December 9, 2019 11:10 a.m.
A series of wrecks took place on Interstate Five near the Garden Valley northbound exit on Friday afternoon.
Reports from Oregon State Police said just before 4:50 p.m. a passenger vehicle hit a pickup as it was slowing to stop for a crash on the freeway in the exit lane of the off-ramp. The report said the pickup driver stopped for a short time and then left the scene without getting out of his vehicle or attempting to exchange information. The passenger vehicle had to be towed from the scene.
Two minutes later another crash took place in the same area, when the driver of a sedan rear-ended another sedan causing that vehicle to hit a third vehicle which had stopped for traffic. That sent the third vehicle into the rear end of a pickup resulting in a four-vehicle accident. The report said the driver who caused the wreck fled the scene on foot before police could arrive. The 29-year old Winchester man was later located at his residence and arrested for failure to perform the duties of a driver. He was detained on $6,250 bail and was released later on Friday night.
No one was apparently injured in either of the wrecks. Rain had been falling late Friday afternoon though the reports do not mention the weather as a possible contributing factor.
Northbound traffic on the freeway was backed up due to the wrecks. The northbound on-ramp to the freeway from West Harvard was closed for a time due to the situation.