A limo driver lashed out at a city employee riding a scooter last Thursday night, in a road rage incident on SW Taylor and Broadway.

The scooter rider, Mary Volm, happens to be the spokesperson for the city department that regulates taxis and towncars but ironically, not limousines (the city has not yet bowed to pressure to regulate so called “luxury” vehicles). Volm was driving her Vespa behind a 33-foot stretch SUV. Ronald Johnson, a former town car driver, was behind the wheel of the SUV limo at around 6:30pm.

Volm alleges Johnson was blocking the intersection and began reversing when the light turned red, so she shouted at him to stop. She alleges Johnson got out of his limo, began screaming at her, and pushed her Vespa nine feet forwards into the intersection, with her still on it. Then he got back in and started moving, but pinned Volm between the right rear side of the car and the oncoming traffic, Volm alleges.

“So I hit the side of his car with the flat of my hand,” says Volm. “And that’s when he really lost it. He got out of the vehicle and got out and he came after me, and hit me with both hands on my shoulders and pushed me down into the ground. And he stood over me with a fist telling me to get up or he’s going to punch me in the nose.”

The limo driver, Johnson, was arrested and cited by the police for menacing and harassment and booked at Central Precinct, but has yet to be formally charged by the District Attorney’s office with a crime.

Witness Jackie Evans, from Ohio, told police she saw the limo backing up and it appeared to strike the scooter, according to the police report. She said Johnson got out of the car and was screaming, then, that he got back in and came out a second time and shoved Volm into the ground.

Johnson, meanwhile, denies Volm’s version of events. He says he was trying to perform a citizen’s arrest of Volm for taking a “leaping kick at the side of my vehicle,” when Volm “just fell down in the street and started yelling and crying.”

Johnson even sent the Mercury pictures of a circular dent in the side of his limo:

limodent.jpg

“The police just assumed I hit her,” he says. “I was driving 100 percent safely and I plan to ask to have her charged with criminal mischief.”

Volm says the dents in Johnson’s limo are “fabricated,” adding that Johnson was screaming and calling her a “cunt” and a “bitch” during the entire encounter.

“There’s no way I can dent a vehicle, I’m a 54-year-old woman for God’s sake,” says Volm. “Now I’m on the defensive, and I’m the victim, and it’s really made me angry.”

Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.

35 replies on “Limo Rage: Stretch Driver In Spat With Vespa”

  2. This trend of differing modes of transport clashing is getting dumber and dumber. What next? A rickshaw and school bus? A boat from those Duck tours and a unicycle?

  4. Dear Matt Davis,

    Why did you make sure to point out that the witness is from Ohio? Do you think her Midwestern roots inform her character? What would you have done if she was from Tampa Bay?

  5. Because Ohians [Ohions?] [Onions?!] are Mid-Western. This makes them reliable. If she had been from Miami, or perhaps, L.A, she would be less reliable. As a witness. Then, I may well have included the fact that they were from, say, Tampa Bay, to warn the reader to take their testimony with a grain of salt.

    Thank you for your question. Next.

  9. I would pay to see a Duck tour vehicle versus a unicycle!

    I think the only way to solve these issues is a good ol’ fashioned demolition derby…

  17. I think it’s time for a Mercury Road Rage issue, complete with how-to’s, loads of “visuals”, and maybe even maps of the best parts of town to engage in road ragery. Hell, go deep and throw in music, restaurant and movie reviews that support the theme. I’d buy that for a nickle.

  18. Kayak vs. The Portland Spirit!

    I call shenanigans on this, “There’s no way I can dent a vehicle, I’m a 54-year-old woman for God’s sake.” I can think of plenty of ways that could be possible, and not all of them involve tall buildings.

    I’m not taking sides here, but I bet she could dent a vehicle if she tried, these things are made of plastic.

  20. All this happening after the Clinton showed “Maximum Overdrive”….maybe the vehicles are getting us humans to kill ourselves so they can take over.

    (Watch some of it with your eyes closed – Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, has some choice words when trapped in a wrecked car….)

    I nominate bike rickshaw vs. Smart car.

  22. Actually, the woman from Ohio was one of four witnesses – and she took photos of the incident from her cell phone camera. All the witnesses said the same thing – just check the police report.

    As for denting a vehicle, I know this woman – she’s had hip replacement and kneecap surgery in the last 1-2 years, she can’t run, “leap” or deal with drug-crazed, testostorne (little-dick) saturated, crazy people – nor can most of any of us.

    The bottom line is civility. When did we lose touch with the fact that we live in community and we ‘work’ together to make everyone safe?

    Portland used to be a place we cared about, a place where we took responsibility for our actions and worked together to ensure we all could share this special place. You all can’t rant on about things that have little meaning but wait until you are the victum of someone who is raging and out of control. I hope you get four witnesses to stand up for you.

  26. Then why say anything? “I hate to say this but…” hiding behind an anonymous ‘name” – I wonder how your passive-agressive remark can be preceived as anything but “bitchy.” How are you contributing to the emotional health and safety of our community? I guess as long as you can hide behind a blog post and spew hate and trash others, well, why not? You don’t have to be held accountable. and we wonder why there’s so much conflict on our streets, in our cities, in the world.

  27. Can you call someone out for posting anonymously then post anonymously? I don’t disagree with anything you wrote but yeah, that’s Horse Shit.

  28. Horse shit guy, it’s the nature of blogs that is exactly my isue – it’s one thing to put out your opinion anonymously – it’s another to personally attack someone else by name and hide behind a fake name – that’s horse shit – to steal your phrase.

  29. I guess if I had a recent hip replacement and kneecap surgery, a Vespa might not be my first choice as far as a stable, easily controlled mode of transportation. I ride an ET4, so I do have some idea what I speak of.

    Oh yeah… Chinese pedestrian protester vs. Chinese Army Tank. There’s your matchup !

  32. I was driving my trendy diesel Jetta with “My Other Car is a Bicycle” when a scary meth-head on a motorcycle told me to eat shit at an intersection yesterday, but I was in Gresham so the Oregonian wasn’t interested.

  34. For Limoarehaters, If you damage the car of a professional driver, expect immediate consequences. I don’t support the language this chauffeur used but having driven for over eighteen years I can share that I had to dispatch idiots many times.

Comments are closed.