Police identify Bend woman, 74, killed in crash on SW Century Drive

(Update: Police release details of crash)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A 74-year-old Bend woman was killed Thursday when her SUV was struck by a pickup towing a large trailer on Southwest Century Drive, Bend police said.

Officers were dispatched around 11:45 a.m. to the reported injury crash at the intersection of Century Drive and East Campbell Road, by Mount Bachelor Village, Lt. Clint Burleigh said.

They found that a Dodge pickup heading west on Century Drive, pulling a large trailer with equipment, struck the driver’s side of a Nissan SUV whose driver, Kathleen Sue Case, was trying to turn left (east) onto Century Drive, Burleigh said.

The driver of the pickup, a 34-year-old Bend man, and two passengers in the pickup, all medically trained, provided emergency care to Case, but she sustained fatal injuries, the lieutenant said.

Burleigh said the pickup driver cooperated with the investigation, and that “at this time, investigators have ruled out speed and intoxication as factors in the crash.”

The crash investigation closed Century Drive for about three hours, prompting traffic returning to Bend from Mt. Bachelor to be detoured into Sunriver.

Burleigh thanked the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, ODOT and the Bend Streets Department for their assistance.

Century Drive was closed between Reed Market Road and Mammoth Drive until just before 3 p.m., officials said.

ODOT said the crash at milepost 4 on Century Drive (state Highway 372) meant downhill traffic leaving Mt. Bachelor needed to take the Sunriver exit to return to Bend. They warned to expect lengthy delays.

Other drivers in the area also were urged to use alternate routes during the closure.