SUV crash critically injures Sisters man

A 46-year-old Sisters man was critically injured early Sunday evening when his SUV left a gravel road east of Sisters, went through a wire fence and struck a large juniper tree, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

“Alcohol and high speeds were both contributing factors in this crash,” which sent Cory Lee Madsen to St. Charles Bend with life-threatening injuries, said sheriff’s Lt. Chad Davis. A nursing supervisor said he was in critical condition Monday morning.

Deputies were dispatched around 5:45 p.m. to the single-vehicle crash on West Street, north of First Avenue and Highway 20, about seven miles east of Sisters in the Cloverdale Fire District, Davis said.

Madsen’s gold 2000 Ford Explorer had struck the juniper tree on the driver’s side, leaving the driver unconscious but breathing and trapped inside, Davis said.

Personnel from the Cloverdale and Sisters-Camp Sherman fire districts were called in and cut Madsen out of the wreckage.

Davis said an investigation found Madsen’s SUV was speeding southbound on West Street when it left the gravel road, drove through a wire fence and struck the tree.

The crash remains under investigation, Davis said, and no charges have been filed at this time.