Four members of a Hermiston, Oregon family were injured Friday when the driver fell asleep with his pickup’s cruise control set to 65-70 mph, police reported. The vehicle crossed over the oncoming lanes of traffic, crashed through a concrete guardrail on a bridge overpass, and fell almost 30-feet to the highway below.
Oregon State Police (OSP) Sgt. Allan Muhs said that Vaughn L. Moser, 40, was coming upon a sweeping right curve as he traveled south on Interstate 82 just south of the Columbia River Bridge in a 2003 Chevrolet four-door pickup, when he apparently fell asleep.
(above) Four members of the Muhs family from Hermiston, Oregon were injured when the driver fell asleep with the cruise control set to 65-70 mph. (below). The pickup crossed oncoming lanes of traffic, crashed through a concrete guardrail, and fell almost 30-feet to land on Highway 730. - OSP photos
The pickup fell about 28-feet, landed “head-on” into Highway 730, and ended up on its wheels in the westbound lanes of traffic, OSP said.
The driver was seriously injured, Sgt. Muhs said, and was transported by ambulance to Good Shepherd Medical Center (GSMC). He was later flown by LifeFlight helicopter to Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, when he was reportedly in stable condition as of Sunday morning.
Moser’s passengers, Pamela Moser, 36, 10-year-old Ashley and 13-year-old Devon, all received with troopers described as non-life threatening injuries. They were all taken by ambulance to GSMC.
All four family members were wearing seat belts, Sgt. Mugs reported.