Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

October 22, 2011

Oregon Child Injury in Coos Bay Accident

All too often I use this blog to write about Oregon auto accidents and Portland pedestrian accidents involving drunk driving. It is useful, however, to be reminded now and then that the most tragic accidents – those involving injured Oregon children – do not necessarily involve impaired drivers.

From Coos Bay comes word of an accident in which a “woman and her young daughter were badly injured when they were struck by a truck while crossing Newmark Avenue” according to the Coos Bay World. The accident is notable for the fact that, according to the paper, the driver, who was uninjured in the Oregon car accident, “was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to a police (news) release,” the paper reports.

The victims in this instance were a 28-year-old woman and her 7-year-old daughter. Both were badly injured and were transferred to Portland where they were admitted Oregon Health Sciences University hospital.

October 20, 2011

Oregon Wrongful Death Questions Reopened by New Study

by Matthew D. Kaplan

When five Beaverton families and Mattel Corporation settled Oregon wrongful death lawsuits related to contaminated water near one of the company’s former plants earlier this year issues related to cancer rates and carcinogens were not closed. According to a recent article in The Oregonian a new study conducted by a Beaverton resident, combined with a reassessment of the toxicity of the chemical at issue – trichloroethylene, also known as TCE – are potentially bringing the question of Oregon wrongful death claims back into the public arena.

The newspaper’s article focuses on a long-running Beaverton wrongful death case involving a plant that was originally owned by View-Master and later passed through several other corporate hands before being closed by Mattel in 2001.

In 1998, the paper reports, “TCE was found in concentrations 320 times the federal standard in a private well that supplied drinking water” for the plant. “Many former workers, who sipped the tainted water later suffered from cancers, according to an unofficial health study.” In May, Mattel settled Oregon wrongful death claims with five families. Now, however, the paper reports that a new health study funded by the Oregon Community Foundation “may strengthen the case for other workers who wish to file lawsuits.” The study “suggests a strong connection between TCE exposure and certain cancers,” the paper quotes its author, Amanda Evans-Healy saying. Evans-Healy was one of the successful defendants in the earlier set of Beaverton wrongful death actions.

October 17, 2011

Two, Including Passerby, Injured in Oregon Hit-and-Run Car Crash

by Matthew D. Kaplan

An Oregon car crash in Scappoose, north of Portland, initially injured one woman then left a second woman seriously injured when she, in turn, became the victim of a hit-and-run driver after stopping to help, according to a recent dispatch in The Oregonian.

The newspaper, quoting a Multnomah County law enforcement spokesman, reports that the Northern Oregon auto accident began when a 30-year-old woman headed west on U.S. Route 30 “left the roadway, striking a guard rail near the Oregon Department of Transportation weigh station east of Scappoose.” The paper also notes that in the minutes prior to the crash “callers to 9-1-1 reported seeing a” car similar to the one that crashed “driving erratically and weaving in and out of traffic.” The Oregon car crash threw the driver from her vehicle, leaving her lying injured in the road’s median.

Moments later another woman, accompanied by her 23-year-old daughter, stopped to help the victim, while another driver positioned his car on the road “in an attempt to keep cars from striking the three women. But a westbound Pontiac Grand Am went around that car, striking both the injured woman in the center median and the good Samaritan’s daughter and then continuing west toward St. Helen’s” where she was stopped a short time later by police.

October 13, 2011

Oregon Drunk Driving Perils Highlighted by Grieving Father’s Donation

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The fatal Oregon drunk driving crash made headlines around the state: a young woman killed when her pick-up truck veered off the road “at a high rate of speed, hit a power pole and landed in a stand of trees,” according to an account in the Oregon City News.

“Officers said it took half an hour to free” the victim, a 25-year-old woman, from the vehicle. “She was flown by Life Flight helicopter to Oregon Health and Science University Hospital … in critical condition and died the next day from her injuries,” the newspaper reports. The Oregon truck accident attracted an unusual amount of attention because the collision with the electrical pole caused many residents of Oregon City to lose power for several hours on that late-September evening. Police said alcohol appeared to be a factor in the crash. The victim’s father told the newspaper that an open container of alcohol was found in the car’s wreckage.

Now, in a gesture he hopes will offer a lesson to other young people, that grieving father is donating the frightening-looking remains of his daughter’s car to Oregon Impact, a non-profit group that “tours mangled cars to illustrate the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol,” according to the newspaper. The group’s website lays out the scope of the problem in stark terms: 30% of Oregon teen driving deaths, it notes, are “alcohol-related.”

October 7, 2011

Hockey Season Brings New Focus on Concussions, Traumatic Brain Injuries

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The National Hockey League’s 2011-12 season kicked off last night with both the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins and the team they edged out last summer, the Vancouver Canucks, losing close fought, first-night match-ups.

Those games (along with a Montreal-Toronto contest) were the first official ones to be played under new NHL rules that severely restrict (but do not entirely ban) hits to the head during play. Long known as a fast and violent game, professional hockey has shown increasing concern for the long-term health of its players in recent years. Concussions and traumatic brain injuries emerged as a concern partly because of changes in the game itself – players are larger, skate faster, hit harder and wear better padding than their predecessors a generation (let alone half a century) ago, and the wear and tear on their bodies shows. The issue became especially salient for the league in the wake of several high-profile injuries that have sidelined star players for extended periods of time.

The most notable examples are Boston’s Marc Savard who has never completely recovered from a grade 2 concussion sustained in March 2010, and Pittsburgh’s Sydney Crosby, arguably the league’s most famous active player, who has not played since the beginning of the year after suffering two hits to the head in rapid succession during games on January 1 and January 5.

September 30, 2011

Drunk Driver kills Oregon Woman in Bike and Car Accident

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A young University of Oregon graduate died after being hit by a car while cycling in southern California, according to the advocacy group Bike Portland. Her death is a reminder that for as much progress as Portland has made in becoming a bike-friendly city we, and the rest of the country, still have a long way to go.

According to a local newspaper, the Pasadena Sun, 24-year-old Jocelyn Young’s fatal bike accident occurred when she fell from her bike and was struck and killed by a drunk driver. The paper describes the incident as a hit-and-run, noting that “several witnesses called police to notify them about the accident,” and that one witness followed the suspect into a neighboring city until police officers were able to locate him.

Young was treated by paramedics at the scene of the drunk driving accident but later died in hospital.

September 28, 2011

Oregon Safety Competition Targets Students

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Following-up my blog last week about Oregon child safety and the start of the school year, it is a pleasure to take note of a more upbeat story about efforts to prevent injuries to Oregon’s kids.

The Astoria publication Coast Weekend recently published details of a video and moviemaking contest for Oregon high school students with the theme “Save a friend. Work safe.” According to the newsletter, the competition “is designed to increase awareness about safety on the job for young people. Students must create a 45-second public service announcement” keyed to the contest theme. The top three entries will receive cash prizes of up to $500 with equal amounts being donated to their respective schools.

The contest is organized by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division. Entries will be judged on how well they address the contest theme as well as on creativity and originality and on their overall production values. Entries are due by February 1, 2012. See the link below for more contest details and the official rules. The Coast Weekly article also includes a link to last year’s winning entry – a “PSA depicting an accident involving a pizza delivery driver.”

September 26, 2011

Oregon City Drunk Driving Accident Kills Woman

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A 29-year-old Oregon City woman died recently as a result of a two-car Oregon drunk driving accident, according to a report in The Oregonian.

The crash occurred just before 2 am on state route 213 in Oregon City, the newspaper reports, quoting a spokesperson with the Oregon State Police Portland Command. “Police said Jennifer Miller, 29, of Oregon City, drove eastbound on the highway and ran a red light, crashing into a southbound Dodge pickup… Miller was declared dead at the scene, police said,” according to the newspaper. A passenger traveling in her car suffered injuries the paper describes as “serious.”

The pick-up truck’s driver was not injured in the Portland-area car crash, and was reported to be cooperating with police. Though The Oregonian’s report on the crash does not seek to assign blame, it does note that the pickup’s driver “had a green signal at the time of the crash.”

September 23, 2011

Salem Car and Pedestrian Accident Highlights School Year Dangers

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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.”

September 19, 2011

Beaverton Company Hit By Product Recall

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The federal government’s Food and Drug Administration announced recently that Beaverton-based King International has agreed to recall its ShoulderFlex Massager. The Oregon product recall was ordered after evidence emerged that ShoulderFlex use can lead to serious injuries or even a product liability-related Oregon wrongful death.

“One death and one near-strangulation have been reported after a necklace and piece of clothing became caught in a rotating component of the device. In other cases the FDA says people’s hair became caught in the ShoulderFlex,” Portland television station KATU reports.

The station notes that all 12,000 of the massagers the company has sold nationwide since 2003 are being recalled. It adds that efforts to obtain a comment from the Beaverton-based company were unsuccessful.