Two people who hit and killed in separate crashes in Portland Sunday night. Both victims were walking and were hit by car users. According to the Portland Police Bureau, the collisions happened less than one and-a-half hours of each other. Those are just two of the serious crashes in the past three days involving car users.
Around 10:06 pm Sunday night, officers responded to a call of someone struck on SE 122nd and SE Ash (see below). They arrived and found a person who appeared to be walking prior to the collision, with serious injuries. Police say the driver of the car who hit the pedestrian remained at the scene. The person who was struck was transported to a hospital and announced as deceased today. This section of 122nd is wide and has a 30 mph speed limit. The intersection with Ash is slightly off-set. It’s slated for a signal upgrade in PBOT’s forthcoming 122nd Avenue safety project.
Then at 11:20 pm last night, Police say a pedestrian was struck by a driver 10 miles west of 122nd on NW Yeon Ave and 44th (see below). The person who was on foot was seriously hurt and died a short time later at the hospital. This is an industrial area with a very wide streetscape and a speed limit of 40 mph.
According to the BikePortland Fatality Tracker, these are the 17th and 18th fatalities to occur this year on Portland roads. At this same date in 2024 we had 38 deaths.
Police are also investigating a crash on NE Marine Drive that happened Saturday morning. They say a driver bursted through a guardrail at the 122nd Avenue intersection and drove their car over the levee and into the Columbia River. The driver’s body still has not been found.
And this morning near Glendoveer Golf Course on NE Halsey and 148th, police responded to a rollover crash that sent the driver to the hospital with serious injuries.
Thanks for reading.
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I am deeply sorry this news has to be reported and deeply grateful to BikePortland for keeping track. One note: the article refers to “car drivers” — do we know if these vehicles were cars, as opposed to SUVs, pickups, vans, etc.? One of the (many) reasons Americans have so many deadly and badly damaging collisions is that people are driving such damn large vehicles. I’ve stopped talking about “cars” and say “motor vehicles” instead. More of a mouthful but often more accurate.
Last I checked my ebike is technically a “motor vehicle” too as are Bird scooters, motorcycles, golf carts, most industrial equipment, and semis. But I do agree with you that “cars” is way too generic as well, and we do need to be a bit more specific when we blame bad ol’ vehicles for crashes rather than the human drivers behind them.
ORS 814.405
Status of electric assisted bicycle
An electric assisted bicycle shall be considered a bicycle, rather than a motor vehicle, for purposes of the Oregon Vehicle Code, except when otherwise specifically provided by statute. [1997 c.400 §4]
https://www.sherwoodoregon.gov/parksrec/page/oregon-e-bike-regulations
https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_814.405
Is the Federal funding grant from Safe Streets for All for 122nd still secure?
If a street in Oregon has a 30 mph posted speed limit, does that mean that the street has a 41 mph legal limit?
The cops won’t ticket or enforce if you’re doing less than ten over…
Leave it to our resident Portland apologist to put “lipstick on a pig”.
A 50% reduction in people dying is good.
The fact that you think this is somehow trivial says something about your moral point of view.
That’s 18 too many but also significantly better than last year’s tally. The glass is at least half full.
That’s not so much expressing concern for victims, as it is barking at a blogger you don’t like for whatever reason. Which is most important to you?
One correction: PPB’s statements about the two ped-fatality crashes both used the usual exonerating language: “The driver stopped and is cooperating with the investigation.”
That one word COOPERATING does so much work: it conveys the impression that the driver is not to blame for the death. Otherwise why would a driver stop and cooperate? You do those things only if you’re a law-abiding driver. Instead the ped must be responsible for his own death.
Of course the police weren’t there when the crash happened so they have no idea whether the driver was speeding, texting, or even deliberately aiming for the pedestrian (I’ve been targeted this way many times, but less often in Portland than in, say, New York City).
All PPB and other police dep’ts need to do to fix this problem is say, “The driver stopped and is TALKING with police.”
Agreed. Or say the police are conducting an investigation into the fatality and the driver is being interviewed
Exactly. The driver could have been answering every question with a blatant lie, which wouldn’t be evident to police at the time they said they were “cooperating”.
I also don’t recall ever seeing police say anyone other than a driver who’s just hit someone was “cooperating”.
I’m sad to hear that two people were hit and killed in separate crashes in Portland Sunday night.
Prayers for them, their family and friends.
Rest In Peace