Thursday, July 19, 2012

Road Rage - Tactical Error


Had ourselves a road rage incident in Beaverton a few days ago. There are several versions of the story, depending on which news outlet you like, but here's the gist:


(Let me use the term "allegedly" up front here to qualify the narration. Nobody's been convicted of anything yet.)


At a local watering hole, The Blue Iguana, on Cedar Hills Blvd., referred to in one report as "a Mexican nightclub," apparently a couple of the patrons leaving late in the evening, or early in the morning, had an interaction. Young men, having spent some time doing what young men do in bars. 


Words were exchanged. Then bottles were thrown. 


They got into their cars and left. The telling here varies, but apparently one of the young men was followed from the parking lot by the other. It seems there were passengers, but how many and in which vehicles? Can't say. 


The lead vehicle was a Nissan Maxima. The one behind it,  a somewhat larger Yukon.


At a traffic light next to Hwy. 217 by the Fred Meyers, the driver of the Yukon took it upon himself to plow into the back of the Maxima, to make a point. 


Whereupon somebody in the Maxima, and it looks like a passenger, Eduardo Hernandez-Dominguez, jumped out of his vehicle to discuss the situation.


For his trouble, he was run over by the driver of the Yukon, one Hector Torres-Espinoza.


When I say "run over," I don't mean that he was nudged by the bumper as the Yukon went by; he was knocked down, turned into a speed bump, and the vehicle rolled over him, thump-thump. Enough so that he was, at last look, in critical condition at a local hospital.


Somebody–probably a driver or passenger in the Maxima, unclear this, got a partial plate, and the police were able to run it. They caught up with the driver, arrested him for DUII–he apparently blew twice the legal limit–and felony hit and run. Other charges are pending.


Young men in their mid-twenties, alcohol, machismo, almost certainly women, are things that sometimes blend together badly, as seems the case here.


You have to believe somebody was sloshed–after somebody deliberately slams into the back of your ride, a person with whom you had angry words and some bottles tossed back and forth, maybe stepping out of your car in front of his is not the best move?


More people killed by cars than guns in this country. 

1 comment:

steve-vh said...

4500lbs makes an effectively lethal weapon.
We were discussing just yesterday, NEVER get out of the car.