Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A Bend resident was injured Friday night when a boulder crashed through the windshield of his pickup and struck him.
Sean C. Passage, 23, was westbound on Highway 20 near milepost 55 when, at approximately 4:49 p.m., a large rock crashed through his windshield and struck him on the right side and arm, according to Oregon State Police. After impact, Passage was able to keep control of his vehicle and swerved to the right shoulder where he stopped and got out.
Passage laid on the highway shoulder and flagged down a passing motorist from Corvallis who transported him toward Sweet Home.
Once in cell phone service area, local emergency responders were notified. Sweet Home paramedics met the motorist and Passage, taking over transport and continuing on to Husky Field where they met REACH air ambulance.
REACH transported Passage to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis for treatment.
Richard Tucker and his wife were headed to Bend from Corvallis when they rounded a curve and saw a couple of cars that had slowed down, and a pickup was off on the left side of the road.
“There was a person laying on the ground,” Tucker said. “I rolled down the window. We could hear him yelling, ‘Help me. I need some help.'”
Tucker turned his car around and found Passage complaining about pain in his right side, Tucker said. “The whole front windshield was almost completely broken out.”
A rock,” about the size of a beach ball” and weighing an estimated 100 pounds, was inside the cab of the truck.
None of the four cellphones at the scene could get a signal, so one driver headed back toward Sweet Home to call for paramedics.
Tucker, worried about possible internal injuries and learning Passage had apparently not injured his back or head, loaded the injured man into his Camry and started back toward town. Mountain House, which is near the site where Passage was struck, is now a private residence and Tucker could not get to a phone there. Driving toward Sweet Home, he stopped at the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District’s Cascadia Substation, but it was empty, he said. He tried a neighbor, and again, no one was home.
Heading on toward Sweet Home in the Cascadia area, he saw the ambulance and flashed his lights to signal the medics.
The paramedics picked up Passage and took him to Husky Field for air transport.
Tucker said medics told him that transporting Passage cut about 15 minutes off of the trip, which is important when dealing with internal injuries that can cause someone to bleed to death.
Tucker said Passage did well getting his truck and the boulder out of the road, out of the way of other traffic, including Tucker.
Passage suffered from serious bruising on his upper right side and kidney along with a fractured right arm. He was discharged from the hospital on Sunday. Tucker saw Passage Sunday night after Passage left the hospital.
“It made us feel really good that he was able to recover as fast as he has so far,” Tucker said.
Passage had been headed to Corvallis where he is a student at Oregon State University, after reportedly going snowboarding
Oregon State Police troopers from Albany are investigating the incident. Lead investigator Scott Hite said the rock fell from an embankment.
A laptop and other items were reportedly stolen from Passage’s pickup after he left the scene.