Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog

On November 23, 2012, a Columbia Gas Co. worker responded to reports of a gas leak in the Springfield entertainment district. The worker followed markings intended to identify the location of the gas line and, working an appropriate distance away from where the gas line was supposed to be, used a metal tool intended to drive a hole to see if any gas was leaking outside. The tool, which was supposed to discover the source of the gas leak, unfortunately punctured a high-pressure gas line instead. A devastating explosion resulted, causing damage to 42 buildings and injuring 20.

According to USA Today, Columbia Gas Co. reported that the worker followed proper protocol and did what he was supposed to do. Unfortunately, the markings indicating the location of the gasline was outdated, thus leading to the terrible explosion.

Our Boston personal injury attorneys are concerned for the victims of this explosion and are also concerned that this explosion is a harbinger of things to come.

The infrastructure in many major cities is aging, and CleanTechnica recently reported that Boston University and Duke University Researchers had identified more than 3,000 gas leaks in the aging pipelines within Boston. Natural gas leaks present very real dangers to people living near them, and explosions like this recent Springfield explosion may begin to occur more frequently if steps aren’t taken to make gas pipelines safer.

The Springfield Natural Gas Explosion
The Springfield natural gas explosion was a major one, with WDHD quoting a witness who described the aftermath as similar to the effects of a hurricane. Windows were blown out in buildings within a three block radius; a strip club was flattened; a daycare was severely damaged and three large buildings were damaged beyond repair. A six-story apartment building and more than 115 housing units were all affected by the blast.

Despite the massive destruction of property, however, those in the vicinity were relatively lucky as there were no fatalities in this explosion and only around 20 injuries. Most of the people who suffered injury were utility workers, police officers and fire fighters who took cover behind a utility truck immediately prior to the explosion. The truck was demolished, but saved the lives of the workers and the first-responders. Many lives were saved as a result of swift action on the part of the utility workers and firefighters in evacuating residents and individuals in nearby buildings.

The Consequences of the Natural Gas Explosion
With 42 buildings immediately condemned and 24 others requiring additional evaluation by structural engineers, this explosion caused millions of dollars in property damage. Those who were injured will also incur costs for treatment. Columbia Gas Co. intends to open a claims center on Monday for businesses and residents who were impacted by the explosion.

Those injured in a natural gas explosion may have legal recourse against the company that was responsible for the accident. Injured victims may recover damage for their financial losses as well as for other losses resulting from pain and suffering and medical expenses.
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Facing some measure of accountability for the 32 people who have died and more than 460 who have been sickened, the owner of the New England Compounding Center raised his right hand before the House of Representatives, swore to tell the truth and then refused to answer any questions.

Our Boston meningitis attorneys are not surprised that the head of a company that has shown so little regard for the well-being of others would fail to take responsibility and provide answers to the families who have lost loved ones.

He will be called again to testify soon before a Senate committee, though it’s likely we can expect more of the same.

Perhaps even more troubling is that while Congress presses forward with efforts to obtain some insight, legislators had the opportunity nearly a decade ago to approve measures that might have prevented this in the first place – and shut down this dangerous operation.

Back in 2003, Dr. Steven Galson was a top official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. At the time, he testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, telling them that his agency had conducted a small survey on about a dozen compounding pharmacies.

If you recall, these are facilities where the intent is to make custom drugs at the request of physicians for certain patients. Instead, what we are finding is that they have been mass-producing medication without a license, which is partly what officials believe led to the contamination issues that spurred the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak.

Galson at the time told the committee that of the 29 drugs tested, including steroids, hormones, antibiotics and drugs to treat asthma, erectile dysfunction and glaucoma, 10 failed quality testing. Nine of those failed potency tests, in some cases showing a potency of less than 70 percent.

When people are counting on these drugs to aid them in meeting critical medical needs, this is absolutely unacceptable.

Now compare those results to the tests conducted around the same time on products directly from drug manufacturers. Of 3,000 samples tested, only four failed quality control.

FDA officials say the government had ample warning of serious problems in the compounding industry, and yet chose not to act.

Shortly after Galson delivered his testimony, Congress shot down an effort to establish an FDA oversight committee specifically for compounding pharmacies. And there have been multiple efforts since then to establish a greater level of oversight – and legislators have continued to shoot them down. Before his death, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy sponsored a bill that would have created better oversight, however lawmakers failed to pass it amid heavy lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry.

Lobbyists continue to stress the great need for compounding facilities. We could concede that, when operated as intended and according to the high standards set for other drug makers, these facilities serve a purpose. However, the problems began when Congress repeatedly denied oversight authority to the FDA.

Now, legislators are demanding answers from the NECC (and the Ameridose facility, also in Massachusetts). But the fact is, these problems were nothing new. Too bad that it took a tragedy of this scale for Congress to take action.
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