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A Roxbury mother and her five children were transported Boston Medical Center after complaining of headaches, lightheadedness and dizziness, the Boston Globe reports.

A carbon monoxide detector installed in the Dudley Street apartment alerted the family to the presence of the invisible, odorless – and potentially deadly – gas. Firefighters found carbon monoxide levels at three times the threshold for residential environments. It is believed the leak began during the night and came from a faulty furnace.

With cooler weather on the horizon, Boston premises liability lawyers are reminding homeowners and landlords that now is the time to check fuel-burning household equipment, ventilation systems and test carbon monoxide detectors. Most serious and fatal cases of carbon monoxide poisoning happen during the winter season, when fuel-burning heating equipment is used with more frequency, snow can block exterior ventilation pipes and cars are left to warm in enclosed garages.

A Boston premise liability case may be filed against landlords, business owners or property owners who fail to properly maintain furnaces and other safety equipment.

The Center for Disease Control reports that 400 Americans die each year from accidental CO poisoning with fatality highest among those 65 and older. Each year, 20,000 people are sent to the emergency room and 4,000 hospitalized due to carbon monoxide intoxication. Those most susceptible to CO poisoning are the very young, the very old and anyone with a heart condition or respiratory problems.

Symptoms of this “silent killer” include nausea, confusion and dizziness, but can be difficult to detect and impossible for sleeping or intoxicated victims to sense. If not treated immediately, CO intoxication can cause permanent brain damage and even death. For those exposed, seeking immediate fresh air can be a life saver.

Particularly now with the winter season approaching, landlords and rental property owners have an obligation to properly maintain household heating equipment and provide a safe environment for renters and their families. If they don’t, a landlord can and should be held responsible if their negligence leads to serious injury or death.
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A Cape Cod car accident Friday morning sent an area woman to the hospital by MedFlight helicopter after she failed to stop and caused a chain-reaction collision near West Dennis, Cape Cod Online reported.

Police report she was driving a Hyundai Sonata east on Route 28 when she apparently slammed into a line of vehicles stopped at a red light. The impact of the crash sent the GMC SUV in front of her into a black Nissan, which struck a minivan. The woman was flown to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and another motorist was taken to Cape Cod Hospital.

As we reported on our Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog, officials expect heavy traffic on the roads over the Fourth of July weekend, with more than 1.7 million motorists expected to be traveling through New England.

Authorities are urging motorists to celebrate responsibly, don’t drink and drive, wear your seat belt and avoid distracted driving, speeding and other hazards this weekend. Please allow extra time to reach your destination and just expect beach areas to be as crowded as they are likely to be at anytime this year.

In the Plymouth area, authorities are expected to be patrolling the roads and beaches in cars, on foot and on horseback.

“You get people from all over southeastern Massachusetts coming down here and a lot of them are just coming to drink, carouse and cause trouble,” said Plymouth police Capt. John Rogers.

Police throughout the state will be looking for intoxicated or impaired drivers as they seek to reduce the number of drunk driving accidents in Massachusetts.

Nationwide, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July have been the deadliest holidays on the nation’s roads in recent years, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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“Sean’s Bill,” a measure aimed at reducing the risk of Massachusetts ATV accidents involving young children, passed the House 141-12, the Daily News Tribune reported.

The bill changes the state’s minimum age for operating an ATV from 10 to 14 and is named for Sean Kearney, an 8-year-old Waltham boy who was killed in an accident four years ago. State Rep. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, said the child was driving a large ATV at a friend’s house unsupervised when it flipped over and pinned him face down in the sand. The child was pinned beneath the 500-pound vehicle for more than half an hour.

In 2004 and 2005, a total of 935 ATV accidents involving children occurred in Massachusetts. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 2,500 children under the age of 16 have died in ATV accidents in the last two decades.

Just before Memorial Day, a 12-year-old Plymouth girl flipped an ATV into a cranberry bog but was saved. Memorial Day begins the long summer riding season and the most dangerous time of the year for ATV accidents.

“If springtime deaths and injuries are an indication of what’s to come, we urge all ATV riders, young and old, to take all necessary safety precautions,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “Far too many people are losing their lives and sustaining life-threatening injuries, which in many cases are preventable. CPSC is working diligently to ensure that the ATVs on the market meet mandatory standards and to promote safe riding practices.”

Anyone injured in a Massachusetts ATV accident should contact a Boston accident attorney to discuss their rights. ATV accidents can involve premise liability, defective product or wrongful death litigation. Additionally, ATV manufacturers and distributors are now required by federal law to provide safety instruction to new riders and their family members. When a business fails to protect consumers in violation of law, it can and should be held responsible if a rider is seriously injured or killed.
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The city of Boston is known for its aggressive drivers. There are a lot of people in a small area, with many of them in a hurry to get where they’re going. One of the unfortunate consequences of aggressive driving is motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians.

A recent look at Boston-area newspapers shows a spate of these accidents:

• Danvers police cited a young driver for a pedestrian accident that sent a 64-year-old man to a Boston hospital with serious injuries. The driver, a high school student, was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian.
• In Revere, a man trying to cross a highway died after he was struck by a car. No identification was found on the body of the man, who appeared to be in his 30s.
• In Belmont, a minivan struck a woman walking across the street in the late afternoon. A driver who witnessed the event said he was driving behind the van and honked his horn to warn the van’s driver of the pedestrian. Another witness said the pedestrian walked across the street without looking for traffic. The driver was cited for speeding and failing to yield to a pedestrian.
• A 45-year-old man was in critical condition at Boston Medical Center after being struck by a car in Dorchester. Passersby told police the man had been asking for spare change prior to the accident. A police spokesperson said he walked out between two cars into the street.
• In late August, a 15-year-old girl was hit and killed as she tried to cross a street in Marblehead. The cause of the accident was being investigated as the town mourned its loss.