Portland Fire & Rescue crews pulled a trapped patient from a wrecked vehicle after a multi-car crash on SE Flavel Street on Sunday, Sept. 20.

The department posted on X at 3:23 a.m. that crews had arrived to find one person trapped. Four minutes later, Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) reported the patient had been freed and was being loaded into an ambulance for transport to a local hospital.

The patient's condition is unknown.

PF&R did not release the patient's name or age. The cause of the crash, the number of vehicles involved and whether anyone else was injured have not been disclosed, Hoodline reported. No Portland Police Bureau incident report for the crash was available as of Sunday.

A high-crash corridor

SE Flavel Street includes one of the intersections the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has identified as especially dangerous. PBOT's project page for SE Flavel Street and SE 72nd Avenue shows more than 40% of crashes there have involved left turns, and more than half occurred at night.

Officials have not confirmed whether Sunday's crash happened at or near that intersection.

PBOT lists a funded project for the location called the Brentwood-Darlington Crossroads Safety Project. The planned work would convert the intersection to a four-way stop, add lighting, update corner ramps to current ADA standards and fix deteriorated pavement. No construction start date or budget appears on the project page, and it is unclear whether any improvements were in place at the time of Sunday's crash.

Portland's deadliest streets

The SE Flavel and 72nd intersection sits on PBOT's High Crash Network, a set of 30 locations that make up 8% of Portland's streets but accounted for 67% of traffic deaths on average between 2020 and 2024. In 2024, 71% of traffic deaths occurred on those same streets, according to PBOT's May 2026 Vision Zero newsletter.

As of a July 21 joint release from Portland police and PBOT, the city had recorded 25 traffic fatalities in 2026. Eleven involved motorcyclists, eight involved pedestrians and six involved vehicle occupants.

In a June 9 news release, PBOT Transportation Director Millicent Williams said the city remains committed to its Vision Zero goals, citing more than 30 speed and intersection cameras operating across the High Crash Network. On Aug. 11, Portland City Council voted 12-0 to pass Councilor Loretta Smith's "No Turn on Red" ordinance, which directs PBOT to install signage at up to 30 high-crash intersections.

Residents who witness a crash or have safety concerns can contact Portland's non-emergency line at 503-823-3333 or report traffic hazards through PBOT's online reporting tool.