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Sweet Home man dies after two-car collision on Highway 20

A Sweet Home man was fatally injured Tuesday, July 17, in a two-vehicle crash near the Highway 20 weigh station east of town.

After a head-on collision, Scott A. Wartena, 76, of Sweet Home died July 18 at the hospital due to injuries sustained in the crash, according to the Oregon State Police.

State police and Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District personnel responded to a report of the crash at 2 p.m. on July 17.

Wartena was driving a 2001 Pontiac van west on Highway 20 when, for an unknown reason, the vehicle began swerving back and forth in both lanes of travel, according to a state police report based on a preliminary investigation.

Linda K. Phillips, 69, of Boring, was eastbound driving a 2006 Ford Explorer, according to the report. She saw the Pontiac weaving and attempted to avoid a collision, but she was unable to avoid the Pontiac. The vehicles hit head-on near the fog line of the eastbound lane.

John Drury was following the Explorer prior to the accident.

He saw Wartena’s Pontiac come around the curve and swerve into the eastbound lane, in which Drury was traveling.

“He kind of wobbled back and forth in our lane,” Drury said. A vehicle in front of Phillips’ Explorer swerved onto the eastbound shoulder into the gravel next to the ditch. “He barely missed them. He swerved hard and went back into his lane.”

The Pontiac swerved back into the eastbound lane, Drury said, and he and the Explorer were already on their brakes. The Pontiac struck the front of the Explorer, spinning and leaving Phillips’ vehicle facing west as the Pontiac flipped onto its roof off the south side of the highway.

Drury swerved left across the westbound lane into the east entrance to the weigh station. He said he pointed at the occupants of the Explorer, who nodded they were all right, and then went to the Pontiac.

He found Wartena unconscious and wedged inside, Drury said. Noticing some kind of smoke and fuel leaking into the cabin, Drury and another bystander extricated Wartena from the vehicle.

“I didn’t want to move him,” Drury said, but he saw smoke coming from the engine area, he didn’t think he could wait.

The Oregon Department of Forestry responded to the crash and applied fire retardant foam to both vehicles.

Both drivers and a passenger in the Explorer were transported to area hospitals.

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