As reported by The Oregonian, the circumstances surrounding a recent two-car Coastal Oregon car accident on Highway 101 raise a number of potential legal issues, including whether the victims may be in a position to press an Oregon dram shop case.
The newspaper, quoting police sources, reports that the accident took place when an Oldsmobile traveling north on US-101 crossed the center line and hit a southbound pick-up truck. “The impact of the crash tore the Oldsmobile in half, with the two sections coming to rest on opposite sides of the highway,” the paper notes. All three people involved in the crash – the driver of the Oldsmobile and the driver and a passenger in the pick-up – were seriously injured.
Police told The Oregonian that alcohol was a factor in the crash, though the exact nature of its involvement is still under investigation.
If the driver of the Oldsmobile is shown to have been coming from a restaurant, bar or liquor store the other victims of this Central Oregon car crash may be able to make the Oregon dram shop law a key part of their fight for a just settlement in the wake of the accident. That law extends liability for a drunk driver’s actions to businesses that sold him or her alcohol despite the person’s already being intoxicated.
Portland drunk driving and dram shop cases can be an especially complex area of Oregon law. If you have been the victim of an Oregon drunk driver and believe that responsibility for the accident may extend to a business that should not have sold alcohol to the perpetrator in the first place prompt consultation with an Oregon drunk driving victim’s attorney is your best initial course of action.
The Oregonian: Alcohol believed to be factor in Highway 101 crash that injured 3