Mayor Sam Adams' truck is seen on a tow truck following the crash.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Police Bureau is defending its handling of a weekend car crash involving Mayor Sam Adams after two witnesses claimed they smelled alcohol on the mayor's breath.

The crash, which involved three vehicles, happened Sunday evening in front of a Car Toys store on North Hayden Island Drive at Jantzen Beach. 

Witnesses reported seeing Adams' truck rear-end a white Subaru and then hit a parked Honda before coming to rest on the other side of the parking lot. According to police, Adams thought the car in front of him was making a left turn but the driver then turned right. 

• Police report from Sgt. R.K. Berry (pdf)
• Police report from Officer Derek Harris (pdf)

No one was injured in the crash and police did not issue any citations.  The three parties involved, including the mayor, exchanged insurance information and the vehicles were towed away.

While that may have sounded like the end of it, questions have since been raised about how police handled the incident.  Two witnesses claimed they smelled alcohol on the mayor's breath and others have questioned why he was not cited or tested.

Scott Joslin (not pictured), who works at Car Toys and was there the day of the crash, said that in his opinion, the mayor had a dazed look, his eyes were glazed over and were even bloodshot.  When asked on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very certain), how certain he was that Adams was drunk or impaired, he said an 8 or a 9.

Randy Schweitz, who also works at Car Toys and was there, said he went outside after hearing the crash and saw Adams get out of his vehicle.

"He smelled like beer," he said. 

Schweitz is also questioning how police treated the case.

"I think it could have been handled differently," he said.  "Yes, it's the mayor but he needed to be treated like anybody else."

In speaking with other witnesses from Car Toys, some said they question the credibility of those two witnesses.  There are also very different accounts from the two people who were directly involved in the crash.

Jacob Lothman owns the parked Honda that was struck. He said Adams came up behind him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked if he was OK.  He said he didn't turn around but standing that close, he did not smell any alcohol on the mayor.

Ryan Reed was the driver in the white Subaru that was struck.  He said the mayor asked him if he was OK and also said that being that close to the mayor, he did not smell any alcohol either.

Meanwhile, the Portland Police Bureau is defending its handling of the crash, saying they are well aware of the sensitivity when the mayor is involved in something like this.  They said they took extra steps over the weekend to guard against scrutiny and made sure to treat the crash like they would any other.

"The mayor did not receive preferential treatment," said Detective Mary Wheat, spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau. But she said officers on the scene did not ignore who they were dealing with either.

"Anytime we have someone, whether it be the mayor or a city council person, anytime a high profile type person comes in contact with us, the officer is going to go ahead and notify their sergeant," she said.

Scott Westerman with the Portland Police Union said he knows the officer and sergeant on scene were above board.  He said they are part of a precinct that Adams just closed and they had every reason not to be. 

"And the sergeant made it very clear that this is the mayor that just shut down his precinct," he said.  "And so if there was even one iota of information that he could have done to legally jam the mayor up with a DUI charge, it would have happened."

Wheat said the Portland Police Bureau is aware of the potential with this kind of case and this kind of attention is exactly what they were trying to avoid.

"The officer was around the mayor for a very long time, was very close to him, did not smell any odor of an alcoholic beverage on him and did not see any signs of impairment," she said.

Officer Derek Harris, who responded to the 911 call, is the officer she was referring to. 

Harris wrote in his police report that Joslin told him "I think that guy might be drunk."  But after six separate face-to-face contacts with Adams, Harris concluded that the mayor was not under the influence and wrote the following in his police report:

I observed no signs of intoxication. I smelled no alcohol on his breath, heard no slurred speech when he spoke, no glossy eyes or flushed face and observed no staggering/clumsy movement from Adams.

Watch Dan Tilkin's Report On What Officer Harris Said

Police said that is why they did not move forward with a field sobriety test. They said they only conduct those tests if they believe the person committed a crime and they need to get probable cause to arrest that person.

KATU Reporter Adam Ghassemi stood next to Adams following the crash and did not detect any sign of alcohol either.

Watch Adam Ghassemi's Report From the Day of the Crash

We tried to talk to Adams on Tuesday but he declined to comment on this story.

On a side note, you might be surprised to learn that there are a lot of accidents where police do not investigate or issue citations to drivers. They said that is because there are so many accidents in Portland that if they did that, they would be doing only that and would not be able to respond to other crimes.