Police use of excessive force is a growing civil rights issue in the United States that primarily affects communities of color. Dozens of heinous instances of police brutality have made headlines from some of the country’s most racially divided cities, sparking a national movement to protect Black lives. Yet, what many culturally “aware” citizens might not know is that police brutality remains a plague on one of the country’s most seemingly liberal cities.
March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month. At Rizk Law, we frequently help those who have survived brain injuries recover the compensation they need to carry on with their lives to the best of their ability. Traumatic brain injuries are among the most severe injuries incurred by a devastating accident such as a car accident or slip-and-fall. This year, we want to discuss the top things we have learned from TBI survivors about what they want others to know about their condition.
Portland City Council recently voted to set 20 miles per hour speed limits on residential streets. The council voted unanimously to reduce speeds to 20 mph from 25 mph in residential areas, which make up about 70% of the city’s street grid. The ordinance takes effect immediately on roads that lack speed limit signs. The council predicts that replacing all the 25 mph signs throughout the city will take until April and cost upwards of $300,000. Speed limits on arterial streets will not change.
Portland commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish strongly support the change. Ms. Fritz has had three family members killed in traffic collisions. She believes that excessive speed may have contributed to the death of her husband who died in 2014 in a car crash. Mr. Fish thinks law enforcement should work to enforce the policy, recalling a time driving through Northeast Portland when he drove the posted speed limits and surrounding drivers were visibly upset.
The Oregon Department of Transportation recently invited the public to opine on the use of congestion pricing to improve the flow of traffic on the state’s vital highways: I-5 and I-205 in Portland. The state hopes to ease the volume of traffic on freeways, highways, and bridges in the gem of Oregon, known for around-the-clock rush hour. That’s right; traffic has officially gotten so bad that we are now considering congestion pricing to alleviate one of Portland’s greatest headaches.
This past December, Portland City Council and Mayor Ted Wheeler directed the Bureau of Transportation to study congestion pricing to see how using tolls on select portions of the city’s roads and bridges could reduce some of the congestion that is plaguing the city. ODOT recently hosted a series of open house events to receive public input. Residents were able to voice their opinions at several local events. If you missed out, you may still be able to submit comments and questions to the project team or submit feedback online.
Long gone are the days where a typical two-parent household could survive on one income. With the exorbitant cost of living reaching unprecedented figures, most families require two working adults to stay afloat. As a result, working couples with young children are often forced to surrender their offspring to caregivers. Parents are overwhelmingly enrolling children in expensive daycare programs so that they can work to make ends meet.
A law that affects fewer than 300,000 Oregonians sparked a national debate on social media just days before it went into effect. On January first, Oregonians stepped into the new year with more freedoms they didn’t even want. House Bill 2482 allows gas stations in certain, rural parts of the state to offer self-service and is responsible for making Oregon the rear-end of all the gas-pumping jokes you may have heard lately.
Rizk Law enjoyed a festive holiday party at the Urban Office on SW Macadam Ave with live music provided by vocalist Lorna Baxter and accompanying instrumentalists. We wish everyone safe travels this holiday season and a happy new year!
Learn about Personal Injury Protection and how it will help you recover from your next auto accident!
On December 18, 2017, Amtrak Cascades’ first run of its new high-speed passenger service between Tacoma and Portland ended in disaster just minutes after departure when the train failed to negotiate a curve where the train crosses over Interstate 5.
Traveling at a speed of 81.1mph in a curved section of the track near DuPont, Washington posted with a 30mph speed limit, the train jumped the track and continued in a straight line over an Interstate 5 overpass near Mounts Road, spilling thirteen of the train’s 14 total cars onto the congested freeway below. Three passengers on the train were killed and those who survived were taken to hospitals with injuries. Miraculously, there were only a few injured passengers in vehicles on the freeway and no fatalities.
It was supposed to mark the beginning of expanded service of Amtrak’s Cascades route between Portland and Seattle with six round-trip trips per day. A separate passenger line, Amtrak Coast Starlight, would also travel the new route once per day. About 867,000 people rode Amtrak Cascades in 2016, with the average train carrying about 250 people. Monday’s train carried around 80 people when it came off the tracks.
The line of track, through the Point Defiance Pass, was recently upgraded as part of Washington State Department of Transportation’s $181 million rail expansion project. The upgrades were part of $800 million in capital improvements meant to reduce delays south of Tacoma. Amtrak Cascades shared the tracks with oil and other freight trains. Although the new route was touted as faster, it would shave off only 10 minutes of total travel time.
The National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) was on the scene to learn what the crew was doing when the train went off the rails, and why the emergency brake was not activated by the engineer. The investigators interviewed the engineer, conductor, and the other three crew members for a long list of information, including how much sleep they got the night before, what they ate that morning and any medications they were taking. Emergency radio transmissions between the conductor and the dispatcher were reviewed, and video from inward- and outward-facing cameras damaged in the crash were taken to the board’s Washington, D.C. laboratories for data retrieval.
The holiday season is already upon us. From late November to early January, a surge of festivities invites us to socialize with our coworkers, friends, and loved ones. Too often, there are more opportunities and obligations to imbibe than many of us can handle. Consequently, the toll for alcohol-related crashes and fatalities spikes during the holiday season. The number of personal injury claims brought forth against intoxicated persons and their handlers follows suit.
Whether you are a social host or you run an establishment that sells alcohol, be wary of Oregon’s dram shop law that holds both vendors and social hosts liable for personal injury claims after an alcohol-induced incident. Yes, even homeowners can be liable when victims sustain injuries after DUII and other accidents if they are not careful about to whom they serve alcohol.
Like every other state, Oregon allows individuals hurt by an inebriated person to pursue a civil claim against the at-fault party. The funds from this claim are allocated to costs associated with the accident, such as medical bills, lost wages, the costs of ongoing care, and pain and suffering, among others. Under certain circumstances, the injured party may also sue the social host or vendor responsible for providing alcohol to the intoxicated person. The victim of the accident must establish just two facts to have a viable lawsuit:
Like vendors, social hosts can be the subject of a personal injury lawsuit. A person who sustains injuries because of an intoxicated person’s negligence may sue the social hosts who served the intoxicated person alcohol. For a successful claim, the victim must prove that:
