In Eugene, Oregon, a semi truck collided with an RV, causing an unusual scene.
The incident occurred around 4 p.m. on Tuesday by Lowell near milepost 14 on Highway 58.
The driver lost control after taking a sharp turn.
The semi truck jackknifed, traveled up a train trestle, and tipped over, landing vertically.
Sergeant Michael Berland, Oregon State Police told media:
“Once the semi jackknifed, it slipped up the train trestle with the drive gears of the power unit…and so the front end of the truck is buried in the road and the rest of it is literally suspended in the air against the train trestle and on top of the RV.”
He furthered:
“I’ve been doing this job about seven years and I have never seen anything like this.”
According to KEZI, fire crews from multiple counties and three towing companies rushed to the scene to remove the semi truck from the wrecked RV.
Emergency crews also had to extricate the RV driver. Officials acted carefully as to not further damage the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Trains scheduled to travel over the bridge at Highway 58 were temporarily delayed.
Matt Peterson with Dexter Fire and Rescue described the situation:
“The way the semi jackknifed, it brushed up against the driver’s seat in the RV so we had to try to use the tow trucks to pull it away from the her and then freed her with our extrication equipment.”
The driver of the RV was taken to a hospital with non-serious injuries. The driver of the semi-truck was not injured. Only the drivers were inside the vehicles at the time.
Sgt. Berland explained that excessive speed may have initiated the crash:
“This stretch of highway right here is extremely dangerous. It is a consistent choke point and we’ve seen a lot of crashes here. Anybody traveling up to the Willamette Pass from the Eugene/Springfield area or vice-versa, try to be cognoscente of that. Speed is a factor in almost every one of our crashes so we beg everybody, over the summer holiday, slow down, take your time getting there, that way you can get there safely.”
The road was closed for about 3 hours and has since reopened.
