Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

A serious Washington propane explosion last week injured five people and briefly placed a nearby school at risk, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

The Washington industrial accident took place near Mukilteo, in the Greater Seattle area. The news agency, citing a local fire district spokesperson, reported that “a 1,000 gallon tank was being loaded onto a truck to be taken to the construction site when it blew up.” Five people injured in the last were transported to a Seattle-area hospital. Students at a nearby elementary school were confined to their building for a time because of the possibility that debris might still be in the air.

As I have noted in earlier blogs, propane explosions are one of the most common types of industrial accidents in both Washington and Oregon. They are also one of the most readily preventable. Propane is an inherently unstable substance, but with proper procedures the dangers associated with it can be reduced significantly. The laws of Washington industrial accidents and Oregon industrial accidents are designed specifically to encourage people handling this and similar substances to exercise caution.

A Washington industrial accident attorney can help victims of propane explosions examine carefully the circumstances surrounding their trauma in an effort both to better understand the accident itself and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable for their actions.

AP via The Oregonian: 5 injured in propane explosion near Mukilteo

KAVL.com: 5 injured in propane explosion

Six months after a Portland bicycle and car crash landed him in intensive care, retired football star Joey Harrington is working to put that experience to good use, according to Bike Portland. Harrington plans to combine his celebrity with his experience as an Oregon bike accident victim to promote children’s bicycle safety.

Bike Portland reports that the fundraiser, the “Bridge to Breakers – Helmets for Kids” ride, will be a 100-mile group ride on September 30. According to a statement released by the Harrington Family Foundation “the foundation would like to channel the attention from this accident to educate our community to the hazards associated with bicycle travel with the aim of reducing and preventing injuries to children.”

The injuries the former Oregon and NFL star suffered last August brought attention to Portland bicycle safety issues. He was clipped from behind by a passing car and, according to newspaper reports around the time of the accident, only avoided a severe Oregon traumatic brain injury because he was wearing a helmet.

We should all applaud Harrington’s attempt to build something good from his own traumatic experience. From an Oregon bicycle injury lawyer’s perspective, anything that raises awareness of cyclists among drivers is a good thing. Anything that gets more kids to wear helmets in an effort to cut down on Oregon injuries to children is even better. According to Bike Portland, “funds raised through the ride will be used to purchase helmets, which will then be given to local non-profits for use in youth bike-safety programs.” Harrington’s foundation also intends to offer smaller non-profits training and other resources to help them carry out their end of the program.

Bike Portland: After collision, football star Joey Harrington to host benefit ride

It was, in some ways, the most basic of Oregon product liability cases: a company accused of recklessly selling a product it had not tested and which did a huge amount of damage to the businesses of those who used it. According to The Oregonian the Woodburn Fertilizer Company and Sun Gro Horticulture, the manufacturer and designer respectively of the fertilizer Multicote, are now being ordered to pay $40 million to account for the economic losses suffered by customers who trusted them.

Two Canadian farmers sued the companies after using Multicote. “The farmers’ attorneys were able to prove to the 12-person Multnomah County jury that Multicote killed off 4.1 million blueberry plants and hundreds of thousands of other types of plants” in 2007-8, the newspaper reports. The court’s award is divided into direct economic losses suffered by the farmers of $12.2 million, and allowances for the loss of customers and for interest on these sums.

The paper also notes that “Defense attorneys argued that the farmers should have tested Multicote first before using it in large numbers on plants.” But what, one might reply, is a fertilizer for? Customers have a reasonable expectation that when they use a product properly it will perform as advertised. Clearly that is not what happened here.

Testimony at the trial centered on the specific nature of Multicote: it was marketed as a “controlled-release” fertilizer, but testimony showed that in their rush to enter this particular segment of the fertilizer market the companies never properly tested the Multicote’s formula. Such testing – such corporate responsibility – is exactly what we all have the right to expect from those who bring products to market.

Oregon product liability attorneys can help those who feel they have suffered at the hands of negligent companies or vendors recover their losses and put their personal and professional lives back together. In such cases the law does nothing more than enforce the accountability that we all have the right to expect from others as part of modern society.

The Oregonian: Portland jury awards nearly $40 million to two farmers after fertilizer destroys their crops

The small-town pharmacist who knows all of his or her customers is a staple of TV and the movies. That fictional pharmacist has plenty of time to triple check medications and their dosage and to discuss things in detail with patients, most of whom have been his friends for years.

It ought to come as no surprise in 2012 that reality does not measure up to Hollywood’s fantasies. According to The Oregonian, “a recent survey by the Oregon Board of Pharmacy reported that more than 350 chain pharmacists – more than half of those responding – said their working conditions don’t promote safe and effective care.”

Perhaps most shockingly, only one-quarter of the 1300 pharmacists responding to the state’s survey “agreed working conditions promoted safe and effective patient care.” The article goes on to note that “many complained of having more prescriptions to fill each day with fewer staff; of 12-hour shifts with scant breaks; and constant distractions, such as administering immunization shots to augment profits.”

Of all the many problems with our medical system impacting Oregon patient safety this is arguably one of the most serious, yet under-publicized. It should go without saying that prioritizing patient safety is not simply a way of avoiding Oregon medical malpractice claims, it is, simply, the proper way to do business. Though economic times are hard for many, and pharmacies presumably suffer from the same economic pressures as everyone else, the corporations that run large chain pharmacies need to consider their obligations to the broader public.

The key role pharmacists play in our health care system requires them to exercise the same sort of caution we expect of doctors. Most pharmacists do so, of course, but when corporate employers stretch them, and the resources at their disposal, to the limits the effect on Oregon families from medical malpractice or even, Oregon wrongful death, claims can be devastating. Any Oregon medical malpractice attorney will be the first to acknowledge that profit is important or any business, but it cannot come at the expense of public safety. We depend on our pharmacists to help keep us safe and healthy. They, in turn, need to be given the optimum conditions in which to work.

The Oregonian: Workloads, chain stores add to safety risks, Oregon pharmacist survey says

An opinion column published in Eugene’s Register-Guard newspaper earlier this month raises a number of important questions about a staple of agricultural life: aerial spraying. While crop dusting is viewed as an essential component of agriculture by many farmers, it has its detractors as well (the op-ed’s author is identified as a “farmer and forestland owner”) and there is no question that without proper safeguards and appropriate caution by pilots the practice may lead to Oregon wrongful death or to less severe – but nonetheless serious – medical consequences.

The op-ed criticizes the state bodies charged with regulating aerial spraying for what the author calls their “utter failure” to protect the public. Its harshest criticism, however, is reserved for Oregon regulations and legal opinions that leave those involved in aerial spraying “immune from liability for off-target drift, unless the poison causes organ failure or death.”

Clearly such a development, leading to a Eugene or Salem wrongful death, would be the most serious consequence imaginable. This is not, however, merely a health issue. Issues of commerce and people’s livelihoods are also involved. For example, with the growing popularity of organic products, the drift of pesticides from one farmer’s land to another has become a serious issue being addressed by legislatures in many parts of the country. Obviously the possibility of drift is far greater when the pesticide is applied from the air. Leaving aside entirely any potential health concerns, many organic farmers around the country fear the loss of high-value crops should someone else’s ill-applied pesticide drift across onto their land.

Oregon wrongful death as a result of exposure to pesticides is, perhaps, the greatest danger associated with this practice, but it is far from the only risk involved. Near-blanket immunity for the sprayers creates problems rather than solving them. Safety needs to be everyone’s concern. From a Portland wrongful death lawyer’s perspective, the best result for all Oregonians is to avoid court while finding solutions that address the health, safety and commercial needs of all farmers, residents of and visitors to our rural areas.

Eugene Register-Guard: Let’s stop aerial spraying of poison on forestland

Accidents involving school buses are arresting enough, but for two Oregon school bus accidents to take place in the same town – on the same road – in just three days is, to say the least, striking.

According to the Albany Democrat-Herald the first accident took place on a Friday afternoon earlier this month in Lebanon, southeast of Salem. In that incident, “a van pulling onto Highway 20 from Highway 226 hit the left side of a Bandon School District bus,” the newspaper reports. The van’s driver and her passenger – an elderly couple from Corvallis – were both hospitalized with “non-life-threatening injuries.” Two students on the bus were also injured and were taken to a separate hospital.

The following Monday, in the second incident, a nine-year-old boy was injured as the result of another Oregon School Bus crash on Highway 20. This incident, which took place just north of Lebanon, was part of a three vehicle Oregon car crash that began when one car waiting to make a left turn was rear-ended by another vehicle. The impact sent the first car out into the intersection, and into the path of the oncoming school bus. In addition to the child on the bus, the driver of the car that caused the rear-end collision was injured in the incident.

It is especially important in reading about both of these incidents to note that in neither case was the driver of the school bus the cause of the Oregon crash. As such, both incidents are reminders of how important school buses are, and of the extra caution all drivers should exercise whenever they are near one. Portland, Salem, Corvallis – or Lebanon – Oregon child injuries are shocking whenever or wherever they occur and everyone who gets behind the wheel of a car should always exercise extra caution around children in general and school vehicles in particular.

A Portland personal injury attorney can offer legal expertise in the wake of an Oregon School bus accident that results in injuries to children, but the broader lesson here concerns the importance of personal responsibility on the part of each and every driver on the road. Safety rules are on the books for a reason. Each of us needs to think - and act - accordingly on a daily basis.

Albany Democrat-Herald: Another school bus collision on Highway 20

Salem News: Minor injury crash involving two vehicles and school bus – Highway 20 near Lebanon

One might have thought that when considering health policy the safety of hospital patients would be just about everyone’s top priority – medical professionals and legislators (and, of course, patients themselves) alike. After all, there are few areas of our lives in which we base crucial decisions to the judgment of others more than in the realm of health care. Yet as it considers Governor John Kitzhaber’s health care reform bill Oregon’s legislature is not only ignoring simple remedies that could lower costs even as they improve the quality of care in our state, it is also threatening to leave the poor outside the system, with no way to obtain justice when doctors, hospitals and nurses fail to deliver the care patients deserve.

It is distressing to see Oregon’s legislature spending too little time addressing patient safety issues as it considers health reform. As a recent article in The Oregonian notes, the cost savings offered by the proposed legislation lie mostly in the future. Broadly speaking that is good – one of the few things that liberals and conservatives agree on these days is the fact that rising medical costs represent a significant long-term budget problem at both the federal and state levels (how that problem should be addressed is an issue that elicits far less agreement). But as nationwide surveys that have been around for quite some time have shown, there are a number of basic fixes that can be implemented more-or-less immediately which will both reduce costs and improve patient safety.

Even more distressing, however, are aspects of the proposed law that would make it difficult or impossible for patients injured by negligent doctors to defend themselves in court. Under the current version of the legislation, strict limits would be placed on the ability of patients covered under Medicaid or the Oregon Health Plan to seek justice for their injuries at the hands of negligent providers. The result would be to create a two-tiered system of responsibility and accountability, one in which – to use an extreme example – a doctor who amputated the wrong limb of a patient with private insurance would be held accountable for his horrific mistake, but would receive no sanction if the patient in question was too poor to afford private coverage.

This is not the first time I have addressed the issue of patients’ safety in Oregon hospitals. As I noted last summer, there is a significant amount of data out there to indicate that our hospitals can do better when it comes to reducing (or, better, eliminating) preventable errors. As The Oregonian reported last year, Portland-based Legacy Health was part of a much-noted national program in which patient safety increased significantly and costs were reduced simply by instituting rigorous use of checklists of basic procedures – hand washing, the double-checking that charts match patients, etc.

When it comes to health care everyone’s first focus should be on making sure that patients get the treatment they need, and that the people delivering the treatment do so in a safe and efficient manner. As The Oregonian notes, whatever cost savings might accrue from the governor’s proposed reforms would only be realized many years down the line. The Legacy study, however, has demonstrated simple, safe and effective measures that address our most immediate problem – patient safety – while also saving money now, not later. Shouldn’t implementing these reforms be the legislature’s top priority as it considers the health bill?

The Oregonian: Kitzhaber’s reforms could save $1.3 billion, consultant says, but not in time for current budget shortfall

The Oregonian: Legacy health in Portland decreases infection rates, saving lives and money

This story from Seattle is worth noting because it highlights one of the things bike riders in an urban environment fear most, and one of the types of Oregon and Washington bicycle accident that is most easily preventable - and one for which there is never really any good excuse.

According to West Seattle Blog, a local online publication, a cyclist in the Seattle area was hospitalized yesterday after “a car door opened in front of him causing him to flip over the door.” Quoting local police, the blog reports that despite the fact that he was not wearing a helmet the rider, a 30-year-old man, “remained conscious and responsive but could not remember the accident,” when police and emergency services personnel arrived to help him. He was taken to a local hospital “in stable condition.” The fact that the victim could not remember the accident is an especially worrisome sign – indicating a possible traumatic brain injury.

Several notable issues arise from this short item. The Washington bicycle accident is a reminder of how dangerous riding in a city can be – even a city as bike-friendly as ours are here in the Pacific Northwest. The victim in this accident appears to be extremely lucky, especially granted that he was not wearing a helmet. It is worth adding that the accident he experienced – being launched head-first over the handlebars – is just about the most dangerous kind of bike accident a rider can be involved in. That is why it is especially important that drivers always remember to look carefully before opening a car door. Checking one's mirror alone is not sufficient: people getting out of a car need to turn around and look directly behind and beside the vehicle. We are all aware of our cars' blind spots when they are moving. That awareness should not cease just because the car is parked.

Of all the imaginable bicycle vs car encounters this is arguably the most easily preventable type. It is important that people responsible for accidents like this one be held accountable for their actions, but from the perspective of an Oregon bicycle accident lawyer, the easiest and best way to prevent Portland bicycle accidents is for cyclists and drivers alike to respect the rules of the road and exercise due caution. “Share the Road” should be more than a slogan – it should be second nature for anyone behind the wheel in Oregon, Washington or anywhere else.

West Seattle Blog: Bicycle rider collides with car door, taken to hospital