South Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog

South Carolina job injury attorneys urge all companies and services to do their best to follow important safety regulations and stay regular with innovations in technology. Dangerous work can often be made less risky by the use of innovative products and openness to new ideas and change. Charleston area attorneys honor the memories of the brave men who died in the fire and offer their condolences. It is hoped that by learning from these types of incidents, future incidents can be prevented.

In a release of emails from a panel that independently examined the Sofa Super Store Blaze, chief experts blasted the leadership of the City of Charleston and the Charleston Fire Department. Specific among their complains was the lack of modern firefighting techniques used by the department and allegations against the city of playing a "shell game" and trying to spin some of the information coming out of the fire. Mostly what was concluded in these emails was the deaths of 9 firefighters did not have to occur if proper techniques, modern technology and other measures that should have been taken by the Departments leadership had been implemented. As quoted in an email by one panelist to another "DAMN IT. This did not have to happen."

The fire started at approximately 7pm on June 18th, 2007 at the Sofa Super Store located on the Savannah Highway. Fire Servicemen reported to the blaze roughly 3 minutes after the alarm was sounded. During the blaze, efforts to contain the fire were unsuccessful and the fire quickly spread from a backroom to the main room, igniting highly volatile furniture. Structural conditions quickly deteriorated, trapping some of the men. In an effort to get to trapped firemen, the windows were smashed which led to a "flash over”, which is the near instantaneous combustion of all flammable materials in a given area that occurs when oxygen is quickly introduced into an area where a fire has been enclosed. Sixteen firemen were working in the building when this occurred, some were trapped. By the end of the day, nine men had bravely given their lives fighting the fire.

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Charleston Brain Injury attorneys want you to know that brain damage and football. The seventeen days following the Big Bone Game, a traditional Thanksgiving Day at San Jose City College versus two local high schools, are blank in Matt Blea’s memory but with the worst seventeen days of his parent’s lives. Blea was sixteen year old and playing football for his high school football team. He remembers the opening plays but the minute his helmet hit the Astroturf surface, he does not remember a thing.

Blea was in a drug-induced coma for a week to prevent traumatic brain swelling and then two months after the crushing hit. Dave Blea, Matt’s father, had an agreement with his wife that “if he was ever diagnosed with a concussion in his youth football days, he was going to be out for the year.” Blea is physically fine now, but is suffering a broken heart because his love and passion, football, is now prohibited. Matt Blea will never play football again.

The National Football League recently has been paying more attention to concussed players. The league is now implementing new restrictions affecting the amount of time a concussed player is required to wait until allowed to play again. After the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study released a figure that startled parents and players. They reported that in 2008 there were an estimated 68,000 concussions in the high school football season. Professor Dawn Comstock of Ohio State helped organize the study and stated that “ up to 60 percent of sports concussions go unreported,” so this number is most likely higher.

Continue reading "South Carolina Football Players Warned of Damages of Brain Injury" »

A small plane crash that took place 30 miles northwest of Charleston recently killed three men from South Carolina and one from Delaware. The men were on their way to St. Lucie County International Airport in Ft. Pierce, Florida in order to be cleared at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. From there, they were going to fly to a radio operator’s conference in the Bahamas.

The plane took off from the Dorchester County Airport and headed south. Shortly after take-off, the plane veered off course and crashed into a low-lying, thickly wooded area about 50 yards from the runway. Accidents during take-off are very rare and the cause of the crash remains unknown.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating the cause of the accident. They are looking at the weather and instrumental defects as possible causes of the accident.

Source: Post & Courier “4 Killed in Deadly Crash”- October 22, 2009.