SELF-ABSORBED MOTORISTS

[August 3rd, 2005] With 10 pedestrians and cyclists killed by cars in Portland this year, we here at the Rogue Desk meant to step in earlier to comment on self-absorbed motorists . It is with some shame, then, that we admit it was not until one of our own was hit that we finally took notice.

Last Wednesday morning, WW reporter Angela Valdez was riding her bike south on Northeast 15th Avenue when 51-year-old Charles E. Myrick , going the same direction, passed her in his car. Myrick then took a right on Northeast Prescott, cutting Valdez off. She slammed into the side of his car and fell onto her back. An ambulance took her to the hospital, where doctors found she had a fractured spine and sacrum.

Valdez faces a long painful rehab but will survive. At the scene, Myrick denied responsibility, saying it was Valdez's fault for riding into his car. Portland Police Officer Todd Hussey, who responded to the accident, says another witness came forward and echoed Valdez's account-that it was Myrick's fault.

But as with most collisions, there will be no prosecution. "It doesn't rise to the level of a crime," says Hussey.

It's easy to single out Myrick-besides being an ex-con, he has had several tickets for speeding, as well as for failure to obey a traffic-control device, meaning a stop sign or stop light.

But he's far from the only motorist who has been involved in near-fatalities, near-misses and the like with Portland's pedestrians and pedalers. The latest fatality was a cyclist struck Monday night by a hit-and-run driver near Delta Park.

The Rogue Desk wishes it didn't take such a personal scare to get off the dime, but hopes this better-late-than-never message can help remind our driving readers not to space out behind the wheel.