Why didn't Ndamukong Suh get a ticket or sobriety test?

PORTLAND, Ore. – After NFL star Ndamukong Suh crashed his car in Portland on Saturday morning, he was allowed to leave without a citation or having to take a field sobriety test.

Even after two women came forward saying they were injured in the crash, but left the scene before talking to police, the Portland Police Bureau said they would not investigate further.

That has left some people asking why things happened the way they did. KATU spoke to a Portland Police lieutenant to get some answers.

Lt. Eric Schober said despite the impressive damage to the car after Suh crashed into a curb, light pole and other objects, it was actually a pretty routine crash. Officers only showed up because Suh himself called 9-1-1.

“If somebody didn’t call 9-1-1 we probably wouldn’t have known about it,” he said.

Schober said when officers arrive at a crash scene they typically don’t investigate unless someone is seriously hurt. In this case, the two women who were hurt didn’t talk to police until the next day and suffered relatively minor injuries.

A police spokesman said on Monday that to warrant an investigation, a crash must have caused “traumatic injuries,” involve intoxicated drivers or it must involve “vulnerable road users” – such as pedestrians or cyclists.

Schober said officers won’t give a sobriety test unless they smell alcohol or see other red flags.

“Speaking issues, balance problems, any issues like that to indicate that an intoxicant is on board,” he said.

In the police report about the Suh incident, the responding officer wrote that “Suh did not appear to be intoxicated and did not have any signs of impairment.”

In Suh’s case, there were also no other cars involved and perhaps most importantly, he stayed on the scene.

Because he damaged public property, police would have investigated the case as a hit and run if he had fled the scene.

“If it’s strictly a property damage accident, there’s no signs of impairment when we’re called to the scene, there’s no signs of impairment, there’s no signs of anybody injured at the time, we generally won’t investigate that accident,” Schober said.