Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

October 17, 2011

Two, Including Passerby, Injured in Oregon Hit-and-Run Car Crash

An Oregon car crash in Scappoose, north of Portland, initially injured one woman then left a second woman seriously injured when she, in turn, became the victim of a hit-and-run driver after stopping to help, according to a recent dispatch in The Oregonian.

The newspaper, quoting a Multnomah County law enforcement spokesman, reports that the Northern Oregon auto accident began when a 30-year-old woman headed west on U.S. Route 30 “left the roadway, striking a guard rail near the Oregon Department of Transportation weigh station east of Scappoose.” The paper also notes that in the minutes prior to the crash “callers to 9-1-1 reported seeing a” car similar to the one that crashed “driving erratically and weaving in and out of traffic.” The Oregon car crash threw the driver from her vehicle, leaving her lying injured in the road’s median.

Moments later another woman, accompanied by her 23-year-old daughter, stopped to help the victim, while another driver positioned his car on the road “in an attempt to keep cars from striking the three women. But a westbound Pontiac Grand Am went around that car, striking both the injured woman in the center median and the good Samaritan’s daughter and then continuing west toward St. Helen’s” where she was stopped a short time later by police.

October 13, 2011

Oregon Drunk Driving Perils Highlighted by Grieving Father’s Donation

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The fatal Oregon drunk driving crash made headlines around the state: a young woman killed when her pick-up truck veered off the road “at a high rate of speed, hit a power pole and landed in a stand of trees,” according to an account in the Oregon City News.

“Officers said it took half an hour to free” the victim, a 25-year-old woman, from the vehicle. “She was flown by Life Flight helicopter to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital … in critical condition and died the next day from her injuries,” the newspaper reports. The Oregon truck accident attracted an unusual amount of attention because the collision with the electrical pole caused many residents of Oregon City to lose power for several hours on that late-September evening. Police said alcohol appeared to be a factor in the crash. The victim’s father told the newspaper that an open container of alcohol was found in the car’s wreckage.

Now, in a gesture he hopes will offer a lesson to other young people, that grieving father is donating the frightening-looking remains of his daughter’s car to Oregon Impact, a non-profit group that “tours mangled cars to illustrate the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol,” according to the newspaper. The group’s website lays out the scope of the problem in stark terms: 30% of Oregon teen driving deaths, it notes, are “alcohol-related.”

October 7, 2011

Hockey Season Brings New Focus on Concussions, Traumatic Brain Injuries

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The National Hockey League’s 2011-12 season kicked off last night with both the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins and the team they edged out last summer, the Vancouver Canucks, losing close fought, first-night match-ups.

Those games (along with a Montreal-Toronto contest) were the first official ones to be played under new NHL rules that severely restrict (but do not entirely ban) hits to the head during play. Long known as a fast and violent game, professional hockey has shown increasing concern for the long-term health of its players in recent years. Concussions and traumatic brain injuries emerged as a concern partly because of changes in the game itself – players are larger, skate faster, hit harder and wear better padding than their predecessors a generation (let alone half a century) ago, and the wear and tear on their bodies shows. The issue became especially salient for the league in the wake of several high-profile injuries that have sidelined star players for extended periods of time.

The most notable examples are Boston’s Marc Savard who has never completely recovered from a grade 2 concussion sustained in March 2010, and Pittsburgh’s Sydney Crosby, arguably the league’s most famous active player, who has not played since the beginning of the year after suffering two hits to the head in rapid succession during games on January 1 and January 5.

September 30, 2011

Drunk Driver kills Oregon Woman in Bike and Car Accident

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A young University of Oregon graduate died after being hit by a car while cycling in southern California, according to the advocacy group Bike Portland. Her death is a reminder that for as much progress as Portland has made in becoming a bike-friendly city we, and the rest of the country, still have a long way to go.

According to a local newspaper, the Pasadena Sun, 24-year-old Jocelyn Young’s fatal bike accident occurred when she fell from her bike and was struck and killed by a drunk driver. The paper describes the incident as a hit-and-run, noting that “several witnesses called police to notify them about the accident,” and that one witness followed the suspect into a neighboring city until police officers were able to locate him.

Young was treated by paramedics at the scene of the drunk driving accident but later died in hospital.

September 28, 2011

Oregon Safety Competition Targets Students

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Following-up my blog last week about Oregon child safety and the start of the school year, it is a pleasure to take note of a more upbeat story about efforts to prevent injuries to Oregon’s kids.

The Astoria publication Coast Weekend recently published details of a video and moviemaking contest for Oregon high school students with the theme “Save a friend. Work safe.” According to the newsletter, the competition “is designed to increase awareness about safety on the job for young people. Students must create a 45-second public service announcement” keyed to the contest theme. The top three entries will receive cash prizes of up to $500 with equal amounts being donated to their respective schools.

The contest is organized by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division. Entries will be judged on how well they address the contest theme as well as on creativity and originality and on their overall production values. Entries are due by February 1, 2012. See the link below for more contest details and the official rules. The Coast Weekly article also includes a link to last year’s winning entry – a “PSA depicting an accident involving a pizza delivery driver.”

September 26, 2011

Oregon City Drunk Driving Accident Kills Woman

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A 29-year-old Oregon City woman died recently as a result of a two-car Oregon drunk driving accident, according to a report in The Oregonian.

The crash occurred just before 2 am on state route 213 in Oregon City, the newspaper reports, quoting a spokesperson with the Oregon State Police Portland Command. “Police said Jennifer Miller, 29, of Oregon City, drove eastbound on the highway and ran a red light, crashing into a southbound Dodge pickup… Miller was declared dead at the scene, police said,” according to the newspaper. A passenger traveling in her car suffered injuries the paper describes as “serious.”

The pick-up truck’s driver was not injured in the Portland-area car crash, and was reported to be cooperating with police. Though The Oregonian’s report on the crash does not seek to assign blame, it does note that the pickup’s driver “had a green signal at the time of the crash.”

September 23, 2011

Salem Car and Pedestrian Accident Highlights School Year Dangers

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A tragic Salem-area car accident this week involving critical injuries to a child offers a sobering lesson in the importance of car and pedestrian safety as the new school year gets into full swing.

According to television station KGW a 16-year old girl suffered life-threatening injuries in an Oregon car accident in the small town of Jefferson, Oregon, south of Salem. “The 16-year-old girl was ‘walking along the side of the road’… when she was hit, according to Tammy Robbins with the Jefferson Fire District,” KGW reports.

The station’s online article goes on to note, also citing Robbins, that “the car that struck her smashed into a power pole after hitting the girl, but the driver was not injured.”

September 19, 2011

Beaverton Company Hit By Product Recall

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The federal government’s Food and Drug Administration announced recently that Beaverton-based King International has agreed to recall its ShoulderFlex Massager. The Oregon product recall was ordered after evidence emerged that ShoulderFlex use can lead to serious injuries or even a product liability-related Oregon wrongful death.

“One death and one near-strangulation have been reported after a necklace and piece of clothing became caught in a rotating component of the device. In other cases the FDA says people’s hair became caught in the ShoulderFlex,” Portland television station KATU reports.

The station notes that all 12,000 of the massagers the company has sold nationwide since 2003 are being recalled. It adds that efforts to obtain a comment from the Beaverton-based company were unsuccessful.

September 12, 2011

Oregon Highway Fatalities Down, DUI’s Up, Over Labor Day Weekend

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Marking Oregon car crash deaths is one of grim rituals that follow most holiday weekends. As the Seaside Signal notes, citing state statistics, Labor Day is traditionally one of the deadliest holiday weekends for drivers here in Oregon and nationwide.

The good news this year is that fatalities were down statewide. Two holiday weekend crashes led to three deaths, the newspaper reports: two people died on Friday evening as the holiday weekend began in a Clackamas County, Oregon motorcycle crash that also involved a car. The other fatality was discovered early Monday morning, on Labor Day itself, in Grass Valley. “An adult male was found deceased in the wreckage of the crash believed to have happened September 4 or during the early morning hours of September 5,” the paper reports, citing the Oregon State Police.

Tempering news of a drop in actual Oregon car crash deaths was word that DUI arrests were up. This is especially worrisome since, as the paper notes, “impaired driving is a major factor in holiday-related traffic crashes and alcohol is a known contributing factor in over half of holiday fatalities.” A total of 70 Oregon DUI arrests took place over Labor Day weekend, up from 67 last year – with an eye-opening ten OSP command centers statewide reporting three or more arrests during the period.

September 5, 2011

Oregon Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed in Case of Jeanette Maples

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The case of Jeanette Maples, the Eugene teenager who was starved and tortured to death by her own mother, shocked much of the state. Now, it is the state itself that stands accused of complicity in the girl’s death as the subject of an Oregon wrongful death lawsuit, according to television station KVAL and the Eugene Register-Guard.

The newspaper reports that Maples’ estate is suing Oregon Child Protective Services and the state Department of Human Services, alleging that their failure to protect the teen was “a substantial factor” in her death. Maples’ mother pled guilty to murder in criminal court and was later sentenced to death. The new suit, however, “claims the State of Oregon was negligent in not preventing Maples’ death by abuse,” KVAL reports.

According to the Register-Guard, the suit also alleges that the state’s neglect continued over an extended period of time. Specifically, “that state workers failed to ‘investigate and heed’ allegations of abuse from reliable sources beginning in 2006” and that this pattern of neglect continued until Maples’ death, nearly four years later.