PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Oregon Department of Transportation is clearing out the Salem homeless camp where four people were killed by a suspected drunk driver.
ODOT owns the land near the corner of Front and Division Streets in downtown Salem where Enrique Rodriguez Jr. allegedly drove into a homeless encampment, killing four people.
According to Salem police, Rodriguez was driving drunk at the time.
“We’re going to take a look at the situation, and we are reassessing our best practices all the time,” said Angela Beers-Seydel with ODOT. “We’ll take any lessons learned and go forward with that. This is why we do the safety we do.”
Rodriguez’s mother told KOIN 6 News the camps should have been cleared out earlier to avoid a deadly crash.
Clearing the camp has been planned since at least March 17 when officials posted notices. They are required by law to give at least 10 days’ notice.
Officials said efforts to clean up the site could last through Thursday.