Victims of medical negligence will be limited on how much they get from doctors and other medical providers for damages such as pain and suffering as more than 50 new state laws approved this year are enforced starting this weekend.

Other changes approved by the Legislature taking effect Saturday will loosen helmet rules for ATV riders, require local governments to check the immigration status of new hires using a federal program and alter trespassing rules for hunters. New restrictions on developing state regulations also will begin.

A $500,000 cap on what patients can collect in “non-economic damages” – things like pain, suffering and injuries such as lost body parts – applies to medical malpractice lawsuits filed starting Oct. 1. Doctors would still have to pay medical bills, lost wages and other kinds of monetary losses resulting from their negligence.

Limits on this type of damages became law after the Republican-led Legislature overrode the veto of Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, who opposed the cap because it would harm many victims of catastrophic injuries. The bill also requires a jury to determine negligence for emergency conditions using a higher standard of proof.

More than 30 states have a limit or cap on damages in medical liability cases. North Carolina already has a cap on punitive damages.

The medical community had sought the cap of non-economic damages for years, saying the potential for unlimited awards destabilized malpractice insurance premiums. There could be a flurry of litigation filed before Saturday’s deadline, said North Carolina Medical Society chief executive officer Bob Seligson.

“Over time, we do expect a positive impact in the reduction of unnecessary costs associated with medical malpractice litigation,” said Seligson, adding that it should help control health care costs and improve patient access.

The state’s leading trial lawyers’ group has said the cap runs counter to the constitutional right for a trial by jury in civil cases and could discourage attorneys from taking on such expensive cases to pursue.

Until there’s a successful constitutional challenge, “we are concerned that patients injured by malpractice will have difficulty obtaining legal representation, putting justice further

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/Vl2_sF6l9g4/new-nc-malpractice-hunting-rules.html

The first and biggest of six giant loads of evaporator equipment
bound for a Weyerhaeuser pulp mill in Canada is expected to start
inching its way down the Montana side of Lolo Pass on U.S. Highway
12 late Thursday night.

The initial megaload, transported by Nickel Brothers of Everett,
Wash., has a loaded width of roughly 24 feet, a loaded height of 25
feet, and is 182 feet long, according to the company’s website,
nickelbros.com.

It consists of a large effect evaporator to be used as part of a
green energy project at the Weyerhaeuser mill in Grande Prairie,
Alberta. The new seven-effect evaporator plant is designed to free
up steam to generate enough electricity to power more than 16,000
average-sized homes in Alberta, the Nickel Brothers website
said.

A Nickel Brothers spokesman said the company will post its
Montana travel plan on nickelbros.com by noon Thursday. But Jeff
McCord said late Wednesday afternoon he couldn’t say when the load
will pass through Missoula via U.S. 93, Reserve Street and
Interstate 90.

“I honestly don’t know,” McCord said. “It’s very hard to know
with certainty on what day it will be at what location. There are
so many factors it’s hard to know on a day-by-day or even an
hour-by-hour basis.”

McCord said the load has already entered into Montana, and he
assumed it was somewhere near the state line on Highway 12.

The load will travel at night in six stages through Montana to
the Port of Sweetgrass. Its route from Missoula will continue up
the Blackfoot River corridor on Highway 200 to Rogers Pass.

A highway patrol escort is not part of the Nickel Brothers
travel plan as it is for the better-known and currently stymied
Mammoet megaloads of Imperial Oil/Exxon Mobil, which are bound for
the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta.

“Highway Patrol escorts for Mammoet were a part of the traffic
control plans that they submitted to the state,” said MDT
spokeswoman Lori Ryan. Nickel Brothers didn’t include the escorts
in their plan, she added, and the transportation department is not
requiring them.

The absence of a police escort for the Nickel Brothers

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/r1urs_8rw5M/article_6dec8778-ea47-11e0-a306-001cc4c03286.html

AUGUSTA, Maine — Officials with the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety are hoping that two computer simulators will help cut down on the number of teens killed during accidents on Maine roads.

The agency announced Wednesday that it had secured a $20,000 grant to purchase the two simulators, which feature a computer screen and a steering wheel. The bureau will conduct a series of classes around the state for police officers, who will learn how to use the devices. They will then teach teens about driving awareness, including the dangers of texting while driving. Texting while driving is now illegal in Maine.

Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Wednesday that the units were purchased with a grant from the Ford Motor Foundation. Maine received one of only five such grants nationwide.

Dozens of police officers will be trained on the equipment in the coming weeks. Officers then will take that knowledge back to their communities to share with local teenagers.

“Obviously, this generation can relate to them because they look like a video game,” said McCausland. “This is going to be a great teaching tool.”

Classes for officers will take place in Vassalboro, Portland, Bangor and Augusta. McCausland said that trainings are not scheduled in Aroostook and Washington counties at this point, adding that police officers from these areas likely will travel to Bangor to be trained.

According to the Maine Transportation Safety Coalition, drivers between the ages of 16 and 24 years old account for only 13 percent of Maine drivers, yet they account for 36 percent of all auto accidents. They also are more likely to be involved in severe crashes that involve

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/0zqevVDkIlk/

Former State Highway Administration chief Neil Pedersen testified Wednesday in federal court in Baltimore that state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie constantly asked him the status of transportation projects sought by Shoppers Food Warehouse but never mentioned being on the company’s payroll.

“At any point did he disclose to you that he had a financial relationship with Shoppers?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo J. Wise asked.

“No, he did not,” Pedersen replied.

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  Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/gAHz5pCByAw/bs-md-currie-trial-20110928,0,4837104.story

The number of vehicle collisions with deer in the United States dropped
significantly over the past year, declining for the third consecutive year,
according to State Farm. But that wasn’t true in Idaho, where collisions
increased by 4 percent.

Idaho drivers have a 1 in 249 chance of hitting a deer in the course of a year, State Farm said.

State Farm estimates there were 1.09 million collisions between deer and
vehicles in the United States between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011.
That’s 7 percent fewer than the year before.

The insurer’s data shows that West Virginia is the place where drivers are
most likely to collide with a deer. West Virginia has topped the list for
five years. But the odds of hitting a deer over the next year have dropped
from 1 in 53 to 1 in 42.

The time of year when drivers are most likely to hit deer is during
November, which is migration and mating season. More than 18 percent of all
accidents happen in November, according to State Farm.

See a map and chart of likelihood of vehicle-deer collisions at:

http://www.statefarm.com/aboutus/_pdf/LikelihoodCollisionWithDeer.pdf

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/gXTghmTXU6E/insurer-says-vehicle-collisions.html

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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Transportation Department said some oversized loads traveling on Highway 12 will no longer require police escorts.

The first oversized load hauled by Nickel Bros. left for a Weyerhaeuser pulp mill in Alberta a few days ago. Previous megaload permits required Idaho State Police troopers to travel with each oversized load, but Transportation Department spokesman Adam Rush said this time, it was determined that no ISP escort was available.

Rush said the department decided the escorts weren’t necessary after all.

Linwood Laughy, who lives along Highway 12 and is a leading opponent of the giant transports, says the change is a safety issue and a major violation of what the Transportation Department has promised the public for more than a year now.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/lRHUn6-Tls8/Idaho-won-t-require-escorts-oversized-mill-loads

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By Johnny Edwards

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With just two scheduled meetings left before a panel of elected officials signs off on the $6.1 billion transportation project list to put before voters, the transit vs. roads debate that has brewed throughout the drafting process may be about to boil over.

It’s an issue that’s causing friction between counties — and within them — as a 21-member panel works on a list that will go before voters in 10 counties in a referendum next summer. A 10-year, 1-cent sales tax would fund the list’s transit and roadway projects in hopes of loosening metro Atlanta’s stagnating gridlock.

Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee, responding to outcry voiced at public forums, said at Wednesday’s regional roundtable meeting that he wants to add a list of road projects that didn’t make the cut, and reduce funding for a controversial rail line that would run from MARTA’s Arts Center station to Cumberland Mall.

The change would make the rail line’s completion uncertain. While Lee said the line could be finished with federal dollars, the funding isn’t a sure thing.

“There’s no guarantee that we’ll get it,” Kennesaw Mayor Mark Mathews said.

Clayton Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell is continuing his campaign to re-include a commuter rail line running from Atlanta into Clayton and Henry counties, envisioned as eventually linking to Macon.

And DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis threw down a gauntlet, of sorts, announcing that he wants funding for MARTA’s I-20 east line beefed up from $297 million to $522 million. Some of the money, he said, should come out of the $172.5 million allocated for the Ga. 400/I-285 interchange overhaul, a project viewed as benefiting north Fulton.

Ellis called the MARTA line “critically important,” and said since Ga. 400 is a toll road, that project could leverage more federal dollars. The total project is estimated at $450 million.

“The roundtable,” Ellis said in an e-mailed statement, “voted that projects which ensure regional economic development, job creation, congestion relief and air quality improvements, such as the I-20 East transit project will do,

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/VjjD2LgSE9A/a-fight-over-rail-1190924.html