Car flips on 14th Street in The Dalles; Neighbor makes driver wait for police; Local makes best of bad situation
This red sedan ended up on its roof after it appears to have driven up the side of a Subaru Forester on East 14th Street in The Dalles early Sunday morning, June 18. No major injuries were reported, but several vehicles were damaged and the driver was accused of reckless driving.
By Tom Peterson
Nancy Turner
Kittens chasing each other, no doubt, can be louder than you expect.
But the sound of two of them in the attic, could not explain the crunching noise Nancy Turner woke up to on Sunday morning, June. 18.
Turner lives at 213 E. 14th Street in The Dalles and it was just 5:30 a.m. as she was starting to rouse herself when the crash occurred.
Turner is an inspiring columnist for CCCNews.
“I thought it was kittens moving the furniture around,” she said today, June 19th. Two of them often scamper about.
They’re Kittens.
But then the phone rang. Her neighbor Rusti said the noise was related to the car that had just flipped outside her front door and was now resting on its roof.
When Turner went outside to investigate she found a red four-door upside down in the middle of the city street.
It appeared the car was headed west on 14th Street and hit her neighbor’s parked 2007 Toyota Prius and pushed it onto the sidewalk and into a utility pole, flattening its tire.
Damage to Prius
The red sedan then continued forward and drove up the side of Turner’s 2021 Subaru Forester, breaking the windshield and bending the driver’s side post and roof before the red sedan flipped over and landed on its own roof.
Damage to Turner’s Forester
Rusti who was alerted to the wreck from the noise looked from her home and saw a man crawl out of the vehicle and walk in a few circles before starting to walk away from the crash.
Turner said Rusti, who can be formidable when she wants, told the man to come and sit down.
The driver told Rusti to “call my sister, call my sister.”
“He was not really making sense,” Turner said, noting they were worried about his injuries, although there was no apparent blood or pain. And Turner said there were no signs of intoxication.
Meanwhile, Rusti’s husband called authorities to come and assess the situation.
Turner said police were there within a minute or two and placed the man under arrest, but then loosened his plastic handcuffs due to possible shoulder or arm injuries, Turner said.
He would not give his name.
He was accused of reckless driving.
From what Turner could gather, the man had no identification, driver’s license, or wallet.
Police also looked through the vehicle and found nothing, she said, but it did not provide help in identifying the man immediately.
Police took the driver away in a patrol car.
Turner said a tow truck arrived and removed the upside-down red sedan from the city street. The tow truck driver sprinkled absorbent granules on the spilled car fluids.
Nancy picked up the broken glass and pieces of metal that littered the street, she said. She took pictures to submit to her insurance company.
The driver was identified an hour later as Francisco Vargas, according to The Dalles Police Log released today, June 19th.
He was booked and lodged at NORCOR jail in The Dalles, according to the log, but it appears he was released as there was no record of him on the inmate roster today, June 19.
Turner said she was lucky.
A friend of hers, “Bill who lives on 10th” loaned her a Honda to drive while she gets her car repaired.
The owner of the Prius was not so lucky. He did not have collision insurance, Turner said. So his repairs will come out of pocket.
Nancy said the neighbor discovered the damage to his vehicle while walking out to use it to take his trash down the alley. He has a bad hip and uses the car to deal with the trash and lessen the load on his hip.
Turner said she took the garbage and put it in her own can to help him out.
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So what do you take away from this, Nancy?
“How much neighbors help each other,” she said. “The sense of community brings tears to my eyes. Rusti called me immediately. Jacob called the police, and Bill responded by loaning me a car.”
