Freeway Collapse in Minneapolis

[JenLee]

There is another thread about this on the Minnesota forum for those of you who don't know it. This is my daily route; and normally I would have been crossing the river then except I got so involved in what I was doing I lost track of time so was still in the office when my panicking dtr. called me. SHE had been on that bridge barely 30 minutes before, and one of my Godchildren had been stuck in traffic there just minutes before (there is a little hill in the highway on the north end); she saw the smoke but didn't realize the bridge had collapsed then.

[canibeyou]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

This is just wrong. CNN is already showing close-up recorded images of injured people being transported on stretchers and gurneys and taken into ambulances. They just showed a woman with her face completely covered in blood from lacerations, as well as a man wincing in pain, and even a woman surfacing from the water near a submerged vehicle. How do they know that all family members have been contacted yet and aren't seeing their relatives on national television for the FIRST time right now?

Unfortunatly... this is the way things are done in today's day and age. Everyone with the whole "I want the information NOW" type of mentality . Sadly, no one believes anything until they see the pictures. People could be starving to death in other countries, but no one feels obligated to do anything about it if they just hear about it. But show 'em some pictures of it happening and suddenly, there's a feel of a need to do something. That type of mentality can't be turned off and on, depending on the situation.

For me, when I see pictures like that, I can automatically put a description to a person and pray for them specifically. I don't know... it's a way to make lemonade out of lemons.

[njkate]

My prayers & sympathy to the victims, their families & friends and to all the citizens suffering through this...

[Trino]

I don't mean to be blaming lawyers. All I'm stating is that we can expect people to sue, which they probably should, and that MN can expect more expenditures, which probably translates to a higher gas tax. This isn't an act of God, so a good attorney is going to get a settlement. MNDOT isn't looking so good right now, with the report the feds gave.

Ron Rosenbaum gave his opinion on Channel 5 (KSTP). He said even last night there were private attorneys and attorneys for MN at the site. Here's a good article.

Nick Coleman: Public anger will follow our sorrow (broken link)

[TheProf]

Prayers and God Bless anyone adversely affected by this terrible situation.

[Jim Stokes]

Fix The Bridge$!

Use Bush'$ War Billion$!

[Lindenin]

Originally Posted by Trino

I don't mean to be blaming lawyers. All I'm stating is that we can expect people to sue, which they probably should, and that MN can expect more expenditures, which probably translates to a higher gas tax. This isn't an act of God, so a good attorney is going to get a settlement. MNDOT isn't looking so good right now, with the report the feds gave.

Ron Rosenbaum gave his opinion on Channel 5 (KSTP). He said even last night there were private attorneys and attorneys for MN at the site. Here's a good article.

Nick Coleman: Public anger will follow our sorrow (broken link)

Makes me sick (not you, Trino, but the culture of litigation). Can't people just accept that bad things happen, and as a community we need to work through it without finding someone to sue??

Don't get me wrong, there ARE things that you should be able to sue for, but they are the most egregious things. For example, if a contractor was hired to patch a crack, and instead of using the called-for "industrial strength" concrete he used QwikCrete from Home Depot, then yes, he can't get away with that.

Let's let science tell us what happened... I have a hunch that this was a collective failure of the academic field of structural engineering just not seeing this coming. And now they know and can feverishly incorporate it into their principles.

I gaurantee that if the firm that inspected this bridge gets a big lawsuit, then every firm that inspects bridges across the country will simply mark every bridge as "major defects - recommend shutting down". They have to cover their A$$. That is what an atmosphere of litigation does to a society, and it doesn't benefit anyone.

It is really no different that what Doctor's have to do now, with running every last test that is not needed, so they can tell a patient that there is a .05% chance that they will develop a cancerous lesion in their neck during the next 50 years... covering their own A$$ from the malpractice attorneys.

[AVguy]

First off, the medical profession doesn't always gets it right: Study Finds Nearly 200,000 Deaths Annually from Hospital Errors ("An average of 195,000 Americans died annually in 2000, 2001 and 2002 because of potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors"). If these statistics are true, then preventable, medical errors (medical malpractice, if you will) would be the third leading cause of death in the United States: The Committee for Justice for All: Patient Safety & Doctor Discipline. (An interesting, but obviously biased, look at the "medical malpractice myth": The Medical Malpractice Myth by Tom Baker, an excerpt. Personally, I believe that there is more hype and politics behind "frivilous suits" [Bushism] than actually exist. There is so much money spent on medical care [one-seventh of the GDP] that why wouldn't the medical profession want to keep the money to itself, even if mistakes are made?)

Ok, fine, doctors do make mistakes, but surely they would be reasonable and simply apologize for their mistakes. However, an empirical study (and there are many more) indicate that you are more likely to face what is called the "conspiracy of silence" or have the mistake covered up than receive an apology: 'Culture of medicine,' not fear of malpractice, prompts physicians to withhold information about Medical errors from patients ("More than half of respondents said that they would inform patients about adverse events but would not inform them that the problems resulted from medical errors, and only one-third said that they would apologize").

So doctors must be getting sued left and right. However, one study suggests that a negligent doctor who causes injury has only a 3 out of 100 chance of being sued: http://www.uiowa.edu/~sfklaw/mmgr.ppt (in addition, "for every malpractice claim in response to a negligent injury there are 15-30 malpractice victims who bring no suit but there are 4-5 claims brought by non-negligently injured patients"). That means that 97 out of 100 medical malpractice errors are not challenged, even if the doctors are clearly at fault.

This is not to suggest that any given profession is always good or always bad, but you simply cannot ask people to forego their legal rights just because it may increase insurance premiums. (Big-business insurance lobbying at work!)

I am of the belief that if you make a mistake, you do what it takes to make it right. If there was a preventable error from the bridge collapse, then there is some exposure there. I'm not saying that anyone should lose his or her shirt for this, but I would expect the engineering firms that performed the bridge studies to have insurance and the state is obviously the state. That's us. But I would think that any litigation award would be only a small consolation for either disability or loss of life. With that said, I would also like to believe that greed would not be a leading cause for any litigation. It potentially could be.

[mudmuffin]

Thanks to everyone for keeping The Cities in their thoughts.

[thepizzaguy]

It's a very good thing this didn't happen in January.

As a Plaintiff, I can say that everyone who has been injured in some why has the right to have a day in court. I'm sorry to say litigation is America's past time. Though I done wish for your rights to be damaged or taken away, it would be nice to see you get a good settlement even if it means I have to pay more taxes. I like my lawyer, and I respect the job he is doing. Money grabbing lawyer deserve as much respect as the prosecutors.

//www.city-data.com/forum/chica...hicago-14.html

Not to take anything away from the situation here, but those people deserve a redress if their damages and injuries were caused by a preventable act, even if it boils down to no "warning sign", or allowing continued motor traffic during the repair. The rest of us, or the people in MN who foot this bill need to take out their anger and disappointment at the polls in November.

Good Luck. Let's get this mess cleared up soon so Minnesota can get back on track without a constant visual reminder.

Have a great day!

William