PORTLAND, Ore. —
Dozens gathered in Northeast Portland on Sunday to mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, both to pay homage to those who have been killed and to call for action to make roadways safer.
The group met as Portland nears the end of another year of deadly road violence on the city's streets. As of Sunday, 62 people have been killed on Portland’s roadways this year, a pace set to tie or exceed the past two years, each of which saw 67 people killed, the most in at least 30 years.
"It’s a somber occasion," said Sarah Iannarone, executive director of The Street Trust.
The group marched from the Lloyd Center to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where dozens of sleeping bags were laid out to represent body bags for each of the people killed so far this year. Each one adorned with a tag noting the name of the victim along with when and where they were killed.
"The statistics that we’re talking about represent, each of them, a precious life in our community. Someone who was beloved. A mother, a sister, a father, a brother," Iannarone said, noting that the sleeping bags would be donated to people living on the streets after the event.
Many of those in attendance had lost loved ones to traffic violence.
Wendy Serrano, equity and inclusion manager for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, lost two of her grandparents to vehicle crashes, including her grandmother who was hit by a driver on McLoughlin Boulevard 14 years ago.
"I was 19 years old and my world was shattered," Serrano said.
Michelle DuBarry, a member of Oregon and Southwest Washington Families for Safe Streets, lost her 1-year-old son Seamus when a driver struck him and her husband while they were in a crosswalk 13 years ago.
"These deaths and injuries to people we love are violent, they are sudden, they are impossibly painful for everyone involved and they are entirely preventable," DuBarry said.
It was the preventable aspect that those at the gathering sought to emphasize on Sunday. People of color, low-income folks and people living on the streets are statistically overrepresented among those killed in traffic crashes.
Iannarone and others called on elected officials and people running for office to sign a pledge to reverse those racial and economic inequalities, prioritize road safety over speed, implement systemic changes that make all road users safer and enforce laws intended to cut down on traffic deaths.
Among those who signed the pledge were Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, State Representative Khan Pham and Portland Bureau of Transportation Director MIllicent Williams.
Iannarone acknowledged that road safety often comes down to a question of money, but she rejected the idea that decision makers needed to sacrifice sensible road improvements for economic concerns.
"We should have safe streets for every Oregonian and we need to come up with the money to pay for it," Iannarone said.