Portland Police just announced that a male bicycle rider died after he was involved in a collision with the driver of a truck in southwest Portland early Monday (2/17) morning.
Here are the details from the PPB:
On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 12:28am, Central Precinct officers were dispatched to a crash at Southwest Vista Avenue and Southwest Park Place. When officers arrived they discovered a vehicle struck a bicycle. The bicyclist suffered a head injury and was transported to an area hospital and was listed to be in critical care. Later in the day, the medical examiner notified the police bureau the bicyclist did not survive.
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Officers from the Traffic Division investigated the crash. The investigation preliminarily determined the driver of the truck was driving southbound through the intersection on a green light. The bicyclist entered the intersection with neither a helmet nor a light on. The driver of the vehicle was traveling at an estimated 25-30 miles per hour and was unable to stop before hitting the bicyclist. The driver of the vehicle was cooperative with police and was not determined to be impaired.
We will update this post when we get more details.
The intersection of SW Vista and Park is relatively straightforward. Driving southbound on Vista however, you can see that a large concrete wall creates a bad sightline with traffic coming from the right. Also worth noting here is that SW Park is very steep just before Vista. Park is the street that heads downhill and is often used by bicycle riders as an exit from Washington Park (which is just three blocks away from this intersection).
Given the time and day of this crash, I am curious if the person riding was taking part in the weekly Zoobomb ride. I’ve contacted someone who was on the main Zoobomb ride at that hour and they’ve confirmed the group was not on this route at that time.
If anyone has any information, please get in touch.
This is the first fatal crash involving a bicycle rider so far this year.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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