Portlander Samuel Hambrick never learned to drive because he believed cars were too dangerous. "He was afraid he could hurt someone," his mother, Susan Hambrick told the Mercury. In September 2021, Samuel was walking along Highway 30 in Northwest Portland in the early morning when he was hit and killed by a person driving a car. The highway doesn’t have sidewalks or a large shoulder, so Samuel—a transit-dependent pedestrian—was walking on the side of the.
Traffic fatalities in Multnomah County reached a 15-year high in 2020. Now, the county is launching a new public health effort to analyze and identify the root causes of such fatalities in the region. As of October 25, traffic crashes have claimed 62 lives in Multnomah County this year; 48 of those deaths were in Portland. According to county officials, the region is on track to meet or exceed last year’s high of 84 traffic.