Public Safety & Health

Police Round Up: Lowell man found dead; FBI tips for online safety; Oregon is 7th in DUI study

Last Wednesday, 19 year old William Robert Henry Vaughn was last seen at approximately 1 a.m. morning near the Lowell covered bridge. He was separated from his group and did not return home. He was last believed to be walking westbound on Hwy. 58. He was later identified as the deceased person located in the water near Lowell on Saturday. There are no obvious signs of foul play at this time. Anyone with information regarding Vaughn’s whereabouts are asked to contact the Lane County Sheriff’s Office at 541-682-4150 opt. 1. 

FBI encourages account protection 

In honor of “World Password Day” last week, the FBI is encouraging the public to strengthen their passwords/phrases and account protection. Passwords are used for everything; we use them for our phones, computers, email, even financial information. Unfortunately, many people use the same simple passwords, like 1234 or Password1, for multiple accounts. Simple passwords, even those with special characters, are easier for someone to crack. 

According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a personal data breach is defined as a leak/spill of personal data which is released from a secure location to an untrusted environment. Also, a security incident in which an individual’s sensitive, protected, or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen, or used by an unauthorized individual. 

It’s important to note that scammers obtain people’s information in many ways. Sometimes a victim will unintentionally give the scammer their passwords, other times, the criminal is able to crack the code. The following tips may help protect you and your information from a breach: 

• Make sure, at the very least, your email, financial, and health accounts all have different unique passwords and/or passphrases. 

• Make sure your password is as long as the system will allow. 

Set up multi-factor authentication for your accounts. 

• Be wary of “games or quizzes” on social media that ask for personal information. 

Many times those answers are actually your password “hints” 

• Don’t bank or log into other important accounts using public Wi-Fi.  

 If you believe are a victim of an online scam, you should report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov or call your FBI local office. 

Oregon ranks seventh in national DUI study

Oregon ranks seventh in the nation for most charges of driving under the influence (DUIs), with 14.3% of Oregon DUIs’ resulting in fatalities. This according to a new study produced by Zutobi, an international driver’s education company with courses in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, France, and Germany.  

Driving Under the Influence (DUI) is a major reason for road accidents and road deaths in the United States each year. The year 2020, being the first year of the COVID pandemic, shows a clear trend shift when it comes to drunk driving fatalities – unfortunately, in the wrong direction. With 11,654 deaths, drunk driving accounted for 30% of all road fatalities – the worst year since 2005. Furthermore, drunk driving fatalities are up a staggering 1512 deaths (14.9%) compared to 2019, dealing a heavy blow to safety advocates and regulators alike. Drunk driving is more common among drivers under 34 years old, and then drops off with age. The highest category of drunk drivers is 21-24 year olds, with 26.4% of DUI’s in the nation belonging to this age group. 

In Oregon, 332.4 out of every 100,000 is arrested for a DUI, and 6.4 of those result in a fatality. While it is clear that drunk driving fatalities increased in 2020, studies have yet not been conducted to understand why. However, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has determined that overall alcoholic beverage sales increased during the pandemic. The increase in alcohol consumption correlates well to the increase in drunk driving deaths for the same time period but it does not explain the entire increase.

According to the NHTSA, a driver with a BAC of 0.08 will experience concentration difficulties, difficulty maintaining speed, impaired perception, impaired judgment, short-term memory loss, and difficulty processing information. Even a BAC of 0.05, which is within the legal limit, will result in reduced coordination, reduced ability to track moving objects, difficulty steering, and reduced reaction times.

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