Pileup On Foggy I-84 Leaves 1 Dead, 6 Hurt

A chain-reaction accident Monday killed one person and injured six on a foggy freeway along the Columbia River in northeastern Oregon.

Eleven vehicles, including six big trucks, slammed into one another in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84. Two tractor-trailer rigs burned to the ground.

The dead man was in the cab of a large truck that slammed into the back of a semitruck.

The man was from Portland, but his name was withheld pending notification of relatives, an Oregon State Police dispatcher said.

A trucker called 911 as cars and trucks began piling up nine miles east of Arlington, said dispatcher Martha Wyland.

“He said it was extremely foggy. You could not see hardly at all,” she said.

One trucker was trapped for hours after the 8:30 a.m. wreck at the Heppner junction, where I-84 meets Oregon Highway 74. He later was airlifted to a Hermiston hospital.

Ambulances drove three of the injured to Hermiston, more than 30 miles to the east. Two others were taken to The Dalles, 60 miles west, said state police spokesman Lt. Bernie Giusto.