A Beaverton man who dangled over Highway 217 in his pickup truck for nearly an hour Saturday afternoon has been rescued and is in the hospital, according to police…. [The accident] happened on an overpass above the highway at Southwest Denney Road around 3:40 p.m. The wheels of the pickup caught a guardrail and seemingly kept it from falling head-on to the ground below…. Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue crews were able to get Hamilton out by first securing the truck to a fire engine using ropes and chains to keep it from falling. They then used another engine stationed below the overpass that had a basket at the end of a ladder to get Hamilton back to solid ground.
Here in Oregon, the annual Civil War football game between Oregon and Oregon State is a big deal. If you can’t be at the game in Eugene or Corvallis, the next best thing is getting together with friends who are Ducks and Beavers. It’s a friendly rivalry, and the bragging rights are never really taken to an extreme. The drinking, though, is another story…especially when kickoff is at noon PST and you’re hammered by 3pm. Most fans have sufficient common sense to not drink and driver, and many who host parties are smart enough to confiscate keys if drinking will be taking place.
And then there’s Matthew Alan Hamilton, who seems to personify the axiom that drunk and stupid is no way to go through life. Shortly after the game ended with Oregon’s 48-24 victory, Hamilton decided to drive home. Evidently, Hamilton was too drunk to realize just how drunk he was, and, as often happens when you combine drinking, driving, stupidity, and an epic lack of judgment, much hilarity quickly ensued. And by “hilarity,” I mean “there but for the grace of pure blind luck goes a man who by all rights should be dead.”
Beaverton Police say they believe alcohol was a factor in the crash, which happened on an overpass above the highway at Southwest Denney Road around 3:40 p.m. The wheels of the pickup caught a guardrail and seemingly kept it from falling head-on to the ground below.
“Hilarity” might be overstating things just a wee bit, especially if you talk to a member of the Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue crew who responded to an emergency call and discovered Hamilton’s pickup dangling from a freeway overpass…with Hamilton still inside.
I used to live less than a mile from the accident site, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how Hamilton got his truck over a steel railing that has to be four feet high. Then again, when your blood alcohol level is .5% (and no, that’s not a typo), I suppose all things are possible.
Miraculously, no one was killed seriously injured. Hamilton, once he was rescued, was taken to the hospital and then to the Washington County Jail, where he was charged with reckless driving, DUI, and driving with a suspended license (from a previous DUI conviction). Hamilton’s fortunate that his truck’s rear wheels got caught on the steel railing and kept him from landing in one of the freeway lanes below. Things could have been much worse, and Hamilton could have easily take a few people with him into the Great Beyond.
Things like this make me wonder why good people die while idiots like Hamilton survive to perpetuate their stupidity. It makes me wonder if there really is any justice available in this world. It also makes me wonder that the concept of natural selection might be just a wee bit overrated.
