Multnomah County has the highest number of car accidents, the most motor vehicle accident related injuries and fatalities in all of Oregon in 2021.
*data from Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Crash Summary 2021
|
|
| COUNTY |
TOTAL CRASHES |
PEOPLE INJURED |
FATALITIES |
| Multnomah |
7972 |
6313 |
80 |
| Washington |
5430
|
4668 |
21 |
| Marion |
4467 |
4236 |
68 |
| Clackamas |
3757 |
3268 |
36 |
This data lags because it all takes time from the incident through the reporting process etc.
The highest number of deaths on Portland roads since 1986.
You might notice some slight differences between the numbers that PBOT and ODOT report, especially when you start looking closely at it. As KGW news explains here, ODOT and PBOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have their own tracking systems:
Portland Police Bureau counts traffic fatalities slightly different than the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Oregon Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which exclude those involving suicide, medical events, deaths that happen more than 30 days later, those that occur on private property and non-public roadways or involving non-motorized vehicles.
Some of Oregon's most dangerous roads and intersections are in Multnomah County, containing Portland, it is also Oregon's most populous county.
Some of the cities within Multnomah County, like Lake Oswego, are actually in 3 counties, including Clackamas County and Washington County. Milwaukie is also partially within Multnomah County and Clackamas County. Some of the other cities or unincorporated areas of Multnomah County might just seem like they are part of the Portland Metro, like Fairview, or Maywood Park. While Cedar Mill is within Multnomah County and might just seem to be part of Washington County and Beaverton, it isn't but ODOT doesn't track Cedar Mill nor West Haven-Sylvan separately in the car accidents by city data. Yet, ODOT tracks Portland by breaking it up into multiple smaller junks, including unknown part of Portland, so you have to gather the parts to see all of Portland crash numbers.
Cities and Unincorporated towns within Multomah County
- Portland
* ODOT divides Portland into the following sections
- PORTLAND BRIDGES
- PORTLAND E. BURNSIDE
- PORTLAND N
- PORTLAND NE
- PORTLAND NW
- PORTLAND SE
- PORTLAND SW
- PORTLAND UNK.
- PORTLAND W. BURNSIDE
- Gresham
- Lake Oswego
- Milwaukie
- Cedar Mill
- Troutdale
- Fairview
- West Haven-Sylvan
- Wood Village
- Maywood Park
Portland car accidents totaled 6430 for 2021 contributing the majority to the ALL Multnomah County car crashes total of 7972 in 2021, i.e. most of these happened within Portland with Gresham adding the city with the next most car crashes, 1007 total car accidents in 2021. Portland and Gresham contributed the majority of the motor vehicle crashes that happened in 2021 with all the rest adding 535 more motor vehicle crashes.
With Portland being the most populous city and the extended metro area with the large conflux of Oregon state highways and interstates that converge through Multnomah County, it's not surprising that it has the most car accidents and some of the most dangerous stretches of roads in all of Oregon.
We can get a better idea of where the more dangerous roads and intersections are located in Portland and Mulnomah County by looking further into the data as well as many different data sources.
Portland ranks these high crash roads by the rate of crashes as well as the severity of crashes and severity of injuries, giving a lot of weight if the crashes have involved any fatalities. A lot of Portland connection roads are streets identified on this high crash network map: SW and NE Broadway, SE Division, SE Hawthorne, SE Holgate, SE Stark, NE Glisan, SE Foster, NE Halsey, NE Killingsworth, Interstate Ave., Fremont, Lombard, Columbia Blvd., Sandy, Marine Drive, Martin Luther King, Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, Barbur Blvd., Airport Way, SE Cesar Chavez Blvd., SE 7th Ave., SW 4th Ave., Capitol Highway, E. Burnside, W. Burnside, SE 82nd Ave., SE 92nd Ave. Powell Blvd..... SE Powell is a US Highway 26, so it is not really under PBOT direction and control, but it does show on this Portland high crash map as owned by ODOT which are 18% of these Portland high crash roads identified on this map like Barbur Blvd., Foster, Sandy, and Columbia Blvd.
The Portland High Crash Network page is helpful as it goes further in drilling down the data for 2015-2019 for exactly which streets/intersections where crashes occured and you are able to isolate the crashes that involved pedestrians and people biking from the vehicles.
Portland Bureau of Transportation also has an interactive map that can help you spot dangerous areas on our road network, and avoid them in your route if possible, but some are notoriously difficult connections between safer cycling or walking routes.
Stacy Hope
