Oscar Vasfaret’s truck, is demolished after a collision with a rig driven by a Veneta man, Dennis Kloehn, which overturned on Highway 226.

A Sweet Home log truck driver escaped serious injury Wednesday morning, Dec. 2, after his loaded truck slammed into another loaded log truck that had flipped over on a curve on Highway 226 between Lyons and Scio.

According to Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Doug Brown, preliminary investigation indicated that at approximately 11:34 a.m. a loaded log truck driven by Dennis D. Kloehn, 67, of Veneta, was eastbound on Highway 226 about half a mile west of Kingston-Jordan Drive.

As Kloehn’s log truck negotiated a right curve, it tipped onto its side into the path of a westbound loaded log truck driven by Oscar L. Vasfaret, 62, of Sweet Home, where both vehicles collided, police said.

Kloehn was seriously injured and extricated by Scio Fire Department personnel. He was transported by LifeFlight to Oregon Health Sciences University where his condition has been upgraded from critical to serious and stable. He was driving for Weyerhaeuser, according to the OSP.

Vasfaret was transported by ambulance to Lebanon Community Hospital.

Vasfaret, who drives for Brian Miller Logging of Sweet Home, was improving Monday after sustaining “bumps and bruises,”
Miller said.

“Oscar is getting better,” Miller said. “He hit really hard. He got hit from both ends, logs coming through the back of his cab and logs coming from the front.”

Miller said Vasfaret, who has driven for him for nearly eight years, was coming off a straightaway at about 30 mph when he rounded the curve and saw Kloehn’s trailer, a hay rack rig loaded with oversized logs, rolling in front of him.

The impact destroyed Vasfaret’s truck, Miller said. “Everything’s broke. There’s nothing left. It even broke the block. It broke the front, the rear end, the drive line, the U-joints, the accessory drive, the fuel pump, the compressor – everything was cleared off that motor. It also blew the dash out.”

The engine was shoved about a foot and a half back into the cab and the steering column was bent, he added.

The highway was closed until 6 p.m. while OSP finished the scene investigation and ODOT coordinated removal of vehicles and logs. Gary Olson of Sweet Home brought his self-loading truck and removed the logs from the road, Miller said.

OSP troopers from Salem and Albany were continuing the investigation last week with an OSP collision reconstructionist,
police said.

ODOT, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and emergency responders from Lyons and Scio assisted at the scene.