Yesterday just after 3:00 pm a man was struck while bicycling on the shoulder of Highway 26 about seven miles east of Sandy (at the bottom of Cherryville Hill, map).
According to an Oregon State Police statement, the collision involved Irma Swearengen, an 80-year-old woman who was driving a 1998 Pymouth Voyager mini-van and Kennedy Salveter, a 20-year-old man who was riding a triathlon bike. Both of them live in Sandy.
Salveter and Swearengen were headed eastbound on Highway 26 and Swearengen’s right-side mirror hit Salveter’s left hip as she attempted to pass him. The OSP says Salveter was riding, “in the vicinity of the shoulder” prior to the collision. He was “knocked down and injured” and ultimately transported to the hospital with “non-life threatening injuries”.
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As you can see in the photograph above, this section of Highway 26 has rumble strips installed in the shoulder. It’s not known whether or not those played a role in the collision. We’ve reached out to Salveter via his Facebook page to ask if he remembers anything prior to the collision but we haven’t heard back.
At this time OSP says they are not taking any enforcement action. Oregon’s safe passing law, ORS 811.065, states that,
“The driver of a motor vehicle may only pass a person operating a bicycle by driving to the left of the bicycle at a safe distance and returning to the lane of travel once the motor vehicle is safely clear of the overtaken bicycle… a ‘safe distance’ means a distance that is sufficient to prevent contact with the person operating the bicycle if the person were to fall into the driver’s lane of traffic.“
Reached today, OSP Public Information Officer Lt. Gregg Hastings said the investigation is ongoing.