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The Bellingham Herald reports that a motorcycle rider and his passenger were injured in a motorcycle accident in Washington.

According to the report, the 34 year old Bellingham man was driving his motorcycle Marigold eastbound, near Lake Whatcom Boulevard. He then went off the road and hit a tree. The driver and his passenger, a 37 year old from Port Orchard, were both taken to St Joseph Hospital in Bellingham for treatment of injuries and were then released.

The driver faces possible vehicular assault charges, or driving under the influence charges, pending results of toxicology tests. The charge of vehicular assault can be made if a person is injured in a motor vehicle accident and it is determined that the driver was driving under the influence or driving with reckless disregard for the safety of others.
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Authorities say that four Washington teenagers tragically died and a fifth was critically injured in a car crash on State Highway 30 in northwest Oregon on Monday.

The teenagers were in a sport utility vehicle that was heading westbound. The vehicle collided with an eastbound van just west of Clatskanie, Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said. Dead at the scene were the female SUV driver and three passengers.

The remaining SUV passenger, an 18-year-old Ridgefield boy, was taken by Life Flight Network to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland in critical condition, Hastings said.

The van driver, whose injuries were described as serious, was a 55-year-old man from Vancouver. He was taken by ambulance to a Longview, Wash., hospital.

According to Hastings, the teens had just graduated from Ridgefield High School.
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A bicyclist and a small passenger car collided at about 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the intersection of 14th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 58th Street in Ballard. The cyclist sustained minor injuries in the bike accident in Washington.

According to a local news source, the 14th Avenue Northwest Visioning Project has been working on improvements to the street for the past several years. Curb bulbs and a rain garden were installed at the same intersection of the accident last winter.

Seattle police spokesperson Mark Jamieson said that in the case of last night’s collision, the bicyclist was at fault because he failed to yield to the vehicle.

“The cyclist did sustain some minor injuries, an injured knee and maybe had a hurt hand or finger,”Jamieson said. “He was checked out of the hospital as a precaution.”
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A crash early Saturday morning outside Monroe, Washington has left two people dead. State troopers believe alcohol or other drugs may be involved.

According to troopers, shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday, a 2008 Hyundai Tiburon that was driving eastbound went off State Route 522 to the right, then veered across the center line and hit a 2001 Ford F-250 pickup truck.

Dead at the scene of the auto accident in Washington were the driver of the car, as well as the passenger. Both were men in their 20s, said a local Trooper. A second passenger in the car was listed in serious condition Sunday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
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According to the San Juan County sheriff’s office, a 15-year-old was driving a speeding car that hit a group of bicycle riders and a jogger. The jogger was killed, and a 7-year-old girl was badly injured.

Sheriff Bill Cumming said that the driver and a 17-year-old passenger had been doing some work on a 1974 Chevrolet Nova. On Sunday afternoon, they took it out for a drive on Lopez Island.

The teenage driver lost control of the vehicle and hit the pedestrians and a group of bicyclists at about 2:40 p.m. on Lopez Sound Road. A 26-year-old jogger from Abbotsford, British Columbia died at the scene of the car crash in Washington.

The 7-year-old girl who was on the bicycle had severe injuries and was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
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According to the Washington State Patrol, an unsecured load caused a chain reaction crash on the Interstate 90 floating bridge across Lake Washington. The crash delayed Monday evening commuter traffic for hours.

Two westbound lanes were blocked for nearly 2 1/2 hours by the auto accident in Washington. The collision involved five vehicles and a tractor-trailer rig, said a local Trooper.

The Trooper also said that the problem started when a car swerved to avoid a bucket on the freeway. This accident demonstrates how important it is to secure any and all items being transported in a truck or on a vehicle roof to ensure that roads and highways aren’t obstructed.

Though none appeared to have serious injuries, six people were taken to Harborview Medical Center.
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On Thursday, the Supreme Court in Washington State unanimously voted to reinstate a $14 million award to a family who sued a tavern and a bartender after one of the bar’s customers drove away from the establishment and crashed into their vehicle. Their 7-year-old-son is now a paraplegic due to the tragic collision.

According to information from an Associated Press article, the law states that bartenders who serve visibly intoxicated customers are liable for damages to potential victims. At question was the type of evidence needed to prove “negligent over-service”. Most states have so-called “dram shop” laws that can make taverns or bartenders – and in some states, even social hosts – liable for damages if they serve intoxicated customers who leave the premises and harm themselves or others.

It was noted by Washington State’s justices that a forensic consultant found that the bar patron likely drank the equivalent of either 21 12-ounce beers or 30 ounces of 80-proof alcohol, and probably had a blood alcohol content of 0.32 at the time of the collision. The legal blood alcohol limit in Washington State is 0.08.

The man was drinking at the Bellingham Moose Lodge, about 90 miles north of Seattle, just before the April 2000 auto accident in Washington. His girlfriend was the bartender at the lodge and served him the night of the accident.
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A Los Angeles judge has dismissed two lawsuits that were filed against US Food Giant Dole by Nicaraguan banana plantation workers, according to a recent report on abcnews online. The lawsuits alleged that Dole was guilty of exposing plantation workers to harmful pesticides. Litigation was fueled by previous lawsuits that opponents of the Food Company had won in Nicaragua.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney dismissed the lawsuits on the grounds of fraud and attempted extortion. She made her ruling after hearing testimony that detailed a scheme to recruit men who would claim they were rendered sterile by exposure to a pesticide in the 1970s.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge sighted a litany of judgments coming from Nicaragua, from crooked judges who were ‘devouring bribes’. She was quoted as saying:

“What has occurred here is not just a fraud on the court, it is blatant extortion on the defendant…the record is so outrageous and profound.”
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A full recovery is expected for a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy and his prisoner who suffered injuries in a Washington car collision that killed the other driver on Highway 2 near Snohomish.

According to a Washington State Patrol Trooper, the 35-year-old deputy is in stable condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The prisoner who was traveling in the car with the deputy, and was on his way to jail for domestic violence, was treated for minor injuries at a hospital in Everett.

A pickup truck apparently crossed the center line and collided with the patrol car at about 4:30 a.m., said Leary. The pickup truck caught fire and burned in the accident in which the driver died at the scene.

In order to reach the deputy and the prisoner, rescuers had to cut the roof off the patrol car.
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The Washington State Patrol reports that between 2005 and 2007, there were almost 5000 commercial truck accidents in Washington alone. These accidents involved drivers of cars who drive unsafely around large commercial trucks. In two-thirds of the accidents, statistics show that the driver of the car was at-fault. These accidents resulted in 175 fatalities and 450 injuries. According to the Patrol, drivers need to leave space for trucks and learn ways to share the road.

John R. Batiste, chief of the Washington State Patrol, says, “Motorists who drive recklessly, or are unsafe around these big rigs, are asking for trouble. When a car and a commercial vehicle are involved in a collision, the car will lose.”

Given these statistics, the Patrol has a worked with other law enforcement agencies to create the Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Truck (TACT) project. In an effort to reduce accidents, the Washington State Patrol is trying to increase the public’s awareness of unsafe driving behaviors around commercial vehicles. These dangerous driving behaviors include:

  • cutting off trucks
  • tailgating
  • failure to yield the right of way
  • speeding
  • aggressive driving

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