Bicyclist injured in Eugene crash, driver flees in stolen truck

A bicyclist was taken to a local hospital after a stolen truck struck the rider at East 15th Avenue and High Street in central Eugene, then sped away before officers arrived. Eugene police blocked traffic at the intersection while they interviewed witnesses and searched for the vehicle, disrupting a busy corridor near the downtown and campus edge.

The collision happened at 1:28 p.m. on May 20, 2026, when the bicyclist was riding south in the High Street bike lane and a truck traveling east on East 15th Avenue hit them, police said. Investigators later found the truck parked unattended near East 17th Avenue and Alder Street. Police determined the truck had been stolen.

Two people seen in the truck were described as wearing black hoodies and face masks, details that added urgency to the search as Eugene police tried to sort out who was involved. A local report described the truck as a red pickup with an Idaho license plate. Police had not announced an arrest, and the driver remained at large after fleeing the scene.

For people who bike through Eugene every day, the crash hit one of the city’s most familiar routes. The collision unfolded on the High Street protected bikeway corridor, which the City of Eugene says was completed in 2024 as part of the Amazon to Riverfront connection. City transportation materials also place High Street and nearby downtown streets in Eugene’s High Crash Network, a list built from 2014-2022 crash data for the city’s most dangerous corridors and intersections.

That larger context matters in a city where safety officials have been warning for years about severe traffic harm. Eugene’s Vision Zero plan aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries, and the city’s 2022-2024 fatal crash report says Eugene saw the highest number of traffic fatalities for any three-year period on record. Even though this crash did not turn fatal, it interrupted traffic on a key route and renewed attention on the risk faced by cyclists, pedestrians and drivers moving through central Eugene.

Anyone with information about the stolen truck, the people seen in it or the hit-and-run crash is being asked to contact Eugene police.