Articles Posted in Bicycle Accidents

Portland takes justifiable pride in being one of the most bicycle-friendly communities in America. According to US Census figures, quoted by The Oregonian, Portland leads all larger American cities in the percentage of our population that uses bikes to commute to work or school. Bike friendliness can, however, come with a price. According to the same analysis by the newspaper, a recent study by the Oregon Health and Science University found that bike commuters are at significantly high risk for injury than drivers or more occasional riders when it comes to Oregon bike accidents.

According to the paper, an astonishing 20 percent of all Portland bike commuters report being injured in an Oregon bicycle accident during the last year. The good news is that many of those accidents were minor (so minor what the article quotes some local bike advocates complaining that the study used too broad a definition of “accident”). Fully one-quarter of Portland bike accidents, however, were serious enough to require “medical attention.”

Put another way: “Compared with auto commuters, bicyclists are 12 times more likely to be seriously injured in a crash, largely because they are far more vulnerable, the study says.” The biggest thing we can do to lower those numbers, according to the authors, is to “focus on improving the safety of the bicycle commuting environment.” Or, in plain English, we can concentrate not only on improving and maintaining the city’s bike infrastructure, but also on enforcing the traffic laws.

A driver who allegedly hit two Portland cyclists in the space of a minute is being sought by police, according to an account of the incidents in The Oregonian. The Portland car and bicycle accidents took place “shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday”, the paper reports. In both instances police describe the bikers as lucky to be alive, and say that officers were shocked by the apparent circumstances of the incidents.

Citing law enforcement sources as well as eye-witnesses, the newspaper describes a young (age 18 to 20) and erratic man driving a Subaru with no license plates. The first victim, a 47 year old man, was struck as he signaled to change lanes. He describes the driver as “clearly mad that I was in his way” and said the car sped around him, knocking him off of his bike in the process. The second incident took place barely a minute later near the Rose Garden. In that incident a 27-year old woman was struck and hurled through the air. She required hospitalization, though her injuries were described as not being life-threatening.

The incidents are a reminder that even in this – often cited as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in America – things can go desperately wrong. If you have been hit by a car as part of an Oregon bicycle accident you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to make contact with a Portland bicycle injury lawyer as soon as possible.

A fascinating analysis published last week in the online Portland newspaper Enzyme PDX looks at the question of road fatalities – an issue as ever-present here in Portland as it is anywhere else. Specifically, the article compares Portland’s approach to road safety the approach used in Sweden. As the article notes, Portland’s population is just over one-third that of Sweden. But even though Sweden has a lot more people, it and Portland recorded around the same number of traffic fatalities in 2009 (355 for Sweden, 331 for Portland). This year, Portland’s streets have been deadlier – 198 fatalities so far in 2010 versus only 162 in Sweden. Again, that’s not Stockholm – it is all of Sweden.

Why, Enzyme PDX asks, do Sweden’s roads seem to be so much safer? The difference, the news site suggests, is essentially philosophical. Since 1997 Sweden’s traffic planners have worked on the assumption that they – the planners – are responsible for constantly modifying the traffic system in an effort to reduce or eliminate serious injuries and deaths while keeping traffic moving. This does not, they stress, relieve drivers of responsibility in any way. It does mean that the people who manage the transport system see lowering fatalities as just as much of a daily task as keeping the traffic moving.

Some of Sweden’s methods are well-known. The country has famously tough drunk driving laws and is equally famous for the zeal with which it enforces them. Less well known, and explored at length by Enzyme PDX is the effort the Swedes put into figuring out how best to help bikes, cars and pedestrians co-exist on the country’s streets and roads. Much of the time, that means forcing cars to slow down in areas where bikes and foot traffic are present. According to the website, speed limits in Swedish cities are a mere 18.6 miles per hour (30 km per hour) – because years of data analysis has shown that to be the optimal speed for overall safety in mixed-use areas.

A Portland driver accused of intentionally running over a cyclist last year was found guilty of assault by a Multnomah County judge Monday, according to media reports. Sentencing is scheduled for June 8, according to The Oregonian.

The Multnomah County judge cleared Wayne Thompson of first and second degree assault charges but found him guilty of the lesser crime of Third Degree Assault. The Portland auto and bike collision took place last August. According to The Oregonian Thompson and cyclist Michael Luther argued in a parking lot near the intersection of Northeast 122nd Avenue and Glisan Street before “Thompson put his car into reverse and backed into Luther at an estimated 40 mph, police said.” Witnesses said that at the time of the accident Thompson “was looking over his left shoulder, in the direction of travel, and appeared agitated when he struck Luther.”

Though he was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident, Luther suffered an Oregon traumatic brain injury and has been unable to return to work.

About 50 people, including Portland’s mayor, gathered last week to mark the unveiling of a unique spot: a shrine dedicated to Portland bicyclists by St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, along with the introduction by the church of a formal ‘bicycle liturgy’, according to a recent article in The Oregonian.

Central to the shrine is a ‘ghost bike’ covered in flowers and dedicated to the memory of a young Portland cyclist who was struck by a car and died in an Oregon bicycle accident in 2007. Mayor Sam Adams told those attending the service that “out of the great tragedy of (Tracey) Sparlings death emerged the city’s bike boxes, designed to prevent more right-hook turns like the one that killed” her, the newspaper reported. According to the church publication Episcopal Life, Sparlings was struck and killed by a cement truck which failed to see her while turning. The driver of the truck was not prosecuted.

The event was a reminder that even in Portland – often regarded as one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country – riders often find themselves endangered by drivers who are not keeping an eye out for cyclists.