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An Oregon union says the victims of one of the state's deadliest highway crashes were farmworkers traveling in a van at an hour when agricultural laborers typically commute home after toiling in the harvest
A damaged vehicle sits on the side of the road on Interstate 5, Northbound on Thursday, May 18, 2023, in Marion County, Ore. Two semi-trucks and a passenger van were involved in a deadly crash, which occurred near the city of Albany in an agricultural area of western Oregon, state police said on Thursday.
ALBANY, Ore. — — The victims of one of Oregon's deadliest highway crashes were farmworkers traveling in a van at an hour when agricultural laborers typically commute home after toiling in the harvest, the state's farmworkers union said. Authorities have not yet released the names of the seven who died or the four who were injured when a semitruck ran off Interstate 5 on Thursday and slammed into the van as it was parked on the roadside near Albany, in an agricultural area of the Willamette Valley. But the union, the Woodburn-based PCUN, said in a statement late Friday that the 11 people in the vehicle were farmworkers and it has been in contact with some of their families to support them. It also offered condolences to those affected by the tragedy. “At this time, families are asking for safer roads for workers commuting after a hard day's work,” Reyna Lopez, the union’s executive director, was quoted as saying. The driver of the truck, Lincoln Clayton Smith, 52, of North Highlands, California, was arrested Friday on suspicion of manslaughter, driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving and assault, police said. He was being held without bail in Marion County Jail. It wasn’t clear whether Smith's case had been assigned to the state public defender’s office or a specific attorney. The office didn’t immediately respond to a message asking about that, and a lawyer whose name appears in court documents said she had not formally been assigned the case and could not comment. At Smith's arraignment, a district attorney said he had refused a field sobriety test and was unable to focus and answer basic questions, thereported. The prosecutor also said Smith acknowledged taking"speed" the day before the crash and was in possession of methamphetamine, according to the paper. The DA said witnesses reported the truck had been weaving on and off the road as it traveled in the northbound lanes Thursday afternoon before it plowed into the van without braking first, according to the Statesman Journal. The van was then pushed into the back of another truck parked in front of it, Oregon State Police said. All the victims were passengers in the van. Six died at the scene and one more died after being airlifted to a hospital, according to Oregon State Police. Information on the condition of the four injured has not been made public.
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