There are two things to keep in mind as you witness the series of somewhat hilarious crashes that recently occurred in Pendleton, Oregon. The first – and most important – thing is that no one gets hurt in this comedy machine fight. Secondly, this is not entirely the fault of the local police. Or is it?
Here’s what we know, according to Eastern Oregon. On December 5, police in Pendleton were busy dealing with multiple accidents amid light snowfall in the area. On a very slippery hill, a Ford Explorer police car becomes one of the statistics when it slides on the shoulder of the road. The patrol SUV appeared to be parked with no one inside as it slowly drifted over to a boat on a trailer, which then crashed into a full-size Ford pickup truck.
This is where things really went off track, as the TikTok video embedded above clearly shows. The bulky F-Series doesn’t slide down hills, it moves freely. It’s unknown what happened – perhaps the crash damaged the parking lock on the transmission, or if it was a manual, it could have knocked the gear out. Either way, the parking brake was definitely not set and as a result, the pickup rolled down the hill as fast as gravity would allow.
The video shows at least four subsequent collisions between Ford and other vehicles. Or rather, we can hear four accidents. The Ram pickup was the first victim, followed by the older Jeep Grand Cherokee. A third vehicle that we could not identify was glimpsed, after which we heard another crash. Actually, it’s probably a Ford and The Ram crashes into the Jeep, but that’s a moot point.
Now, back to our original question. Yes, the police vehicle that rolled off started this whole chain of events. However, many commenters on the TikTok video pointed out the freewheeling F-Series, which certainly won’t roll if the parking brake is applied. It also won’t pick up speed if the front wheel is turned toward the curb. Setting the parking brake and turning the wheels to the curb are common safety practices when parking on a hill, covered in snow or otherwise. Should the white truck owner be blamed here?
Other than the police officer on the left of the video looking a bit distraught, there have been no reports of human-related injuries or illness, so that’s good news. The bad news is, after surviving Winter Storm Diaz, most of the Midwest states could be hit by a second blizzard before Christmas. That means more slippery hills and potentially dangerous driving conditions, so stay safe out there and relax at home together Rambling About Cars podcast, available below.
