Several Mexican farmworkers were k!lled and dozens were injured on an Oregon interstate on Thursday when a semi-truck driven by a North Highlands resident is suspected of driving under the influence.
Manslaughter, DUI, reckless driving, and assault are among the charges against 52-year-old Lincoln Clayton Smith, who was detained on Friday. He was detained at the Marion County Jail without the possibility of bail.
The accident was among the de@dliest on Oregon’s highways. Agricultural workers returning home from a long day of harvesting were the victims of the van cr@sh, according to the state’s farmworkers union and Mexican authorities.
The names of the seven people k!lled and four others injured after a semi-truck careened off Interstate 5 and into a van stopped on the shoulder near Albany, in the agricultural Willamette Valley, have not yet been published by authorities.
The PCUN, a union based in Woodburn, issued a statement late on Friday night confirming that the 11 passengers in the truck were farmworkers and that the organization had reached out to some of the families to provide assistance. Those who had been impacted by the tragedy were also sent sympathy.
The union’s executive director, Reyna Lopez, was cited as stating, “At this time, families are asking for safer roads for workers commuting after a hard day’s work.” In a statement it posted to Facebook and Twitter in Spanish, the Mexican Consulate in Portland confirmed that the victims were farm workers.
Seven persons were k!lled and four were injured in the accident, the Oregon State Police said in a statement. All of the victims were Mexican agricultural workers. For “urgent medical attention,” the consul went to a hospital in Salem, the state capital.
The consulate added that it was working closely with law enforcement to track down the de@d person’s loved ones. To contact the consulate if you are a family member of someone who has been k!lled or injured. No one could say for sure if Smith’s case had been given to the state public defender’s office or to a specific attorney.
The cr@sh is related with the following list of links, which may be found below:
- Multi-car Crash in South San Jose K!lls One, Injures 3
- Oregon Semi Truck Driver Charged in Crash That K!lled 7 and Injured 4
A message left with the office seeking comment on this was not immediately returned, and a lawyer whose name appears in court documents said she had not been formally assigned the case and therefore could not comment. The district attorney at Smith’s arraignment reportedly indicated that Smith had refused a field sobriety test and was unable to concentrate or answer simple questions.
This was published in the Salem Statesman Journal. According to the article, the prosecutor also claimed that Smith admitted to using “speed” the day before the accident and that he was in possession of methamphetamine.
According to the Statesman Journal, the DA stated that eyewitnesses reported hearing the truck swerve in and out of its lane while traveling northbound on Thursday afternoon before it collided head-on with a van.
The vehicle was allegedly rammed into the back of a parked truck in Oregon, according to state police. The van was completely filled with innocent people. Police in Oregon said seven people were k!lled altogether; six of them passed away at the scene, and one more d!ed after being flown to a hospital.
The news can be confirmed by the tweet below:
A trucker is arrested in an Oregon freeway crash that killed seven. https://t.co/wVoX9qK1VB
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) May 19, 2023
The status of the four injured has not been disclosed. In the aftermath of the incident, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported seeing bodies wrapped in plastic in a nearby field. The accident is among the de@dliest in Oregon history.
A family of seven, including five young children, perished in a head-on collision on a lonely road in Harney County, eastern Oregon, in August 2018. Total f@talities reached eight. After losing control on ice Interstate 84 in December 2012, a tour bus smashed through a railing and went plummeting down a steep embankment, k!lling nine people.
Near Pendleton, in a place called Deadman Pass, a bus carrying around 40 persons was involved in an @ccident. In 1988, seven additional people were m*rdered and thirty-seven more were injured in a car disaster on Interstate 5 near Albany.
There were 23 vehicles involved in the catastrophic collision, and two infants were among the de@d. About 70 miles (113 kilometers) south of Portland, Albany is located between Salem and Eugene. The West Coast is mostly connected by I-5, the main north-south interstate highway.
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