Katu.com: Recent bicycle fatalities prompt emergency meeting

At least five major accidents involving cars and bikes in the last two weeks in Portland now has some people saying it is time for action. Portland City Commissioner and transportation chief Sam Adams is organizing an emergency meeting Friday afternoon.

In attendance will be city officials, leaders of the Portland bicycling community and law enforcement representatives. They will try to figure out how to make the roads safer for Portland’s many bikers.

In the past two weeks, fatal collisions involving large trucks turning right across bike lanes have claimed the lives of two people. Other riders have recently been injured in collisions with cars.

In 2006, there were no fatal bike accidents in the city.

Steve Stinson, a cyclist who was recently in an accident of his own, hopes the community will come together to find some sort of resolution.

“I would hope that everybody wouldn’t be so militant about their rights and just remember inside all that sheet metal and on that little tubular frame, those are just people,” Stinson said.

Stinson was not badly hurt in his collision.

Commissioner Adams hopes today’s emergency meeting will help create short and long term solutions to improve bike safety in the city.

The meeting is expected to start at 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon at City Hall outside the Rose Room.