PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The sister of a man who died after his car plunged into the Columbia River is pushing for safety improvements along a major Portland roadway.
Eddie Larson was on his way to work on Sunday morning when his car left NE Marine Drive and veered down the hill, across the bike path and off the embankment into the river, authorities said. Larson was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators are still looking into the cause of the crash. Police said Larson was the seventh person to die in a car crash in Portland this year.
Lisa Hartz said her brother was a funny, kind and hardworking man who loved Portland sports. He was a husband, brother, son and step-dad.
Hartz started an online petition in an effort to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future. She said whether it’s adding guardrails to NE Marine Drive or making other changes, she just wants to get the conversation started on how to make the roadway safer.
“Marine Drive claims a lot of lives and it seems like there have been improvements but there could be more improvements,” Hartz told KOIN 6 News on Thursday. “Especially with the loss of Eddie I was just, I don’t know if I want to say inspired, but I guess moved. The fact that I’ve lost my brother and I don’t want anyone to go through what we’re going through.”
A spokesperson with the Portland Bureau of Transporation said Marine Drive is among the 8% of Portland roadways that are considered “high-crash corridors” where a majority of traffic deaths occur.
Seven people have died on Marine Drive within Portland city limits since 2016, including three where the vehicle went into the Columbia River, PBOT said. According to PBOT, several safety improvements have been made to the roadway, including new speed safety cameras, reduced speed limits, new traffic signals, rapid-flashing beacons and streetlights, and rumble strips were added.
Rumble strips are effective, relatively inexpensive can be installed relatively quickly along the length of the corridor. We know that guardrail would be expensive and take years of planning, mostly because it would require federal permits to drill into the levee. Marine Drive is built on a levee that holds back the Columbia River, so any improvement on the levee is evaluated to make sure it doesn’t affect flood control.
PBOT
PBOT is evaluating these safety improvements made in recent years and is considering more.
“Even if we could make slight improvements or even just reassess the road, maybe we could hopefully prevent it from happening again,” said Hartz.