A 52-year-old California man has been charged with manslaughter in Thursday’s crash on Interstate 5, one of the deadliest in Oregon history; state police troopers believe he was intoxicated.
Court documents allege Lincoln Clayton Smith was “under the influence of intoxicants” when the tractor-trailer he was driving left the northbound lane of Interstate 5 and collided with a parked passenger van, killing seven and injuring four occupants Thursday afternoon, May 18 near Millersburg.
They did not indicate the substance.
Police say the northbound truck drove onto the east shoulder, striking a Ford Econoline passenger van occupied by 11 people, according to an Oregon State Police news release.
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The tractor-trailer pushed the van, crushing the van against another commercial motor vehicle parked on the shoulder near the Santiam River Rest Area.
Responders declared six passengers dead at the scene. An air ambulance transported another who was declared dead at a hospital, according to the news release.
Police arrested Smith, from North Highlands, California, on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving, seven counts of second-degree manslaughter and three counts of third-degree assault.
Thursday’s crash is believed to be the deadliest on the freeway since 1988, when 24 cars collided on I-5 south of Albany. Officials blamed smoke blowing over the freeway and diminished visibility for the chain reaction wreck that killed seven and injured 38.
A head-on collision on a remote road in Harney County in eastern Oregon in August 2018 killed a family of seven, including five young children. Eight people died in total.
In December 2012, nine people died after a tour bus careened on an icy Interstate 84 and crashed through a guardrail, plunging several hundred feet down a steep embankment. The bus was carrying about 40 people when the accident occurred in an area near Pendleton called Deadman Pass.
On Thursday, motorists were halted in the northbound side of the rest area, vehicles parked on a freeway on ramp while ambulances filled the roadway.
Fire and police officials erected a barrier and hung a tarp from the van’s remains while personnel from the Marion County Medical Examiner’s Office examined the scene.
Vehicles driving around the wreck flooded nearby highways, slowing traffic to a few miles per hour on Old Salem Road Northeast.
Law enforcement and crash reconstruction teams kept the northbound freeway closed for several hours while they investigated.
Northbound I-5 traffic remained backed up to Grand Prairie Road Southeast by 6:45 p.m., about 9 miles south. By around 8:39 p.m. Thursday, one lane of northbound I-5 had reopened, according to an ODOT news release.
Smith was scheduled to be arraigned in Marion County Circuit Court on Friday afternoon, May 19 on seven counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of third-degree assault, reckless driving and DUII.
Court documents filed with Marion County Circuit Court allege Smith unlawfully and recklessly caused the death of seven different individuals and also unlawfully and recklessly caused serious physical injury to three other victims by means of a dangerous weapon: a tractor-trailer.
Troopers were at the scene for about eight hours, according to an agency spokesperson. They seized the van as evidence and all three vehicles were towed from the freeway shoulder.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
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