Articles about TriMet are pretty common in the Oregonian newspaper. For the most part they aren’t particularly flattering: TriMet driver runs over five pedestrians and kills three; TriMet driver watches as a passenger briefly gets off the bus to punch a bicyclist; TriMet shuts down part of a bus route without any notification to riders; TriMet raises prices and cuts back schedules; and so on.

The tragic TriMet crash in April that killed two women and injured several others has prompted the victims’ families to sue TriMet and Sandi Day, the bus driver behind the wheel. Victim Jeneé Hammel’s mother, through her attorney Roscoe C. Nelson, intend to sue the transit agency and driver for wrongful death. Victim Danielle Sale’s father, as well as survivor Robert Erik Gittings, also revealed plans to sue TriMet.

Former Eugene, Oregon “Bicycling Mayor” Seriously Injured in Car Accident

The following is a guest post by George Williams, lead blogger for Denver accident lawyer Daniel R. Rosen.

Ruth Bascom was known as Eugene, Oregon’s “Bicycling Mayor” during her term as the city’s first female mayor from 1993 to 1997. A powerful voice in favor of bicycle trails, Mayor Bascom commuted to City Hall on her bike quite often during her term. She also chaired both the Eugene Bicycle Committee and the Oregon Bicycle Advisory Committee. Two years ago, the 84 year-old Mayor was forced to give up cycling due to her age.

I know some people who don’t want to be hospitalized because of the possibility of contracting an infection. Well, it looks like hospitals have made some headway into reducing hospital infection rates, at least when it comes to invasive cases of MRSA, otherwise known as methicillin-resistant staph. A federal study looked at nine major metropolitan areas in the United States and concluded that MRSA rates declined about 16 percent from 2005 to 2008.

I was trying to avoid blogging about another food illness outbreak, since I just did, but then I read about an E-coli outbreak and the recall of one million pounds of meat, and I couldn’t resist. The recall involves a million pounds of ground beef products from Valley Meat Co. based in Modesto, CA. The products were distributed predominantly in frozen form to a number of states, including California, Oregon, and Arizona, as well as internationally, and they were processed between October 2, 2009, and January 12, 2010, meaning they have been in circulation for quite some time.

There’s been a salmonella outbreak this spring and summer that has affected more than 150 people across the nation. Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have yet to identify the exact source and are tight lipped about where the salmonella came from, they did indicate “Restaurant A,” a Mexican-style fast-food restaurant chain, was the origin. Well, an official from Oregon Public Health spilled the beans to the Oregonian and named the chain–Taco Bell. In addition, the official said not all Taco Bell locations were culprits, but it also wasn’t one store that was solely responsible for the outbreak.

I know we just posted about an infant product recall, but here’s another one! The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has certainly been busy lately. Baby Matters LLC has issued a voluntary recall of its Nap Nanny baby recliner. The recall affects some 30,000 units and was prompted by an infant death. In the death the recliner was placed inside a crib, and the baby got trapped between the crib bumper and the Nap Nanny.

Another medical device manufacturer is held accountable for what a judge ruled to be a faulty product. The Mogen clamp, made by Mogen Circumcision Instruments, is used in circumcisions, and the manufacturer claims it is safe to use. Unfortunately, an infant lost the tip of his penis when it got caught in the clamp. The patient is permanently disfigured as a result. The New York judge awarded $10.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The award is meant to cover medical expenses as well as ongoing psychotherapy for the patient, who at three years of age is already self conscious about his deformity.

I suppose one plus of the dreadfully cold summer we’ve been having here in Portland, OR, is that many are not tempted to venture into the great outdoors. Why is this a good thing? Because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) just issued a voluntary recall of some children’s tents. In question are the Tots in Mind playard tents, or, more specifically, the Tots in Mind Cozy Indoor Outdoor Portable Playard Tents Plus Cabana Kits. The recall affects some 20,000 tents that were sold between January 2005 and February 2010.

Now here’s something you don’t hear every day–a patient and his medical provider filed a lawsuit against a medical device manufacturer. The patient, Paramjit Singh, was undergoing heart bypass surgery in 2004 at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, WA, when a catheter in his right ventricle malfunctioned. The device overheated, and as a result, cooked and irreparably destroyed the ventricle. Surgeons were focused on another part of the heart and thus were unaware of the damage until the end of the surgery. Doctors were able to insert a mini artificial heart but believed the patient would probably die within a few hours.