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Two killed in highway head-on crash near Jordan Valley (Oregon)
Malheur Enterprise (Oregon) ^ | May 22, 2023 | Pat Caldwell

Posted on 05/28/2023 4:51:29 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

Two people died and three others were injured in a head-on crash on U.S. Highway 95 just north of the Oregon-Nevada border, Sunday, May 21, according to the Oregon State Police.

Ryan Michael Mercer 38 of Springfield, Missouri, died when the 2017 Ford Explorer he was driving collided with a 2022 Ford Edge operated by Joseph J. Luia, 37, of Sparks, Nevada near milepost 25 at about 11:14 a.m.

Luia and a rear seat passenger in the Ford Edge, Alexandria E. Murrillo, 33, of Reno, Nevada, suffered serious injuries and were transported by Life Flight to an area hospital. Another rear seat passenger, Lisa K. Johnson, 58, of Sparks Nevada, died at the scene. A front-seat passenger in the Ford Edge, Felissia A. Luia, 37, of Sparks Nevada, suffered minor injuries.

According to police, the crash occurred when Mercer was driving north in the southbound lane in a NO-PASSING ZONE. At the same time Walter Robert Gilmore, 73, of Star, Idaho, was driving his 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee in the southbound lane followed by Luia.

Gilmore swerved to the edge of the southbound lane to avoid hitting Mercer’s vehicle, struck a fog marker and came to a stop.

Seconds later Mercer and Luia’s vehicles collided.

Gilmore and a passenger, Diana Lynn Bonsey-Gilmore, 72, of Star, Idaho, were not injured.

The crash closed the highway for two hours after the crash.

(Excerpt) Read more at malheurenterprise.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: accident; deaths
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To: the OlLine Rebel

No problem. My first comment was introduced by describing me arriving on the scene.


41 posted on 05/28/2023 10:34:22 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

What were the weather conditions? I have driven that road and many like it numerous times. In fair weather you can often see a long way ahead but if it starts raining hard in that climate visibility can be very reduced.

Not sure if the northbound vehicle was actually passing or in the wrong lane for other reasons, but as you know, passing trucks can be a real challenge on those roads, if they are at near maximum speed, or slowly picking up speed on an incline.

There are also deer and antelope running around in those regions which can create problems if they come out of nowhere. We were in an antelope reserve one time in that general area, never saw one antelope, then a mile outside the fenced boundary, three of them ran across the road just ahead of me. I wasn’t going fast enough for it to be a big problem but I never saw them coming out of the bushes.

Saw half a deer carcass on the I-84 in southern Idaho on another trip, obviously hit numerous times.


42 posted on 05/29/2023 12:34:43 AM PDT by Peter ODonnell (In leftspeak, "disproven false claim" means fact. "Intolerance" means revulsion. "Progress" =failure)
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To: Peter ODonnell

You couldn’t have asked for better weather. Completely dry and unlimited visibility.

There weren’t many trucks since it was early Sunday morning.

Didn’t see any animals or carcasses. We did see some pronghorn in Idaho the next day.

Traffic was moderate. Other drivers were driving reasonably and I didn’t see any idiotic maneuvers.

There are a couple of strange no-passing zones, though, where the road is straight and road visibility ahead is clear for miles, but you have maybe five to ten miles od double-yellow no-passing zone. No construction. No hills. I could see somebody getting impatient with an interminable no-passing zone put there for no apparent reason. I don’t think the accident area had one of those extended no-passing zones, though.


43 posted on 05/29/2023 4:29:51 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (I don’t like to think before I say something...I want to be just as surprised as everyone else.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Gotcha, article is confusing.


44 posted on 05/29/2023 6:22:22 AM PDT by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....l)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

I hiked the La Luz trail, but just the horizontal section along the crest. I was getting winded just hiking a level trail! I had to remind myself that I was almost at 11,000 feet in elevation.


45 posted on 05/29/2023 6:58:44 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: ten18; Twotone; VeryFRank; Clinging Bitterly; Rio; aimhigh; Hieronymus; bray; 1malumprohibitum; ...
If you would like more information about what’s happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me. Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
46 posted on 05/30/2023 5:34:59 AM PDT by Twotone
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