Milwaukie toddler hit by mom’s car backing out of driveway
A toddler was injured after being hit by an SUV backing out of a Milwaukie driveway Tuesday.
Clackamas County detective Jim Strovink said 18-month-old Brock Aschenbrener was hit while his mother, 33-year-old Charmin Aschenbrener, of Portland, was visiting the home and trying to park.
Investigators did not think the boy was run over, and Strovink said the boy was conscious and breathing at the scene.
He was brought to Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital by ambulance and listed in critical condition on Tuesday afternoon.
Studies show that a high proportion of toddler injuries occur in their driveways when vehicles back up.
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Texting or talking on cellphone while driving should be a primary offense
EVEN motorists in denial know deep down that texting and talking on a handheld cellphone while driving is not only distracting, it’s dangerous.
For that reason, Washington lawmakers should abandon earlier reticence and support state Sen. Tracey Eide’s new bill to make this kind of distracted driving a primary offense.
A primary offense means law-enforcement officers can intervene when a driver is texting or talking while holding a phone on sight. No other reason is needed to to make the stop.
Current state law, a timid compromise, says such activities can be addressed only as a secondary matter, that is, if a driver is doing something else wrong — say, driving with a broken taillight or weaving across lane markers.
The data is clear, if not overwhelming: Distracted driving is the new drunken driving or driving without a seat belt.
In testimony before Congress last fall, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., cited Department of Transportation data showing distracted drivers in 2008 killed 5,800 people and injured 515,000, about 22 percent of all people injured in traffic accidents.
Rockefeller introduced federal legislation that would award grants to states that ban texting and using a handheld cell and make both actions primary offenses.
Eide, a Federal Way Democrat, tried for years to make distracted driving a primary offense. The bill that passed in 2007, with secondary-offense language, was the only way to win sufficient support. Her new bill also bans use of all wireless communications devices while driving for anyone with an intermediate license or learner’s permit. That makes sense.
Some studies show texting and driving is more hazardous than driving while drunk. Talking on a handheld phone is also very dangerous.
Eide’s legislation does not ban all the hamburger-eating, makeup-applying and other activities drivers should avoid behind the wheel, but it does tackle serious safety problems head-on.
The senator has already met with industry members and does not expect any opposition to the legislation, in part because the evidence is so overwhelming.
Lawmakers should pass a bill that allows drivers to be stopped for texting and talking on a handheld phone — as soon as a law-enforcement officer witnesses it.
IF you have been injured by someone who was distracted driving while talking or texting you have a RIGHT to financial compensation. Contact our Everett Personal injury lawyer today. Visit our Car Accident Frequently Asked Questions page for more info.
Seattle man killed on Kent’s Benson Highway
A 58-year-old Seattle man was struck and killed by a small pickup truck as he tried to cross the Benson Highway at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday in the Panther Lake area of unincorporated Kent.
Maximiliano Diaz-Salazar was not in a crosswalk when he was struck by a vehicle as he attempted to go from east to west across the northbound lanes near the 22000 block of the five-lane highway, said Dan McDonald, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol.
“The cause of the crash was a pedestrian jumping out in the middle of the road and he didn’t see the car,” McDonald said in a phone interview Thursday.
A 43-year-old Kent woman, the driver of the 2000 Toyota pickup, told the State Patrol that she had no time to react once she saw the man crossing the street, also known as State Route 515 and 108th Avenue Southeast.
This marks the second pedestrian-car accident in the last seven weeks along the similar section of the Benson Highway, where posted speeds are 40 mph. A 22-year-old Kent woman was injured by a car at about 5 a.m. Oct. 27 when she tried to cross in the 22400 block of the highway to catch a bus. The woman was not in a crosswalk.
She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment of serious injuries, and has since been released.
“It’s not illegal but you need to yield the right of way (to a vehicle),” McDonald said about pedestrians crossing a street while not in a crosswalk.
Kent fire officials recommended in the press release that pedestrians should use a crosswalk while crossing any street, especially at night when visibility is reduced.
In the Wednesday night accident, Kent Fire Department and King County Medic One emergency crews found the man lying unconscious and unresponsive in the road and were unable to revive him, according to a Kent Fire Department media release.
The driver told investigators that she saw a sports-utility vehicle in the right lane as she traveled in the left lane and that the man apparently waited for the SUV to pass before he darted out in the road.
Investigators did not know where the man had planned to go as he attempted to cross the highway. There are several bus stops in the area.
It is up the state Department of Transportation to determine whether the Benson Highway needs any safety improvements near where the pedestrian-car accidents occurred, McDonald said.
“There’s a lot that goes into installing a crosswalk,” McDonald said. “You can’t just put one in the middle of a road if it’s one that drivers can’t see very well.”
Jamie Holter, spokeswoman for the state DOT, said traffic officials have looked at the history of accidents along that section of the Benson Highway, but she was still trying to track down traffic planners Thursday to see if there are any proposals to improve pedestrian safety along the street.
That section of the highway will become part of the city of Kent in July because of the Panther Lake annexations approved by voters in November.
“What happens might be up to Kent,” Holter said in a phone interview Thursday morning. “Or maybe if we start something Kent takes it over.”
We post stories of this nature to show the general public how often they happen and to remind those who have been the unfortunate ones to have been injured or to lose a family member that compensation is possible. Contact our personal injury lawyers for a free consultation today.
Fatal Construction Accident On Guemes Island
A construction worker has been killed in a construction accident on Guemes Island.
A dispatcher with the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office tells KIRO 7 that there is one confirmed death. The deceased is an employee of the construction company involved in the accident.
According to the Anacortes Fire Department, which is assisting with the accident response, the accident happened at around 3:15 p.m. Saturday when an 1800 square foot house fell off of its foundation, crushing a construction worker to death.
An Anacortes Fire spokesperson tells KIRO 7’s Graham Johnson that six workers were lowering the house to comply with building codes when the house slipped. All of the workers made it out safely except for one man, who was killed as he was pinned and crushed by pieces of the house structure.
The victim is a 57-year-old man from Mount Vernon.
