The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Vancouver, WA — Police are continuing to investigate a pickup truck driver who turned a school driveway into a runway Thursday. The Toyota launched off a concrete island and knifed through a Volkswagen Beetle.

Together, the interlocked vehicles slid into two more parked cars, pushing a Toyota Camry sideways into a maroon Oldsmobile.

A mom and her two small children were inside the sedan preparing for a play date when the unlikely trio of cars came thundering into them. The other two cars were unoccupied.

The two boys, ages 4 months and 2 years, remarkably escaped without a scratch. Shaleign Mabry, 26, suffered cuts to her head and hands. She was examined on scene by members of the Vancouver Fire Department.

In a press release Thursday, the Vancouver Police Department said “excessive speed" appeared "to be a direct contributor" to the spectacular crash that sent the pickup’s driver, Samuel R. Shimpach, 18, to Southwest Washington Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

It is unknown whether alcohol, drugs or a medical condition played a role in the high-impact collision in the parking lot Shahala Middle School, 601 S.E. 192nd Ave, shares with Fisher Basin Community Park. Area 911 dispatchers received at least 15 calls reporting the 10:25 a.m. wreck.

“We’re still moving forward with putting our case together,” Vancouver Police Sgt. Patrick Johns said by phone today. He said that any charging decision would be determined by the investigation’s findings.

Members of the police department’s traffic unit cordoned off the crash site about an hour after the Volkswagen was skewered in a collision that didn’t stop until it netted two other vehicles and sent a spare tire more than 40 feet in the air. Crash reconstructionists snapped photos of the tangled vehicles and interviewed witnesses.

No timeline for the investigation has been released.

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