‘Please, get us a light’: Neighbor pleas after another deadly crash in Portland

By FOX 12 Staff and Drew Marine

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — One person is dead, and another was injured in a crash in southeast Portland on Saturday morning, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

PPB said just after 5:30 a.m. Saturday, officers responded to Southeast Stark Street and Southeast 133rd Avenue. When they arrived, they found a vehicle had hit a tree and one person was dead outside of the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was taken to a hospital, but a condition was not provided.

Officers said before hitting the tree, the vehicle hit another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle remained on the scene.

Fernando Villanueva and his family have lived at the corner of Southeast 135th Street and Stark Street for nearly a decade. They have a front row seat to how dangerously people drive every day. Early Saturday morning was just the latest deadly crash they’ve seen.

“I feel really, really sorry for the parents of this kid,” he said. “People go too fast for no reason. It’s 30 miles per hour. It should be 30 miles per hour, but they don’t listen.”

Stark St. is one of Portland’s high crash corridors, or, a street that sees most of the city’s crashes.

PPB said since Aug. 19, there have been nine crashes on Southeast Stark Street between 60th and 135th Avenues, some of which Villanueva catches on his Ring camera.

Video from last week shows someone speeding down the street, knocking down a traffic sign.

“It’s sad that we get it on video because sometimes there’s not good news for the people on the other end,” Villanueva said.

Friday, he caught someone crashing into his cars parked out front.

“They just slammed into it,” he said. “Stark Street is getting crazy.”

With the school year fast approaching, and David Douglas High School down the road, Villanueva hopes the city or PBOT will take action.

“I wish the people in charge would listen and understand that we do need some measures to stop this from happening,” he said. “Please, get us a light.”

At the beginning of the year, PBOT said it installed a speed enforcement camera at Southeast 122nd and Southeast Stark Street, which should help reduce speed. It says more improvements to that street are coming soon.

The major crash team is investigating. During the investigation, Southeast Stark Street is closed between Southeast 130th Avenue and Southeast 134th Avenue.

Anyone with any information and has not already spoken to police is asked to contact crimetips@portlandoregon.gov and reference case number 22-230725.

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