Eugene Driver Arrested After Near-Miss With Pedestrian, Brief Pursuit

Francisco Cristobal Manuel, 27, now faces four criminal charges after a housing support officer watched his Toyota Camry spin its tires through a marked pedestrian crosswalk at West 7th Avenue and Garfield Street on March 24, narrowly missing a pedestrian who had just stepped into the crossing on a green light, then lead Eugene police on a short pursuit through downtown.

The sequence began at approximately 3:29 p.m., when the housing support officer spotted the Camry behaving erratically at the West 7th and Garfield intersection. According to the Eugene Police Department, the car lurched forward, skidded its tires, then stopped abruptly at the red light. When the signal changed, a pedestrian entered the crosswalk. Manuel accelerated, spinning the rear wheels on wet pavement. The car missed the pedestrian but continued east on West 7th with its left turn signal on before drifting into an adjacent lane and nearly striking a truck stopped in traffic.

When an officer attempted a traffic stop, the Camry drifted and accelerated again. Police activated lights and siren as the vehicle swerved within its own lane. The pursuit ended near West Fifth Avenue and Polk Street, where Manuel finally stopped. Officers took him into custody after he failed to obey commands and dropped his hands into his lap. A 49-year-old passenger was also detained; he told police he had been picked up at a service station on Highway 99. Police impounded the Camry.

Manuel was arrested on charges of eluding by vehicle, driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving, and reckless endangering. No injuries were reported from the near-miss. The Lane County District Attorney's Office will determine formal counts and schedule arraignment.

The arrest lands against a grim statistical backdrop. 2024 was the deadliest year on Eugene roads on record, with 22 traffic fatalities citywide, a figure that encompasses motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists alike. Vision Zero has built crosswalks, roundabouts, and reduced lane numbers to decrease the risk on previous high-crash corridors in Eugene, but city staff still found the 2022-2024 crash data alarming enough to publish a revised Draft Vision Zero Action Plan in 2025, currently under administrative review.

The housing support officer's role in flagging Manuel's erratic driving before it escalated into a collision reflects exactly what EPD's community-deployment model is designed to produce. But the fact that the near-miss still reached a marked crosswalk at peak afternoon hours raises the question city transportation officials and EPD Chief Skinner have not yet publicly addressed: whether current patrol coverage at pedestrian-heavy intersections along West 7th is adequate, or whether enforcement protocols need recalibration as Eugene tries to reverse its record death toll. Toxicology results, central to the DUII count, and formal arraignment details will emerge through the Lane County court docket in the days ahead.