Red-light runner destroys car in Lents area crash

See why this driver, said to be in too much a hurry to wait out a red light, now has plenty of time to think about their actions …

SE Foster Road is shut down while police and paramedics sort out this wreck.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
It’s often frustrating, especially in heavy traffic, to be behind a long line of cars taking their time going off a freeway off-ramp onto city streets.

But, traffic was light at 11:37 a.m. on February 20 when witnesses say a late-model Lexus sedan barreled from the I-205 southbound off-ramp and into the SE Foster Road intersection.

Clearly the Suburu Outback just missed being knocked into the van, by inches.

An AMR paramedic halts passing traffic to permit the ambulance to safely pull into traffic.

“It looked like the drive was trying to get through the intersection after the light turned red,” said Darius Miles, said he was waiting for a bus nearby. “It the green car so hard, it spun it around, facing the opposite direction.”

The green car – a Subaru Outback – came close to running head-on into a Ford Econoline 150 conversion van that swerved in time to miss being struck.

At least one individual was loaded into a waiting AMR ambulance that took off with lights flashing and sirens wailing.

Whatever the reason the driver of this Lexus may have had for going through a red light – it’s a mistake that individual won’t make again, at least in this vehicle.

Checking the dispatch records, Portland Police Bureau Public Information Officer Sgt. Peter Simpson told East Portland News it didn’t appear to be a “trauma accident”.

“A white Lexus ran red light, and crashed into a green Subaru,” confirmed Simpson. “Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.”

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