Articles Posted in Motor Vehicle Accidents

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A tragic Salem-area car accident this week involving critical injuries to a child offers a sobering lesson in the importance of car and pedestrian safety as the new school year gets into full swing.

According to television station KGW a 16-year old girl suffered life-threatening injuries in an Oregon car accident in the small town of Jefferson, Oregon, south of Salem. “The 16-year-old girl was ‘walking along the side of the road’… when she was hit, according to Tammy Robbins with the Jefferson Fire District,” KGW reports.

The station’s online article goes on to note, also citing Robbins, that “the car that struck her smashed into a power pole after hitting the girl, but the driver was not injured.”

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A statewide enforcement program officially known as “3 Flags” began in the waning days of August and is scheduled to stretch beyond Labor Day weekend. The initiative hopes to cut traffic-related Oregon child injuries and deaths through a combination of enforcement and education.

“The purpose of 3-Flags is to increase seatbelt use and decrease the number of speeding and/or impaired drivers,” according to MyEugene.org. In addition to people driving too fast, or engaged in Oregon drunk driving, the program also targets child seat use. The goal of this part of the program is both to increase awareness of Oregon’s child restraint laws – and of the resources available to help poorer parents get the child seats they need at a free or reduced price – and to ensure that parents using an approved booster or baby seat install and use it properly.

As the Gresham Outlook notes, in 2009 “observed booster seat use was only 58 percent among children ages 4 to 8… one-third of children in this age group who were killed or injured in crashes last year were not using booster seats.” As I noted in an earlier post, more than one highway safety study over the years has shown that the number of people – as many as ¾ of all drivers using the devices according to some sources – whose children ride in improperly installed child seats is shockingly high.

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A series of Oregon car accidents on Interstate-5 allegedly caused by a reckless driver near Salem “came to an end when (the driver) exited the freeway near milepost 239 at Dever-Conne, crashed into a guardrail and was pinned in by an OSP trooper’s patrol car,” according to the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

KOIN Television reports that the alleged driver was arrested “after numerous hit-and-runs and leading the police on a chase where speeds reached in excess of 100 mph.” The station adds that the driver is alleged to have initiated four hit-and-runs before police identified him and began what turned out to be a more than 40 mile chase down the interstate. Before being apprehended the suspect allegedly “rear-ended another car six miles from where he crashed into the guardrail,” the station notes.

If the allegations are true, it would be fairly difficult to find a more obvious case of Oregon reckless driving leading to significant Salem auto accidents. Situations like these almost require the assistance of an Oregon car crash attorney to help victims obtain the justice they want and need.

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A near head-on Oregon car accident involving a van and a ambulance led to the hospitalization of six people – one of whom was a patient being transported in the ambulance at the time of the crash, according to The Oregonian.

The newspaper reports that the crash took place near the town of Seaside, Oregon on US-101. The ambulance was headed south in the early hours of the morning “when an oncoming van crossed the centerline.” All six people involved in the Oregon van accident wound up being treated in area hospitals: the driver of the ambulance, the patient in the back and a paramedic who was tending to her, as well as the driver of the van, an adult passenger in the front seat and a five-year-old who was riding in a child seat in the back.

Injuries to the most vulnerable victims – the child and the elderly ambulance patient – were not severe, the paper reports. The van driver and her passenger were the most seriously injured, though their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, according to the newspaper’s account.

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A Portland bike and car crash that could have been a lot worse landed Joey Harrington, the former University of Oregon and NFL quarterback, in the hospital last week with serious, though not life-threatening, injuries. Harrington spent a day in intensive care following the Oregon bike accident according to Fox News.

The Oregonian, citing the Portland police, reports that in the early evening Harrington was biking “westbound on Foster Street when a motorist heading westbound struck Harrington’s rear bicycle wheel.” Harington was wearing a helmet – a fact that his father, speaking to Fox, said probably spared him far more significant injuries. According to The Oregonian the driver of the SUV that struck Harrington remained at the scene of the accident and was later cited by police for “following too close.”

When cars – particularly SUV’s – come into contact with a bicycle on the road the results are almost never good for the cyclist. This is especially important to remember because drivers of larger cars can lose track of just how close they are tracking a cyclist if they do not pay close attention.

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A young child (his exact age was not released by police) was injured in a Salem motorcycle accident involving a pick-up truck earlier this month, according to Salem-News.com.

I have highlighted the dangers of injuries to Oregon children from ATV accidents in previous blogs. The details of this incident – which involved a dirt bike, rather than an ATV, are, however, a reminder that children far too young to drive can be found operating motorized vehicles and that without the exercise of extreme caution tragedy can result in an instant.

According to the newspaper, the accident began with the boy “riding on dirt trails on his grandparents’ property.” The trail in question was apparently next to the road. Though accompanied by his mother, the child “suddenly drove into the roadway in front of the truck.” The Oregon motorcycle accident took place when the child’s dirt bike was struck by a pick-up truck traveling east on Lakeside Drive in Salem. The paper quotes both witnesses to the Oregon child accident and the driver of the truck telling police that “there was no way for the driver to avoid hitting the child.” The paper reports that there is no indication that the driver was “impaired.”

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A fatal three-vehicle Oregon car crash near Banks and Glenwood, to the west of Portland, left one person dead and sent two to the hospital with serious injuries, according to an account in The Oregonian.

The fatal Oregon auto crash occurred when “a pickup was headed east on Oregon 6 and near milepost 42, it crossed the center line and collided head-on with” a west-bound car. A short time afterwards another car happened upon the accident, was unable to stop in time to avoid it, and rear-ended the pickup.

The driver of the car involved in the first phase of the accident, a 68-year-old Cloverdale man, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, according to the newspaper. The driver and a teenage boy riding with him in the pickup truck were taken to an area hospital with injuries that the paper describes as serious, but not life-threatening. None of the four people – including a child – in the third car were injured.

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A recent article in The Oregonian details significant efforts in Washington County to improve the environment for cyclists, a plan that, if implemented, may help curb Oregon bicycle and car accidents as well as improving the overall quality of life in our region.

As the newspaper details, county officials are examining “projects aimed at improving transportation corridors and connecting key county roads and trails.” Bicycle commuters, the article reports, are of particular interest to planners with conscious attempts being made to design and build routes that “link to Tri-Met bus and light rail lines” with the goal of making long-distance travel easier both on bikes alone and using a combination of cycling and public transportation. The paper reports that Washington County’s efforts are being funded by a variety of sources at all levels of government and will take shape over a period of years.

Greater Portland, of course, has long prided itself on a bike-friendly reputation. But even in a city known to be welcoming to cyclists there is always room for improvement.

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A recent Oregon motorcycle crash left a Salem man hospitalized in critical condition, according to The Oregonian.

The newspaper reports the accident took place in Aurora at the junction of Oregon Route 551 and Ehlen Road. Quoting a press release from law enforcement officials, the paper says the Aurora motorcycle accident took place when the rider, who was obeying relevant traffic signals, entered the intersection and “was immediately hit by a 2006 Toyota Scion” whose driver “was turning left from eastbound Ehlen Road onto northbound Oregon 551.”

The motorcycle rider was airlifted to the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital by helicopter. The driver of the Toyota “was transported by ambulance to Legacy Meridian Park Hospital with minor injuries. He has been cited for careless driving and taking a dangerous left turn,” the paper reports.

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A class action lawsuit filed in Salem is taking aim at a perhaps surprising target. According to area television station KDRV the lawsuit alleges that a major insurance company has been “fraudulently denying claims after car crashes.”

The target? USAA, a banking and insurance giant that deals exclusively with current and former members of the military and their families. Because of its focus on the military community USAA has long cultivated a customer-friendly, service-oriented image far removed from that of most commercial banks and insurance companies.

The Oregon suit, however, charges the company with “using medical reports by physicians to say treatment for injuries suffered in car crashes were not medically necessary. Plaintiffs allege in their suit that the insurance medical reviewers of their cases never even talked or consulted with them.” The station’s report said USAA “declined to comment on the lawsuit.”

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