Vancouver truck driver dies on I-84 in Oregon

A Vancouver truck driver died Sunday morning while placing chains on his tractor-trailer’s tires along Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon.

Igor S. Nikolaychuk, 50, was chaining up at the trailer’s left rear axle at about 8:30 a.m. when a 2007 Cadillac traveling on the highway began to slide and the car’s front bumper struck Nikolaychuk, according to an Oregon State Police news release. Both vehicles were on the westbound side of the interstate at about Milepost 281 near the town of North Powder.

The impact from the Cadillac pushed Nikolaychuk underneath the trailer, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The press release did not say whether the Cadillac’s driver, Mckenna Hamilton, 21, of Star, Idaho, was injured.  A call to the Oregon State Police was not returned. Police did say in the press release, however, that Hamilton was wearing her seat belt and that her air bag deployed.

Police said that the roads were icy at the time of the crash, and that it was foggy, reducing visibility to about a quarter-mile.

The Oregon State Police are investigating the crash and were assisted at the scene by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Union County and Baker County sheriffs’ offices, and the North Powder Rural Fire Department.

One lane of the highway remained open to traffic during the investigation, police said.

An online fundraising site was set up to help Nikolaychuk’s family.