Two people were killed in a fatal accident involving an RV and a semi truck on Wednesday afternoon.
The incident occurred just south of Harrisburg, Oregon, on the Interstate 5 southbound off-ramp, around 4 p.m.
According to the Register Guard, the camper slammed into the back of a semi truck which was parked on the shoulder of the road.
37-year-old truck driver Sergio Valente was asleep inside his semi truck when it happened. “Suddenly, I felt the truck move, and I woke up,” he said. “I went into shock. I did not know what to do.”
The truck driver immediately called 911 and tried to put out the vehicle fire with an extinguisher he had in his truck. As he was fighting the flames from the accident, he heard cries from a young girl inside the camper. He then broke the camper’s side window and pulled a 5-year-old girl to safety.
Her father, a 26-year-old passenger in the RV, and her grandmother, the 69-year-old driver of the RV, both died in the crash.
Sgt. Alan Gilbert of the Oregon State Police confirmed that the truck driver was not cited in the crash, and praised his heroics.
Valente said he parked on the shoulder in order to take his federally mandated 10-hour break because there was no available semi truck parking at any nearby rest stop.