1988 — Aug 3, Multi-vehicle pileup (smoke from burning field), I-5 near Albany, OR — 7
–7 Dresbeck. Oregon: True Stories of Tragedy…Survival. Chap. 15, “Burning Fields…” p. 149.
–7 The Oregonian, Portland. “Smoky 21-vehicle pileup kills 7 on I-5.” 8-4-1988 and 2-19-2015.
–7 The Oregonian, Portland (Rick Attig). “Still field burning after all these years.” 6-9-2009.
Narrative Information
Aug 4, 1988, Oregonian: “A fiery 21-vehicle pileup Wednesday on Interstate 5 caused by thick smoke from a burning field killed at least seven people, two of them babies, and injured 37, at least two seriously, Oregon State Police said.
“The 3:50 p.m. accident closed the two northbound lanes of the freeway 7½ miles south of Albany for more than four hours. More than 10 vehicles caught fire, including a tractor-trailer rig carrying wood chips that was one of four trucks involved.
“Witnesses likened the highway scene to a war zone, with blackened, crumpled vehicles, burned trucks and charred grass stretching for about a half-mile. Wood chips in a burned truck smoldered for hours after the crash, and the smell of smoke hung heavy in the air….
“Kevin Sterba, driver of the chip truck, said everything happened so fast it was hard to determine the chain of events. The 22-year-old Philomath man said the smoke had lowered visibility, so he was driving slowly with his lights turned on. Suddenly, he said, there was ‘just a big, heavy cloud of smoke. It was just pitch black.’ He braked and bailed out of his 45-foot rig. ‘It was in flames when I got out,” he said. ”As far as I could see there were flames in front of me.’
“Two baby girls and an 8-year-old California boy were listed among the dead, said State Police Trooper Jeff Howard. Two women and a couple who were thought to be the parents of the infants also were killed. Howard said the boy died after he was thrown from a vehicle and was struck by another vehicle.[1] One of the women died of accident injuries and one was burned. The couple and babies were all in one van and were burned beyond recognition,[2] Howard said…. All were dead at the scene, police said.
“Accidents also occurred in the southbound lanes, but at least one southbound lane remained open, troopers said….
“Bobrowitz [State Police spokesman] said smoke from field burning on the west side of the interstate caused the chain-reaction accident. Grass-seed farmers in the Willamette Valley burn their fields after the summer harvest to limit diseases and insects.
“Paul Stutzman, of 34224 Seven Mile Lane, Albany, who owns the field where the fire was burning, said he was burning 82 acres of grass fields when the wind apparently shifted, spreading smoke across the freeway. Brian Finneran, field burning manager for the state Department of Environmental Quality, said ‘this was an authorized fire’ and the agency had given Stutzman permission about 3 p.m. to begin burning his field. The field Stutzman had been permitted to burn isn’t adjacent to the freeway, but the fire accidentally spread to one that is, he said. A whirlwind, relatively common in field fires, could have carried embers from one field to the other, Finneran said.
“A crash survivor, a dairy truck driver who declined to give his name, said he could see 100 yards ahead as he approach the scene then suddenly was plunged into darkness….
“The state has heavily regulated field burning in the valley since 1979…though some forms of restrictions date back to 1969….
“Legislators, state officials and those familiar with field burning all called the chain-reaction wreck a tragedy but said it should not call for an immediate halt to field burning.”
June 9, 2009, Oregonian: “Two decades after field smoke caused a horrific crash on I-5, Oregon has run out of excuses for failing to ban field burning.
“A trucker blinded by the black, wind-whipped smoke of a runaway field fire drove his semi over the top of a van in front of him. A young couple and their two daughters, one age 2, the other just 8 months, were trapped inside the crushed van. Autopsies showed all four burned to death.
“Two children riding in the back of a pickup were thrown onto the freeway in the same chain-reaction accident. Their mother rescued one child, but when she went back to save the other, an 8-year-old, she saw her son run over by another car.
“Another terrified mother with six children in a van handed to rescuers two of her youngest, still strapped in their car seats, as flames burned her legs and spread across the roof of the vehicle. All of her children survived.
“Seven people died and 37 were injured in that horrific crash on Interstate 5 near Albany on Aug. 3, 1988. All these years later, the Oregon Legislature still hasn’t answered the question: Isn’t that enough?
“It wasn’t enough in 1988. Even after field burning caused one of the most devastating accidents in Oregon history, even after one grieving father mailed then-Gov. Neil Goldschmidt photos he himself took of the charred bodies of his daughter and tiny granddaughters in a Linn County mortuary, lawmakers couldn’t bring themselves to ban field burning. Instead, they reduced by two-thirds the acreage farmers could burn — and prohibited fires set within a half-mile of major roads….
“Back then, lawmakers had their reasons. The grass-seed industry, a powerful force in a state known as “the rye-grass capital of the world,” made a plausible case that it needed more time to come up with alternatives to field burning. The dangerous health effects of breathing particulates from field smoke were only beginning to be studied.
“But what are the excuses now? Twenty years after the accident, only 10 percent of Oregon’s grass-seed growers burn their fields every year. All the rest take advantage of strong new markets for grass-seed straw, new chemicals to control pests and new varieties of grass that don’t require burning.
“Moreover, there’s now overwhelming medical research demonstrating that sending thick field smoke rolling into small Oregon foothill communities, the ‘Sacrifice Zone’ of the state’s smoke management program, is harmful to the health of the thousands of people who live there.
“A strong core of Oregon lawmakers has signed on to a bill to phase out Willamette Valley field burning over the next couple years. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has thrown his support behind the bill. Yet Senate Bill 528, the field burning bill, today remains parked in a legislative committee while sponsors search for more votes. The bill’s opponents have cast it as a rural vs. urban issue. It’s not — the overwhelming majority of people living with and suffering from field burning live in Oregon’s rural communities.
“What else are lawmakers waiting to hear?….
“Everything else is right there on the record, easily accessible to any Oregon legislator willing to take the time to fully understand the issue. This isn’t 1988 any longer: Again, 90 percent of Oregon’s grass-seed growers have found acceptable alternatives and will not burn their fields this summer. Every major medical organization in the state agrees that breathing field smoke is dangerous to health.
“And yet even though it has run out of excuses for inaction, the Legislature still is hesitating to phase out field burning. In his book, “Ever After,” the story of his family’s death and his campaign to stop field burning, Wharton[3] wrote about the “inertia of the people of Oregon, the cowardice of its elected officials, the evasions and deceits of political leaders.” Those were tough words, from a grieving and bitter father. Yet 20 years later, they still ring true.”
Sources
Dresbeck, Rachel. Oregon: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Chapter 15, “Burning Fields: Chain-Reaction Car Accident, 1988.” Globe Pequot Press, 2006.
The Oregonian, Portland (Holley Gilbert, Michael Rollins, Cheryl Martinis). “Smoky 21-vehicle pileup kills 7 on I-5.” 8-4-1988 and 2-19-2015. Accessed 7-14-2016 at: http://www.oregonlive.com/data/2015/02/smoky_21-vehicle_pileup_kills.html
The Oregonian, Portland (Rick Attig). “Still field burning after all these years.” 6-9-2009. Accessed 7-14-2016 at: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/06/still_field_burning_after_all.html
[1] According to Dresbeck, the boy was identified as Travis Trujillo.
[2] These four victims were William Rodewald, his wife Kathleen (daughter of writer William Wharton), and their two daughters, Dayiel, 2, and Mia, 8-months. (Dresbeck, who notes they were traveling from home in rural OR to a wedding in Portland.)
[3] The late novelist William Wharton, who lost his daughter and two grand-daughters. The book Ever After: A Father’s True Story, was first published in 1995. Republished in 2009 by William Morrow Paperbacks.