Yesterday morning I got two reports from readers about a bike/car collision at the intersection of SE 16th and Ankeny. I usually don’t post about every bike-involved collision I hear about; but since two people emailed and it’s on a busy bike street, I figured this one was worth sharing.
Reader Marsha H. wrote in, looking for more information about what happened:
“I went by on my morning commute and saw a young woman on a bike on the ground not moving much, a small but growing crowd of concerned cyclists, and the driver in the collision calling 911.”
A reader named Heather also saw the collision and wrote in to share that, “It was bad enough that EMTs were attending the cyclist (but she was moving her feet – good).” The collision exacerbated Heather’s concerns that there is more traffic crossing SE Ankeny — one of the City’s oldest bike boulevards — since the completion of the Burnside-Couch couplet. “I see cars blowing stop signs as they cross and racing down the street regularly,” she wrote, “and by my unscientific analysis, it’s gotten significantly worse during and since Burnside construction.”
(For more on how the Burnside-Couch project has impacted bicycle traffic, see the comments to our post from April 2010: How are Burnside-Couch changes treating you?)
I asked Sgt. Peter Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau to track some information about the collision. Sgt. Simpson says that at about 7:15 am, the woman driving the car, 43-year-old Christine Ebright, was headed northbound on 16th, stopped at the stop sign. When she proceeded through the stop sign, “she heard a large ‘bang’ and realized she’d been struck by a person on a bike.” (Note: Ankeny has no stop signs at that location)
Ms. Ebright told police that she didn’t see the bicycle rider coming.
Sgt. Simpson reports that person on the bike was 23-year-old Erin Winn. She was transported to a hospital via ambulance for evaluation; but had no trauma-level injuries. There was no citation issued in the case.
— Remember, our 24-hour tipline, (503) 706-8804, is always available to report collisions (texts are OK too!).