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Two months ago I wrote about “Textecution”, a smartphone application available for phones using Google’s Android operating system. At the time I noted that the application’s approach – using a phone’s GPS capabilities to determine whether the user is in a moving vehicle and, if so, to turn off some or all of a handset’s functions – seemed to be the wave of the future.

Sure enough, barely eight weeks later, New York Times technology columnist David Pogue has published a detailed review of four similar applications, all of which seek to address the growing problem of distracted driving. Textecution was not among the applications reviewed this week by Pogue. All of the ones he did look at, however, take a similar approach.

As Pogue notes, iZup, tXtBlocker, CellSafety and ZoomSafer approach the problem of Oregon distracted driving in differing ways but seem to be aimed at the same market: parents of teenagers (or perhaps to bosses who fear that employees on the phone while using the company vehicle will cause an Oregon car accident leading to a lawsuit). Aside from ZoomSafer, all of the applications reviewed require a monthly subscription fee. Purchase prices range from free (for iZup, though, again, there is a monthly fee) to $25.

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Relatives of an elderly Canby couple who died after their vacation home caught fire are seeking $3 million in damages as part of a Multnomah County wrongful death lawsuit, according to an article published earlier this week in The Oregonian.

The newspaper reports that the suit targets the companies that installed a propane stove and its accompanying gas lines in Clinton and Kenda Schultz’s vacation house in Sumpter, near Baker City in Eastern Oregon. The couple died in September 2008 when their cabin caught fire.

According to the newspaper, the suit alleges that the companies that installed the stove and its related piping failed “to obtain permits, notify building inspectors… or have the work inspected for its integrity. The suit claims that the Valley Metal employee who installed the stove and interior piping was 18 and didn’t have a required license from the Oregon State Fire Marshal.”

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A Portland bus accident late Saturday night left two young women dead and three other people injured – one critically – after the group was struck by a bus. According to The Oregonian, police are still working to reconstruct the details of the Oregon fatal pedestrian vehicle crash. The incident took place in downtown Portland as the group of pedestrians left a local comedy club.

According to the paper, the accident occurred at the intersection of Northwest Broadway and Glisan Street. “The bus was westbound on Glisan as it turned left onto southbound Broadway and struck the westbound pedestrians,” the paper reported. The five victims, including a newlywed couple and a brother and sister, all knew one another and were traveling together. According to police, the bus had a green light at the time of the accident and the pedestrians had a walk signal. The bus was out of service at the time and was not carrying passengers.

The Oregonian quoted police saying that neither speed nor alcohol initially appears to be a factor in the accident.

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Following up a story I blogged about earlier this month, the news broke late last week that an Oregon jury has awarded the victim $18.5 million in punitive damages in a high-profile Oregon child sexual abuse case involving the Boy Scouts, according to media reports. Earlier this month the Oregon jury awarded $1.4 million in compensatory damages for pain and suffering. The victim in this case, now 38, sued after determining that a scoutmaster had abused him in the 1980s.

As I’ve previously written, this case has attracted national attention. The New York Times noted that the case marked a rare instance in which the Boy Scouts’ confidential files on alleged sexual abuse and other inappropriate behavior by scout leaders were available to a jury. According to the Times: “Known variously as the “perversion files,” the “red flag files” and the “ineligible volunteer files,” the documents have been maintained for more than 70 years at the Scouts’ national office in Texas.” According to The Oregonian, the case marked only the second time that the records had been available to a jury.

Still to be decided by the judge is whether the files seen by the jury will now also be opened for public scrutiny. According to The Oregonian the Boy Scouts currently have about 2.8 million members, supervised by 1.1 million adult volunteers. The organization began running criminal background checks on volunteers in 2003, the paper reports. Numerous media reports have indicated that the precedent set by opening the Scouts’ files may unleash a flood of litigation nationwide.

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An area man has received a national award for saving a neighbor from a vicious Oregon dog attack. According to a recent article in The Oregonian, Chuck Monnier of Molalla rescued 23 year old Christopher Friesen from a serious attack by two loose dogs early on Christmas morning 2008. He has now been honored with a Carnegie Medal, “one of 22 awarded across the country this year by the Carnegie Hero Fund,” the newspaper reports.

Monnier told The Oregonian he heard Friesen’s cries for help and began to call 911 before deciding the situation could not wait. Handing the telephone to his wife he rushed outside, grabbed a shovel and used it to drive the attacking Clackamas dogs away. The Oregon dog attack left Friesen with serious injuries to his head, left calf, the back of his right knee and his left arm.

According to the newspaper, the Molalla police located the dogs the following day. The animals were “placed in quarantine. After an investigation, the dogs were euthanized and their owner was cited for maintaining a dangerous dog.”

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An Oregon wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in federal court in the wake of last year’s death of a 30 year old Salem man who had been subdued by police officers using tasers. The family of Gregory Rold is seeking $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $4.5 million in punitive damages from the City of Salem, four of its police officers and 10 other municipal employees, according to the Salem Statesman-Journal.

According to the Statesman-Journal, Rold died last May after being taken into custody by the Salem police following a trespassing complaint. When he resisted arrest, police subdued Rold with batons and the taser, according to the newspaper. Shortly after being taken into custody, however, Rold stopped breathing. Paramedics took him to a Salem hospital where he was pronounced dead. A Marion County Grand Jury later cleared the officers involved of wrongdoing, ruling that “police officers were justified in using physical force to arrest Rold,” the newspaper reported. A state medical examiner ruled the death accidental.

In an article distributed by Courthouse News Service, Rold’s mother says her son was schizophrenic, and that officers used the tasers on him for a full 2 minutes and later knelt on him as he lay face-down. According to the Statesman-Journal, the family’s Oregon wrongful death lawsuit “claims that Rold’s civil rights were violated, that police officers were negligent in causing Rold’s death and excessive force was used against Rold.”

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About 50 people, including Portland’s mayor, gathered last week to mark the unveiling of a unique spot: a shrine dedicated to Portland bicyclists by St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, along with the introduction by the church of a formal ‘bicycle liturgy’, according to a recent article in The Oregonian.

Central to the shrine is a ‘ghost bike’ covered in flowers and dedicated to the memory of a young Portland cyclist who was struck by a car and died in an Oregon bicycle accident in 2007. Mayor Sam Adams told those attending the service that “out of the great tragedy of (Tracey) Sparlings death emerged the city’s bike boxes, designed to prevent more right-hook turns like the one that killed” her, the newspaper reported. According to the church publication Episcopal Life, Sparlings was struck and killed by a cement truck which failed to see her while turning. The driver of the truck was not prosecuted.

The event was a reminder that even in Portland – often regarded as one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country – riders often find themselves endangered by drivers who are not keeping an eye out for cyclists.

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A leading expert on child sexual abuse says a Portland court’s verdict holding the Boy Scouts liable for the Oregon child sexual abuse of one of their scouts in the 1980s has the potential to set loose a flood of litigation, similar to what the Catholic Church has experienced in recent years, according to a recent report in The Oregonian.

That analysis comes in the wake of a $1.4 million Oregon jury verdict against the Boy Scouts of America and their local affiliate, the Cascade Pacific Council. The victim, now 38, was molested by a scoutmaster in 1983 and 1984, according to a report in USA Today. In an interview with The Oregonian the victim said he had come forward after so many years because he only recently realized how seriously the mental trauma of the molestation had affected his later life. Changes to Oregon’s sexual abuse laws enacted last year have extended the period of time after an incident of abuse in which an alleged victim can bring suit.

A statement posted on the Boy Scouts of America’s website described the organization as both “gravely disappointed” in the verdict and “saddened by what happened to the plaintiff,” The Oregonian reported. The Scouts now face a second phase of the trial in which punitive damages will be considered. The victim is seeking $25 million.

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Four members of a Canadian family were injured in a serious Oregon truck accident last week when what police describe as a “large truck” crossed the median on I-5 near Eugene and collided with an oncoming car, according to a report by local TV station KMTR.

According to the Eugene Register-Guard, the truck, which police describe as “rental style”, was headed south on I-5 at the time of the accident. The truck’s 73-year old driver reportedly strayed across the interstate’s grassy median before colliding with the Canadian family’s northbound pick-up truck. All four family members were taken to area hospitals. None of their injuries are thought to be life-threatening. The southbound truck’s driver was more seriously injured. According to the Register-Guard she was airlifted to hospital, after being pulled from her vehicle by fire department personnel.

Eugene injury accidents such as this can be difficult and costly affairs for the victims and their extended families. Bills for medical treatment, rehabilitative services and even counseling can flood in at a time when accident victims, or loved ones forced to leave work to care for them, are further burdened with emotional distress and the possible loss of wages or salaries.

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With Oregon distracted driving on the minds of many motorists as the state’s new ban on the use of hand-held cellphones and texting by drivers takes effect, a court case in California last week became the latest important legal decision to remind everyone how serious an issue this is.

According to the Associated Press, a 42 year old California man has been sentenced to four years in prison following a car accident in which he struck and killed a pedestrian. Martin Kuehl was texting as he drove through the southern California city of Newport Beach in August 2008. According to the AP, “prosecutors argued that he had an unobstructed view of the crosswalk” where he struck and killed the pedestrian, but “failed to slow down or break in any way.”

Interestingly, the accident took place one month before California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning texting behind the wheel throughout the state. That fact is an important reminder that the consequences of Portland distracted driving can go far beyond those directly related to the Oregon distracted driving law.

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