Prineville man, 75, killed in head-on collision with semi-truck on Hwy. 97 north of Madras

MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ) – A 75-year-old Prineville man was killed Wednesday evening when his pickup truck crossed the center line of US Highway 97 north of Madras and collided with a semi-truck, Oregon State Police said Thursday.

OSP troopers and other emergency personnel responded around 5:10 p.m. to the two-vehicle crash at milepost 76, south of the Jefferson-Wasco County line.

A preliminary investigation found that Theodore Church, 75, of Prineville, was at the wheel of a northbound Chevy Silverado that crossed into the southbound lane for unknown reasons and collided with a Freightliner commercial motor vehicle driven by a 65-year-old man from Cambridge, Ontario.

Church sustained fatal injuries, OSP said, and the truck driver was uninjured in the crash.

Highway 97 traffic was affected for about three hours while OSP’s Collision Reconstruction Unit investigated the scene. OSP was assisted by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and ODOT.