Fatal car crashes in Gresham, OR: deadliest roads, 2020-2024

From 2020 through 2024, federal crash records list 59 fatal crashes inside Gresham, in which 64 people died. The roads with the most were SE Stark St with 10 fatal crashes, Powell Blvd (US-26) with 6 and I-84 with 4.

Filing deadline, fault rule, insurance and the court for a crash in Gresham: Gresham, OR injury guide.

Fifty-nine fatal crashes in Gresham from 2020 through 2024 killed 64 people, according to NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which tracks every U.S. traffic crash that causes a death. Two kinds of NHTSA files lie behind those totals: Final Files for 2020 to 2023 and, for 2024, the Annual Report File, the agency's first release for that year, which may be revised once the 2024 Final File is out.

By deaths, 2020 was the worst year. That year 13 crashes killed 18 people, and those 5 extra deaths are the whole gap between Gresham's crash and death totals: in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, every fatal crash killed one person. Crashes ran 10 in 2021 and 10 in 2022, rose to 15 in 2023, the most of any year, and stood at 11 in 2024, with deaths matching them each year.

Every one of Gresham's 59 crashes was recorded in Multnomah County, where FARS counts 389 fatal crashes and 419 deaths over the five years, so the city holds 15 percent of both the county's crashes and its deaths. Statewide, Oregon's totals were 2,590 crashes and 2,833 deaths. Only two Oregon places in our guides recorded more deaths than Gresham's 64: Portland, with 310, and Salem, with 85; Eugene, with 56, and Hillsboro, with 29, came next.

SE Stark St leads, with 10 fatal crashes and 10 deaths from 2020 through 2024, the latest in 2024, or 17 percent of the city's fatal crashes. Powell Blvd (US-26) is second with 6 crashes and 6 deaths, four behind, also with one in 2024. Three rows follow with 4 crashes each: I-84, where the 4 crashes killed 5 people, NE 181st Ave and NE Burnside Rd, and all three had a fatal crash in 2024.

SE Burnside Rd had 3 fatal crashes and 3 deaths, the latest in 2023. NE Sandy Blvd had 2 crashes that killed 3 people, both in 2020; NE Kane Dr and NW Burnside Rd had 2 each, with a crash as recent as 2024; and SE Division St's 2 crashes were last in 2023. The ten rows hold 39 of the 59 crashes and 41 of the 64 deaths, which leaves 20 crashes and 23 deaths on roads outside the table. Counts like these show where people died, not who caused any crash.

Most of Gresham's fatal crashes happened in the dark. Thirty-nine of the 59, 66 percent, came after dark, 35 on lighted roads and 4 on unlit ones; 17 were in daylight, 1 at dusk, and for 2 the light was not reported. By hour, 26 happened between 6 p.m. and midnight and 14 between midnight and 6 a.m., while noon to 6 p.m. had 15 and the morning, 6 a.m. to noon, only 4.

Saturday had the most fatal crashes, 14, but Monday was close behind with 13; Tuesday and Friday had 9 each, Wednesday 6, Sunday 5 and Thursday 3. Rain was recorded for 12 crashes, 20 percent, and snow for 1, against 38 in clear weather and 5 under clouds, with 3 not reported. FARS coded every crash as urban, and 3 happened in construction work zones.

In 40 crashes the first harmful event, the first thing to cause injury or damage, was something other than a collision with another vehicle in transport: a pedestrian in 21, a curb in 5, a tree in 3, and parked vehicles, people on personal conveyances and other objects in the rest. Of the 19 that did begin with such a collision, 9 were angle crashes, 5 rear-end and 4 head-on, with the type not reported for 1. Thirty-seven crashes involved one vehicle, 19 two and 3 three or more. Thirty-five were non-junction crashes, and 20 were at or related to an intersection.

Drivers were 35 of the 64 people killed in Gresham, 55 percent, and passengers 5. Pedestrians were 22, or 34 percent, and 2 people on personal conveyances died; no bicyclist deaths are recorded for these years. Fourteen of the dead, 22 percent, were on a motorcycle or moped, which means riders were 14 of the 40 drivers and passengers killed. Counted by crash, 25 of the 59 fatal crashes, 42 percent, involved a pedestrian, cyclist or other person outside a vehicle.

For a pedestrian struck at night or in rain, a claim usually turns on visibility: the lighting, the driver's speed for the conditions and where the person was crossing. For a motorcyclist, the dispute is often whether the other driver looked and how fast the rider was going. In either case, Oregon's 51 percent bar makes the fault percentage decisive, because a share above 50 percent ends the claim, as the example below shows.

The facts and figures in this example are hypothetical. Suppose you are crossing a wide Gresham street on a rainy evening, away from a crosswalk, when a driver going too fast for the wet road hits you. Your medical bills come to $50,000, you lose $20,000 in pay and your pain and suffering is valued at $50,000, for $120,000 in all. The driver's insurer says you were wearing dark clothing and crossing where drivers would not expect you, and it assigns you 40 percent of the fault.

Oregon's fault rule, modified comparative negligence with a 51 percent bar, decides what happens next. A share of fault up to 50 percent shrinks the award by that share; a share above 50 percent ends the claim. At 40 percent, $120,000 becomes $72,000. At exactly 50 percent you would still receive $60,000, but at 51 percent or more you would receive nothing, so every point the insurer adds near that line matters, and evidence about the lighting, the driver's speed and the rain is what moves it.

Collecting the $72,000 is a separate question. Under Oregon's at-fault system the driver who hit you is responsible, and the law requires that driver to carry at least 25/50/20 in liability coverage: up to $25,000 for one injured person, $50,000 for everyone hurt in the crash and $20,000 for property. If the driver carried only that, the policy would cover $25,000 of your award, and whether other coverage reaches the remaining $47,000 depends on the policies; an attorney can check.

Medical bills have a second source. Oregon also requires personal injury protection (PIP) on every private passenger auto policy, covering the insured, household members, passengers and pedestrians struck by the insured vehicle; it pays reasonable and necessary medical expenses incurred within two years of the injury, up to $15,000 (ORS 742.520(1)(a), 742.524(1)(a)). How PIP payments and the liability claim fit together depends on the policies involved.

The police come first. For a collision that injures or kills anyone, or that causes damage of the kinds that require a DMV report, the driver must notify a police officer or law enforcement agency immediately, by the quickest means available (ORS 811.745, 811.748). Then, within 72 hours, the driver must send Form 735-32, the Oregon Traffic Collision and Insurance Report, to DMV, online through DMV2U or on paper, even when police write their own report (ORS 811.720, 811.725).

That DMV report is required of every driver in a collision that injures or kills anyone. Damage can trigger it too: a driver whose own vehicle has more than $2,500 of damage must file, and every driver must file when more than $2,500 of damage is done to property other than a vehicle, or to any vehicle when a vehicle is towed from the scene. Oregon DMV's records page lists copies of police traffic crash reports, but DMV cannot give you a copy of your own report, so keep one.

• In rain, photograph the wet pavement, the lighting and any standing water before conditions change; rain was recorded for 12 of Gresham's fatal crashes.
• On SE Stark St or Powell Blvd (US-26), the two roads with the most fatal crashes, note the nearest cross street and the direction each person was traveling.
• If you were on a motorcycle, keep the helmet and gear and photograph the bike before repairs; 14 of the people killed in Gresham crashes were riders.

A lawsuit over a crash in Gresham would generally be filed in the Multnomah County Circuit Court, though the parties and the facts can make another court the proper one. Oregon generally allows two years to file a personal injury lawsuit (ORS 12.110(1)). Most claims are resolved without a suit, but the date is worth marking in the first week.

A work crash generally follows a separate and faster track. For an employee hurt on the job, Oregon treats the notice of accident given to the employer as the workers' compensation claim itself, so the 90-day notice period is also the claim deadline (ORS 656.265). Past 90 days, a claim can survive only in limited cases, and after one year not at all. The Oregon Workers' Compensation Division oversees that system. If a government vehicle or a death is involved, state law may set other deadlines too.

Move the same crash to another state and the 40 percent finding plays out differently. Under contributory negligence, the rule in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, a pedestrian found even slightly at fault can generally recover nothing. Under pure comparative negligence, used in some other states, a share of 70 percent would still leave 30 percent of the damages. Oregon sits between them: a reduced award up to 50 percent fault, and none beyond it.

Insurance rules differ too. In most at-fault states, an injured person's claim begins with the other driver's liability coverage. Oregon is an at-fault state as well, but it also requires PIP on every private passenger auto policy, which gives pedestrians struck by an insured vehicle a source for medical bills. In no-fault states such as Florida, Michigan, New York and New Jersey, PIP comes first, and a suit for pain and suffering is generally allowed only when the injury meets the state's tort threshold, which state law defines. Tennessee allows one year for most injury claims, against Oregon's two.

Ask Legal Matters is a personal injury lead-generation service that collects free case review requests from injured people in the United States and shares them with independent attorneys and law firms. It is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in your state. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, and an attorney must evaluate the facts before anyone can say whether a claim exists or where the fault line falls. If you were hurt in a crash in Gresham, you can request a free case review.

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• What should you do after a car accident?

More on this type of claim: Car accidents: evidence, deadlines and when to ask an attorney.

• Gresham, Oregon: local injury guide, court and deadlines
• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Pedestrian Accident Claims: Rights, Fault and Compensation

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