Ashlie Thacker never saw the car that slammed into the passenger side of the Ford Bronco Sport she was driving.

As she sat in the four-door SUV, which was lying on the driver’s side in an intersection in a Hermiston neighborhood on April 19, Thacker, 24, was thinking of her son, David, who’s 2 1/2, and her husband, Jon.

David was in his car seat in the back passenger side.

Jon, 26, was sitting beside her in the front.

The car that drove past a stop sign was gone.

Thacker, who grew up in Baker City and graduated from Baker High School in 2018 (her maiden name is Chastain), was not seriously hurt.

She and Jon were later treated for whiplash. Ashlie said doctors are monitoring her for effects of a possible concussion. Jon had a severe bruise on his arm. The other car crumpled the door next to his seat.

David was fine.

Thacker credits the four side airbags that inflated, and the quality of her son’s car seat.

Thacker said David has frequently repeated the phrase “black Honda” since hearing that this was the make and color of the car that crashed into his parents’ Bronco, which they bought in July 2023.

The Thackers, who live near Seattle, were driving to attend a friend’s wedding when the collision happened about 1:45 p.m.

They were driving south on Southeast Seventh Street.

The black Honda was heading east on East Hurlburt Avenue.

There are stop signs on Hurlburt at the intersection, but not on Seventh Street.

Several relatives were in another vehicle that had just driven through the intersection, Thacker said.

Some saw the collision.

Others heard the impact.

Police and EMTs arrived within two minutes, Thacker said.

She said a police officer later told her that the driver — Jamie Inez Gregory, 48, of Port Orchard, Washington — continued east for several blocks in her damaged 2010 Honda Accord.

Hermiston Police arrested her near First Street on charges of drunken driving and felony hit-and-run.

Thacker said a police officer told her that Gregory would likely remain in jail.

Thacker was surprised, then, and frustrated, to learn a few days later that Gregory was no longer in Umatilla County.

She was in jail, though — in Baker City.

Around 6:15 p.m. on April 21, a little more than two days after the crash in Hermiston, Gregory was arrested by an Oregon State Police trooper on Interstate 84 about 22 miles southeast of Baker City.

According to the trooper’s report, Gregory continued driving a U-Haul moving truck after a front tire had blown and peeled off the wheel, at speeds he estimated at 75 mph.

The trooper wrote that he smelled a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” when he arrested Gregory, and that he found a nearly empty bottle of vodka near the truck’s driver’s seat.

Gregory is also charged with second-degree criminal mischief for kicking out the side window of the trooper’s patrol car.

Thacker said that despite being disappointed that Gregory had been released in Umatilla County and had again driven in a dangerous manner, she was “relieved that there wasn’t another accident that endangered the lives of a family.”

“It could have been much worse,” said Thacker, who is studying for a master’s degree in social work through Boise State University.

She said she was “appalled” to read that Gregory’s attorney had filed a motion asking a judge to reduce Gregory’s bail from $30,000 — she could be released by posting 10% of that amount.

The attorney, William Thomson of Eagle Cap Defenders, wrote in the motion that Gregory, among other financial challenges, is facing foreclosure on her Washington home and that she has significant medical debt.

Judge Matt Shirtcliff declined to reduce Gregory’s bail.

Gregory pleaded guilty on May 1 to two charges — attempting to elude a police officer, and driving under the influence of intoxicants. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail on first charge, and to two days on the DUII charge. She was released from jail based on the time she had served since her arrest.

Gregory’s driver’s license was suspended for one year. She was sentenced to 18 months probation and required to pay a $1,000 fine for the DUII charge and restitution of $300 to Oregon State Police. Two counts, resisting arrest and reckless driving, were dismissed in a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office.

Court records don’t show that any charges have yet been filed against Gregory in Umatilla County.

The Thackers missed the wedding ceremony but they were able to attend the reception and dinner on the evening of April 19.

The Bronco was a total loss, Thacker said.

However, she posted on her Facebook page that exactly one month before the crash, on March 19, she changed the family’s insurance to increase their coverage in the case of an accident with an uninsured driver.

Thacker wrote in the post that one of her husband’s co-workers had been in three recent accidents with uninsured drivers.