>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

A car that plowed into a concrete planter in front of Cove High School Monday evening narrowly missed crashing through the front doors of the school where teachers and students still gathered. The driver, whose name has not been released, was transported to Grande Ronde Hospital by ambulance. No other details on him were available Tuesday morning. - The Observer/MARDI FORD

The driver, whose name has not been released, was transported to Grande Ronde Hospital by ambulance. Fortunately no one else was injured. The car’s air bags had deployed and the driver was wearing his seat belt.

“At this time we are not assuming alcohol was a factor. There was no odor and the victim was pretty coherent,” Union County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick  Kruse said at the scene.

Eyewitnesses said that at approximately 6 p.m. they heard the car’s roaring engine as it came speeding down Mill Creek Lane. The driver barreled through the stop sign, crossed the street in front of the school where the car hit the curb, and went airborne into the parking lot. It crashed head on into a 15-inch thick concrete planter, rolled end over end and came to rest on what was left of its wheels. 

Witnesses say there was so much smoke and dust in the air they all thought the car had crashed into the school building.

“For an accident like this, we’re about as fortunate as we can be,” said Lisa Murchison, who was just inside the school with fellow teacher Toby Koehn when the accident occurred. “If this planter

hadn’t been here, the car crashed into this corner of the building — Toby and I probably would have been taken out.”

Murchison said she and Koehn came out the front doors and saw the car.

“Then Toby went over and yanked the driver’s door open to check his injuries. The man said something like, ‘I don’t know how I got here. Is anybody hurt?’ Toby asked him his name and I think he said Bennett or something like that. But I don’t know him,” Murchison said.

Ironically, the large concrete planter that stopped the car from crashing into the school was built in the 1980s as a memorial for Karen Phinney, a student who was killed in a car accident a few weeks after graduating. The planter is a favorite gathering spot for students.

Teacher Susan Koehn, who was just across the street at the time of the accident, said a group of girls had been gathered around the planter just minutes before.

“We are so lucky. This could have been a terrible tragedy,” a visibly shaken Koehn said. “If it had happened during school when the parking lot was full of kids — I don’t even want to think about it.”

Melissa Rice was walking her dog along the school sidewalk as the car and driver, who appeared to be dazed, flew past a few feet in front of her.

“I heard him coming and thought the car was going way too fast. I pulled my dog out of the way just in time. There was so much smoke, I thought he had hit the building. You can see where he tore up the asphalt with his wheels,” Rice said pointing to a set of grooved tracks in the parking lot surface. “The tires popped when he hit the curb. He was airborne when the front of his car hit that planter.”

Kyle Holland, a Cove High School student, heard the accident but did not see it. His car was the only one left in the lot right in front of the main doors where the impact occurred.

“He missed my car by about six inches. If he had been a little to the right, he would have hit it,” Holland said. The only damage appeared to be small dents where asphalt being churned up and out of the pavement was flung into Holland’s car.

No report had been filed as of this morning, so no details on the driver were available. Without a full name, the hospital was unable to give any details about the driver’s condition.

No witnesses at the accident scene Monday were able to identify the man.