from the southeast corner of Killingsworth and 29th.
(Photos by Paul Cone)
One man and one woman were hospitalized Friday morning after he turned his bicycle left onto Northeast Killingsworth “without coming to a complete stop,” Portland police said.
Steven Odell, 47, was treated for “serious but not life-threatening injuries” after the 8:15 a.m. crash, police said. According to their interviews and investigation, Odell was pedaling southbound on Northeast 28th Avenue (not Northeast 29th, as originally thought) when he made the left turn.
Tasha Brown, 34, was driving an Oldsmobile Cutlass west on Killingsworth “and had the right-of-way when the collision occurred,” police said. She was also transported to the hospital with “non-life-threatening injuries.”
No citations have been issued yet, and the police investigation continues.
Regardless of how it happened, it’s clear from the initial roadway evidence (the man’s shoes were found about 100 feet apart from each other) that this was a high-speed collision. Here’s more from reader Greg P:
“On my way into work this morning I passed what looked to be a very serious incident on NE Killingsworth between 29th and 30th.
There was a westbound vehicle stopped in the middle of the road with the driver’s door open, and about 10-15 feet in front of it was a man laying in the road, not moving. There was also a bike laying on the ground. I saw at least one police officer on the scene, and he appeared to be calming/consoling the woman who appeared to be the driver. The (assumed) bike rider was laying on the ground wearing a red jersey, without a helmet, and not moving. Nobody seemed to be helping him, but maybe he was already beyond help? Or maybe they were just waiting for medics? Hopefully it’s not as bad as it looked.”
And here’s another photo from reader Paul Cone (who lives a few blocks away):
It’s important to note that speeds on this stretch of Killingsworth are notoriously high. Just two blocks east of this collision is the budding Fox Chase neighborhood business district. Citizen activists and business owners at that intersection successfully lobbied the City to get a flashing beacon and a crosswalk in order to slow people down and make it safer to cross the street.
Also worth noting is that 28th is an off-set intersection, meaning it jogs a bit when it crosses Killingsworth. This makes visibility worse and crossing trickier. The fact that visibility is bad due to people who park their cars all the way to the corners on 28th also makes crossing difficult and dangerous, even when people follow the traffic law by coming to complete stops at stop signs.
Crossing Killingsworth in this area is one thing, riding on it is another.
Like many streets in northeast Portland (Alberta, Ainsworth, and so on), Killingsworth is narrow (one travel lane and one parking lane) and there is no dedicated space for people to bicycle on. It’s a neighborhood collector street, a frequent service bus route, and speeds can easily reach 40 miles per hour or more.
We have freeways and many major arterials where people can expect to drive fast without sharing the space with vulnerable road users. Why do those same conditions exist in so many other streets that criss-cross our neighborhoods?
News editor Michael Andersen contributed to this post.