Eugene police arrested Selma Alexis Hourigan after a Tuesday night crash response in which officers found a dozen large tanks of nitrous oxide inside the car. She was taken into custody after police tracked the vehicle from a welfare check on Chambers Street and West 29th Avenue.
Chambers Street and West 29th Avenue
Police said they were first called about a car parked in the middle of the road at Chambers Street and West 29th Avenue. They said the same car matched one that had reportedly been driving two miles per hour in the area hours earlier, a pace that led officers toward a possible impairment case before they reached the crash.
When officers found the vehicle, they said it had gone into a large tree down an embankment. Hourigan was in the driver's seat next to a 10 to 15 lb. nitrous oxide gas tank, and police said more than a dozen bottles were on the floorboards with several more in the backseat.
Selma Alexis Hourigan
Police arrested Hourigan on charges of DUII, reckless driving, inhaling toxic vapor, and driving uninsured. The case turned on what officers saw inside the car as much as on the crash itself: a large supply of nitrous oxide in a vehicle already under suspicion for impaired driving. Eugene Police Department orders evacuations as Skinner Butte Fire grows
The complaint leaves one question unanswered: why a driver in a crashed car had a dozen large tanks of nitrous oxide and additional bottles spread through the vehicle. For anyone reading the case for the first time, the practical takeaway is simple — the arrest followed a welfare check, a crash found down an embankment, and the discovery of a substantial amount of nitrous oxide inside the car.
