Hermiston man dies in fiery I-84 wrong-way crash

A Hermiston man was killed, but a truck driver from Redmond escaped unhurt when an SUV heading the wrong way on Interstate 84 in northeast Oregon slammed head-on into a semi-truck hauling fresh salmon and both vehicles burst into flames late Monday night, Oregon State Police said.

Troopers and emergency personnel responded around 11:15 p.m. to reports of a head-on crash on I-84 near milepost 114 in Gilliam County.

According to Sgt. John Katzenstein, a 1999 Jeep Cherokee driven by Tyler D. Brown, 25, of Hermiston, for an unknown reason was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of I-84.

OSP began receiving complaints of this wrong way-driver and troopers began to respond, but a short time later Brown’s SUV struck a 1999 Peterbilt truck head-on. Both vehicles came to rest in the travel lanes and caught fire.

The truck driver, Michael McCright, 61, of Redmond, managed to escape the fire as both vehicles became fully engulfed. He was not injured. Brown was declared dead at the crash scene.

The truck was loaded with recently harvested salmon, which took hours for fire crews to fully extinguish. Both directions of I-84 were closed for almost four hours until one lane in each direction could be opened. Crews remained on scene Tuesday morning., cleaning the highway.

OSP was assisted by Sherman County Fire, the Rufus Rural Fire Department and the Oregon Department of Transportation.