Los Angeles 367 articles

Tesla has confirmed that the driver of a Model X who was killed in a violent highway crash in Mountain View, California, March 23 had his hands off the wheel and the SUV’s Autopilot engaged for several seconds before slamming into a barrier at 70 mph. Computer logs recovered from the wreckage show that Wei Huang, a 38-year-old Apple engineer and father of two, had his hands off the steering wheel for six seconds as he traveled along highway 101 toward a carpool lane on 85. A highway barrier separated the interchange, and the automated Tesla vehicle drove straight into ... Read More

An Alhambra, California, foundry faces fines of more than $280,000 for occupational safety and health violations that contributed to a worker suffering a double leg amputation on the job last year. As with so many persistent industrial amputation accidents across the country, the accidental amputation at Alhambra Foundry Co. occurred due to inadequate lockout/tagout procedures, which are intended to prevent machinery from powering on when workers maintaining, servicing, or cleaning the machine. According to Cal/OSHA, on Aug. 28, two workers at the foundry were cleaning and unjamming a 38-foot-long auger screw conveyor at the bottom of an industrial air filtration ... Read More

Some generic talcum powder products that rival Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower now carry ovarian cancer warnings on their labels, even though Johnson & Johnson has repeatedly refused to add warnings on its talc-containing products. Meanwhile, the consumer health care giant is being hit with multiple eight- and nine-figure verdicts in cases alleging the company knew of the cancer risks with its products but failed to warn consumers. Last August, jurors in Los Angeles who returned a $417 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a talc-ovarian cancer case heard evidence that some generic brands of talc-containing products ... Read More

A self-driving tractor-trailer equipped with technologies developed by Embark has completed a 2,400-mile test drive from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida. Embark, a San Francisco start-up founded by 22-year-old robotics enthusiast Alex Rodrigues, did not manufacture the truck but developed a self-driving system that can be integrated into Peterbilt trucks and potentially other vehicles. Embark’s self-driving vehicle technology employs a range of sensors comprised of five cameras, three long-range radars, and two or more light detection and ranging sensors (lidars) that feed information to a dynamic CPU that controls the vehicle. Whereas other self-driving vehicle companies such as Alphabet’s Waymo ... Read More

U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon, overseeing the Xarelto multidistrict litigation, appears to be pushing both sides toward a resolution, stating in the Jan. 30, 2018, monthly status conference hearing that “I need to devise an end game.” The nationwide MDL involves more than 21,000 lawsuits alleging Xarelto makers Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Bayer did not adequately warn about the bleeding risks with its top selling blood thinner. The MDL was created in 2014 in New Orleans, and since then, hundreds of new cases have been filed each month. Cases in state courts in Philadelphia and Los Angeles ... Read More

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), was hit with an untitled letter by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Prescription Drug Promotion for describing an investigation drug on a webpage and an online brochure as a new option for use in PET scans to detect prostate cancer cells. The agency said there is no assurance the treatment is safe or effective because it is still being investigated and is not approved. Promoting the drug on the webpage and brochure qualified the product as misbranded under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the agency said. “The claims ... Read More

A trial begins this week in Middlesex County, New Jersey Superior Court, over claims that Johnson & Johnson’s talc containing products caused a man to develop mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer that develops in the tissue that lines the lungs, stomach, heart and other organs. The lawsuit, filed by Stephen Lanzo III, is the second to blame talc-containing products manufactured by the consumer health care giant for causing mesothelioma. The first trial, held in November 2017 in Los Angeles Superior Court, involved the case of Tina Herford, and was won by the defense. Johnson & Johnson is also faces ... Read More

One woman’s trial against consumer health care giant Johnson & Johnson alleging cancer risks with the company’s talc-containing products was named the most impressive plaintiff verdict in 2017 by Courtroom View Network (CVN), a news organization that webcasts high-stakes civil trials. The news organization covered a variety of litigation to compile its Top 10 list, including bellwether product liability trials, medical malpractice trials, and complex commercial trials. The verdicts were not ranked solely by amount awarded. The news group also took into consideration the facts of each case, the parties and attorneys involved, and the potential broader impact of the ... Read More

It happens every year, often with devastating consequences: An electrical circuit overloaded with Christmas lights bursts into flames, destroying homes, holidays, and even lives. Dozens of firefighters responded to a report of a fire at a house in Westlake, California, around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night, Dec. 13. Westlake is a community just northwest of downtown Los Angeles. They arrived to find a home completely engulfed in flames and a mother and her five children without a home. According to NBC Channel 4 Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department said the fire was caused by an electrical overload from a ... Read More

The mother of the legendary singer Jenni Rivera is suing the manufacturer of the Nutribullet blender, alleging her blender exploded while she was making chili and left her with severe, disfiguring burns. According to CBS News Los Angeles, Rosa Rivera and her attorney held a press conference Tuesday that offered some details of the alleged Nutribullet explosion. According to Ms. Rivera’s lawyer, infomercials touting the Nutribullet fail to warn consumers about the appliance’s hidden dangers, which include a build-up of pressure inside the canister that can cause it to explode. Ms. Rivera, who lives in Los Angeles, claims that her ... Read More