Bend woman dies in crash into canal
A 21-year old Bend woman was killed Friday when she lost control of her pickup truck east of town and it overturned, coming to rest on its top in a narrow irrigation canal, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.
Kaylene Abbey died at the scene of the crash, reported shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Alfalfa Market Road near Dodds Road, said Lt. Joe DeLuca.
Deputies and Bend Fire paramedics were dispatched and found the white 2002 Toyota Tacoma pickup on its top in the canal, which had about two feet of water in it, DeLuca said.
Abbey was wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, which closed the road for about an hour.
DeLuca said the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation, but told NewsChannel 21 at the scene, “Due to the fact of the scale of this and how far it left the roadway, we believe it did flip numerous times.”
Abbey was alone in the truck, and no other vehicles were involved, deputies said.
The pickup ended up wedged upside-down in the canal — about three feet across and about two feet deep — basically a drainage ditch, DeLuca said. Passers-by tried to help, but “there wasn’t much they could do,” he added.
“The road and weather conditions at the time of the accident do not appear to have been a factor,” DeLuca added in a news release.
