Deadly crash near Bethany raises concerns about road closure detour

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - These days, Terri Johns and her neighbors are calling NW Kaiser Road something else.

“We nicknamed it ‘The Drag Strip,’” she said.

Since July, part of NW Cornelius Pass Road has been closed as the state replaces the Cornelius Pass Road bridge. The Oregon Department of Transportation set up a detour, forcing motorists to drive around using NW Kaiser Road and NW Germantown Road.

“We’ve literally seen our traffic triple or quadruple over the last weeks that they’ve been doing this work,” Johns said.

On Tuesday morning, Johns got the news she was afraid of — someone had died at the intersection.

“It’s been really, really sad for all of us,” she said.

The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating the crash, which involved a 2011 Kia Sportage and a motorcycle. Deputies responded to the incident at 8:40 a.m., a spokesperson said.

According to the preliminary investigation, the driver of the Sportage, a 45-year-old man, was traveling westbound, while the motorcyclist, a 20-year-old man, was traveling eastbound when the collision occurred.

The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. Barb Bradshaw was on her way to work when she came across the aftermath.

“I’m kind of shook up,” she said, “and so are all the other people that were right there. [They] started to cry and were very upset about it.”

Johns said people often blow through the intersection, in part, because of the temporary lights.

She and Bradshaw hope ODOT and Washington and Multnomah counties can come up with a solution to keep people safe until the project wraps up.

“We better do something to get this traffic under control,” Bradshaw said. “My heart goes out to the family of this and everybody involved in this, it’s very, very, very sad.”

ODOT just extended the road closure to Oct. 7. FOX 12 reached out to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office about the crash and whether the increase in traffic was a factor but did not receive an answer.