A 9-1-1 dispatcher broadcast to Portland police and fire at 10:54 a.m. Thursday: Car into motel room, Jupiter Hotel.

Portland Officer Stuart Palmiter, who was on Northeast Sandy Boulevard about 10 to 15 blocks away, raced to the hotel.

The dispatcher, based on calls from witnesses, cautioned responding officers: "It might be pretty ugly."

As Palmiter drove into the front courtyard of the hotel off East Burnside, he said the scene looked like it was straight out of a disaster movie.

"I saw a cab was buried in the room," Palmiter said.

A woman was lying in the hotel parking lot, a heavy comforter on top of her.

A black-and-white Radio Cab had plowed through bamboo bushes and into the ground-floor unit of Room 115, landing on top of a 40-year-old man who was still in bed.

"This is way ugly," Palmiter radioed back to dispatch.

The room's occupant, Jonathan Toubin -- a DJ from New York in town for a Thursday night show at a Southeast Portland club -- "was literally stuck under the front of the car."

The cab couldn't be backed out of the room because its back wheels were stuck on what was left of Room 115's front wall or window panel.

Palmiter, standing by the driver's side rear quarter panel, and three maintenance men lifted the cab's back tires up and off the front wall.

Within 10 to 20 seconds, they freed the tires and hotel worker Albert Abad was able to inch the cab in reverse, off Toubin.

Toubin was unclothed and semi-conscious, able to move his hands and legs slightly as paramedics rushed to treat him, police said.

Toubin had been pinned between the cab and the room's back wall, said Lt. Rich Tyler, of Station 1. Firefighters placed the man on a backboard. "As he was carried into an ambulance, he was able to talk, but completely covered in blood," Tyler said.

Portland Fire Bureau spokesman Paul Corah called the actions of the officer and maintenance workers "heroic."

Palmiter, a 19-year bureau veteran, said he has recommended the bureau recognize the maintenance workers with citizen lifesaving awards.

Investigators learned that the cabdriver had come to the Jupiter Hotel to pick up a fare but was waved off when she arrived. Police say the cab then accelerated into the hotel room.

Dave Hunt, who was doing drywall work at the hotel, said he was stunned when he realized a cab had driven into a room.

"The back end of the taxicab was all the way inside," Hunt said. "I could see blood all over the sheets. The bed was on the floor when I looked in."

Alex Hill of New York, who is staying in Room 121, just a few doors down from Room 115, said he was on his computer when he heard the accident.

"I just heard a huge crash and then I heard a lot of sirens," he said. "It's terrible. It could have been me."

The cab driver, Terry L. Uding, 52, had low blood sugar at the scene, and likely suffered a diabetic medical emergency, according to fire, police and Radio Cab officials. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was treated and released.

The Portland traffic division is investigating the crash; no citations have been issued.

Cab drivers don't have commercial driver's licenses, and thus don't require medical cards, Radio Cab officials said. Though most Radio Cab drivers own their own cabs, Uding leased hers.

Toubin was in critical condition Thursday night at OHSU Hospital. According to his website, Toubin is known as "the New York Night Train Conductor" – a popular rock and soul DJ on the North American nightclub circuit.

He was in California earlier this month, and had been scheduled to do a Portland show, "I've Got a Hole In My Soul 5th Anniversary party" at 11 p.m. Thursday at the club Rotture on Southeast Third Avenue.

His stepbrother, Colin Tolsky of Massachusetts, said he couldn't believe what happened and is devastated.

"It sounds like a one in a trillion event," Tolsky said. "It's just unbelievable."

Later Thursday, as hotel workers brushed away the shattered glass and hung a white sheet over Room 115's missing front window, Radio Cab's day superintendent arrived to remove Radio Cab 136, a 2008 Scion XB.

"I've been with this company for 40 years," said Steve Fish, as he was about to pull away in the cab, it's front license plate and front bumper smeared with blood. "This is one of our worst fears ... an occupational hazard."

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