Driver Accused of Driving Under the Influence of Dangerous Drug

‘That somebody didn’t get hurt or killed is phenomenal.’ I
looked up from the northbound road on the new Youngs Bay Bridge at
11:19 a.m. Monday as I heard a bang. A red Dodge Ram had swung into my
lane and nearly hit the three motorcyclists in front of me. I saw a motorcycle go down.

The
truck was headed straight for me. I wasted a few seconds in shock, and
a few more trying to decide whether I could drive into the opposite
lane without suffering a head-on collision with some other vehicle. By
then, I could see the truck slowing as it skidded against the bridge
rail. It ground to a halt about 30 feet away.

What I didn’t see
was that the driver, later identified as Mark L. Root, had crashed into
two other cars before he ran down Bill Bourne’s motorcycle. Bourne had
to “lay down” his motorcycle, tipping it onto its side and jumping free
into the southbound lane.

It happened because Root was on marijuana, troopers said.

I
couldn’t believe it. I was sure it had to be a harder drug. After he
fetched up against the railing, Root, 43, was jerking as much as 12
inches from side to side before he collapsed on the front seat. He
looked like he was having a seizure. Motorcyclist Will Turnbull said he
was foaming at the mouth.

“Marijuana is a serious drug,” said
Oregon State Police Trooper Tom Hunt, who is handling the crash
investigation. He said while people often think a little grass is no
big deal, it can have serious consequences.

Hunt said Root’s
truck first hit the driver’s side of a green Saab belonging to Heather
Devine of Hillsboro. She was treated at Columbia Memorial Hospital and
released.

Hunt said Devine was very lucky to walk away from the
crash. “That somebody didn’t get hurt or killed is phenomenal,” he
said. Root’s truck was deflected from Devine’s smashed car onto a white
pickup, which Hunt said received less significant damage, before
veering into the path of the motorcycles and hitting the rail.

Root,
of 38888 U.S. Highway 30 in Astoria, was treated at Columbia Memorial
Hospital and released. He was lodged in Clatsop County Jail for five
counts of reckless endangerment and one count of fourth-degree assault
for hitting Devine’s car. He was also charged with driving under the
influence of a controlled substance, driving with a suspended license,
driving uninsured, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and
failure to display license plates. The plates were not the ones that
belonged to the car, Hunt said.

Car parts and glass littered the
bridge for several hundred feet. Root’s truck looked totaled; the front
wheels dangled uselessly from the vehicle as a crew from Astoria Towing
removed it from the bridge. The Department of Transportation and
Warrenton police provided traffic control while state police dealt with
the accident. Traffic was fully under way again at about 11:56 a.m.

Root
himself might have had to deal with three angry bikers if he had been
responsive. Just after his final crash against the railing, Turnbull
stalked toward the truck. His posture indicated great anger.

When
he saw Root’s condition, Turnbull stared at the twitching form for a
moment and turned away. “This guy’s in another zone,” he said,
disgusted.

While a joke was made about dumping Root over the
side of the bridge, Turnbull, Bourne and the third biker, Jeff Wiems,
said their primary emotion was happiness they are alive.

“Other
than laundry problems, we’re fine,” Wiems said. All three bikers, on
vacation from Las Vegas, Nev., agreed they had “laundry problems” after
their near miss.

Bourne said he was too nervous to be angry. He could hardly believe he was alive.

“I’m just going to go home and figure out what I’ve done right to have him missing me,” he said.