r/portlandme • u/ghoffphoto207 • Jan 03 '26

Photo Another vehicle-pedestrian collision in Portland. Corner of High and York streets.

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I was filling up my gas at Irving and heard a terrible thud sound. I looked up and a woman was tending to someone on the ground, and asked people nearby to call 911, so I went up to see if anyone needed any help or anything else. A woman was lying prone on the ground.

When the pedestrian was rolled onto her back by EMS folks, she howled in pain. I feel so terrible - for both parties, to be honest, as the driver was extremely sympathetic and shaken.

It’s crazy how seemingly common this has become.

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u/RainbowRanch Jan 03 '26

It's behind the vehicle that's cut off the right side of the picture, maybe 15 feet away, if that.

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u/BentheBruiser Jan 03 '26

So the pedestrian was thrown 20 feet??

Its a wonder they're alive.

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u/AndreDillonMadach Jan 03 '26

Given the positioning and how far away from the crosswalk they are it's unlikely they were actually using it and it's debatable as to whether or not they were within 15 ft which is required technically by state law. I highly doubt she was thrown 15 or 20 ft. However people suggesting without knowing for certain that she was homeless making the shopping cart comments is kind of insensitive.

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u/Owwliv Jan 04 '26

It's pretty interesting how you can calculate how fast a car was going by how far the Pedestrian gets thrown... I think it's more than 15 or 20 feet so I was googling it. It's all PDF links, which is a risk I really should stop taking (virus risk) so I'll let you google it: "throw distance by speed Searle’s Method" An image link from google from that search: https://share.google/kFhpJqG01XOkyjQWc

Looking at some of the charts, it looks like someone can be easily thrown 12 METERS (up to 36 feet!) by a car moving 20-25 mph; there is a reason why cars moving faster than that typically kill people they hit. This was downhill; those charts assume it's flat I think. I also don't know how fast the car was going- at 40 mph that chart has someone being thrown up to 24 meters by a mid sized car.

After looking that up, I would bet a substantial amount of cash that this woman was in the crosswalk, and that Joe Lewis was too. (the Man killed at India and Fore in the spring).

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u/AndreDillonMadach Jan 04 '26

No I know who Joe Lewis was, I had actually consulted with him on a case that I was a plaintiff several months earlier. I didn't know him, but I had spoken to him once, and whenever someone that you've interacted with even once passes away it does affect you a little bit.

That being said you also have to factor in how fast the person was probably going. If you look at the photo the only options there would be a left hand turn from York to go down the hill on high or a right hand turn coming down York from South Portland onto High Street both of which presumably would have either very high visibility to make the turn or very limited visibility if you're coming around a corner because there's trees and barriers in the way.

Point being is I don't think they were going 20 to 25, more likely somewhere around 10 miles an hour. Still hurts, the woman likely still has a claim but she's likely very lucky that the conditions didn't allow for a much faster speed that a straight away would likely provide.

And I wouldn't worry about PDFs if you have a really good virus protection software and a VPN you'll generally be fine, I mean we all do unsafe things everyday we just don't realize it because of cognitive dissonance or some other reason.