Traffic was slowed on Highway 97 in the Sunriver area for much of the day Wednesday after a semi truck carrying a load of bagged onions crossed the road and fliped onto its side. The driver was uhurt

The southbound 1999 International semi, driven by Marvin Valle Lopez, 23, of Mendota, Calif., and owned by A&I Trucking of Sacramento, Calif., lost traction, slid across the northbound lane and rolled onto the driver’s side shortly after 9 a.m., said sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Garrison.

The crash occurred near Milepost 152, just north of the main Sunriver turnoff and south of the Cottonwood Road junction. Garrison said the driver estimated his speed at the time of the crash to be 55 mph.

For much of Wednesday, flaggers used the southbound lane to alternate through traffic around the crash scene, Oregon Department of Transportation officials said. The road later reopened to two lanes of traffic, with northbound motorists squeezing by as a crew unloaded the bagged onions.

Later in the day, the highway was completely closed for a time to allow Consolidated Towing to remove the semi-truck, said ODOT spokeswoman Julianne Repman.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Oregon Press Releases, Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.