News Nov 12, 2009 at 4:00 am

Want to Kill Someone in Oregon? Use Your Car

Illustration by Dave Neeson

Comments

1
Geez, what a wonderful PROGRESSIVE city we all live in! Here, you can have the shit beat out ov you & tasered by police for, well... for being out in public really.
But run over someone while drunk, on a suspended license, & walk out ov jail with a little citation.

Those other 3 states are nuts for not having a basic vehicular homicide law, & so is Oregon. Why would such a proposed common sense law NOT even make it to a vote?! Who's against this?
2
Any word on why the police didn't cite Feliciano? Any word on the person who mugged Kipp before he appeared prone in the middle of Willamette Blvd?
3
i just found out about Kipp. this is fucking disgusting. fuck portland.
4
Not to excuse the drivers for being drunk, but what happened to the part of the story where someone pushed Crawford into traffic? Has that been substantiated at all? If that person exists, they are obviously way more culpable than the drivers...
5
I am also really interested in the follow-up about Kipp being pushed into the street. There is something very strange about this story. Also, how did he get run over by TWO cars? Please investigate!
6
Yeah, the part about Kipp Crawford being struck by TWO vehicles puzzled the Hell out ov me, too. Like, did the 2nd driver run over his body? Was he somehow hit simultaneously?

Merc, please follow-up!
7
I don’t have any other info about what happened to Kipp except that KATU news reported some neighbors heard shouting at the scene before he was hit and police are “definitely looking into” whether there was a second person at the scene who may be responsible for why he was in the middle of the road. I'll keep looking into it.

I don't have the gory details on exactly how the cars hit Crawford's body, but yes, they were one right after the other, heading in the same direction.

RE: Why Feliciano hasn’t been charged, police spokeswoman Mary Wheat says police cannot cite or charge drivers at the scene unless there’s probably cause to make an arrest, such as if the driver is clearly intoxicated. Wheat says the officers involved are finishing up the investigation (as of today, Friday 11/13) and the case could be sent over to the District Attorney’s office for review.
8
I'm from Florida, home to the four deadliest pedestrian cities. When I first visited Portland, my girlfriend who lived here at the time laughed at me when I would run to cross streets. There's always room for improvement, but relatively speaking Portland is pretty great.
9
"police spokeswoman Mary Wheat says police cannot cite or charge drivers at the scene unless there’s probably cause to make an arrest, such as if the driver is clearly intoxicated."

That's funny because, pedestrians can be cited (& extorted for money by the city) on the spot for jay-walking, even if you cross a street at a time when there's no immediate on-coming traffic.
10
I walk 5 miles a day to work. There isn't a week that goes by where I don't have a close call with a car. The most common issue involves cars turning right out of parking garages or streets, and they only look to their left, never their right. Pedestrians approaching from their right have to watch their eyes to verify they can see them.
11
I recently spoke with a friend who couldn't walk for over two months after surgery after a crash with a drunk driver. Not only did the drunk driver have two previous DUI convictions, he was then given only 5 years in prison with the right to a license after that.

My friend is lucky, but there are those that won't be. When is the state going to step up and do something about this before more people get hurt?

Please wait...

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