A recent article in the New York Times highlighted innovative ways that cyclists are putting technology to use to improve safety. The piece focuses on small cameras that can be mounted on a rider’s helmet. The newspaper describes these as “the cycling equivalent of the black box on an airplane……
The death of a highway worker in Canby last week turns a spotlight both on the dangers roadside workers ensure and, once again, on the problem of Oregon drunk driving. According to The Oregonian, a 48-year-old man who was “placing warning signs about road construction near South New Era Road…
Earlier this month news broke of a head-spinningly large fraud settlement involving the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. According to ABC News the company “agreed to an unprecedented $3 billion settlement with the US government over allegations that the company advertised drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.”…
This is not the first time this summer that I have written about the danger of window falls. With the news, however, that another Oregon child has been injured falling from a window it is important to reemphasize the subject. As a recent article in The Oregonian notes, the latest…
The crash of a small aircraft near Vancouver this week is a reminder that Oregon and Washington product safety concerns can apply to large items, like an airplane. According to The Oregonian a passenger on the small plane died and the pilot was critically injured in the Washington small aircraft…
A recent announcement by the Hillsboro police department, as reported in The Oregonian, comes as a welcome addition to the summer: the department plans to “have designated officers focused on distracted driving throughout the summer.” Hillsboro officers working specially designated overtime shifts (funded, the paper notes, by an outside grant)…
I have written in the past about the importance of window safety. Too many people forget at this time of year that screens are designed to keep bugs out, not to keep children in, and fail to take essential precautions. This reminder is prompted by a recent report in The…
A recent article in The Oregonian offered the following somewhat surprising revelation: despite deaths from motorcycle crashes having “more than doubled since the mid-1990s” several major motorcycle-focused lobbying groups are advocating for fewer regulations and less enforcement concerning helmets. The paper writes that lobbyists and their congressional allies want the…
An important decision announced yesterday by the Oregon Supreme Court bolsters both the principle of openness in our court system and the idea that a key function of the courts is to enforce accountability. According to the New York Times a unanimous ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court “cleared the…
Last week a graduating University of Oregon senior was sentenced to three years in prison for the Eugene drunk driving death of a fellow student, according to the Eugene Register-Guard. The victim, a Scot who was also attending UO, was riding his bike in a marked bike lane when he…