Girl dies in crash on Izee highway
Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2008
- <I>Contributed Photo/Todd McKinley</I><BR>The pickup truck sits upright but battered after rolling down a 60-foot slope.
IZEE – A 9-year old girl died in a one-vehicle rollover accident Sunday morning, Aug. 31, on County Road 63.
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office said the crash occurred about 8:15 a.m., as members of a Tigard family were headed home from a visit with relatives in Seneca.
Dep. Todd McKinley said the 2003 Ford crew cab pickup was westbound when the truck went into the gravel on the north shoulder, turned sideways, ran across both lanes and off the road on the south side. The truck went over about a 60-foot embankment, rolling several times before coming to rest on its wheels, he said.
The driver, James Clifford Clum, 34, and daughter, Alexis, 7, were taken to Blue Mountain Hospital in John Day for treatment of injuries after the wreck. Clum’s daughter Mikayla, 9, was pronounced dead at the scene.
McKinley said all three were wearing safety restraints at the time of the crash.
The Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the Oregon State Police, responded to investigate the accident.
The accident came as the OSP reported that nine other people died in seven accidents on highways across the state during the Labor Day weekend.
The OSP said the count was higher than the average for the holiday weekend, and there were three more fatalities than last year.
The toll included a Caldwell, Idaho man who died Aug. 30 when his car crashed off Highway 395 in Lake County, and a 23-year-old Gresham man who whose pickup truck rolled off Highway 26 northwest of Madras.
The OSP also reported a serious accident Saturday, Aug. 30, on Highway 26 about 20 miles east of Prineville. A 2008 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Alexandra Hlavacek, 61, of Redmond, failed to negotiate a curve, drifted onto the soft shoulder and collided with the guardrail.
She was critically injured and was transported by Air-Link to St. Charles Hospital in Bend. She was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision. One lane of Highway 26 was closed for about two hours, as OSP, state Department of Transportation and emergency medical crews responded to the accident.
