There are bad driving days, and then there are days when your Toyota Prius ends up crossing a planter box, traveling through a disc golf course, cutting across a field, and cruising down a bike path in one of Eugene’s busiest parks.

According to the Eugene Police Department, officers arrested a 53-year-old Eugene man following a bizarre series of events Sunday morning that began with an alleged hit-and-run and ended several miles away in Springfield with a heavily damaged Prius, grass tangled around its wheels, and an explanation that apparently raised a few more questions.

Police say the incident began around 11:17 a.m. on August 17, when officers received a report of a Toyota Prius leaving the scene of a crash near Alton Baker Park.

What happened next sounds considerably less like a normal traffic incident and considerably more like somebody accidentally selecting “avoid roads” on the GPS.

According to Eugene Police, a victim told officers he was sitting in a parking lot when a Prius entered the area at a high rate of speed. The driver allegedly performed a 360-degree turn before crashing into the victim’s vehicle.

Police say the Prius then went up and over a planter box.

And that was apparently just the beginning.

Rather than stopping after the collision, the driver allegedly continued onto the Alton Baker Park disc golf course, drove across a field, and eventually made his way onto one of the park’s bike paths.

For anyone unfamiliar with Alton Baker Park, the bike paths are generally occupied by bicycles, runners, walkers, families, and people enjoying a peaceful afternoon along the Willamette River.

Priuses traveling at a high rate of speed are not traditionally part of the experience.

Police said there were a number of cyclists and joggers in the park at the time, creating immediate concern that someone could be struck or seriously injured as the vehicle traveled through areas not designed for automobile traffic.

Fortunately, Eugene Police did not report anyone being struck along the bike path.

Officers began searching for the Prius, and the vehicle eventually turned up across the river in Springfield near West D Street and Rainbow Drive.

It apparently wasn't difficult to identify the vehicle police were looking for.

According to EPD, the Prius had heavy damage along the passenger side, its passenger-side mirror was hanging from the vehicle by a cord, and grass was tangled around the wheels.

You know, all of the classic signs that your morning commute may have taken an unexpected detour through a public park.

Police identified the driver as Aron Scott Rodabaugh, 53, of Eugene.

And that's where the story somehow gets even stranger.

According to Eugene Police, Rodabaugh told officers he had started working a shift for a rideshare company that morning and had stopped at Alton Baker Park to take a break.

Rodabaugh reportedly said several people approached his vehicle while he was there and that he became concerned they intended to rob him.

Police said Rodabaugh told them he drove away because he was afraid.

That explanation might account for leaving an uncomfortable situation. It gets considerably harder to follow once we get to the disc golf course.

According to police, Rodabaugh told officers he believed the bike path through Alton Baker Park was actually a road.

Now, Eugene has certainly produced some intersections capable of making reasonable people question the basic principles of urban planning, but a recreational path running through a park is usually one of the easier roadway-identification puzzles.

Rodabaugh also reportedly denied crashing into any vehicles before driving through the park.

Police, however, had received a rather different account from the driver whose vehicle was allegedly struck, along with the subsequently discovered Prius sporting major passenger-side damage, a dangling mirror, and enough grass around the wheels to suggest it had recently become acquainted with something other than pavement.

Eugene Police arrested Rodabaugh and lodged him at the Lane County Jail.

He was booked on allegations of Reckless Driving and Failure to Perform the Duties of a Driver When Property is Damaged, according to EPD.

Alton Baker Park is one of Eugene’s most heavily used outdoor recreation areas. Its network of paved trails routinely carries cyclists, runners, dog walkers, children, and pedestrians, particularly during summer.

A motor vehicle suddenly traveling down one of those paths presents a danger that park users have virtually no reason to anticipate.

Someone coming around a bend on a bicycle or jogging with headphones on isn't expecting to encounter an automobile traveling toward them.

That’s why the initial calls to police were treated seriously. What may sound bizarre after the fact had the potential to end very differently.

The incident is also not the first time Eugene Police have dealt with a driver taking a vehicle somewhere inside Alton Baker Park that vehicles generally aren't supposed to be. In November 2023, EPD reported another unrelated incident involving a man who drove inside the park before being arrested on DUII and several other charges.

Apparently the city may need one of those signs that says, “No, seriously, this is a park.”

In this latest incident, however, Eugene Police did not report a DUII charge against Rodabaugh. The charges announced by the department were reckless driving and failure to perform the duties of a driver when property is damaged.

The unusual sequence began with what police described as a parking-lot collision and ended with officers finding the battered Prius in Springfield.

In between, according to the police account, came the 360-degree turn, the collision, the planter box, the disc golf course, the field, the bike trail, cyclists and joggers scrambling with a vehicle where no vehicle should have been, and eventually a driver explaining that he thought the bike path was a road.

Sometimes the police blotter doesn't require much embellishment.

Oregon provides the material all by itself.

Source: Eugene Police Department

All criminal charges described in this story are allegations. A person arrested or charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. And if you’re wondering where the mugshot is, Oregon law now generally restricts law enforcement from releasing booking photos — because apparently seeing who was arrested was one transparency feature we just couldn’t be trusted with.