144TH YEAR, NO. 60
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
BLUES AND
SEAFOOD
ONE DOLLAR
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WOMEN’S DAY
INSIDE
PAGES 12A & 13A
Mary
Put down the cellphone and drive
Todd’s
up for
change
For nearly half her
life, the bar was an
Astoria mainstay
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Kelly Browning speaks during the Criminal Justice Information Systems Users Workshop and Security Summit on Tuesday .
As distractions multiply, so do teen crashes
BY THE NUMBERS
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
onors students, football stars, cheerleaders, c ool kids and the
H
girl they called “granny at the wheel.” All share one thing in
common: they are among the 4,000 teenagers who die each
year in preventable car crashes, the No. 1 killer of teens in the nation .
In 2015 , 3,829 teens lost their lives on the
roadway — and only 25 percent of those were
attributable to drinking or drugs. Fifty percent of
teens killed were passengers.
“Most kids are not drinking and driving,”
Kelly Browning, an expert on teen drivers , told
an audience of about 270 criminal justice profes-
sionals at the Seaside Civic and Convention Cen-
ter Tuesday. “We’re so beyond texting now. Now
it’s selfi es, carpool karaoke, video chatting, S nap-
chatting, Instagramming. Why is this so lethal?
Because it takes all three distractions — the man-
ual, the visual and most importantly, the cogni-
tive. You’re not concentrating on driving.”
Browning is executive director of Impact
Teen Drivers, a nationwide program confront-
ing the dangers and consequences of reckless
and distracted driving.
Distracted driving
Automobile collisions have been the lead-
ing cause of death for generations of American
teens. But it wasn’t until 2009 that the term “dis-
tracted driving” was coined.
What drew Browning’s attention to the issue
was a study in the early 2000s studying stress
TEEN DRIVING
Workshop material and further information
for parents and teen drivers is available at
www.impactteendrivers.org.
among California Highway Patrol offi cers.
“The most stressful part of their jobs, offi cers
said, was responding to a scene where a young
person had lost their life,” Browning said. “All
because of something preventable: car crashes.”
She found there were many quality programs
on impairment, but there was a void addressing
distracted driving.
The stakes are getting higher. In 2015, there
was a 7 percent increase in roadway fatalities
in the U.S. I n Oregon, the increase was about
25 percent and in Washington state, 23 percent.
Almost every young driver is vulnerable,
she said. “I could have a kid say ‘I never text
and drive,’ and two seconds later I’ll ask them if
they’ve ever taken a picture while driving. ‘Oh,
yeah, I’ve done that.’”
See CRASHES, Page 11A
3,829
The number of teens
killed on the roadways
in 2015
After a quarter century as the name behind
one of Astoria’s most famous haunts, Mary
Todd said her life is heading in a new direction.
She recently put Mary Todd’s Workers
Bar & Grill in Union-
town up for sale and is
looking for someone to
hopefully take over the
business.
“I want a little qui-
eter” life, Todd, 56,
said. “My whole life is
going to be a little qui-
eter now.”
Todd, who lives in
one of the apartments
Mary
above the bar, said she
Todd
plans to fi nd another
place in Astoria and spend some time trav-
eling around the region to visit her children
and grandchildren . A recovering alcoholic
with more than fi ve years sober, Todd said
she will continue working with those suffer-
ing from addiction.
Mary Todd’s
Todd was working at the Astoria Ply-
wood Mill when it closed. She said she went
looking for a job at a scary-looking bar in
Uniontown, got hired and married the owner,
the late Richard Todd. A year later, her name
emblazoned the bar .
See MARY TODD, Page 14A
25
percent increase in the
amount of roadway
deaths in Oregon in 2015.
The increase was 23
percent in Washington.
25
percent of teen
road deaths were
attributable to
drinking or drugs
50
percent of teens
killed on the road
were passengers
Oregon
women
have it
tough
New report fi nds high
rates of alcohol use,
trauma, childcare costs
By CASEY PARK
The Oregonian
Gov. Brown says Measure 97
needed to avoid big budget cuts
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — Gov. Kate
Brown Wednesday defended her
decision to support a corporate sales
tax measure as the only viable alter-
native to deep cuts at state agencies
and rollbacks to recent education
and health care investments.
Deciding to endorse Measure 97
“truly was the most diffi cult decision
I have ever made during my time in
offi ce,” Brown said.
The measure would levy a 2.5
percent gross receipts tax on certain
corporations’ Oregon sales exceed-
ing $25 million and would represent
the largest tax increase in the state’s
history. It would raise $3 billion a
year.
Voters will decide whether to pass
the measure in the Nov. 8 election.
Brown made the comments
during a full-house meeting of the
Portland Business Alliance, in an
appearance that one businessman
described as walking into a “lion’s
den.”
The alliance of nearly 1,900 busi-
nesses — similar to a chamber of
commerce — has come out against
the corporate sales tax measure and
has dedicated much of its homep-
age to campaigning against the tax
measure.
See MEASURE 97, Page 14A
Pamplin Media Group
Gov. Kate Brown says her en-
dorsement of Measure 97, a
controversial corporate tax pro-
posal, “truly was the most diffi-
cult decision I have ever made
during my time in office.”
Oregon women have the nation’s high-
est rates of reported depression and heavy
alcohol use. More than half say they have
experienced sexual or domestic violence,
one of the worst rates in the country, offi -
cials at a new Oregon foundation have
found.
And Oregon is one of the least afford-
able states for working mothers to care for
children, with a year of daycare now more
expensive than annual tuition at a state
university.
Offi cials at the new Women’s Founda-
tion of Oregon say they hope the “Count
Her In” report, released Wednesday, will
be a wakeup call. It’s the fi rst comprehen-
sive look at Oregon women and girls in
nearly two decades. And it is grim.
“When you read this list, it’s just irrefut-
able that Oregon has a problem with gender
equity,” said Sue Hildick, president of the
Chalkboard Project and the board chair for
the new foundation. “And it’s deep.”
See WOMEN, Page 8A