Oregon State Police have identified the seven adults who died Thursday when the driver of a semitruck plowed into their passenger van on Interstate 5.
All were agricultural workers returning home from work, according to Reyna Lopez, executive director of farmworkers union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste.
Those who perished in the crash include:
- Eduardo Lopez, 31, of Gervais
- Alejandro Jimenez Hernandez, 36, of Gervais
- Josue Garcia Garcia, 30, of Salem
- Luis Enrique Gomez Reyes, 30, of Woodburn
- Javier Suarez, 58, of Woodburn
- Alejandra Espinoza Carpio, 39, of Woodburn
- Juan Carlos Leyva Carrillo, 37, of Woodburn
Authorities said three other people are still in the hospital with serious injuries. They include: Hector Galindo, 45, of Gervais; Maria Flores Martinez, 60, of Salem and Jose Eduardo Solis Flores, 41, of Gervais.
A fourth person, 40-year-old Adan Garcia Garcia of Woodburn, was released from the hospital with minor injuries.
Lincoln Clayton Smith, the 52-year-old driver of the semitruck, was arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail on Friday. Police say Smith was driving a semitruck on I-5, about 10 miles north of Albany, when he veered off the road onto the east shoulder, striking a Ford Econoline passenger van with 11 people inside and pushing it into another semitruck. Both the van and the second semitruck were parked along the shoulder of the interstate when the van was hit, police said.
Smith was unhurt, as was the driver of the parked semitruck.
– Gosia Wozniacka; gwozniacka@oregonian.com; @gosiawozniacka
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