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In Portland, a 16-year-old boy is in critical condition after he was struck by two cars on Interstate 5 on Sunday. The teen pedestrian had just left the Rose Garden where he had been watching the Portland Trail Blazers play against the San Antonio Spurs.

The boy is being treated at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Portland police are investigating the cause of the fatal Oregon pedestrian accident. They think he may have been trying to cross the freeway. One vehicle reportedly hit the boy before he was hit by another car.

Both motorists stopped at the Portland, Oregon traffic accident scene and spoke to local authorities. One woman who had also been watching the basketball game says the boy is not the only one that had been trying to cross Interstate 5.

Oregon Pedestrian Accidents
It is important that pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists take steps to prevent pedestrian accidents from happening. Whenever there is a traffic accident involving a pedestrian, he or she is the one most prone to serious injuries.

The Web site PedestrianSafety.com talks about a list of scenarios on the road that can lead to Portland traffic accidents and resulting pedestrian injuries and deaths:

• A motor vehicle turns into a pedestrian’s path.
• A pedestrian runs onto the street.
• A pedestrian crosses the street in the middle of the road.
• A bus may be obstructing another motorist’s view, making it difficult to see that there is a pedestrian behind a large vehicle unless the driver or motorcyclist is paying close attention.

To prevent pedestrian accidents, a Safety and Consumer Protection Web site advises:
• Yield the right of way to pedestrians whether or not there is a walk signal or pedestrian lane if they have already started crossing the street.
• Do not overtake or try to pass a vehicle that is stopped at an intersection.

Teen Struck By Car After Leaving Rose Garden, Fox 12 Oregon, March 1, 2009
Rules and pointers for pedestrians and drivers, Safety & Consumer Protection
Pedestrian Safety

Related Web Resources:
Bicycle & Pedestrian Program, Oregon.gov
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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The Oregon Senate passed Senate Bill 311 this week to increase the liability lawsuit limits that a government agency can be made to pay plaintiffs. Whereas the old limits, set in 1987, placed a cap of $100,000 on noneconomic and economic damages, $50,000 for property damage, and $500,000 for all claims from one incident, the new bill proposes raising the state government’s liability lawsuit limit maximums to $1.5 million for one claim and $3 million for all claims stemming from a single incident. The distinctions between the damages would be eliminated, and the Oregon Supreme Court would deal with any challenges to the new limits.

Caps would increase $100,000 a over a five-year period. After 2015, amounts would be indexed according to inflation. All other governments in Oregon would have caps that are one-third of the state’s caps. Individual workers would also be covered against civil claims for accidents that occur while he or she is on the job. The bill now goes to the House.

In 2007, the family of young Jordan Michael Clarke sued Oregon Health & Science University and seven of its employees for medical malpractice after he suffered permanent brain damage following surgery to repair a congenital heart defect. Using the state’s liability shield, however, OHSU replaced the individual defendants named in the complaint with itself to limit liability at $200,000.

While the Oregon State Supreme Court ruled that OHSU was legally entitled to do this, it also found that the existing government caps were too low that they prevented the boy’s family from receiving an appropriate legal remedy for his injuries. A $9.3 million personal injury settlement was eventually reached between OHSU and Clarke’s family.

Senate approves increase in liability lawsuit limits, Statesman Journal, February 24, 2009
Oregon may welcome higher lawsuit caps, SeattlePI.com, February 12, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Oregon Health and Science University

General information about the Oregon Tort Claims Act, OHSU.edu

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In Multnomah County, the family of Ruth Reimann has filed an Oregon wrongful death lawsuit. Reimann, of Portland, was fatally injured on August 4, 2008 when a small plane crashed into the vacation home they were staying at in the coastal town of Gearhart. Her children – Chris, 13, Sarah, 11, and Julia, 10 – were injured in, but survived, the tragedy.

Early that morning, the Cessna 172 dove through the house and burst into flames. Following the airplane accident, Ruth spent weeks in Portland at the Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health for treatment of their burn injuries before she died.

Also killed in the Oregon airplane accident were pilot Jason Ketcheson, passenger Frank Toohey, and siblings 12-year-old Hesam Farrar Masoudi and 8-year-old Grace Masoudi. The children were at the home of the Reimanns when the deadly aviation accident happened.

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The family of Jakobi Mulgrave, the 10-year-old boy who survived a Eugene drunk driving accident that killed his mother and three other people last month, is suing several plaintiffs on his behalf for personal injury. According to the Oregon car accident lawsuit, which is seeking approximately $13 million, Jakobi sustained a brain injury, a fractured skull, a fractured pelvis, as well as damage to his kidney, spleen, and liver. Mulgrave is being treated at a Portland hospital.

The catastrophic motor vehicle accident took place on the night of January 21 when an Isuzu Rodeo, driven by Matthew Ellmers and the Toyota Highlander carrying Jakobi, his mother Yvonne, Connie Marie Vermilyea, 34, Jaziah Vermilyea, 10, and Nima Gibba, 11, collided, causing the Highlander to turn in the air and hit a utility pole. Ellmers, who is the only other person to survive the crash, also sustained serious injuries. Police say the 24-year-old Eugene driver was driving drunk.

The Mulgrave family’s Oregon personal injury lawsuit involving injuries to minors contends that Jakobi should receive $10 million for noneconomic damages, $2.8 million for lost wages throughout his lifetime, medical expenses, and other costs.

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A 62-year-old Portland man is suing the Franciscan Friars of California for injuries he says he sustained as a child when a priest sexually abused him. In his Oregon sex abuse lawsuit, he is seeking $4 million in damages. The plaintiff claims Father Claude Riffe sexually abused him during the 60’s at the St. Francis Minor Seminary in Troutdale.

Clergy Sex Abuse

Clergy sex abuse by a number of priests and other members of the Catholic Church has been a problem for a long time. Fortunately, there are legal remedies available to victims—whether they are still children who were recently abused or adults who were the victims of sexual abuse when they were children.

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A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in an incident involving an Oregon woman who went missing and was found dead close to Wynooche Lake a little over two years ago. Beverly Johnson disappeared on January 2, 2007. Her body was found 11 days later.

Now, Delbert Johnson, Beverly’s husband, and her estate are suing the Oregon city of Beaverton and the state of Washington for $3 million. Delbert is seeking $2.5 million for damages he claims he has suffered due to loss of mutual affection, love, and companionship. Beverly’s estate is asking for half a million dollars for the fear, anguish, thirst, hunger, and pain that she likely felt after she got lost. According to a medical examiner’s report, Beverly, who ended up getting locked out of her vehicle, died of hypothermia.

On the afternoon of the 69-year-old’s disappearance, Delbert reported that she failed to return home from a visit to the Beaverton Library. He says that the defendants allowed his wife to die because of the way they handled the search for her.

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In Oregon, a Multnomah County jury has awarded the family of an Oregon family $560,000 for injuries sustained by a toddler who fell head first from the second-story duplex that her family was renting in Gresham. The girl, Isabella White, cracked her skull, suffered brain tissue loss, and experienced bleeding in her brain when her head struck the concrete pavement in April 2007. The Oregon premises liability defendants in the case were Keys Rental Management and Keys Rental Holding Co. Only the management company was found liable.

Isabella is now 4, but she was just 2 ½ when the fall accident happened. She fell through a window after her mother had opened it and the window screen gave way.

During the premises liability trial, the family’s Oregon personal injury lawyer argued that the apartment management company should have warned Isabella’s parents that the window in the duplex—just 23 inches off the ground—was a potential injury hazard for kids. Their lawyer also accused the defendant of failing to install safety devices, such as a child-safe screen, that could have prevented Isabella’s fall accident.

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A series of unrelated Oregon rollover accidents have left accident victims with injuries. In one auto crash, a Multnomah County judge sustained critical injuries after the car he was riding in rolled over when it was struck by a pickup truck. Three other people, including the judge’s two children, were also injured in the head-on collision. According to Oregon State Trooper Duane Larson, pickup truck driver Craig Gilbert lost control of his vehicle.

In another Oregon auto crash, a 5-year-old boy was killed on Saturday when he was thrown from the family’s 2000 Chevrolet Tahoe during a rollover accident on I-82 south of Umatilla. His mother reportedly lost control of the vehicle while breaking and the SUV rolled over three times.

In another deadly rollover crash, an Oregon woman died on January 17 when her car rolled over on Highway 26, close to Prairie City. According to Oregon State Police, Fredina Sue McKrola, 66, was found close to her Chevrolet Suburban. Investigators think that the auto collision happened because she lost control of her car. There were ice spots reported in the area where her accident happened.

Rollover Accidents
There are many reasons for why rollover accidents occur, including:

• Negligent driving
• Products liability
• Unsafe conditions on the road that should have been cleared out
• Multi-vehicle crashes
While some rollover accidents are the drivers’ fault, there are rollover crashes that do occur because another party was negligent. If you were a passenger injured in a rollover accident caused by a negligent driver, or if your loved one died in another kind of auto kind of accident caused by someone else’s carelessness or recklessness, you may have grounds to file an Oregon personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit to claim compensation.

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Police in Oregon say alcohol may have been a factor in a deadly Eugene auto accident that left 10-year-old Jakobi Mulgrave in serious condition and killed four other people on Wednesday. Injured in the Oregon auto wreck was the boy’s mother, 34-year-old Heather Yvonne Mulgrave, 10-year-old Jaziah Vermilyea, 34-year-old Connie Marie Vermilyea, and 11-year-old Nima Gibba. All of the victims were from Springfield, except for Nima, who is a Eugene resident.

The accident occurred at about 9:16pm at night when the Toyota Highlander carrying the victims and an Isuzu Rodeo collided. Both vehicles were totaled in the crash. The driver of the Isuzu, 24-year-old Eugene motorist Matthew N Ellmers, was listed in serious condition at a Springfield hospital as of yesterday.

The deadly auto crash happened at an intersection where there is a 4-way traffic signal. One teenager says the cement building she was in shook when the vehicles collided. The Highlander reportedly flipped into the air following the crash and drove into a utility pole.

According to The Register-Guard, multi-vehicle crashes don’t happen very often in Eugene. The last time local police investigated an auto accident death involving more than one victim was in 1978.

According to the state’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, there were five Oregon multi-vehicle accidents involving at least four fatalities in 2007 and 2008.

Multi-Vehicle Collisions
Proving liability and obtaining personal injury or wrongful death recovery in a multi-vehicle crash can be complicated—unless you are working with an experienced Oregon car accident lawyer who knows how to properly investigate your case.

Accident reconstructionists, medical specialists, accident investigators, and other experts may have to be called in to investigate all of the evidence to determine fault and figure out how much compensation you should receive. If you or someone you love was injured in a multi-vehicle Oregon auto accident—do NOT try to negotiate an agreement with the other parties’ insurance companies or their legal representatives without seeking your own legal counsel.

Police need public’s help with investigation of crash that killed 4, KVAL, January 23, 2009
Accident Touched Lives of Many, The Register-Guard, January 23, 2009

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Beginning January 1, anyone younger than age 16 is only allowed to operate an all-terrain vehicle while under adult supervision. All ATV operators, regardless of age, must complete an Oregon-approved safety training course. Young ATV operators must also meet rider-fit guidelines, as well as minimum physical size requirements involving leg length, brake reach, handle bars, and grip reach.

The new rules come after an increase in the number of young ATV riders that are injured in accidents. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program, from 2001 to 2003:

• 108,724 ATV riders younger than 15 required medical attention at a hospital for nonfatal injuries.
• Male ATV riders, 11 – 15, made up 52% of these visitors.
• Common nonfatal ATV injuries include facial injuries, foot injuries, leg injuries, and fractures.

At least 107 young riders died in ATV accidents in 2007. Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Administration introduced the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which requires ATV manufacturers to comply with ATV standards and develop an ATV Action Plan regarding training, safety, ATV manuals, hang tags, labels, and other requirements.

While there are steps that consumers can take to protect young riders from getting hurt when riding ATV’s, manufacturers must also take steps to prevent injury accidents by making sure that their products are free from defects or flaws that can lead to injury accidents. They must also make sure that they warn users of the potential hazards that coming with riding an ATV. The Oregon Trauma Registry says some 1,200 young ATV riders have been injured in the last five years.

Oregon Imposes New ATV Rules, NewsInferno, January 6, 2009
ATV Injuries and Deaths Continue to Rise, ConsumerAffairs.com, October 28, 2008
Related Web Resource:
Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008

ATVs, Oregon.gov

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50 SW Pine St 3rd Floor Portland, OR 97204 Telephone: (503) 226-3844 Fax: (503) 943-6670 Email: matthew@mdkaplanlaw.com
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