Multiple crashes create county-wide challenges

GRANT COUNTY – Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley issued a press release entitled Crash Day—referring to yesterday, February 22nd. Find it below:

As a result of the winter storm on the evening of Presidents Day, and subsequent crashes that occurred on I 84 at Deadman’s Pass between La Grande and Pendleton, a large amount of traffic diverted to US 26 through the John Day Valley. 

This found many travelers who were unfamiliar with this area coming through and parking in various areas and following their GPS’s to end up in some bad locations. 

An Amazon Prime truck tried using the Keeny Fork Road to short cut to Long Creek, and became stuck near the Magone turn off. It was recovered and made it back to Highway 26 on the afternoon of the 22nd. 

A vehicle operated by youth headed to School in Dayville rolled near mile post 145 at 0715 am. No injuries were reported among the three occupants, who were all siblings. 

A deceased individual was located shortly after this in NW 2nd Street in John Day, and was determined to be of natural causes, with a family member being present. 

At the same time a possible deceased male was reported slumped over the wheel of an odd looking white car near Kimberly. He was not deceased. He had been sleeping, and drove towards John Day where he ran out of gas west of Mt. Vernon. After an Oregon State Police Trooper helped get fuel for the stalled car, an individual with a warrant was noticed and arrested by Sheriff McKinley. 

As the warrant was being served, another crash was reported near mile post 134 on 26, a rollover with two occupants entrapped. Dayville Fire, Mt. Vernon Fire, a Blue Mt. Hospital Ambulance, OSP, ODOT, and a Deputy responded. The two occupants were safely extracted from the wreckage and kept warm until the ambulance arrived. 

As this crash was being handled, the Deputy and Trooper had to depart to a multi-vehicle crash with commercial vehicles involved in Picture Gorge. This crash was on the US 26 side of the Gorge near the County line, and it completely blocked the highway. The highway remained closed for about two and a half hours. The tow truck had to come from Burns to remove the vehicle, but Frontier towing in Mt. Vernon was able to utilize their smaller trucks to get the roadway opened to one lane of travel at about 1:10 pm. 

As this crash scene was being worked on, traffic was diverted at Mt. Vernon and at Mitchell. 

Another crash occurred, this time at mile post 186. A Sysco truck rolled over and the driver self-extricated. An OSP game Trooper responded to this crash and handled it. This crash was non-blocking and may take some time to be removed. 

Thank you to all the businesses that supported the extra travelers and all the emergency responders and agencies that assisted during this chain of events, and the media that kept travelers apprised of road conditions and closures. 

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