Terrebonne crash sends woman to hospital

A Madras man who pulled his pickup onto the shoulder of Lower Bridge Road to take a phone call Thursday afternoon then pulled out in front of a Terrebonne woman’s pickup, causing a crash that sent the woman to the hospital, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched around 3 p.m. Thursday to the reported crash on Lower Bridge Road just west of Northwest 27 th Street, said Sgt. Kevin Dizney.

Arriving deputies found the two pickups off the north (westbound side) of the road. Dizney said a Dodge Dakota driven by Gary Dale Staten, a 73-year-old woman from Terrebonne, had struck a tree, while a Ford F-350 driven by Brandon Hyder, 24, of Madras, was parked on the highway shoulder with right-front damage.

The westbound lane was blocked for several minutes while Redmond Fire Department medics attended to Staten, who was taken to St. Charles Redmond. A hospital spokeswoman said she was in good condition Friday afternoon. Hyder also had a none-life-threatening injury and was not taken to the hospital, Dizney said.

An investigation found Hyder had pulled onto the westbound shoulder of Lower Bridge Road to take a phone call. As he tried to re-enter the roadway, he did not see or yield to Staten, also heading west.

The F-350 struck the left front of the passing Dakota, causing Staten to lose control and veer off the road, head-on into a tree on a residential property about 12 feet off the highway.

Both pickups later were towed from the scene. Dizney said alcohol and districted driving don’t appear to be factors in the crash, only that Hyder did not see Staten approaching and entered the road into her path of travel.