Citybikes on Saturday.
(Photos: Spencer Boomhower)
Citybikes, a popular local bike shop with two locations in Southeast Portland, experienced a close call at their store on SE 8th and Ankeny on Saturday.
In what must have been a surreal experience, two men in the path of the slow-moving minivan were able to move before getting it, but a bike was not as lucky.
According to Citybikes employee Matthew Ceravolo, just before opening time on Saturday, a blue Nissan minivan traveling south on SE 8th ran a stop-sign and hit another car that was traveling west on Ankeny.
Reader Spencer Boomhower rolled by the scene just after it happened and sent in this photo:
The collision reportedly left the minivan driver “stunned” and she proceeded to veer in the direction of Citybikes’ front entrance. The van rolled over the curb, ran over a sign post, and then smashed into a cob structure and bench in front of the shop — pinning a bicycle under its bumper and narrowly missing two people who were directly in its path.
Ceravolo says there were several people waiting for the shop to open when the collision happened — including two who were able to move out of the path of the oncoming vehicle.
“One guy on the bench got up and ran away” remembered Ceravolo, “and another guy who was sitting on the cob structure, saw the minivan approaching and managed to just like pull his legs up as the car came in.”
Luckily the minivan was rolling slowly and Ceravolo says there were no major injuries or major structural damage to the building.