Eugene traffic deaths spur renewed calls for Vision Zero changes

Eugene’s most dangerous crashes are not scattered evenly across town. City data show they are clustering on arterial streets such as Highway 99, River Road, 11th Avenue and Beltline, the same corridors many residents use to get to work, school and daily errands. Those roads make up just 20% of Eugene’s street network, but they were involved in 88% of the city’s fatal crashes from 2022 through 2024. Speeding played a role in 36% of those crashes, and drugs or alcohol were involved in 70%, underscoring how often the deadliest collisions combine speed with impaired driving.

The toll has kept rising. Eugene recorded 50 fatal crashes and 51 deaths in the 2022-2024 period, compared with 21 fatal crashes in 2019-2021. The city said 2024 was its deadliest year on record, with 22 traffic deaths, and it later reported 10 traffic deaths in 2025, a 55% drop from the year before. Five traffic deaths have already been recorded in 2026, keeping pressure on city leaders and police to move beyond broad promises and into changes that drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians can see on the street.

Eugene adopted its Vision Zero resolution in November 2015 and formalized a Vision Zero Action Plan in March 2019. City staff published a 2026 Vision Zero Action Plan Update in May, and the Eugene City Council received a status update on April 15. The city says the goal is zero traffic deaths and serious injuries, with staff and police focusing on safer street design, public education and enforcement. The latest update also says the High Crash Network is based on crash data from 2014 through 2022, a sign that planners are still using a long view of where the city’s worst risks have been concentrated.

Community concern has sharpened in the past few weeks. More than 100 people gathered at Rosetta Place Park on May 20, just blocks from where bicyclist David Winston Morris was killed earlier in the month, to remember traffic victims and talk about next steps. Mayor Kaarin Knudson told the crowd the city has made progress but still has more work to do on street safety. Earlier in the year, a forum at Roosevelt Middle School, co-supported by Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation, drew attention to recent deaths including University of Oregon Ph.D. student Erick Njue and Elizabeth Cardenas Figueroa, while residents near Spencer View Apartments described a missing crosswalk and blocked sightlines. For Eugene, the debate is no longer abstract: the question is how quickly Vision Zero moves from policy to protection on streets people cross every day.