Weekend cattle truck crash hospitalizes three people

Published 11:00 am Monday, January 8, 2024

LA GRANDE — People and livestock were injured in a late morning crash Sunday, Jan. 7, involving a loaded commercial cattle truck and three passenger vehicles on Interstate 84 approximately 12 miles west of La Grande.

Three people were transported by ambulance to Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande, the Oregon State Police reported.

The crash occurred around 10 a.m. and resulted in the westbound lanes of I-84 between the accident site and Ontario being shut down until around 3 p.m., according to Oregon Department of Transportation public information officer Vicki Moles.

The shutdown was extended because the livestock truck was carrying 31 cows, owned by Danny Baremore, of Wallowa, who also owned the truck that crashed, said Darren Hansen, a Union County rancher who assisted at the crash site.

The cattle were released from the truck so they could be moved into another cattle truck that was brought in, Hansen said. Once the cattle were let out they had to be herded into portable pens before they could be moved into the new truck.

About 12 volunteers helped with the process, including 10 from Union County and two from Umatilla County. Hansen, a rancher from Union, said the process of rounding up the cows, done with the help of two horses, took about two hours and was not that difficult.

“The cows were pretty calm,” he said, but two had to be euthanized because of injuries suffered in the crash.

Hansen said volunteers came because they wanted to do what they could to help Baremore.

“We are all pretty good friends,” he said.

The cattle truck that crashed had to be towed from the scene plus the three passenger vehicles — a 2008 Toyota Sienna, a 2019 Lexus RX and a 2020 Hyundai Tucson.

The three passenger vehicles plus the cattle truck were “totaled,” according to the OSP report.