100-Vehicle Pileup Closes Oregon Interstate

Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.)

As many as 98 cars and trucks crashed on one mile of icy Interstate 84 in the Blue Mountains Monday afternoon, according to the Oregon State Police.

There were 15 to 20 cars and trucks in the largest pileup, according to early reports.

The OSP was called about 12:20 p.m. to an initial pileup about 20 miles east of Pendleton and just east of the Deadman Pass summit on Interstate 84.

Officers were notified of additional crashes while they were arriving and once there could hear the scraping metal of more crashes behind them, according to the OSP.

Emergency medical responders were treating and taking patients to hospitals, but the OSP said it had no estimate of the number of people injured.

People who were not injured but who could not drive vehicles that were damaged or blocked were being taken to the Pendleton Convention Center.

The Umatilla County Emergency Operations Center was activated to help coordinate response.

Interstate 84 was closed westbound from Baker City to just east of Pendleton, with trucks being stopped at Ontario, Ore., due to lack of parking farther west. It was expected to be closed all night.

The interstate was closed eastbound from near Pendleton to near La Grande.

Multiple agencies were working together, including Umatilla County Sheriff's Office and Emergency Management; Pendleton Fire; Umatilla County Fire District 1; Pilot Rock Fire; East Umatilla County Fire and Rescue; the Consolidated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Fire and Ambulance and Emergency Management; La Grande Fire and Ambulance; the Oregon Department of Transportation and additional medic units from Union County in Oregon and Walla Walla County in Washington.