Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog

September 28, 2011

Oregon Safety Competition Targets Students

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.

September 12, 2011

Oregon Highway Fatalities Down, DUI’s Up, Over Labor Day Weekend

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Marking Oregon car crash deaths is one of grim rituals that follow most holiday weekends. As the Seaside Signal notes, citing state statistics, Labor Day is traditionally one of the deadliest holiday weekends for drivers here in Oregon and nationwide.

The good news this year is that fatalities were down statewide. Two holiday weekend crashes led to three deaths, the newspaper reports: two people died on Friday evening as the holiday weekend began in a Clackamas County, Oregon motorcycle crash that also involved a car. The other fatality was discovered early Monday morning, on Labor Day itself, in Grass Valley. “An adult male was found deceased in the wreckage of the crash believed to have happened September 4 or during the early morning hours of September 5,” the paper reports, citing the Oregon State Police.

Tempering news of a drop in actual Oregon car crash deaths was word that DUI arrests were up. This is especially worrisome since, as the paper notes, “impaired driving is a major factor in holiday-related traffic crashes and alcohol is a known contributing factor in over half of holiday fatalities.” A total of 70 Oregon DUI arrests took place over Labor Day weekend, up from 67 last year – with an eye-opening ten OSP command centers statewide reporting three or more arrests during the period.

September 5, 2011

Oregon Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed in Case of Jeanette Maples

by Matthew D. Kaplan

The case of Jeanette Maples, the Eugene teenager who was starved and tortured to death by her own mother, shocked much of the state. Now, it is the state itself that stands accused of complicity in the girl’s death as the subject of an Oregon wrongful death lawsuit, according to television station KVAL and the Eugene Register-Guard.

The newspaper reports that Maples’ estate is suing Oregon Child Protective Services and the state Department of Human Services, alleging that their failure to protect the teen was “a substantial factor” in her death. Maples’ mother pled guilty to murder in criminal court and was later sentenced to death. The new suit, however, “claims the State of Oregon was negligent in not preventing Maples’ death by abuse,” KVAL reports.

According to the Register-Guard, the suit also alleges that the state’s neglect continued over an extended period of time. Specifically, “that state workers failed to ‘investigate and heed’ allegations of abuse from reliable sources beginning in 2006” and that this pattern of neglect continued until Maples’ death, nearly four years later.

September 2, 2011

Effort to Limit Oregon Child Injuries Takes Multi-Pronged Approach

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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.

August 31, 2011

Salem hit-and-run yields lengthy charge sheet

by Matthew D. Kaplan

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.

August 29, 2011

Yamhill Dog Attacks: Brochure Seeks to Limit the Damage

by Matthew D. Kaplan

Yamhill County has been considering the question: could your dog become responsible for an Oregon dog attack? The answer, unfortunately, is ‘yes.’

As the Yamhill News-Register notes, “All dogs – from the most muscular guard type to the fluffiest family pet – may bite if frightened, challenged or overexcited.” The paper’s report is a reminder that Portland, Salem or Eugene dog attacks can happen anywhere, at any time. As the article notes, a valued family pet can, believing it is protecting its turf or its owners, attack a family friend or anyone else who enters its familiar areas unexpectedly. The source for the article is a newly-published brochure from Yamhill Dog Control, detailing warning signs and useful tips for keeping one’s pet(s) under control.

The article notes that Yamhill County alone has recorded 61 Oregon dog bites so far this year – a pace that puts the county ahead of last year’s annual total of 98 and even further ahead of the county’s average annual number of Oregon Dog bites over the last seven years: 82.

August 25, 2011

Portland Dram Shop Suit Seeks $7m+ for Drunk Driving Death

by Matthew D. Kaplan

A civil suit filed earlier this month here in Portland is an excellent illustration of Oregon dram shop law and the ways it seeks to protect the public at large and accident victims in particular. According to The Oregonian, the husband of a woman who died in a Portland drunk driving accident last February is suing not only the alleged drunk driver but also two bars which, he claims, served the driver “while he was visibly intoxicated.”

The newspaper goes on to add that “the complaint accuses the bars of negligence for allowing him to drive, failing to determine whether he planned to drive and failing to alert authorities.”

This is practically the definition of a claim under the Oregon dram shop law – a statute that says a bar or alcohol retailer can be held legally responsibly for the damage done by a patron who clearly should not have been served in the first place.