The Portland Police Bureau announced Wednesday evening that a man who fell from his bicycle while riding in in the Multnomah neighborhood 10 days ago has died from his injuries.
According to police, first responders were called to the intersection of Southwest Capitol Highway and SW Florida Street just before 7:00 am on Saturday, July 6th to help someone who seemed to have fallen off their bicycle. The man, 74-year-old Gad Alon, was taken to the hospital.
In a statement, the PPB said they were not called to the scene because, “there was no indication of a crime or traffic crash involving anyone else.” The PPB Traffic Investigations Unit has since taken on the case and says, “At this point, there is no indication that any drivers were involved.”
Alon died at the hospital Wednesday morning. He’s the third person to die while riding a bicycle in Portland this year.
I’ve asked PPB to share more details about the case in order to better understand Alon’s route and what might have led to his death. Since the investigation just began yesterday, they aren’t able to share which direction he was riding or where his bike and/or body was found when EMS first arrived.
If Alon was going north on SW Capitol Hwy (toward SW Vermont) he would have been going downhill for a block or so before coming to the SW Florida intersection. The bike lane ends abruptly right before that intersection and a curbed sidewalk juts out into the street.
In the southbound direction (toward Multnomah Village), Alon would have been in an uphill, unprotected bike lane as he approached SW Florida.
David Stein, a southwest Portland resident and cycling advocate who has served on the city’s bicycle advisory committee, said this section of SW Multnomah is a good example of why very few people ride in the area. “If you’re going toward Multnomah Village the facility is bad due to the persistent foliage growth blocking the uphill bike lane. Going downhill toward Hillsdale you lose the lane… These low quality routes to destinations are part of what make riding a bicycle in southwest so challenging.”
If you know more about what happened to Gad Alon on July 6th, please contact me. Also share your information with the PPB via crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov with “Traffic Investigations Unit” and case number 24-178154 in the subject line.
There have been 34 traffic fatalities in Portland so far this year, five fewer than this date in 2022 and 2023.
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And if the person died of a medical issue completely unrelated to wild speculation and implication, how has cycling been made safer by this post?
If they struck the curb or were hit by car, by ALL means go out and preach. Otherwise maybe wait for some more information.
Not sure what you are getting at cct. Nothing in this post assumes we know what happened. I’m just sharing as much context as possible to better understand the situation. And since he is dead, unless he was able to give a detailed interview in the past 11 days we will never know exactly what happened. And if he did have a medical issue, the context of the road and other factors could have actually played a role. Also, if we find out information that makes anything I typed in this post inappropriate I would absolutely delete/edit/issue a correction if one was needed.
What I won’t do is just parrot only what the police statement says. If you want that, you can find it on every other media outlets website.
Thanks for the comment.
and your statements about the infrastructure, like the curb; the tone of the article is that somehow his death was due to poor cycling conditions. And perhaps it was.
To me, the article comes off as casting those things as villains before we even know they were involved. A note the gentleman had died, with a promise to follow up on any further public statements, might have been better.
We don’t want to parrot the police – we all know they can be unreliable – and like the cyclist hit by the truck, your reporting can help spur further investigations. But maybe first wait until it sounds like there’s an incomplete picture to follow up on.
Thanks for the feedback.
again. Where is the “wild speculation and implication” in the post?
I see no speculation in your article. You just stated the facts and described the bicycling conditions on capitol highway.