Thread: OR: Suspected hit-and-run driver taken into custody

Suspected hit-and-run driver taken into custody
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Story Published: Nov 28, 2007 at 4:18 PM PST

Story Updated: Nov 28, 2007 at 7:05 PM PST
By KATU Web Staff

Video - http://www.katu.com/news/local/11898051 ... eo=YHI&t=a

http://www.katu.com/news/11898051.html

GLADSTONE, Ore. - A 51-year-old Milwaukie man is in custody in connection with a fatal hit-and-run crash involving a woman in a wheelchair.

The crash happened Wednesday around 6 a.m., a time when it was dark and foggy.

According to police, the woman had just gotten off a TriMet bus and was crossing Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard in an unmarked area near Jennings Avenue and Boardman Avenue when she was struck by a dark-colored vehicle.

The woman, who was later identified as 40-year-old Mary Denise Richey of north Portland, was dragged about 100 feet in her wheelchair. She suffered serious injuries and later died at Oregon Health and Science University.

Police later took 51-year-old Rafael Avelino Gines into custody after a green 1995 Ford Econoline van, believed to be the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run, was located in the vicinity of the crash. A tip led police to the van (pictured below under the green tarp).

Avelino Gines is being held at the Clackamas County Jail and faces one count of felony hit-and-run.

The investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to call the Oregon State Police Northern Command Center at (800) 452-7888.

[Poster note - I live fairly close to this unfortunate event... ]


Woman struck, killed by van
Gladstone - The victim, in a wheelchair, was trying to cross McLoughlin Boulevard
Related Documents (PDF):
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Thursday, November 29, 2007
JESSICA BRUDER
The Oregonian Staff

GLADSTONE -- Mary Denise Richey steered her wheelchair off a TriMet bus Wednesday morning and into the foggy darkness of Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard. She crossed midblock in front of the bus and into the southbound lanes.

Before she reached the centerline, a Ford van slammed into her wheelchair, pushed her for about 100 yards and kept going. Investigators said the driver didn't appear to be speeding.

Richey, 40, of North Portland died a short time later at OHSU Hospital. She is the eighth pedestrian killed since 1997 on the stretch of McLoughlin between Milwaukie and Gladstone.

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Several hours after the 6 a.m. crash, Oregon State Police got a phone call from a Southeast Portland pastor. The driver wanted to surrender, he said.

Police arrested 51-year old Rafael Avelino Gines of Milwaukie and booked him into the Clackamas County Jail on one count of felony hit and run. He was placed on an immigration hold by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Vera Devitt, Richey's 82-year-old paternal grandmother, said Richey was the divorced mother of four grown children and lived in the St. Johns area with one of Richey's three daughters.

Richey used a wheelchair after she injured her legs several years ago while stepping off a bus, Devitt said. She was unable to work though she was once a waitress, she added.

Police said they believed Richey was crossing McLoughlin to visit a drug-treatment clinic. Staff at Integrated Health Clinics declined to comment.

Southeast McLoughlin has a well-earned reputation as dangerous for pedestrians, who routinely attempt to cross without the protection of crosswalks, medians or lights, with traffic often exceeding 45 mph. The Oregon Department of Transportation recorded 45 auto-pedestrian collisions on the road between 1997 and 2006.

Even without the added challenge of a wheelchair, McLoughlin Boulevard near Boardman Avenue is particularly treacherous. There is no crosswalk or traffic light at the Boardman Avenue intersection just north of the bus stop where Richey disembarked, though a safety island offers some refuge.

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There is no sidewalk on the eastern side of the road where Richey was headed, only a shoulder. And the nearest intersection with a traffic light and crosswalk is one long block south at Jennings Avenue.

Crossing in front of the bus was a risky choice because it hid her from oncoming traffic until she entered the roadway, said Tim Bailey, a forensic crash reconstructionist with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office who investigated the scene.

"Somebody coming up would not see her until she crosses over and gets out of the silhouette of the bus," Bailey said. "If she'd been behind, crossing at the safety island, the driver would have had a better chance to see her."

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Of the eight pedestrians killed on that part of McLoughlin in the past 11 years, five were crossing the street between intersections; one was crossing at an intersection that lacked a traffic signal; one was standing or lying in the roadway; and one was struck by a car that had a tire failure.

Hit-and-run crashes are common in the area, too. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office has logged 393 wrecks involving hit-and-run drivers since 1997, said Detective Jim Strovink, a sheriff's spokesman.

For years, neighborhood leaders and others have lobbied to make the wide expanse of highway safer. The state transportation department recently completed pedestrian improvements on McLoughlin Boulevard in downtown Milwaukie, adding pedestrian islands, installing textured orange crosswalks that are more visible to motorists, and additional lighting.

The department is now working on paving and adding sidewalks to other areas of McLoughlin Boulevard between Portland and Southeast Roethe Road, which is north of where Wednesday's hit-and-run occurred.

Jessica Bruder: 503-294-5915; jessicabruder@news.oregonian.com Sarah Hunsberger of The Oregonian contributed to this report.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonia ... thispage=1

In case of line-wrapping... http://tinyurl.com/2n2lun

Being this is my area and in my county...

Let me add just a couple of rather obvious comments here:

1. This is the same county / area that Dani Countryman was murdered this last summer (by illegal aliens).

2. If it weren't for the pressure, and later decision by the Sheriff's Office to check/report suspected IAs (following on the public outcry after the Countryman murder), the detainer hold by ICE on the perp never would have happened.

3. Thankfully, they police were able to find and hold this guy. All in all, this is yet ANOTHER preventable and tragic story of violence perpetrated against a law-abiding innocent US citizen. Wow, the perp hits a wheelchair bound mother of 4, on her way to drug-treatment counseling... and doesn't even stop to check.... GRRRRR!


What I want to know is... since the woman died as a result of the event, why aren't the charges bumped up to be manslaughter or even homicide instead of just felony 'hit-and-run'??? Clackamas County DA Mr. Foote - are you paying attention?

It is vehicular manslaughter and he fled the scene because they "found the van".

Dixie

Thanks PhredE,

At the time I posted this, he had not be officially named an Illegal Alien. You know as well as me, this thing smelled like another Illegal killing. That's why I posted it. I thought the same thing when Dani Countryman story broke, long before the suspects were even identified. In Oregon, a license is an invitation and license to kill.

Re:

In Oregon, a license is an invitation and license to kill.

Yep, too true. Very sad.

Let's see if Kulongoski has the uh-hum 'guts' to deal with the license issue correctly.

No worries on the timing of the news. I too, thought this smelled pretty bad from the get-go, and as intuition would suggest, we were proved correct... yet again.

Let's see if Kulongoski has the uh-hum 'guts' to deal with the license issue correctly

I'm not holding my breath, Sleepy Ted will never do anything that helps the average citizen.

People, if you hate George Bush; meet his evil Democrat twin, Governor Ted Kulongoski in the Peoples Republic of Oregon where life liberty and your wallet are never safe

The Oregon Governor: covered up and protected a friend and ex-Governor who systematically raped the babysitter, gave licenses to hundreds of thousand of illegals who are killing Oregonians daily and is deporting an American Citizen to Mexico. It doesn't get better than this clown!!

I first heard about this on the radio, they gave the name of the victim, but said the suspect’s name was being withheld, that’s when I knew it was a damn illegal.

Another invader…Another dead American.

Let me add a rather ironic footnote to all the above.

There is a restaurant on the corner of the intersection where the 'accident' occurred. The name of the place is: 'El Taco Loco".
They have reserved a small patch of space on the street frontage to sell XMas trees....

If you can tune in to Dobbs today (4:00pm local) he'll have a local State Legislator activist (from our side) on talking about licenses for illegals here in the State (OR).

What exactly does governor Kulongoski’s tighter restrictions on IA’ licenses mean?

Will the invaders who already have a license be revoked?