Redmond woman, 76, killed in Hwy. 97 crash into ODOT truck

Also, motorcycle-vehicle crash on Hwy. 242

(Update: OSP releases names, details)

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A 76-year-old Redmond woman was killed Tuesday when her car crossed all four lanes of Highway 97 south of Redmond and collided with an ODOT Incident Response vehicle, Oregon State Police reported.

The crash was reported around 11:45 a.m. near milepost 128 and the intersection with Southwest 61st Street. It closed the northbound lanes for several hours, also tying up southbound traffic for some time.

OSP troopers said a preliminary investigation found that Linda Dent of Redmond was heading south at the wheel of a blue 2017 Subaru Legacy when she crossed into the northbound slow lane for unknown reasons and into the path of a 2018 Dodge Ram 3500, the ODOT emergency response vehicle.

Dent died at the scene, troopers said, while the ODOT truck driver, John Benson, 38, of Redmond, was taken to St. Charles Bend with minor injuries.

OSP was assisted at the scene by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Bend Fire Department and ODOT.

Just before 1:30 p.m., ODOT issued an updated alert that the northbound lanes remained closed, with a detour, for what's expected to be a "very extensive investigation."

ODOT said around 3:30 p.m. that southbound lanes were back to normal and one lane of northbound Highway 97 was open again, with tow trucks en route to the scene. The other northbound lane reopened by 4 p.m.

Also just before noon came word of a motorcycle-vs.-vehicle crash near milepost 70 on Highway 242, 15 miles east of the intersection with Highway 126 (the McKenzie Highway). A patient reportedly left the scene by air ambulance around 1:15 p.m. and Highway 242 was fully open again.