Find out how the driver blamed for a pileup in the Montavilla neighborhood has so far escaped judgment …
With the suspected stolen vehicle already removed, after this outer East Portland smashup, wreckers begin hooking up two of the remaining four damaged cars.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Just after the morning rush hour on Tuesday, September 25, a speeding Toyota Highlander SUV picked up speed heading westbound on NE Glisan toward 82nd Avenue of Roses at about 9:15 a.m. – and plowed into a line of cars waiting for the signal at the intersection.
The impact shoved one vehicle into another, until a total of four vehicles were damaged.
Unable to be driven, this smashed car is ready to be towed away for repair – or to the junkyard.
“I heard it before I saw it; the smashing sound made me look up the street where it looked like a demolition derby of cars,” said Bruce Whittaker, who was waiting for a bus. “But, the most surprising thing, was seeing a guy get out of the back SUV, and high-tail it across the street, and through the carwash.”
At this boundary of the dragnet, an officer vigilantly looks for the suspect.
While one Portland Police Bureau (PPB) cruiser blocked traffic behind the wreck, another dozen officers set up a parameter southwest of the intersection, and fanned out through the neighborhood, looking for the driver who’d run off after apparently deliberately causing the crash.
One officer at the scene said he believed that the SUV the hit-and-run-away driver had smashed was stolen.
Even with the help of a PPB Canine Team, the offending driver isn’t sniffed out.
Now, it’s up to the insurance companies to sort out the tangled mess involving three Toyotas and one Subaru, while police still are looking for the driver who caused it all.
© 2018 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™