An innovative program at a high school in Yamhill recently brought together students and local safety officials to demonstrate the dangers of Oregon drunk driving, according to an account in the Yamhill Valley News-Register. The program, known as SKID (Stopping Kids Intoxicated Driving) was developed in 1998 by the Sheriff’s…
Oregon parents of a 12-year old boy killed in a go-kart accident in Washington state have filed a Washington wrongful death suit against Benton County, the city of Richland (where the accident occurred) “and several other people and organizations whose negligence (the parents) claim contributed to their son’s death,” the…
Police are investigating the circumstances of an Oregon car crash involving two pick-up trucks and a semi-trailer that left one of the pick-up drivers dead, according to The Oregonian. The accident took place last week in Dallas, west of Salem. According to the newspaper, a pick-up driven by a 58-year-old…
A story from Northern California offers a vivid reminder for us here in Oregon that drunk driving can lead to all kinds of trouble above and beyond car crashes. According to a recent account in the Red Bluff Daily News, a man is now in prison after what appears to…
A poignant reminder of the long-term effects of concussions on football players cane over the weekend when Terry Bradshaw revealed in a blog post that “he is suffering from deficits in short-term memory and impairments in his hand-eye coordination,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper reports that the…
Following up a story I wrote about in February, The Oregonian reports that federal regulators have cleared Portland Adventist Medical Center of wrongdoing in a high-profile case in which a man died of a heart attack in the hospital’s parking lot. As regular readers will recall, 61-year-old Birgilio Marin-Fuentes suffered…
On March 30 a case was argued before the US Supreme Court that has the potential to impact the use of nearly every generic prescription drug sold in America. The court heard oral arguments in a case involving generic drug manufacturers and their contention that they should be held to…
A surprising – and heartening – article in the sports section of the New York Times last week revealed that heightened awareness of the serious nature of sports-related concussions and other traumatic brain injuries has turned up in an unexpected forum: video games. The paper reports that “Madden NFL 12,…
Oregonians could learn some lessons about the dangers of drunk driving accidents from an incident unfolding to our south, in Northern California. A 64-year-old retired La Selva Beach man is facing serious charges after what media reports describe as a classic drunk driving hit-and-run accident. The Santa Cruz Sentinel, quoting…
A Florida judge has issued a key ruling in a closely watched wrongful death case that may have implications for student athletes here in Oregon and elsewhere. The case concerns the death of Ereck Plancher, a 19-year-old student and football player at the University of Central Florida. Plancher died in…