According to court documents, the semitruck driver involved in the incident on Interstate 5 in Oregon earlier this month that killed seven farmworkers has been indicted on charges of manslaughter.
California truck driver Lincoln Smith, 52, was charged with 12 offenses on Tuesday(30 May 2023) in Marion County Court, including seven counts of homicide, reckless driving, and DUI.
Tiffany Humphrey, his court-appointed defense attorney, declined to comment because the matter is still pending. The District Attorney’s office in Marion County, which brought the allegations against Smith, has indicated it won’t make any further statements until the matter has been resolved.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office website indicated that Smith was being held without bond at the county jail.
Near Albany, in the agricultural region of the Willamette Valley in western Oregon, seven people were killed and four more were injured on May 18 when Smith’s semitruck careened off Interstate 5 and into their parked van. As the state’s farmworkers union stated, the eleven passengers in the van were harvest workers returning home.
You can also see a tweet here about a truck driver who was recently charged with manslaughter.
Truck driver indicted on manslaughter charges after deadly Oregon crash that killed 7 farmworkers https://t.co/owUuiFjjIq
— NewsChannel 9 (@NewsChannel9) May 31, 2023
PCUN, an Oregon union with headquarters in Woodburn, has created an online fundraising that has so far brought in over $70,000 to give to victims’ families.
On behalf of the indictment, Smith was behind the wheel while under the influence of both a controlled narcotic and an inhalant.
According to the Salem Statesman Journal, a district attorney testified during his arraignment on May 19 that he had refused a field sobriety test and was unable to concentrate or answer simple questions.
As per the article, the prosecutor also claimed that Smith admitted to using speed the day before the accident and that he was in possession of methamphetamine. The article said that eyewitnesses saw the truck swerving all over the road just before the crash.
Oregon State Police released the names of the deceased: Eduardo Lopez (age 31), Alejandro Jimenez Hernandez (age 36), Josue Garcia Garcia (age 30), Luis Enrique Gomez Reyes (age 30), Javier Suarez (age 58), Alejandra Espinoza Carpio (age 39), and Juan Carlos Leyva Carrillo (age 37).
Maria Flores Martinez, 60, Hector Galindo, 45, and Jose Eduardo Solis Flores, 41, have all been confirmed as seriously injured victims. The 40-year-old Adan Garcia Garcia sustained what the police considered to be a slight injury.
Authorities reported that as of last Monday, Martinez, Galindo, and Solis Flores were still being treated in various hospitals. There was no new information about their conditions available to state police on Tuesday.
The Mexican Consulate in Portland confirmed that all of the victims were Mexican farm workers. Except for one, all of the victims were reported as residents of cities in Oregon close to the crash site.
The consulate added that it was helping victims’ families arrange for the transportation of their loved ones’ bodies to Mexico. It also said that it is maintaining open lines of communication with the police. This crash ranks among Oregon’s deadliest in recent memory.
Using the following useful links, you may stay informed of what’s going on in Oregon:
- Oregon Modifies Its Release Rules for Prejudice Crimes.
- Oregon Truck Driver Charged With Killing 7 Farmworkers.
A family of seven, including five young children, was murdered in a head-on collision on a rural road in Harney County, eastern Oregon, in August 2018. In all, eight lives were lost.
As Per the reports from usatoday.com In December 2012, nine people perished after a tour bus lost control on an icy stretch of Interstate 84, slid through a guardrail, and then plunged down a steep slope. Near Pendleton, in a place known as Deadman Pass, a bus carrying around 40 persons was involved in an accident.
In 1988, seven more persons were murdered and thirty-seven were injured in a separate incident on Interstate 5 near Albany. The catastrophic 23-car pileup claimed the lives of at least two infants.
South of Portland by around 70 miles (113 kilometers), you’ll find Albany, Oregon. The I-5 interstate is the primary north-south route on the West Coast.
