(Photo Left: Portland Police Bureau/Photo right: Susan Putnam-Jensen)
When I first heard about the fatal collision in Beaverton near Southridge High School last week I was sad. But that was before I made a heartbreaking realization.
These siblings were both killed by people driving cars within 15 months of each other while using our streets under their own power.
On the evening of November 30th a teenager driving an SUV hit a 63-year-old woman who police say was walking her bike in a bike lane on SW 125th Avenue when she was hit.
After being sad at that news, my next feeling was outrage that the police (and the media who so often parrot their statements as fact) were so quick to absolve the driver. “There was nothing he could do to avoid striking her,” was the statement made at the scene and the soundbite that made the news.
Without further reporting and investigation it’s hard to know exactly what happened (Did she dismount to avoid leaves or debris in the bike lane? How fast was the teenager driving? How did the teenager’s car have such a huge dent in it if he was going a safe speed for those conditions?); but I don’t think it’s fair or professional when police make definitive statements with such haste.
Fortunately KOIN did a follow-up story with comments from a good friend of the victim so we could learn more about her life.
But there was something else that stuck with me about this collision. The name of woman who died is Helen Grochowski. That last name that sounded familiar. A few days passed and I kept reading coverage of the crash while my hunch about her name wouldn’t leave my head. Yesterday I finally thought more deeply about it occurred to me: I know that name from another fatal collision that happened about one mile from my house in August 2016. I looked up my story and sure enough, the names matched.
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65-year-old Stanley Grochowski was hit and killed by a person driving a car as he walked in a marked crosswalk across North Greeley Avenue at Bryant Street. The driver sped away and left him there to die. Neighbors posted a flyer on a nearby telephone pole and painted a ghostly stencil to memorialize him. We learned from reports that he was houseless at the time he was hit. We later learned drug abuse had contributed to his hard times. His nephew told KPTV news that Stanley, “Had a rough life,” but that “he was equal to everyone else and didn’t deserve to be left on the street.”
With the same last name and similar ages I had find out if there was some relation. I connected with a friend of Helen Grochowski’s via Facebook. This friend confirmed it: Helen and Stanley were brother and sister. Now when I look at their photos side-by-side the resemblance is unmistakable.
These siblings were both killed by people driving cars within 15 months of each other while using our streets under their own power.
Helen rode her bike everywhere, her friend told me. She used it because she couldn’t afford car insurance. Like Stanley, she was just trying survive. Neither of them deserved to die.
Friends and family of Helen Grochowskie will gather for a funeral on Saturday.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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