Three traffic fatalities – in just 96 minutes – all in Hazelwood

CRASH REPORT | INCLUDES AFTERMATH VIDEO | Here’s what’s been found out about how three individuals – one in a wheelchair, one on a bike, and a pedestrian — all were killed on outer East Portland streets only in one evening …

In less than two hours on the same evening, Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division’s Major Crash Team is called to the site of three fatal accidents in Hazelwood.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

There’ve been several crashes in outer East Portland in the last few weeks; many of them with cars colliding, causing serious injury – and many of them are classified as “Hit-and-Run”.

However, on Wednesday evening, October 29, there were three collisions, within two miles and 96 minutes of one another – and all in the Hazelwood neighborhood – in which the drivers all stayed at the scene. However, each of the three ended fatally.

Crash No. 1
6:21 p.m.
NE Glisan Street, east of 111th Avenue
Bicycle rider dies on the road

NE Glisan Street is closed off while investigators gather information and document the collision between a bicycle rider and a car.

It was already after sunset when the first incident occurred – crumpling a bicycle, and leaving its rider dead in the westbound lanes of NE Glisan Street, near 112th Avenue in the Hazelwood neighborhood.

Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers and Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) rigs were dispatched to the injury accident simultaneously, at 6:31 p.m.

The twisted bicycle lies on the pavement, with the victim nearby (not in the image) while investigators gather information about the crash.

Four minutes after being dispatched, medical personnel arrived and provided emergency care to the downed biker, but the rider was later pronounced deceased at the scene.

“The driver remained, and is cooperating with the investigation,” a PPB spokesperson told reporters.

The PPB Traffic Division’s Major Crash Team came to investigate, closing down NE Glisan Street from 110th to 113th Avenues for several hours.

PPB Traffic Division Major Crash Team investigators set up their FARO Crash Reconstruction Documentation unit.

If you have information about this crash and has not spoken with investigators, e-mail crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov Attn: Traffic Division and reference Case No. 25-297278.

Crash No. 2
7:40 p.m.
NE Glisan Street at 122nd Avenue
Man in wheelchair is struck in the street and killed

NE 122nd Avenue is closed at Glisan Street while officers look into another accident, this one involving a vehicle running into a man in a wheelchair.

The next “Accident-Injury” incident, dispatched at 7:38 p.m., sent other PPB East Precinct officers and an ambulance to what was the report of a “pedestrian stuck” – a half mile east of the first incident – near NE Glisan Street and 122nd Avenue.

“When they arrived, officers located an adult male who had been struck by a vehicle; the individual was transported to the hospital with serious injuries,” the PPB official reported.

Officers gather information about this outer East Portland crash.

The preliminary investigation indicated the man was crossing NE 122nd Avenue in a wheelchair when the incident happened. The driver of the involved vehicle remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.

Early on October 30, Portland Police updated the incident: “This morning at approximately 2:00 a.m., hospital staff contacted PPB to state the male victim had died.”

Again, if you have information about this fatal crash and haven’t yet told police, e-mail crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, Attn: Traffic Division and reference Case No. 25-297340.

Crash No. 3
7:57 p.m.
NE 102nd Avenue at Holladay Street
Jaywalking woman struck and killed crossing street

Traveling 0.7 miles northeast from their previous incident, the PPB Traffic Division’s Major Crash Team sets up again – this time on NE 102nd Avenue, adjacent to the closed Gateway Fred Meyer store.

Adjacent to the empty parking lot of the shuttered Gateway Center Fred Meyer store, in the southbound lanes of NE 102nd Avenue, is where PPB officers and paramedics were sent at 7:58 p.m. to the third “injury accident” incident in just a bit over an hour on this one fatal night.

AFTERMATH Exclusive Video – Watch investigators look into this deadly crash:

It appeared that a woman had been trying to cross NE 102nd Avenue a half-block north of Holladay Street – where there is no crosswalk, and where trees in the median shade the illumination of the street lamps nearby.

Damage to the hood and roof of this Ford Fusion confirms that it was involved in this “pedestrian struck” incident.

Not long after its arrival, the ambulance left the scene slowly without a patient. And, PPB Forensic Division “crime scene investigators”, Traffic Division officers – and eventually, their Major Crash Team – arrived to investigate what proved to b e fatal collision.

“The female pedestrian was deceased at the scene; the driver remained and is cooperating with the investigation,” a PPB envoy said.

Ready to create a digital map, an officer sets up their FARO Crash Reconstruction unit.

Continuing past midnight, this fatal crash investigation is still an active scene.

And, once again, if you saw something, and haven’t yet spoken with investigators, email your information to crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, Attn: Traffic Division and reference Case No. 25-297357.

So far, Portland has had 34 traffic fatalities this year, another setback to the objectives of the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Vision Zero program.

A lesson to learn from all this? Drive carefully! Even it a pedestrian’s or cyclist’s death is not your fault, you’ll still have to live with the consequences and dark memories.

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