Crews set to remove both rigs that crashed into Columbia River over the weekend, prompting road closure

Two semi trucks crashed into the Columbia River in Oregon over the weekend, prompting a road closure to facilitate their removal. 

Both accidents happened a few hours apart on Friday night, August 25th and into the early morning hours of Saturday on Interstate 84 near Biggs Junction in Oregon. 

The first truck was hauling tandem trailers and crashed just before 9 p.m. after the rig struck an abandoned vehicle parked on the shoulder and crashed through the guardrail. The driver was able to escape the wrecked truck and swim to shore unharmed, reported the Sherman County Sheriff’s Office.

The second crash of the night happened just before 12:30 a.m. when a rig hauling two tankers struck an Oregon Department of Transportation vehicle. The wreck caused the truck to skid into the river, where it landed right next to the truck from the previous wreck. The tankers were empty at the time of the crash and the ODOT truck’s emergency lights were on. The Sherman County Sheriff’s Office believes that the truck driver likely fell asleep at the wheel just before the crash. 

I-84 westbound will be closed from Biggs Junction to Celilo on Monday, August 28th beginning at 7 a.m. PDT. The closure will last at least a few hours, but will depend on the complexity of the truck removal, reported KGW8 News. A large crane will remove the wrecked trucks. 

Westbound traffic can travel along the Old Highway 30/OR 206 and then get back on Celilo as an alternative route. Taking U.S. 97 over the river at Biggs Junction and traveling west on State Route 14 in Washington back to I-84 via the U.S. 197 bridge at The Dalles is another option.