Two people died in a motorcycle crash Thursday evening on a Morrison Bridge ramp, police reported. The initial investigation indicates the impact threw them over the bridge barrier and into a parking lot below, according to the police statement.
Officers responded to reports of the crash at Southeast Water Avenue and Morrison Street at 8:04 p.m. They arrived to find two people dead in the parking lot and a mangled motorcycle above them on the ramp that goes from the eastbound Morrison bridge to northbound I-5, police reported.
The two people killed appear to be the motorcycle’s rider and a passenger. Police have not publicly released their names.
No other vehicles are known to have been involved in the crash, and the ramp is now open to traffic.
Thursday’s crash marks the fifth and sixth deaths this year in Portland from motorcycle crashes, according to the police statement.
Last week, a Southeast Portland crash left a motorcyclist dead and a driver seriously injured. And a motorcycle rider died in a local hospital Wednesday after hitting a car in Gresham that day.
Three people died last year in two separate crashes on ramps near the Morrison Bridge. In May, a motorcyclist hit a concrete barrier on the I-5 South ramp to Belmont Street and fell to Southeast Water Avenue below. A month later, two 22-year-old men died when their car hit a guardrail as they traveled east on the viaduct from the bridge to Belmont Street. Their car also fell onto Water Avenue.
Police ask anyone with information about this latest crash to email crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov.
—Sujena Soumyanath is a reporter on The Oregonian/OregonLive’s public safety team. You can reach her at 503-221-4309 or ssoumyanath@oregonian.com.