Hwy. 26E driver swerves to avoid deer, crashes

A 20-year-old Prineville woman swerved to avoid a deer on Hwy. 26E Wednesday evening, causing her car to go off the road, roll several times and land in a creek – but she avoided serious injuries, Crook County sheriff’s deputies said.

Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched shortly after 7 p.m. to the reported single-vehicle crash on Hwy. 26 near milepost 43, about 20 miles east of Prineville, said sheriff’s Sgt. Travis Jurgens. They were told the car was in Marks Creek at that location, and it was not yet known if it was still occupied.

As deputies headed to the scene, they were told that the driver, Paige Buswell, was being taken by private car to Pioneer Memorial Hospital, Jurgens said.

Deputies found a white 1994 Honda Accord off the south side of the road, down an embankment and in the creek, he said.

The investigation and an interview with Buswell found she was heading west toward Prineville when she served to miss a deer in the road.

Buswell’s car went off the north side of the highway and onto the gravel shoulder, where she over-corrected, causing the car to cross both lanes of the highway, then down the embankment on the south side, rolling several times and coming to rest in the creek, Jurgens said.

Buswell, who had been wearing her seat belt, received non-life-threatening injuries and later was released from the hospital, the sergeant said, adding that no citations were issued.