Pickup driver suffers medical emergency, crashes into tree in Sisters

Deputies, passers-by perform CPR, use AED; 2 passengers injured

SISTERS, Ore. (KTVZ) – A driver from Madras passed out from a sudden medical emergency and his pickup hauling a trailer crashed into a tree in downtown Sisters Thursday morning, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said. Deputies and others in the area performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator until medics arrived.

Shortly before 9 a.m., a school resource deputy on patrol in Sisters was flagged down by a pedestrian and informed of a crash near the intersection of East Cascade Avenue and North Larch Street, Sgt. Jayson Janes said.

The deputy rushed to the scene and found a Chevy pickup hauling a 21-foot “toy hauler” trailer had left the road, hit a light pole, went into a gravel drainage ditch and then struck a large tree, Janes said.

A brief assessment determined the driver, a 58-year-old Madras man, was not breathing. A DCSO city of Sisters deputy arrived soon and the two removed the driver from the pickup,.

They then began performing CPR, joined minutes later by an off-duty paramedic from the Black Butte Ranch Fire Department and an off-duty nurse, the sergeant said.

The four continued CPR on the driver and used an AED device until medics from the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire District arrived to take over life-saving efforts, Janes said. The driver was then taken to St. Charles Bend.

Interviews with the two passengers, a Madras woman and a Bend man, and other witnesses determined the driver was heading west on Highway 20 and entered Sisters when it's believed he experienced a sudden medical emergency and lost consciousness, Janes said.

The pickup’s passengers tried to regain control of the pickup, but were unable to do so, Janes said. They also were taken to the Bend hospital, with non-life threatening injuries.

ODOT and city of Sisters Public Works crews assisted deputies at the crash scene.