used differently from doctor to doctor. Rather than focus on terms, it’s important to understand the source of the pain to determine the best course of action.

Dr. Peter Ullrich, Jr. provides a list of terms used to describe spinal disc abnormalities in an article on spine-health.com, these include:

• Pinched nerve
• Sciatica
• Herniated disc (or herniated disk)
• Bulging disc
• Ruptured disc
• Torn disc (or disc tear)
• Slipped disc
• Collapsed disc
• Disc protrusion or degeneration
• Degenerative disc disease
• Disc disease
• Black disc
  

According to Ullrich, the diagnosis determines the pain generator. The key factor in the clinical diagnosis is to determine if the patient has a pinched nerve or if the disc space itself is generating the pain. These two common conditions produce a different type of pain.

• Pinched nerve. When a patient has a symptomatic herniated disc, it is not the disc space itself that hurts, but rather the disc herniation is pinching a nerve in the spine. This produces pain that is called radicular pain (e.g., nerve root pain, or sciatica from a lumbar herniated disc, or arm pain from a cervical herniated disc).
  On Spine-health.com, this type of condition is referred to as a herniated disc.
• Disc pain. When a patient has a symptomatic degenerated disc (one that causes low back pain or other symptoms), it is the disc space itself that is painful and is the source of pain. This type of pain is typically called axial pain.
  On Spine-health.com, this type of condition is referred to as a degenerative disc disease.

As with all injuries, the diagnosis determines the treatment. By providing your doctor with accurate descriptions of your physical limitations, pain and degree of suffering, he or she will be able to combine that with medical testing to pinpoint the source of your problems. Treatment for each injury varies. Pain caused by a bulging disc will not be resolved by treating a muscle sprain, and surgery may not be appropriate in many cases.

Before considering any treatment, make sure to discuss it thoroughly with your medical care provider.

Vioxx Appeal Verdicts Are a Slap in the Face to Consumers

From the AP:

“Appeals courts in New Jersey and Texas on Thursday scrapped verdicts against the drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. stemming from some of the earliest trials involving its once popular painkiller Vioxx.

A Texas court reversed a $26 million verdict against the drug company stemming from the first trial. The court found no evidence that Robert Ernst suffered a fatal heart problem from a blood clot triggered by Vioxx. He had been taking the now-withdrawn drug for eight months before being stricken in May 2001.”

Despite the fact that Merck pulled Vioxx off the shelves voluntarily after its own studies found that the drug doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke, the company refuses to accept responsibility for the lives it has claimed. After the Texas appeal verdict, it’s painfully clear that our conservative courts are more than happy to protect deep pocketed pharmaceutical companies at the risk of consumers’ lives.

A more in-depth discussion of the appeals can be found on Texaslawyers.com. Mark Lanier, attorney for the plaintiff, found that the appeals court judges opinion is "judicial activism for corporate America." This type of judgement from Texas’ higher courts isn’t unusual.

Houston plaintiffs lawyer Tommy Fibich, a partner in Fibich Hampton & Leebron who has settled all of his 250 or so Vioxx suits, says the 14th Court opinion in Ernst is a reflection of Texas' conservative courts.

"They look askance at every plaintiff's verdict. . . . Mark Lanier knows the rules on causation, and he and I thought he had met those under the Texas rules," Fibich says. "Our courts are conservative. It's like they try to find a reason to reverse a case these days."

Fibich says it's a sad day when appeals courts "substitute themselves for the judge who tried the case and the jury who heard the evidence determination."

The Houston Chronicle echoes these sentiments in an editorial on May 31, 2008, claiming that the "Houston appellate court usurps role of trial judge and jury."

What’s it going to take to make sure consumers are safe?