Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

July 26, 2010

Approach of Football Season Brings Renewed Debate About Brain Injuries

A report this weekend in The New York Times raised new, and troubling, issues regarding football helmets and their ability to protect younger players from traumatic brain injuries.

The newspaper reported that the NFL, last Friday, released data sets related to helmet testing, despite criticism that the information is potentially misleading. The league, its committee on head injuries and the player’s union all concurred in the action, the paper reported. According to the Times, the release took place despite criticism from Congress that the data involved is “infected”, rendering the results potentially misleading. Two months ago the league promised New York Congressman Anthony Weiner that the testing program that yielded the data would be abandoned.

Particularly at issue was the nature of the testing undergone by several leading brands of football helmet used in NFL games. According to the Times, the data compiled by the league and later confirmed by independent analysts sought to recreate the kind of hits the equipment would experience in an NFL game. The goal was to determine which brands of helmet offer the best protection against skull fractures – a serious concern for players at the NFL level. Aside from criticism of the tests’ methodologies, Congress and other critics took issue with the results issuing from these tests, in which certain brands were labeled “top performing” for professional use – a designation that makes a compelling selling point for manufacturers.

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.

July 21, 2010

Oregon Congressman Demands Explanation of Defense Contractor’s Immunity

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Contracts between the Pentagon and defense contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root grant the company complete immunity in Iraq for harm its employees may cause to either Iraqi civilians or American and other coalition soldiers.

That immunity – cited by KBR in defending itself against an Oregon workplace injury lawsuit – has prompted Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat who represents much of the Portland area, to demand an explanation from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, according to The Oregonian. In his letter to Gates, Blumenauer called the blanket liability exemption “mind-numbing”.

The newspaper reports that the exemption came to light as part of a lawsuit filed by 26 Oregon National Guardsmen who served in Iraq in 2003. The troops were assigned to guard KBR employees undertaking reconstruction work. The guardsmen claim that “the contractor knowingly or negligently exposed them to a cancer-causing chemical” the newspaper reports. A similar suit is also being considered by courts in Indiana.

July 20, 2010

Oregon Drunk Driver Causes Serious Injuries Near Moro

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A man from Vancouver, Washington was arrested by Oregon State Police last week following a serious Oregon injury DUII accident near Moro, according to a report in The Oregonian.

According to the newspaper, the Oregon car accident took place on US 97 last week when a southbound pick-up truck “failed to stop for traffic” backed up along the road by an earlier Oregon fatal car accident. The pick-up hit a car in front of it causing that car, in turn, to strike a man standing beside the road. The pedestrian had been a passenger in the car struck by the pick-up, but had exited to the roadside while traffic in the area was halted.

The stricken passenger was airlifted to an area hospital with what The Oregonian describes as life-threatening injuries, while three children in the car were transported to a different hospital “for treatment of minor injuries.”

July 17, 2010

Government Highlights Potential Dangers of Open Windows

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A new public information initiative from the Consumer Product Safety Commission takes hot summer weather as a starting point to highlight the potential danger of open windows. It is an admonition Oregon parents should take to heart.

The CPSC reports that an average of eight children aged five or younger are killed each year after falling from windows, and a shocking 3300 per year require emergency room treatment. As the agency notes, many of these deaths and injuries are eminently preventable. CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum used the news release to call for greater parental responsibility. “It takes active supervision on the part of the parent or caregiver, and a device called a window guard,” she said. “Screens are meant to keep bugs out, not kids in.”

Tenenbaum’s comment refers to the fact that a large number of injuries from window falls begin with children leaning on screens. Small children, of course, do now understand that a screen won’t hold their weight. Parents, however, ought to know better and need to be both vigilant and proactive.

July 13, 2010

Portland Motorcycle Crash Closes Interstate for Several Hours

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Portland-area drivers on I-205 near Gladstone were delayed for hours last Thursday as police closed the road in both directions to investigate the circumstances surrounding a serious Oregon motorcycle crash, according to The Oregonian.

Media reports emphasize that the investigation into the accident and its exact circumstances is still in progress, but some basic details are clear. According to the Portland Tribune, the accident took place Thursday afternoon when a motorcycle that was headed north on the interstate “collided with a vehicle, throwing the rider into a southbound lane.”

This accident highlights the special dangers motorcyclists face on our roads. Despite advances in safety gear, such as helmets, Oregon motorcyclists remain far more likely than car drivers or passengers to die or suffer serious injury as the result of an Oregon motorcycle accident while operating their vehicle.

July 7, 2010

Lobbyists Drop Effort to Fight Distracted Driving Legislation

by Matthew D. Kaplan

In what may be a sign of changing national attitudes, a push by Washington lobbyists to roll back distracted driving legislation by changing the terms of debate appears to have, as the New York Times puts it, “fallen apart.” This can only be seen as good news by everyone who believes that the new Oregon distracted driving law is an important public safety measure.

The Oregon distracted driving law, which went into effect January 1 of this year, bans most drivers from talking on or texting from a handheld cellphone while driving. There are some limited exceptions for emergencies and people in certain occupations but, broadly speaking, the goal is to get Oregon drivers to put down cellphones.

Apparently it is exactly this intention at which the DC lobbyists were taking aim. As the Times reports, the now-defunct “Drive Coalition” was a lobbyist-driven effort to round up clients among cellphone and auto companies. The Times reports that the group planned oppose measures like the Oregon distracted driving statute and instead “to push the idea of broader laws that would focus on car distractions in general.” The group backed off after an angry press conference Wednesday by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood who, the paper reports, decried “an effort he said was a threat to driver safety.”

July 5, 2010

La Grande Car Accident Raises Insurance Issues

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A 69 year old Salem man died Thursday in an Oregon car accident just as the holiday weekend was getting underway. According to The Oregonian, Rodney Kamppi was headed for a Fourth of July camping trip with his daughter, son-in-law and the younger couple’s two daughters when the driver, Kamppi’s son-in-law, lost control of vehicle near La Grande.

The family was traveling in an SUV, and was towing a large camper. According to the newspaper, quoting an Oregon state trooper, “the SUV flipped over, separated from the trailer and slid about 100 feet down an embankment before hitting a tree.” Kamppi died at the scene of the accident, the newspaper reports, despite the best efforts of two nurses who were passing by and stopped to offer assistance, including CPR. The remaining members of the family were taken to a local hospital. The OSP told The Oregonian that all occupants of the SUV were wearing safety belts.

In the wake of accidents like this one it is an unfortunate fact that grieving and injured families often require the assistance of an Oregon personal injury lawyer in what becomes a fight to receive all of the insurance benefits to which they may be entitled.

July 2, 2010

Beaverton Car Crash Kills Two

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An Oregon car crash Wednesday left two people dead in Beaverton, highlighting in the most tragic way possible the need for caution behind the wheel as we head into this holiday weekend.

According to The Oregonian, the Washington County car accident took place at mid-afternoon on South Murray Boulevard. The driver “barely stopped for the red light” before making a right turn and then speeding up. The abrupt acceleration caused “the car to fishtail across both lanes, jump the curb and crash into” a concrete wall, the paper reports. A 54-year old man riding in the passenger seat was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The driver, a 61 year old woman, was airlifted to a Portland hospital following the Oregon car accident, but died a few hours later.

Television station KGW quotes police investigating the accident saying both that speed “appears to have been” one cause of the Oregon single car accident, and that alcohol use may also have played a role.

June 30, 2010

New Study Shows Distracted Driving Is Not Just a Teen Problem

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A study published earlier this month by the Pew Internet & American Life Project documents what many of us probably knew in our hearts: distracted driving is more than just a teen problem. Following up the Project’s 2009 study of teens and distracted driving, the new report finds that “one in four American adults say they have texted while driving”. In fact, the proportion for adults who acknowledge having engaged in this especially dangerous activity – 27% – is basically the same as the percentage of teens – 26% – who acknowledge doing so.

Perhaps more shocking is the fact that 17% of all adults acknowledge having been so distracted “while talking or texting that they have physically bumped into another person or object” while behind the wheel.

As I have noted in a number of previous posts on Portland distracted driving, Oregon is one of a growing number of states that are attempting to crack down on the practice through legislation. With a small number of exceptions, Oregon distracted driving became illegal throughout the state at the beginning of this year. In a society where, according to the study, 82% of Americans over age 18 now own a cellphone and 58% of them text, distracted driving is likely to continue growing as an issue.