‘Inattention’ causes side street smashup

See what happens when a moment’s distraction takes a driver’s eyes off the road …

It remains unknown why the driver of this Ford truck failed to “yield to oncoming traffic”.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Fortunately, no one was injured in a two-vehicle collision in outer East Portland, north of the Eastport Shopping Center complex, just south of SE Powell Boulevard on August 27.

Just before 2:00 p.m. that afternoon, a Ford SUV ran into a Kia Soul in the intersection of SE 84^th Avenue and SE Lafayette Street, in the Lents neighborhood.

After sustaining a side-impact “T-Bone” crash in the intersection, this Kia continued on into a utility pole guy wire.

According to a police officer at the scene, the Ford truck was southbound on SE 84^th Avenue, and either didn’t stop for the stop sign at the intersection – or stopped, and proceeded without heeding the black westbound Kia.

“The driver of the Kia didn’t have a stop sign,” the officer said. “[Portland Police Bureau] Traffic Division officers won’t be called to investigate because there were no injuries requiring medical care.”

The impact caused the Kia’s airbags to deploy and knocked it into a vehicle, parked on the side of the street.

However, the driver of the Ford SUV will likely be issued a citation for “Failure to Yield Right-of-Way”, the officer added. “All it takes is a moment’s inattention for an accident to occur, even on a neighborhood side street,” he observed.

Be careful, even when driving on side streets! Too many people are just not paying attention while driving!

A Portland Police Bureau Reserve Officer writes up the accident at this Lents intersection.

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