Portland police captain injured in Monday crash

The South County Spotlight, Sep 23, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The Portland Police Bureau captain in charge of the agency’s traffic division and his wife were critically injured in a Monday afternoon Highway 30 crash 10 miles west of Rainier.

At 5 p.m. a Plymouth Voyager van driven by Jeffrey L. Liddget, 47, from Clatskanie, was westbound on Highway 30 near milepost 57 when it swerved into the eastbound lane.

An eastbound Pontiac Sunfire driven by Justin M. Aldrich, age 24, from Castle eastbound shoulder ditch to avoid the van.

Eric Hendricks, 54, the Portland captain, who was with his 52-year-old wife, Nadine, was following the Pontiac and also tried to avoid the oncoming van by steering toward the right shoulder. The van collided into the BMW’s driver side causing it to come to a rest on its passenger side on the eastbound shoulder.

The Hendricks were critically injured and, after extraction from the BMW, were transported by Columbia Rive Fire and Rescue to a Longview, Wash., hospital. Later, LifeFlight was summoned to transfer Eric Hendricks to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland.

Nadine Hendricks was transported by LifeFlight to Oregon Health Sciences University inPortland.

Both remain in intensive care.

Lidgett was transported to a Longview hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He later told investigators he swerved to avoid what he thought were deer moving toward his lane from the highway shoulder.

Aldrich was not transported.

All crash victims were wearing safety restraints.

– From Oregon State Police reports

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