After a year marked by bad news – fatal crashes; official reports indicating that safety needs to be improved – it is refreshing to encounter a story about Tri-Met that makes you feel good. According to The Oregonian, a Tri-Met train driver’s quick thinking saved the life of a woman…
Earlier this week Notre Dame University wrapped-up its investigation of an accident last October in which a 20-year-old student was killed when the mobile lift from which he was filming football practice toppled over amidst high winds. In a news conference the school’s president announced, in effect, that because everyone…
The US Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a case that raises important issues about personal privacy, patients relationships with their doctors and what some see as corporate America’s right to see people’s personal data because doing so may aid their marketing efforts. According to the Burlington Free Press,…
A Clatsop County court has convicted a 45-year old Portland man in a case stemming from a fatal drunk driving car crash last year, according to The Oregonian. The case of Ken Middleton’s Portland fatal car crash is particularly shocking not only because of the sheer amount of alcohol he…
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…