A 54-year-old Vancouver man died in a fiery commercial truck crash Tuesday on Highway 26, six miles east of Warm Springs, according the Oregon State Police.
David Lee Spooner was driving a tractor trailer rig loaded with 8,300 gallons of aviation fuel on an uphill stretch of the highway. For an unknown reason, the truck traveled onto the shoulder and continued along a guardrail for about 100 feet before breaking through the railing, according to an OSP bulletin. The truck and trailer then broke through the guardrail, went about 200 feet down an embankment and caught fire.
Firefighters from Warm Springs and Jefferson County Fire District 1 responded and extinguished the fire in about an hour. The truck and trailer were destroyed. A small brush fire was also sparked and put out.
Spooner was driving for Cascade Petroleum Transportation Inc. of Portland. He was traveling to Sunriver, Ore., near Bend.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and a hazardous materials team from Gresham-Multnomah County also responded.
