Truck driver arrested 2 hours after hit-and-run on snowy road
SALEM, Ore. – Police arrested a Beaverton truck driver who they said injured two people in a hit-and-run crash in the Santiam Pass area Monday night.
Alvin James Ellis, 59, was arrested over two hours after the crash near Salem.
Police said Ellis was driving a commercial truck pulling a semi-trailer without required chains on Highway 20 near Santiam Pass when his truck slid sideways on the snow-covered road and crashed into a Ford Focus with two people inside at around 9:20 p.m.
A witness told police that the truck noticeably shook on impact.
Ellis then drove away from the scene, police said. They found crash debris on the highway.
Two people who were inside the Ford Focus were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
A state police trooper spotted the truck and stopped it on Highway 22 near Salem at around midnight, police said.
Ellis was arrested and taken to the Marion County Jail. He faces charges of reckless driving and misdemeanor failure to perform duties of a driver involved in an injury crash.
So much for your career as a commercial driver buddy, and I don't have much respect for your compassion or responsibility as a human either.
Hit & Run? This driver can say bye bye to his career now. Carrying CDL requires to report any accident that we are involved, even with our own personal vehicle and/or not in business.
No drag chain on the trailer. Bad juju. I've seen more than one trailer in the ditch that way.
I followed a semi home 2 weeks ago on Santiam pass who was not chained. He was going 10 miles per hour all the way holding up traffic. When he got to the bottom, a State Trooper was waiting for him and had him out of his truck writing tickets and giving him a well deserved bad time. What a brainless idiot! Your not just risking your life.