Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

A series of Oregon car accidents on Interstate-5 allegedly caused by a reckless driver near Salem “came to an end when (the driver) exited the freeway near milepost 239 at Dever-Conne, crashed into a guardrail and was pinned in by an OSP trooper’s patrol car,” according to the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

KOIN Television reports that the alleged driver was arrested “after numerous hit-and-runs and leading the police on a chase where speeds reached in excess of 100 mph.” The station adds that the driver is alleged to have initiated four hit-and-runs before police identified him and began what turned out to be a more than 40 mile chase down the interstate. Before being apprehended the suspect allegedly “rear-ended another car six miles from where he crashed into the guardrail,” the station notes.

If the allegations are true, it would be fairly difficult to find a more obvious case of Oregon reckless driving leading to significant Salem auto accidents. Situations like these almost require the assistance of an Oregon car crash attorney to help victims obtain the justice they want and need.

It is important, in this context, to understand the difference between criminal and civil courts. The driver in this case has been charged with felony attempt to elude in a vehicle, reckless driving, six counts of recklessly endangering another person and four counts of “failure to perform the duties of a driver involved in a property damage accident,” according to the Gazette-Times. These charges, while serious and appropriate, do nothing to make the alleged driver’s victims whole.

The assistance of a Salem car crash attorney is essential in situations such as this. Our civil courts exist for the purpose of helping victims of thee sort of crimes obtain a sense of justice that criminal courts by themselves rarely offer.

KOIN: Portland man arrested in I-5 chase that included hit-and-runs, speeds of 100 mph

Corvallis Gazette-Times: Man arrested after wild I-5 car chase

Yamhill County has been considering the question: could your dog become responsible for an Oregon dog attack? The answer, unfortunately, is ‘yes.’

As the Yamhill News-Register notes, “All dogs – from the most muscular guard type to the fluffiest family pet – may bite if frightened, challenged or overexcited.” The paper’s report is a reminder that Portland, Salem or Eugene dog attacks can happen anywhere, at any time. As the article notes, a valued family pet can, believing it is protecting its turf or its owners, attack a family friend or anyone else who enters its familiar areas unexpectedly. The source for the article is a newly-published brochure from Yamhill Dog Control, detailing warning signs and useful tips for keeping one’s pet(s) under control.

The article notes that Yamhill County alone has recorded 61 Oregon dog bites so far this year – a pace that puts the county ahead of last year’s annual total of 98 and even further ahead of the county’s average annual number of Oregon Dog bites over the last seven years: 82.

As the article notes, Oregon law requires that any dog whose bite breaks a human’s skin must be quarantined for ten days. This legal requirement is a reminder of the seriousness with which our state’s laws treat Oregon dog bites.

From the perspective of an Oregon dog bite attorney it is important for victims to understand that they have legal remedies when encounters with pets turn violent. A Portland, Salem, Eugene or Corvallis dog bite lawyer can help them assess the particular circumstances of their case and how these stack up in light of Oregon dog bite law.

Yamhill Valley News-Register: All sorts of dogs may bite

Slate: Would your dog eat your dead body?

A civil suit filed earlier this month here in Portland is an excellent illustration of Oregon dram shop law and the ways it seeks to protect the public at large and accident victims in particular. According to The Oregonian, the husband of a woman who died in a Portland drunk driving accident last February is suing not only the alleged drunk driver but also two bars which, he claims, served the driver “while he was visibly intoxicated.”

The newspaper goes on to add that “the complaint accuses the bars of negligence for allowing him to drive, failing to determine whether he planned to drive and failing to alert authorities.”

This is practically the definition of a claim under the Oregon dram shop law – a statute that says a bar or alcohol retailer can be held legally responsibly for the damage done by a patron who clearly should not have been served in the first place.

This case is particularly tragic since it resulted in death. According to the newspaper, 32-year-old Tessa Conradi died when the defendant “crashed into her Kia Sportage near the intersection of Northeast Cully Boulevard and Northeast Portland Highway.” The suspect left the scene of the accident but was apprehended by police shortly thereafter. The driver, Jesse Lee Ream, “pleaded guilty last month to first degree manslaughter in the fatal crash. He also entered no contest pleas to drunken driving, failure to perform duties of a driver and other charges in connection with the crash,” The Oregonian reports.

The decision by Conradi’s widower to pursue an Oregon dram shop case against the two bars Ream allegedly visited in the hours immediately prior to the accident is a reminder that justice does not stop with – and is not necessarily fully served by – the criminal court system. Legal and moral accountability extends beyond the drunk man behind the wheel. A Portland drunk driving victim’s lawyer with expertise in dram shop cases can assist victims and their families in making sense of the court system and obtaining the justice they need and deserve.

The Oregonian: Husband files $7.1 million civil suit against drunken driver, two bars in NE Portland crash that killed wife

In an extraordinary, and welcome, initiative reported last week by the New York Times, the national retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to offer millions of baseline concussion scans to student athletes in an effort to cut down on traumatic brain injuries.

“Through a program it calls Protecting Athletes Through Concussion Education, or PACE, Dick’s will pay for schoolwide neurocognitive testing of athletes across more than 3,300 schools totaling more than a million students,” the paper reports. The goal is to help schools know when athletes have been injured by establishing a baseline against which their brain functions can be compared following a sports-related traumatic brain injury. The idea is to test athletes before their seasons begin.

Having data on “functions like verbal memory, visual memory, and reaction time” collected while a student is healthy will make it easier to determine later on whether injuries, even subtle ones, have altered the way the brain is functioning. The paper notes that the same tests are now routinely administered to professional baseball, football and hockey players.

Dick’s has promised to donate up to $1 million to fund the program, and is also promoting it in television advertisements. The company has hired former NFL player Jerome Bettis as its spokesman for the initiative. Bettis told the newspaper that he now realizes he suffered “numerous minor concussions” in addition to the major ones of which he was aware during his playing career. The minor concussions were never properly diagnosed and Bettis now says he would have approached his career differently had he realized at the time how serious their cumulative effect can be.

From a Portland traumatic brain injury lawyer’s perspective an initiative like this can only be applauded. Anything that helps cut down on serious injuries to children and other student athletes has to be welcomed. Kids do not always appreciate the dangers inherent in the sports they love. Giving parents and coaches more tools with which to keep them safe both on and off the field should make everyone rest a bit easier.

New York Times: Sporting goods chain supports concussion testing in schools

A recent fatal cycling accident to our north in Washington State, has prompted some careful thinking concerning the way cyclists are treated by the public policy process. In the wake of this month’s Portland bike accident that landed former star University of Oregon and NFL quarterback Joey Harrington in intensive care, this is clearly an issue that merits attention on both sides of the Columbia River.

A fascinating column published recently in the Seattle Times addresses this issue in the wake of a fatal Washington cycling accident in a busy part of Seattle. Seattle, like Portland, has a reputation for being a cyclist-friendly city. Yet a biker there died late last month while riding in a marked bike lane after an “SUV sped across traffic, slammed into him, and fled,” according to Times columnist Alan Durning.

Durning writes that car crashes killed nearly 1100 people in Idaho, Oregon and Washington during 2009 alone, adding that “car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death among American children and young adults, and the group of pedestrians most in jeopardy is seniors.” As a way of beginning to deal with these problems Durning proposes a simple public policy solution: reduce the regulatory barriers that can make it difficult for municipalities to lower speed limits in critical areas.

“In almost all of these deaths, speed is a critical variable,” he writes. Durning cites Oregon as a model in this regard, noting that earlier this year “Oregon passed a law giving cities discretion to reduce speed to 20 mph on residential roadways.” Communities in Washington, he notes, are often precluded from taking similar action by state regulations.

From the perspective of an Oregon bicycle accident lawyer it is good both to see our state’s efforts commended by our neighbors to the North and to know that Portland and surrounding Oregon communities have these flexible policy tools at their disposal. Courts are here to help victims obtain justice in the wake of a Washington or Portland bike and car accident – but by far the better solution is for all of us to work to ensure that accidents do not happen in the first place. Using local knowledge, and local political authority, to make sure that our roads suit cyclists’ and pedestrians’ needs is an excellent way to start.

Seattle Times: In wake of cyclist’s death, let cities lower speed limits without red tape

A near head-on Oregon car accident involving a van and a ambulance led to the hospitalization of six people – one of whom was a patient being transported in the ambulance at the time of the crash, according to The Oregonian.

The newspaper reports that the crash took place near the town of Seaside, Oregon on US-101. The ambulance was headed south in the early hours of the morning “when an oncoming van crossed the centerline.” All six people involved in the Oregon van accident wound up being treated in area hospitals: the driver of the ambulance, the patient in the back and a paramedic who was tending to her, as well as the driver of the van, an adult passenger in the front seat and a five-year-old who was riding in a child seat in the back.

Injuries to the most vulnerable victims – the child and the elderly ambulance patient – were not severe, the paper reports. The van driver and her passenger were the most seriously injured, though their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, according to the newspaper’s account.

The Oregonian, citing an Oregon State Police spokesman, reports that “fatigue on the part of the van driver is being investigated as a contributing factor” to the Oregon injury auto accident.

Accidents like this can leave far more than physical scars in their wake. An Oregon car crash attorney can offer invaluable assistance to victims and their families as they attempt to put their lives back together in the wake of a serious Portland, Salem, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene or Seaside auto accident. The justice process only begins with citations and police investigations. Our courts are here to help victims get the help they need in the wake of a serious accident.

The Oregonian: Head-on crash between ambulance and van on US 101 sends six to hospital

A Portland bike and car crash that could have been a lot worse landed Joey Harrington, the former University of Oregon and NFL quarterback, in the hospital last week with serious, though not life-threatening, injuries. Harrington spent a day in intensive care following the Oregon bike accident according to Fox News.

The Oregonian, citing the Portland police, reports that in the early evening Harrington was biking “westbound on Foster Street when a motorist heading westbound struck Harrington’s rear bicycle wheel.” Harington was wearing a helmet – a fact that his father, speaking to Fox, said probably spared him far more significant injuries. According to The Oregonian the driver of the SUV that struck Harrington remained at the scene of the accident and was later cited by police for “following too close.”

When cars – particularly SUV’s – come into contact with a bicycle on the road the results are almost never good for the cyclist. This is especially important to remember because drivers of larger cars can lose track of just how close they are tracking a cyclist if they do not pay close attention.

Any Portland bicycle accident lawyer, unfortunately, sees situations like this all of the time – despite the fact that our city is widely regarded as one of the most bike-friendly places in America. These accidents are a reminder that even in a city like Portland we all need to take greater care when behind the wheel. As a general rule, cars should not be close enough for bikers to reach out and touch the side of a passing vehicle.

An Oregon bike crash attorney can help victims of bike and car crashes examine the circumstances of their accident and consider whether, in their situation, a police citation goes far enough. True justice sometimes requires that a reckless driver receive more than a fine. In doing so it helps to make all of us – drivers and cyclists alike – safer as we share the roads.

The Oregonian: Joey Harrington struck while riding his bike Sunday night in SE Portland

Fox News: Former Lions quarterback Harrington hurt in bike crash

The family of a Salem firefighter who killed himself after being offered the choice of resignation or being fired from the department have filed an Oregon wrongful death suit against the city, according to a recent report in the Salem Statesman-Journal. The paper says that his family believes Craig Warren, a 20-year veteran of the city fire department, was neither properly treated by the department’s medical personnel when he began manifesting signs of mental illness, nor was he humanely treated by the department when it decided to discipline and, later, fire him.

“It’s our opinion that the way the city conducted the investigation of Mr. Warren, especially when they became aware that he was having some emotional difficulties, was very cruel,” the paper quotes the family’s attorney as saying. It also quotes city officials declining comment on the grounds that they were still examining the particulars of the Oregon wrongful death lawsuit.

According to the Statesman-Journal, the path to this Salem wrongful death case began when Warren was interviewed three times in 2009 by his departmental commanders and ordered to utilize the department’s employee assistance program, after they noticed that “he was disturbed,” had begun making “inappropriate comments” to colleagues and exhibited a high level of anxiety. At about the same time, the department underwent “a switch in psychiatrists (which) resulted in a medication mistake and Warren was not fully treated,” the paper reports.

Warren took his own life a few days after being ordered to resign or be fired.

It is difficult to look at an Oregon death of this type and not question the totality of the circumstances. From the perspective of a Portland wrongful death lawyer the reported facts raise a number of questions that require further investigation. Situations like this are ones where skilled legal assistance is critical for families attempting to gain some sense of both closure and justice in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy.

Salem Statesman-Journal: Firefighter’s Family Sues Salem Over Death