‘Head-on’ Division Street crash kills one, injures another

INCLUDES AFTERMATH VIDEO | [UPDATED] It’s still a mystery how it was even possible for this crash to take place on SE Division Street, straddling the Mill Park and Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhoods, considering the high concrete curb between lanes …

Police close off SE Division Street while investigators look into a “head-on” crash, that somehow took place on this street — despite a half-foot high concrete ‘safety’ median down the center.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

In this smashup, only these facts are clear:

It was a head-on crash
One person died; and another person was injured badly enough to be taken to a hospital.
The collision involved a Kia Sorento GDI and a Subaru Impreza
It happened on SE Division Street near 118th Avenue, late on Saturday afternoon, June 14.

That’s it, but it leaves some questions unanswered.

No one in the area apparently saw the crash take place. Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers who were dispatched to the scene at 4:57 p.m., found the wrecked vehicles, and called for emergency medical services.

Here’s a video look at the aftermath of this fatal crash:

Look at where this Subaru Impreza ended up – in the bike lane – in front of Whelan’s Irish Pub.

Puzzlingly, the Subaru Impreza ended up just east of SE 118th Avenue, in front of Whelan’s Irish Pub – jammed in between the sidewalk and the bike lane curb – facing eastbound in the westbound lanes of SE Division Street.

This Kia SUV came to a stop, diagonally across the eastbound lanes of SE Division Street, nearly a block away from the Subaru, in the SE 119th Avenue intersection.

The front end damage to the Kia is substantial.

And, the front of the Subaru is also substantially destroyed.

Because it was a fatal wreck, the PPB’s Traffic Division Major Crash Team arrived to investigate.

When we asked him to help us understand just how the Subaru and Kia managed to be involved in a head-on crash on a street with a 6-inch-high concrete median down the center, PPB Public Information Manager Mike Benner told East Portland News: “More will be released when appropriate”.

So we’ll update this article whenever appropriateness occurs. In the meantime, the name of the fatality has not yet been released, either.

UPDATE

On June 24, Benner revealed that the person killed in crash was 82-year-old Michael B. Payne, 82, of Portland. “No further information will be released at this time,” he added

If you have information to contribute about this crash, and have not yet spoken to police, please e-mail it to crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov – Attn: Traffic Investigations Unit – and refer to Case No. 25-65287.

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