Eugene police arrest wrong-way driver after downtown 911 call
A 3:14 a.m. 911 call stopped a wrong-way driver near West 7th Avenue and Chambers Street before Eugene police say he could have hit oncoming traffic or pedestrians.
A downtown Eugene 911 call likely kept a wrong-way driver from meeting a car head-on on West 7th Avenue before sunrise. Police said a witness reported a possible intoxicated driver at West Broadway and Olive Street at 3:14 a.m. Monday, then watched him get into a Toyota Corolla and drive the wrong way through the city center.
The witness told police the man appeared intoxicated while looking for his vehicle in a nearby parking garage. After he got behind the wheel, officers said he drove the wrong way on West 7th Avenue, a corridor that carries late-night traffic, people walking between bars and apartments, and drivers turning in and out of curb lanes near downtown Eugene.
Officers later found the Corolla near the intersection of West 7th Avenue and Chambers Street and pinned it in place with patrol SUVs before contacting the driver. Eugene police identified him as 24-year-old Saul Mercado-Severiano and said he appeared intoxicated. After the investigation, officers arrested him for driving under the influence of intoxicants.
The incident underscored how little margin for error exists in the blocks around Chambers Street, where pedestrians, cyclists and motorists can all be moving through the same intersections at once. A wrong-way vehicle in that setting can turn a routine trip home, a bar close, or a ride to a parking garage into an immediate hazard for anyone crossing the street or pulling out of a driveway.
It also fit a pattern Eugene police have been documenting in their traffic enforcement work. The department’s crime-statistics page says it switched from UCR to Oregon NIBRS reporting in November 2013, a change that matters when comparing older and newer arrest trends. Eugene police also maintains annual DUII arrest charts for 2024 and 2025, offering a snapshot of how often officers are dealing with impaired driving citywide and downtown.
Similar wrong-way and impaired-driving cases have surfaced in Eugene before, including a May 12, 2026 case in which police said a driver was arrested for DUII and reckless driving after a crash, and a 2024 incident involving a wrong-way driver on West 7th Avenue near Chambers Street. Statewide, Oregon State Police’s High Visibility Enforcement Unit reported nearly 11,000 traffic stops and more than 300 DUII arrests during its 2025 operations, showing that impaired driving remains a major enforcement issue across Lane County and beyond.
For Eugene police, the immediate lesson is plain: if a driver appears to be going the wrong way, call 911 right away. In this case, that quick report gave officers time to intercept the Corolla before a downtown night drive became a serious collision.
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