PHOTO COURTESY OF OSP
A Hermiston man was killed in a fiery head-on collision late Monday morning on Interstate 84 in Gilliam County.
Tyler D. Brown, 25, of Hermiston, died around 11:15 a.m. when his 1999 Jeep Cherokee struck a Peterbilt truck head-on. Brown was traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes. The accident occurred at milepost 114.
According to Oregon State Police Sgt. John Katzenstein, the OSP began receiving complaints of a wrong-way driver and troopers began to respond, but a short time later Brown’s vehicle struck the Peterbilt head-on. Both vehicles came to rest in the travel lanes and caught fire. The driver of the Peterbilt, Michael McCright, 61, of Redmond, managed to escape the fire as both vehicles became fully engulfed. McCright was not injured. Brown was declared deceased on scene.
The truck was loaded with recently harvested salmon which took hours for fire crews to fully extinguish. Both directions of I-84 were closed for almost four hours until one lane in each direction could be opened. Crews are still on scene cleaning the highway.
OSP was assisted by Sherman County Fire, Rufus Rural Fire Department and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
