Early morning donuts
Man arrested for blocking Hailey’s Main Street
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
A
Pocatello man left his mark on Hailey’s Main Street Monday morning after spinning
donuts across most of the width of the road. (Express photo by Greg Moore)
Police remain baffled about the motives of a 50-year-old man who allegedly
blocked four lanes of commuters on Main Street in Hailey Monday morning while he spun
donuts in his pickup truck.
The truck eventually blew a tire and careened over a three-foot-high
boulder in front of King’s discount store, causing the truck’s underside to
burst into flames.
According to Hailey police officer Ron Santucci, his office received a
call about the incident at 7:55 a.m. Santucci said he was in his patrol car near the Wood
River Medical Center, at the opposite end of town, when he got the call, and was able to
see smoke created by the truck’s skidding tires from there.
Santucci said traffic was stopped in both directions when he arrived, but
he and five other officers were able to drive around to a spot close to where the truck
was going through its antics.
"The engine sounded like it was floored," he said. "Each
time he turned it was a wider radius. He kept getting closer and closer to the gas pumps
at the Mini Mart."
Santucci said officers were preparing to ram the truck with a patrol car
to keep it from hitting the pumps when its tire blew. He said that even after the 1987
Dodge truck caught fire, the driver did not exit until officers yelled at him repeatedly
to do so.
The driver was identified as Raymond Lee Montgomery, 50, from Pocatello.
He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving and is being held in Blaine
County jail on a $5,000 bond.
Santucci said there was no indication Montgomery had been drinking. He
said Montgomery told police he "came up here to see the nice mountains and he wanted
to stop traffic and make his mark on the road."
A Blaine County Sheriff’s deputy reported yesterday that Montgomery
had been temporarily transported to Pocatello for psychiatric evaluation.
According to Idaho Transportation Department records, Montgomery has
received six speeding tickets in the state since 1988.
