Advocacy groups rally for change amid record rise in Portland traffic deaths

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — A recent audit found PBOT's Vision Zero action plan to reduce traffic deaths and injury crashes is falling short.

The report noted record breaking traffic deaths, including , which is the highest annual death toll in 30 years.

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Additionally, according to city records, nearly 200 people have been killed in Portland in traffic crashes over the past three years.

This has prompted various local groups, including Families for Safe Streets Oregon Walks Bike Loud to join communities around the world to advocate for change.

"We are here to honor, victims, people who have been injured and killed in car crashes in Oregon," said Michelle Dubarry with Families for Safe Streets. "This is a crisis escalating and showing no signs of stopping. "

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Those in attendance also included David Sale , whose 22-year-old daughter Danielle was killed after a TriMet bus hit her in Old Town. He also echoed Dubarry's thoughts on the urgent need for change, calling on local leaders to fund safety projects.

"Please do everything you can," he stressed. "Advocate everything you can, talk to people that you can and pray for everyone, because this is an epidemic that's not going to stop it unless something is done."

"We need to direct funding to where the problem is, where the problems are and where people are being hurt and killed," Dubarry added.

Some of the solutions include more sidewalks, lowering speed limits, as well as more speed safety cameras, which PBOT says then intend to install for their next step.

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Authorities have identified body parts found in a freezer earlier this year in Colorado as belonging to a teenager who went missing nearly two decades ago. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the remains are those of Amanda Leariel Overstreet, who had not been seen since April 2005. Her head and hands were discovered in a freezer at a home in Grand Junction, about 240 miles west of Denver, in January. Overstreet was the biological daughter of the home's previous owners. The remains were found when the new owners, who had recently purchased and remodeled the home, attempted to give away the freezer. Investigators have emphasized that the current owners are not connected to the case. Overstreet's disappearance had never been formally reported, and the case remains under investigation, according to the sheriff's office.