A crash involving two semi-trucks and a car has left at least seven people dead and others injured on a stretch of Interstate 5 in Oregon, according to state police.
The crash occurred in Marion County, which is situated south of Portland and is home to the state capital of Salem.
According to Oregon State Police, the cause of the crash on Thursday is under investigation and people have been urged to avoid the interstate if possible and expect delays if they do not.
The names of the victims of the crash have not yet been released.
According to The Oregonian, the crash Thursday is one of Oregon’s deadliest in recent years. A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Transportation said that a crash in Harney County in Eastern Oregon killed eight people in August of 2018.
A 1988 crash, meanwhile, which also took place close to the Marion County town of Albany, left seven people dead and 37 people injured.
Tens of thousands of people die in car crashes in the US as a whole each year. It is estimated that more than 40,000 people were killed in car crashes in both 2021 and 2022, with the number of car crash fatalities per year at their highest level since the mid-2000s.
