Fatal crash, road closure in Portland cause traffic delays in Clark County

An hourslong closure on Interstate 84 in Portland due to a fatal crash slowed the southbound commute Tuesday morning in Clark County.

The Portland Police Bureau responded around 3:10 a.m. to a crash on I-84 eastbound near Northeast 79th Avenue. Arriving officers found a car had crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer. The driver of the car died, police said.

Investigators are looking into what caused the crash. It marked the 50th traffic fatality in Portland for the year, according to Portland police.

The freeway’s eastbound lanes were closed between the 68th Avenue offramp and Interstate 205, and did not reopen until about 7:40 a.m., according to the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The crash caused significant delays for drivers heading south out of Clark County, and several smaller wrecks, locally, added to backups on interstates 5 and 205.

Online maps showed bumper-to-bumper traffic around 8 a.m. on southbound I-5 stretching north to Hazel Dell and slowing as far north as Salmon Creek. State Highway 14 and state Highway 500 also backed up as traffic approached the freeways.

On I-205, there was a crash at the junction with Highway 500 around 7:30 a.m. Traffic also backed up all over downtown Vancouver, blocking intersections and causing long delays.