Oregon Public Broadcasting

Sometimes the smallest changes mean the most. 

The Oregon Legislature approved a bill this year that does nothing beyond removing just four words from existing law.  But that minor alteration comes as a result of a tragedy for one farm family from Scio, Oregon.  Salem Correspondent Chris Lehman explains.

Here are the four words:  "Without an enclosed shell."

A memorial to Nathan Gourley remains a year after the fatal accident along this rural Linn County road.

Those words were included in a law that provides stiff penalties for people convicted of careless driving who also cause an accident involving a so-called vulnerable road user. 

That includes bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers of tractors -- but only smaller ones without a cab -- or in legalese, an enclosed shell. 

Now, thanks to the advocacy of Arlene and Jack Gourley, that four word exception is gone.  With this new change, the legal protection applies to all tractors, including the one their son was driving last summer when he killed by a log truck.

Arlene Gourley:  "The truck just hit him.  And Nathan died of head and chest trauma."  

Arlene Gourley says an investigation showed that an empty log truck tried to pass 16-year-old Nathan as he was making a left turn.  He was delivering a load of hay for the Gourley's 200-acre dairy farm.

Jack Gourley sits in the cab of a haystacker similar to the one his son was operating when he was killed.

Jack Gourley says his son was driving a haystacker wagon like this one.  He says he doesn't plan on letting his two teenage daughters take farm machinery on the road anytime soon.

Jack Gourley  "I'm not scared of what they do.  I'm scared of what the other person does.  And that we can't seem to change." 

Jack hopes the new law will encourage drivers to be more cautious around tractors.  But he recently saw another log truck come barreling down the road behind a car near his house.

Jack Gourley:  "That truck driver passed that white car that he was following right there at the same spot, the same location that my son was killed at.  And I sat there and I watched that whole thing and I thought 'My gosh, what am I going to do?'"

As if on cue, another log truck rolls by the farm.  Jack Gourley calls the ongoing struggle between vehicles and tractors a real battle. 

In the legislative arena, at least, it's a battle the Gourley's won.  Now the family hopes that legislative victory translates to real change on the roads. 

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski plans to hold a ceremonial bill signing on what's become known as "Nathan's Law" soon.

Online:

Oregon House Bill 2554