PennLive.com reports on a Tesla recall involving pedestrian safety: Tesla is recalling 594,717 vehicles because the boombox function that allows music to be played externally may mask the required pedestrian warning noises. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, recalled are some 2020-2022 Model Y, Model X and Model S vehicles and 2017-2022 Model 3 vehicles. Read the full article here. Download the NHTSA recall notice here. Charley Gee is a Portland personal injury attorney. He represents clients statewide who have been injured by negligent drivers. He maintains seve ..read more

Mental Floss is asking the "big questions": Does Pushing the Button at a Crosswalk Actually Do Anything? Find out the answer and read the full article here. Charley Gee is a Portland, Oregon Personal Injury Attorney. He is best known for being a Portland, Oregon Pedestrian Attorney and a Portland, Oregon, Bicycle Attorney. He maintains blogs on Oregon Bicycle Laws and Oregon Pedestrian Laws ..read more

CurrentAffairs.org has a thought provoking interview with urban planner Angie Schmitt. Schmitt, who recently authored the book, Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America, makes several good points about the unacknowledged causes and consequences of the U.S. pedestrian safety crisis. Portland, Oregon, where Charley Gee P.C. is located, gets a (really scathing) shout out in the interview: It’s really stark in Portland, actually. I use Portland as a bad example. Obviously, they’ve done a lot of good things, and they have a much lower fatality rate than ma ..read more

Willamette Week reports on the installation of a traffic camera at the intersection of SE Stark and 122nd. From the article: "The city of Portland installed a first-of-its-kind traffic safety camera at a major intersection Tuesday, the start of a new technique to make the city’s most dangerous streets less deadly. Three pedestrians died on each road between 2017 and 2019. Read the full article here. Read Willamette Week's prior 2021 reporting of Portland's reckless driving and this dangerous intersection here. Charley Gee is a Portland, Oregon Personal Injury Attorney. He is best known for be ..read more

KGW.com reports on a tragic hit-and-run crash on SW Barrows Road, which is leading to neighbors demanding change. Michael Frainey was killed by a potentially intoxicated driver on a dangerous road in Beaverton. Key quote: Price said that she sees a lot of drivers speeding on Southwest Barrows. She sees crashes, too. A city spokesperson said that between January 2019 and January 2022, there were more than 30 crashes on Barrows. A chage.org petition is calling for safety improvements like speed reduction, speed cushions or rumble strips, enhanced police enforcement, and the installation of a fo ..read more

From arstechnica.com: "It's a dangerous time to be on American roads, and that's especially true if you're on foot. Pedestrian deaths on our roads went up by more than 50 percent in a decade, and it looks like last year may have been even worse than 2020. The problem is complex, as road design, poor standards of driving training, and inadequate enforcement of existing traffic laws all contribute to the death toll. But a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has figured out why drivers of some types of vehicles are disproportionately more likely to hit pedestrians. Prev ..read more

Route-fifty.com reports on encouraging results from a study by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The "Asphalt Art Safety Study" found that "crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists fell by 50% and total crashes by 17% on streets with artistic design features." In addition to the crash reductions, the analysis found there was a: - 37% decrease in the rate of crashes leading to injuries. - 27% increase in the frequency of drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians with the right of way. - 25% decrease in pedestrian crossings involving a conflict with drivers. - 38% decrease in pedestrians crossing a ..read more

From KDRV: "The Medford Police Department organized a three hour 'sting' operation hoping to educate drivers about Oregon laws about the pedestrian's right of way. The law says drivers must stop if someone is walking across the driver's lane or the lane right next to it.“There are incidents where pedestrians get hit because of distracted driving so we're looking for the distracted driving, the speeding, and all those kinds of things," said Medford Police Corporal Tom Venables. Officers gave out a total of 17 citations: 5 were for failing to stop for a pedestrian in the crosswalk and another 5 ..read more

KTVZ.com reports on America's growing "traffic safety crisis." From the article: "Hit-and-run deaths have grown steadily in the last 15 years as a share of traffic deaths. Victims of hit-and-runs are also increasingly pedestrians and cyclists. In 2020, 69.6% of hit-and-run deaths were either pedestrians or cyclists, compared with 61.1% in 2006. Roughly one in four pedestrian deaths in 2020 was a hit-and-run." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released new data on 2020 trends in Motor Vehicle Collisions earlier in March. Read the full article here. Read the NHTSA report here ..read more

Streetsblog USA reports on a troubling new study by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety about the design of popular SUVs and pick-ups. The results: "SUVs and pick-up truck drivers are three to four times more likely to hit a pedestrian when they make a turn than the drivers of smaller cars, a new study finds — and researchers think it’s because federal regulators aren’t scrutinizing the common design features that make it impossible for megacar drivers to see walkers passing right in front of them. Read the full article here. Charley Gee is a Portland, Oregon Personal Injury Attorney. H ..read more