Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog
A recent Oregon car crash story in The Oregonian is relatively straightforward, and it is because of that tragic simplicity that it holds such stark lessons.
According to the newspaper four people including a child were injured last week when a driver who was allegedly following too closely behind another vehicle “slammed on the brakes of his Jeep to avoid a rear-end collision, swerved into the opposite lane of traffic and crashed into an RV towing a minivan. The jeep then struck a tree off the highway and rolled, and the RV came to a stop on top of it.”
It is worth adding that all of this took place in broad daylight – at 2:30 pm on Highway 47 near Forest Grove.
Rear-end collisions caused by tailgating are among the most easily avoidable of Oregon auto accidents. While none of us can control what other drivers are doing on the road it is a statement of the obvious to say that we would all be safer if everyone followed the most basic of safety rules every time they get behind the wheel. What is especially tragic is a situation like this where a last-second attempt to get out of a situation a driver created for himself through his own negligence and reckless conduct leads directly to an even larger, more serious, car crash. In this case the accident sent four people to the hospital, some of them with serious injuries, according to The Oregonian. We have all heard and read about multi-vehicle Portland and Oregon car accidents that are even worse (and were equally preventable).
As a Portland car crash attorney I see cases like these every day. While it is my job to help victims of incidents like this obtain justice and put their lives back together it is difficult not to ponder how much better off we would all be if people acted more responsibly and did not cause accidents like these in the first place. Driving safely is something each of us owes not only to the other drivers with whom we share the road but also to our own loved ones and to society at large.
The Oregonian: Banks man cited in fiery crash near Forest Grove that injured four
