The 5 Freeway was the site of two serious crashes involving three semi-tractor trailer rigs last week, leaving the drivers seriously injured.
The Canby Podcast reported on its website that the first crash happened on Tuesday, October 15th, at approximately 4:00 p.m. in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 when Gagandeep Singh, 24, pulled his 18-wheeler noticed smoke coming from the engine compartment Singh pulled his Volvo tractor-trailer rig off onto the shoulder. Both the driver and his passenger, Baljit Singh, 38, got out of the truck that was now on fire.
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A second semi being driven by Rex Hollopeter, 51, of Salem, sideswiped Singh’s rig, catching his own truck on fire. The wreckage from the two trucks was spread across all lanes of traffic. Hollopeter was pulled from his Freightliner and suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body. He is expected to survive but was listed in critical condition.
The second accident happened nearly 12 hours later at 4:15 a.m. the following morning just a few miles north of the first crash when a Peterbilt tractor-trailer rear-ended a Chevy Tahoe that had also pulled over on the right shoulder of Interstate.
The driver of the Tahoe, J. Ivan Aguilar-Dimas, 33, was extricated from the wreckage of his vehicle and airlifted to Salem Hospital for treatment of critical injuries.
The truck driver in the second accident, 57-year-old Carl Bibow, suffered only minor injuries.
Both accidents are currently under investigation.
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