The New Year brought with it quiet news of an important development in the battle against Oregon distracted driving. Beginning this month, Oregon drivers stopped by police for using a handset while driving will no longer be able to avoid the two-year-old Oregon distracted driving law’s penalties by claiming that…
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a voluntary recall of “Little Tricky” kids bike helmets. See the link below for the original CPSC news release, including pictures of the helmets themselves. Parents should immediately double-check their kids’ helmets to ensure that the children are not using the affected products.…
A few days ago I wrote about the importance of access to our courts and the myth that Oregon personal injury lawsuits are frivolous actions designed to clog up the legal system and undercut the business community. A case settled earlier this month in the southern part of our state…
A fatal accident earlier this month at an Eastern Oregon railroad crossing where collisions involving trains and vehicles have occurred in the past raises serious questions about corporate responsibility and road/rail safety. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting (citing an article that originally appeared in the East Oregonian), a 63-year-old county…
A pair of recent stories from Washington go a long way toward putting Oregon’s, and the nation’s, distracted driving problem in context: last week the National Transportation Safety Board formally called for a nationwide ban on “driver use of personal electronic devices,” according to the Washington Post. This came only…
It is simple to understand the idea: the time we spend stuck in traffic takes an economic toll (lost wages, lost sales, etc). Those expenses, in turn, are part of a broader cost to society that we all bear as a result of gridlock (lost productivity, air pollution and its…
A tragic central Oregon car crash has left a teen driver dead and injured four others according to reports in The Oregonian. The crash took place on US route 26 near Madras, Oregon. According to the newspaper, a 17-year old driver traveling toward the east “drifted off the north shoulder…
A fascinating article published in Slate a few days ago raises some intriguing questions regarding Oregon distracted driving laws and some of the latest technologies making their way into our cars and onto our cellphones. The article focuses on Siri, the computerized ‘assistant’ bundled into the latest version of the…
Reckless driving charges are now on the books for a Portland man after a four-car Oregon car accident allegedly caused by his reckless driving, The Oregonian reports. The crash took place in Sherwood, near Beaverton, Oregon. The newspaper reports that the Oregon car crash on Route 99W took place Wednesday.…
An excellent piece by The Oregonian’s traffic and commuting columnist raised an issue that all of us who care about the Portland cycling community need to think about: how important is it that cyclists observe the traffic laws? The Oregon bicycling accident article focuses specifically on the question of red…