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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Bikes NE 122nd Claims Second Serious Bike Wreck This Week

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 10:46 AM

On the heels of a fatal bike-car hit and run on NE 122nd and Fremont Thursday morning, police responded to a second bike crash on NE 122nd last night.

The police report reads:

Friday afternoon at approximately 2:00 p.m., Portland Police Officers from East Precinct responded to the area of Northeast 122nd Avenue and Northeast Glisan Street on a call of a person hit by a car. When officers arrived on scene, they discovered the person hit by the vehicle was a bicyclist. The bicyclist was transported to a local area hospital with serious injuries. The Portland Police Bureau's Traffic Division Major Crash Team was called to the scene to assist in the investigation. Also called to the scene to assist with this investigation were detectives from the assault division.

At this time we are able to release that there was some type of collision between the bicyclist and the motor vehicle. Detectives are in the processing of investigating whether this incident was an accident or whether it was an intentional act. The driver of the involved vehicle, a Kia Sportage, stayed at the scene of the incident. Detectives are currently speaking with the driver of the involved vehicle. Both the driver of the vehicle and the bicyclist are adult white males.

As of this morning, the cyclist is still in serious condition. The driver, Wayne Conrad Thompson, has been booked on one count of Assault in the First Degree.

Two serious bike wrecks on the same stretch of road in the same week is appalling—and proof that painting a bike lane down the side of a busy, car-clogged road doesn't automatically make it a safe place for cyclists. Especially when the bike lane has been unceremoniously narrowed in some places:

Bike lane on NE 122nd near the scene of Thursdays crash.
  • Bike lane on NE 122nd near the scene of Thursday's crash.

We need to invest in more than just paint to keep bicycles safe on Portland's roads. Car drivers need to learn to go slower and act safer when bikes are in the mix and the city and state need to put more than one percent of their budgets into building and maintaining bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The city spent only $2.7 million of its transportation budget on bike improvements over the past seven years (that's .07 percent of its total capital budget)—we can buy a lot of buckets of white paint for $2.7 million, but we will keep seeing accidents like these.

Let's hope this second cyclist pulls through in the hospital (and has health insurance).

 

Comments (7) RSS

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1
Can you double-check the .07 percent figure? That implies a total capital budget of over 3.8 billion dollars. (100% / .07% x $2,700,000 = ~$3,857,142,857).
Posted by Bob R. on August 29, 2009 at 11:05 AM · Report
2
Update: via BikePortland -- the driver has been taken into custody and charged with intentionally running into the cyclist:

http://bikeportland.org/2009/08/29/man-cha…
Posted by Bob R. on August 29, 2009 at 12:13 PM · Report
3
i lived at 122nd and glisan until just 6 months ago. believe me, the white trash nascar-loving fucking rednecks that live out there do not give a shit about bicyclists. it is much more dangerous than most parts of town.
Posted by yome on August 29, 2009 at 12:25 PM · Report
4
I just missed hitting a cyclist last night. It was about 8:20 pm and I was west bound on Sandy, going to turn right onto the I-205 on-ramp. As I got to the intersection, the light turned red, so I stopped. When I pulled up to the stop line, I did NOT see anyone waiting to cross (southbound) Sandy. I was watching traffic northbound from Sandy to Killingsworth and getting onto the freeway on-ramp. As the last car cleared the intersection and I started to make my right turn a cyclist rode right in fromt of me. I must have just missed him by inches. I saw that he was wearing a bike helmet, but I did NOT see any lights or reflective clothing. I can only assume he was riding on the bike path that goes along I-205, as it crosses there. He had the right-of-way, but folks, if you can't be seen, you are going to get hit. I was driving with my lights on as it was pretty dark, and I had my turn signals going, indicating I was going to make a right turn. My front turn signals wrap around the fenders, so I know he should have seen them. The cyclist, I assume had the rigt-of-way, but if I had just been a little quicker taking off, he would have been on the ground. If you are a cyclist riding at night w/out the proper equipment, where do your rights end? Would I have been in the wrong? I don't know, but he scared the crap out of me.
Posted by ujfoyt on August 29, 2009 at 3:34 PM · Report
5
I work on 122 and glisan and it happened in the parking lot. It had nothing to safe bike lanes or anything like that. In fact i got cut off by a bike just 10 minutes before the guy in the kia hit the guy on the bike going to lunch on glisan st a bike went across 3 lanes of busy traffic and everyone had to slam on their brakes. when i got back from lunch there was police tape everywhere and one of my customers saw it all go down the guy in the kia yelled fuck you mother fucker to the guy on the bike then backed up going about 40 and hit him. i think that the guy on the bike was the one who started it all. He didn't deserve getting hit but i do think that people on bikes need to respect the the laws just like cars do. And many bikers just do what they want on the road and do not respect traffic or the law.
Posted by divalicia on August 30, 2009 at 9:43 AM · Report
6
yome: just out of curiousity, what attracted you to the area? The rednecks, NASCAR, or the fucking?
Posted by YouKnowWho on August 30, 2009 at 9:59 AM · Report
7
Actually lets hope the guy who did it has some money, because his insurance probably won't want to pay up for something he did on purpose.
Posted by econoline on August 30, 2009 at 2:06 PM · Report

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