Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rampage on Rainbow leads to 11 wrecks, three injuries

The 19-year-old man who wrecked 11 vehicles while pinballing down Rainbow Boulevard in stolen vehicles said he had just stopped taking medication for mental illness, was on PCP and talking to Jesus, police said.

Three women went to the hospital with injuries from the Tuesday morning crashes, but no one was seriously hurt and all three women were well enough to leave the hospital later Tuesday, police said.

Carlos Bugarin of Las Vegas, was arrested after the car he was in slid to a stop on a median near Spring Mountain Road.

Bugarin was charged with two counts of possession of a stolen vehicle, reckless driving, hit and run and not having a driver's license. Metro Police Detective Doug Nutton said Bugarin told police he was on PCP, or phencyclidine, the hallucinogen with the street name, "angel dust."

Bugarin told Nutton that before the accidents, he was walking to the library, then began having a conversation with Jesus, who told him he needed to go to Zion National Park in Utah.

"Jesus told him that the lord told him was evil, and then the lord said he was not evil and that evil spelled backwards is live and that's what he was going to do. And the next thing he knew he was driving south on Rainbow" Nutton said.

"He was going to Zion National Park to talk to Jesus to straighten out the lord," Nutton said.

Nutton said when the patrol car started moving and Bugarin realized he was going to jail, he got agitated and began talking fast.

An officer asked him if he was on medication or recreational drugs, and he said "both" and admitted he had taken PCP.

"When I talked to him at the jail, he had rapid speech, rapid body movements," Nutton said.

"He told me he was taking some kind of medication for mental illness but said he stopped taking it when the drug prescription ran out," he said.

The two vehicles Bugarin is accused of stealing and nine other vehicles were damaged in the accidents that happened over a stretch of four miles on Rainbow between Washington Avenue and Spring Mountain Road.

Nutton said it was "amazing" that no one was seriously injured in the crashes. Seat belts and air bags saved many people involved from serious injuries, he said.

Anika Reid, a receptionist at Courtesy Mitsubishi on the corner of Rainbow and Sahara Avenue, said she's seen many accidents at the intersection in front of her workplace, but Tuesday's seemed worse than most.

"I have never seen a car get hit that hard. It was smashed in everywhere," Reid said about a van that was struck by the moving truck. "I was pretty amazed. I couldn't believe the truck was going that fast."

The white van was scrunched like an accordion at the southwest corner of the intersection.

The accidents forced police to divert heavy traffic on Rainbow at both Sahara and Spring Mountain Road until 4 p.m. Northbound traffic on Rainbow was backed up for at least a half-mile south of Sahara. Some northbound cars, scrambling to avoid the jam, made left turns onto side streets leading up to the Rainbow-Sahara intersection. Sahara was closed between Rainbow and Montessori Street two blocks to the west.

According to Nutton and a police statement, about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday a 2000 Isuzu Budget rental truck was parked along the curb at 900 N. Rainbow Blvd. when Bugarin got in the truck and drove away.

A man was helping friends move and had left the keys in the truck, Nutton said.

The truck, which was going south on Rainbow, rear-ended a 2001 Mitsubishi being driven by Pete Young, 50, that was stopped at a red light at the Washington Avenue intersection.

The moving truck pushed the Mitsubishi out of the way and went through the red light.

At Rainbow and Silverstream Avenue the moving truck hit the left side of a 2001 Saturn being driven by Marisa Bourke, 37.

Then at Rainbow and Charleston Boulevard, the truck changed lanes and hit a 1998 Mercury being driven by Janet Saxton, 49.

Continuing south on Rainbow, the truck approached Sahara, where some vehicles were stopped for a red light.

The truck rear-ended a 1997 Chevrolet van being driven by Cynthia Morales, 32, pushing the van into the vehicle in front of it, a 1998 Lincoln that was being driven by Louis Tabot.

The moving truck then went into the intersection where it collided with a BMW that was being driven by Amanda Williams, 27.

After that collision the moving truck went up onto the sidewalk, where it hit a power box and crashed into a palm tree before stopping.

Police said Bugarin then left the moving truck and got into a 1998 Ford Crown Victoria that belonged to someone who had stopped to help. The driver of the Ford had left the keys in the ignition, Nutton said.

The car went south on Rainbow and went up onto the sidewalk near the intersection with Spring Mountain Road, apparently in an attempt to get around another vehicle.

But the front of the Ford hit the rear of a 2000 Chevrolet truck being driven by Lloyd Hurskainen, 63. Then the car hit a 1998 Honda being driven by Le Hua Ong, 49.

The Ford then collided with another vehicle, a 2000 Mazda being driven by Noel Wood, as it slid onto the center median.

A police officer who arrived at the scene from the other direction arrested Bugarin about 10:45 a.m. as he was trying to climb out the car window, Nutton said.

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