Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

February 24, 2010

Oregon Car Chase Ends in Sauvie Island Crash

A Vancouver WA man is under arrest after leading police on a high-speed chase that ended with an Oregon Car crash on Sauvie Island. According to TV station KPTV, the driver, identified as 35 year old Ashley Siclovan, led police on a chase at speeds in excess of 100 mph for 18 miles. A police car was disabled while attempting to stop him. The chase eventually ended in an Oregon car accident when Siclovan allegedly crashed his vehicle into the gate of a state fish and wildlife office on Sauvie Island.

According to The Oregonian, Siclovan was arrested and taken to the Columbia County jail. He has been charged with felony attempt to elude, reckless driving, criminal mischief and second degree kidnapping. The last charge relates to a female passenger who he let out of the vehicle after crossing onto Sauvie Island. The woman later told police that Siclovan had refused to let her out of the car as he attempted to escape from the police. She was not arrested.

It is fortunate that no one appears to have been harmed in the incident. The chase is a reminder, however, of the damage a reckless driver can potentially cause. If you or a loved one has been the victim of a Portland reckless or high speed driver consulting with an Oregon auto accident injury lawyer at the earliest possible opportunity is a prudent course of action. An experienced Portland personal injury lawyer can offer valuable assistance, and help you determine whether your situation merits a claim for injuries or other damages suffered in an Oregon auto accident.

February 22, 2010

Oregon Medical Malpractice Ruling for former TV Personality

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A state appeals court has upheld a $1.4 million Oregon medical malpractice judgment against the Oregon Health & Science University’s hospital and one of its doctors. The court rejected arguments by the university and doctor that state law capped Oregon medical malpractice liability at $200,000, according to local media reports. The Portland Business Journal reports that the hospital plans to appeal the ruling.

The focus of the case is former Portland TV host Ken Ackerman. According to The Oregonian, Ackerman contends that a botched 2003 operation to repair a bulging spinal disk has left him in near constant pain, reduced his dexterity in one hand and reduced his sensitivity to hot and cold on one side of his body. Ackerman sued for $5 million and was awarded $1.4 million after a 2006 Portland medical malpractice trial. His suit also challenged a law limiting damages against state employees performing their official duties to $200,000. The question of whether the law protected the doctor and hospital from damages above that figure was effectively resolved when the State Supreme court overturned the limits in a separate 2007 case.

Ackerman’s latest victory is good news for anyone who has been the victim of Oregon medical malpractice and is seeking compensation for his or her injuries. A Portland medical malpractice attorney can advise clients on the best ways to approach a case, based on the victim’s own particular experiences. In addition to medical bills and lost wages or salary, compensation can include awards for pain and suffering, and for lost potential income. The state’s moves to revise the old caps on liability awards is an important acknowledgement that in this age of ever-rising medical costs the value of damages associated with Oregon medical malpractice claims should also rise accordingly.

February 20, 2010

Creswell Cyclist Dies in Collision With Car

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A 38 year old Oregon cyclist died in an Oregon auto accident last week after being hit by a car on Oregon route 99 near Creswell. According to Oregon State Police, quoted by The Oregonian, the Portland-area bicycle and car collision took place when Creswell cyclist John Clayton was riding northbound on 99. Clayton died after being struck head-on by a car that had pulled out of the southbound lane to execute a pass.

The driver of that vehicle also sideswiped the car he was trying to pass. According to the Creswell Chronicle, Clayton was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The paper reported that he was wearing neither a helmet nor any reflective clothing, though it is worth emphasizing that he was riding as he was supposed to: with traffic, along the right-hand side of the road.

Clayton’s tragic and preventable death is a reminder of how important it is for Oregon drivers to take special care when they are around cyclists. Our state, and the city of Portland, are widely considered to be among the most bicycle-friendly places in America, but that does not mean every driver on the road uses the care and discretion one would hope for when they are around cyclists.

February 17, 2010

Olympic Hockey Rules Designed to Minimize Brain Injuries

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The men’s hockey tournament at the Vancouver Winter Olympics got underway last night. As a recent article in the New York Times details, though many of the players appearing in the Olympics come from the NHL, hockey played under international rules – including all games in the Olympics – differs in several significant ways from the game Americans are accustomed to seeing. Many of the rule changes are designed to minimize traumatic brain injuries.

As the newspaper writes: “The biggest difference is on checks to the head. While the N.H.L. continues to debate whether some hits to the head should be penalized, the I.I.H.F. (hockey’s international governing body) has outlawed them.”

Another obvious difference: international hockey – like college hockey here in the States – shows no tolerance for on-ice fighting. More subtle differences include rules requiring visors and the use of chin straps on players’ helmets, and mandating that a player whose helmet comes off leave the ice immediately.

February 15, 2010

Canby Auto Accident Sends Two Drivers to Hospital

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Two of the drivers involved in a four car Canby auto accident last week were hospitalized with one of them receiving a citation from police for his role in the Oregon car accident, according to a recent report in the Canby Herald.

The newspaper reports that the Portland area traffic accident took place on Arndt Road, near the intersection with Airport Road around 7 am on Wednesday shutting down traffic on Arndt road in both directions during morning rush hour. One of the drivers, 49 year old Michael Lee, was treated at a Portland hospital and was cited for both reckless driving and driving while suspended. A second driver, Hector Estrada-Vargas, was treated at a hospital in Tualatin.

The Herald, quoting police officers, reports that the accident began when Lee, who was traveling eastbound on Arndt Road, illegally passed another vehicle on the right. In executing the pass he lost control of his pick-up truck, careened into the westbound lane and collided with three oncoming vehicles, including the one driven by Estrada-Vargas.

February 12, 2010

Wrongful Death Suit Filed in HS Football Player’s Death

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The death of a North Carolina teenager shortly after he returned home from football practice has led his parents to file a wrongful death lawsuit. At a time when Oregon is focusing more attention on head injuries stemming from student athletics this tragedy on the other side of the country is a reminder that concussions and traumatic brain injuries are not the only things parents – particularly the parents of student-athletes – need to worry about.

According to the Durham Herald-Sun the 17 year old high school football player called 911 from home after experiencing stomach cramps following practice. A paramedic and a fourth-year medical student examined him “and advised him to continue to drink fluids.” The two rescue workers then left him alone. The teenager died a short time later. The incident, which took place in August 2008, has now led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents against the paramedic, county emergency services and the county government. The official cause of death has not been released, according to the Herald-Sun.

It would be wrong to discount the enormously important, and sometimes dangerous, jobs that paramedics and other emergency responders perform every day. This story is also, however, a reminder that when serious mistakes, or negligence, occur it is important that those responsible be held to account.

February 10, 2010

Oregon Auto Accidents Are Target of Safety Crackdown

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Monday marked the beginning of a two-week crackdown on dangerous driving, according to a recent report in the Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon auto accidents are the target of the statewide effort, known officially as the “Three Flags Safety Campaign.”

The name of the program to prevent Eugene fatal traffic accidents takes its name from what law enforcement officials cite as the three biggest factors in Oregon auto accidents: “driving impaired, driving too fast and failure to use seatbelts.”

Citing Eugene police department statistics, the paper reports that even though official estimates are that 96% of Oregonians use seatbelts, lack of a seatbelt remained “a major factor in half of Oregon’s traffic deaths in 2008.”

February 8, 2010

Southern Oregon Injury Lawsuit Seeks Damages Following Forest Accident

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A man from Prospect, in southern Oregon between Medford and Crater Lake National Park, has filed an Oregon personal injury lawsuit against the US Forest Service and a local lumber company for injuries sustained because the government allegedly failed to remove a dangerous tree. According to The Oregonian, as well as wire service reports, Bert Fernandez claims he was permanently injured, and that his vehicle was severely damaged, when a 32-foot tree fell on his car as he drove through the Rouge River National Forest. The accident took place in February, 2008.

Fernandez charges that the tree had been marked by the Forest Service for removal and that the logging company failed to cut it down within the timeframe agreed in the company’s contract with the government. He is alleging negligence on the part of the logger for failing to cut down the tree, and on the part of the Forest Service for failing to hold the loggers to their contract.

While unusual in some respects (people more commonly get sued for cutting down a tree improperly rather than for failing to cut it down in the first place), at its core this is a familiar sort of Oregon personal injury case: one that seeks to recover damages caused by alleged negligence on the part of the government and a private company.

February 7, 2010

Discussion of Brain a Reminder of Oregon’s New Laws

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The venerable CBS Sunday morning show Face the Nation took a break from politics today to talk, with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as the program’s main guest. Among the topics on the agenda: traumatic brain injuries, a subject that has been much in the news here in Oregon with the recent enactment of laws aimed at lessening the number of Oregon traumatic brain injuries sustained through youth sports, including football.

This is an issue I have written about before (see this post from last November), and one which has caused the NFL a certain amount of public relations trouble in recent months. On CBS, Goodell rejected any suggestion that the NFL has been, as host Bob Schieffer put it, “late to recognize” the seriousness of concussions and brain injuries as a problem at the professional level. The commissioner said the league has been on top of the issue “since the mid-90s”; adding: “Medical science is still trying to determine what are the long-term effects of concussions. How do you treat these?”

This is a position with which some might take issue. As I noted in November, the league is working to counter accusations it ignored or downplayed the seriousness of concussions in football for years. When Schieffer pointed out that the NFL’s own studies show that football players are five times more likely than members of the general population to suffer brain injuries or memory loss and that among 30-49 year olds that figure rises to 19 times the average, Goodell was quick to dismiss the very NFL studies he had been touting as examples of League responsibility a few minutes earlier. “This wasn’t a medical survey,” he said.

February 5, 2010

Corvallis Accident Kills Child in Stroller

by Matthew D. Kaplan

In what is, perhaps, one of the strangest and most senseless Oregon traffic accident deaths in recent memory, a two year old boy was killed this week after the jogging stroller in which he was riding was struck by a truck near Corvallis.

According to local media reports the Oregon fatal accident took place at the intersection of Highway 99 and Highway 34 just east of Corvallis. The truck reportedly hit the stroller as it was making a turn onto Highway 99 after stopping at a red light. Television station KPIC, quoting state police officials, reports that the toddler’s mother “may have received some minor injuries to her hands and arms” during the accident. Exactly how the stroller came to be in the intersection at the moment the commercial semi-trailer truck was turning is still under investigation.

This unusually tragic Oregon fatal truck accident raises a number of potential legal questions relating to Oregon child injuries, including a potential Corvallis wrongful death claim. Beyond any criminal issues that law enforcement officials may pursue, situations such as this can also give rise to civil claims. Anyone involved in an accident of this type should consult a Corvallis child injury and wrongful death attorney at the earliest possible time following the tragedy.