In Lawsuit, Auto Insurer Alleges Deadly Crash Was Result of Homeless Camp Blocking Drivers’ View

An auto insurance company is suing the city of Portland for over $1 million after one of its insured motorists, a Lyft driver, was at the wheel in a 2022 crash that killed a motorcyclist. Mobilitas Insurance Company claims the wreck along Southeast Powell Boulevard wouldn’t have occurred had the city followed its own policy of removing homeless encampments.

Mobilitas filed the lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court today, and is making a novel legal argument: that the city, by failing to enforce its own rules against pitching tents alongside major roads, abetted the deadly crash by obstructing drivers’ view of oncoming traffic.

On May 14, 2022, the lawsuit says, a motorcyclist and the driver of a sedan collided at the intersection of Southeast Powell Boulevard and 62nd Avenue, where homeless camps persistently cropped up throughout 2022.

Police reports show the motorcyclist, 17-year-old Gabriel Almansan, died at the scene. Mobilitas makes no mention in its lawsuit of Almansan’s death.

The passenger in the sedan, Daniel Cortez, was seriously injured but survived. The driver, Anderanik Manouki, was not seriously injured.

Further complicating the case: Manouki was driving for the ride-hailing company Lyft at the time of the crash, so Mobilitas was insuring both him and his passenger, Cortez.

Mobilitas, which is a subsidiary of AAA Insurance and provides insurance to Lyft drivers, filed its lawsuit as the insurer of the sedan’s driver and passenger, and is demanding over $1 million in damages from the city.

“The City of Portland’s failure to take adequate measures to remedy homeless camping in a recognized high crash corridor and for the city to allow the greenery to also block the view for drivers entering the intersection of SE Powell from SE 62nd Ave created an unreasonable risk of harm and propounded the risks associated with the dangerous location,” the Feb. 27 lawsuit reads. “The homeless encampment located on Southeast 62nd Avenue obstructed Mr. Manouki’s view of oncoming traffic.”

In particular, the insurance company is citing an emergency declaration signed by Mayor Ted Wheeler just three months earlier, on Feb. 22, 2022, that banned homeless camping near highways, onramps and “high crash corridors” throughout the city, including Powell Boulevard. Wheeler at the time said the ban was an effort to protect homeless people camping near major streets from being killed by cars, a trend that had increased in the years prior. Advocates for homeless people and traffic safety, however, said Wheeler’s ban would further harm the city’s most vulnerable population by displacing them.

The City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the pending litigation.