Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

October 4, 2013

Federal Shut Down Could Leave Dangerous Products on the Market

Amid all the discussion surrounding this week’s government shutdown a lot of attention has been paid both to large budget issues and to the daily inconveniences – and, in some cases serious troubles – the suspension of government services involves for many Americans.

One of the most potentially hazardous areas of the shut down may prove to be consumer safety. As an article this week at Boston.com (the website of the Boston Globe) explains, as part of the broader shut down the Consumer Product Safety Commission “is only announcing recalls that pose an imminent risk to the public.”

As though to demonstrate what exactly that might mean, on Thursday the CPSC recalled “some 15 million surge protectors sold for a decade at some of the nation’s largest retailers… after more than 700 reports of the strips overheating.” It is, of course, very good to see the CPSC still at work, even in a much diminished form, but one also must ask whether this is the bar that product recalls must cross for as long as the current government funding crisis continues.

October 1, 2013

Oregon Dog Attack Leads to Baker City Child’s Death

by Matthew D. Kaplan

News reports from the east of the state indicate that a five-year-old died this weekend after being attacked by a pit bull. According to area TV station KTVB the child was with a babysitter in a family friend’s home when the attack took place.

An Associated Press article republished in The Daily Journal on Monday adds that the dog responsible for the attack has been impounded and is expected to be put down.

I have written before about the dangers of Oregon dog attacks, and the special dangers that some breeds, such as pit bulls, pose for children. Children have even fewer ways to protect themselves from a violent dog than an adult or teen and are, therefore, at special risk around these animals. Indeed, the argument could be made that granted the long history of pit bull attacks on humans no child should be around an unmuzzled pit bull and, at the very least, that children – especially smaller children – should never be left along with the animals.

September 28, 2013

SafeKids Oregon Launches: “Buckle Up: Every Ride, Every Time”

by Matthew D. Kaplan

This month SafeKids Oregon, an organization that regular readers know I have long supported and been associated with, is launching an important public education initiative. “Buckle Up: Every Ride, Every Time” aims to eliminate some of the myths surrounding kids and seat belt use.

The report begins by acknowledging that the United States has “made tremendous progress in child passenger safety over the last 30 years.” It notes that “the number of children dying in car crashes has declined 58 percent since 1987.” Despite this progress, however, a study commissioned by SafeKids Worldwide found that “one in four respondents admitted to having driven without their child buckled up in a car seat or booster seat.”

Even more surprising were the study’s findings related to age, income and education. Simply put, the data show many popular preconceptions to be myths. According to SafeKids, affluent parents (defined as those with a household income of $100,000 or more) were more than twice as likely to “say it is acceptable to leave their child unrestrained if they are not driving a far distance” compared to parents making less than $35,000 per year. This belief is especially worrying since about 60 percent of car accidents take place within 10 minutes of home.

September 26, 2013

New York’s New Ideas for Combatting Distracted Driving

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Almost a generation ago New York became the first state to ban the use of handheld cellphones by people driving cars. Such bans are now common, if far from universal. As I have repeatedly written in the years since Oregon’s own distracted driving law went into effect, however, laws against distracted driving are good but are only a first step. Eliminating this practice takes enforcement, but it also takes education and, as New York is now demonstrating, innovative approaches to the problem.

Standing in front of large signs reading “It Can Wait – Text Stop 5 Miles” and “Text Stop: Parking Area 1 Mile” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a new initiative this week to highlight places where drivers can easily stop to focus on their electronics.

According to New York public radio station WNYC “as part of the state’s effort to combat distracted driving, nearly 300 new signs are going up along New York roadways, highlighting 91 ‘texting zone’ locations – highway rest stops and other parking locations.” The station explained that the initiative involves only signage – no new rest stops are being constructed – but it aims to make progress simply by informing people that a safe opportunity to take care of their texts and phone calls exists only a short distance up the road.

September 23, 2013

Reckless Driver Plows into Weekend Bike Event, Killing Two

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A fatal car and bicycle accident in New Hampshire this weekend left two people dead and serves as a tragic reminder of the caution cyclists, unfortunately, must always take when riding on public roads.

According to reports by CBS News and the Associated Press, republished by Boston television station WBZ, police say a car “plowed into a group of bikers taking part in the annual Granite State Wheelmen” ride early Saturday morning. The 100-mile ride, known as a “century” in cycling argot, has been staged annually for 40 years and involved hundreds of riders according to the media reports, all of whom “were encouraged to follow the rules of the road as they encountered narrow colonial New England roads, steel decked bridges and weekend traffic.” Such events typically involve a significant amount of coordination with local law enforcement agencies to ensure that things go smoothly and that riders are able to travel safely.

In this instance, however, a south-bound vehicle driven by a 20-year-old man from nearby Seabrook NH “crossed over into the north-bound lane” hitting four cyclists, according to police sources cited by the news agency. The accident took place around 8:30 am on Saturday.

September 18, 2013

Oregon Drunk Driving Suspected in Malheur Crash

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Police are investigating a suspected fatal Oregon drunk driving car crash in the east of the state, according to a report by an Idaho TV station that covers the region. According to KIVI a 41-year old man from Vale, in the easternmost part of Oregon, died last week in the crash on Highway 20, in rural Malheur County.

According to the TV station the victim “was headed eastbound on Highway 20 on September 15th when his vehicle crossed into the westbound lane and collided with a semi-trailer… according to police (the driver) was likely under the influence of intoxicants after a citizen report matching his vehicle was called into dispatch before the accident.”

There are several lessons we can take away from this tragedy. The first, and most obvious, is the unnecessary damage to so many lives that drunk driving causes. I’ve written on many previous occasions about the dangers that large semi-trucks pose on the roads of Eastern Oregon. In this case, however, a driver who was doing nothing wrong had his life, and potentially the lives of other drivers and passengers in the vicinity, put in danger by someone else’s irresponsible conduct.

September 10, 2013

Malfunctioning Fairground Ride Injures 13

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Many of us have walked through traveling carnivals and probably had the same thought: exactly how safe and well-maintained are these fairground rides that spend much of the year being hauled from one county fair to the next?

For a group of parents in Connecticut this weekend that question became all too real when, according to the Associated Press “thirteen children were injured when a festival attraction that swings riders into the air lost power” Sunday afternoon. The news agency quotes the police chief of Norwalk, Connecticut estimating “that some children fell between 10 and 15 feet to the ground while some others hit riders and some others hit the ride itself.” Though none of the injuries appear to be life-threatening, one child was reported to have been bleeding from the head at the scene. A dozen children and one adult were treated at a local hospital following the accident, though only one child required overnight hospitalization.

A follow-up story filed by the news agency reports that the ride itself is now being taken apart in an effort to pinpoint the cause of the accident. What is known right now, according to AP, is that something caused the ride to freeze suddenly.

August 31, 2013

NFL Moves Forward On Concussions, TBI

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The widely reported news that “the NFL has agreed to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 4500 players and their families,” as The New York Times reported this week, is welcome news for former players suffering from traumatic brain injuries and other physical and mental problems linked to the violent, hard-hitting nature of life in the NFL. The broader potential for good in this settlement, however, lies in what it may do to raise awareness about a troubling, and persistent, problem.

At the Times noted, this week’s settlement can be seen as a legal victory for the NFL. It represents less than 5 percent of the league’s annual revenues and spares the NFL both the potential expense and the certain bad publicity of an endless stream of lawsuits by individual players and their families. The paper also notes that “among the terms of the agreement is that the settlement is not to be regarded as an admission of guilt by the league.” Such clauses are not uncommon in settlements like these, but it is difficult to believe that many fans – along with players, parents and coaches at all levels of the game – won’t interpret it that way.

Frankly, that would be a good thing. The League’s reticence on the subject of concussions and TBI has long served as subtle, if perhaps unintended, encouragement for players and coaches at lower levels of the sport. Measures like the one passed here in Oregon earlier this year to encourage youth safety have often encountered resistance from some players, coaches and fans.

August 30, 2013

Protecting Young Athletes

by Matthew D. Kaplan

On a day when the NFL has settled a landmark lawsuit over player concussion (a subject on which I’ll write more later this week) it is worth remembering the measures closer to home that we all need to take to protect our kids from traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.

A recent report published by SafeKids Oregon outlines the scope of the situation: Last year 1.35 million children arrived in emergency rooms with sports related injuries. Fourteen percent of those injuries were to the head. The group at greatest risk are 12-15-year-olds, who account for nearly half of all youth sports injuries. Though football is the sport we most often associate with concussions and other head injuries, among young athletes the most dangerous sport in terms of concussions was ice hockey which, all by itself, accounts for 31% of all youth sports concussions. Football accounts for only 13%, a bit behind wrestling and tied with soccer. The study notes that in sports played by both boys and girls the latter tend to report higher incidence of concussions, but speculates that this may have more to do with social pressures than with the relative tendency of boys and girls to suffer from the injuries.

Most importantly, however, the study notes that “a Governor’s signature is the beginning of the game, not the fourth quarter.” Put another way: state laws designed to protect young athletes are only as good as the parents and coaches who enforce them. SafeKids Oregon notes that the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers a free online training program, known as “Heads Up”, for adults supervising youth sports.

August 23, 2013

Tweets become factor in Murder Charge

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A recent report from NPR highlights how social media usage can become a factor in reckless and negligent driving cases. According to a report on the radio network’s website, “an 18-year-old California man stands accused of murder after law enforcement officials upgraded charges against him based on tweets and driving history.”

The accident at the center of this story took place in early June in northern California. The man was allegedly driving at more than 80 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone when he lost control of the car and hit a middle-aged couple who were riding in a marked “bike lane alongside Foothill Road, police say, in an area that is marked by a golf course and by large houses with swimming pools.” In other words: a residential area rather than a highway. The woman in the couple was killed in the accident and her husband was injured.

Citing reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR reports that the suspect stopped at the scene and “spoke with police” though he declined to give a formal statement. Last month he was arrested “on felony charges of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving” but this was upgraded to murder, and the suspect’s bail revoked, after police took a closer look at his driving habits.