Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

Reckless driving charges are now on the books for a Portland man after a four-car Oregon car accident allegedly caused by his reckless driving, The Oregonian reports. The crash took place in Sherwood, near Beaverton, Oregon.

The newspaper reports that the Oregon car crash on Route 99W took place Wednesday. “Witnesses told investigators an Audi A4 was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic for several miles” along the road before it “crashed into a line of cars stopped at a red light,” the paper notes. The Audi, driven by a 31-year old Portland man, was reportedly traveling at more than 50 miles per hour when it hit a car driven by a 19-year-old Newberg woman. That collision, in turn, set off a chain reaction that damaged two other cars and left the affected stretch of road closed for more than an hour.

The drivers of both the Audi and the car he struck were taken to an area hospital with what The Oregonian describes as “non-life-threatening injuries.” The driver, meanwhile, “was arrested on charges of reckless driving” by Washington County law enforcement officials.

Stories like these are among the clearest examples one can cite of the sort of conduct our civil courts were created to address. Victims of this sort of reckless driving need to rest assured that Portland auto accident attorneys will always be available to help them obtain justice, even when criminal courts are unable to offer the closure so many people require in the wake of a tragic car crash.

The Oregonian: Portland man arrested for reckless driving after four-car crash on Oregon 99W in Sherwood

An excellent piece by The Oregonian’s traffic and commuting columnist raised an issue that all of us who care about the Portland cycling community need to think about: how important is it that cyclists observe the traffic laws?

The Oregon bicycling accident article focuses specifically on the question of red lights. We all know, of course, that bicycles are vehicles just like a car or truck. Cyclists have the same right to use the road (with a few exceptions, such as interstate highways) as any car or truck, but with that right comes an equal set of responsibilities. We have all seen bikers who blow through red lights or stop signs or weave through traffic.

Leaving aside the obvious observation that such behavior is incredibly dangerous it is also illegal. As the newspaper notes, “the potential risks are known: a hefty ticket, hitting a pedestrian, possibly even getting killed.” What the column then goes on to do is address head-on, and effectively demolish, the excuse offered by many cycling scofflaws: the idea that they are saving time by ignoring the rules of the road. Just as we have all seen drivers weave dangerously through traffic only to find them sitting beside us at a red light a mile up the road, so the author carefully charts the progress of a Portland cyclist he observed riding dangerously, versus a law-abiding group whom the scofflaw passed when running a red light. The lone rider did not, in fact, get anywhere noticeably faster than the safe, law-abiding cyclists.

This, admittedly slightly obvious, lesson bears repeating not only because our city is known throughout the country for its bike-friendliness, but also because promoting cycling and all its benefits requires that we in the biking community do our best to enforce safe riding habits. Ignoring red lights and stop signs not only creates a danger for everyone else on the road, it also encourages ill-feelings directed toward cyclists in general: exactly the opposite impression of the one our community should be trying to build.

As a Portland bicycle accident lawyer it is crucial to emphasize the importance of safe conduct by everyone using our roads – whether on two or four wheels, with a motor or without. We all share responsibility for conducting ourselves safely, and doing what we can to insure that others act safely as well.

The Oregonian: Portland bicyclists who run red lights: Is it worth it?

All too often I use this blog to write about Oregon auto accidents and Portland pedestrian accidents involving drunk driving. It is useful, however, to be reminded now and then that the most tragic accidents – those involving injured Oregon children – do not necessarily involve impaired drivers.

From Coos Bay comes word of an accident in which a “woman and her young daughter were badly injured when they were struck by a truck while crossing Newmark Avenue” according to the Coos Bay World. The accident is notable for the fact that, according to the paper, the driver, who was uninjured in the Oregon car accident, “was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to a police (news) release,” the paper reports.

The victims in this instance were a 28-year-old woman and her 7-year-old daughter. Both were badly injured and were transferred to Portland where they were admitted Oregon Health Sciences University hospital.

On one level we have here the most basic sort of traffic accident: a driver who does not appear to have been impaired, according to police and media reports, and who yet managed to hit a young mother and her small child as they were crossing the street.

Incidents like this highlight the most important role a Portland or Coos Bay child injury lawyer can play for a client: being available to help a damaged family rebuild in the wake of a tragedy. Accidents happen, but accountability is also important. Experienced and compassionate legal help is essential for victims who want and need justice but are initially unsure where to turn in the wake of an Oregon accident involving injuries to children.

Coos Bay World: Vehicle hits mother, child pedestrians

When five Beaverton families and Mattel Corporation settled Oregon wrongful death lawsuits related to contaminated water near one of the company’s former plants earlier this year issues related to cancer rates and carcinogens were not closed. According to a recent article in The Oregonian a new study conducted by a Beaverton resident, combined with a reassessment of the toxicity of the chemical at issue – trichloroethylene, also known as TCE – are potentially bringing the question of Oregon wrongful death claims back into the public arena.

The newspaper’s article focuses on a long-running Beaverton wrongful death case involving a plant that was originally owned by View-Master and later passed through several other corporate hands before being closed by Mattel in 2001.

In 1998, the paper reports, “TCE was found in concentrations 320 times the federal standard in a private well that supplied drinking water” for the plant. “Many former workers, who sipped the tainted water later suffered from cancers, according to an unofficial health study.” In May, Mattel settled Oregon wrongful death claims with five families. Now, however, the paper reports that a new health study funded by the Oregon Community Foundation “may strengthen the case for other workers who wish to file lawsuits.” The study “suggests a strong connection between TCE exposure and certain cancers,” the paper quotes its author, Amanda Evans-Healy saying. Evans-Healy was one of the successful defendants in the earlier set of Beaverton wrongful death actions.

“More than 200 of those surveyed were diagnosed with cancers, according to the study,” the paper reports, referring to the new study. “Women who drank the contaminated water at the plant were six times more likely to have kidney cancer than the general Oregon population. Men were 14 times more likely to have gall bladder cancer.”

This study, and the paper’s reporting of it, are an important example of community-based activism and the role it can play in righting wrongs. This study may lay the groundwork for a significant action by an Oregon wrongful death attorney, using the legal system and citizens’ research efforts to achieve justice.

The Oregonian: Two studies bolster concerns of former Beaverton View-Master employees about TCE contamination

An Oregon car crash in Scappoose, north of Portland, initially injured one woman then left a second woman seriously injured when she, in turn, became the victim of a hit-and-run driver after stopping to help, according to a recent dispatch in The Oregonian.

The newspaper, quoting a Multnomah County law enforcement spokesman, reports that the Northern Oregon auto accident began when a 30-year-old woman headed west on U.S. Route 30 “left the roadway, striking a guard rail near the Oregon Department of Transportation weigh station east of Scappoose.” The paper also notes that in the minutes prior to the crash “callers to 9-1-1 reported seeing a” car similar to the one that crashed “driving erratically and weaving in and out of traffic.” The Oregon car crash threw the driver from her vehicle, leaving her lying injured in the road’s median.

Moments later another woman, accompanied by her 23-year-old daughter, stopped to help the victim, while another driver positioned his car on the road “in an attempt to keep cars from striking the three women. But a westbound Pontiac Grand Am went around that car, striking both the injured woman in the center median and the good Samaritan’s daughter and then continuing west toward St. Helen’s” where she was stopped a short time later by police.

Let’s first pause for a moment to applaud the three people who stopped to try and help an injured motorist. We can all only hope that in a similar situation some generous person might do the same for each of us.

As any Portland personal injury attorney can attest, however, Oregon hit-and-run accidents are particularly serious and merit special attention both from victims and their families and from our legal system. When drivers fail to act responsibly there has to be some degree of accountability for their actions. Courts exist, in part, to provide that accountability offering people an opportunity to achieve the justice they deserve regardless of wealth or social standing.

The Oregonian: Driver, good Samaritan struck by car after rollover on U.S. 30

The fatal Oregon drunk driving crash made headlines around the state: a young woman killed when her pick-up truck veered off the road “at a high rate of speed, hit a power pole and landed in a stand of trees,” according to an account in the Oregon City News.

“Officers said it took half an hour to free" the victim, a 25-year-old woman, from the vehicle. "She was flown by Life Flight helicopter to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital … in critical condition and died the next day from her injuries,” the newspaper reports. The Oregon truck accident attracted an unusual amount of attention because the collision with the electrical pole caused many residents of Oregon City to lose power for several hours on that late-September evening. Police said alcohol appeared to be a factor in the crash. The victim’s father told the newspaper that an open container of alcohol was found in the car’s wreckage.

Now, in a gesture he hopes will offer a lesson to other young people, that grieving father is donating the frightening-looking remains of his daughter’s car to Oregon Impact, a non-profit group that “tours mangled cars to illustrate the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol,” according to the newspaper. The group’s website lays out the scope of the problem in stark terms: 30% of Oregon teen driving deaths, it notes, are “alcohol-related.”

For an Oregon drunk driving victims attorney it is important to acknowledge the vital education and public service offered by Oregon Impact and similar groups. No one ever wants to hear of a parent losing a child to a Portland or Oregon City drunk driving accident, but Oregon Impact’s work is a sign that many in our community understand the importance of both education and personal responsibility where this critical issue is concerned.

Oregon City News: Father Donates Car After Daughter Dies in Crash

Oregon Impact website

The National Hockey League’s 2011-12 season kicked off last night with both the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins and the team they edged out last summer, the Vancouver Canucks, losing close fought, first-night match-ups.

Those games (along with a Montreal-Toronto contest) were the first official ones to be played under new NHL rules that severely restrict (but do not entirely ban) hits to the head during play. Long known as a fast and violent game, professional hockey has shown increasing concern for the long-term health of its players in recent years. Concussions and traumatic brain injuries emerged as a concern partly because of changes in the game itself – players are larger, skate faster, hit harder and wear better padding than their predecessors a generation (let alone half a century) ago, and the wear and tear on their bodies shows. The issue became especially salient for the league in the wake of several high-profile injuries that have sidelined star players for extended periods of time.

The most notable examples are Boston’s Marc Savard who has never completely recovered from a grade 2 concussion sustained in March 2010, and Pittsburgh’s Sydney Crosby, arguably the league’s most famous active player, who has not played since the beginning of the year after suffering two hits to the head in rapid succession during games on January 1 and January 5.

During the off-season the league hired a recently retired star, Brendan Shanahan, as its Senior Vice President in charge of player discipline. In a video distributed to all teams before the season began (and readily available to any fan on the NHL website) Shanahan outlined the new, stricter, rules on contact to the head last month. As soon as pre-season games began he indicated he was serious about his new job by passing out an eyebrow-raising number of suspensions for illegal contact, several of which will extend into the regular season.

From the perspective of a Portland concussion and traumatic brain injury attorney the NHL’s attempt to keep its game rough and fast while improving safety must be applauded. Whatever the League’s shortcomings, at least it is making a serious, public effort to cut down on dangerous plays that may lead to brain or spinal cord injuries. The NHL opted not to go as far as college and international hockey and ban hits to the head entirely, but it is hard not to see the new rules as a step in that direction. The game remains rough, even violent, but at least there is the acknowledgement that in the wake of so many traumatic brain injuries, something in the hockey world needs to change.

New York Times: With stricter rules on hits to the head, some NHL stars are split on a full ban

New York Times: Shanahan is enforcing Rules with Gusto