PORTLAND, Oregon — There have been 44 traffic deaths in Portland so far this year, according to police, continuing an alarming trend of rising fatalities in the city since 2020. If traffic deaths continue at the same pace for the rest of the year, 2023 will exceed the total of 63 deaths per year seen in both 2021 and 2022, itself already a three-decade high.
From 2017 to 2020, before the spike began, the average number of fatalities for an entire year was 46.
The tally to date for 2023 includes 28 people who died in vehicles or on motorcycles and 15 pedestrians struck and killed. July 2023 has been the deadliest month of the year so far on Portland streets, with a total of 13 fatalities — and there are still almost five months left in the year.
City and Multnomah County officials held a news conference Monday morning where they say they called for action from the public and outlined efforts that public agencies plan to take to address the problem.
Portland city commissioner Mingus Mapps spoke first and said that the two factors most commonly associated with traffic deaths in Portland are speed and driving while impaired. The impacts are concentrated in high-crash corridors, he added; almost 80% of traffic deaths so far this year have occurred on just 8% of Portland's streets.
Mapps, who leads the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said he's been working with county and state officials to try to improve road safety, particularly on roads like Powell Boulevard that are still state-controlled, but he added that he wanted to see federal action to make cars safer.
"One of the challenges we face today is that cars keep getting bigger and heavier and faster, which in turn makes them more deadly," he said. "We need the federal government to make sure that cars and trucks are safe, not only for people inside the car but also for people who are walking in our community."
Mapps and PPB Sgt. Ty Engstrom, who spoke next, both urged Portland drivers to slow down and drive sober, and Engstrom also highlighted how the start of the recent rise in traffic deaths appears to align with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We have a culture change that happened in the last several years, starting with about the age of COVID, where people feel entitled on our roadways," Engstrom said. "All motorists, all pedestrians, all bicyclists, it seems like we've forgotten how to use these roadways safely together and to share them."
Bringing back the traffic unit
Engstrom spoke about the ongoing effort to rebuild PPB's traffic unit, which was disbanded in February 2021 and then reinstated earlier this year, although at a smaller size. The revived unit includes a dozen officers, mostly on motorcycles and mostly working in high-crash areas, looking for dangerous driving behaviors like speeding and driving while intoxicated.
Engstrom said the unit has recovered to about two thirds of its original size, and will continue to grow as more of PPB's newest officers complete their probationary periods and become eligible to become traffic officers.
"We now have traffic division coverage seven days a week, from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m., which is when we have the majority of the DUI and speed racing-type instances," he said.
Street racing is another increasingly common crash factor, Engstrom added, and is believed to have been responsible for three fatal wrecks so far this year, such as a July crash that claimed the lives of three people, including a woman who was out delivering food. Engstrom said that was the first triple fatality crash on record in Portland.
Multnomah County chair Jessica Vega Pederson spoke next, noting that the recent deaths include two county workers.
She discussed the results of a Traffic Fatality Report released Monday by the county's public health division, stating that the rise in traffic fatalities stems in part from a rise in pedestrian deaths, and that people experiencing homelessness account for a disproportionate risk of traffic fatalities.
"These deaths are absolutely tragic, and they're also absolutely preventable," she said.
The county is committed to safer road design and greater automated enforcement, she said, but community members can also make a difference by driving slower and unimpaired.
KGW spoke to cyclist Max Nash, who isn't able to drive because of issues with her eyesight. She's been hit by a driver before while out riding, and she thinks there's a few things that city and county officials could be doing to ensure safety for people like her.
"They could clean up the bike lanes, first of all. If you keep those clean you will keep a lot more cyclists in those bike lanes — you keep them safe for us," Nash said. "The second would be to enforce the traffic. You know? We have to find a way. If we don't have the officers put up some cameras and get that going. We have to start somewhere."
"One thing I think could help is to educate drivers," she added. "A lot of people from out of town might not realize what these green boxes are for and that there is this little bike in the green block. What does that mean? That means we're allowed to be in a full lane. I think some education about pedestrian laws as well. Like, who has the right of way. Some drivers are really courteous, others are just really aggressive."
Year of deadly crashes
The record pace of fatalities on Portland streets in 2023 began just a few hours into the new year when a person crashed and died on Southeast 125th Avenue near Division Street while driving what police say was a stolen car.
“People love to just come flying into the neighborhood or flying out of the neighborhood," said resident Don Reynolds.
The loss of life continued in subsequent days and weeks leading up to the 13 July deaths in the heart of summer.
“It feels like the streets of Portland have been really dangerous”, Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Sgt. Kevin Allen said after the crash.
The revived traffic unit is trying to cut into some of the 10,000 to 12,000 crashes reported in the city each year, many of which lead to serious injuries and deaths. In one case in mid-July, a motorcycle crashed into an SUV at what police described as a street racing or takeover event on North Marine drive. A 21-year old man from Canby on the motorcycle died. It's just one example of a public health problem that is avoidable, yet only getting worse.
“We know that we can only do so much, but when you're faced with just the grim reality of these terrible crashes, you always wonder, 'What if?'” said Allen.