Another person died early this morning while traveling on SW Barbur Blvd.
According to the Portland Police, a 27-year-old man was driving at a “very high rate of speed” when he lost control of his car (a Prius), crossed the centerline, demolished a bus shelter on the opposite sidewalk, hit a building, then smashed into a car parked in a lot. (More coverage from KGW and KATU).
This has become a depressingly regular occurrence on Barbur, a road that the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) insists on managing like a freeway, even though it’s a neighborhood main street for many business owners and residents who walk, bike, and drive on it every day.
— Back in August, 20-year-old Henry Schmidt was seriously injured after a woman hit him while he walked on the shoulder of Barbur Blvd.
— In May of this year, just a mile or so north of this morning’s fatality, 45-year-old Lance Marcus died after losing control of his car. He too was traveling at a “high rate of speed.”
— In October 2011, 25-year-old Nisha Rana died in a single-vehicle traffic crash just a few blocks away from the Marcus fatality. Police again said she lost control of her car after driving “at a very high rate of speed.”
— And who can forget December 2010 when Angela Burke was hit and killed while walking her bike across Barbur by a young man who was, you guessed it, driving way too fast.
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