Portland Bureau of Transportation released its newest crash report in March 2026, and it tells two stories at once. Citywide, traffic deaths are falling. Block by block, the same handful of streets keep showing up in the data year after year.
In 2025, 39 people died in traffic crashes in Portland. That's down from a record 69 in 2023 and the lowest total since 20181. It's also 38% below the average of the previous four years1. If you were hurt in a crash anywhere in the city this year, here's what the numbers say about where, when, and why these crashes are still happening, and what the region is doing about it.
The 2025 numbers, broken down
Of the 39 deaths, 20 were pedestrians, 8 were motorcyclists, 8 were people in cars or trucks, and 3 were cyclists1. Pedestrians accounted for 51% of the total, marking the third straight year that pedestrian deaths declined since a 2022 peak1.
A few patterns stand out. Speeding was a contributing factor in 41% of deadly crashes, a share that has held roughly steady year after year1. People 65 and older made up 33% of those killed, well above the 10% to 14% range Portland saw in the four years before that1. And 72% of deaths happened at night, between dusk and dawn1. One shift worth noting: just 20% of pedestrian deaths involved someone experiencing houselessness, down from a range of 36% to 74% in prior years1.
Where the crashes cluster
Portland doesn't have an even distribution of risk. The city's High Crash Network, 30 streets and intersections identified by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, makes up just 8% of Portland's streets but has accounted for an average of 67% of traffic deaths between 2020 and 20242. In the 2025 data alone, 74% of deadly crashes happened somewhere on that network1.
The list reads like a tour of the city's busiest arterials: 82nd Avenue, 122nd Avenue, Powell Boulevard, Division Street, Stark Street, Burnside Road, Broadway, Sandy Boulevard, Marine Drive, Halsey Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Foster Road, and Barbur Boulevard all appear on it2. Some of the specific intersections flagged as most dangerous include NE Halsey and 122nd Avenue, NE Glisan and 82nd Avenue, SE Powell and 174th Avenue, and SE Foster Road at the I-205 ramp2.
Road width matters more than most people assume. Wide city streets, four or more travel lanes, make up only 4% of Portland's non-interstate roadways, but 69% of 2025's traffic deaths happened on them1. And while 67% of deadly crashes occurred on city-owned streets, the remaining third happened on state-owned roads and highways running through Portland, most often on surface streets like SE Powell Boulevard, N Lombard Street, and U.S. Highway 30 in Northwest Portland1.
Since 2017, the city and its partner agencies have put $193 million into safety projects along the High Crash Network, with 66% of that spending directed toward neighborhoods with high equity scores2.
East Portland's turnaround
The most dramatic shift in the 2025 data is geographic. Traffic deaths in East Portland fell 56% from the prior four-year average, well past the citywide 38% drop, and the area recorded 11 deaths total, its first year under 20 since 201813. A year earlier, East Portland's traffic death rate ran triple the rest of the city1.
Part of that change traces back to 82nd Avenue. For decades a state highway, it was formally transferred to City of Portland jurisdiction in November 2021, covering the stretch from NE Killingsworth Street to SE Clatsop Street4. The move came with a $185 million joint investment: $80 million from the state, $70 million from ODOT, and $35 million from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, aimed at new signals, lighting, ADA ramps, repaving, and stormwater work5. Early projects targeted pedestrian crossings at specific corners, including NE Alberta, Beech, Pacific, and Davis streets, and SE Ash, Mitchell, Ogden, and Knapp streets5. The payoff showed up in the newest report: 82nd Avenue recorded no deadly crashes at all in 20253.
Further out, ODOT is mid-construction on the Outer Powell Transportation Safety Project, a $145 million rebuild of SE Powell Boulevard (U.S. 26) between I-205 and the Portland/Gresham line6. The current phase, running from spring 2025 through an expected 2029 finish, is adding sidewalks, bike lanes, center turn lanes, new traffic signals, and rapid-flashing pedestrian beacons along a corridor that has long ranked among the city's deadliest6.
Beyond the city limits
Portland's improvement doesn't erase the risk in the rest of the metro area. In January 2026, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners adopted a Transportation Safety Action Plan covering Gresham, Fairview, Wood Village, and Troutdale, the urbanized part of the county east of Portland proper7. The plan draws on a decade of crash records: from 2013 through 2022, 104 people died and 473 were seriously injured in crashes across east Multnomah County7. The county set a Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries there by 20357. More than 3,000 residents weighed in during planning, and 81% backed sidewalk and lighting upgrades while 66% supported lowering speed limits on local streets7.
What Oregon law requires after a crash
Oregon requires a crash to be reported to the Department of Transportation whenever it results in injury or death, or in more than $2,500 of property damage, a threshold that gets adjusted every five years for inflation8. Depending on who's involved, that duty can fall on the driver, the vehicle's owner, or even an occupant, under ORS 811.725, 811.730, and 811.7358. Inside Portland, the Police Bureau's Traffic Division handles the on-scene investigation, and ODOT compiles those records into the statewide crash file that feeds reports like the one behind this article19.
If you've been hurt in a crash on one of these corridors, sorting out fault and insurance coverage against a government agency's own safety data can get complicated fast. An attorney familiar with Oregon crash claims can help you figure out what the report on your crash actually says and what it's worth. You can find one through our legal directory.
Portland's numbers are moving in the right direction for now. But the same 30 streets keep showing up in the data, and until the safety projects on Powell, 82nd, and the rest of the High Crash Network are finished, that's where the next crash is most likely to happen.
This article is for general information only, not legal advice.
Sources
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Portland Bureau of Transportation, "Portland 2025 Deadly Traffic Crash Report Summary" (March 2026), https://www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero/documents/portland-2025-deadly-traffic-crash-report-summary/download
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Portland Bureau of Transportation, "High Crash Network Streets and Intersections," https://www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero/high-crash-network-streets-and-intersections
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City of Portland, "News Release: Traffic deaths decline for a second consecutive year, 38 percent below recent years, with significant improvement in East Portland" (March 5, 2026), https://www.portland.gov/transportation/news/2026/3/5/news-release-traffic-deaths-decline-second-consecutive-year-38-percent
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Oregon Public Broadcasting, "Oregon transportation leaders approve transfer of Portland's 82nd Avenue to city control" (November 18, 2021), https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/18/oregon-odot-portland-82nd-avenue-local-control/
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City of Portland, "News Release: PBOT, state representatives, ODOT, and community announce historic 82nd Avenue funding" (June 29, 2021), https://www.portland.gov/transportation/news/2021/6/29/news-release-pbot-state-representatives-odot-and-community-announce
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Oregon Department of Transportation, "Outer Powell Transportation Safety Project," https://www.oregon.gov/odot/projects/pages/project-details.aspx?project=21178
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Multnomah County, "News Release: Board adopts collaborative plan to improve safety on east Multnomah County's urban roads" (January 2026), https://multco.us/news/news-release-board-adopts-collaborative-plan-improve-safety-east-multnomah-countys-urban-roads
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Oregon Revised Statutes 811.720, "When accident must be reported to Department of Transportation," https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_811.720
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Portland Bureau of Transportation, "Annual Deadly Traffic Crash Report," https://www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero/annual-deadly-traffic-crash-report