PORTLAND, Ore. -- Each year in Portland there are hundreds of accidents involving bikes but only a small percentage are ever reported.

Now that's changing.

A new website aims to collect information on as many accidents as possible to better represent what's happening on the roads.

After a pair of cycling deaths in Portland last fall, the operator of a prominent cycling website was looking into bike accident statistics.

Most didn't cause major property damage, which could give a false impression of cycling safety.

"Even though I had my headlight and taillight they didn't see me and knocked me off my bike in the middle of the road," accident victim Peter Lateivs said.

Peter had whiplash along with bumps and bruises, but never reported the accident.

"It would be great if there was a way to capture that stuff."

Jonathan Maus, founder of BikePortland.orgsays cyclists are unlikely to report even serious accidents to the DMV, since they often don't meet the agency's $1,500 reporting minimum.

"It's pretty clear that there's a lot of data that the DMV’s missing as far as official data. And that's important because the city bases all of its decisions, they base everything on what the DMV tells them."

So Maus started his own site where already hundreds have reported accidents and close calls.

"The vast majority are reports that haven't been made to the DMV Including where collisions have occurred," Maus said. "If you feel like something happened and you feel like you need to report it because there's either a dangerous driver or a dangerous cyclist I think there should be some sort of outlet for that."

It’s a new way to catalogue the most dangerous intersections with data found nowhere else.

(KGW Reporter Jack Penning contributed to this report)