Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

July 25, 2012

Oregon Cyclists Can Benefit from New Technology

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… providing high-tech evidence in what is sometimes an ugly contest between people who ride the roads on two wheels and those who use four.”

Though originally designed for recreational use (the cameras have long been popular with snowboarders and mountain bikers seeking to capture memories of their rides) they are proving useful in urban environments as a way for bike riders to help police pursue and prosecute reckless drivers and to enforce the law in the wake of cycling accidents involving cars. The newspaper notes that use of the cameras has increased markedly as the cost of the cameras has dropped. A good helmet camera can now be purchased for under $200.

“Video from these cameras has begun to play an invaluable role in police investigations of a small number of hit-and-runs and other incidents around the country,” the paper notes, citing local law enforcement. It profiles one New York City rider who was able to help police track down a hit-and-run using video from his helmet camera which captured an image of the driver’s license plate.

July 18, 2012

Fatal Canby Accident Points Toward Drunk Driving

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 near South Haines Road” died last week after he was hit by a car believed to have been driven by a drunk driver. The paper reports that the driver was taken into police custody and an investigation is under way.

This incident is a sad reminder of the importance of exercising caution around highway workers. All too often, too many drivers fail to heed warnings to slow down in construction zones or other places where road workers are present. Many drivers also fail to give roadside workers a sufficiently wide berth when passing them.

July 12, 2012

$3 Billion Healthcare Fraud Settlement Spotlights Oversight Importance

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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.”

Over the years we have all become a bit numb to horror stories about the health care industry. One of the few things both sides in the debate surrounding the Affordable Care Act appear to agree on is that the US healthcare system is in need of significant reform (exactly what sort of reform is a subject of far more debate).

Cases like this are the sort of thing that not only give an entire industry a bad name, but make reasonable people wonder how much deeper, and broader, corporate fraud is in the health care and pharmaceutical industry. To what extent are other companies putting their own profits ahead of patient and consumer safety?

July 8, 2012

Another Window Fall Highlights Importance of the Issue Here in Oregon

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 incident “marked the fourth time a young child had fallen

The most recent incident took place in Portland and was serious enough that a LifeFlight helicopter was required to get the young victim to a hospital for emergency treatment. The Oregonian reports that the child, who is only five years old, was “critically injured.”

“It appears he opened the window by himself and somehow fell out,” a Portland Fire Bureau spokesman told the paper. Coming as this does at a moment when SafeKids Oregon’s ‘Stop at 4’ campaign is in full swing, this is a timely reminder of the window safety precautions that are essential for almost anyone – but especially for people who will have small children in their homes at any point this summer.

June 30, 2012

Washington Plane Crash Raises Defective Product Concerns

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 accident. Quoting witnesses, the paper reports that the “plane possibly had engine trouble soon after takeoff.” The plane was attempting to return to Fort Vancouver’s Pearson Air Field when it crashed.

As is the case with all air crashes a careful investigation is now under way. The reports of possible engine trouble, however, are an indication that investigators should consider whether the airplane itself was defective. Airplanes, of course, are complicated machines and one must also consider the possibility that there was a maintenance issue involved, or even pilot error. None of this, however, precludes consideration of the aircraft itself.

June 28, 2012

Hillsboro Steps Up Distracted Driving Enforcement

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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) will focus their attention on a broad range of behind-the-wheel distractions. That means that in addition to enforcing violations of Oregon’s distracted driving law, they will also be on the lookout “for people who are distracted by other activities, such as eating and reading.”

“All distractions endanger the driver, passengers and bystanders,” the newspaper quotes a department spokesman saying. Officers, he said, will regularly conduct the extra enforcement patrols between now and September.

June 25, 2012

Oregon Child Injury Highlights Importance of Window Safety

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 Oregonian about a Cedar Mill toddler who “was taken to a local hospital after she punched through a screen and fell from a second-storey window.” Even more frighteningly: “the girl reportedly fell from the window and first landed on a slanted roof. She then rolled off the roof and hit a mix of pavement and bark dust” the paper adds citing local Tualatin Valley first responders.

The child was taken to an area hospital and her injuries are reported not to be life-threatening.

June 21, 2012

Motorcycle Helmets at Center of Oregon Motorbike Safety Debate

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to be “blocked from providing any more grants to states to conduct highway stops of motorcyclists to check for safety violations such as the wearing of helmets that don’t meet federal standards.”

Even more shockingly, “the rider groups are seeking to preserve what essentially is a gag rule that since 1998 has prevented the agency from advocating safety measures at the state and local levels, including helmet laws.” The article notes that the gag rule is supported both by grassroots-based riders groups and by lobbyists working for motorcycle makers. It is surprising to learn that just 19 states require all motorcycle riders to wear helmets – though also a relief to find that Oregon is one of them. Even more surprising, however, is the revelation that state legislatures have been rolling back helmet laws for years. The article notes that in the late 70s all but three states required everyone on a motorcycle to be wearing a helmet.

June 15, 2012

Oregon Supreme Court Backs Release of Boy Scout Files

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 way… for the release of thousands of pages of documents detailing accusations and investigations of sexual abuse or other improprieties by Boy Scout leaders around the nation from the mid-1960s into the 1980s.” The documents, which the Scouts’ leadership referred to as “the perversion files” were the keystone of the 2010 sexual abuse case that focused national attention on the organization. The organization was fined over $18 million because of its efforts to cover up the abuse of young boys rather than reporting it to authorities.

It is sad to see that even now the Scouts seem more concerned about protecting their organizational reputation than they are about the many injuries to children enabled by their decades-long conduct. As described by the Times, the files “were kept as a way of weeding out bad leaders and preventing abuse” but proved to be especially damaging to the organization because they offered proof that the Scouts’ leadership knew of cases of sexual abuse but did nothing to bring the guilty adults to justice.

June 13, 2012

Oregon Drunk Driver Sentenced in Cyclist’s Death

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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 was struck from behind. The newspaper reports that in the immediate aftermath of the Oregon bike and car accident the 22-year-old driver stayed with the victim “and took responsibility for his conduct.” The driver “had a blood alcohol level about twice that in which a driver is presumed intoxicated under Oregon law,” the paper notes.

The fact that the driver did not leave the scene of the accident and had no prior drunk driving history prompted prosecutors to agree to the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, rather than seeking a conviction for second-degree manslaughter (which would have carried a heavier mandatory sentence). The driver pled guilty as part of the agreement with the prosecutor’s office. He will also lose driving privileges for the remainder of his life.