“He was probably one of the most compassionate and accommodating people I’ve ever known.”
– Daniel Crommie, Martin’s younger brother
Portland Police released the name of the man who was killed while riding his bike in the Portsmouth neighborhood on July 10th. It was Martin Crommie. He was 70 years young and full of life, according to friends and his brother who I spoke to this morning.
Daniel Crommie shared that Martin lived just 200 feet away from the collision that ended his life. He was about to make a turn onto North Juneau Street — where he’d lived for 32 years — when, for some reason, he collided with a person driving a 2021 Toyota Tacoma truck.
Martin was returning home from hanging out with his brother all afternoon. They met up in southeast with their bikes (Martin put his on MAX for part of the trip, Daniel put his on a bus) for burgers and beers. “We’d always go out and enjoy biking and just having a day together. We’ve been doing that for years. We weren’t just brothers, we were best friends too, we were very close and did a lot of adventures together.”
Daniel said he visited the intersection of North Chautauqua and Juneau the day after the collision. “We saw the marks on the ground [from the police investigation] and he was still in his lane when he got hit. The truck driver was passing him on his left,” Daniel shared. “The truck driver reported [Martin] was swerving in front of him, which was just his way of saying ‘don’t pass me’. He hated people riding on his ass while he biked.”
It’s hard to know exactly what happened because we can’t ask Martin about it. Daniel acknowledges it was just an “accident”, but he also said, “The truck driver was just one block from Columbia. If he’d been patient and waited 15-20 seconds, there would be no accident.”
Below is a short video from the intersection:
Martin loved his e-bike, which he purchased about a year ago. He and his brother would do summer bike trips on bikes together even before he got it. Daniel said Martin got an e-bike because he was on his feet all day at his job (a contractor for Intel) and it was getting hard for him to power his other bike.
Daniel is one of Martin’s two brothers. He leaves behind another brother named Jay, his sister Judy and other extended family members who grew up together in southwest Portland.
When he wasn’t working on spending time with family, Martin loved to be in the outdoors hiking and camping. He was a news junkie who loved following national politics.
“He was probably one of the most compassionate and accommodating people I’ve ever known,” Daniel said, when I asked what he wants the community to know about his brother. “He was the kind of person that, if there was someone downtown that looked destitute asking for money, he’d give them money. He was very sympathetic. Generally just a kind-hearted person who sometimes would say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but that was part of his charm.”
Advocates are planning a memorial ride and ghost bike dedication ceremony soon. Stay tuned for details.
Thanks for reading.
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Thinking about Martin’s spirit and his beautiful family. So tragic.
Rest in Peace, Martin. My condolences to his family and friends.
Sounds like he was headed north and turning left onto Juneau and the impatient motorist just couldn’t wait for him.
Martin was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. He was a credit to the human race.
I don’t know why the driver is not arrested for this.. the details are sketchy but if the driver passed on the left of a car and collided he/she would be cited for this stupid almost reckless driving. Am I missing something?
The article says Martin regularly swerved in front of vehicles “which was just his way of saying ‘don’t pass me.'”
So, was Mr. Crommie traveling north taking a left turn or traveling south and hit from behind or…? It is still not clear to me. I am not sure why this is so important to me, but this happens frequently in fatal collision reports that it is not clear what exactly happened, and it really bothers me.
He was traveling north and was about to, or in the process of, making a left turn to go westbound. And yes, we often will never know what exactly happened because we cannot ask one party in the collision and the surviving party and people who make investigations and reports have inherent biases.
This doesn’t make sense. If he was hit from the front or from the behind doesn’t matter, he has a right to the roadway. If he turned in front of the car coming from behind, the car driver was still in the wrong for an illegal pass on a 2 lane neighborhood street.
This city sucks..
I just learned today about the passing of a neighbor- Vicki Edwards, hit by a car while crossing at a crosswalk while walking her dogs in Lents. She seemed like a Martin- a huge hearted, generous person. I’m so sick of reading about these deaths by cars (and experiencing one of my own). How many people have to die???
https://www.facebook.com/FencesForFido/posts/pfbid0MAjSVmFnK4mkMXUhGjC25xFh1mu3RrGk19FVaWsYQu1fYXKdYQ9dzEm4LCV7PCYLl