A motorcyclist was killed Monday night in a crash with a car on East Burnside Street in northeast Portland, closing a key stretch of the corridor and triggering a full investigation by the city’s Major Crash Team. Crews and investigators remained on scene for hours as they worked the intersection and documented evidence.
Crash details and investigation
According to a press release from the Portland Police Bureau, Central Precinct officers were dispatched at 9:12 p.m. Monday to East Burnside Street at Northeast 24th Avenue in the Kern neighborhood. The motorcyclist did not survive their injuries. Police say the driver of the other vehicle stayed at the scene.
The Major Crash Team responded and is leading the investigation. Investigators have not released a suspected cause and say it is too early to discuss what may have led up to the collision. East Burnside was shut down between Northeast 22nd and Northeast 26th Avenue and was expected to stay closed for several hours while officers processed the scene and cleared the roadway.
Police are asking anyone with information about the crash to email [email protected] and reference case number 26-203575.
Where this happened
East Burnside has already been a focus of safety upgrades, including lane reconfiguration and new pedestrian islands, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. PBOT’s Vision Zero updates and recent city reporting describe a broader decline in traffic deaths across Portland, even as problem corridors like Burnside continue to see serious and sometimes deadly crashes. The bureau’s March 2026 news release offers additional context on those trends.
What to expect next
Investigators say more information will be released when appropriate, but noted that the public information officer was not responding to the scene, according to the Portland Police Bureau. The Major Crash Team’s work is ongoing, and officers are asking witnesses or anyone with camera footage to contact investigators as they try to reconstruct what happened on East Burnside Monday night.
