another bicyclist killed

hardly, especially when they are placed next to parked cars and darting pedestrians.

24-year-old bicyclist dies from downtown Portland collision

A 24-year-old Portland bicyclist hit Monday by a semi truck in downtown Portland has died at OHSU Hospital from her injuries. Dead is Kristine Okins of Portland.

Portland police said they responded to the accident at 9:17 a.m. Monday on Southwest Broadway at Southwest Washington Street. As officers arrived, Okins who was conscious and talking to paramedics, was being prepared for transport to OHSU.

Based on witness statements, police said both Okins and the truck's driver, Patrick Parah of Vancouver, had been stopped at the light on Southwest Broadway at Southwest Washington Street just prior to the collision. Okins was in the bike lane and Parah was adjacent to the bike lane. As the light turned green, both continued southbound and Okins sped ahead of Parah's truck, which was pulling a 45-foot long trailer loaded with metal. Approximately 150 feet south of the intersection, a witness saw Okins' bike and body appear from under the wheel of the truck.

At the time witnesses saw Okins' body, the truck was traveling southbound and had not turned it's wheels or changed lanes.

Police said by the time officers arrived at OHSU to interview Okins, her condition had deteriorated and she was receiving medical attention. She died Tuesday without officers being able to speak with her.

At the time of the collision, police said investigators found no evidence of impairment by Parah or Okins and there was no evidence speed was a factor. No citations have been issued. Officers have interviewed all witnesses who remained at the scene but are seeking information from anyone who may have seen the collision. Anyone with information is asked to call the Portland Police Bureau's traffic division at 503-823-2103.

You can get helmets via Legacy Health System's helmet sales for $5 each. I do not know the details of this particular accident, nor will helmets always save you, but here are the upcoming sales. Seriously consider buying a helmet for below cost. If you are involved in a crash with a vehicle, or for that matter by hitting railroad track wrong and hitting your head, a bike helmet can save your life or prevent serious disabling head injury. You can break your arm, your leg, or your collarbone and get better, but a head injury can be a life-long disability that you'd rather not deal with. As a trauma nurse, I've seen many patients who would be dead or seriously head-injured if they had not worn a helmet. If you're in a wreck and hit your head wearing a helmet, cut the straps on the helmet and get a new one; the one from the crash may be damaged internally and not protect as well in future. Keep the damaged one as a trophy if you want.

Upcoming bike helmet sales via Legacy in 2005 ($5 for a helmet fitted for you; mult styles/colors available usually):

Legacy Emanuel Hospital, July 13 and Aug 10 3-5 p.m.
Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center, Sept 17th 11-3 (in Gresham)
Legacy Meridian Park, (Tualatin) Oct 22, 11-3
Legacy Good Sam, (NW PDX) Nov 16 2-4:30

While I wear a helmet and recommend that every cyclist wear one, that is not the issue. The problem is the fact that cyclists are forced to share the road with vehicles such as semi trucks. I don't know whether Kristine was wearing a helmet or not, but it would not have mattered. Who among us could survive being run over by a semi? Kristine was a friend and all who knew her are shocked and deeply saddened. We give our deepest regards to her family.
Kristine is the fourth cyclist killed by a vehicle in a little over a month in 'bike friendly' Portland. Enough is enough. We need some streets that are car free.

It would be a Good Thing if we might consider communicating in ways that, more and more, validate each other. We sometimes refer to it as "Yes, and," rather than, "But" communications.

Yes, helmets are crucial. My community mate at the Portland Catholic Worker was doored by an SUV last month and likely survived because of her helmet, which actually broke (instead of her head). I thank the trauma nurse for this valuable posting.

And, looking at one facet of a problem is almost never enough. We in Portland need to do many things to increase bike awareness and respect, and we need to advocate for more paths in Portland that totally exclude motorized vehicles (shut down some streets or alleys or some scheme to assist in creating more safety for bikers and pedestrians). We need stronger bike lobbies, bike defense legal teams, etc. I'm sure thoughtful bikers have brilliant plans I know nothing about and this tragedy should impel, compel and propel us to smarter and effective action.

Bless your hearts, each of you who bike.

Oregonian reports bicyclist killed on Wednesday crossing SE 252nd near the Springwater trail. No hlemet, listening to CD player, carrying no ID are the details given by Oregonian. (see metro section for exact copy). Regardless of fault 4 bicyslist fatalities in one summer are to many! Perhaps BTA or Portland Office of Transportation could review these incidents and make recommendations. e.g. When the Hawthorne Bridge improvements were made a few years back, someone considered potential pedestrian/bicyclist conflicts and signs for bikes to yield to pedestrians were posted (rightfully so) and speed bumps to slow cyclists were added (???) how bout signs on Broadway asking cars to yield to bikes? or at least cautioning drivers to be aware of bike lanes and cyclists. On the helmet comments, I agree that helmets are not the issue in many cases, but save lives in other instances. Me, I choose to wear a helmet. After many of my own personal and scary "interactions" with drivers in downtown bike friendly Portland, I will probably bus more and bike less. Peace.

i was just wondering why the bike lanes in the states are placed in between traffic and parked cars? in most european cities the lanes are placed next to the sidewalk with a curb then there are parked cars then traffic. maybe the solution would be to use tree lawns (which i think are public property) as a bike lane.

Careless drivers like these need to be kept off the road. Also, ban *all* cars from certain roads, and increase resources to enforce rules for drivers, particularly in SUVs.

Cleo, as I re-read my post, I realize that people who knew this cyclist could take as me implying that wearing a helmet might have helped in this case. This is not what I was trying to say at all and the tragic loss of her life to traffic is a great loss to all who knew her. I am upset about all the bicyclists who have been killed by vehicles in the past couple of months, and trying to get the word out to people that helmets can save lives in some cases.

I am so sorry for the loss of your friend.

Kristine's death is a tragedy and a waste. She was a big part of the bike community and her loss is felt in a very wide circle. While now is still the time for mourning, I feel anger as well. Every major neighborhood, especially business areas need a pedestrian and bike-only street. Semis should be outlawed in pedestrian-heavy areas. As a bicyclist and a driver of a small bus, I know the dangers of operating both. I can't imagine maneuvering a semi safely in downtown.

The european bike lanes sound interesting... but even more dangerous. Cars open on both sides and it seems like you couldn't swerve out of the way if you were trapped by a curb.

Good idea on the signage for bike-awareness.

Anyone planning a Memorial Critical Mass for the recent deaths?

Perhaps we should also tell Tom Potter that these issues should be brought to the front burner. He seems pretty responsive.

I never thought I'd be advocating for the removal of a bike lane, but it's clear to me now that that's what should be done in the case of downtown Broadway (from Burnside to PSU). The lights downtown are timed at around 12 miles per hour. That's a fairly average speed for a bicyclist. There is absolutely no reason why a bicyclist shouldn't take a whole lane when he/she is in the downtown core since the lights force traffic to move at the speed of a cyclist. The Broadway bike lane actually puts a cyclist in more danger as you react to doors flinging open, cars parking, cars leaving their parking space, and cars turning right.

The details of Kristine's death are not yet completely clear. It appears to have been purely an accident. One detail that is clear, though, is that when the light changed to green, she was in the bike lane and the semi was in the lane to her left. I'm not saying anything more than that, but any of you that have been in that situation know its an uncomfortable place to be.

Thanks, Jezebel, for your clarification. Your point is well taken and thanks for your concern.

This month of tragedy makes me want to ride my bike more than ever.

From what I was told about the victim, was that she was wearing a helmet and was consious after the incident and it was actually a blood clot that killed her. I've known another cyclist who died this same way, legs crushed under a car, get rushed to the hospital with no apparent brain damage and die hours later because of a clot. love and peace go out to her and her family and everyone who was touched by her.

First of all, my condolences to this woman's friends and family. To lose someone so young and enthusiastic about the world, seems to me to be the worst kind of tragedy.

As for the incident itself, I have a few comments... I live in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area where we had a similar fatality a few years ago. A woman named Dana Laird was biking in a (technically substandard) bikelane, swerved to avoid the opening door of a parked car, and fell under the wheels of passing bus, which crushed her instantly. There was much discussion of the issue, and what problems might have contributed to the fatality. Unfortunately, most people were quite closedminded (including myself!). The City of Cambridge, itself, seemed to be more interested in protecting it's celebrity status as a supposedly "bike friendly" city than in helping to make a truly bike friendly, and SAFE, place, and they refused to take on even the slightest bit responsibility for the fatality whatsoever. The incident, and it's ensuing debate pretty much divided the bicycle community, which to this day remains hostily split. Many of the old-timers blame the city for cramming a bike lane into an area where it simply isn't safe to bike (even according to AASHTO standards), and lots of other folks want to blame the car driver who had the audacity to want to open his door to get out of the car. Others say blame the utter lack of education for bicyclists and motorists about how to safely operate around eachother. Still others simply chalk it up to the terrible, selfish way Bostonians drive.

Has any of this debate made any positive impact on safety? Nope. Why not? Probably because we all refuse to listen to other opinions. We might do better to consider that all of our different ideas might be at least partially correct. Also, we have been unable to come together to look at the real, physical safety issues through good, unbiased studies of the traffic issues facing bicyclists and motorists. (One study was done, but without the input of anyone but the higher-ups in Cambridge, and it only included personal opinions about percieved safety, and not any actual safety or crash data!) Isn't it shocking that almost no real data is available about the real safety of various road designs when it comes to cyclists? (There are a few studies here and there that claim a tiny difference in certain areas of safety either with bike lanes, with the Sharrow markings, or with plain old normal shared roads. But there is no real, solid evidence in any direction.)

My suggestion for you in Portland, is to avoid the pointless blame game that the Cambridge area bicycling community fell into, and (as another astute poster noted) work towards being inclusive by saying things like "Yes, and..." when responding to other people's ideas and concerns. Once you've listened to all of the folks who want to offer their ideas, collect them together and present them all to the officials in the city's traffic and road design departments (as well as any bike organizations and the city's bike coordinator). Then ask them all to offer solutions that address EVERYONE'S concerns.

To start that collection of concerns, it sounds like people on Indymedia are concerned with:

• very large vehicles on city streets
• substandard or unnecessary bike lanes (too narrow, promoting dangerous passing on the right, etc.)
• parking lanes that are too narrow to allow car doors to open safely away from other traffic (including bikes!)
• lack of police followup
• lack of real evidence that bike lanes are safe
• "cars" (what specifically is it about cars that you feel causes dangers? Are they inherently dangerous, or only when certain conditions exist?)
• bicyclists riding too close to parked cars (probably because they were told that they are supposed to!)

What other concerns are there? What other specific problems potentially cause hazards for bicyclists?

I wish you Portlanders luck! I visited your fine city a couple of years ago for a national bicycle education conference and I enjoyed the city quite a bit. I didn't personally care for the bike lanes, but I did enjoy the respect that other vehicle operators gave me as I drove around the streets on my rental bike. Compared to the Cambridge/Boston area - where we are told to "Git off da road!" at least a few times a day - Portland was bicycling heaven! Plus the "Street Repair" communities were highly inspiring.

One final random suggestion, people may want to include bicycles when they talk about "vehicles" since, well, they are vehicles, by law usually, and certainly by the dictionary definition. (Hence the term Human Powered Vehicle or HPV.) I say don't let the MOTOR vehicle folks steal the term "vehicle" for themselves. Vehicle diversity is where it's at. Two wheels good! And so are one, three, four, and five wheels, too! As long as your wheels are on a sustainable vehicle, it's all good to me.

Peace, Love, and Bicycles
Turil