The famous Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster in New York is not only terrifying, it’s dangerous.

According to records, at least seven incidents of serious personal injuries of the neck and back being sustained by riders occurred last summer.

At least two lawsuits have been filed as a result of the injuries, including one that demanded $1 million. However, sources say the operator of the ride, Carole Albert, has quietly been working to settle the suits, insisting on ironclad confidentiality agreements.

In the discussions of the suits, attorneys for Astroland Inc., Albert’s company, admit that the problems occurred due to the ride making its first 85-foot drop with too much speed, according to sources.

According to Astroland, the operator of the ride under a city lease for the past three decades, says the problem has since been fixed.

In one suit, 26-year-old Brooklyn, New York resident Denise Robles alleges that the personal injuries she sustained on the ride on April 22, 2007 left her disabled.

Another incident resulted in 53-year-old California tourist Keith Shirasawa fracturing three neck vertebrae on the ride on July 31. He died four days later from complications during surgery, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Two former basketball players from Duquesne University have filed suit against the school over a 2006 shooting that left them and three other teammates with personal injuries.

Kojo Mensah and Shawn James allege that the university was negligent in their failure to provide adequate security at a dance on campus after which they and three teammates were shot, according to federal lawsuits filed on June 23.

Separate, but nearly identical suits were filed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the two players. They claim that the shooting in September 2006 could have been prevented if the university had kept non-students out and provided better security. The two seek unspecified damages.

Mensah, who was shot in the shoulder and arm, and James, who was shot in the foot, also allege that they were forced to practice, work out, and play by Coach Ron Everhart before they had recovered from the injuries they sustained. James specifically alleges that he was forced by Everhart to remove a therapeutic boot from his injured foot during practice.

The lawsuits allege negligence on the part of the university because a then-student of Duquesne had asked a security guard if her friends would be frisked upon entry to the dance. The suit claims that the guard failed to alert authorities and allowed the men to enter.

After the dance, one of the men became upset over a woman who came with them flirting with the players. After an argument took place, the athletes turned to walk away but two gunmen opened fire.

The other players injured in the shooting were Sam Ashaolu, Aaron Jackson, and Stuard Baldonado.

Gunman William Holmes II pled guilty in October and received a sentence of up to 40 years in prison. The other shooter, Derek Lee, received a 14-year sentence.

Before a child can participate in any sport, whether it is Little League, karate, or racing, their parent or guardian is typically required to sign a liability release form.

The intention of the documents is to protect the organizers of such programs from lawsuits if a child sustains personal injuries, but in the Supreme Court of Florida, the forms’ validity is being challenged. Some sports directors are now worried that youth sports could be in jeopardy if judges rule the forms to be no good.

According to Safe Kids Worldwide, an international nonprofit organization for the prevention of unintentional childhood injuries, over 3.5 million children sustain personal injuries while playing sports each year. Some say that signing waivers are necessary for the protection of facilities, but others argue that it shows that games are unsafe without the threat of litigation.

The waivers are central to a case regarding the 2003 death of a teen in Clewiston, Florida.

In an all-terrain vehicle crash at Thunder Cross Motor Sports Park in Okeechobee, Florida, 14-year-old Christopher Jones died from the personal injuries he sustained. The boy’s father, Bobby Jones, signed a release before his son got on the track. However, Bette Jones, the boy’s mother who is divorced from his father, was unaware that her son was racing.

Bette Jones’ attorneys argue that it was unconstitutional for someone else to sign the rights of Christopher Jones away.

The Supreme Court of Arkansas has green lighted plaintiffs to move forward as a class in a pending product liability suit against General Motors for brakes that were allegedly defective.

Boyd Bryant, who previously bought defective brakes from GM in September of 2006, will be the class representative.

In the suit, Bryant claims that from 1999 until 2002, GM sold pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles with defective parking brakes. The suit alleges that GM was aware of the defective brakes as early as 2000, but failed to notify dealerships of the defects for corrective actions to be taken until 2003.

If you or a loved one sustains personal injuries because of defective brakes made by GM, contact an experienced personal injury attorney.

According to her father, singer Amy Winehouse has been diagnosed with emphysema, a form of the disabling condition of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Her father, Mitch Winehouse, says it is believed to be the result of smoking crack cocaine.

According to Mitch Winehouse, the Grammy award winner is receiving treatment in a private hospital in London and may require the use of a permanent oxygen mask.

Winehouse said that his daughter had started on drug replacement program on June 17 after being informed that she would need to wear the mask and may possibly be confined to a wheelchair unless she ceased her habit of smoking crack cocaine. He said that doctors said she only has 70 percent lung capacity and was informed by the doctors that if she returned to her habit, not only would her voice be ruined, she would likely die.

The 24-year-old singer was admitted to the clinic after she collapsed at her home in north London. She informed doctors that she had been 48 hours without sleep and they discovered an irregular heartbeat.

Scans showed that Winehouse had a lump in her chest, but cancer was ruled out by the doctors, who diagnosed her with the progressive lung disease.

According to Dr. Keith Prowse, spokesperson for the British Lung Foundation, it is rare for people in their twenties to be affected by COPD. He said that it is usually affects people in their forties and older, but smoking and inhalation of other substances, such as drugs, can cause premature aging in the lungs and bring on early onset in younger persons.

A 10-county motel sweep by the Labor Commissioner’s Office of California in order to beef up compliance with the laws of worker’s compensation was met with a great deal of success, according to officials.

In total 23 citations were issued by officials with the state Division of Labor Standards with fines totaling $52,250 to motels across eight counties in California in connection with the June 11-12 sweep.

State investigators worked with the District Attorney’s office of El Dorado County, California to review workers’ compensation coverage for motels as part of efforts to curb insurance fraud related to workers’ compensation. The sweep covered 60 motels and inns in the California counties of Sacramento, El Dorado, Yolo, Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Shasta, and Tehama.

Twenty businesses were cited by officials for their failure to have coverage for workers’ compensation to pay the expenses of workers who sustain personal injuries while working and three business were cited for failure to provide itemized deductions to employees.

A woman has filed suit against the Blooming Grove Animal Shelter in Blooming Grove, New York in addition to the town’s humane society claiming that in November of 2006, she sustained personal injuries after being attacked and bitten by a pit bull at the shelter.

Sherry Lewis and her husband, Dan Lewis, filed suit in New York state court seeking damages that were not specified for the personal injuries she sustained in addition to expenses and lost work time. The extent of her injuries was not described by the court papers.

The couple claims that the workers at the shelter allegedly knew Crash, the dog, was dangerous and were negligent through their failure to properly restrain him.

A woman from Pennsylvania has been accused of illegally receiving benefits from worker’s compensation to which she was not entitled while employed at a Corning, New York Hotel.

The State Insurance Department of New York claims that 50-year-old Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania resident Joanne Wilber collected nearly $11,000 between March 2007 and April 2008 for a personal injury in 2001 that she claimed prevented her from being able to work. However, according to investigators, she was working at the Stay Bridge Suites during that time period.

Wilber faces charges with grand larceny and could serve up to seven years in prison if convicted.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has ruled that a class of plaintiffs alleging that Ford Motor Company knowingly produced vehicles with door-handle systems that were defective were not required to claim accident-related personal injuries or manifested defect in order to file suit under Chapter 93A.

In the case, the automaker argued that because none of the plaintiffs claimed to have been involved in an accident in which a door latch failed, paid for repairs, or sold their cars at a loss, they had not claimed “actual” injury.

However, the SJC disagreed, saying that they were not claiming personal injury or property damage. Instead, the court said the defendants were allegedly knowingly manufacturing, selling, and refusing to recall vehicles not in compliance with Federal safety regulations, a practice which is unfair or deceptive and has economically injured the plaintiffs.

However, the case was dismissed because the court found that that the plaintiffs had not sufficiently allege failure by the defendants’ vehicles to meet Federal regulations.

A chain reaction accident on June 19 left a man from Balaton, Minnesota in critical condition.

According to Minnesota State Patrol, 47-year-old Lonny Johnson required air transport to St. Cloud Hospital for the personal injuries he sustained to his face after his 2000 International semitrailer rear-ended a stopped 1998 International semitrailer at approximately noon on the day of the crash.

The accident resulted in a chain-reaction with a 1995 Ford Windstar and a 2005 Mazda Station Wagon and required that the highway be closed for several hours.

The State Patrol said that drivers were being stopped on the road by construction flaggers. The 1998 semitrailer, driven by 49-year-old Eden Valley, Minnesota resident William Ruhland, was stopped in the westbound lanes when it was struck by Johnson and caused his trailer to disconnect. Ruhland sustained minor personal injuries in the crash.

The Mazda Driver, 28-year-old Emeryville, California resident Adam Dennis, received transport to Rice Memorial hospital for the personal injuries he sustained and was later released.

The Windstar’s driver, 31-year-old Minneapolis, Minnesota resident Mohamed Esse, was uninjured.

Frank Clark, district attorney for Erie County, New York, has adjourned a grand jury investigation and struck a deal with Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch in connection with a May 31 hit-and-run accident that left a woman with personal injuries.

Clark did not reveal any specifics of the deal’s terms, but said that Lynch was the vehicle’s driver and had one passenger present.

According to police, a female pedestrian who was attempting to cross a downtown Buffalo street was struck by a 2008 Porsche Cayenne registered to Lynch. Lynch allegedly then fled the scene.

The woman, a resident of Milton, Ontario, Canada, sustained a bruised hip and a cut which required seven stitches. She was treated and released from a hospital.

The vehicle was later found and impounded by Buffalo police.

A man from Warsaw, Indiana is out on bail after he allegedly left a woman who sustained personal injuries behind after driving his motorcycle into a ditch on June 18.

Police say that shortly after midnight on the morning of the crash, 37-year-old Pierceton, Indiana resident Mark Osbun was driving his 2001 Harley Davidson with 38-year-old Warsaw resident Michelle Kistler as his passenger.

Allegedly, Osbun drove his bike off the road and rolled over before coming to rest in a ditch. He allegedly fled the scene, leaving Kistler behind in the ditch. She suffered a fractured leg in the crash.

The call that a driver had fled the scene of a personal injury accident was received by Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Castillo. While on the same road the crash occurred on, he spotted Osbun on his motorcycle and pulled him over.

According to a report by Castillo, he noticed a strong odor of alcohol on Osbun. He allegedly told Castillo that he had been in an accident and had “about four beers about an hour prior to being stopped.” His blood-alcohol content tested at .13, over the legal limit of .08.

Osbun was charged with felony driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. The DWI charge was a felony due to a prior conviction.

Some police officers in North Carolina claim they are not getting what they deserve when it comes on workers’ compensation. On June 18, a news conference on the issue was held by the April 5 Organization to call for change.

The group was begun bye Heidi Hazrati after husband Kayvan Hazrati, a former CMPD Officer, was shot in the head while responding to a SWAT situation. The couple is currently in litigation to receive benefits they feel are deserved.

Heidi Hazrati said that there is going to be a great deal of repercussion from being shot in the head and that it is wrong to deny anything a doctor says is necessary.

Kayvan Hazrati didn’t wish to talk about the pending litigation, but other officers shared their experiences after personal injuries they sustained in the line of duty. Salisbury officer Gary Mills was struck by a vehicle during a chase with a suspect. He says he wanted to continue working, but was unable.

According to some officers, they tried to receive help from the state through workers’ comp benefits, but their claims were denied.

"Sometimes you have to use common sense and common sense tells you that if someone is willing to put themselves on the line for you then you need to go the extra mile for them,” said Officer Scott Geiler of the Fraternal Order of Police.

The officers hope that by placing their problems in the spotlight, their push for change will receive help.

According to Charlotte officer Tara Stottlemyer, she sustained a back injury that prevents her from being able to care for her children the way she was once able to and she now feels that the city she once protected has “turned its back on her.”

Stottlemyer initially won her case, but the City of Charlotte has filed an appeal.

A lawsuit has been filed against Merced Farm Labor, Maria Colunga and West Coast Grape Farming Inc. in the Superior Court of Merced, California for the wrongful death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez.

The suit, filed on behalf of Jimenez’s mother, Jovita Margarita Jimenez Bautista, alleges wrongful death, general negligence, and premises liability.

On May 14, 17-year-old Jimenez collapsed while working in a vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming outside of Stockton, California as an employee of Merced Farm Labor.

Jimenez, who was two months pregnant, had been working for nine hours in temperatures reaching up to 100 degrees inside the vineyard. According to doctors, when she received transport to a hospital nearly two hours later, her body temperature was 108.4 degrees.

Jimenez died two days later of what an autopsy revealed to be as heat stroke.

On June 13, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that General Electric Company bears no liability for the personal injuries a contractor sustained when he fell from a loading ramp at a GE warehouse after his bungee cord broke.

Five of nine justices agreed that Arthur Moritz could not claim negligence against GE for failure to install a hand rail on the ramp.

Justice Scott Brister said that GE had no responsibility to keep Moritz safe, “no matter how he chose to do his own work.”

Three justices dissented, saying that GE’s duty to warn Moritz of on-premises defects was not relieved because of his contractor status.

Moritz worked for a company which delivered parts manufactured by GE to customers. Each day he would drive a pickup truck to a loading dock at a Tarrant County, Texas GE warehouse. He would either back the truck up a ramp through a door and into the warehouse or park at ground level below a door which had no ramp.

One day he parked on the ramp because of supplies blocking both doors. He was aided by two GE employees in filling the bed of the truck with electrical conduits.

He secured the load with ratchet straps and as he was beginning to tighten it with a bungee cord, the cord broke and caused him to fall from the side of the ramp and fracture his pelvis, hip, and thumb.

On June 18, an Arkansas woman filed suit against the Bella Vista Property Owners Association and the driver of the car that struck her as she was driving a golf cart near the Bella Vista Country Club in 2005 causing her to sustain personal injuries.

The suit was filed on behalf of Bella Vista, Arkansas resident Majel Elaine Debolt against the property owners association, the Scottsdale Insurance Co., Bella Vista resident Margie Rollings, and an unnamed insurance company.

The suit claims that on June 18, 2005, Debolt was invited to the golf course for business purposes. Late in the afternoon, she was driving a golf cart on a path from the eighth hole to the ninth hole.

Debolt was unaware that the path crossed a public roadway. The suit alleges that overgrown trees, hedges, and landscaping obstructed her view and there were no posted stop, yield, or warning signs to inform golfers that they were entering a public roadway.

As Debolt was crossing the road, Rollings’ vehicle struck the golf cart, pushing it about 50 feet and causing Debolt to sustain serious personal injuries, both temporary and permanent, according to the suit.

The suit alleges that Rollings lived on the road and used it daily so she should have been aware of golf carts crossing the street, but was negligent in her failure to keep a proper lookout and drive at a reasonable speed.

The suit noted that because the property owners association is a cooperative nonprofit corporation, it may not be a proper defendant. However, it is insured by the Scottsdale company, which may therefore be liable.

The suit seeks damages for medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of earnings, permanency of injury, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.

• Drive defensively. Driving aggressively will only put you and your vehicle at higher risk, especially when there are impaired drivers on the road. Be vigilant, don?t assume you know what a driver is about to do, and keep an appropriate following distance from other drivers on the highway.
• Know how to detect a drunk driver. If you see a car near you weaving, drifting, driving erratically, responding slowly, or stopping suddenly, keep your distance and call the police to report the incident. Don?t attempt to pass the vehicle or to stop the driver.
• Buckle up. Make sure your passengers have their seat belts buckled and that your children are in their car seats.
• Remember that drowsiness is an impairment, too. Even if you understand the dangers of driving drunk, you may not know that being sleepy behind the wheel is also a hazard to yourself and others. If you stay out late on the Fourth or have simply had a long day of celebrating, let someone else take the wheel or take a short nap until you are rested and ready to drive.