A high-speed downtown crash in Portland has turned deadly. The Portland Police Bureau reported a victim succumbed to injuries sustained during the incident at the intersection of Southwest Naito Parkway and Southwest Columbia Street. The driver responsible for the mayhem, 46-year-old Jacob M. Tabor, is now sitting in jail, slapped with DUII and assault charges, and likely facing more as the tragic outcome unfolds.
During the early morning chaos, Tabor, driving a 2001 Volkswagen Jetta speeding away from an initial minor collision, violently smashed into a Toyota Camry occupied by three men. The Camry was simply waiting at the light, its occupants unsuspected participants in what ended as a deadly scenario. According to the Portland Police Bureau, it was the vehicle's rear passenger who bore the brunt, pinned and sealed within the mangled steel. While two Central Precinct officers who witnessed the aftermath rushed to help, their efforts, followed by those of Portland Fire & Rescue and paramedics, could not reverse the dire straits into which the victim had been thrust.
The identity of the deceased will be released following the grim duty of notifications to the family. Meanwhile, the driver of the Camry continues to fight through serious injuries in the hospital and the front-seat passenger has already been sent home after treatment. Tabor himself walked away from a hospital visit with minor injuries only to walk straight into a jail cell at the Multnomah County Detention Center.
With Tabor's charges including Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants and Assault in the Second Degree, authorities are poised to tack on additional counts following the passenger's death. Impairment and the reckless abandonment of speed are eyed as the culprits leading to this tragic outcome. Anyone with additional information or who may have captured the incident is urged by the police to get in contact, hopefully shedding more light on the circumstances behind Portland's 9th traffic fatality this year.
The figures might differ from what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tallies as the agency's criteria for traffic deaths don't encompass events pointing to suicide, happenings upon private plots, or those faded more than 30 days after an accident. Nonetheless, the accident serves as another grim reminder of the cost of driving under the influence. Southwest Naito Parkway has since reopened, but a family's wound remains fresh, and a city laments yet another senseless loss.
