(Update: Adding photo, details of detour route)
WARM SPRINGS, Ore. (KTVZ) – A car plunged about 300 feet off U.S. Highway 26 at the Mill Creek Bridge north of Warm Springs early Saturday morning, leading to a later recovery operation involving a crane that closed a 25-mile stretch of the highway and detoured motorists for hours.
Warm Springs Fire and Safety and Warm Springs Police were dispatched around 12:20 a.m. to the Mill Creek Bridge near milepost 93 on a report that a vehicle had driven off the highway at the bridge, according to Lt. Garrett Webb, public information officer for the fire department.
Crews arrived on scene a short time later and were able to see in the darkness a vehicle on its top and side in the shallow creek below, Webb said.
Due to the car’s location and the distance down to the creek, the incident “transitioned from a rescue to recovery,” Webb said in a news release. Crews on scene determined that recovery operations would have to wait until daylight, to assure participants’ safety.
At first light, a WSFS crew was able to hike down the canyon, Webb said, but “due to the complexity of the incident,” came back up the side to await further resources.
Heavy rain was falling in the area at times, and while the creek was shallow, probably three to five feet, the rainfall could cause the creek to rise, Webb said.
For much of the day, until the closure, ODOT said on TripCheck that the crash was “causing minimal delay to traffic,” but advised motorists to “prepare to slow or move over for worker safety.”
Oregon State Police troopers were among those on scene to assist in the operation, and Webb said the largest contingent, from Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, arrived in the afternoon.
The highway closed around 2:30 p.m. in both directions, once equipment and personnel were in place for the recovery, including a crane.
A 25-mile stretch of Highway 26 between Mount Hood and Warm Springs, milepost 71 to 96, were closed for the crash recovery.
ODOT directed eastbound traffic onto state Highway 216, then U.S. Highway 197 to U.S. Highway 97. Truck traffic was directed to use OR 216, U.S. 197, Interstate 84 and U.S. 97 due to length restrictions near Maupin on U.S. 197. Westbound traffic use the same route in reverse order for an extended closure.
Track traffic updates at our ODOT TripCheck page.
