Update, 7/14: The victim was 70-year-old Martin Crommie. See more updates below
The Portland Police Bureau says someone riding a bicycle was killed late Sunday night in the Portsmouth neighborhood.
Not much information has been released thus far, but a PPB statement says they responded to a crash at around 10:15 pm last night after a report of a crash between a car and bicycle user at the intersection of N Juneau Street and N Chautauqua Blvd. The bicycle rider died at the scene and the driver remained at the scene for questioning.
The crash is being investigated. If you saw or heard anything about what happened please let us know and contact the PPB Traffic Investigations Unit at crimetips@portlandoregon.gov or (503) 823-2103. This is case number 22-184939.
Crash Context
The location of this crash was just one block south of Columbia Boulevard, a major arterial with a 40 mph speed limit. From a screengrab of a a KGW-TV story sent to us by a reader (right), we can see that the victim’s bicycle came to rest in the middle of the intersection. We don’t yet know what direction the two parties were going prior to the collision, but it’s worth noting that there’s a significant elevation rise on Chautauqua between Columbia and Juneau. If you are going south from Columbia, the uphill makes visibility poor as you approach Juneau.
Chautauqua is a neighborhood collector street with a 25 mph speed limit. It does not have a bike lane but due to its low traffic volume it’s listed on the Metro Bike There map as a “Bike Friendly Street”. Chautauqua is an important street in the bike network because it connects directly to a bike path along Columbia Blvd, churches, Charles Jordan Community Center, Columbia Pool, and so on. It also connects to the major bikeway on Willamette Blvd at its southern end.
There is a lot of advocacy going right now on to make this part of Portland better for bicycling. The Portland Bureau of Transportation’s North Portland in Motion plan released its first report back in December and project staff will lead a bike ride of the area on July 30th.
This is the second bicycle fatality and the 31st traffic death overall in Portland this year.
UPDATE, 4:55 pm on 7/14: Here’s the latest update from PPB:
The bicyclist involved in this crash has been identified as 70-year-old Martin Crommie. His family has been notified of his death.
The Major Crash Team investigation found the cyclist was riding an e-bike northbound in traffic. Once the cyclist moved to the side of the road, the driver of the vehicle involved, a 2021 Toyota Tacoma, began to pass the cyclist. The cyclist then made a sudden left turn for an unknown reason, colliding with the left side of the vehicle.