Tigard Police Officer Travis Gregston learned the hard way what happens when drivers hear a siren but don’t pull over to the right or stop before proceeding on their way.
On March 12, Gregston was injured when a motorist turned in front of him on Southwest Hall Boulevard while he was answering an emergency call on his motorcycle.
“It sounded like she heard the siren and then really didn't see me until I was against her vehicle. So, my understanding is she never saw me at all. She just heard the siren,” Gregston recalled for media during a press conference at the Tigard Police Department on Tuesday, March 26, where he asked drivers to yield for emergency vehicles.
The motorist, who apparently was following another vehicle through the traffic light, was cited for driving while uninsured but not for any type of violation for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle, a decision made by the responding officer.
Gregston, an eight-year member of the department who has been on a traffic motorcycle officer for more than two years, believes the collision threw him 7 to 10 feet onto Hall Boulevard.
He injured his right knee and right shoulder as well as the left side of his helmet, “which is what impacted the side of the vehicle.”
“I flew off towards the rear of the vehicle into southbound traffic on Hall and initially I couldn't feel anything, it was just adrenaline or something,” said Gregston, a Sherwood resident.
His advice to drivers who hear an emergency siren?
“This specific scenario — stopped in an intersection — ideally, if you hear a siren, you want to stay stopped, figure out where the siren is coming from … before you decide to hit the accelerator and proceed through an intersection,” he said.
If a driver finds that the safest position for them is simply stopped, that’s fine. Gregston said the goal is to not make any abrupt movements.
“We’re going to try and anticipate what you're doing, and try and pass safely, right? But when you make an abrupt turn is when it becomes pretty dangerous,” Gregston said.
Then it’s important to make sure all emergency vehicles have passed before proceeding forward.
Estimating the motorist’s speed at the time of the collision with his vehicle was only 30 mph, he said it shows just how much damage even slow speeds can inflict upon both a motorcycle and its driver.
In retrospect, Gregston wishes the person who hit him “would have taken that extra second to see where it was coming from.”
In addition, he warns that drivers should be especially cautious when making left-hand turns, saying that not doing so can result T-bone crashes if motorists aren’t paying attention.
“You have got to be a defensive driver and with the sunny days ahead, unfortunately we see an increase in motorcycle accidents,” Gregston said.
Now back on full duty, Gregston said he has been reflecting on whether he could have done anything differently and learn from the experience.
“You know, I'm lucky enough to be walking away from this, and yeah, I took a few teaching points from this crash. Really for me, it’s just getting back on the bike and taking it a little more careful than I was in the past. Just a little more defensive,” he said.
Still, the collision hasn’t been enough to steer him away from motorcycles, saying he believes he has the best job in the department and that riding motorcycles — both the Tigard PD’s and his personal bike — is one of his passions. At the same time, he wants to be around to enjoy his 11-month-old son.
He admits that seeing the video of the crash, shot from a camera attached to his helmet, gave him a “little anxiety.”
“But it also showed what I thought I saw and what I processed after the collision,” he said.
Still, the incident will provide him with a teaching moment he will take with him the rest of his career.
Gregston’s collision is believed to be one of the most significant crashes involving a Tigard police officer in recent years, according to a police spokesperson.
In December 2017, Tigard Police Officer Matthew Barbee was seriously injured when a car driven by Darby Andrew McBride slammed into the officer’s vehicle, which was parked on the side of the road off Highway 26.
Barbee, who wasn’t on duty at the time, received life-threatening injuries and suffered a traumatic brain injury.
McBride was sentenced to 14 months in jail and three years of probation for convictions of third-degree assault, reckless driving and second-degree criminal mischief.
Elsewhere in Washington County, sheriff's Deputy Mike Trotter was responding to a possible drunk driving scene in 2022 when he entered the intersection of Southwest Tualatin Valley Highway and Murray Boulevard in Beaverton.
At the same time, a Nissan Altima carrying five local high school students drove through a red light, going nearly 100 mph, at the intersection. The Nissan collided with Trotter’s cruiser, leaving him with lasting injuries.
Trotter returned to work at the sheriff's office last fall, 19 months later.
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