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07-29-05, 10:16 AM
Lead story on the front page today.
Walk, ride at your peril
After four pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in 12 days, city takes stock
By JACOB QUINN SANDERS
Portland Tribune Fri, Jul 29, 2005
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=31055
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are nine names on the list so far this year, each belonging to a pedestrian or bicyclist killed on a Portland street.
John Willard Wolfe Jr.
Barbara Tucker
Timothy Allen Barrow
Ruzica Jovinovic
Noah Jacob Madison Cardamon
Dianna Avery
Kristine Okins
Kirk McGuire
Robert Beloof
The list is only one name longer than it was at this time last year, though it can seem like more: Four of them died in the 12 days between June 23 and July 5. Of the nine, seven were pedestrians and two were on bicycles. The stories of others who survived such crashes — including that of a deaf, mute, pregnant 39-year-old bicyclist hit in May — add more faces to the gallery of victims.
City commissioners, bureaucrats, civil servants and cops all largely support efforts to increase the ranks of walkers and riders who work and play in Portland and to keep them safe when they do. Some who work in the city credit those attitudes for creating an environment that embraces, for example, recent distribution ofwalking and biking neighborhood maps and public events that preach safety practices.
It also raises the stakes when something goes wrong.
“If you were to come in here on a day when a pedestrian or cyclist dies, it’s like we lost a family member,” Mary Volm, the city’s communications director, said recently. “Seriously, people are crying in here when it happens.”
For Jacque Authier, Cardamon’s death May 30 at age 23 hit even closer to home. Her children went to school with him and she has ridden on and off with Critical Mass, the group of bicycle activists. She no longer owns a car, though she is not militant toward them and drives a family car in an emergency.
Last month, she helped organize a “memorial ride” that drew about 200 people who biked together to three spots where cyclists died in recent years.
They rode to Southeast 37th Avenue and Taylor Street, where Matt Schekel died in 1998. Then to Southeast 40th Avenue and Belmont Street, where Orion Satushek and Angela Leazenby died in 2003. And finally to Southeast 49th Avenue and Stark Street, where Cardamon died.
“My consciousness has changed because of my experiences with Critical Mass and now after Noah has died,” Authier, 50, said. “When I drive now, I really feel like I’m in a machine that can kill people.”
Rarely do these crashes result in criminal charges.
“A lot of times we have fatalities out here without prosecutions,” said Portland police Lt. Vince Jarmer of the Traffic Division. “The reason for that a lot of times is that the person determined to be at fault, for lack of a better term, is the person who died.”
Police Bureau numbers this year though show a different picture.
So far, two of the seven pedestrian fatalities were the fault of the pedestrians, according to police.
Only one of the pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in Portland so far this year has resulted in criminal prosecution. Samuel Chad Parish, 27, of Tualatin, was charged July 3 with second-degree manslaughter and felony hit-and-run in the death of McGuire, 46. Parish’s trial is pending. McGuire was crossing the street at Southeast 125th Avenue and Powell Boulevard that morning when Parish’s green Hyundai Accent plowed into him. He died the same day.
Police also charged Dana Abdullah, 18, with criminally negligent homicide for driving the car that hit Cardamon. Her passenger, Shana Dawn Foster, 19, was charged with one count each of hindering prosecution and interfering with a police officer for allegedly lying to police about hitting Cardamon. A Multnomah County grand jury declined to pursue the charges, and the two women were released.
“We had an obvious inability to prosecute that case,” said Rod Underhill, the deputy district attorney in charge of vehicular assault and homicide cases. “The question of who hit who was very up in the air.”
Cardamon had a blood-alcohol level of .33, well over the legal limit of .08. Toxicology reports after his death found marijuana in his system and police found marijuana in a bag he carried the night he died.
Abdullah, however, admitted to drinking underage but had a blood-alcohol level of .02.
“The threshold for a criminal responsibility in a crash is very high,” Traffic Division Cmdr. Bill Sinnott said. “We’re better off directing our resources and energy toward raising people’s awareness that the roads are, and have to be, shared.”
Those who died in Portland this year came from different places at different times and at different ages.
Beloof, 81, was up from Berkeley, Calif., visiting his sons when he was hit just after 3:30 p.m. July 5 near Southeast 31st Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard.
Okins, 24, was on a morning ride downtown on June 27 when a truck ran over her and her bike. She died the next day.
Avery, 41, had just left an east Portland bar crying the night of June 23 and wanted to walk home along Southeast Stark Street to think something over when she was hit.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is tracking a spike in the number of deaths of pedestrians and bicyclists statewide this year after vehicles crashed into them.
There were 32 fatalities through July 26 this year, an increase of 39.1 percent over the same time last year. As in Portland, most are pedestrians.
That the increase has not found its way into Portland gives Mark Lear pause. As the city’s traffic investigations manager, he has scoured his own data and that of the state’s Department of Transportation looking for signs it has manifested here.
“I’ve been asking my peers at ODOT, and I haven’t heard any details from them,” he said, “so I don’t know yet what it means for us here.”
Data for Portland bicycle crashes — officials eschew the word “accident” because most crashes are deemed avoidable — is remarkably consistent since 1990, even as the number of trips taken by bicycle across city bridges has increased dramatically. In 1990, riders reported 159 crashes while the city recorded about 1,600 trips. In 2002, the year before the city changed how it measured trips and crashes, 173 crashes were reported on 8,200 trips. In between, Portland riders reported an average of 167.9 crashes a year as the number of trips rose in exponential leaps.
The number of fatal crashes floated between zero and five for the entire period.
Pedestrian injuries — excluding deaths — showed a similar pattern, staying annually between 223 and 280 from 1990 through 2000.
Such figures lead some city officials to argue that the crashes have, in fact, decreased dramatically.
“The crashes measured against the population have gone down considerably,” said Linda Ginenthal, program manager for the city’s Transportation Options division, who rides her bike to work.
Pedestrian deaths, however, have fluctuated from 20 in 1993 to 15 in 1994 to 8 in 1995, before totaling 18 in 1996 and shrinking to 9 in 1997.
“And this year looks the same as last year, but not the year before,” Sinnott said. “It’s not a predictable event. Usually, in fact, it’s an avoidable event and we have to look at how best to get people to avoid it.”
Walk, ride at your peril
After four pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in 12 days, city takes stock
By JACOB QUINN SANDERS
Portland Tribune Fri, Jul 29, 2005
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=31055
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are nine names on the list so far this year, each belonging to a pedestrian or bicyclist killed on a Portland street.
John Willard Wolfe Jr.
Barbara Tucker
Timothy Allen Barrow
Ruzica Jovinovic
Noah Jacob Madison Cardamon
Dianna Avery
Kristine Okins
Kirk McGuire
Robert Beloof
The list is only one name longer than it was at this time last year, though it can seem like more: Four of them died in the 12 days between June 23 and July 5. Of the nine, seven were pedestrians and two were on bicycles. The stories of others who survived such crashes — including that of a deaf, mute, pregnant 39-year-old bicyclist hit in May — add more faces to the gallery of victims.
City commissioners, bureaucrats, civil servants and cops all largely support efforts to increase the ranks of walkers and riders who work and play in Portland and to keep them safe when they do. Some who work in the city credit those attitudes for creating an environment that embraces, for example, recent distribution ofwalking and biking neighborhood maps and public events that preach safety practices.
It also raises the stakes when something goes wrong.
“If you were to come in here on a day when a pedestrian or cyclist dies, it’s like we lost a family member,” Mary Volm, the city’s communications director, said recently. “Seriously, people are crying in here when it happens.”
For Jacque Authier, Cardamon’s death May 30 at age 23 hit even closer to home. Her children went to school with him and she has ridden on and off with Critical Mass, the group of bicycle activists. She no longer owns a car, though she is not militant toward them and drives a family car in an emergency.
Last month, she helped organize a “memorial ride” that drew about 200 people who biked together to three spots where cyclists died in recent years.
They rode to Southeast 37th Avenue and Taylor Street, where Matt Schekel died in 1998. Then to Southeast 40th Avenue and Belmont Street, where Orion Satushek and Angela Leazenby died in 2003. And finally to Southeast 49th Avenue and Stark Street, where Cardamon died.
“My consciousness has changed because of my experiences with Critical Mass and now after Noah has died,” Authier, 50, said. “When I drive now, I really feel like I’m in a machine that can kill people.”
Rarely do these crashes result in criminal charges.
“A lot of times we have fatalities out here without prosecutions,” said Portland police Lt. Vince Jarmer of the Traffic Division. “The reason for that a lot of times is that the person determined to be at fault, for lack of a better term, is the person who died.”
Police Bureau numbers this year though show a different picture.
So far, two of the seven pedestrian fatalities were the fault of the pedestrians, according to police.
Only one of the pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in Portland so far this year has resulted in criminal prosecution. Samuel Chad Parish, 27, of Tualatin, was charged July 3 with second-degree manslaughter and felony hit-and-run in the death of McGuire, 46. Parish’s trial is pending. McGuire was crossing the street at Southeast 125th Avenue and Powell Boulevard that morning when Parish’s green Hyundai Accent plowed into him. He died the same day.
Police also charged Dana Abdullah, 18, with criminally negligent homicide for driving the car that hit Cardamon. Her passenger, Shana Dawn Foster, 19, was charged with one count each of hindering prosecution and interfering with a police officer for allegedly lying to police about hitting Cardamon. A Multnomah County grand jury declined to pursue the charges, and the two women were released.
“We had an obvious inability to prosecute that case,” said Rod Underhill, the deputy district attorney in charge of vehicular assault and homicide cases. “The question of who hit who was very up in the air.”
Cardamon had a blood-alcohol level of .33, well over the legal limit of .08. Toxicology reports after his death found marijuana in his system and police found marijuana in a bag he carried the night he died.
Abdullah, however, admitted to drinking underage but had a blood-alcohol level of .02.
“The threshold for a criminal responsibility in a crash is very high,” Traffic Division Cmdr. Bill Sinnott said. “We’re better off directing our resources and energy toward raising people’s awareness that the roads are, and have to be, shared.”
Those who died in Portland this year came from different places at different times and at different ages.
Beloof, 81, was up from Berkeley, Calif., visiting his sons when he was hit just after 3:30 p.m. July 5 near Southeast 31st Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard.
Okins, 24, was on a morning ride downtown on June 27 when a truck ran over her and her bike. She died the next day.
Avery, 41, had just left an east Portland bar crying the night of June 23 and wanted to walk home along Southeast Stark Street to think something over when she was hit.
The Department of Motor Vehicles is tracking a spike in the number of deaths of pedestrians and bicyclists statewide this year after vehicles crashed into them.
There were 32 fatalities through July 26 this year, an increase of 39.1 percent over the same time last year. As in Portland, most are pedestrians.
That the increase has not found its way into Portland gives Mark Lear pause. As the city’s traffic investigations manager, he has scoured his own data and that of the state’s Department of Transportation looking for signs it has manifested here.
“I’ve been asking my peers at ODOT, and I haven’t heard any details from them,” he said, “so I don’t know yet what it means for us here.”
Data for Portland bicycle crashes — officials eschew the word “accident” because most crashes are deemed avoidable — is remarkably consistent since 1990, even as the number of trips taken by bicycle across city bridges has increased dramatically. In 1990, riders reported 159 crashes while the city recorded about 1,600 trips. In 2002, the year before the city changed how it measured trips and crashes, 173 crashes were reported on 8,200 trips. In between, Portland riders reported an average of 167.9 crashes a year as the number of trips rose in exponential leaps.
The number of fatal crashes floated between zero and five for the entire period.
Pedestrian injuries — excluding deaths — showed a similar pattern, staying annually between 223 and 280 from 1990 through 2000.
Such figures lead some city officials to argue that the crashes have, in fact, decreased dramatically.
“The crashes measured against the population have gone down considerably,” said Linda Ginenthal, program manager for the city’s Transportation Options division, who rides her bike to work.
Pedestrian deaths, however, have fluctuated from 20 in 1993 to 15 in 1994 to 8 in 1995, before totaling 18 in 1996 and shrinking to 9 in 1997.
“And this year looks the same as last year, but not the year before,” Sinnott said. “It’s not a predictable event. Usually, in fact, it’s an avoidable event and we have to look at how best to get people to avoid it.”