Not just another headline.

Two days ago I received a strange email. It was simultaneously matter-of-fact and tragic.

“Hi folks,” it read. “My dad was killed by a truck (he was walking at a crosswalk). I would like to stop his autopay subscription of $10/month.”

It only took me a few minutes to realize this man’s father was 82-year-old Charles McCarthy, who was hit and killed by a truck driver as he walked in the crosswalk of East Burnside and 55th on October 11th.

I wish it wasn’t true, but when people die while walking I don’t usually pay as much attention to the case as I would if they were cycling. That’s an intentional editorial and mental health decision. (Reacting to traffic deaths takes a toll and I have limited professional and personal capacity to do it. I also don’t want to set the expectation that I will cover walking deaths with the same attention and depth as cycling deaths).

Even though I didn’t look too deeply into this case initially, I now wanted to know more about Mr. McCarthy. So I did what I often do in situations like this: I emailed the District Attorney’s office to find out if there were any updates on the case, I looked up his subscriber information, entered his email address in the “search comments” field of BikePortland’s admin dashboard, and checked to see if he’d ever emailed me.
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Just a few yards beyond this sign is where Calum Breitenberg lost control of his car and killed someone.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Just after 11:00 pm on November 15th, 23-year-old Calum Breitenberg got into his Volvo sedan and drove northwest on Willamette Boulevard toward St. Johns. He had been drinking. A lot.
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View looking west on SE Division at crossings of 138th and 139th.

Portland Police have arrested two drivers and are looking for a third in relation to a collision that left another person trying to cross SE Division Street dead last night.

So far the investigation has revealed that an adult female was killed while crossing at SE 138th just after 10:00 pm.
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1993 Feldt family photo. Daniel Feldt is in the checkered flannel.
(Photo: Daniel E. Feldt)

Daniel E. Feldt, the son of the man who died hours after a collision with a truck driver while biking on Tuesday, says he feels dangerous road conditions might have contributed to his father’s death. And he plans to do something about it.

50-year-old Daniel Feldt was biking toward NW Niclolai Street on Tuesday morning (5/15) and was struck by someone driving an Isuzu work truck.

The official statement from the Portland Police Bureau says, “Based on preliminary information, investigators believe the bicyclist exited a parking lot, traveled into the eastbound travel lane of Northwest [sic] Nicolas Street and crashed into a passing truck.” That makes it seem like Feldt was at fault (and the line was unfortunately picked up as fact by the local media who parroted it as their own reporting); but a closer look at the crash scene shows that this collision might be more complicated than first assumed.
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Eastbound NW Nicolai, the Kaiser driveway Feldt was leaving is right near that trash can and bicycle.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus)

Bicycle users aren’t prohibited from the street where 50-year-old Daniel Feldt was fatally struck by the driver of an Isuzu work truck on Tuesday morning; but they certainly aren’t welcome. In fact, no one outside of a car or truck would feel very welcome in the part of the Northwest Industrial District where the collision occurred.
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The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office announced a 24-month prison sentence to the man who killed 21-year-old Robert Esparza in 2016.

According to a statement released this afternoon, 75-year-old Alex Jacoby was driving his Corvette nearly 80 mph when as raced down NE Glisan Street in the early morning hours. Esparza was in a marked Gresham-Fairview Trail crossing prior to the collision.

“During the investigation, the East County Vehicular Crimes Team learned that moments prior to the crash,” reads the statement, “The defendant had aggressively challenged two other drivers to a street race. When he was unable to convince those other drivers to race, Jacoby sped off at a very high rate of speed.”

Multnomah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden, who prosecuted this case, said Esparza would not have been hit if Jacoby was driving the speed limit of 40 mph.
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Where four people were killed while walking in Portland so far this year.

Another person has been killed while walking on a Portland road.
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Overhead view of the intersection. Yellow arrow is the path of the victim.

The Portland Police Bureau is investigating a collision that happened just after midnight this morning at SE Stark and 148th. A driver hit and killed a person crossing the street on foot; then the driver fled the scene.
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Looking southwest on Sandy Blvd from NE 79th.

Something is wrong with Portland’s traffic safety efforts. While ostensibility dedicated to a Vision Zero Action Plan with a clear goal of zero traffic deaths by 2025, the fatality statistics are going in the wrong direction.

This morning just after 7:00 am, a woman was killed while walking across NE Sandy Blvd. It happened between NE 78th and 79th Avenues. The Portland Police Bureau hasn’t released details of the crash and is currently doing an investigation.

This woman was the 20th person to die while walking in 2017 — that’s the highest toll in over 20 years. The furthest back our immediately available data goes is 1996. That year 17 people died while walking.
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Stanley and Helen Grochowski.
(Photo Left: Portland Police Bureau/Photo right: Susan Putnam-Jensen)

When I first heard about the fatal collision in Beaverton near Southridge High School last week I was sad. But that was before I made a heartbreaking realization.
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