Storm turns deadly; Bend man killed in Hwy. 26 crash
A 91-year-old pickup driver from Bend was killed on Highway 26 east of Prineville Thursday when he apparently lost control on the snow- and ice-covered road and crashed down a steep embankment and into a juniper tree, Oregon State Police reported.
Troopers were dispatched around 12:45 p.m. to the reported crash on Highway 26 near milepost 25, about six miles east of Prineville, said OSP Lt. Josh Brooks.
On arrival, troopers found a tan 2000 Chevrolet Silverado pickup off the roadway down a steep embankment. It had struck a Juniper tree in the drivers’ side door, causing significant damage.
The driver, Robert L. Akins, 91, of Bend, was dead at the scene, Brooks said. He was alone in the pickup.
Witnesses at the scene told OSP Akins was traveling with two other vehicles in a caravan. They said Akins’ and another vehicle began to lose traction on the packed snow and ice. The second slipping vehicle was able to recover safely.
OSP was assisted at the scene by the Crook County Sheriff’s Office, Crook County Fire and Rescue, the Crook County District Attorney’s Office and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Senior Trooper Andrea Vaughn is the lead investigator on the crash, the worst of numerous around the region resulting from Thursday’s snowstorm.
A two-car crash occurred around 11:30 a.m. on Highway 97 near Sunriver. Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said a northbound pickup driver lost control on the snowy, icy road and it slid into the southbound lane, where another pickup driver was unable to avoid a collision.
Even though both trucks slid off 20-foot embankments, one driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to St. Charles Bend, ad the other was unhurt; there were no passengers, and both drivers were wearing seat belts, said Lt. Joe DeLuca and Deputy Doug Sullivan.
In Crook County, a pickup truck rolled off SE Juniper Canyon Road near Banta Lane about 10:25 a.m. All of the occupants were able to get out, but the truck burst into flames, said sheriff’s Deputy Mitch Madden. Two juveniles, a driver and passenger, were taken to Pioneer Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Shortly after 1 p.m.,a Portland couple escaped serious injury when their pickup left George Millican Road near milepost 17 and flipped onto its side.
