Woman hurt in hit-and-run crash, driver turns self in
PORTLAND, Ore. – Police said the driver in a hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a Portland woman early Saturday morning has turned himself in.
It happened at Southeast 68th Avenue and Division Street just after 3 a.m., police said.
Witnesses said a dark-colored SUV hit the woman as she was crossing Division Street and drove away. The SUV did not slow down before or after hitting the woman, according to witnesses.
Sunday evening, police said Don Jeffrey Porter, 49, turned himself in. His SUV, a 2003 Ford Escape, was recovered from a body shop.
The woman, identified Monday as 37-year-old Sulema Hernandez-Rivas of Southeast Portland, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries that police said were not life-threatening. Police said she was in serious condition on Monday.
Police said Porter was charged with felony hit and run, hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence. He was taken to jail and is due in court on Monday.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call 503-823-2103.
His SUV was recovered from a body shop, I wonder if someone questioned him on the damage, then guilt set in.
Turned himself in willingly or was compeled by an honest body shop that was going to report him if he didn't?
Which comes with a tougher sentence - DUI or Hit & Run?
Thank you Mr. Porter. Accidents can and do happen...
@honorbound Yes but there's no excuse for failing to stop. While I'm happy that he did turn himself in, he should've stopped when it happened.
This is clearly Obama's fault.
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doug, in case you didnt know, galloping girdie fell into the tacoma narrows about 70 years ago!
@dougrpdx Sounds to me like you left out some critical details Doug...and looks like ur doing your best to highjack the topic of this thread to do some LEO bashing. Probably best to just stick with being an honest citizen...unless of course the guy had ur last name (not because you two worked something out and your wife berated you until you regretted it and made the phony call..) because he's mafia and was setting you up.
This is just crazy.. I can't imagine blazing down someone and keep going, but I guess this shows who lives amongst us.. On the other hand, I have never in my life witnessed so many people with the attitude and feeling of entitlement of walking across the street and everyone owes it to me to stop... I'm not sure where that concept came to be, but obviously it needs changed.. I would never cross a street unless I look both ways... Here in Portland pedestrians just walk out without looking.. They might be right, but dead right.. time to figure it out folks.
You can't know how you would react until it happens. Fear and panic will make you do things you wouldn't normally consider.
@dougrpdx PDX does have a large population of "tuned-out" and entitled folks who must literally think they you will be able to stop if they walk out in front of you. Natural selection in the modern age..
It might be stating the obvious, but there ARE ways to make safe crosswalks -- where the pedestrians are expected and can be seen, where you can see all the cars and whether they're stopped/stopping before you cross. Putting a crosswalk across a 4-lane road without a signal is not a safe way to do it (see http://www.walkinginfo.org/engineering/crossings-crosswalks.cfm for better ideas). You get what you engineer.
I hope the woman is okay.
My solution is to build a pedestrian bridge or tunnel every 50ft or so.
@karianne  So they should put a crosswalk every 20 feet and lots of street lights on every one of them...and who is going to pay for all of that. Much cheaper...make the vehicle have the right-of-way...train everyone that they HAVE to wait for cars...that was the way I was taught...have never been hit by a vehicle. Also this is one of the few countries in the world that the pedestrian has the right-of-way...most other countries have citizens that are smart enough to yield to vehicles and they have a much lower rate of pedestrian-vehicle accidents.
@flyingtime Actually, in many countries around the world the vehicle is automatically at fault in the case of a pedestrian being hit. As the car is the bigger, faster, harder way of getting around, it absolutely should be the one that yields. America's streets should not be a bully's playground.Â
Once again lower the speed limit to 5 MPH and save lives
my god, what are the odds of this lady being hit this many days in a row. im thinkin she is doing it on purpose.
if the police had been patrolling for dui suspects and not wasting time on busting pot heads and other little fish maybe they could have prevented this.Â
Posting a policeman full time on every intersection in the city should help as well.
How could this have happened? That woman wasn't riding a bike.
I witnessed a hit & run, truck vs car, not pedestrian but this happened in the DOL parking lot! I kid you not.. A man driving with his family backed their beat up old pick-up into a brand new car. He started to take off so I chased him and got most of the license number.Â
I went into DOL and they announced it, the owner came forward, hard working single mom.. I saw the man & he had been in DOL so they pulled up the last 10 men's license photos, and yes, he was an illegal. He had no insurance, that coupled with not being here legally was why he left.Â
Sorry but that is crap! That woman works hard to pay for her car & insurance and now her insurance will probably go up because somebody else broke several laws. The penalty for leaving the scene or hit & run needs to be raised! Mandatory JAIL time! That might make some of them think twice before taking off.
Very Sad Story: 2012 Â In Battleground, the first "city" near where I live, a young lady (who had just graduated HS) was walking on the SIDE WALK at night, a car ran her down! They killed her and left the scene- they haven't been caught yet. There's still a huge sign with her photo & reward info.. Such a sad, sad story! The coward that ran down that young girl needs to come forward and take responsibility for what they've done!
YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Grow a conscience and turn yourself in!Â
I was injured in a hit and run crash on Highway 99 north of Monroe by a woman named Esperanza, who ran the stop sign onto the highway and then left the scene after I ran out to see if she was alright. There were five of them in the car, and she was crying and hurt, but her husband kept telling me "EES ALRIGHT!"  When I went back to get my insurance card and driver's license (right?) I turned back and they were gone. Except, their bumper was about 20 yards up the road, with their license plate on it.
Esperanza needed a translator in court, and told the judge that the car had been hit when she was shopping at the Safeway. Her husband, who did not need a translator, said that the had been hit in their driveway by an unknown vehicle. The judge, in Dallas, did not take the license of there's that I carried into the courtroom with my into consideration, nor did he punish them for telling him two different stories under oath when it was clear they were -both- lying.
She didn't get jail time for the hit-and-run, and she didn't have a license or insurance, and couldn't speak English, so her punishment was court-ordered enrollment into a program to get her driver's license, to be suspended for a year, and she had to pay for three years of insurance in advance. That was it. The cop who testified with me couldn't believe it.
This happened in 1992. The reason I'm pointing it out is, it's not an Obama/Kitzhaber thing. It's nothing new. We know how this goes.
@Playanekes I've been hit by cars lots of times. My brother used to throw his matchbox cars at me. Taught me how to duck....
@Playanekes WOW! That's terrible! I would've been so angry! Where is the JUSTICE in that? There is NONE!
If they don't face a stiff penalty, they will do it again! Others will continue to do it!
We need tougher penalties for hit & run and/or leaving the scene! Mandatory JAIL time.. It will make at least SOME of them think twice before leaving..Â
@Playanekes My husband and I have been hit 5 times in the last 25 years, every single time the other car was driven by a white person (drunk middle aged woman, middle aged woman high on prescription drugs, white guy driving his company van, white guy driving while exhausted, and a young mother with children in he car), a grand total of 2 of them had insurance, and the drunk woman had had her license revoked but was driving anyway because she needed booze and cigs. So, it's not only not an Obama/Kitz thing, it's also not a race thing. The drunk woman also attempted to flee the scene but I was young and stupid and chased her until she crashed into 3 other people and disabled her own car, so an attempted hit and run. The guy driving the van caused a chain-reaction collision, and the nice white lady in front of us attempted to commit insurance fraud by claiming we hit her first, then we were struck from behind. What saved us? A nice brown man who was a witness.
Ever since they let white people wander free it's been happening ! they just need to go back to where they came from and stop whining about stuff !
@Playanekes How's that head injury working out for you?
Tonight turning into the new crunch gym off SE 122nd a walker was diagonally crossing from taco time toward the bus stop enclosure and focused on a hand device. Somebody in more of a hurry would of hit him. The trimet enclosure blocked the vision. I wonder how many peds saw the car that hit them
@Bert That is so completely common out there.
@Playanekes Thanks for stating the obvious.
Even if you look before you step out, that doesn't stop someone from flying up on you after you're already well into the road. A number of the hit-and-run accidents lately have happened when the pedestrian was well into the street.
One of the biggest problems is speed. No one wants to do the speed limit anymore. I get people riding my tail, honking at me, etc. when I am on a surface street, in the "slow lane", doing the speed limit. No, I am not going to break the law for you so that you can get somewhere 30 seconds sooner.
@Jenni S. That's when it's fun to slow down. Then watch them beat on the steering wheel. Cheep entertainment.
If a bicyclist had been hit, It would automatically be determined it was the bicyclist's fault and little, if anything, would happen to the hit/run motorist. Extrapolating, this must be the pedestrian's fault. No prosecution will happen.
@Ed Ruttledge I seriously doubt that's true.
@Ed Ruttledge Bicyclist are always at fault, very rude and whiny riders.
@RandyH @Ed Ruttledge  plus extremely wreckless with no regard to anyone else or the law. Running stop signs, wrong way on one way streets, on sidewalks...you name it. Also...a bycicleist in Corvallis hit a pedestrian in a crosswalk with the warning lights flashing. The police officer talked to him, never gave him a ticket or warning. This was in the Corvallis newspaper.....
I'm sick of these bycicleists.
open season   car control ban
This hit and run B.S. is becoming a daily thing in Portland and surrounding areas. What gives?!!
The population around the city must be like, 100 million people or something. So this is bound to happen.
@Liberty4_WA People + cars = people get hit. The more variables you have in an equation means the more things will happen.
@Liberty4_WA Que?
@Liberty4_WAÂ Portland is a city of scum, drugs and gangs. Â What more can you expect.
There are a lot of wrecks on se division. Too cars Too many people crammed together. Good city planning. Where one house stood now stands apartments
Maybe instead of watching for pedestrians, it should be the law that people should watch for zombies. That way, they are more alert to what is going on, and actually stop before hitting a pedestrian.Â
@washcomom CDC Zombie training: http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/documents/11_225700_A_Zombie_Final.pdf
@washcomom The heck???
@tigress Apparently the driver failed to see this pedestrian, because they didn't stop. I'm just saying - with all the stupid laws lately, why not add one more?Â
It's INSANE with the amount of pedestrian vs vehicle accidents. People need to open their eyes and stop!
Of the so called "weekly tri-fecta" , the pitbull mauling is historically the hardest to fulfill.  But with this weeks piitbull/chiwahwah  mauling having already occured, the week is complete, with a smokers carelessness fire, a pitbull mauling and a hit and run.  good job pdx!
What, again? What's up with all the people getting hit by cars lately? Granted the drivers need to be aware but so do the pedestrians. NEVER assume the driver sees you, especially in the dark or poorly lighted area. Wait until the car passes or you can see it's going to stop BEFORE stepping out into traffic. Seems like basic survival mode to me: 'A large heavy object that weights thousand of pounds is heading in the direction of the path you want to take....stop....let it go by. Walking out in front of it with the assumption that the driver will see you may put you in the hospital or the morgue'.  Â
@mjoh  Hey, no common sense allowed in this forum ;-) Wait, maybe it's no common sense allowed in Portland!
@wondering. I'm
sorry, you're right. I'll go start my 12-step program to help me with my addiction to common sense right now!!! LOL! :)
@mjoh If a zombie enrolls in a 12-step program, doesn't it take a lot longer and occasionally wander into traffic?
Can two beetles work together and complete it in half the time?
Do four three-legged unicorns automatically complete it simultaneously?
How in hell is a snake supposed to complete a 12-step program?