Police: DUII suspect drives wrong way on I-5, crashes into SUV
»Play Video
TUALATIN, Ore. – Police cited a Portland man who they said was drunk when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 5 and crashed into an SUV on an off-ramp near Tualatin Saturday night.
State police said someone reported a driver going south in the northbound lanes of I-5 at around 7:20 p.m. Police received a report a short time later that a two cars crashed into each other on the southbound Interstate 205 off-ramp that leads onto the northbound lanes of I-5.
Derek S. Thiem, 35, was driving the wrong way when he crashed his car into an SUV with a family of five inside, police said.
Thiem was taken to OHSU in Portland. His injuries were not life-threatening. Police said he was wearing a seat belt during the crash and the airbags deployed.
No one who was inside the SUV was taken to the hospital.
Thiem was cited for DUII, reckless driving, recklessly endangering another person, assault (4th degree), criminal mischief and possession of an open container of alcohol in a vehicle.
I completely fail to understand how the driver in the legitimate lanes of I-5 cannot possibly see that there is a vehicle coming towards them on the freeway,going the wrong way?Are drivers so attention deficit that they no longer pay attention to what is ahead of them?
 @Whitehawk Wow that must mean it's the innocent person's fault that some jerk drives drunk down the highway.  Whoa.Â
Driving drunk is bad enough but when a drunk driver crashes into an occupied vehicle or hits a person it should be escalated to an automatic felony with mandatory jail time, huge fines, and loss of vehicle.
This just makes me so MADD!
Maybe we should ban alcohol like they want to do assault rifles. Cause.. as Biden says.. if even ONE life could be spared because of it.. its worth it. You all with me? ..........
@Liberty4_WAÂ Â we would all be better off if we banned biden and the joker that he reports to.
@Liberty4_WA  I agree but that has already been tried and failed (just like the gun ban will fail). The problem is with people.Â
Senseless, selfish act. I'm sure this joker will drive again and probably kill someone.
What pray tell was the other 5 folks in the car doing? Â Did they not yell at this guy, try to turn the ignition off, have the guy pull over? Â And what were they doing in a car with a drunk in the first place? Â Of course they might have been as drunk as the driver. Â Such stupidityÂ
 @granny4life First of all, the family of five were not drunk or have any kind of possession on them...they were heading back from church.  The one driver was drunk and was heading into the family of five which swerved twice to move out of his way and he kept steering into them and hit them. There were three young children and two adults in the one car. Your stupid granny4life!! Read the article right before you start blurting out dumb crap like this. I for one, know what happened as this family is my roomates son and his kids and wife!!
I can see how the journalist writing could lead you to think that Granny, but in truth, Theim was alone, the party of five were in the suv
Â
Dumb ass. Â At least no one got hurt bad enough to require hospitalization.
We need to start severely punishing these criminals who drink and drive and then hurt innocent people. These adults know better but choose to take the wrong path. They should be punished like just any other criminal/murderer!!
Too bad someone can't come up with a device that is triggered by wrong-way traffic on off-ramps that activates a set of really big honking spikes that not only takes out the tires, but most of the underside of the vehicle as well.
Â
The device could also be designed to be temporarily disabled by emergency responders who sometimes need to go down off-ramps to more quickly reach areas of a freeway.
That wouldn't be hard at all. The technology already exists.An automatic speed camera with just a bit of tweaking is essentially that device, just set it up to activate those spikes instead of taking a photo.
 @Mikey Great idea!
I remember way back in the early 80's Miss.Douglas county was killed by a drunk wrong way driver on I-5.Her sister who was also a MissDouglas County was permanently brain damaged.One drunk driver devasted a whole entire church as well as the community and a family.I'm in favor of upgrading the charges to second degree murder or attempted murder if no death occurred.
 @noneofyourbizzness Or 1st degree if the POS has multiple DUIs.
Ouch.
This comment has been deleted
@Mike Smith That can be said for all laws. Only LAW ABIDING people follow them and most are just common sense. The laws we have for guns have done nothing to stop the nuts and thugs from using guns to kill. Honest people don't need laws. Law breakers don't care what the laws say now or in the future ie..the law against murder doesn't deter them. Why would anyone think more gun laws will do anything but take away honest people's rights.
 @Mike SmithÂ
Â
Yes, I'm sure those aliens would soon realize that all those creatures would be far safer if they were properly caged and controlled. Provided the right environment people wouldn't even need knives for feeding and all the hard edges could be removed from their environment and even breeding could be accomplished selectively and in a controlled manner.  People wouldn't need rights or property or money or travel because all their needs would be provided for within their own artificial environment.
Â
Yeah, that would be great....a real freaking utopia....the aliens start implementing that now.
 @Icarus  @Mike Smith To any race that advanced, we're probably like ants anyway. Why bother to cage and control? Just eliminate. Plenty of bio-fuel for whatever or put what's left into a fusion reactor and break it down into its basic elements.
Â
But then THEY would have to contend with cockroaches...which we all know are going to take over the universe. Heh heh heh!
We need an immediate ban on alcohol.Â
 @2012 Hope and ChangeÂ
uh, that was already tried last century. it was called prohibition & it failed. Â still manage to leave a whole lotta people blind, brain damaged or dead anyway.
Â
 @Lia  @2012 Hope and ChangeÂ
Â
Right...then we need an immediate ban on cars because it is clear that you cannot control drunk people so only by banning cars can society effectively reduce the damage that drunks inflict on society.
Â
Â
BTW ---Â That was Michal Moore's argument except in place of drunks it was mentally ill and instead of cars it was guns.
Â
When the entire world is made safe for crazy people then everybody will be living in a rubber room.
No one in the SUV was injured? That was very fortunate! It must have been a HUGH SUV. Thankfully, only the drunk was injured!
This comment has been deleted
That would also be 5 counts of Assault IV and 5 counts of Endangering a Person. Attempted Murder wouldn't fly as this fool lacked intention!
This comment has been deleted
@Tom dogboy Collins Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, ORS 163.149 Class A Felony, could apply if someone had unfortunately died. Â