Man charged in January crash

Daily World story this morning
BY JACOB JONES
The Daily World
A 43-year-old Ocean Shores man faces an assault charge for an alleged drunken driv­ing crash that sheared the car in half, ejecting him and his passenger in January.
Vincent R. Vanderhoof pleaded not guilty Monday to vehicular assault for the Jan. 3 crash that split the car and sent both halves flying 230 feet down Point Brown Avenue.
“(The car) had been torn in half after sliding side­ways at high speed into the front end of a parked mini­van,” court records stated, “with the front half continu­ing down the left side of the road, eventually ejecting the driver and passenger, while the rear end of the car trav­eled across the road and ended up on the right-hand side of the road.”
Court records said of­ficers arrived to find car parts and personal belong­ings scattered up and down the road.
“(The passenger) was bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears,” court re­cords stated. “(He) was outside of the vehicle and appeared to have been eject­ed from his seat in (the) ve­hicle.”
The passenger was later taken to the hospital where doctors found rib fractures and a ruptured bladder. Vanderhoof was found lying about 25 feet off the road. He asked about the condition of the passenger and admitted to driving the car, according to court records.
“While speaking to the defendant, the officer could smell a strong odor of in­toxicants coming from his breath. The officer asked the defendant if he had been drinking and he told the of­ficer that he had about five shots of vodka.”
Court records stated that a blood test determined a blood alcohol content of .20, more than twice the legal limit of .08. Collision re­construction experts deter­mined the car was going 20 to 40 mph over the posted 40 mph speed limit.
Witnesses described the car losing control at high speed, court records stated. They told investigators they were surprised Vanderhoof and his passenger had sur­vived.
“While there, one of the witnesses heard a sound and saw another male sub­ject, the defendant, lying in a tree off the roadway, with his pants torn off,” court records stated. “The wit­ness stated to him that he was lucky and that he and his buddy should have been dead, to which the defen­dant replied, ‘It looks like I’ll be serving time for this one.’”