You’ve all probably seen those “duck tours” in various cities that give tours on those large amphibious vehicles that look like boats on wheels. The tourists sit high up off the ground while the tour guide drives and provides commentary. They might sound like fun, but a number of these tour vehicles have been in accidents, most of them due to the driver not being able to see other drivers or pedestrians.

When is $3 million not enough? When it’s fraud. Families of miners killed in an explosion in West Virginia in 2010 filed a lawsuit against the mining company, claiming they were fraudulently coerced into accepting wrongful-death settlements. The suit claims that Massey Energy deliberately withheld information pertinent to making settlement decisions.

In April 2010 29 miners died in a mining explosion. It was later discovered that Massey was guilty of a number of safety violations and thus responsible for the explosion. In fact, the company had a history of safety violations and problems. Soon after the tragedy, however, Massey officials visited the families of the dead miners, offering them $3 million settlements in addition to other benefits, including health coverage and college funding. Officials claimed they wanted to help the families and that lawsuits would only drain funds that could go directly to them.

The makers of an epilepsy drug that was later marketed as a treatment for schizophrenia as well as dementia-related agitation must pay $1.5 billion to settle a mass of lawsuits. The claims allege that Abbott Laboratories, producers of Depakote, pushed for sales of the drug to treat schizophrenia and dementia-related agitation, even though the drug was not approved for such treatment, nor was there any scientific evidence to support use of the drug for those conditions.

I have never been afraid of going to the dentist, but I know this is a fear many people have. A Kentucky woman says her dentist dropped a small instrument down her throat during a routine visit and that she later had to have it surgically removed. She has filed a lawsuit against the dentist.

An eleven-year-old girl was killed and her triplet sisters injured when the school bus they were riding on collided with a dump truck in February of 2012 outside of Philadelphia. The parents of the girls just filed a lawsuit against the driver of the school bus, the driver of the dump truck, and the employers of the drivers.

We have repeatedly blogged about TriMet bus accidents, and we know there have been many occasions where the TriMet drivers have certainly been at fault. The latest lawsuit to hit TriMet seems to be another case of TriMet driver error, but there isn’t enough information here to really know what the true story is.

Del Bueno, a Washington State-based producer of Mexican-style cheese, has had listeria issues ever since it began production three years ago. The company has recently come to an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration to stop making cheese until the listeria problems are cleared up. Of course, that will involve a number of steps, including hiring an independent lab to test its cheese and hiring an independent sanitation expert. Del Bueno estimates the process will cost about $25,000, an amount the company doesn’t have, so the other option might be to shut down the family-run operation all together.

There has been a lot of controversy over the shooting death of Aaron Campbell. In January of 2010 Portland Police officer Ronald Frashour shot and killed the unarmed Campbell and was later fired for his actions. Well, just last week a state arbitrator completed an investigation and concluded that Frashour should not have been fired and that Frashour must be reinstated and paid back wages.

The background is that Campbell was distraught over the death of his brother and displayed suicidal tendencies. The police were called, and Campbell was ordered out of an apartment. He emerged, and bean-bag rounds were shot at him. Campbell then started to run, so Frashour fired his AR-15 rifle and shot Campbell once in the back, killing him.

I  guess we are not the only city that deals with fatal bus accidents. In Columbia, Missouri, the city just settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of a 34-year-old man who died after colliding with a bus while on his motorcycle. The settlement was for $1.4 million.

The city bus was making a left-hand turn, and Michael Heaston, the motorcycle rider, could not stop in time and crashed into the side of the bus. The bus driver, Archie Smith, Jr., had stopped at the stop sign before beginning the turn. He alleges he did not see Heaston, but he was charged with careless and imprudent driving by the police, and a review by the Columbia Transit Safety Committee stated Smith could have avoided the accident.

Portland has always been a pretty safe city. When I was younger I felt perfectly safe being out and about late at night pretty much anywhere in town. Now, though, I am much more cautious and do not feel so comfortable being out by myself at night. That may also be the case for Daniel Halsted. He is a Portland resident who was Tased repeatedly by a Portland police officer as he walked home late one night in 2008. It was, Halsted claims, a case of mistaken identity. A jury agreed that police officer Benjamin Davidson used excessive force.