City health and safety regulators in Bangor are only authorized to initiate an inspection of private property when there is a complaint from either residents or landlords. That could soon change, as a proposal before city council would launch a new program providing for routine inspections of some 6,000 local…
Just a handful of days after one of the biggest chain-reaction car accidents in Maine’s history, state lawmakers are deciding whether to repeal the current seat belt law. Title 29-A, 2081 of Maine Revised Statutes require all passengers in every vehicle to buckle up, so long as there is a…
On a snowy stretch of I-95 west, 75 cars, trucks and semis kept “crashing and crashing,” leaving a mangled mass of metal and debris. In total, 17 injuries have been reported, though authorities have expressed shock no one was killed. The chain-reaction pileup was the worst officials said they’d seen…
A new report by the Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program indicates the state is the No. 1 most-improved when it comes to slashing the number of potentially fatal antipsychotic medications doled out to elderly in nursing homes. That’s certainly good news. But there’s more to it. The state still ranks…
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently affirmed a judgment favoring a bicyclist struck and run over by a bus driver, dismissing defendant’s argument that the cyclist’s own actions prevented her from obtaining compensation. At issue in Semian v. Ledgemere Transportation, Inc. was 29 – A M.R.S. § 2070 (6). This…
The new year began in Maine with a series of tractor-trailer accidents along icy roads throughout the state. According to state troopers, crashes on Route 9 and on Interstate 95 shut down traffic for many hours – and in one case, until the next day – while crews worked to…
Falls in nursing homes are not all that uncommon, but they are generally preventable – particularly when they involve a patient falling out of a window. According to The Bangor Daily News, state health officials in Frenchville launched an investigation into a nursing home in late November, following the death…
Five people were hospitalized and a sixth injured following Maine car accident recently when the driver of a truck, apparently distracted, rear-ended the truck ahead of it, causing it to be pushed into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by a sport utility vehicle head-on. The driver of the second…
The front half of the vehicle could barely be recognized as such, following a recent single-car collision into a utility pole, by a 16-year-old driver police believe was both drunk and speeding. Phrases like, “lucky to be alive” were exchanged by investigators at the scene, who also described the wreck…
An early blast of winter dumped more than a foot of snow across Maine recently, effectively ushering out autumn with bitter cold, strong winds and widespread flurries. News reports indicated winds reached speeds of up to 50-miles-per-hour, while more than 135,000 households were without power. The Portland Press Herald reported…