Portland Police say someone was hit by a car driver and killed while walking in the Richmond Neighborhood this morning.
According to the police statement, it happened around 5:30 am at the intersection of SE Cesar Chavez and SE Harrison. Here’s more from the statement: “When they arrived, they found a crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian. Portland Fire & Rescue confirmed that the pedestrian died at the scene. The involved driver remained at the scene.”
SE Harrison is just one block north of a popular neighborhood greenway bike route on SE Lincoln. Calle Cesar Chavez is a high-volume arterial with a 30 mph speed limit, four general travel lanes and a notorious history of fatal crashes. Back in January, another car user hit and killed Tuyet Nguyen as she walked near Cesar Chavez and SE Cora — a location with a very similar profile as this morning’s fatal. One week after Nguyen’s death, a driver was given a citation for failing to stop for a pedestrian a mile north of SE Harrison near Laurelhurst Park. In 2023, a driver struck and killed Jeanie Diaz as she waited at a bus stop at Cesar Chavez and SE Belmont. And in 2021, Austin Boyd was killed by a driver as he walked near Chavez and SE Clinton.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has said they are working on a project that would update Cesar Chavez with a safer lane configuration between Powell and Holgate. At a Richmond Neighborhood Association meeting following the tragic death of Jeanie Diaz, PBOT Traffic Engineer Wendy Cawley told attendees PBOT would consider striping Cesar Chavez with fewer lanes for driving. While a PBOT spokesperson told BikePortland back in February that a project page was imminent, I don’t see that page published yet and I’m not aware of any updates.
Police haven’t released details of this morning’s fatal crash. I’ll share more once I learn more. This is the 37th fatal traffic crash in Portland so far this year, and the 14th that involved a pedestrian.
Thanks for reading.
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This is my neighborhood. Sometimes while walking I’ll forget that the crosswalk is on Lincoln and not Harrison and wind up at this exact spot with the choice to 1. cross the street with no crosswalk, 2. walk along these narrow sidewalks to the crosswalk (this feels nearly as risky as crossing!), or 3. go all the way around
I simply do not understand why Chávez gets a pass as a deadly-by-design four-lane inner city thoroughfare with the tiniest sidewalks ever. It’s never been a state highway that the city couldn’t touch. Glisan to Powell (and probably more, but that’s the part I really know) should be on the list for a serious road diet.
Can someone explain this to me? I mean, yeah, car culture blah-blah-blah, but specific to Portland transportation planning, why does this particular street get no love?
“Portland Police say someone was hit by a car driver and killed while walking in the Richmond Neighborhood this morning.”
You mean a car driver hit and killed someone, right?
We must decenter the car. Prioritizing private automobile throughput is killing us. Restripe the road NOW!
This is really sad and my heart goes out to the victim’s loved ones.
For some reason, Google Maps is really obsessed with routing cyclists and pedestrians onto Harrison instead of Lincoln, where the crossing is. I wish that could get changed. Does PBOT have any way to get in touch with the people that work on mapping apps?