Early Wednesday morning, emergency workers arrived at a Tampa Bay house to find an oak tree had crashed through the building, trapping three inside.

Although the owners of the house had been making plans to remove the old tree, which they characterized as hollow and rotted-out, the tree unexpectedly fell nevertheless. Neighbors claimed that branches had been falling off the tree weeks prior to this incident. 

The tree destroyed everything it fell on, including the house it squarely collapsed on. A truck and car were wrecked along with the house.

When authorities arrived, they rescued three people trapped inside. No one was injured. Police proceeded to block off the area around the house as the tree is completely removed from the premises. Those living in the house have moved in with family and friends.

If you or someone you know has been injured while on someone else's property due to their lawn-care negligence, you may be eligible for legal recourse. Contact the Tampa Bay premises liability attorneys of Beltz & Ruth, P.A., by calling 800-235-8978 to discuss your case today.

Scuba Clean Inc., a St. Petersburg, has incurred a large sum of fines after failing to follow safety protocols.

The current charges against the company include a $200,900 fine that combines failures to provide sufficient safety equipment for divers, a failure to properly train divers before sending them into the water, and a failure to keep employees with divers on their dives to make sure that they are safe. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the company was willfully negligent in upkeeping its practices and equipment. To the deparment's definition, willful violators can be simply indifferent to changing after being warned of safety problems. Unless they work to change charges and violations, the violator is considered willful.

These circumstances has caused the administration to tally up Scuba Clean's 16 major hazards for a $53,900 fine in addition to the three citations of willful violations, which account for $147,000 of the total fine.

If you or someone you love has been injured while using another company's products, you may be eligible for compensation. Contact the Tampa product liability lawyers at Beltz & Ruth, P.A., by calling 800-235-8978 today.

A woman has pleaded not guilty in a case of nursing home abuse that was purportedly caught on film.

During the tape, the New York City nurse is shown to have allegedly pulled away a wheelchair from an 85-year-old woman. As the tape proceeds, the plaintiff's attorney noted that the woman, instead of trying to help the now injured elderly woman, walked away, came back the to fallen woman, and did not wait until another staff member passed by the injured elderly woman before calling for help.

According to the plaintiff, this is an obvious case of nursing home abuse.

The defendant, a 56-year-old nurse, claimed that she was unable to catch the woman before she fell and broke her hip. The defense stated that their client surely could not have maliciously caused the event and left the injured woman, as she herself was the one later calling for help.

The New York State Health Department has previous cleared the nursing home with all issues of regulation compliance.

If you or someone you love as been injured while staying at a nursing home and negligence seems to be the cause, you may be entitled to compensation for those injuries. Knowing your rights can make sure that someone is watching out for you in your time of vulnerability. Contact the Tampa nursing home malpractice attorneys of Beltz & Ruth, P.A., at 800-235-8978 today.

A lawsuit is being filed over the 2008 wrongful death of a 14 year-old boy.

The boy died after crashing a water scooter into a dock May 24, 2008 on Egypt Lake. The boy's younger brother was also riding on the scooter, and suffered injuries in the crash.

The parents are suing the owner of the water scooter, claiming that he was negligent. They believe that his lack of supervision and consent to allow the boys to ride the scooter despite a lack of training led to the crash and both the death and injuries suffered. The family filed the suit in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court.

The suit is seeking payment for damages exceeding $15,000.

Chamberlain High School in Tampa was the site of an amateur acid bomb attack Monday. According to the police reports, the device was created out of a water bottle, which released a compound that caused redness and itching to one junior at the school. The device was made where the cap would explode off the bottle after someone would shake it. A second device was found in the boy's bathroom, exploding without incident.

The victim, a junior girl, left the school's library and was walking down a hallway when she spotted the device as it rolled and exploded at her. Her shoes and socks were burnt by the chemicals, and red discoloration was left on her left hand and above her right knee. While she said that the acid did not hurt, she did note that the affected areas were particularly itchy.

After a campus investigation, police found no other devices in the school. CrimeStoppers posted a $500 reward, causing a few students to offer leads to the investigation. No one has been charged in relation to the attack.

Although there was no great injury done to the student, this case nevertheless illustrates the potential for damage. The chemical reaction could have had unexpected effects, could have exploded in a more violent manner, and could have posed a very serious threat to student safety. If you or someone you love has been injured by the malicious actions of another person, you may be eligible for legal recourse. Contact the Tampa personal injury lawyers of Beltz & Ruth, P.A. at 800-235-8978 today to discuss your claim.

A man in Clearwater was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa after crashing into a power pole.

Driving a Mitsubishi Galant, the man hit the power pole at 9:52am on Monday. Local merchants witnessed the damages, and one said that she could see the man still moving after emergency workers had moved him onto a stretcher. They expressed their dismay concerning that the area by Court Street, east of Missouri Avenue, notably incurred frequent accidents of a similar nature.

The power company, Progress Energy, arrived within the hour of the accident, and there were no reported related complications.

If you or someone you know has been injured in an accident, there may be legal options you can consider. Contact the Tampa Bay personal injury lawyers of Beltz & Ruth, P.A. at 800-235-8978 today.