In a multi-vehicle collision on Interstate 5 in a rural area of western Oregon on Thursday, seven people were killed, and numerous more were injured, according to police.
At 2:05 p.m., police arrived. According to a statement from the Oregon State Police, the collision involved two semi trucks and a passenger car in the northbound lanes close to the Santiam rest area, roughly 7 miles (11 kilometers) north of Albany.
Police reported seven adults died but did not say how many were hurt.
The Albany Democrat-Herald reported that the involved passenger car was a van.
The Marion County medical examiner was on the site, and the newspaper reported that bodies shrouded in plastic could be seen in a neighboring field. At around 2:45 p.m., a Life Flight helicopter departed the area.
According to the Democrat-Herald, police, and fire officials covered the crushed van with a blue tarp and set up a barrier next to one of the trucks to obscure the view of the scene.
Crushed between the vehicles, the van looked to have been; a witness told the Statesman Journal.
According to the damage, the van appeared to have been sandwiched, Adrian Gonzalez said. “It took a tough hit.”
Gonzalez told the newspaper that two Life Flight helicopters landed and picked up patients as paramedics attended to others on the ground.
The cause of the collision was being looked into.
State transportation officials said that I-5’s northbound lanes were shut down and that traffic was being diverted.
Albany, roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Portland, is between Salem and Eugene.
The principal interstate route running north to south along the West Coast is I-5.
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