Truck Accidents

December 30, 2011

Oregon Truck Accident Settlement Shows Power of Courts for Justice

A few days ago I wrote about the importance of access to our courts and the myth that Oregon personal injury lawsuits are frivolous actions designed to clog up the legal system and undercut the business community. A case settled earlier this month in the southern part of our state illustrates my point perfectly. Through a settlement announced just before Christmas a severely injured motorist has used the legal system to achieve accountability from those responsible for his suffering and, in the process, to see justice done.

According to an account by the Associated Press, the victim of a horrific Oregon car-truck accident a year ago in Central Point will receive a $1.4 million payment to account for the injuries and trauma he suffered when “a trailer detached from the rig that was pulling it and slammed into his Chevy Silverado, flattening it and trapping him inside.”

Trapped in the wreckage for an hour-and-a-half the pick-up’s driver was badly injured. Upon finally reaching a hospital “he was treated for a broken neck, spinal fluid leakage… and (multiple) fractures… as well as nerve damage in his right arm and wrist,” the news agency reports. His suit against the truck driver and the driver’s employer alleged that the truck was operating recklessly at the time of the Oregon truck crash and that the vehicle had not been properly maintained.

April 21, 2011

Three Vehicle Salem Car Wreck Kills One

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 Grand Ronde man drifted across the centerline mid-evening on Oregon Route 22. The pick-up and semi-trailer collided, killing the pick-up’s driver. According to the Salem Statesman-Journal, another pick-up following behind the big rig was unable to take evasive action and rear-ended the larger truck.

The driver of the semi was injured in the Central Oregon truck accident and was taken to a local hospital. His injuries were not reported to be serious. The driver of the second pick-up was uninjured, the paper reported. Oregon 22 was closed for several hours while the Oregon State Patrol and local police launched their investigations of the accident.

March 21, 2011

Oregon Truck Accident Hospitalizes Two

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An Oregon truck accident on Interstate 84 closed the road for several hours last week and sent two people to the hospital, though its most notable feature may have been that it was not even worse than accident reports indicate.

According to the Associated Press the Oregon semi-truck accident began when a driver fell asleep at the wheel around 1 am while traveling west on I-84. The news agency reports that the truck then “rear-ended a tow truck with a car in tow” on the dark road.

The truck driver and the owner of the car (who was riding in the tow truck) required hospitalization following the accident. The driver of the tow truck was not injured. According to the AP, the driver of the semi received a citation for “careless driving.”

March 11, 2011

Fatal Oregon Truck Accident Kills Driver

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A truck driver from California died last week in an Oregon truck accident on I-84 near Rufus, east of Portland, according to The Oregonian.

The victim, identified by police as Lino Domingo Lopez-Hernandez, died as a result of an unusual chain of events that began with a blowout on his own vehicle. Sorting out any resulting Oregon personal injury or wrongful death claims that may eventually arise from the accident is likely to be a complex business.

According to the newspaper, the accident began to unfold shortly after midnight last Thursday as Lopez-Hernandez was driving his big-rig west on I-84. The truck lost two tires and an axel for reasons that remain unclear. Lopez-Hernandez immediately pulled over. He was walking along the side of the road looking for the missing pieces of his truck when a pick-up, also traveling in the westbound lane, hit the truck debris, hurling it into Lopez-Hernandez. “The flying debris sent him over a guardrail and about 200 feet down an embankment, where authorities found his body,” The Oregonian reports.

January 7, 2011

McMinnville Truck Crash Kills One

by Matthew D. Kaplan

New Year’s Eve and the days leading up to it are always among the most dangerous times to be on the road be it here in Oregon or elsewhere in the country. This year was no exception. According to the Salem Statesman-Journal one death and a serious injury resulted from an Oregon truck crash near McMinnville in the hours before the New Years festivities kicked off.

According to the newspaper the wreck took place in the early hours of December 30 when a car “crossed the centerline and collided with a semi hauling a tanker trailer in the other direction” on Highway 18 northeast of McMinnville. As a result of the accident and subsequent investigations the highway was closed for most of the day, the paper reported.

Attempts by the semi to avoid a Central Oregon truck crash with the car, a Hyundai, caused another semi to be involved in the crash. As it rolled off of Highway 18’s eastbound lane the first semi also caught fire. According to the Statesman-Journal, neither of the truck drivers was injured. A passenger in the Hyundai, however, died of his injuries shortly after being transported to a local hospital. The Hyundai’s driver was hospitalized with what police described as serious injuries.

November 15, 2010

Oregon Wrongful Death Suit Follows Eugene-Area Truck Crash

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The family of a driver who died in an Oregon truck crash earlier this year has filed an Oregon wrongful death lawsuit against the other driver involved in the accident, according to a report in the Eugene Register-Guard.

Because the driver of the truck that caused the accident is already serving an 18-month prison term in connection with the fatal Oregon big rig crash, this case offers an especially clear reminder of something I have frequently mentioned in this space: the fact that the search for justice does not end in our criminal courts.

According to the Register-Guard the fatal accident on Highway 58 east of Eugene took place last March. Driver Bon Puckett “pleaded guilty last month to criminally negligent homicide and hit-and-run in connection with the pre-dawn wreck.” The accident took place when 28,000 pounds of hay Puckett was hauling that morning came loose and crushed the cab of a paint truck driven by Gregory Muller of Nevada. Prosecutors later contended that Puckett had not secured the hay properly and that his truck had not been properly maintained.

November 7, 2010

Central Oregon Truck Crash Highlights Big Rig Dangers

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A semi truck carrying lumber crashed in Central Oregon late last week, dumping its cargo across the road and highlighting, again, the dangers Oregon truck accidents can pose for all motorists.

According to a detailed account published in the Central Oregonian, the accident took place early Wednesday morning on George Millican Road in Prineville. The paper reports that police responding to an Oregon truck accident call arrived to find the “truck and trailer overturned in the northbound lane blocking most of the road.” The truck’s cargo of lumber was splayed across the road, which was closed to traffic for several hours while the accident was investigated and clean-up operations took place. The paper reported that police believe the truck’s driver lost control of the vehicle when he swerved to avoid a deer in the road.

Thankfully, no one was injured in this accident (including the truck’s driver, who was wearing his safety belt). The incident does, however, highlight just how dangerous big rigs can be, and the importance of ensuring that they are operated in a safe manner – both to protect their own drivers and cargo and to protect the rest of the traveling public.

September 3, 2010

Two Injured in 5 Vehicle Oregon Truck Crash

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The driver of a semi that set in motion a five-vehicle Oregon truck crash was cited at the scene of the accident, according to the Portland Tribune and other media reports.

The pile-up took place Tuesday morning in the eastbound lane of Highway 224. It began when a semi encountered slow-moving traffic but failed to slow down promptly. According to the Tribune, quoting police officials, the semi rear-ended a car in front of it, setting off a chain reaction as that car was, in turn, pushed into the next vehicle in line, and so on.

The 17-year old Milwaukie girl driving the first car – the one actually struck by the truck as it triggered the Portland car and truck accident – had to be cut out of the wreckage of her car by medics and fire personnel, the newspaper reports. She was taken to an area hospital with injuries described as “serious, but not life-threatening.” A passenger in one of the other vehicles involved in the Oregon truck accident was also treated for minor injuries.

July 23, 2010

Portland-area Car Crash Kills Woman, Injures Her Husband

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A 23-year-old St. Helen’s woman died Thursday as the result of an Oregon Truck Accident near Warren, according to local media reports. The woman’s husband was also injured in the accident and was transported to Legacy Emanuel Hospital “with injuries that did not appear to be life threatening,” according to a report from Portland TV station KGW.

The Oregon car and truck accident took place at the intersection of Highway 30 and Old Portland Road, north of Warren. According to the South County Spotlight newspaper, the Oregon car accident victim’s car, a Honda Civic, was struck by a dump truck as the driver pulled out into Old Portland Road in the early morning hours. The driver of the dump truck was taken to a local hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The Spotlight reports that police closed off the road to investigate the accident for more than six hours Thursday morning. Media reports say that all three people involved in the accident were wearing safety belts.

June 20, 2010

Oregon Truck Crash Kills Washington Woman

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An Oregon car crash this weekend involving a motorist from Washington and a tractor-trailer left the out-of-state driver dead, according to both the Associated Press and The Oregonian. The crash occurred in St. Helens, west of Columbia City and northwest of Portland.

Investigators told The Oregonian they believe the victim, a 44 year old woman from the Seattle area, crossed the center line of US 30 as she was heading north around midday Friday. She collided with an oncoming commercial truck hauling two empty trailers and headed south on the same road. Though airlifted to a Portland area hospital following the Oregon car-truck accident the woman later died.

Oregon truck crashes can be among the most serious of Portland auto accidents. The relative sizes of ordinary cars and large trucks leaves drivers especially vulnerable in the event of an Oregon car and truck accident. In the St. Helens crash, for example, the driver of the truck was uninjured, according to The Oregonian.