Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

March 16, 2012

Traumatic Brain Injury Concern Helps Spur Anti-Fighting Movement in Youth Hockey

An excellent online article at Motherlode, the New York Times’ parenting blog, considers the question of fighting and youth hockey. I have written on a number of occasions about the risk here in Oregon of traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries in sports, especially at the college and pro levels and in heavily physical sports such as football and hockey.

The Times article, however, looks closely at the question of youth hockey. This level of the sport needs to receive more attention not only because it involves children, but also because children are more prone to injuries than highly trained (and better-equipped) professionals. On a deeper level, youth sports also require our attention because it is here that young athletes establish habits that can be extremely difficult to break as children become teens and teens become adults.

As Motherlode notes, the NCAA long ago proved that you can have exciting hockey games without fighting, “but youth hockey has so far followed the lead of the National Hockey League and allowed – even tacitly encouraged – fighting in some youth leagues for players from 16 to 20.” Now, however, the article notes that USA Hockey and Hockey Canada are both considering rule changes that would effectively outlaw fighting in non-professional leagues throughout North America, possibly as early as next season.

March 14, 2012

Oregon Traumatic Brain Injuries and the Link to PTSD

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An important article recently published in Science Daily offered details of a new study providing the first scientific evidence linking traumatic brain injuries to post-traumatic stress disorder. This development is especially important because it confirms something that many people who follow the issue have, until now, known only anecdotally.

Through numerous books and movies PTSD has come to be associated with war and other trauma-inducing disasters. The new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, however, offers “the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder,” according to Science Daily.

The article notes that “the reasons for this correlation are unknown.” It is not possible at this time to say whether the apparent link between traumatic brain injuries and PTSD is physical or psychological. The fact that the source of the link is difficult to determine is, however, less important than the fact that it exists. The first step in beginning to recover from an Oregon traumatic brain injury is to understand the long-term consequences that may accompany the injury. Only by doing this can victims move past the initial shock of the injury and begin the healing process.

March 9, 2012

Portland Workplace Safety Issues Highlighted By Factory’s Poor Report Card

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The revelation by The Oregonian last week that Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Agency has levied over $26,000 in fines against Precision Castparts was a reminder of the importance of Oregon workplace safety, and of the need for both regulatory and legal vigilance as we all struggle to prevent Oregon industrial accidents.

According to the newspaper, the company was cited for “32 violations at its large parts campus in Milwaukie and Southeast Portland, raising significant safety concerns for the third time since 2008.” Citing an Oregon OSHA spokeswoman, the paper notes that some of the violations “were repeats.” The overall list of infractions focused mainly on “cleaning operations in the two plants.” The company manufacturers parts for airplane engines and industrial gas turbines. It also does work for the military.

It is good to read that none of the safety violations cited by OSHA were deemed to be “willful” on the company’s part – the most serious category. Still, the newspaper reports, “28 were serious, with nine having the potential to cause death.”

March 2, 2012

Oregon Industrial Accident Questions Surround Man’s Death on Barge

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division is investigating the circumstances of a fatal Oregon workplace industrial accident late last month involving a man who fell into a chemical holding tank aboard a barge on the Willamette River, according to local TV station KOIN.

According to The Oregonian, the Portland Fire Department’s hazmat rescue team was called to the barge near Swan Island after workers realized one of their colleagues was missing and that he had last been seen standing near an open hatch aboard what the newspaper describes as “a 40-feet-by-50-feet barge filled with a toxic and corrosive chemical liquid called lignin amine…. (which) is often used to spray fruit trees.”

When rescue crews arrived they found the hatch leading to one of the barge’s tanks open and the man’s body at the bottom, the newspaper reports. The Oregonian quotes a member of the Portland Fire & Rescue team describing the tank as a “double hazard,” noting both the extremely confined space inside the tank and the hazardous materials it contained. According to the paper, the atmosphere at the bottom of the tank contained only 1% oxygen, guaranteeing that the victim would have perished within minutes of falling in. While standard safety procedures would have required wearing a life vest, the paper says it is unclear whether the victim was doing so – though granted the lack of air inside the tank it is not likely that a vest would have saved him.

February 29, 2012

Washington Propane Explosion Raises Industrial Accident Concerns

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A serious Washington propane explosion last week injured five people and briefly placed a nearby school at risk, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

The Washington industrial accident took place near Mukilteo, in the Greater Seattle area. The news agency, citing a local fire district spokesperson, reported that “a 1,000 gallon tank was being loaded onto a truck to be taken to the construction site when it blew up.” Five people injured in the last were transported to a Seattle-area hospital. Students at a nearby elementary school were confined to their building for a time because of the possibility that debris might still be in the air.

As I have noted in earlier blogs, propane explosions are one of the most common types of industrial accidents in both Washington and Oregon. They are also one of the most readily preventable. Propane is an inherently unstable substance, but with proper procedures the dangers associated with it can be reduced significantly. The laws of Washington industrial accidents and Oregon industrial accidents are designed specifically to encourage people handling this and similar substances to exercise caution.

February 27, 2012

Oregon Bike Safety to be Focus of Charity Event

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Six months after a Portland bicycle and car crash landed him in intensive care, retired football star Joey Harrington is working to put that experience to good use, according to Bike Portland. Harrington plans to combine his celebrity with his experience as an Oregon bike accident victim to promote children’s bicycle safety.

Bike Portland reports that the fundraiser, the “Bridge to Breakers – Helmets for Kids” ride, will be a 100-mile group ride on September 30. According to a statement released by the Harrington Family Foundation “the foundation would like to channel the attention from this accident to educate our community to the hazards associated with bicycle travel with the aim of reducing and preventing injuries to children.”

The injuries the former Oregon and NFL star suffered last August brought attention to Portland bicycle safety issues. He was clipped from behind by a passing car and, according to newspaper reports around the time of the accident, only avoided a severe Oregon traumatic brain injury because he was wearing a helmet.

February 25, 2012

Oregon Product Liability Judgment in Tainted Fertilizer Case

by Matthew D. Kaplan

It was, in some ways, the most basic of Oregon product liability cases: a company accused of recklessly selling a product it had not tested and which did a huge amount of damage to the businesses of those who used it. According to The Oregonian the Woodburn Fertilizer Company and Sun Gro Horticulture, the manufacturer and designer respectively of the fertilizer Multicote, are now being ordered to pay $40 million to account for the economic losses suffered by customers who trusted them.

Two Canadian farmers sued the companies after using Multicote. “The farmers’ attorneys were able to prove to the 12-person Multnomah County jury that Multicote killed off 4.1 million blueberry plants and hundreds of thousands of other types of plants” in 2007-8, the newspaper reports. The court’s award is divided into direct economic losses suffered by the farmers of $12.2 million, and allowances for the loss of customers and for interest on these sums.

The paper also notes that “Defense attorneys argued that the farmers should have tested Multicote first before using it in large numbers on plants.” But what, one might reply, is a fertilizer for? Customers have a reasonable expectation that when they use a product properly it will perform as advertised. Clearly that is not what happened here.

February 23, 2012

Oregon Patient Safety Questioned by Pharmacist Survey

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The small-town pharmacist who knows all of his or her customers is a staple of TV and the movies. That fictional pharmacist has plenty of time to triple check medications and their dosage and to discuss things in detail with patients, most of whom have been his friends for years.

It ought to come as no surprise in 2012 that reality does not measure up to Hollywood’s fantasies. According to The Oregonian, “a recent survey by the Oregon Board of Pharmacy reported that more than 350 chain pharmacists – more than half of those responding – said their working conditions don’t promote safe and effective care.”

Perhaps most shockingly, only one-quarter of the 1300 pharmacists responding to the state’s survey “agreed working conditions promoted safe and effective patient care.” The article goes on to note that “many complained of having more prescriptions to fill each day with fewer staff; of 12-hour shifts with scant breaks; and constant distractions, such as administering immunization shots to augment profits.”

February 21, 2012

Pesticides and Oregon Wrongful Death

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An opinion column published in Eugene’s Register-Guard newspaper earlier this month raises a number of important questions about a staple of agricultural life: aerial spraying. While crop dusting is viewed as an essential component of agriculture by many farmers, it has its detractors as well (the op-ed’s author is identified as a “farmer and forestland owner”) and there is no question that without proper safeguards and appropriate caution by pilots the practice may lead to Oregon wrongful death or to less severe – but nonetheless serious – medical consequences.

The op-ed criticizes the state bodies charged with regulating aerial spraying for what the author calls their “utter failure” to protect the public. Its harshest criticism, however, is reserved for Oregon regulations and legal opinions that leave those involved in aerial spraying “immune from liability for off-target drift, unless the poison causes organ failure or death.”

Clearly such a development, leading to a Eugene or Salem wrongful death, would be the most serious consequence imaginable. This is not, however, merely a health issue. Issues of commerce and people’s livelihoods are also involved. For example, with the growing popularity of organic products, the drift of pesticides from one farmer’s land to another has become a serious issue being addressed by legislatures in many parts of the country. Obviously the possibility of drift is far greater when the pesticide is applied from the air. Leaving aside entirely any potential health concerns, many organic farmers around the country fear the loss of high-value crops should someone else’s ill-applied pesticide drift across onto their land.

February 14, 2012

Oregon School Bus Accidents Injure Three Children

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Accidents involving school buses are arresting enough, but for two Oregon school bus accidents to take place in the same town – on the same road – in just three days is, to say the least, striking.

According to the Albany Democrat-Herald the first accident took place on a Friday afternoon earlier this month in Lebanon, southeast of Salem. In that incident, “a van pulling onto Highway 20 from Highway 226 hit the left side of a Bandon School District bus,” the newspaper reports. The van’s driver and her passenger – an elderly couple from Corvallis – were both hospitalized with “non-life-threatening injuries.” Two students on the bus were also injured and were taken to a separate hospital.

The following Monday, in the second incident, a nine-year-old boy was injured as the result of another Oregon School Bus crash on Highway 20. This incident, which took place just north of Lebanon, was part of a three vehicle Oregon car crash that began when one car waiting to make a left turn was rear-ended by another vehicle. The impact sent the first car out into the intersection, and into the path of the oncoming school bus. In addition to the child on the bus, the driver of the car that caused the rear-end collision was injured in the incident.