Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

May 31, 2012

Industrial Lathe Accident A Reminder of Workplace Dangers

A recent article in the Sacramento Bee is a telling reminder of the importance of workplace safety here in Oregon and of the sort of precautions businesses ought to be taking to avoid Oregon industrial accidents.

According to an Associated Press report posted on the newspaper’s website, a 60-year old man’s arm was severed by an industrial lathe while he was working at GE Aviation Systems, a company which manufactures parts for airplanes. Quoting local first responders the news agency reports that “workers were turning a piece of metal and the man’s arm somehow got caught in the lathe.”

The victim was transported to a local hospital “along with his crushed arm. It’s unclear if the arm can be reattached,” according to the report.

May 29, 2012

Portland Bike Accident Puts Spotlight on Bike Boxes

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The death of an avid cyclist in a Portland bike and car accident earlier this month has turned a spotlight on bike boxes – the green areas at intersections that the city began adding several years ago in an effort to make Portland more bicycle-friendly.

As I noted last week, a 28-year-old Portland woman died in an Oregon bike accident when she was struck by a semi-truck making a right turn from Madison onto Third Avenue. A recent article on KGW’s website noted that there is a bike box at that intersection, and that accidents like these are exactly what the bike boxes are designed to prevent.

“The green boxes painted in the road with a white bicycle symbol inside are located at several intersections around Portland to help prevent bicycle-car collisions, especially between bikes going straight when cars turn right,” the station reports.

May 25, 2012

Missing Children’s Awareness Day

by Matthew D. Kaplan

As we head into the long holiday weekend – with the summer months stretching out ahead – it is appropriate to take a moment today to mark “Missing Children’s Awareness Day,” so designated by the federal government.

May 25 was chosen as Missing Children’s Awareness day nearly 30 years ago – in 1983 – in memory Etan Patz, the six-year-old New York City boy who disappeared while walking to his school bus stop in 1979. The anniversary is especially poignant this year because just yesterday a man in New Jersey came forward and confessed to Patz’s long-unsolved death. Today, the day chosen in Etan’s honor, he was charged with murder in a New York court. There could hardly be a more poignant way to mark this year’s Missing Children’s Awareness Day.

According to radio station KUIK, Oregon’s state records show that as of late last month 464 children were listed as missing here in our state. The radio station, citing state law enforcement sources, reports that of the children on that state list “about 90% are runaways.” Injuries to children are a constant worry for many parents, but the added burden of fearing for a child’s day-to-day safety while having little or no idea where to find them is something no one should ever have to go through.

May 23, 2012

Wrongful Death Suit Targets Oregon Company for Alaska Fatalities

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A lawsuit filed in Alaska by the grieving families of five fishermen targets an Oregon company for alleged wrongful death according to a report published yesterday in the Anchorage Daily News. Two of the five victims were also from Oregon, according to the newspaper.

The newspaper, quoting Alaska state troopers, reports that the five men drowned earlier this month when their “overloaded skiff swamped… in rough seas” near Cook Inlet, Alaska. The men were harvesting clams for the company. The suit says that the company “failed to train the men to pilot their aluminum skiff and neglected to provide proper safety equipment such as survival suits and two-way radios.” Notably, the newspaper says that when the men’s bodies were recovered only one of the five was wearing a life jacket. It adds that “the wrongful death suit claims the workers needed survival suits, not life vests, to survive in the Inlet,” referring to the cold seas off Alaska’s coast.

Tellingly, the paper reports that another worker told investigating troopers that he believed the boat was overloaded, particularly granted the windy conditions prevalent in the area, and refused to get aboard. Among the charges made in the suit is the claim that Clackamas-based Pacific Seafood did not give its workers sufficient training in “water-safety rules, emergency life-saving lessons or how many pounds of clams the skiff could safely carry.”

May 20, 2012

Portland Bike Accident Victim Dies

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Tragedy struck the Oregon bicycling community this week when a 28-year-old woman died after a Portland bicycle accident in which she was hit by a semi-truck. According to The Oregonian, the Portland truck accident took place last Wednesday evening as “the truck was making a right turn from Madison onto Third Avenue “ when it hit the cyclist, “who was traveling eastbound on Madison,” the newspaper reports.

The cyclist was transported to an area hospital following the accident, but died of her injuries the next day. The newspaper also reports that both police and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office are investigating the fatal Oregon bike accident.

Accidents like these are the saddest sort of reminder how important road safety is for cyclists and drivers alike. The circumstances of this accident are also telling. A vehicle, especially a large one, is arguably most dangerous to cyclists when it is making a right turn. Drivers are keenly aware of traffic around them when turning left, because this generally involves crossing a stream of oncoming traffic. Right turns, however, are all too easy to think of as essentially ‘safe.’

May 18, 2012

Portland Car and Bus Crash Hospitalizes Two

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The Oregonian reports that a Portland auto accident involving a car and a Tri-Met bus recently sent two people to the hospital with what authorities described as “minor injuries.”

Citing a spokesperson for the Portland-area bus service, the newspaper reports that the accident recently occurred “at Southeast 7th Avenue and Southeast Taylor Street. She said the vehicle, carrying three people, is believed to have been traveling at a high speed when the driver failed to stop and struck the bus on its left side.”

Both of the injured people transported to hospital were traveling in the car. The bus driver was not injured and the bus, which was traveling to a Tri-Met garage at the time of the Oregon car and bus accident, was carrying no passengers. That last fact is fortunate: it is likely that the lack of passengers minimized the potential damage from the Portland car crash.

May 14, 2012

Oregon Child Safety: Some Good News

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers some refreshingly good news concerning Oregon child safety and Oregon injuries to children. As summarized by the Associated Press, the report indicates that, nationwide, “accidents are killing far fewer children and teenagers than in the past.”

The even better news for us here in the Pacific Northwest was that Oregon was among the states reporting the greatest declines in injuries and deaths among young people.

As the news agency reports, across the United States “the death rate for youths age 19 and younger dropped about 30 percent from 2000 to 2009. The number of deaths dropped too, from about 12,400 to about 9,100.” Much of the drop in fatalities can be attributed to an especially dramatic 41 percent fall-off in traffic-related deaths. “The CDC didn’t analyze exactly what caused that decline, but officials believe it was helped by measures like graduated drivers’ licenses and use of child safety and booster seats,” the article, as republished by Roseburg TV station KPIC, notes.

May 7, 2012

Clackamas Child’s Death Spotlights Child Safety Issues

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last month’s death of a toddler in Boring, Oregon, in Clackamas County, highlights in the most tragic way possible the importance of both safety awareness when adults are operating potentially dangerous equipment around children, and the need for manufacturers to consider safety in the design of their products.

According to The Oregonian, an 18-month-old girl died last month in Boring “when her father… accidently ran over the girl as he was parking his tractor.” The injured Oregon child was evacuated by helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center but died a short time later.

According to the newspaper “police are not pursuing criminal charges against the father.” This horrific tragedy, however, contains several important lessons for us all. First, and most importantly, it is a reminder of how crucial it is for all adults to be aware of their environment at all times, but especially when operating machinery that has the potential to kill or injure a child. Farm equipment and lawnmowers spring immediately to mind when considering these issues – but they apply to many other household goods as well. There have been instances over the years of small children getting caught in washing machines or dryers. Refrigerators, especially older ones that may no longer be operational, also pose significant risks.

April 29, 2012

Crane Accident Verdict Highlights Importance of Civil Courts

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Last month I wrote about a criminal trial in New York considering liability for a 2008 industrial accident in Manhattan. Two construction workers died when their crane collapsed. This week, following a 10-week trial, a New York judge dismissed all four charges against the crane’s owner, who was accused of cutting corners on safety in several ways, notably by hiring “an unqualified Chinese company to make repairs to the crane because it offered a low price and quick turnaround,” according to the New York Times.

The newspaper notes that the verdict “underscored the difficulty of proving criminal liability in construction accidents, especially when the city and others are accused of mistakes in oversight and regulation that lead to fatal episodes.”

Families of the victims expressed understandable dismay when the verdict was announced. The Times, however, reports that the case is not over. “The families still have a civil suit pending,” it reports, adding that the acquittal on criminal charges “does not effect the civil case” where, as the plaintiffs attorney noted, there is a lower burden of proof.

April 25, 2012

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month

by Matthew D. Kaplan

I could not let the month end without taking note of the fact that April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, so designated by the US National Safety Council.

As The Oregonian and other local media have noted, police and other law enforcement officials are marking the month with stepped-up efforts at both enforcement of the state’s two-year-old distracted driving law, and at education. The paper reports that last year the “state police pulled over 3,782 drivers suspected of texting or talking on a handheld cell phone, a 7 percent increase over 2010.” It further notes that the OSP issued over 1,400 tickets and 2,350 warnings.

It’s also worth noting that this month Idaho and West Virginia became the latest states to outlaw texting while driving. That brings the total number of states banning the practice to 37, according to the ‘Family Car Guide’ website.