TVF&R crew member rescues man from vehicle after overpass wreck

Driver tells police he drank at friend’s house during Civil War game

Beaverton police responded around 3:40 p.m. on Saturday to the scene of a wreck on the Denney Road overpass of Highway 217, in which a red pickup truck driven by Matthew Alan Hamilton was dangling precariously by a guardrail post above the busy highway below.

The southbound driver exited 217 at Denney Road and promptly crashed his truck through a guardrail on the south side of the overpass, said Officer Mike Rowe, Beaverton Police Department spokesman. Hamilton, 38, the truck’s sole occupant, remained in the vehicle until Peter Lehmann of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue’s Technical Rescue Team rescued him by riding up on a crane-mounted basket.

Hamilton told police he had been drinking before the wreck at friend’s house in the Beaverton area during the Civil War football matchup between the University of Oregon Ducks and Oregon State University’s Beavers. While being treated for non life-threatening injuries at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Hamilton’s blood-alcohol content was measured at .50, more than six times the .08 legal threshold.

Hamilton was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving and driving while suspended on a misdemeanor for a previous DUII, Rowe said.

He was lodged in the Washington County Jail.