PORTLAND, Ore. — Within the space of a few hours, first responders throughout the greater Portland area responded to a flurry of fatal crashes Friday night, including one that shut down I-5 southbound for several hours. At least two of them involved pedestrians.
A fourth separate fatality occurred later in the night when a car rolled down an embankment onto Interstate 5 in South Portland.
Shortly after 7 p.m., Gresham police responded to a report of a crash near Southeast Stark Street and Southeast 217th Avenue. They arrived to find that a driver had struck and critically injured a pedestrian. Medical crews tried to treat the pedestrian at the scene, but they did not survive.
The Gresham Police Department said that the driver stayed at the scene. Officers with the East County Vehicular Crimes Team responded to investigate the crash. Police did not release the identities of either party Friday night.
Police shut down Stark Street in both directions at 217th Avenue for at least an hour for the response and investigation, asking drivers to take alternate routes.
Meanwhile, the Washington County Sheriff's Office tweeted around 8:15 p.m. that Southeast Cornelius Pass Road was closed at Southwest Augusta Drive near Aloha due to another fatal crash. The agency said only that the roadway would likely be closed for several hours.
At 9:15 p.m. Friday, the Oregon Department of Transportation sent out a notification that I-5 southbound would be closed for several hours just south of the Brooks interchange north of Salem due to a third fatal crash. A spokesman for Oregon State Police said that it was another crash involving a driver and a pedestrian, and the pedestrian did not survive.
In a news release on Saturday, the Washington County Sheriff's Office said the Cornelius Pass Road crash was a head-on collision involving a Tesla Model S and a Honda Civic. The investigation indicates that the Honda driver pulled onto Cornelius Pass Road in front of the Tesla, which had the right of way. The Tesla driver tried to avoid the Honda, but did not have enough time to do so. Speed and impairment were not factors in the crash, the sheriff's office said.
Callers told 911 dispatchers that one of the passengers in the Honda was unconscious and two people were trapped, according to the news release. Deputies and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue personnel tried to provide life-saving care and extricate the two people, but the injured passenger died at the scene. She was identified as 63-year-old Balbina Andrade of Hillsboro, the sheriff's office said.
This is a developing story and may be updated with more details as they emerge.
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