A few years ago Portland drivers were a rare breed. Drivers were extremely cautious, considerate, and courteous. However, that abruptly changed in 2020. Now Portland drivers speed, tailgate, abruptly change lanes and run red lights. Many vehicles don’t have license plates and hit and runs are all too common. Traffic deaths in 2021 were the highest they have been in 3 decades. What happened in 2020 and 2021 that made driving in Portland so dangerous?
According to Willamette Week the three major contributors to Portland’s dangerous drivers are 1) speed; 2) impairment; 3) and “lack of enforcement of traffic laws.” More specifically there were 90% fewer traffic stops than in 2020. More specifically, in the first court of 2020, there were 4,678 traffic stops. In 2022 there were only 471 traffic stops in the first quarter. It is obvious that Portland’s drivers know it is very unlikely they will get a speeding ticket or be pulled over, so there is no need to comply with the law.
The obvious question then becomes why are the police not pulling people over for breaking the law? According to Willamette Week and the Portland Police Bureau, it is due to the City’s decision to underfund the police department which resulted in disbanding the traffic division so those officers could respond to other calls. In addition to the lack of the number of police officers to enforce traffic laws, Portland’s leaders also intentionally enabled traffic violators by directing the Police department to “discontinue many low-level stops” to make the city safer and more equitable. Most of these “low-level stops” were for breaking traffic laws that were drafted to keep people safe.
What is being done to make driving in Portland Safer? That depends on who you ask. According to past Mayoral candidate Sarah Iannorone she believes that people just need more education and better infrastructure, but is opposed to any increased traffic law enforcement. It is obvious that people know that speeding and driving dangerously can result in injury or death, so it is unclear how Iannarone’s ideas are going to make anyone safer. Law enforcement has conceded they don’t have the resources to enforce traffic laws at an effective level, so until things change in the City’s leadership we are stuck with what we have.
What can you do if you were in a crash with a dangerous or reckless driver, or if your relative was killed in a traffic fatality? Personal injury lawyers are one of the only deterrents to Portland’s bad drivers because many people know that if they get in a crash they will likely have to pay for the hell that they cause to the injured person. If the bad driver is uninsured, a good personal injury lawyer may still aggressively pursue the bad driver until the client is compensated.
For example, Portland Personal Injury Lawyer Jeremiah Ross recently represented a woman that was hit by an uninsured driver while she was crossing the street. The uninsured driver claimed he had no insurance and no assets. Ross Law filed a lawsuit against the bad driver’s wife for negligently entrusting her uninsured vehicle to her uninsured husband who ran into a lady in a cross-walk. The wife had the financial resources to pay for the injured pedestrian’s pain and suffering and medical bills. Undoubtedly the wife of the bad driver had a serious discussion with the bad driver about his negligent driving.
If you or someone you know has been injured in a traffic crash call Portland Personal Injury Lawyer Jeremiah Ross at 503.224.1658. Ross Law represents people throughout Oregon that have been injured in traffic crashes.
Please note that this blog is for informational purposes only and the majority of the information contained in teh blog is from teh June 24, 2022 Willamette Week article, “As traffic crashes and deaths continue to soar, traffic stops are way down.”