A terrible story from California this week reminds all of us that distracted driving laws – be they here in Oregon or elsewhere – cannot, by themselves, stop some people from behaving destructively. To be effective, the laws require enforcement by police and the accountability provided by courts. According to…
The City of Portland is scheduled, this week, to pay out $338,477 as part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by an 80-year-old woman struck by a police car while crossing the street. According to an article in The Oregonian, the accident took place when the officer driving the…
A newly released government study examining hospitalizations resulting from dog bites lays out some attention-grabbing data: between 1993 and 2008 the number of people hospitalized nationwide as a result of dog bites nearly doubled. Reporting the data the New York Times noted that this “increase vastly exceeded population growth, and…
Nine months after an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine left 29 mine worker dead, the Wall Street Journal reports that many families torn apart by the tragedy remain unsure of their next legal steps forward. Their stories contain many lessons for Oregon families thrown into similarly tragic circumstances…
A scathing statement released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board cites “a series of improper actions” by a Grant’s Pass, Oregon contractor leading up to a 2008 crash that killed nine firefighters in California. According to a report in The Oregonian, the NTSB’s chairwoman found some actions by the…
With recent statistical reports demonstrating that elder abuse is a rising problem here in the United States, media reports here in Oregon indicate that officials at the state Department of Human Services fear our state may have become part of this disturbing trend. According to a recent article published in…
A post-holiday news release from the Oregon State Police notes that the state recorded three Oregon fatal car crashes over the just-concluded Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The statement notes that this represents an increase over the same period during the last two years. Only two people died on Oregon’s roads over…
The death of a young Corvallis man on Thanksgiving Day as the result of an Oregon motor vehicle accident involving an armored car was a sad reminder of the dangers of driving on holiday weekends and has left a number of legal questions potentially unresolved. Joseph Michael Pablo was riding…
Back in August I wrote about the dangers posed to children by ATVs, and the effort in Massachusetts to cut the number of deaths and injuries to young riders through a new law banning ATV use by kids 14 and younger. Now we have even more evidence of the need…
A pick-up truck running a stop sign caused an Oregon two-car crash that left one dead and ten injured, according to a report at MyCentralOregon.com. The crash took place on Highway 361 near Culver, in Central Oregon and was serious enough to require mobilizing troopers from two separate OSP barracks…