Speeding driver rear-ends, wrecks, and rolls, in Argay Terrace

INCLUDES AFTERMATH VIDEO | Exclusive: Witness to the crash describes the smashup on NE Sandy Boulevard …

Just west of the intersection of NE Sandy Boulevard and 138th Avenue, an alleged “speed-racer”: smacked into the back of an otherwise uninvolved car and then spun off the road.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

A grinding rear-end crash took place on Monday evening, December 30, along NE Sandy Boulevard just west of 138th Avenue – that’s the street that turns north to the Costco store in the Argay Terrace neighborhood.

“I was walking down to the Plaid Pantry after I got home from work,” recalled a witness, who asked not to be identified, as wreckers were arriving. She continued, “You could hear them, way off in the distance. Two cars looked to be racing [westbound] on NE Sandy Boulevard. They must have been going 80 mph or so; a red ‘sporty’ car was ‘right on the bumper’ of the front car as they zoomed past me.”

Looking westward, the battered and rear-ended VW SUV remains in the roadway.

See workers pick up the pieces, and tow the smashed BMW from the roadside in this exclusive video:

The witness continued, “At the intersection of NE 138th Avenue, a third car, stopped at the light, turned right – westbound – on Sandy Boulevard. The first ‘racer’ swerved and avoided the car that turned out – but the red car plowed into the back of the one that’d pulled out into the street. Then it spun off the road; it looked like right onto the [Southern Pacific] railroad tracks.

“I could hear the police talking on their radios saying that rescuers found a guy pinned in the back seat of that car; I don’t know if it was the driver,” she concluded.

Now on a flat-bed tow truck, the rear-ended Volkswagen is driven away from the crash location.

Looking east, from four blocks away, the top of the red BMW is visible – as tow truck workers carry pieces of the smashed vehicle up to the street.

When we’d arrived, the ambulance had already left; and since the Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division’s Major Crash Team hadn’t been summoned indicated that this wreck, although horrendous, wasn’t fatal.

With NE Sandy Boulevard closed off to all traffic between 131st Avenue and 138th Avenue, wrecker crews prepared to pull the rear-ended car, a VW SUV, on to a flatbed tow truck. Other workers were picking up pieces of the red racer – a BMW sedan – from the swale beside the Southern Pacific railroad tracks.

Looking west, the BMW emerges from the ditch as it’s winched up toward the tow truck.

As a freight rain roared past, it illuminated the steel guard rail that kept the BMW from actually landing on the tracks. If it had, there could have been a train derailment also.

“This was, indeed, a serious injury crash involving two vehicles,” confirmed PPB Public Information Officer Sergeant Kevin Allen on New Year’s Day.

“The driver of a BMW was seen speeding, and possibly racing another driver, when he struck the back of a Volkswagen,” Sergeant Allen continued. “The BMW rolled over and the driver had to be extricated by Portland Fire & Rescue crews.

Up on the flatbed of the wrecker, a worker piles on broken off parts of the BMW from the smashed vehicle, before it’s all rolled away.

“The driver of the BMW, 30-year-old Malcolm X. Louis of Portland, sustained injuries that kept him in the hospital for at least a day – after which he was criminally cited for DUII-Alcohol, and Reckless Driving,” concluded Sergeant Allen.

If you have information about this smashup, and have not already spoken with investigators, contact crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, and state that it’s about Case No. 24-333072.

© 2025 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™

 

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