Neighborhood car collision kills 63-year-old woman

See the wreckage that remained after this smashup that occurred on a typically quiet outer East Portland street …

An AMR ambulance is about to transport a woman, critically injured by a motor vehicle accident in the Montavilla neighborhood.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Typically, two-vehicle accidents on side streets result in crumpled fenders, and bumps and bruises for the victims involved.

However, a wreck in the Montavilla neighborhood on October 21, at 4:08 p.m., looked as if it had taken place on a major thoroughfare in swiftly-moving traffic.

Police and fire first responders come to the crash scene, located at a typically quiet residential side street intersection.

At the intersection of at SE 80th Avenue and Ash Street, a 1992 Chevy Tahoe SUV had come to rest at the curb, and a 2007 Honda Civic had rolled to a stop, inches away from a natural gas meter next to a house near the southwest corner of the intersection.

“The Tahoe was driving really fast [westbound] down the street, and just blew through the stop sign,” recounted Henrietta Cardmore, who said she’d witnessed the accident while getting into her car in a church parking lot nearby.

“He hit the red [Honda] so hard, it caved in the whole driver’s side of the car,” Cardmore told East Portland News.

Due to the severity of the injuries sustained by the victim in the Honda, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Major Crash Team rolled into the area, after Portland Fire & Rescue Engine 19’s Firefighters/Paramedics extricated the victim.

Police traffic crash investigators say that 22-year-old Domonique Latrice Williams was speeding as he drove his 1992 Chevy Tahoe SUV, and didn’t heed the intersection’s stop sign.

“Major Crash Team investigators learned that 22-year-old Domonique Latrice Williams was driving the Chevy Tahoe westbound on SE Ash Street, approaching 80th Avenue,” said PPB Public Information Officer Sgt. Pete Simpson.

“Investigators indicate that Williams failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection, and hit the southbound Honda Civic; driven by a 63-year-old woman, who had the right-of-way.”
Williams was not impaired and remained at the scene, Simpson said. “Driving speeds by Williams may be a factor in the crash.”

The woman driving this 2007 Honda Civic subsequently died of the injuries sustained in the crash.

The following day, Simpson reported that the woman, critically injured in the crash, had died of her injuries in a local hospital.

UPDATE
On Friday, October 24, Simpson identified the victim who died in this crash as Flora Denby Novarra of Tualatin, Oregon.

“The case remains under investigation and, once completed, will be forwarded to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office for review,” Simpson said.

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