Three-Vehicle Crash Injures Woman

Date: April 7, 2010
Location: Highway 97 near Madras, Oregon
Names: Cathryn Downing, Katherine White, Gurwinder Gill

A 61-year-old Madras, Oregon, woman was seriously injured April 7, 2010, in a three-vehicle crash on Highway 97 near Madras involving a car and two trucks, according to an Oregon State Police press release.

OSP troopers are investigating the crash, which occurred around noon after Cathryn Downing prepared to make a left-hand turn onto Cherry Lane, and was rear-ended by a pickup truck driven by Katherine White, 81, of Madras. The impact pushed Downing’s car into oncoming traffic, where it was hit head-on by a commercial truck driven by Gurwinder Gill, 34, of Citrus Heights, California.

Downing was trapped in the car, and had to be extricated by fire personnel. She was taken by ambulance to Mountain View Hospital in Madras, then flown by AirLink to St. Charles Medical Center – Bend for treatment of serious injuries.

White and Gill escaped injury. All individuals involved in the crash wore seat belts, and the airbag in Downing’s car deployed.

As of April 8, no citations had been issued.

As Downing recovers from this crash, we send her our thoughts and wish her a speedy recovery. We hope you are back with your family soon.

The moments and days after a crash are the most important. After seeking medical attention, either you, a friend or family member, or a qualified attorney, should collect evidence from the accident scene. Evidence can disappear quickly, so doing this while your loved one is in the hospital is of extreme importance. We understand that you may not want to do this while you or your loved one is in the hospital, so you may want to ask an Oregon injury attorney to do it for you.

The months after an accident are important as well. There are time limits to filing a claim if you have been in an auto accident in Oregon. And sometimes you can’t go back to work, so you start to worry about paying medical bills and compensating for wages lost. These are all stressful things, and it doesn’t help that the insurance company won’t leave you alone, but they won’t help you either. So please, do not hesitate to call us or request a free copy of our book, 7 Common Mistakes That Can Wreck Your Oregon Accident Case. Our website has helpful advice, and what we don’t cover there, we will be more than happy to answer ourselves.